Dear Community,

Quite recently I got my hands on a Midnight expansion pack. The rules are quite different from the basic Runebound set. Going through the rules of the expansion, to our regret, some things remained unclear. So we had some questionmarks whilst playing the game. I was hoping to find some answers on this forum! It mostly concerns matters not elaborately addressed in the rules that came with the game.

First question concerns the Barter step in a City:

-You are near a city, succesfully enter one and have dice to spare. Can you do a barter step in the city now and after that do the market step? Or must you only do a market step?

Second question concerns being knocked out:

-If you are knocked out, do you keep your unspent experience counters?

Then there is the threat value:

-Is there anyway for the players to increase the roll for the Midnight King player or is it set at the start of the game using any of the alternative plays? In our first play through it seemed that the threat level raised fairly quickly opposed to the heroes gaining levels and items.

Finally a question about the mechanics concerning Jahzir:

-The description of his shadow power is rather vague. It mentions putting gold counters somewhere when upgrading his power (and incidentally the threat). Where do these gold counters go precisely and what is their purpose? Seems to us his ability is really powerful, the cost fairly low. So we figured we dont grasp it entirely.

I hope someone can clarify things a bit! It looks like a great game! But as said, while playing we felt we were doing things wrong, and the rules didnt help out. The Midnight player seemed seriously at an advantage. Heroes had great difficulty gaining their first few levels. Any pointers on making it more balanced from people who are seasoned players are greatly appreciated!

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards.

Maurits

Does this game have any relation to Runescape? I don't know why, but whenever I see this game, the first thing that comes to mind is Runebound.

Mauzor said:

While it doesn't explicitly say you can barter in town, it does say this on page 6 of the Midnight Rules, in the boxed section: "This means that any movement die spent to Heal or Barter in town is automatically successful."

Mauzor said:

As far as I know, your experience counters are not discarded.

Mauzor said:

The optional rules are the only way I know to increase/decrease the threat difficulty.

Mauzor said:

I believe the gold counter is placed on the text area a Jahzir's card. They are used to keep track of how many times Jahzir has used his special power.

I'm glad someone else is out there playing Midnight, my son and I play it on a fairly regular basis. We have discovered rules interpretations that we missed by following these boards.

Thank you Rivan for the quick response!

I know what you mean. Whilst playing you really start to doubt yourself. Loads of times I browsed through the rules but couldnt answer the questions asked by my friends. So any stuff you found out, I would love to hear. Overall the game seems a nice hybrid of Descent and Runebound. Thats why I got it, to see if my friends would enjoy one evil player versus heroes, before buying Descent.

Mauzor, glad I could help.

As to the rule interpretation/errors, I have a couple of them. First of all, I missed the fact that the +2 counters were all considered to be the same type in order to purchase them. I (as Night King) was gleefully picking up +2 Mind, Body, and Spirit counters for the discounted rate of zero on the first turn. We played that way for a while until my son noticed it mentioned in the old forums.

The second item was in regards to movement dice. I believe we started playing it correctly, where the heroes just had to spend a movement die to enter a hex, but after many non-Midnight Runebound games, the heroes were back to rolling dice and using them to move into the appropriate terrain. That one I caught.

Thanks again!

So far we seem to feel the Midnight character has it too easy, esp if he gets Jahzir. The way to make it easier for the heroes, it lowers the threat roll for the Midnight Player, so thats not a viable option. We are going to try next without lowering it and making it easier with the good for the heroes. To shorten the game and even the odds we almost always use the normal Runebound variant where heroes have to spend 1 less experience counter on stat upgrades. At least the game times become manageable this way.

Maybe our heroes are still doing something wrong. I guess you really have to barter a lot to gain quick upgrades to your gear. The ones included in Midnight tend to have trouble with the green challenges. Some are pretty hefty compared to normal Runebound.

I also have a question...

In the Midnight expansion alternate rules for knock-outs are used. They are quite clear to us, except they don't mention what happens with your wound and exhaust counters. Do you discard all the tokens like in the basic game or do you keep them?

Because: if you keep everything (it is not mentioned in the new rules...), what happens when a patrol knocks you out? The patrol stays on the hex along with you... (because it is clearly mentioned that you do not move after a knock out...) The Night King will go first (before your next turn in which you would have been able to heal yourself...), can it really smash and kill you (I don't know how to call it...) or not?

From another point of view... it could take ages to heal... so another patrol could easily come and smash you before you were healed...

facenorth23

facenorth23 said:

Was there ever a reason given as to why Midnight was discontinued?

I got the base set, been thinking of getting some expansions, so this is helpful, thanks