How to increase difficulty for solo play?

[overdog]

Ok, so I opened up my old HeroQuest game that I use to love to play and am having my wife play the DM while I run the group of 4 by myself.
The problem is that I'm on quest 6 and the game is pretty easy when you solo cordinate the team.
Any ideas to increase the difficulty? No guy has died and not a single potion of healing has been used. My team has 8 of then now.

I've added a couple of changes.
1. I only get to search a room once so my team only profits once. Hoping to restrict becoming overgeared.
2. Items can be traded between heroes but they can' be sold back for any amount. Hopefully this helps with becomming overgeared as well.
2. The DM gets an extra monster every 8 or so turns I take and the strength of the moster increases each time. This is a small attempt at keeping me from lining my guys up too much or taking too much time. It helps a little and adds more realism and urgency to the quest.

Any other ideas to help me crank the difficulty up?
Thanks!

[torilen]

One idea - and realize this is just a thought:
You could attempt to run it as more of a role-playing game, and treat each character
as its own. Granted, this would require you to create a multiple personality disorder
for the duration of the game, but it could work.
For example - maybe treat the elf as sort of a scout, and send him ahead to check things
out - keep the wizard back (like a wizard would do), and keep the wizard between the
barbarian and the dwarf for protection - which is what would normally happen, I suppose.

Another idea is to just do what you've done - add more monsters and traps, and limit the
searches. I would still allow selling treasure found, otherwise you would have no reason
to search for treasure after a certain point.
You can also add higher level/tougher monsters. Check out this website - go to the monster
section - I've added a few that might help - still working on it, though - so if you like any of
them, let me know, and I'll finish them up for you so they work as they should.
the website is:
https://sites.google.com/site/thenewgamesystem/monsters

realize, of course, I've not really play-tested these in a real game, but I think they'll work okay.

[overdog]

I like it. thanks.

I'm deffinitely incorporating the weapon switch penalty to some degree.
A I get further along I'll take a look at some of the stronger monsters you have.

Another idea I'm thinking about is allowing Zargon to change the turn order of his moveable minions from turn to to turn. In tight areas that can sometimes allow more then one minion to attack. Maybe that will be based on mindpoints.

[torilen]

something else you might want to try - granted, you and your wife (as the evil wizard) would have to create a situation
that would use them - that website I sent you, notice there is a section titled actions, also.
That includes a new rule for jumping, and rules for swimming - and I need to add the rules for climbing that I created -
I'll put those on soon - tonight if you're interested. (climbing is similar to both jumping and swimming)
These rules could add some new situations that require you to get by an obstacle, and could reduce your body points,
creating more of a challenge.
Check out phoenix's rules on weapon damage also - can't remember what thread or topic its under - drathe might be able
to help you out with that. Having the chance of a weapon breaking could definitely add some excitment.

[torilen]

Another thought - check out the thread Spell Components for Casting - might be under the general rules
section - I posted something there for requiring materials for casting spells - I added to that last night,
but forgot my flashdrive at work, so I'll post it tomorrow.
The way I've set it up could add quite a bit of depth and challenge to your games. For example, to cast
Air Spells, you need a bird's feather - a different feather for each one. You'd have to buy the feather, or track
down the bird and get one yourself.
Stuff like that.