Are Heroes allowed to block the entrance and exit tile spaces so that monsters are not able to spawn or leave the map? In the first encounter of Cardinals Plight, two Heroes sat on the exit tile spaces so the zombies could not exit. I had to kill one of them to free up that space so my zombie could exit. Is this a legitimate move that the Heroes can perform? They pulled the same move on another quest, standing on my reinforcement spaces so I could not respawn my monsters during my reinforcement phase....kinda lame if you ask me but clever on their behalf....we just want to make sure this is a legal thing.

Others will chime in and correct me if i'm wrong but I think when the OL spawns monsters, if all spaces are occupied he can spawn the monster on the nearest adjacent space?

I don't have the rules with me but I recall reading this somewhere...but can't tell if it was official or non-official...

As I understand it that is true in general. Anytime you need to place anything and it is blocked you may place closest available space unless specified otherwise.

What about monsters trying to exit the map and heroes want to stand on the exit tiles, is that legal? The Heroes now are blocking the way out, forcing me to either kill one of them or move them out of the way somehow. I would assume so, but I just want to be sure.

Yeah, that part is legit. It's an effective, and therefore common, tactic. You can either kill them and walk over their downed and broken frames, or you can move them through unscrupulous means (Ettins can thrown, Plague Worms can burrow underneath, etc) and then just walk out. Or, if you have the option, you can pick monsters that fly

For reinforcments, if the space for respawning is currently occupied, they will appear in the closest available space.

As for the exiting plan on the heroes, yes, that is legit. Heroes learn that dirty trick from us blocking the hallways. We shoudl be proud. ^.~ we are blackening their hearts slowly.

If you want a way around that, the Inspector's advice is sound. So is Dark Charm, Dark Host and Eliza ^.~ Though currently my favorite option is flying beasties.

I took care of the problem no sweat, I played Frenzy, as well as Critical Blow, with Merick Farrow while doing an Ignite on them. They were all grouped up in the back thinking it was game/set/match. I had not used Merick to attack yet so they didn't know about Ignite till I lit 'em up. Smiling & laughing faces turned to depressed stone faces real quick....I love it!

I took care of the problem no sweat, I played Frenzy, as well as Critical Blow, with Merick Farrow while doing an Ignite on them. They were all grouped up in the back thinking it was game/set/match. I had not used Merick to attack yet so they didn't know about Ignite till I lit 'em up. Smiling & laughing faces turned to depressed stone faces real quick....I love it!

Shame they didn't just ask to see Merrick's abilities.

What about monsters trying to exit the map and heroes want to stand on the exit tiles, is that legal? The Heroes now are blocking the way out, forcing me to either kill one of them or move them out of the way somehow. I would assume so, but I just want to be sure.

As stated above, this is legal. There are quests where it's useful for the OL to do the same thing. For instance, in the quest where Sir Alric Farrow is trying to go in and kill a dragon (I think it's the Desecrated Tomb), one thing the OL can do is plop a Master Ogre in the hallway somewhere, blocking the heroes. Those things take quite a bit to kill, giving Alric a good amount of time to start hacking away at the dragon.

I took care of the problem no sweat, I played Frenzy, as well as Critical Blow, with Merick Farrow while doing an Ignite on them. They were all grouped up in the back thinking it was game/set/match. I had not used Merick to attack yet so they didn't know about Ignite till I lit 'em up. Smiling & laughing faces turned to depressed stone faces real quick....I love it!

Shame they didn't just ask to see Merrick's abilities.

yeah, really. Next time be sure they know what their up against. If there's something lame, is winning cause the heroes didn't know what your monsters were capable of

I took care of the problem no sweat, I played Frenzy, as well as Critical Blow, with Merick Farrow while doing an Ignite on them. They were all grouped up in the back thinking it was game/set/match. I had not used Merick to attack yet so they didn't know about Ignite till I lit 'em up. Smiling & laughing faces turned to depressed stone faces real quick....I love it!

Shame they didn't just ask to see Merrick's abilities.

yeah, really. Next time be sure they know what their up against. If there's something lame, is winning cause the heroes didn't know what your monsters were capable of

The way my group plays is any time a new skill/shop item is earned by the heroes, they let me (as the overlord) look it over. Any time I earn a new Overlord card, or play a new monster that they haven't yet encountered, I let them look it over before we start the encounter. We feel that this is fair and allows for more strategy.

I took care of the problem no sweat, I played Frenzy, as well as Critical Blow, with Merick Farrow while doing an Ignite on them. They were all grouped up in the back thinking it was game/set/match. I had not used Merick to attack yet so they didn't know about Ignite till I lit 'em up. Smiling & laughing faces turned to depressed stone faces real quick....I love it!

Shame they didn't just ask to see Merrick's abilities.

yeah, really. Next time be sure they know what their up against. If there's something lame, is winning cause the heroes didn't know what your monsters were capable of

The way my group plays is any time a new skill/shop item is earned by the heroes, they let me (as the overlord) look it over. Any time I earn a new Overlord card, or play a new monster that they haven't yet encountered, I let them look it over before we start the encounter. We feel that this is fair and allows for more strategy.

Standard rules for the game: the only thing that is secret is the overlord's hand of cards, or influence tokens in Shadow of Nerekhall.

I like better when my fellow players devise a solid strategy, perfectly knowing what the monsters do (without things like "oh that master has Aura?! I didn't know! I'm KO'd!" even if they have its card under their nose)... And then my counter-strategy is even better and tears them apart!

It's like when I play chess with my little brother. When he's badly blundering, I just tell him "dude, if you do that move, it's mate in 2...!" But I love to crush him when he actually manages to threaten a draw or something!

We all played D&D together and since that takes too much time, everyone being married now with kids, this is our RPG fix. We actually play it where I dont know their abilities or weapons until they use them, and vice versa for the monsters. Same thing goes for the treasure cards, they dont show me what they get. I also leave the room during their turn to let them strategize so I dont know what they are planning. The only thing we share with each other is the full quest scenarios. We prefer to have that element of surprise/unknown format of gameplay. We like the twist that it puts on both of our initial strategies. Its not for everyone but thats how we all want to play it. Another thing we dont do is pick the next quest based on who won, we have just been going in order of the quests that are on the campaign sheet. For Act 2 we are playing the quests on the left side if the heroes won and the right side if the OL won. Again not for everyone but its how we decided to do it and its been fantastic. For anyone curious of the outcomes so far, if this gameplay format intrigues you but unsure of how it is balanced, the scores are 2-1. 2 Heroe wins, 1 OL win. They won intro quest. Split on the crops in Encounter 1 of first quest, they killed Splig in the very end. Split on Villagers in Encounter 1 of second quest, I killed Sir Palamon in the very end. I got 3 zombies thru in first Encounter of third quest. Each Encounter so far has come down to the wire for both sides with both sides having an opportunity to win each time.

We all played D&D together and since that takes too much time, everyone being married now with kids, this is our RPG fix. We actually play it where I dont know their abilities or weapons until they use them, and vice versa for the monsters. Same thing goes for the treasure cards, they dont show me what they get. I also leave the room during their turn to let them strategize so I dont know what they are planning. The only thing we share with each other is the full quest scenarios. We prefer to have that element of surprise/unknown format of gameplay. We like the twist that it puts on both of our initial strategies. Its not for everyone but thats how we all want to play it. Another thing we dont do is pick the next quest based on who won, we have just been going in order of the quests that are on the campaign sheet. For Act 2 we are playing the quests on the left side if the heroes won and the right side if the OL won. Again not for everyone but its how we decided to do it and its been fantastic. For anyone curious of the outcomes so far, if this gameplay format intrigues you but unsure of how it is balanced, the scores are 2-1. 2 Heroe wins, 1 OL win. They won intro quest. Split on the crops in Encounter 1 of first quest, they killed Splig in the very end. Split on Villagers in Encounter 1 of second quest, I killed Sir Palamon in the very end. I got 3 zombies thru in first Encounter of third quest. Each Encounter so far has come down to the wire for both sides with both sides having an opportunity to win each time.

Not really how the game is designed, but if both you and your players are happy with the setup, I guess there's no real issue.

Another thing we dont do is pick the next quest based on who won, we have just been going in order of the quests that are on the campaign sheet. For Act 2 we are playing the quests on the left side if the heroes won and the right side if the OL won.

One thing this will do is either have you playing 4 more quests than intended (which changes the XP balance), or you never see the quests on the last couple rows if you switch to the Interlude after 3 Act I quests / Finale after 3 Act II quests (according to RAW).

My daughter and I tried to do an "epic" campaign, where we did all 5 Act I quests, and the 5 Act II quests. It wasn't as epic as we hoped; too many XPs (to both sides, but the Heroes especially felt it with their increased skills), and by the time they got to Act II, they were pretty strong. Since there are only 15 XP worth of skills to buy, getting 12 XP worth (or more) doesn't leave a lot of tough choices in the end.

Personally i just pick my monsters place everything out and keep my mouth shut about everything. If the heroes want to look at the cards they are totally free to go for it, but i am not going to sit there explaining everything for them (unless they are a newbie player).

Its the heroes responsibility to ask to look at the cards, read through them all and understand what they are capable of - if they dont and i use a monster ability they had not thought about, its their own fault.

Personally i just pick my monsters place everything out and keep my mouth shut about everything. If the heroes want to look at the cards they are totally free to go for it, but i am not going to sit there explaining everything for them (unless they are a newbie player).

Its the heroes responsibility to ask to look at the cards, read through them all and understand what they are capable of - if they dont and i use a monster ability they had not thought about, its their own fault.

This is pretty much how we do things. There has been a number of occasions where the heroes have not told me what they have taken for them selves as far as experience. It's on me for not looking over the card. In the same way, it's on them for forgetting Eliza has an ability to move heroes or that Zak can inflict any condition he wants. *shrugs* The information if there, free to read. It's up to each player to read it.

Thats how we do it aswell.

Cards that I buy with xp/threat I make sure to explain to the players though and they do the same thing with stuff they buy.