JUNGLES OF DELTHRAK discussion

[Kurgan]

It is a sad day... For I had started the Jungles of Delthrak campaign a while ago. I just found when setting up the next quest that I've lost a tile... A Serpent Spawnling/Green Wall. I've been so careful to keep everything in order... Somehow I've lost one...

You could always scan and then assemble another one (glue to chipboard). it won't match perfectly but you have the function.

Hope this is okay... these are images from the app:

[wallydubbs]

It is a sad day... For I had started the Jungles of Delthrak campaign a while ago. I just found when setting up the next quest that I've lost a tile... A Serpent Spawnling/Green Wall. I've been so careful to keep everything in order... Somehow I've lost one...

You could always scan and then assemble another one (glue to chipboard). it won't match perfectly but you have the function.

Hope this is okay... these are images from the app:

I can, still unfortunate that I've gone this long without losing a piece. Worst that has happened is I got one of the Elf spell cards wet and the card warped. Thank you, just the same.

[TheLastChaosWarrior]

Someone was selling a spare set of JoD unpunched tiles complete, so I snapped them up for £8, cos I knew spare spawnlings would be useful.
I've made up a card for a giant Centipede as well to go with the centipede spawnlings.
Got an impressive mini for it as well.

[wallydubbs]

Speaking of Spawnlings, I was reading through the rulebook as I just got to a point where a snake attached itself to a heroes card. He's paralyzed and the paralysis in JoD are not the same as Cloud of Dread... They could still perform actions, I assume as a way to get the Spawnling off of them. But the rulebook doesn't specify if the hero can defend from other attacks. Did I overlook it, does anyone else know if a paralyzed hero with a Spawnling on them can defend from other attacks?

Geeze this is getting complicated. I didn't experience it the first time the heroes encountered the Blight crawler in Quest 1, as the Bard fired a Crossbow that landed 3 s, killing the giant spider before it could make Spawnlings. In quest 5 they encounter both the Serpent and BlightCrawler. They made it through the BlightCrawler alright but I merely ran out of spiders, so I just stopped spawning spiders until more are dead. The Barbarian managed to kill the BlightCrawler in 2 hits.

However when they encountered the Serpent the Barbarian and Dwarf stood toe-to-tail with the Serpent as they had the Battle Axes and just ignored all the spawnlings, taking damage after damage just to kill the Serpent while the Knight tried clear the spawnlings off of the Dwarf and Barbarian used all his Serpent-Blood potions to ward off damage and poison. But the Dwarf didn't have any potions and I just assumed Paralyzed meant he couldn't defend. The Bard ran in trying use his crossbow, triggering the Falling Block Trap. So a whole bunch of questions spawned from this (No pun intended):
1.) Can a hero defend while paralyzed from a Spawnling?
2.) For every Spawnling on a hero the hero takes damage on their turn, but if a snake attaches itself to the Barbarian on the Bard's turn, does he take damage there?
3.) Does the Barbarian need to use Serpent-Blood potions on every snake that attaches to his character card to avoid damage & paralysis, or will just 1 work?
4.) When the Serpent strikes it's venomous, does the Venom add another damage on top of what he rolled?
5.) The Serpent is fighting the heroes while adjacent to them, but on their turn it spawns more snakes on an adjacent space, can it just spawn the spawnlings on the hero it's next to?
6.) If the Knight is picking snakes off the Dwarf and rolls more then 1 can he kill 2 Spawnlings?
7.) If the Barbarian uses his Potion of Serpents-Blood to avoid poison damage from the Spawnling but doesn't kill the Spawnling, does he need to use another one on his next turn?

[SirRick]

Unless the rules say the hero can’t defend, they can still defend, especially if they can still perform actions. Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense. Cloud of Dread and Sleep specifically say the hero can’t defend. The Spawnling/venom rules don’t say this.

I can’t say anything about your other questions, because I would have to read the rules again to get a better idea.

[Kurgan]

Sorry, bad joke, but check to make sure the Spawnling tile isn't stuck to one of your hero cards...


Because... you know... ;P

[Kurgan]

Speaking of Spawnlings, I was reading through the rulebook as I just got to a point where a snake attached itself to a heroes card. He's paralyzed and the paralysis in JoD are not the same as Cloud of Dread... They could still perform actions, I assume as a way to get the Spawnling off of them. But the rulebook doesn't specify if the hero can defend from other attacks. Did I overlook it, does anyone else know if a paralyzed hero with a Spawnling on them can defend from other attacks?

The only thing "paralysis" does is stop the hero from moving from the spot until [the end of] his next turn. He can immediately cancel it if he rolls a 5 or 6 on one red die at the moment he's envenomed. If he has a Potion of Serpent's Blood he can cancel its effects as well (costs 50 gold each). Yes, he can still defend. You always get to defend unless it says you can't, but it's not even dealing damage, just stopping movement, like a much weaker version of the Skullblight tendrils.

2.) For every Spawnling on a hero the hero takes damage on their turn, but if a snake attaches itself to the Barbarian on the Bard's turn, does he take damage there?

At the end of that hero's turn, for each Spawnling attached to them, they take 1 BP of damage. At the END of the turn, mind you.

3.) Does the Barbarian need to use Serpent-Blood potions on every snake that attaches to his character card to avoid damage & paralysis, or will just 1 work?

Does venom stack? In theory it does (Zargon's call; we could ask Doug what he intended here!), but it all wears off in one turn anyway. You get to roll the saving red die against each one of course. Serpent's blood just says it removes the paralysis caused by venomous creatures. It doesn't precisely say that two damages from Spawnlings in the same turn means two Venom tiles therefore two Serpent's Blood potions to remove it all. Remember that all the venom effects end automatically at the end of the next turn. Of course if he takes damage again, then in theory he gets envenomed again.

My theory is that the tiles probably weren't meant to stack for the simple reason that not very many venom (the green acid fog skulls) tiles are in the pack to begin with. Then again I suppose you could argue that you're only facing a maximum of 4 Spawnlings at a time, so whether they are all attached to the same hero or spread to each member of the party it doesn't really matter. Unless somehow the heroes run all the way from one Spawn monster battle to another so that you suddenly have two types at once.

4.) When the Serpent strikes it's venomous, does the Venom add another damage on top of what he rolled?

"Venomous" means that after he does damage, the effect (besides losing BP like you would any other attack) is that you add the Venom tile. By the time the big monster attacks again the Venom tile will be gone one way or another. I guess here is where the stacking question could come up, but again, only a few Venom tiles, so probably they just intended one tile per hero at most.

5.) The Serpent is fighting the heroes while adjacent to them, but on their turn it spawns more snakes on an adjacent space, can it just spawn the spawnlings on the hero it's next to?

Not the way it is written. Spawnlings are to be placed on UNoccupied squares adjacent to the monster spawning them (and if you run out of tiles of that particular type of Spawnling, you can't add more until they become available by dying).

6.) If the Knight is picking snakes off the Dwarf and rolls more then 1 can he kill 2 Spawnlings?

Doug clarified his intention on the AH discord. One attack per spawnling. Of course this opens up the idea that a multi-attack could take out multiple spawnlings (Heroic Brew, Celerity, the Rogue's second attack...). As Zargon I decided that a spinning attack that is capable of hitting multiple targets would have the same effect, so the Monk's spinning air attack and the Berserker's spinning attack both would be able to kill multiple spawnlings. Now you might argue and say no, that would only work for say two adjacent heroes who had spawnlings attached, not to a single hero with multiple spawnlings on them, but I don't see the practical difference. If you were adjacent to a pit that had two monsters occupying the same square in it, your spinning attack would hit both of them, wouldn't it? I guess that's how I'd see it. Also I think the Monk's fire beam could wipe out multiple spawnlings attached to the same hero, in my humble opinion.

7.) If the Barbarian uses his Potion of Serpents-Blood to avoid poison damage from the Spawnling but doesn't kill the Spawnling, does he need to use another one on his next turn?

As written, Venom doesn't deal "poison damage" (like that you need the Venom Antidote or anti-poison quill for, if this were KK/ROTWL), it merely halts your movement for a turn (again unless you roll out of it or have Serpent's Blood). At first I considered ADDING poison damage along with it, but in terms of how it plays I think it's just a bit too deadly, considering how rapidly you can whittle down a Hero's BP with these things as is.

If he avoids the Venom great. But if the Spawnling is still alive at the end of his next turn, it hits him again, and he gets the Venom again, so yes. You could have a stockpile of these potions for such a circumstance. Why run? Spawnlings can only move 3 squares at a time... granted, they can move those three squares after each hero, because as it says (and I totally forgot when I was at GenCon Zargoning a spider fight) that after EACH hero turn as long as the big monster is alive, Zargon can either add a spawnling OR move all the spawnlings "under the control" of the big monster (I take this to mean that once the big spawning monster is killed, no more of this, the spawnlings are just like regular monsters at that point, which is how they function on Zargon's turn anyway).

So I had to remind myself... Zargon's turn? Move Spawnlings and the big monster gets to attack & move. Hero turn just ended? Either move all spawnlings OR generate a new spawnling from mama spawner!

The designers (Levi, Doug, Tess, etc) really went out of their way to give Zargon plenty to do so he wouldn't be bored in this one!

[wallydubbs]

Thanks for the reply Kurgan. I realized halfway through that I wasn't rolling the red dice for poison and assumed it took hold.

[Kurgan]

So we had some discussions in our play group about the "Entangling Roots" ability of the Skullblight (tree zombies/swamp creature) monsters.

I've come to understand how they're intended to work, based on what the text says and how they're handled in the App. I feel like it's a little "weak" but I'm willing to play it as written, with a few small additions.

Short version: move up to face monster and you have to stop moving. Next turn, everything is back to normal.

Longer commentary:
Anyway the intention seems to be that wherever the monster is standing, the four adjacent (north, south, east, and west) squares are hindered by "Entangling Roots." That means any hero (or allied character) who APPROACHES the monster risks getting entangled. If you move INTO one of those squares, you STOP your movement. There's no counter to it, your movement just stops... you can't run away, period.

This also means that if there's a hero (or ally) already "entangled" like this, you can't move through that square, because you'd also be entangled, and land on them, and two characters normally can't occupy the same square (Spawnlings can, because they're actually on the Hero's CARD rather than the figure's square, though treated as if they are there, when it comes to attacks, but that's another story!).

The part I was missing is that this effect is only temporary. You don't actually have to kill the monster to escape. In other words, it's different from "Creeping Grasp" dread spell or "Grasping Vines" tile trap. This is more like a variant on the Caltrop or Yeti Hug. It just temporarily stops you from moving, but on your next turn you can just move away.

The other thing is that if a Skullblight monster moves adjacent to a hero (or ally), the Entangling Roots are not triggered. It's only if you approach the monster (and it can occur turn after turn, so long as you enter those squares).

So my thoughts for additional fun homebrew tweaks... I like the idea of a hero trying to "jump" over the entangling square, like he's jumping a trap. Only time I wouldn't allow it is if there's already a character standing in that square. But otherwise a failure means you land there and are "entangled."

Also I like the idea that the monster can "hold on" to heroes they are facing. Granted, the monster isn't that strong, so may be short-lived, but I understand that my original interpretation (that the entangling roots would hold you there UNTIL one of you dies) is a maybe a bit too tough. Basically there I'm forcing you to kill these monsters to bypass them. If I were to make the roots entangle constantly, then it would make more sense for me to add some other way of escape (such as magic... there was debate on the Avalon Hill discord over whether the roots were part of the monster, therefore could allow escape from entanglement with Rogue's combat mobility skill/Veil of Mist/Dust of Disappearance/Cloak of Shadows/Bracers of the Wild/Spiderstep Elixir and any other move-through-monster ability I'm forgetting.... OR if the Skullblight was merely commanding nearby roots to grab the hero therefore those methods shouldn't work).

So I figured when a hero is trying to move away, I'm going to have the Skullblight roll 1 combat die. If it's a skull, then the hero remains "stopped." Any shield, and he can freely move away. Same thing if the monster moves up to the Hero or appears as Wandering Monster. Normally the Entangling roots wouldn't trigger, but I'll roll to see if they do in those cases. And yes I WOULD allow any "pass through monsters" skill/spell/artifact/potion grant the hero an escape in every case of being entangled in the roots.

I guess I want the monsters to be a little more powerful, but not frustratingly so that it completely derails the flow of gameplay otherwise. Thoughts?

[Daedalus]

How about a Hero is held in place until 1 or more BPs of damage is scored against the Skullblight.