The recent thread by BigKahuna of an easy mode variant reminded me of a mode of play I had discussed in passing before but never really made into its own topic. It's meant to serve two purposes:
1) Prevent the frustration of continually losing to the same quest over and over.
2) Create a campaign style mode of play for the deluxes/cycles.
CYCLE CAMPAIGN RULES
1. Start with the first quest in a deluxe box.
2. Play through the 9 quests (3 deluxe + 6 cycle) in order, only moving on when you beat the previous quest.
3. Use the rules from the the Saga campaign rega rdin g your heroes:
- Make a list of all heroes you use on the campaign log.
- If you beat a quest with one or more heroes in your discard pile, they are added to the fallen heroes list and cannot be used going forward.
- If you bring in a new hero (whether because one of your heroes died or because you just want to use someone else), add the hero to the campaign log. Then you incur a permanent +1 threat penalty at setup going forward.
4. If you lose a quest (or scoop), the Valar will step in and assist you according to your need:
- If you lost on or before the 5th round, the group gains 2 Grace of the Valar Tokens
- If you lost after the 5th round, the group gains 1 Grace of the Valar Token
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Keep track of two numbers in the campaign log:
- How many Grace of the Valar Tokens the group currently has.
- How many Grace of the Valar Tokens the group earned over the course of the campaign.
- Redo the same quest.
5. When beginning a quest, immediately after taking or not taking a mulligan, each player may perform the below action X times, where X is how many Grace of the Valar Tokens the group currently has. This does not consume any Grace of the Valar Tokens.
- Action: Draw 1 card or add 1 resource to the resource pool of a hero you control.
6. After beating a quest, reset the number of Grace of the Valar Tokens the group currently has to 0.
7. At the end of the campaign, your total score is the number of Grace of the Valar Tokens the group has earned over the course of the campaign. The lower the score, the better.
DISCUSSION
So the idea here is essentially the Saga rules with an added layer on top that makes it a bit easier to beat a quest if you've just lost against it. If you lasted more than 5 rounds against it, then maybe you just got unlucky and could beat it on the next try, so you're only given 1 Grace token. If you lost quickly, then 1 Grace token might not change the result so much, so you're given 2. Since the total score is dependent on how many Grace tokens you got, and not the number of losses, there is no incentive to sacrifice your heroes off early if you think you aren't going to make it. In fact, it's better for your final score to last into the 6th round then beat it on the next attempt.
With this mode of play you should never really get stuck on a quest forever. In the worst case you'll eventually have so many Grace tokens you can draw your whole deck and play down every card on the first turn.
When you move to the next quest your Grace tokens go away. They are only there to help you through the tough quests in the campaign to save yourself from repeated head-bashing. It also serves as a way to compare decks against each other, to see which ones can get through the campaign with less reliance on the Valar.
The advantage of this style of play compared to easy mode is that you actually get to play with the full encounter deck as designed. Now, you could combine these rules with easy mode but I don't see the point. You will eventually be given the tools you need to get a win.
Finally, one quirk about the standard Saga rules is that if you lose a hero during a quest, you can simply reset and replay the quest until you beat it without losing a hero. This removes some of the tension in each game because there is no real penalty for doing this. With this mode of play, it will end up impacting your final score.
