Ok, another question, this time about rumor quests

So, our overlord has put the rumor quest 'Spread Your Wings' into play after our second quest or so.

Now we have finished our 3 act I quests, so according to the rules..

If If one or more Act I Quest cards are still in play immediately before playing the Interlude, the must choose one of them to attempt (before proceeding to the Interlude). As far as I understand the rules the winning party of a quest gets to choose the next quest (with a few exceptions, which are determined by the campaign itself). So if the heroes win, they are allowed to choose the other rumor quest. In the case that the heroes lose the quest, the overlord is allowed to choose the interlude as the next quest and is therefore entitled to the reward of the rumor quest not played.

Is there a rule prohibiting to play a consecutive rumor quests?

Well, the complete paragraph states:

So basically, if there are lets say 3 rumor quests in play when you finish all three act I quests, you play one of them and the other ones are discarded and you start the interlude.

My question is more about the overlords ability to play an additional rumor card after the last act I quest, when another rumor is in play.

If, in the above example, Spread Your Wings would not be in play, then the overlord would not be able to play Burning Harvest because the Interlude is an available quest (because the card says 'You can not play this card if the Interlude is an available quest'.)

But if Spread Your Wings is in play you could say he can play Burning Harvest, because the Interlude is not the available quest, but Spread Your Wings is.

It just comes down to the fact that, if the Overlord is allowed to play the Burning Harvest in this case, the heroes are only allowed to play one of them and so he is 100% guaranteed to receive the reward from the other rumor that the heroes cannot play. (For burning harvest: If this card is in play when transitioning to act 2, the overlord gains the 'Fire Gems' Overlord card). It seems to me that the " You can not play this card if the Interlude is an available quest'." is there to prevent just that..

You know, reading all this again, the whole system seems pretty conflicting:

If this card is in play when transitioning to Act II , the overlord gains the 'X' Overlord card. Then, place the "X" advanced quest in play.

You transition to Act II after the Interlude right?

So:

1. You play 3 Act I quests
2. You play one of possibly multiple rumor quests
3. You discard the unplayed rumor quests, without any effect
4. You play the interlude, then transition to act 2
5. You now receive the rewards from those unplayed rumo- wait, didn't we just discard them 2 steps ago??!

Seems to me like something is wrong there..

After completing this quest, all other available Act I Quest cards are discarded from the game without effect.

I agree that it looks contradicting. I interpret it as "no longer in the set of quests to choose from, but still in play".

If this card is in play when transitioning to Act II , the overlord gains the 'X' Overlord card. Then, place the "X" advanced quest in play.

That way the Overlord would reap the rewards of not played rumor quests.

'You can not play this card if the Interlude is an available quest'

After playing three Act I quests the Interlude becomes available as a quest. The Overlord is therefore not allowed to play this rumor card.

That block of text your reading from the rulebook has been rewritten with an errata (see FAQ v1.5)

Ah, I see! That changes everything! (And it means I also need to change my website! )

Too bad though that playing at least one quest isn't mandatory.

Ah, I see! That changes everything! (And it means I also need to change my website! )

Too bad though that playing at least one quest isn't mandatory.

Yea, it actually makes it rough for the heroes- if the OL is winning the Act 1 quests and dropping hero and monster Rumor cards, he can go right from the 3rd Act 1 quest to the interlude, and after the interlude will get all of the rewards from those quests (because those rumor cards grant the quest reward to the OL if the quest remains unchosen.)

Yeah I know, So we were lucky we won the last quest.

But the 'Can't play this card before the Interlude' rule is still in effect right?

So he cant win the third quest, play a rumor quest and then just choose the Interlude, correct?

There is no restriction against that in the rulebook. That is, the OL can play a rumor card during the campaign phase before the interlude, and then need not necessarily choose to play that rumor card. HOWEVER, the hero and monster pack rumor cards (and MoR cards) all explicitly state on the card that it cannot be played if the Interlude is an available quest. So:

The OL cannot put "Burning Harvest" in play during the campaign phase after the 3rd Act 1 quest. However, he CAN put "Food for Worms" or "Gold digger" in play. Fortunately for the heroes, those don't net him automatic rewards. In short, any rumor that gives an automatic reward if unplayed is restricted on the card from being put into play right before the interlude, presumably to prevent the abuse of the OL just giving himself a reward the heroes have no chance to prevent.

There can even be more than 3 rumor quests potentially. The H&M Quests all have a special rule, that allows the OL to draw another rumor card after winning one of their rumor quests. So you could potentially play all H&M rumor quests, and then play the 3 small box rumor quests.

Ok, more on this.

If the current quest is the Interlude (which is considered and Act I) quest, can the overlord play a rumor card like Famine and Strife that says 'play this card during the travel phase of any act I quest'?

And if he can, does the 'If you have a rumor quest of the current act, you must play it now' override the 'You cannot play this card when the Interlude is an available quest' of Burning Harvest for example?

Ok, more on this.

If the current quest is the Interlude (which is considered and Act I) quest, can the overlord play a rumor card like Famine and Strife that says 'play this card during the travel phase of any act I quest'?

And if he can, does the 'If you have a rumor quest of the current act, you must play it now' override the 'You cannot play this card when the Interlude is an available quest' of Burning Harvest for example?

You can play a rumor card which relates to the travel step of any act I quest on the way to the interlude destination. Must is a really strong word and should prioritize over any other clause. It formally forbids you from doing anything other than the related statement. Therefore Burning Harvest must be played if it is the only rumor quest on your hand.

Funkfried nailed the first part- I disagree with the second part of his answer, though. While I concur that 'must' is clear, it is preceded by 'if.' I would think that the text on burning harvest makes it an illegitimate target of that effect...

ALTHOUGH, literally while writing that response, it occurs to me that the exact qualifier is "...while the Interlude is an availible quest" and that may not be true while you are on your way to the interlude. Maybe it is playable? FFG might need to be asked this one.

In any case, the OL couldn't play more than one card this way, even if maybe it is valid to play one.

What do you guys think of the mechanics in The Baron Returns?

We played it a few days ago. Seemed pretty easy to win for the overlord.

For those that haven't played it:

The Encounter 2 map is basically a center room with a door on 3 of the sides. Around that is a circle of hallways/small rooms.

When Zachareth, who is in the center room, gets a surge on an attack, he can use it to give a hero a condition of his choice. The OL puts a token of that condition in his play area.

He can drop that token into a 'cauldron' which is also in the center room, and then a hero must suffer that condition at the start of any turn. When he has 4 tokens he wins.

The 3 doors of the center room can only be opened when 3 cauldrons (in a room at each door) are tipped over.

The thing is Zachareth can move through the doors (he doesn't open them, nor need an action)

Which makes it, in my opinion, a bit too easy for him to just stand behind a door, pop out when its his turn, fire off an attack to get the token, and run back inside where nothing can touch him.

And since the cauldrons are right at the door, the heroes are also always going to be close to a door, so easy targets. By the time we slaughtered all the outside groups, and tipped the cauldrons to open the door, he already had 3 easily gained condition tokens. The fact that by then the center room had already filled up with Kobolds made the 4th condition token unavoidable.

So all in all, it seemed a bit cheap that Zachareth can go through the doors and back so easily.

The kobolds thing brings me to a second question. I fired off a Poison Barbs trap in the center of the Kobold infestation, are condition tokens limited to the supply?

Third question: We were just wondering about this, but it was not relevant to our situation (no Ispher). It's about the heroes suffering the condition in the cauldron.

The rules stated that the heroes decide which hero(es) get the condition(s) in the cauldron. Lets say the cauldron contains a poison condition, and the heroes have Ispher on their team. (Who is, if I recall correctly, immune to poison)

Can the heroes assign the poison condition to Ispher and in that way cancel it out, since he is immune?

I am interested in the answer to your conditions token question - I suppose a substitute token could be used.

I like the idea of kobolds triggering a poison barb trap. I love the kobolds - I can imagine them hopping around with poison spikes while the heroes try to keep a straight face.

Which quest is the Baron Returns in? Presumably the quest campaign book?

Yes, it's Heirs of Blood one of 3 options available as second act I quest

I´m pretty sure you can inflict a condition to a figure even in the very rare occasion when the tokens have run out from the supply. The tokens are only indicators of which figures have received the condition, their actual number is not a restriction to the condition mechanism itself. By the way I don't even use the tokens, but I admit that we have never been in a situation like yours even remotely, I get that you need the tokens if you have a large number of figures being affected, otherwise I just put the condition card on the hero/monster sheet/card for best visibility (at least we think).

This being said bear in mind Class tokens like Traps, Valors, or even Infector are stated as "limited by the supply", but that's probably because having access to more of these tokens could potentially make the class abilities linked to them overly powerful, especially since they carry to the next encounter.

Then if Ispher cannot be poisonned then he cannot receive the poison condition. It means heroes cannot assign him to become poisoned for the simple reason that he cannot receive the token due to his hero ability. This to me sounds like the easiest way to interprete his ability in that particular situation. Doing otherwise would be kind of against the spirit of the rules for the cauldron, which I think would be a shame.

Checking...

Last golden rule- not limited by the supply.

Checking.....

I like your "We have received your query, please be patient as the team investigates your query. Our support will come back to you as soon as possible..." approach

This being said bear in mind Class tokens like Traps, Valors, or even Infector are stated as "limited by the supply", but that's probably because having access to more of these tokens could potentially make the class abilities linked to them overly powerful, especially since they carry to the next encounter.

Just to be clear, the Stalker class has a card thats called 'Poison Barbs', this is what I used.

The card reads:

Exhaust this card during your turn to choose a trap token on the map.

Roll the blue attack die for each monster within 3 spaces of the chosen trap token.

Each time you do not roll an X, the monster is Poisoned.

Then, discard the trap token.

There are 5 tokens for the Poison condition. There can be a lot more Kobolds (or other figures for that matter) than that within 3 spaces of a trap. And if you happen to not roll any X'es..

Anyway, we just ended up using Cursed tokens as stand ins, but I want to make sure that was correct.

That's correct as per this "golden rule", as long as you treat these extra Cursed tokens as Poison tokens for the game's intent.

These tokens are only indicators, you can use your own indicators if need be.

Well, normally, I would say you only get 6XP, so spend wisely. However, also in the nerekhall expansion was the shop card "arcahic scroll", which allows a small respec. You can work that into plans if you want to.

Also, the Rumour Quest named "Crown of Destiny" for Act 2, if won by the heroes, allows all of them to respec.

-Cursain

Quick question for Rise of Urthko, if Merrick is behind the closed door which he can 'move and attack through as if the door was not on the map' that means he is also adjacent to the pit space from behind the door, right? And can throw a villager in from behind the door?

Quick question for Rise of Urthko, if Merrick is behind the closed door which he can 'move and attack through as if the door was not on the map' that means he is also adjacent to the pit space from behind the door, right? And can throw a villager in from behind the door?

I would say "no." In my view, moving and attacking does not include counting for picking up and/or throwing villagers. If that were the intention, it seems it would be easy enough to say, "Merick may ignore the locked door for all purposes" or some similar statement, but instead only attacks and movement are mentioned (I'm choosing to believe that the writers of these quests chose words carefully.)