Playtest complete

[wallydubbs]

So I've already established that the solo quests were never playtested, upon going though the rest of the quest pack it doesn't seem likely that the rest of it was either.
I've just finished playing through all 10 quests. I've already addressed the solo quests elsewhere but I feel compelled to offer warnings to other players who attempt to play these series of quests with other heroes. It was insanely difficult and I'd like to make several solutions:
I'm not saying it's impossible, although these quests are much more doable with a team that travel together, but an Ogre with 10 body points takes a long time to kill; and the damage an Ogre and Giant Wolf could inflict is quite substantial, even for well equipped heroes. Adjustments certainly need to be made. I would suggest using the Ogre Warrior from Against the Ogre Hoard as the Ogre's attributes. If anyone wishes to play this in a way to give the heroes a fighting chance then you're going to need to tone down the strength of the monsters. I don't think the game makers of this expansion ever took this into account. The Wizard will be endangering the most and will need to stay well away from combat. But since the quests are rather long there aren't enough spells to last throughout the quests, practically negating the wizard; the Genie spell never did more damage then 2BP, so a lot of it came down to luck on dice roll (which doesn't always work out for the heroes). Since there are additional spell cards offered from this quest pack as well as Wizard's of Morcar, giving the Wizard a 4th set of spells would give him more to do in assisting his fellow heroes and even then it may still not seem like enough.
Considering just how difficult it is, it really doesn't seem unreasonable to add a 5th hero (the Female Elf) to the mix. It really wouldn't throw the quests off to get another helpful hero with spells. It might actually make it quite survivable.
Not all heroes work with the greatest sense, and they may have Pass Through Rock, which can save a hero who walks into a trapped room with a falling block trap at the door. So if there's no way to leave the room they're practically stuck there. Occasionally a hero will fall for this (as it also happens in AtOH and WoM, I allow the other heroes to dig him out once the quest is officially complete. These are heroes we're,talking about, it doesn't seem reasonable that they'd give up on one of their own just because a falling block trap is preventing one of them from leaving the room.
Some of these quests are connected Quest 7 - Quest 10, leaving out the possibility of trips to the Armory or Alchemist Shop so occasional healing potions should be added as a treasure (unless the heroes are fully equipped).

[The Admiral]

All well said. We played with 6 Heroes. A Powerful Elf, 4 standard Heroes with the usual equipment, and the female Elf. Plus there were 15 Henchmen available for hire in total over the 10 quests. Solo quests were main Elf and Female Elf, while other 7 quests were all 6. We do play however that there is no recovery of body points or spells if the quests are obviously continuous. It was tough. Everyone died (20) except for the main Elf who was on 2 BP's. As my brother was in control of the whole team they all worked as a compact team throughout. One of the most enjoyable packs we have played.

The lonely Elf then drowned his sorrows by going on a solo round the world cruise in the High Elves questpack.

[wallydubbs]

I suppose that's another way of doing it. But if you really want to get technical only quests 7 - 10 are connected. 4 - 6might all have the doors that seemingly connect the quests, but upon reading the opening segments it does appear as if these quests are each within a different section of the Elven Kingdom.

[The Admiral]

I suppose that's another way of doing it. But if you really want to get technical only quests 7 - 10 are connected. 4 - 6might all have the doors that seemingly connect the quests, but upon reading the opening segments it does appear as if these quests are each within a different section of the Elven Kingdom.

Been a long time but just had a look at it. Yes, only the last 4 quests are one continuous quest, and that's how we played it.

[wallydubbs]

It would be really nice to if there was a map to this world to show off the distance between kingdoms and where all these quests take place.

[The Admiral]

In Published Quest Releases, Halls of Durrag-Dol, Where is Durrag-Dol, bottom of the 1st page, there is a homemade map of the HQ world with many of the quests mapped out on it. If I knew how to link it I would.

[Pancho]

Thanks for this Wallydubbs, I found it very useful and I'm sure others will too.

A fifth hero could work well.
If I were to use four heroes I would make sure they were as powerful as possible. I see this pack and the Frozen Horror as a final test for Heroes that have already proven themselves in 50+ quests and have the artefacts and potion stocks to prove it, and now need an even bigger challenge.

Here's the map Admiral was talking about. I'm planning to make a digital version when I get some time, which will have corrections for the errors and take out the locations that are just for my own HQ side quests and chronology (i.e. make it more general use for everyone).

[wallydubbs]

Interesting, thanks Pancho.

[benvoliothefirst]

Great insights. When my players get around to this pack, I'm hoping Anderas will have come up with a four-difficulty-level setup like he did for the game system quests.

In my own game, there's only going to be one ogre, and he starts out as a normal sized one, and then the archmage casts "embiggen" on him, at which point he'll use one of daedalus' higher stat lines. Mwa-ha-ha!

[j_dean80]

No one mentioned a new Elf would not have a toolkit to disarm traps yet there are chests with traps and several pits/spears in front of doors that need disarmed.