Hi everyone,

I've looked around in the forum but I couldn't find an answer to this question:

Are there any home rules already playtested that allows to play a game of D2E like a game of the first edition?

I know that they are different games and I like the campaign mode of the second edition, but my friends and I have played and loved the first edition and they prefer something like a single big adventure, in which they can power up and gear up to face enemies stronger and stronger until they face the final boss.

The closest thing I found is probably the game night kit Forgotten Souls, since it allows heroes to gain loot by killing monsters and are rewarded experience after completing certain rooms. The thing is that it's made for co-op only while I'd like to keep the OL therefore I need a way to boost OL power with that of heroes.

So, in short, these are the things I'm looking for:

1. A big encounter
2. Loot and Exp mid game (for the overlord too)
3. If possible, a way to add monsters like in the first edition
4. All in all, the chance to play a game like those of the first edition (doesn't matter if takes more time to finish a game).

The reason I'm asking this is because I would love to have the chance to play this game as a single quest too and not only as a part of a big campaign. I'm sure that lots of first edition lovers would like to have this possibility for those nights when their gaming group is different from the usual or someone's missing.

If nobody has ever proposed something like this, I could just use something like the loot track from the Forgotten Souls kit, and come up with something similar for exp, but I would still need some help with setting up the encounter (at least some hints on the best way to make a big quest with lots of monsters while keeping it balanced with the power/type of monsters increasing as the heroes find loot and gain exp) since I've only played quests from the quest guide.

And before people start ranting about the fact that "if I like D1E so much I should just play that instead", I do like the campaign mechanics in D2E, I just want to be able to choose if a game night is for campaign or for some old fashioned "kill monsters, get weapons, kill bigger monsters" first edition style.

Oh and I own the base game only at the moment and I'd like to play with that for a bit before buying expansions.

Thanks to all in advance.

Greetings,

Sbeif

If nobody has ever proposed something like this, I could just use something like the loot track from the Forgotten Souls kit, and come up with something similar for exp, but I would still need some help with setting up the encounter (at least some hints on the best way to make a big quest with lots of monsters while keeping it balanced with the power/type of monsters increasing as the heroes find loot and gain exp) since I've only played quests from the quest guide.

It probably wouldn't be too hard to re-implement the co-op mechanic for Vs play, giving xp to both sides per turn and letting them spend it before acting. Might result in a lot of analysis paralysis if players take too long deciding what to spend XP on, though. I'm not aware of anyone who's done it already.

As for making your own quests, there is no "best way." Bottom line, the only way to make sure a quest is balanced is to playtest the crap out of it. The possibilities are just too plentiful to predict in advance. With a little spit and polish, you might be able to come up with something that works on the existing quests, though.

I also wrote a quick and dirty conversion of 1E quests to 2E mechanics, once upon a time. Should be up on BGG if you search the D2E files section. That would give you quests designed for this "escalating power" approach, using 2E mechanics, that would probably fit much more nicely into the homebrew rules you come up with than 2E's actual quests.

And before people start ranting about the fact that "if I like D1E so much I should just play that instead", I do like the campaign mechanics in D2E, I just want to be able to choose if a game night is for campaign or for some old fashioned "kill monsters, get weapons, kill bigger monsters" first edition style.

Well, to be fair, you could simply choose to play 1E when you want 1E's play style, and choose 2E when you want 2E's play style. I get that you're not interested in doing that, and I do understand the desire the tinker with the establish system(s), but you can't really blame other people for daring to suggest the obvious solution.

If nobody has ever proposed something like this, I could just use something like the loot track from the Forgotten Souls kit, and come up with something similar for exp, but I would still need some help with setting up the encounter (at least some hints on the best way to make a big quest with lots of monsters while keeping it balanced with the power/type of monsters increasing as the heroes find loot and gain exp) since I've only played quests from the quest guide.

It probably wouldn't be too hard to re-implement the co-op mechanic for Vs play, giving xp to both sides per turn and letting them spend it before acting. Might result in a lot of analysis paralysis if players take too long deciding what to spend XP on, though. I'm not aware of anyone who's done it already.

As for making your own quests, there is no "best way." Bottom line, the only way to make sure a quest is balanced is to playtest the crap out of it. The possibilities are just too plentiful to predict in advance. With a little spit and polish, you might be able to come up with something that works on the existing quests, though.

I also wrote a quick and dirty conversion of 1E quests to 2E mechanics, once upon a time. Should be up on BGG if you search the D2E files section. That would give you quests designed for this "escalating power" approach, using 2E mechanics, that would probably fit much more nicely into the homebrew rules you come up with than 2E's actual quests.

And before people start ranting about the fact that "if I like D1E so much I should just play that instead", I do like the campaign mechanics in D2E, I just want to be able to choose if a game night is for campaign or for some old fashioned "kill monsters, get weapons, kill bigger monsters" first edition style.

Well, to be fair, you could simply choose to play 1E when you want 1E's play style, and choose 2E when you want 2E's play style. I get that you're not interested in doing that, and I do understand the desire the tinker with the establish system(s), but you can't really blame other people for daring to suggest the obvious solution.

Yeah, you are right, I probably should have mentioned before that I don't own a copy of 1E, and that it's hard to find one where I live without spending like more than 100$ so I don't actually feel like buying it.

Anyway thank you very much for your response, I think I found the files you are talking about if your nick on bgg is stewi. It's one hell of a job but since it requires a copy of the first edition it's not exactly what I was looking for.

Still, the reinforcement rules seem quite nice so I think I could use those together with the loot track and things might work somehow. I'm not sure about the XP per turn though, as I think it would be nice to give that as a reward for some kind of actions..Maybe I could incorporate killing monsters for the loot with some objectives 2ED style for XP..do you think that could work?

Oh, one quick question: in your rules for reinforcement you only talk about the two open groups, does it means that the OL won't be able to reinforce the default map groups?

Thank you again for your help.

Yeah, you are right, I probably should have mentioned before that I don't own a copy of 1E, and that it's hard to find one where I live without spending like more than 100$ so I don't actually feel like buying it.

Oh, I see. The way you were talking about it, it certainly did sound like you had (access to) a copy of 1E in the past, so I figured you still did. Not having 1E would certainly throw a wrench in those plans. =)

Anyway thank you very much for your response, I think I found the files you are talking about if your nick on bgg is stewi.

That's-a me.

Oh, one quick question: in your rules for reinforcement you only talk about the two open groups, does it means that the OL won't be able to reinforce the default map groups?

Correct. If you've played 1E the past you'll know this already, but the 1E maps had a fair number of monsters printed on them to begin with. And a fairly large variety of monsters to boot.

The reason I disallowed reinforcements of printed monsters is because allowing such would basically mean the OL has unlimited access to most (core + current expansion) monsters for every quest, which largely negates 2E's mechanic of choosing specific monster groups per quest. It could also result in the heroes being sorely outnumbered in certain quests.