As the title states, I want to see if those with experience think the new campaigns from either Labyrinth of Ruin or Shadows of Nerekhall would be good for a squad of (hopefully 4) heroes who have never played before? I will be playing Overlord and I'd really like to try one of the new campaigns, as I've played the originals a few times and have heard the expansion campaigns are more interesting and balanced, but if they would be too complicated for the heroes I will stick to the original.

You could do it yes, depending on the group.

LOR and Nerekhall are both a bit harder on the heroes than the original campaign, and can have some slightly more complicated quests.

As long as you took the heroes through a few one off quests so they could find their feet in the game instead of mopping the floor with their inexperience by throwing them strait into the newer campaigns you could do it.

There are heaps of threads about the treasure hunter and the class has been discussed in alot of detail, i would recommend doing a search on these forums.

I think the treasure hunter is a powerful class, but not to the point that the OL can't adapt- and there are certainly more powerful classes, it's just that the treasure hunter is great at getting gold, the advantages of which is a point of contention.

With regard to LoR and SoN, they are both a bit harder on the heroes. I agree that they should be familiar with game rules first especially if you're planning to play LoR, because the winner of the first quest gets to choose the ally, and that's a big deal. I'm planning to take first timers though both of those campaigns soon, but in each case there will be at least one veteran hero in the group.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback.

What do you think would be a good quest to do as a one-off to get the heroes acquainted with as much of the game mechanics as possible? I don't want to do more than a single "tutorial" quest, so one that maximizes as many elements as possible would be good (and is slightly in favor of the heroes).

Thanks!!

I now own all the expansions and lieutenants for 2nd edition, so I have a broad range of difficulties.

First I seem to always be the overlord and there is only one hero I hate to go against and that's trenloe( the thick idiot). He is from the oath of the outcast.

Honestly the game is balanced out where either side can win, its a matter of the heroes reading the text on there abilities and using them at the right time. As for the Overlord the only way to stop a more powerful character is to find their weakness and exploit it.

We always play single scenerios on expert level, so I start with experience points and use the threat tokens as much as possible.

Do I think you should get the expansions absolutely!!! The more characters and classes to pick from the better. I prefer having a campaign but its a time thing with my group.

I would personally vote for "Death on the Wing" or "The Blood of Heroes." Either choice will introduce them to monsters, lieutenants, NPCs, and searching. "Blood of Heroes" has the bonus of a case where being knocked out matters to the heroes thematically. If you don't think it's so important for the tutorial to explicitly involve lots of game elements, "First Blood" is definitely an option- after all, it's designed as a tutorial.

My recommendation was mostly so that the first quest they play doesn't define the entire campaign they're about to participate in- the heroes should know what's at stake (and be able to do something about it) when it comes to choosing their ally.

Awesome Zaltyre. Thanks for the advice!

First blood is a really good intro to the game, the heroes really just need to worry about 3 things. Killing stuff, searching and stopping the overlord from achieving an objective.