by Kurgan » Friday January 17th, 2025 12:47pm
Avalon Hill themselves in their new set recommends various rule options.
Unthreatened Movement: When there are no monsters on the board, the heroes may move 4 squares for each red movement die they'd normally roll. So a 2d6 character would move 8 squares. As soon as monsters appear, go back to rolling (players differ on whether you should add the rolled movement or subtract from what's already moved). I personally just up it to 6 and 12 squares respectively (and add on the rolled movement, and the Elven Potion of Speed adds 12... I figure heroes will just move quickly into trouble this way anyway!). This began as a playtesting rule used in the Avalon Hill offices.
Incapacitated: AH suggested this is a way to handle hero death. Instead of doing the last minute save with a potion or healing spell when they reach 0 body points, they just "go down" incapacitated and you place a skull tile. You now have one round for someone to save them. An ally has to move adjacent to the fallen body of their friend and administer a healing potion or else cast a healing spell (LOS). The potion method doesn't work unless there are no monsters adjacent. If the fallen character isn't healed by the time it comes back to their turn again (or I suppose when it comes to Zargon's turn again if they were killed on Zargon's turn) then they're "really" dead and are removed from the game unless you have the Elixir of Life of course. This is called "Heroic" mode. "Story" mode is even more forgiving, as there is no skull tile placed and if there are no monsters on the board, all incapacitated characters receive one BP back automatically and are revived. In Story Mode the only way you can lose if all hero characters are incapacitated at the same time.
But yes, TONS of people combine things from different editions of the game into one. Even Avalon Hill did this by starting with the NA (US 1990/Brazil 1993) rules as a base and then porting over various things that were formerly exclusive to the EU 2nd edition (1990) or even the Japanese (1991) edition.
I ignore the "nerfs" that Avalon Hill clarified for certain things like Courage (saying it lasts for only one attack, which is how it worked in EU 1st edition, 1989) and some of the nerfs suggested in First Light or clarified on social media by AH members (Orc's Bane only works against a single Orc not two adjacent Orcs; Command doesn't let you use the spells or items of the hero under control only their weapon(s); Potion of Speed can't be stacked with itself; Crossbow can hit the four near diagonal squares; and a few others I don't recall at the moment).
I don't personally use "Incapacitated" except I use "Heroic" for the Animal companions...
Animal Companions: Whenever you are playing a quest with less than four heroes (not just solo quests) you can add one or more Animal Companions. I think AH intended for each Animal companion to take the place of a hero (but only allow one companion per hero) as a free hired mercenary. These characters have different abilities than the heroes. For instance the Wolf and Saberfang can't open doors (while the Raptor can). They can't carry equipment (unless it is specifically designated as intended for them). You can administer a potion to an adjacent animal companion as long as neither of you are adjacent to a monster. You can also cast spells on them but they don't search for anything and can't use artifacts, equipment or treasure. In practice AH has also introduced Artifacts that can summon these allies in the middle of a quest, even if there are already four heroes and other companions.
Turn Order: Avalon Hill put up another optional rule that some players use, in Jungles of Delthrak, where each "round" for the heroes you can shuffle the order that characters take their turns. So you have a Hero round and a Zargon round. The heroes could take a different order every round, in theory, if you allow this. I personally find it very confusing for Zargon to do this, especially in those long games played at night! However there are a few times where the players regret their turn order and really want to shuffle things around, so this is official sanction for such a thing.
Power Dice: Many hobbyists sell these on Etsy and of course that German site Spielwarrensaloon. They alter the probabilities of rolling certain symbols on Combat dice. For example Black dice have an extra skull (and one less white shield) so stronger for attacking and worse for hero defense... Blue dice have one more black shield (and one less white shield) being weaker for hero defense but stronger for monster defense... Green dice have one more white shield (and one less skull) being stronger for hero defense but weaker for attack. Purple, Orange, and Yellow have some doubles of skulls, black shields, and/or white shields making for surprises. So-called "boss dice" (in a variety of colors) are suggested for use by named (or "boss") characters to make them much more challenging with stronger attacks and defense.
There are no set rules for how to use "Power dice" whether they are the combat ones or the potion/key ones (again sold by that German site) though some fans have created their own cards that make use of them (the old "Mound of the Beastmen" fan quest pack famously uses the Orange dice though the new Orange dice have different attributes, so you want the "Boss dice" to play it as the author intended).
One suggestion I think it was from VictoryDesigns (on etsy) was that under certain cirumstances (no monsters on the board?) Zargon adds a die to his dice pool and can substitute them when he wants. But also at the start of the quest heroes are supposed to grab some of the dice (randomly?) and when they use up their dice it goes into the pile that Zargon can draw from. Those are all interesting ideas, but I don't use them personally.
When we stream games on Twitch, viewers can use their channel points (the ones that build up over time, but also if you follow you get more and if you subscribe--which does cost a fee or you can use your Amazon prime gaming subscription--it's not pay to win just so you know!) aka Gold Coins to influence the quest, that is you can "buy" a potion for the heroes or a bonus (safe) treasure search, etc. or buy a chaos card or bonus monster for Zargon. There's also a "combat dice color change" where we choose a random color and the next combat roll is going to use that color.
House rules vary widely between players. I think a lot of people like to give special searches for certain furniture (Avalon Hill's First Light picked up this idea by giving a special option for the Fireplace that heals you and the Cupboard that gives you two treasure cards instead of one--for the first searcher) or mime walking up to treasure chests to search them.
A lot of players feel that some or all furniture don't block line of fire for spells or projectile weapons.
Many suggested house rules that are posted out there I dislike or don't use, like saying you can't visit shops between quests once the campaign begins (shopping is fun! what's all that gold for?). Rise of the Dread Moon adapted this in a way, but it also gave you opportunities within several of the quests to buy from merchants (using the "underground market") or heal up at least partially at the "hideout."
Many think the Crossbow is too powerful and nerf it in various ways. I disallow it from hitting the 8 surrounding squares of the one wielding it (to preserve the utility of the Longsword) but allow it to hit the squares outward from that (via LOS).
I also say when you're standing in an open doorway and looking out into the corridor, you don't see the entire corridor, just the three squares you can view out the door (and any direct hallway that is lined up with the doorway. I don't consider it a problem if you're standing in a room or corridor and there's a monster you can "see" (even adjacent) that is in the next room or corridor... I only disallow searching if the monster is in the same corridor or room with you. If the monster is "asleep" I treat it as if the monster isn't even there (unless perhaps it's a big monster, and the treasure happens to be underneath them!).