I want to make the most of every single scenario I buy. I'm also a bit of an achievement hunter, so I'm planning to revisit all my quests again trying to beat them in different ways and marking the date of the first time I accomplished each one of them. I expect this to take many years, but, well, the cards are not going anywhere. If I get tired of it, I can always continue where I left it whenever I feel like it. These are the different game modes I'm planning to use. I'd like to know your thoughts on them, if you think they're balanced, if there's something you would change, add or remove, etc.

## The game modes

Legacy mode: You can't use any cards not available when this adventure was first released.

Challenge mode: Defeat the scenario in Legacy mode while fulfilling a special condition tailor-made for it.

Limited mode: Only achieved after defeating all the scenarios in the cycle using the same deck. You can't use any cards not available when the last adventure in the cycle was first released.

Heroic mode: Same as Limited mode, but using the Challenge mode condition for each of its scenarios.

Expert mode: Only achieved after defeating all the scenarios in the cycle using the same deck. The cycle is divided in three chapters of three scenarios each. Follow the official expert variant on each chapter. You can use any cards in your collection.

Nightmare mode: Follow the official nightmare version of the scenario. You can use any cards in your collection.

Insane mode: Defeat the scenario in Nightmare mode while fulfilling a special condition tailor-made for it.

Legendary mode: Only achieved after defeating in Nightmare mode all the scenarios in the cycle using the same deck. You can use any cards in your collection.

Impossible mode: Same as Legendary mode, but using the Insane mode condition for each of its scenarios.

## Explanations

Legacy and Nightmare are the basic modes. Legacy mode would be what we see in progression runs. It allows you to experience the scenario the way it was meant to be played when it was first released. On the other hand, Nightmare Decks increase the difficulty of the original scenarios so they still offer a nice challenge despite the power creep that's inevitable in these kinds of games.

Challenge and Insane modes simply add a new rule or condition that has to be fulfilled to achieve victory. These must be consistent with their design and must never make them easier. For example, for the Core Set Challenge mode:

* Passage through Mirkwood: the idea is to have to deal with the negative effects of both paths. Challenge condition: Remove the "A Chosen Path" corresponding to "Don't Leave the Path". After completing "A Fork in the Road", you must proceed to the other "A Chosen Path". When you do, if Ungoliant's Spawn is in play, remove all damage tokens and attachments on it and return it to the staging area. Then, each player must search the encounter deck and discard pile for 1 Spider card of his choice, and add it to the staging area. The first player must choose Ungoliant's Spawn, if able.

* Journey along the Anduin: the idea is to have to face all the trolls. Challenge condition: When "To the River..." is revealed, search for and add to the staging area one additional copy of Hill Troll. When "Anduin Passage" is revealed, search for a Hill Troll in the encounter deck and discard pile and add to the staging area, if possible.

* Escape from Dol Guldur: the idea is to not be able to depend on a particular hero being captured to win. Challenge condition: This scenario must be won three times for each player using the same decks. No hero can be captured in two different games. The wins don't have to be consecutive.

Limited and Legendary don't require you to beat all the scenarios consecutively. They simply must be beaten in order and using the same player decks. Since each cycle generally follows a single storyline, this is a thematic way of using all the cards in the cycle together.

Heroic and Impossible simply combine the Challenge and Limited and the Insane and Legendary modes, respectively.

Finally, Expert mode is the official expert variant applied in three different "chapters": first with the three scenarios of the deluxe expansions, then with the first three adventure packs, and then with the last three adventure packs.

So? What do you think? Any input will be really appreciated!

If you're looking for alternative modes, you could try a version of progression (legacy) mode similar to that proposed in the solo league... Beat a cycle using only cards from the core set and that cycle.

For example, when playing the Dwarrowdelf cycle, use cards only from core, khazad dum, and dwarrowdelf.

Just a thought.

Thank you for the suggestion, icabod!

It is a cool idea, but I feel like doing it that way does more for accessibility than it does for enjoyment. That way you don't need the previous cycles to enjoy the one being played, but powerful cards related to an archetype are often released before the cycle that fleshes it out. Since the game was originally balanced around the whole available card pool at the time, I don't really like the idea of sacrificing those key cards. I'm sure it would be a fun format nonetheless, but unless I'm missing some advantage to doing things that way, I think I personally wouldn't enjoy it as much as the others I mentioned.

I really do appreciate the input, though. Any other thoughts or ideas?

My understanding is that scenarios are tested during development with only core + that cycle. While Progression mode is how the players first experienced the game, I don't think it's quite correct to say that is how the quests were "designed" to be played and certainly not how they were tested.

But most especially, I don't think it's correct to say that scenarios are "balanced" against the progression card pool. Scenarios vary wildly in difficulty in *every* cycle, so they aren't even balanced against each other, let alone a specific card pool. What they often do is challenge a specific way of playing -- Ringmaker's card-draw hate, for example, challenges a Noldor deck with Elven-light just as much as it does a Dwarven Swarm with Legacy of Durin.

In a few cases a single later card can trivialize a quest -- Honour Guard against Journey to Rhosgobel, for example. But that's an example of a quest that wants a very specific build to defeat in the first place, and I think such specialized quests are more prone to specialized solutions. And it's easy to leave Honour Guard out of your deck for that quest, in which case more recent tactics cards are just as useless as they were back in the first cycle.

Probably the biggest game-changer in terms of affecting past quests IMO is side-quests, a lot of older quests can really benefit from that. But that's true of more recent quests as well and is *very* quest specific.

Out of curiosity, how do progression players handle nightmare quests? With cards released to the point of the original, or the card pool as it existed at the time nightmare scenarios were released.

As a point of clarification, in the solo league you aren't required to use core + cycle; it's just an advantage for tiebreakers. In February we're adding a second cycle that is allowed for tiebreaker purposes.

I'm not the target market for you thematic extra conditions -- I'm content with the official difficulty, especially against quests like Dol Goldur! But it's a clever way to vary the quest conditions and do your own little bit of nightmare.

@PocketWraith does progression Nightmares with the card pool at the time Nightmare pack was released:

https://wardenofarnor.wordpress.com/the-line-unbroken/

Thanks for the link, Authraw! I'll check it out too.

dalestephenson, I actually didn't know that the different cycles were tested with only core and that cycle, and you make some good points. I think I will give it a go, as icabod suggested. Thank you for changing my mind!

Is there something else anyone would like to add?