Zargon's Hero/Hero's taking too long

[ulag]

I came up with this idea to kill 2 birds with one stone. First I always play Zargon and I would like to have some way to advance my character so I'd like to make a champion that can grow along side the heros. Second I don't like all the turn skipping that goes on for lining up perfectly at doors and searching for stuff. My idea is to have a chaos warrior that apears randomly after every so many turns. I'm thinking this can be determined by rolling 2 10 sided (or a 100 sided) die or something so that he shows up between 1 and 100 turns (to keep track just turn the dice backwards every turn till you get to 0) roll the dice again to see when he next apears. This should give a small sense of urgency to not skip turns to get the perfect formation set up or to have every one skip their turn becuase barbarian already used his action seraching for treasure.
Now back to that champion of mine. He is a chaos warrior with the chaos spell escape that will remove him from play. For every damage he does to a hero he gains an exp point, after 10 exp he levels up and gains something else. If he is killed he only gets to keep half the exp he earned that turn, if he uses escape he keeps it all. The point is not to fight to the death but do some damage and run away like villians do in movies. If your heros are already too big to have a regular chaos warrior make a dent on them then just start him out with bigger stats. My current heros are on quest 5 so they have shields and helmets and stuff so I think mine will have an extra body point to start.
I have not play tested this at all but I'm throwing it out here incase this sort of thing already exists in someone else's modified rules. I'd appreciate feedback as to how realistic this rule set seems.

[drathe]

I like the idea of a recurring Chaos minion set out to cause havoc for the Heroes. If you really want to make them think twice about skipping turns and preparing for battle, I'd have your champion use White Shields to defend instead of Black. That way he gains a bit of an edge, makes the Heroes think twice and removes the need to up its stats as frequently.

[Zeno]

Interesting concept. You might could also make it one of the recurring villains from the official quest books (e.g. Skulmar), or even design your own quest(s) featuring it as the main antagonist. Give the heroes some added satisfaction when they finally take down the shadow that's been dogging them seemingly forever. Course if they do so, you might have to come up with a new recurring baddie

Just as a side note, when I started noticing players taking lots of extra turns to set up, either before opening doors or while searching for treasure to minimize damage from wandering monsters, I began using a house rule that a random mishap would occur at the beginning of Zargon's turn if there currently wasn't a visible,moving threat on the gameboard (monster, death mist, etc.), and if Zargon rolled a black shield on a single combat die. The mishaps are randomly determined and include wandering monsters, falling and breaking a potion bottle, damaging weapons, etc. Serves to keep the players on their toes a bit more, especially after they have a few adventures under their belt.

[Rath of Un]

after reading the posts I thought I would throw my two cents in, It does kind of tick me off when people slow play the heroes in the game. What I have done in the past is to add a wondering monster here and there. I just call it a patrolling monster. One that is just guarding a hallway and wondered off to use the toilet or something. I have them enter play around a corner or something like that, and the longer that they slow play the more and more I add. I have found that this keeps the game moving. I do like the idea of a random mishap and rolling a die. I think I might use that idea.

Zeno do you have a table that you have used in the past for the Random mishap roll?

[Zeno]

An abbreviated version of my Mishaps Table:

Roll 2d6 (red dice)

2) Wandering Monster per the quest notes with half movement (round up) remaining appears from around a corner generally ahead of the Heroes and attacks the closest Hero, if it can.
3) A random Hero discovers a hole in his money pouch and loses 50% (or as close as possible, but 10 gold value minimum) of his carried monetary loot.
4) A rat pops out of its hole and bites a random Hero on the leg. Roll a combat die: skull = lose 1 Body Point, white shield = no effect, black shield = disease. Diseased Heroes lose 1 Body Point immediately, and 1 more BP every 5th of that Hero's turn thereafter until cured by a Potion of Restoration (either type).
5) A random Hero twists an ankle and subtracts 1 from movement rolls (1 minimum) thereafter until healed with a spell or potion (any potion/spell that cures BP will do). This effect is cumulative if rolled again.
6) A gust of wind blows out the Heroes' torches. A random Hero loses his next turn relighting them.
7) Slippery patch on the floor here makes each Hero subtract 2 from their next movement roll (1 minimum).
8) Decaying matter on the wall makes a random Hero nauseous. Until the effects are overcome, he subtracts 1 die (1 die minimum) from all combat rolls. The effects may be overcome immediately or on his subsequent turns by rolling a 5 or 6 on a red die, or by drinking a Potion of Warmth.
9) A loose stone in the ceiling falls amidst the Heroes. Roll a red die- on a 1-4 it hits the corresponding Hero, a 5-6 is a near miss (no effect). The hit Hero rolls a combat die- he loses 1 BP on a black shield if he is wearing a helmet, or on a skull if no helmet is worn.
10) A random Hero blunts or warps one of his non-artifact weapons (also randomly chosen). The damaged weapon loses 1 combat die of effectiveness. If reduced to 0 combat dice, it is destroyed. Damaged metal weapons, if not destroyed, may be repaired between quests at a cost of 25% of the weapon's purchase cost per combat die restored.
11) A random hero trips and falls and breaks a random potion bottle if he carries one. If no potions are carried, roll a combat die and subtract 1 BP if a skull is rolled.
12) Wandering Monster as (2) above, except it appears generally behind the Heroes.

Ongoing ill effects are automatically cured between Quests.

Zeno.

[ulag]

The black shield when no monsters around is a neat idea but blowing out the torch and have a hero miss his turn is the opposite effect so I'd problably subtitute that one. I may try this before I get the kinks on my choas champion worked out.

[marquitofc]

Well, I wanna send you an optional rule I use concerning Wandering Monsters.

When the heroes are exploring and there's no monsters on the board, every Zargon's turn 1 roll a dice. If a black shield hits, I put a Wandering Monster on the board, as far away as I can from the heroes, BUT YET into they line of sight.

This came to bring some pace to the game, as the heroes use too many "unmonstered turns" to take position before opening EVERY door, or waiting for the slower characters to came.

At some quests (or after some specific events), I sometimes use a Skull to trigger a WM.

It really works very well, and sometimes at the end of quests the heroes actually RUN to the exit, instead of exploring the entire board every time.

[mainat]

Old topic, new thought.

I find that the threat of a monster is often times enough to stop players from taking "extra" turns to line up before opening door. Even causes a party to split up more often in the hopes of completing the quest in the least amount of turns. I create this threat by rolling a 1d6 at the beginning of Zargon's turn, if it's a I place the wandering monster for the quest at the stair case (or exit point), as if it has come back from a patrol or using the outhouse or whatever crazy reason you'd like to rationalize. If the exit point hasn't been discovered, then I just set aside the monster until when it is.

[mikemacdee]

Old topic, new thought.

I find that the threat of a monster is often times enough to stop players from taking "extra" turns to line up before opening door. Even causes a party to split up more often in the hopes of completing the quest in the least amount of turns. I create this threat by rolling a 1d6 at the beginning of Zargon's turn, if it's a I place the wandering monster for the quest at the stair case (or exit point), as if it has come back from a patrol or using the outhouse or whatever crazy reason you'd like to rationalize. If the exit point hasn't been discovered, then I just set aside the monster until when it is.

I like this idea. Also like Zeno's "random mishap roll" idea. Might use both next time I run a game.

[mainat]

You know I used this mechanic last night, and it did prevent the frivolous turns, but it had no affect on the over analyzing of a turn. Took my buddies 3 hours to complete the first quest, which to be fair can be a tough quest. I might have to try a time based mechanic. Say every fifteen minutes a patrol monster returns via the stairwell. The problem though I can see here is that the more monsters I bring back the longer the game will take. It's almost a catch 22. Will have to think about it some more.