Ye Olde Inn

I was looking into this subject this morning and I had a question about Heroes Becoming Champions. In the English rule book I have it says:
Becoming a Champion
If you use the same character from Quest to Quest you may reach the coveted status of Champion. Each time your character completes a Quest write the name of the Quest in the box marked
Tasks Completed on your character sheet. Once you have completed three Quests, the land's grateful Emperor will make you a Champion. You will receive 500 extra gold coins which you may
spend on better equipment.
I looked for this subject in North American Rule Book and could not find it.

So the question is once a Hero becomes a Champion is the 500 extra gold coins a one time thing? Or after their a Champion do they always get the 500 extra gold coins at the end of every Quest they complete?

The NA version you become a Champion after completing all the original Quests.

I believe the 500 for the EU version is a 1 time thing.

I didn't really know that about the European version... but it sounds like it would be a one time thing, as 500 gold is a lot for 1 character, and with limited (albeit expensive) potions, I doubt you'd be getting paid that on every quest, especially when you consider that not all quests are on the behest of the Emperor. Quests 5, 6, 9, 10, 13 & 14 of the original quest book are not on the Emperor's employ.

This 3 Quest rule is not in the North American rule book. They became Champions after the first 14 quests, but no 500 gold is awarded to the heroes for this, as the Emperor is held up in Keller's Keep.

500 gold for every completed quest, on top of what the Heroes already get from looting the dungeon and what’s written in the quest notes, would be an obscene amount of reward. No, it’s a one-off thing.

As for the timing of the one-off reward, I put it somewhere between the UK and NA rules (many of us play an amalgamation of the two, cherry picking the best bits from each) - after 7 quests feels about right to me.

I like the idea of moving The Trial up the ladder. It is much too difficult to be the first quest. If you're willing to implement the Maze as the very first quest, Trial could come in the middle as the 7th Quest. Since the quest notes give no reward for completing it, becoming a Champion (along with the 500) gold could be the reward. This way you don't really need to change the name of the quest, it's their Trial to becoming Champions.

wallydubbs wrote:I like the idea of moving The Trial up the ladder. It is much too difficult to be the first quest. If you're willing to implement the Maze as the very first quest, Trial could come in the middle as the 7th Quest. Since the quest notes give no reward for completing it, becoming a Champion (along with the 500) gold could be the reward. This way you don't really need to change the name of the quest, it's their Trial to becoming Champions.

Yep, I like that idea.

Thanks I thought I was reading it right as a one time thing. One of my player asked and I was not 100% sure

I didn't know the EU rules said that, but it's pretty cool.

In my version, I move The Trial up to Quest 5 and allow leveling up afterward (I added a 15th Quest to the original and allow leveling up every 5 quests). I play the NA version, so the Champions title would be awarded at the end of the main questline, but that didn't make sense to me if the Emperor wasn't around to bestow the title, so I move it to the end of Return of the Witch Lord since I have the Heroes go from Kellar's Keep directly south to do that next, and they don't go back to the Capital until after it's complete. At that point, there is a huge celebration for them and they get their titles.

As for monetary reward, I think none is really necessary, especially at that point, since they'll have so many items and gold.

Spookyhappyfun wrote:As for monetary reward, I think none is really necessary, especially at that point, since they'll have so many items and gold.

That depends on the heroes. I have 2 groups that have played; one works wonderfully as a team and pools all their gold, they will often strategize along the way and rarely split up. They think in terms of "What's good for the team?" Which is why the Wizard willingly bought a Tool Kit, so he can be more helpful.

The other group appear to be more headstrong and will often rush into battle without thinking, and sometimes retreat, leaving another hero to defend for him/herself. I've seen the Elf plug up a door, preventing the other heroes from going in the next room to help the Dwarf because it was an available space and she wanted to Search for Treasure... or the time the Dwarf abandoned the Wizard to face 2 Stone Chaos Warriors. This group has a higher mortality rate. In this group, somehow, the Wizard always ends up with all the gold and despite have 400 in reserve (not able to spend it on anything) refuses to buy the underequipped Dwarf a shield. Each hero in this group seem to focus on their own character (except maybe the Barbarian, he did give the Dwarf Orc's Bane after finding it).

For the 2nd group I'm more inclined to give a 500 gold incentive to upon becoming Champions (if they survive the Trial)... though they aren't great at teamwork, I'd hate to see them die continuously and grow disenchanted from the game.

wallydubbs wrote:For the 2nd group I'm more inclined to give a 500 gold incentive to upon becoming Champions (if they survive the Trial)... though they aren't great at teamwork, I'd hate to see them die continuously and grow disenchanted from the game.

They shouldn't be rewarded for bad play. They must learn to act as a team or suffer the consequences. You can tell them how the other team's Heroes got their reward ages ago!