I was reading somewhere (probably here) that the nightmare versions of quests take out some of the annoying randomness of encounter decks but still make them harder.

Is this right? I haven't bought any yet but think I will soon.

It makes them harder, but what of less random - nothing comes to my mind. Some make it even more random.

It's true, at least for "search for gollum" : Gollum is shuffle in the deck if it is in the discard pile. Help a lot!

Other than that, it can go other ways: the ungolianth spawn is pratically a Game Over card to reveal...

I wouldn't use the word "fix". They do get harder and that refreshes some of the old quests. But there will always be an element of chance and if anything that has gotten worse IMO.

One good example of what you're talking about is The Hills of Emyn Muil. The original encounter deck was really bloated with 53 cards. The Nightmare version pares this down to 44. That might seem like a small change, but it makes a big difference as far as consistency of the encounter deck, which reduces the randomness.

I was reading somewhere (probably here) that the nightmare versions of quests take out some of the annoying randomness of encounter decks but still make them harder.

Is this right? I haven't bought any yet but think I will soon.

It's the only quest that gets far less "annoying randomness" as you put it, and that's The Dead Marshes. Gollum does not get discarded, but shuffled back into the deck.

If you want my advice on the ones to pick up:

-passage through mirkwood (makes the quest interesting again, so worth your money)

-hills of emyn muil (same)

-the dead marshes (reason given above)

Mind you, NM is not for sissies...you will die, many times

To give a contrarian opinion on Dead Marshes, there are now escape test cards with 5s and 10s in the deck. And given the primary constraint on the Nightmare setup card if you pull one or two of those on the final escape test you have usually failed. Regarding Gollum not going into the discard pile, I would rather he did because Shadow of the Past is still a legal card.

Contrarian? I don't see any contradiction here.

Zanzibar here asked for "annoying randomness" and that's gone as I stated, and you too.

He did not ask for difficulty, and again you and I stated NM is hard, albeit in different forms.

So what I'm reading is that you agree with my post my friend!

(I should be a politician)

Sounds good guys, thanks.

So Mirkwood, Emyn Muil and Dead marshes, any other person favourites anyone has?

Hunt for Gollum is really good. If you play solo Emyn Muil and Dead Marches is not really difficult. I never ever lose any game solo. But you add more players and everything change. even 2 players gamr us geting really hard and interesting.

Yeah but you're an unstoppable machine Glaurung. Haha