I regularly play with my fourteen year old stepson and ten year old nephew. They lack the focus for a four hour game of Runebound so I'm always trying new ways to make things faster and more exciting for them. This variant imposes a "real" time limit on the players but speeds up game play to compensate. It also gives a good reason for PVP later in the game when time is running short.

As a side note, I bought the new Monster Hunter game for our Wii but wasn't really that into it. The premise however seemed perfect for a Runebound Variant. Competitive monster killing!

STORY- The premise we came up with is that the Cataclysm turned most of Terinoth into a wild savage land. (Yes, I'm waiting impatiently for the Mists expansion!!!) It is far in the future and the only city remaining is Tamalir. Monsters and evil threats are so out of control that "Monster Hunters" are hired once a year for Hunting Season. The most successful hunter becomes the Grand Champion of Tamalir. Or whatever background story you want...

SETUP- Very easy setup!

Remove any events, or encounters from the adventure decks.

Place two green challenges face up in the undefeated challenge spots #1 and 2. Place two yellow faceup in spots 3 and 4. Place one Blue face up in spot 5, and one Red face up in Spot 6.

Do not put any jewel counters on the board.

Choose characters by whatever method you normally use.

Each player then has FIVE gold to spend on items, allies, rituals, etc...

Each player may place two experience counters of their choice on their character.

Put one item face up in each cities market spot. The cities aren't there, the extra items reflects the large selection available to the Hunters.

Characters start in Tamalir. Determine initiative as normal.

PLAY- Play goes as normal except:

There are no events, encounters or random encounters.

Choose a time limit for the game and use a clock to keep time. I suggest twenty five minutes for each player. So even a 5 player game would only last 2 hours 5 minutes. That's short for Runebound!

In town players may heal all fatigue and damage on any one hero or ally for 1 gold. Two new market cards are drawn when entering the market phase. This isn't really a problem since there is plenty of space and you don't make that many town visits anyway.

Players move as normal. Players must end movement on a jewel space in order to face a challenge. The challenge will be one of the same color in the undefeated challenge spaces. In the case of Green and Yellow challenges the player may choose which of the two available they will face.

After a challenge is defeated you gain any gold or rewards listed on the card, plus gold determined by the cards color. Green 2. Yellow 4. Blue 6. Red 10. You keep the challenge card until the end of the game or another Hunter takes it from you. You may use any effects the card grants unless it causes you to give the card away.

Then take two jewel counters of the challenges color and keep one and place the other on the space the challenge was resolved. No new challenges may be faced on spaces with jewel counters on them. Then place a new challenge of that color face up in the empty undefeated challenge space.

When a player is knocked out by a challenge, there is no penalty except the player loses half their gold rounded up and is transported back to Tamalir.

When a player is knocked out by another player, the victor gets one of the losers lowest scoring challenge cards. So if the loser has green the victor would get one of those. If they only have yellow and above, the victor would get a yellow card, etc.. The victor may also take one item or ally from the loser. The loser is then transported back to Tamalir.

When the timer is up, any remaining players that have not taken their turn are allowed to do so. SO everyone should get the same number of turns.

Count up score points as follows: Green=1, Yellow=2, Blue=3, Red=5. (Given the time limits, beating a Red is hard! So it should be worth more.)

In the case of a tie, count up total Gold, including the value of items, allies, rituals, etc... The tied player with the most wins. If you still have a tie, I suggest single combat between the tied players. Three way tie? You're on your own!

Variations and thoughts: When we played we used a level cap of 9. Allies were also allowed to be leveled with a cap of 3. I considered putting extra loot down for defeating creatures but it seemed like I would need to sort out the items and make them appropriate to the color since the gold amount of an item could decide a tie.

I think in the two player game we played with an hour time limit, we only reached level 5 each. We were using a leveling variant (xp costs=new level) You really had to plan your trips to Tamalir so you didn't fall behind in score. We both realized that defeating the other player in PvP could give us a points edge but we were both unsure of our chances of success.

We tied in the end and I lost by 8 gold! All in all a fun variant that we were able to play in under two hours with set up time included.

Please forgive the formatting of this post! Its late!