Hi there,

Nice game, just had it, just tried it, very simple (even more than talisman, i'd say), will put it out when playing with casual gamers I think. Fresh and simple

Just some dumb questions after my first game, because couldn't find the time to find answers on my own, sorry, feel lame :

1) what's the point of ennemis with a 0 in their damage value ? if you attack, you're sure at least not to take any damage if you fail, and if you defend, you don't even have to roll the dice, right ? so yesterday, we skept rolling for every 0 we saw on the ennemy card while defending.

2) how comes we have 5 dice ? it seems you can cross a long part of the map with that. And a question : when you have AT LEAST one wound or one exhaustion, you only throw four dice right ? so at some stage, a player had something like 3 exhaustion, 4 wounds... he still throws four dice ? seems very able to walk and cross the land for such a hurt character, in my opinion !!!

3) couldn't find it in the rules but a player mentionned somethinf clever to me about the doom tokens : when you put one on the next town heraldry, it does prevent your from seeing that heraldry anymore. So, logically, the town is like "destroyed", meaning you can't visit it anymore. Is that right or was it pure invention from us ? when he said that, I think that sounded logical, and, well, kind of fitted in the mechanics, but could not find it in the rules...

4) I personnaly met an encounter, got a curse, kept the card with me, got rid of it later in some town... and wondered if I had to put it back in the box, or along the doom track... ?

5) the 0 on the ten sided dice means ten in that game too, right, like usual ?

Think that's all so far. Will let you know later if I remember Cheers !

Hem said:

You are correct that there's no point in rolling if you're defending in a phase where the monster does 0 damage. If you're facing a green challenge that has two 0's you can attack in the one phase it does damage and be assured it won't hurt you in the other two (though remember that if you fail an attack roll you also take damage, so you aren't completely out of the woods.) All this means is that green challenges are easy. You'll find that yellows usually only have one 0 phase and blue and red have greater than 0 in all three phases.

Hem said:

Mobility isn't a huge issue in the game, but sometimes you want to reach a specific hex and you just don't get the terrain icons you need. Also remember you can roll fewer than 5 (or 4) dice and heal exhaustion equal to the number of dice you gave up, which does slow you down significantly but also lets you heal.

Hem said:

I've never played with the doom track myself, but I don't recall anything in those rules about the cities being destroyed. Just put the tokens somewhere else close to each city's card slot if you find it distracting to put them on the icon.

Hem said:

I'm not sure about this one but I'm given to understand the doom track can fill up quite quickly without help from cards like this. I would lean towards just putting it back in the box.

Hem said:

Indeed.

Thanks a lot, Steve

Dear all,

A few more shameful noob questions, if I may. Attention: very noobish questions.

First of all, I am not sure I understand how many dices do you have to roll when making a Skill Test or a Ranged / Melee / Magic Attack. Do I roll one single die and add bonuses or do I roll two dices?

Secondly, how important are the movement dice in the mechanic of the game? I mean, they do seem pretty useless to me. No matter what combination of terrains you will get by rolling the dice, you are bound to get the right combination or at least one who favors you. I don't quite see why is this so important to the game.

Thanks to all.

Orientalist said:

You roll two dice. Skill tests always require a 10+ result and it will be really difficult to pass the checks if you roll a single die.

Orientalist said:

If you get stuck in some point of the map and can't move, or can't reach a useful destination (an adventure jewel or a Town) your turn is wasted. Wasting turns in Runebound is quite bad, as you need to keep the pace with other players as much as you can.

You'll notice that some symbols are easier to obtain than the others and that impervious terrains are difficult to pass. It's a nice mechanic that makes the movement phase very interesting; usually adventure games give less or no importance to the movement and that's a pity sometimes.

Yup, The_Warlock is right.
The movement dice are a great mechanic. Yes, usually you'll get to where you want. But sometimes you'll have to pick a different course just to ensure you reach an encouter (or something useful). I've often gone to town because I could not reach an encouter. And sometimes I've been stuck behind mountains unable to pass. It's really very cool. It add a great element to the game while at the same time not making it too frustrating.
And when you're Hero (and allies) are not perfectly healthy/fresh) you're forced to use only 4 dice... and this really makes a difference. Which in turn really make you consider when it's worth while to spend fatigue and makes you want to heal and rest to be at your best. It just works so well.

The_Warlock said:

Orientalist said:

Most of the time you will get what you need, and that's a good thing because trying to get to a particular hex and constantly failing to roll what you need to make progress would make the game significantly less fun. Having said that, you will notice that certain types of terrain are harder to get than others. Roads and Fields are all over the place on the dice, and they are also easier to move through. Swamps and Mountains are much more difficult to cross, and their symbols are considerably rarer. Basically, it works out to if you're trying to get somewhere hard to reach, you'll have trouble rolling the symbols you need, if you're trying to get somewhere easy, you won't. It's a rather unique way of addressing the issue, but it works quite well without hindering the game to the point of frustration.