Ok, so we played our first session today. I liked it a lot. This will be really funny to come back to on Saturdays this spring.

I played the overlord and after the first dungeon was finished I was ahead 31-23. But that was beacuse they were lucky and got 2 leaders on the last level which gave them 8 xp. So that felt cool and balanced. But I'm a little worried about the loot of money. They came out of the dungeon with over 4.000 gold... that seems like a LOT. But did we play it correctly? When the take a monepile the party gets 400 gold, right? and when they roll for treasure loot the party gets 100gold for each enchantment, not 400gold/enchamntment, and when they kill a master the party gets 50gold, right? The way we played it the party got 1200-1500 gold/ level. Does that sound correct?

Then I was wondering what the OL should focus on for his upgrades. I bought the Siren right away after the first dungeon. Which I feel is correct. Then I'm thinking to get a monster class upgraded to silver next turn. Could someone please give me some simple guidelines to OL strategy when it comes to spending XP (I'm playing captain bones with leviathan plot)

gerrard8 said:

I'm doing the same Avatar and Plot. I also went for the Siren right away since she starts on one of the binding tokens, so you can add one the same turn you bought her.

I assume you bought Death Head with your starting XP? If you didn't, buy that. Otherwise make buying Silver Eldritch your next priority.

gerrard8 said:

You were correct on the cash side, assuming you meant enhancement in the chests (and 50 + potion per surge).

They will quickly find that they do not have enough money, ever. Even when you run out of money tokens there will be more things they could spend it on...

I am also playing Capt. Bones with Leviathan.

Upgrade Priority:

-Death Head. (Start the game with this)

-Siren

-Eldritch Silver

Then you have personal preference on how you want to go. After the first couple of sessions, I had a solid 40 point LEAD on my heroes (they attacked The Siren early, and i made them pay for it) and as such have shifted my strategy a bit.

The problem I have with the leviathan plot, is that it EXTREMELY easy for the overlord to win it. The heroes are going to have a hell of a time dealing with Siren at copper, and you get Sweetheart and The Kraken at silver, assuming this, you can fall 2 shackles in copper just with Siren, and the other 3 shackles very very very quickly if the players arent equipped to handle the Lieutenants.

We ran our numbers in our game, and gave the overlord a win in 14 weeks with that plot. So we house ruled the shackle defense to 5 instead of 3, just to give the players a chance at being able to stop it.

Ok, thanks guys.

I went with lawlessnes and focused as my starting upgrades... so I need to purchase exploding skeletons as my next upgrade. Then I've got 15xp left and can get 1 green treachery (crushing blow!!), and after the next dungeon I'll upgrade one class to silver.

To bad to hear about the leviathan plot problems. Maybe we'll do like you say and change the strength from 3 to 5. How did this work out for you? Is it more balanced?

Eldtrich slver? is that all because of the skeletons then? Otherwise humaniods sounds better to get to silver (beastman, ferrox)

No, you want eldritch silver because combined with exploding skeletons, that is what makes Siren such a high risk for the heroes to encounter her. She starts with 2 master and 6 normal skeletons as her minions, and "hordes of things" in play so she has a rediculous amount of fodder. and Death Head allows you to suicide your skeles for 1 red die that ignores armor. (Players really hate things that can move, shoot, and then suicide). Heroes that once had no fear of skeletons will now avoid them like the plague, and focus their hits on them and play much more defensively (cause if they don't you'll blow their asses up).

Originally, I was saving the XP for when we hit silver, then I would upgrade my eldritch to GOLD and buy Kraken and Siren, and then start upgrading all my monsters, but my players thought I was being overly harsh.

I picked up Lawlessness as a "gimme" for the heroes. Since there are no encounters on land, it's kind of a waste, especially since most encounters can be easily won by the heroes. I also picked up Arcane Lore (Hand Size +1) and two Trap Treachery because I really wanted to lob a boulder at my heroes, but this was a mistake, since it costs 3 and I am capped at two. Tried a Dart Field, but that is only triggered off a door, so it's uses are far too limited in SoB. Shoulda bought monster treachery, but oh well.

As for our house rule, (shackles have defense 5 instead of 3) our campaign just hit silver and the heroes have their home in Dallak (Market Rating 5), so they are loaded for bear in silver treasures. I have purchased the Kraken (who starts on a shackle), and has sieged it twice. The Siren has brought down one shackle and has 5 sieges on her second and is just waiting for a surge roll. A couple more weeks (or another dungeon), and I will be able to buy Sweetheart and Siege a completely different shackle. So far, I would say the house rule makes it much more playable and alot less gimmicky OL auto-win. Would I like a few fights at sea, hell yeah! Do I really want to win via shackles, not really, but it's a great way to keep the heroes from doing whatever the want without venturing into my domain.....where I will kill them....repeatedly.....<<<reanimated skeleton pirate laughter>>>