Need some help

[Hendar23]

New version:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l2lizv9kqoqux ... 5.pdf?dl=0

Now with the first of the stand alone Quests, changed fonts and a tone of changes/corrections from you guys.

[Pancho]

Very nice indeed! The new font really brings it all together.

I still think you Ogre Body Points are too low at 3 each ( same as an Ice Gremlin!).

If you look at the variable body point charts from the original UK quest pack, the Ogres had an average of 4 BP I think. In my mind the Ogres are supposed to be unique as basic monsters and provide bruising encounters - look at the artwork in the pack for these beasts!
The only issues I can see is that a) then you would have to increase all the special Ogres up by 1BP each as well (not a problem as far as I’m concerned), and b) some have said that an Ogre shouldn’t be tougher than a Gargoyle. Again, I don’t see a problem with your system because many of the “special” gargoyles have got more than 3BP anyway.

[wallydubbs]

So I just finished going through Against the Ogre Horde of your compendium but found no errors that weren't there to begin with.
However, much like adjustments need to be made to the Barbarian and Elf quest packs, some of Against the Ogre Horde's maps are imperfect.
Quest 1 Search for the Ogre Fortress has a falling block trap inside a room on the top right side of the board that will block up a door. If the hero chooses to stay in that room after the trap is triggered his only hope of escaping is the Pass Through Rock Spell. Now this depends on the cynicism of Morcar. It's a cheap way to kill a hero when they're technically not dead, but there's no in-game way to save them. So it's still debatable among the HQ community on how this should be handled.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4183&start=10

In the Quest 2 Outer Caves, the small 2x3 room with the Fimir has a similar issue, except this time, that room has to be crossed to get to the exit door. When (not if) that Falling block trap is triggered it will block up the room and only 1 or 2 heroes (the hero that crossed the threshold and whomever may use Pass Through Rock) will be able to make it to the exit. You can either add a secret door two squares up or get rid of the falling block trap altogether.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=284

Quest 5 The Pit of Chaos has a falling block trap in a room adjacent to the Pit of Chaos, there's a Zombie guarding an unmarked chest. If you're not ok with leaving a hero for dead in an inescapable room, you could add a Pass Through Rock spell scroll in the chest.

Quest 6 Fortress of the Ogre Lord has a secret door that apparently leads into a falling block trap that could potentially trap a hero. As noted before, this is up to Morcar if he's willing to trap a hero forever, but it's a cruel and cheap way to kill off a hero.

Again this situation presents itself in Quest 7 with the room in the bottom left corner. Once the door is open a falling block traps the hero in the room with the Zombie and unmarked chest.
Also in Flight to the Surface, you should notice a secret door next to the Fire Place, leading to the room in the Upper Right corner room, which should be solid stone. It's been suggested in another forum to move this door four spaces to the left, connecting the two upper rooms in that quadrant.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4305

Again, none of these errors are yours, they seem to accompany this quest pack, as this wasn't playtested either. Given that it's your compendium, I thought maybe you should give yourself the option of correcting those errors (especially the one in Outer Caves).

[wallydubbs]

I only found 1 error in your Wizards of Morcar section of the Compendium. In the Tower of the High Mage, you're missing a door into the room with the Fire Place and Fire Burst Trap. Phoenix's map is missing the same door. I presume you based your map off of his... or is the original missing this door too?

Also, there is no Epilogue in either Against the Ogre Horde or Wizards of Morcar... but considering what is to come with Frozen Horror and Mage of the Mirror, it would be kind to offer the heroes a reward to replenish their potions and equipment.
Perhaps you could add some gold to the two chests in the middle room of Final Conflict.

[Pancho]

Wally, I feel that ATOH doesn’t necessarily need an epilogue. We are already told that the Imperial soldiers are on route to mop up the survivors of the clan, and the into to WOM mentions the Ogre debacle (from Morcar’s point of view!) and nicely ties up a few loose ends. Also, there is a massive amount of gold to be plundered from the Lord Ogre, so a prize from the Emperor himself isn’t really necessary.

WOM could probably do with an epilogue, but who would want to write one? There isn’t much of a story to that pack to begin with.

Of all the falling block traps in ATOH that you mentioned I would definitely recommend changing the one in the room with the Fimir. That one is well out of order. The others could be too, but I can’t remember off the top of my head.

[wallydubbs]

Wally, I feel that ATOH doesn’t necessarily need an epilogue. We are already told that the Imperial soldiers are on route to mop up the survivors of the clan, and the into to WOM mentions the Ogre debacle (from Morcar’s point of view!) and nicely ties up a few loose ends. Also, there is a massive amount of gold to be plundered from the Lord Ogre, so a prize from the Emperor himself isn’t really necessary.

WOM could probably do with an epilogue, but who would want to write one? There isn’t much of a story to that pack to begin with.

Of all the falling block traps in ATOH that you mentioned I would definitely recommend changing the one in the room with the Fimir. That one is well out of order. The others could be too, but I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Yeah you're right, there's plenty of plunder to be kept from Against the Ogre Horde: there's 6050 gold to be made from the quest notes alone, not counting whatever is drawn from the Treasure deck, divide that among 4 heroes and they each and each gets 2512... that is, IF they survive all 7 quests. So they probably don't need any reward for that one.
I actually take the intro of quest 7 to pronounce the reward: leading the Emperor's forces, who apparently are the Mercenaries they're now able to use in Wizards of Morcar.

I would willingly write an epilogue for both... but me doing it doesn't make it official.

The Falling Block Trap towards the end of Outer Caves does need to be changed. But in regards to the other ones, it depends on the Morcr player. In particular, I think it's a cheap way to kill a character, but I guess if you warn the heroes ahead of time that such a fate could befall them they'd be careful not to get trapped.

[Hendar23]

Very nice indeed! The new font really brings it all together.

I still think you Ogre Body Points are too low at 3 each ( same as an Ice Gremlin!).

If you look at the variable body point charts from the original UK quest pack, the Ogres had an average of 4 BP I think. In my mind the Ogres are supposed to be unique as basic monsters and provide bruising encounters - look at the artwork in the pack for these beasts!
The only issues I can see is that a) then you would have to increase all the special Ogres up by 1BP each as well (not a problem as far as I’m concerned), and b) some have said that an Ogre shouldn’t be tougher than a Gargoyle. Again, I don’t see a problem with your system because many of the “special” gargoyles have got more than 3BP anyway.

Yeah I've thought about increasing them and I'm not sure..
About the Ice Gremlins...Just urgh I was very close to not even including the Elf and Barbarian expansions. They are broken, the monsters don't fit the theme at all and the minatures for them are ugly!

I know what you mean about the Gargoyle feeling like it should be the strongest, especially because we all know it is actually meant to be a Bloodthirster of Khorne! I blame that ridiculous Satanic Panic happening in the States in the 80's for MB changing the warp daemon into something more tame.Boo!

[Hendar23]

So I just finished going through Against the Ogre Horde of your compendium but found no errors that weren't there to begin with.
However, much like adjustments need to be made to the Barbarian and Elf quest packs, some of Against the Ogre Horde's maps are imperfect.
Quest 1 Search for the Ogre Fortress has a falling block trap inside a room on the top right side of the board that will block up a door. If the hero chooses to stay in that room after the trap is triggered his only hope of escaping is the Pass Through Rock Spell. Now this depends on the cynicism of Morcar. It's a cheap way to kill a hero when they're technically not dead, but there's no in-game way to save them. So it's still debatable among the HQ community on how this should be handled.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4183&start=10

In the Quest 2 Outer Caves, the small 2x3 room with the Fimir has a similar issue, except this time, that room has to be crossed to get to the exit door. When (not if) that Falling block trap is triggered it will block up the room and only 1 or 2 heroes (the hero that crossed the threshold and whomever may use Pass Through Rock) will be able to make it to the exit. You can either add a secret door two squares up or get rid of the falling block trap altogether.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=284

Quest 5 The Pit of Chaos has a falling block trap in a room adjacent to the Pit of Chaos, there's a Zombie guarding an unmarked chest. If you're not ok with leaving a hero for dead in an inescapable room, you could add a Pass Through Rock spell scroll in the chest.

Quest 6 Fortress of the Ogre Lord has a secret door that apparently leads into a falling block trap that could potentially trap a hero. As noted before, this is up to Morcar if he's willing to trap a hero forever, but it's a cruel and cheap way to kill off a hero.

Again this situation presents itself in Quest 7 with the room in the bottom left corner. Once the door is open a falling block traps the hero in the room with the Zombie and unmarked chest.
Also in Flight to the Surface, you should notice a secret door next to the Fire Place, leading to the room in the Upper Right corner room, which should be solid stone. It's been suggested in another forum to move this door four spaces to the left, connecting the two upper rooms in that quadrant.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4305

Again, none of these errors are yours, they seem to accompany this quest pack, as this wasn't playtested either. Given that it's your compendium, I thought maybe you should give yourself the option of correcting those errors (especially the one in Outer Caves).

Thanks I did notice these but have not had a chance to play this pack recently. I'll fix them all.

[Hendar23]

I only found 1 error in your Wizards of Morcar section of the Compendium. In the Tower of the High Mage, you're missing a door into the room with the Fire Place and Fire Burst Trap. Phoenix's map is missing the same door. I presume you based your map off of his... or is the original missing this door too?

Also, there is no Epilogue in either Against the Ogre Horde or Wizards of Morcar... but considering what is to come with Frozen Horror and Mage of the Mirror, it would be kind to offer the heroes a reward to replenish their potions and equipment.
Perhaps you could add some gold to the two chests in the middle room of Final Conflict.

Thanks for spotting the door. I was indeed using Phoenix's maps as they were easier to read than some of the scans or physical books I was using. they seemed like faithful recreations of the originals...that was unil I realised with horror that they contained mistakes! I stopped using them since but my fear that I have errors in my maps because of this have turned out to be real.

I stuck some gold in the chests, like you say the heroes deserve a reward.

[Hendar23]

The epilogue stuff and contradictions in the fluff material...hmm I don't think for now I'll change any of it. At least it is a lowest priority because wonky fluff does not break the game the way map errors and such do.
Second my players would never sit through a page of - let's be brutally honest - sub-par fantasy cliche anyway. We always just give the TL:DR version of the campaign story.

I feel fixing it would require an almost total re-write which is not what I'm aiming for and having an actual well written story would spoil the cheesy saturday-morning-cartoon style nostalgia feel of the game

I'll leave fluff fixes to anyone who wants to make their own variant.