Hey community,

I'm curious what you think about rumor cards. This mechanic seems to be strange. Or I cannot grasp it fully.

Why should an OL not play his three drawn rumor cards (expecting an even chance to win or loose the adventure) and why should the heroes not choose them as the OL gets a card if they pass by?

So wouldn't it be easier to simply draw a card and use it or draw three cards and every side gets to choose one of them?

Until now we haven't played with them but I'm thinking about to change the mechanic as a house rule if we introduce them.

With kind regards,

becauseofyou

1 hour ago, becauseofyou said:

why should the heroes not choose them as the OL gets a card if they pass by?

You are speaking about H&M rumours cards...
Those of the small extensions (Lair of the Wyrm, Trollfens and Manor of Ravens) don't have the same 'incentives' on those nothing happens if heroes don't do them


to answer more to the question:

1 hour ago, becauseofyou said:

Why should an OL not play his three drawn rumor cards  (expecting an even chance to win or loose the adventure)

Simply because globally they favor the heroes!
let's take H&M rumors
OL recieves Threat tokens to play them
IF he wins or heroes don't play it he couold receive an OL card.. most of the time not too bad it's true ... but he must win first

Heroes :
Win or lost they keep the searches (and if they are lucky the tresure chest !!) AND a new shopping phase ... which allows them to highter their chances to obbtains what they want
If they win they deny an OL card to the OL

For the small expansions it's even worse

If OL wins he has a small relic

If Heroes win they have an OP relic !! ok this is mainly true for LoW Quests... but even for the others it's a relic nonetheless !

Last thing to have in mind ... rumors give two quests one in Act I and another in Act II ... and it's always gold and shopping phase for the Heroes...

So the OL must be careful to what he puts in play... and look closely to the quests he has in hand... should he have an unbalanced quest where he is nearly sure to lose... he has no reason to play it as all benefits will be for the Heroes ... unless he is in need of some Threat tokens..... ?!

1 hour ago, becauseofyou said:

why should the heroes not choose them as the OL gets a card if they pass by?

Heroes have no reason to avoid a Rumor !
Has they will always have some benefit back ! and with H&M Rumours they even can try to deny the OL a card !

The only reson to avoid a Rumor for heroes is if it's one of the small boxes and they find that should they loose, the Relic is too powerfull for the OL .... but I'm yet to find such a quest that is not worth the gold and the shopping phase !

This explains why with the H&M Rumors FFG tryied to balance the system by lowering the searches (usually in these quests there is only 3 search tokens instead of 4) and avoiding any other victory rewards to the heroes (the reward is to deny OL victory reward)


But again one of the house rules I used to play with (be I on OL or Heroes side) should we use rumors is to remove LoW Rumor quests
it's not fun for the OL to be smashed in Act I (and after with the snowballing effect) because at the second quest the heroes recovered either the Aurium armor or Valyndra's Bane !!
it's not fun either for the heroes when they clean a map before the end of the encounter and have only to wander and search tokens till they decide to end it

But it's only my point of view....
Hope you will have others returns to have a better idea...! Perhaps I'm not partial ? ... ?

I was forgetting a thing ... all rumor cards are not quests ... so if you have the small expansions (where these cards are) it's not a good idea to draw them and display them
Some of them are events that favor the OL ... not much but could be helpfull
Ask the heroes to draw shopping cards but without allowing them to know what they have drawn is always memorable ! ?

1 hour ago, Felin said:

You are speaking about H&M rumours cards...
Those of the small extensions (Lair of the Wyrm, Trollfens and Manor of Ravens) don't have the same 'incentives' on those nothing happens if heroes don't do the !

That's true. I don't have these three. I bought the latest sets hoping these are the most balanced.

1 hour ago, Felin said:

Simply because globally they favor the heroes!

Thank you for your insight. I didn't recognize the searches. We play 'Shadow Rune' actually and my cousin is just farming so much money with all the two scenes full of tokens. So I get your point.

I didn't play the quests of my H&M sets. So far we just played the campaigns as they are. I have 'Treaty of Champions', 'Stewards of Secret' and 'Shards of Everdark'. Have you experienced these?

So if the OL gains less than the heroes why should he play a rumor card?

With kind regards,

becauseofoyu

7 hours ago, becauseofyou said:

So if the OL gains less than the heroes why should he play a rumor card?

That's a better question ! ?
Because on the H&M rumors the OL cards rewarded are not 'petty' :
'Treaty of Champions ' can give : Hags Hunger .. -2[Fatigue] for each hero within 3 spaces of a defeated hero ! (if you have heroes woth Familiars will be deadly !)
' Stewards of Secret' : Splice : each monster of a group gains [Surge]:+2[Hearth] and another monster within 3 spaces -2[Heart] (on small monsters that reinforce could be potent)
' Shar  ds of Everdark  ' : Mockery : in short can give an additional gray to a hero for it's attributes test .... could stay all encounter !

this alone could be a good incentive .. even if a all or nothing one.
If you play with Plot cards it's even better, as playing rumors gives Treath tokens to the OL !

On those (up to now) I only have played Stewards of Secret (only Act I .. campaign ongoing) on the Hero side and I lost, I think is a rather balanced quest
(My actual point of view .. perhaps after doing it a couple of times it will change .. ? )