Does it state anywhere in the rules that the health and fatigue/stamina status of the heroes needs to be viewable by the overlord?

I was playing the "Fat goblin" encounter 2 as overlord against 4 heroes. Sprig had Frederick and was making for the exit, when the heroes blocked the corridor. In order to clear the way to the exit, I wanted to attack the character with the least remaining health to try to knock him out (in case I didn't role a surge to apply "knockback" to clear the route). Suddenly the opposing players grabbed all the health and stamina tokens off their character mats and hid them under the table so I couldn't tell who had the least left. They said the overlord s hould n't be able to tell the status of the heroes.

Was this a legitimate ploy or illegal?

Thanks

It was neither legal, nor legitimate. All of the hero's stats (health, fatigue, abilities, skills, cards, heroic feats, etc.) are public knowledge.

Just like all of the OL's monster and lieutenant stats are public knowledege. About the only thing hidden are the OL's deck, and some specifically mentioned items in quests.

In the Base Rules, on page 7, you can reference the Setup Diagram, and its description below, which shows that this information is public knowledge.

Further, on page 9, under Rest, you will note that it tells the hero "At the end of his turn, after the hero flips his Activation card, he discards the hero token and all fatigue from his Hero sheet."

These are just a few examples which show how to handle HP and Fatigue, and that it is public knowledge.

I think you need to tell your heroes to grow up just a bit ... what they did reminds me of "I am taking my ball and going home".

Also, while it's referring to the quest guide and not necessarily hero stats, it says essentially that "unless otherwise stated, everythiing is public knowledge. Things that are routinely secret include what the OL has in his hand/ the order of his draw pile, what cards he left out for a specific quest, influence effects in Nerekhall. Most everything else is face up and fair game. unless stated otherwise.

A general rule I use is if the card is meant to be faceup anywhere in the play area, then any player can pick it up and look at it. This includes any tokens that are placed on said cards. So that means all skill cards, unused search cards, plot deck cards, monster cards, condition cards etc etc. A problem I usually have is after I use a monster's ability, a hero says "well I never would have taken action X if I had known the monster could do that. That's not fair". At which point I repeat the rule above and add "tough titty"

Yea you gotta keep your group in check on this one, that's pretty childish. Also pure logic dictates it is public knowledge, or I would just always "say" my hero wasn't dead, even though he had 35 damage on him.

Don't let your group get away with stuff like that or it's going to bring down your game a lot.

Good luck friend, I've had my share of... interesting game group members.

I wanted to attack the character with the least remaining health to try to knock him out (in case I didn't role a surge to apply "knockback" to clear the route). Suddenly the opposing players grabbed all [/size][/font]the health and stamina tokens off their character mats and hid them under the table so I couldn't tell who had the least left. They said the overlord s hould n't be able to tell the status of the heroes.

I agree with the others, this information is public, as is almost everything in this game.

If your players want a thematic explanation, Splig can see which one of them is bleeding the most.

I also agree with Extortion that anything which is "face up" on the table should be public information if the rules don't explicitly say otherwise.

Thanks all,

That was certainly my opinion too. I did roll a surge though and knocked Grisban out of the way, so Sprig successfully escaped with Frederick.

Cheers