What is the upside of fighting the monsters instead of just always trying to evade them? I like a good fight but quite frankly when one appears in an encounter why should you. It seems if anything you may get a few wounds and for sure waste time. Shouldn't there be an upside to fighting then, for example searching them and drawing a corpse card to a treasure card. Just wondering what some of you think. I love playing this game however, it is really fun. I like the catacombs and think it is a neat idea.

But then again, what do you think about fighting the monsters and getting some kind of award or at least a chance of a reward.

Each adventurer has a certain chance of escaping. Brother Gehrinn has quite high chance to escape due to half of his power cards have an escape value of 5. The lower escape value on every power card, the higher chance to fail an escape and become hurt for 2-4 wounds depending on the monster type. When fighting you have a chance to defeat the monster without taking damage or minimal damage, if you can outwit the monster player. It depends on who plays but you are at a disadvantage in solo play due to the randomness.

So the question would be, should you escape and risk losing 2-4 wounds and have a battle or should you battle it right away? Your reward is simply you get to keep your life a little longer. The game is sadistic in all means, searching corpses and crypts are most of the time not beneficial if you aim for the treasure chamber.

Upside with fighting monsters, it's fun and you can get away with minimal wounds if you have a character with low escape values.

If you are playing with the alternative rule that a dead player can control monsters (and spawn them), then by avoiding you can screw up the plans and the "monster limit" of the board by cutting them off from your (escape/main) route.

I agree with Siphonen. As regarding rewards of beating the monsters. Well, after 4 games now, and dying everytime I must add, I feel getting through this dungeon alive without actally die by a monster's hand must be reward enough ^^

SC

I might be remembering wrong, but i thought that if you run away/evade/escape from a monster you have to go back the tile/room you came from. This can be really annoying and somthing worth fighting for to avoid. I personally have only played 2 games, 1 solo and a 2 person-game but already succesfully escaped a fight, returned to the previous tile to find myself in a much worse situation (forgot that i had nowhere to go other then searching for a secret other way or go 3 tiles back for another door/opening).

So i guess the main upside is that you can continue your (hopefully shortest) way to treasure!

I don't see why you can't add your own rule to draw a Treasure card when you kill a monster.

jstengren said:

That's not a bad little house rule actually... Castle Ravenholdt (sp?) the new D&D board game plays that way - anything you kill a monster you actually get a reward... well - you get XP too...

while I am a RAW player most of the time - this might make combat more rewarding for some.

I would say that the victorious player should maybe get a corpse card, since the creature that he/she has defeated is now technically a corpse.

ya, the corpse card idea is pretty good. I will probably just keep playing by the written rules however. The idea of evading the monster and then putting his token in the room and you have to fight him on the way back is one reason for just getting rid of him first time I guess. Also going back to the room you came from if you evade him is probably a waste of time plus the fact the room you came from may be worse than fighting the monster.

Who knows maybe in an expansion there will be a reward for killing the monster.

Why would you get a reward after fighting a monster? It should be rewarding enough to be able to continue towards the treasure! What's next? draw treasure cards every round since you're still alive? draw a crypt card when you find a new room?
this whole dungeon was designed to trap and kill heroes! and when starting to hand out possible loot a lot sooner will only lead away from the main goal!
A house-rule for this is fine, but i'm getting the feeling from most that they are just getting greedy and want free perks.

I hope you will only find scorpions on the corpes!

Once again; the only upside in fighting monsters is that you can continue forward towards the treasure (or outwards when you have treasure) instead of retreating!

ya seriously i first thought the same - there should be gold on these monsters! i should be able to get something for defeating one!

but then i thought of it as an obstacle to get through, not an opportunity to get loot. like how getting over the bridge is an obstacle.

i just see the monsters as one of the many challenges in the game and they dont carry around money, potions, etc. and don't even care about them....They have no purpose to exist other than to kill the dungeon's tourists!

But i suppose it isn't too far fetched to imagine some have a Smeagol-Gollum complex over shiny things & trinkets (maybe on a roll of 1 after defeating a monster you can draw a corpse card?) Would be fun to try that out

The upside to fighting a monster? You save time. When you escape, you not only have to go back to the chamber you came from, but you also have to encounter that chamber again on your next turn. Escaping potentially sets you back 2 turns.

As for rewards off monsters, I think we're many of us spoiled by the idea that monsters are just Loot and XPs on legs. Anyone with any classic RPG experience knows the first thing to ask after defeating a monster is "how many expees did I get, and what loot table do you roll on?"

I rather like the idea that monsters don't have an inherent reward on them.

Can't argree with you more, I encounterd a monster and decided to run, I only had 5 lives left and it was a troll !!! It was silly as I was only 5 moves from getting out with some loot which blocked my way forward and i then could not get back. I ran out of time !!! I have played this game 4 times and not once got out, what an excellant game !!