We, my playgroup and I, have just finished a LoR campaign, including LotW, TF, and SR. Compared with our first campaign, with only basic game, the Shop deck felt sure loaded, but it felt right.

Now we're about to start a SoN campaign, and we're adding MoR stuff aswell. Do you think the shop will get too fat if ALL shop cards are added? How this could affect the balance (moreso on Act II, where they won't be able to see the entire deck, unlike Act I)?

I would not worry about it. Yes, the pile gets increasingly fat, but as far as I'm concerned, this is a good thing. The players should not be able to depend on the items, and it's intentionally an element of randomness; the balancing factor is, ultimately, that they are free to spend their gold on whatever they want out of the cards drawn, and it is unlikely that they'll somehow end up with getting "only crap cards" , unless the group is already lopsided or unbalanced.

If anything, the bigger the pile and the more diverse it is, the more "balanced" it should be on average.

Theoretically it shouldn't be a problem, because the percentage of the different items (melee, ranged, rune, armor, utility) remains the same as long as you add all the shop cards of each expansion.

In practice you are drawing a smaller percentage of the shop deck cards, so imo the possibility of drawing lopsided items (for instance drawing no runes throughout act II) is slightly higher. But if you fear for that, you can give the heroes the ability to redraw the shop-offering once per act.

Yeah, I never really have a trash pile for ACT I shop cards. During the shopping Phase, the whole deck gets shuffled and I randomly pick one from the deck until I fulfill the shop requirements. You can get anything and there's usually one or two useful items. The fatness of the deck keeps it interesting because you get to see many more different items.

The only thing is that some items (iron boots or the marsh cloak) are extremely useful when fighting for example brood walkers. In the MoB campaign (+ the new CtR which is not yet out) it would be great for the heroes to have a higher likelihood to draw these items. I guess it depends on your playgroup, but be careful when trimming the deck. This could be very much in favor of the heroes if you remove only crap items.

I think you shouldn't pay too much attention to how much the items shop deck grows when throwing more expansion content into it.

I think trying to regulate its size by playing by custom selection rules is only going to be complex, hard to agree upon, bad, even worse than that, and possibly affect balance, which is the worst that can happen

Yep, I´m not recommending it, lol.

Then sure, the heroes may get some Boots of Iron, and the campaign they´re playing does not feature hazard spaces. That's life. Go into any store and you´ll realize they sell plenty of stuff you don't want. Nothing special about it really. Then of course, if the heroes are already having troubles in that campaign then the overlord may be a kind fellow and allow them to replace the boots with another card randomly drawn from the deck. With that being said, if they got hold of the boots through Treasure Chest, I wouldn't have them draw again as the card effectively works as a bag of gold they can sell during the next campaign phase.

Best things to aim for:

-Mana Weave. Pick it up for your mage if you see it. No questions asked.

-Belt of Alchemy is really good for dealing with conditions.

- Matching armor, weapons and equipment. Anything that best suits the needs of your heroes at the time. Bows and Brown armor usually for scouts, Melee weapons and Grey/Black armor for either the Warrior or Healer. Healers are great utility classes, though I usually use em for melee. (Unless they are slow like Serena, then I use ranged on them) Of course, Runes or Staffs for the Mage. Knowing if you want your melee fighters to use one-hand or two hand weapons, in which case you keep an eye out for Shields.

Extras that I like using:

- Incendiary arrows for your scout if he's using a Bow and the OL likes using small Monsters. Phoenix Pendant on the Healer cuz like... lets protect our source of life. Anything else that increases MPs.

Also... I've never really had a problem with the Shop deck's balance even with all the items added to it. Usually you will get something that a hero can use at any given time and usually anything you get is beneficial. Really... don't worry about it. (Also if you see a Bone Blade... get that thing!)

Thanks for your answers. I'll adress them to my fellow players.

Do what I do in Talisman when I get to many expansions. Only use the base and add just the newest one. That way youll get to use the new stuff and some of the old stuff. Next time you play add them all together.