Hey all,

So I'm currently working on a small, but hopefully fun, module for RtL (and maybe SoB depending on the interactions) involving a new set of outdoor encounters called Ruins. Below is a minor, and brief, explanation and is not exhaustive so I may be leaving some things out intentionally/unintentionally.

Name : The Ruins of Terrinoth

The What?: 9 alternate outdoor encounters that the Heroes can decide to go on. They are intended to be the outdoor encounter equivalent of Rumors would be the best way to put it I guess.

The How? : As in, how do they work. When traveling down a trail in Terrinoth that requires you to roll more than one dice for an encounter, you can have a chance at discovering a Ruins. You roll the dice as normal for the trail, but if the dice you roll come up the same (so for example on a red trail that has you roll 2 dice, both would have to roll a blank) then you have found the Ruin. The dice facing works backwards than the norm, except for yellow trails. So Green you need Enhancement, Yellow remains surges, and Red would be blanks.

If your roll comes up with all dice the same, then you can choose to pull one of three Ruins cards for that color. Once you have done the Enounter, the card is removed from the game.

The Levels: I'm trying to make the levels as widely varied as possible. They will definitely be bigger than normal encounters, might have puzzles for the heroes to solve or some out of the norm ideas attached to them. One thing for certain is that to use the Ruins module, you will need to have a copy of each expansion, especially ToI since the tiles that connect outdoor to indoor tiles will be key. I've already got one Ruins encounter designed that uses something from every expansion. A level for Green might be as easy as figuring out how to cross over a bridge, with the Heroes trying to solve how to get across while the OL uses Threat to cause changes on the map to block them. On the other hand a level for Red might involve the heroes having to split up to go one on one against a Named monster.

What I'm looking for: I've got ideas for level, but I wanted to put it out there and see what people would think would make good encounters based on this idea. Either post it here or add me as a friend and send me a message.

Once I have levels made, I will also be asking for play testers as well. I definitely want to test these to make them as enjoyable as possible. You won't need to be actively running a Descent RtL campaign to test them, you can use the rules for starting at a higher campaign level found in the RtL rulebook (with some slight modifications, since those rules are ridiculous for the OL).

Oooh, I like this idea very much. Although I think I'd probably stick with the die facings to encounter this that are in RtL, meaning you need double blanks for green, double surges for yellow, and double power enhancements for red, as it's hard enough to even roll 2 dice for red, there being only 4 trails with 2 red dice rolled (i though that guide and/or lawlessness could change this), and then with green trails sometimes having 3 or 4 dice, if you need double power enhancements, you'd be hitting hitting a ruins location probably half of the time traveling between tamalir and greyhaven. My 2 cents on that.

But for ideas on levels, perhaps the heroes will have their path blocked by some sort of (either magical or mundane) barrier, and have to enter a nearby building to deactivate it. Or perhaps have them find the entrance to some hidden dungeon, and after having their above ground encounter, have the option to enter and explore a dungeon level beneath (either a random one from those that exist or perhaps a custom one), with perhaps some special reward for doing it, extra conquest or maybe extra loot. Another thought is the hero's fall into the extra large pit trap presented in either AoD or WoD, landing them underground, where they have to fight their way back out to the surface.

You might also consider using some of these ruin levels or other similar levels as a possibility for lieutenant encounters, perhaps in particular if it's at a sieged city or in the Overlord's keep vicinity.

You'd also have to consider if any of the ruins encounters would also include a glyph or not, as encounters currently never have one, and if you're dead then you're out of the fight, but keeping glyphs out of the picture would somewhat limit how much you could put in to the encounter, as if there's too much to fight the heroes will most surely wipe and be sent back to Tamalir. Or perhaps instead of having a glyph, have some convenient health potions lying around on tougher levels to give them a chance.

Hammerdal said:

I have considered this, so I'll have to run some %'s for the rolls to see how they come out. Once thing I forgot to mention is that the rewards will go a bit beyond the normal CT/money for encounters, especially at Red, so I wanted to make them a harder dice roll to get.

Hammerdal said:

There are actually two levels made already that have similar ideas to this.

Hammerdal said:

Possibly. The thematic intent was they be ruined cities/villages/locations they Heroes find but I'll keep it in mind.

Hammerdal said:

Some will have glyphs depending on the size of the level while others will not. That will all come out in testing.

Thanks!

This is a very cool idea. One concern I have is that the benefits for doing ruins treat both sides equally... obviously it's easy to reward the heroes, but the OL needs adequate XP opportunities as well.

Veinman said:

The only thing I can respond with here is that the Ruins will be harder than normal encounters for the heroes, so there should be the chance for the OL to gain CT through hero death. A possibility would be to award the CT that the heroes would normally get for defeating the Ruins to the OL if he gets a TPK or a Flee.

If the rewards for completing a ruin is more than usual, then one could leave out glyphs to make it harder to complete, but always leaving a exit tile for the (remaining) heroes to run away without a TPK. Though the reward should be something substantial. The overlords job would be to make the heroes run away.

avianfoo said:

Yea, I would think that at least in most cases, you wouldn't have a glyph, and it would be much like a normal encounter, but with a cooler map and objectives, but I could see special larger ones having a glyph. However, what you might do, is while the heroes get a glyph, they don't get any other escape route, so if they want to flee, it'll be back to tamalir, but they have the possibility of getting out and staying where they were, but at what conquest cost?

I just thought of another idea, although it would be harder to implement. What if all 9 areas had some sort of connecting thread, so that the heroes would get some sort of escalating reward if they completed 3, 6, or 9 of them?

Conversely, much like how purchasing skills becomes increasingly expensive, obtaining said rewards becomes more difficult based on the number of ruins completed?

Veinman said:

That actually is not outside the realm of possibility. It would be quite easy to work things so that part of the reward would be clues to the location of the 9th and final spot. It could almost be a sub plot to the game. If I upped it to either 10 or 12 locations, you could actually have 2 to 3 different goals happening. SInce they will be one shots, if the OL blocks you at one there is still another route. Of course, this might push it into the realm of its own plot but I'll think about it.

This is a great idea Big Remy; I am very interested in this topic. I am devising a RTL 2.0 right now that makes some fairly substantial changes to the game mechanics and I think this idea would be an excellent addition to it. I was trying to come up with ideas like the legendary dungeons to include similar items like the golden crown and the artifacts from the base game (although the later are too potent to use directly). I'm a devils advocate at heart so here are a few thoughts that have come to mind:

1> The guide reducing/increasing the number of dice to 2 will increase the odds of finding a ruins (this can work since it adds value to the guide which is fairly unpopular).
2> The glyphs could show up in the lower levels if the ruins have lower floors (first floor is treated as an encounter and the remaining floor(s) are dungeons (this may be a little tricky and introduce too much confusion, I like it being a single large floor that is really hard though).
3> Glyphs in these ruin encounters could be/include sundered (he he lets use those expansions). My opinion is to not use glyphs and instead include more healing potions and/or special locations like a fountain of healing. Alternatively these ruins can use the dungeon rules completely and just use the outside tiles for its layout. Having the heroes start on a glyph etc...
4> Restore prolonged actions for the puzzles.
5> All monsters could gain special advantages (Lost Beastman tribe, fierce warriors +1 damage and +1 Armor, Master Beastmen are Shamans and have a magic attack instead of melee).
6> Does the Overlord get a hand of cards to make it more interesting (The Overlord draws 4 random cards from the Overlord deck in addition to his treachery)?
7> I agree with the way you have the rolls since green areas are well travelled and are less likely a ruins will be found.
8> I would be interested in what ideas you have for greater rewards too.

Darkspell said:

Finally getting around to answering:

1) Yes, the Guide will do exactly that. It will be interesting to see if the Lawlessness upgrade for the OL becomes more useful, as having an extra die will chance the odds for getting a Ruins encounter.

2) Yes, they will be placed so that the OL will have a chance to get a TPK prior to the heroes reaching the glyph in most levels.

3) I'm working on system for the glyphs that will allow the heroes to use them one time each in a Ruins encounter. I'll post more on that later.

4) I'm trying to included Prolonged action in most of the levels.

5) There will be some extra abilities granted on some of them, but I'm trying to stick with the monsters as is as much as possible to avoid confusion.

6) The OL will be able to use Treachery to buy cards to create a minideck, and starts with three cards in his hand. He may only buy normal cards, so if he has 2 Trap treachery he can buy 4 non-treachery trap cards. He does not get to reshuffle the minideck. The 3CT for going through the OL deck and the "shuffle twice and ejected" rules will not apply to Ruins encounters.

7) Yeah. So having to roll on Red trails will be hard since all dice will need to be blanks.

8) Some proposed rewards: treasure chest on each Ruins encounter, gold, extra CT and dice upgrades are some current ideas. And I'm trying to work out some good rewards for the OL as well.

I have one level available for playtesting, and another will be ready very soon so if anyone is interested let me know.

Big Remy said:

Another suggestion for the glyph-problem:

A) Instead of limiting the usage of glyphs, you could implement some kind of dark glyphs. I wouldn`t implement sundered glyphs (like proposed by darkspell) as this would turn out too bad for the heroes (and there wouldn't be much difference than using no glyphs at all) , but why not use summoning or power glyphs? In this case, the heroes CAN use glyphs but they won't be willing to do it too often. Moreover, power glyphs would be a way to imply random overlord cards.

B) You could use a new kind of dark glyph: Each time a hero uses this glyph, he gets a curse token. Not as bad as C), but maybe worse than A).

C) Every time a hero uses a (normal) glyph in a ruin-encounter, the overlord gets one conquest token (just like that treachery power card from "Well of Darkness")

Finally, another suggestion for a reward:

Lost wisdom: The heroes may have exactly one train-action in a city that has already been razed as if it would not have been raised.

(This could be a reward for a real tough ruin in which they will find runes written in a stone that tells them ancient wisdom that has gone lost after a town had been razed. Unfortunetely, they will have to travel to that town to find the second half of the fading runes in the ruins of that destroyed city, so they don't get the reward immediately, but have to take a train action there.)

Awesome, thanks Graf. I like the ideas, especially on the glyph modifications.