In the description of the CotR, it say, it can be played as a side quest. Do people have opinions where it best fits with story of the core set campaign? I don't know the story of it yet so was wondering if there was a good narrative pause in which it makes sense that the investigators go to New Orleans (and ideally have enough XP to survive the Quest)

NOTE: I only played The Gathering for now so it would be great if you could MARK SPOILERS for the rest of the campaign.

Thanks!

The campaign is called "night of the zealot" as such, the three scenarios take place in a single night. So you'd either have to do it first or last, and I'd suggest first.

Spoiler free, actually. After the second scenario, before the third. It fits decently well, and mechanically is a good spot, too...

The campaign is called "night of the zealot" as such, the three scenarios take place in a single night. So you'd either have to do it first or last, and I'd suggest first.

Depending on how you play it, the campaign is not clear it is a single night. So it requires very little imagination to make it a side quest elsewhere. With that said, if you do want to think of it as a single night, DEFINITELY play it first. You'll be missing out on very helpful XP, but it would make MUCH better story sense.

It actually costs an XP to play as a sidequest, though I suppose you could just negate one victory point if you want to play it first.

That said, I think the best fit is immediately after The Gathering, framed as a flashback. If the level discrepancy bothers you that much, you can pretend that the Gathering caught you off-guard, so you weren't at your best.

Awesome! Thanks for the input - So, do you think it is possible to get through The Rougarou alive without XP? (I have two core sets, so I can do some deck building - I will play with two investigators)

In turn, what about playing The night of the Zealot with a heads start in XPs. I have no experience with upgraded decks - my gut feeling is that a few XPs won't break the campaign played in standard (but then I don't know how much XP you get in the Curse). I also heard the third scenario is pretty tough so maybe some extra XP might be nice. I just don't want to make it too easy .

It actually costs an XP to play as a sidequest, though I suppose you could just negate one victory point if you want to play it first.

That said, I think the best fit is immediately after The Gathering, framed as a flashback. If the level discrepancy bothers you that much, you can pretend that the Gathering caught you off-guard, so you weren't at your best.

Oh - yes, I meant to mention that as well and then forgot it... I guess, the flashback could work... Also, since I will be playing with a new player (and I myself have only played it once before), having a (presumably) simpler quest to start with would be good.

In turn, what about playing The night of the Zealot with a heads start in XPs. I have no experience with upgraded decks - my gut feeling is that a few XPs won't break the campaign played in standard (but then I don't know how much XP you get in the Curse). I also heard the third scenario is pretty tough so maybe some extra XP might be nice. I just don't want to make it too easy .

You won't make it too easy. The latter two Core scenarios are far from easy to begin with, and the rewards from Rougarou are balanced out with a new Weakness that you've got a very good chance of getting. Suffice it to say, everything you earn from that scenario feels earned. And I don't want to spoil those rewards, but let's just say they're quite interesting...

Awesome! I am looking forward to it!!

As for the problem of having to spend experience to make a side-quest, a possible house rule might be to allow to have "negative" experience to start with, or otherwise said, just to reduce the number of earned experiences in the Rougarou by one...