I've been playing a variant of RTL Descent solo for a few weeks now and it seems to work well with out much preparation or work. It's not as challenging or as engaging as a regular game with friends but hey... lets face it... solo versions of group games never are. What it does provide is a quick fix before my next official game. So here are a few ideas I have used. Mind you these use RTL components ad rules minus feats.
Create your heroes (4) and purchase equipment via RTL rules.
Randomly pull an avatar and use their special skill card (ie... sorcerer, skeles get range and sniper). This gives the heroes a nemesis but more basically just adds difficulty and provides a map for monster leveling. I'll explain later...
Use over head map and start heroes in Tamalir. Move to a location but roll for encounter before getting there. If encounter is rolled play encounter... I'll explain combat below. If no encounter proceed to dungeon.
Pull 3 dungeon cards and have those as my 3 dungeon levels and set 1 up immediately saving the other two for later (You can pull more or less for a longer or shorter experience).
Set up the dungeon as guided by RTL dungeon handbook. The boss and all other encounters are as normal. Randomly roll for minions and position minions around leader. If two leaders split minions up equally.
Separate all overlord and traechery cards that SPAWN. Put overlord spawn cards in a pile in an accessible location and then radomly choose 3 treachery spawn cards and add those to the deck. Also separate and pull out all overlord and treachery POWER cards. Randomly pull 3 POWER cards from the treachery deck and put them in with the overlord POWER cards.
Enter dungeon with heroes...
Pull one POWER card off the deck of overlord POWER cards and put into play. If it is irrelevent pull another card... ie, gain threat etc... Threat is not used in these rules.
DUNGEON:
Heroes start at glyph.
Monsters start around boss. Monsters do not move until they can SEE heroes.
Basically I use LOS alot for spawns and combat initiation. When heroes move into a new TILE (tile is defined as the physical map piece of the dungeon) they roll a die to see if monster(s) are spawned. If the character is alone (that is, there is no other hero within 3 spaces) when moving into a new tile roll a die. On power enhancement pull a spawn card off the top of the deck of overlord spawn cards. Position monsters just outside of LOS of hero (around a corner, behind rock, etc...) and interrupt hero movement to finish all newly spawned monsters moves and attacks. If hero is not alone, spawn happens on a surge. (This is to discourage running a single character through a dark dungeon to get treasure, money, or glyphs). Once that tile has been "discovered", you needn't roll for spawn on it any more... unless the hero is abandoned... and I will cover that later.
COMBAT: Range and caster monsters move within 3 spaces of hero targets once in LOS to make attacks and will use remaining speed to move away from heroes. Melee monster move into melee range to attack heroes and do not retreat with unspent speed. Monsters choose nearest hero to attack ALWAYS. If two targets are equidistant then the monster attacks the one with less armor, unless the hero is critically wounded. A critically wounded hero, that is one with only 25% or less health will be the target of all monster atttacks IF POSSIBLE otherwise follow normal monster attack rules.
Hero death results in LOSING conquest him/herself and not the overlord gaining it. Also, heroes individually (not the whole group) gain 1 exp for kill red monsters.
Oh yeah, and an abandoned hero is one that is not within 8 spaces of another hero and must again roll for monster spawns on every tile encountered. Monsters spawn on power enhancements.
Also, every second turn that the heros move and the "overlord" has no action add another treachery spawn card to the top of the spawn deck. If you go 5 turns with no overlord action put another power card into play. Rinse and repeat.
Leveling, skills, and experience:
Heroes must travel as normal to cities or locations to gain skills or attributes and pay as normal according to RTL rules. Campaign goes to Silver at 100 hero exp points and avatar monster type gets upgraded to Silver. All others remain at copper. At 200, campaign goes to gold and all monster move up one level, ie... if you chose sorcerer avatar, the eldritch monsters would have been at silver level and all others would have been at copper. When Gold level is reached move all monster levels up one level. Eldritch would be gold, beast at silver, and humanoids at silver. Do the same at 400 points at Diamond. Once everylocation has been discovered the heroes encounter and fight a full strength avatar... that is one with all cards possibly attributed to that avatar in play.
Encounters play as normal with Combat rules above. You may have to houserule some of the reinforcement options for bosses. Normally I figure threat income per turn and reinforce as often as possible. For boss powers, accrue threat as normal and use as often as possible... this is the only place I use threat.
Please feel free to use rumors...
I think thats about it. I'm sure I left something out but hey let me know if you have questions.
Create your heroes (4) and purchase equipment via RTL rules.
Randomly pull an avatar and use their special skill card (ie... sorcerer, skeles get range and sniper). This gives the heroes a nemesis but more basically just adds difficulty and provides a map for monster leveling. I'll explain later...
Use over head map and start heroes in Tamalir. Move to a location but roll for encounter before getting there. If encounter is rolled play encounter... I'll explain combat below. If no encounter proceed to dungeon.
Pull 3 dungeon cards and have those as my 3 dungeon levels and set 1 up immediately saving the other two for later (You can pull more or less for a longer or shorter experience).
Set up the dungeon as guided by RTL dungeon handbook. The boss and all other encounters are as normal. Randomly roll for minions and position minions around leader. If two leaders split minions up equally.
Separate all overlord and traechery cards that SPAWN. Put overlord spawn cards in a pile in an accessible location and then radomly choose 3 treachery spawn cards and add those to the deck. Also separate and pull out all overlord and treachery POWER cards. Randomly pull 3 POWER cards from the treachery deck and put them in with the overlord POWER cards.
Enter dungeon with heroes...
Pull one POWER card off the deck of overlord POWER cards and put into play. If it is irrelevent pull another card... ie, gain threat etc... Threat is not used in these rules.
DUNGEON:
Heroes start at glyph.
Monsters start around boss. Monsters do not move until they can SEE heroes.
Basically I use LOS alot for spawns and combat initiation. When heroes move into a new TILE (tile is defined as the physical map piece of the dungeon) they roll a die to see if monster(s) are spawned. If the character is alone (that is, there is no other hero within 3 spaces) when moving into a new tile roll a die. On power enhancement pull a spawn card off the top of the deck of overlord spawn cards. Position monsters just outside of LOS of hero (around a corner, behind rock, etc...) and interrupt hero movement to finish all newly spawned monsters moves and attacks. If hero is not alone, spawn happens on a surge. (This is to discourage running a single character through a dark dungeon to get treasure, money, or glyphs). Once that tile has been "discovered", you needn't roll for spawn on it any more... unless the hero is abandoned... and I will cover that later.
COMBAT: Range and caster monsters move within 3 spaces of hero targets once in LOS to make attacks and will use remaining speed to move away from heroes. Melee monster move into melee range to attack heroes and do not retreat with unspent speed. Monsters choose nearest hero to attack ALWAYS. If two targets are equidistant then the monster attacks the one with less armor, unless the hero is critically wounded. A critically wounded hero, that is one with only 25% or less health will be the target of all monster atttacks IF POSSIBLE otherwise follow normal monster attack rules.
Hero death results in LOSING conquest him/herself and not the overlord gaining it. Also, heroes individually (not the whole group) gain 1 exp for kill red monsters.
Oh yeah, and an abandoned hero is one that is not within 8 spaces of another hero and must again roll for monster spawns on every tile encountered. Monsters spawn on power enhancements.
Also, every second turn that the heros move and the "overlord" has no action add another treachery spawn card to the top of the spawn deck. If you go 5 turns with no overlord action put another power card into play. Rinse and repeat.
Leveling, skills, and experience:
Heroes must travel as normal to cities or locations to gain skills or attributes and pay as normal according to RTL rules. Campaign goes to Silver at 100 hero exp points and avatar monster type gets upgraded to Silver. All others remain at copper. At 200, campaign goes to gold and all monster move up one level, ie... if you chose sorcerer avatar, the eldritch monsters would have been at silver level and all others would have been at copper. When Gold level is reached move all monster levels up one level. Eldritch would be gold, beast at silver, and humanoids at silver. Do the same at 400 points at Diamond. Once everylocation has been discovered the heroes encounter and fight a full strength avatar... that is one with all cards possibly attributed to that avatar in play.
Encounters play as normal with Combat rules above. You may have to houserule some of the reinforcement options for bosses. Normally I figure threat income per turn and reinforce as often as possible. For boss powers, accrue threat as normal and use as often as possible... this is the only place I use threat.
Please feel free to use rumors...
I think thats about it. I'm sure I left something out but hey let me know if you have questions.