Hey all,
I'm thinking on buying Runebound and I was wondering what decks you'd recommend I pick up. I'll probably start with 2 decks, maybe more if there are some " must haves ".
Thanks
Which decks do you recommend?
I made a thread just 2 below this one - the title wouldn't have led you to look there - but there is some discussion there on decks.
here - I'll link it - it's "First Expansion?"
There are a few decks that are out of print and harder to find so I'll set them aside since there is no reason for someone just starting out to spend collector's prices on 30-card decks.
Once you play the game a few times you'll be able to decide what aspects of the game you want to supplament with a deck. Getting sick of seeing the same challenges over and over, add challenge cards. Want to try out some neat new items get the Item/Ally deck. You get the idea...
For Items/Allies I think the best 2 decks are Walkers of the Wild and Champions of Kellos.
Challenge cards: Pick any of Beasts and Bandits, Traps and Terrors, Shadows of Margath, or Drakes and Dragonspawn. I think all 4 have nice additions to the game. The titles kind of give you a hint as to the "theme" of the decks. Shadows of Margath has some "classic" horror movie monsters like vampires, mummies, and werewolves. Traps and Terrors adds "trap" challenges which often depend on unique little sets of rules and skill checks rather than straight up combat to defeat.
Once you get the decks you'll start to get a feel for what they offer and mix them accordingly. If you wanted to make "outdoor" adventures a stronger theme add Beasts and Bandits as challenges and Walkers in the Wild as Items/Allies.
miles601 said:
There are a few decks that are out of print and harder to find so I'll set them aside since there is no reason for someone just starting out to spend collector's prices on 30-card decks.
Once you play the game a few times you'll be able to decide what aspects of the game you want to supplament with a deck. Getting sick of seeing the same challenges over and over, add challenge cards. Want to try out some neat new items get the Item/Ally deck. You get the idea...
For Items/Allies I think the best 2 decks are Walkers of the Wild and Champions of Kellos.
Challenge cards: Pick any of Beasts and Bandits, Traps and Terrors, Shadows of Margath, or Drakes and Dragonspawn. I think all 4 have nice additions to the game. The titles kind of give you a hint as to the "theme" of the decks. Shadows of Margath has some "classic" horror movie monsters like vampires, mummies, and werewolves. Traps and Terrors adds "trap" challenges which often depend on unique little sets of rules and skill checks rather than straight up combat to defeat.
Once you get the decks you'll start to get a feel for what they offer and mix them accordingly. If you wanted to make "outdoor" adventures a stronger theme add Beasts and Bandits as challenges and Walkers in the Wild as Items/Allies.
Do you have any of the "alternate endings" packs? The adventure ones? What are your thoughts on them - would you get those or work on expansions first?
(And do I understand correctly that the alternate ending adventure packs only work with the base game - not compatible for use with the expansions?)
Yes the Adventure Variants only work with base game. I think your budget will kind of dictate whether to spend money on the bigger boxes or small decks. Make sure you like the base game before dropping addition 40-50 bucks on the big boxes. Once you have all these different adventure variants and big boxes you can play a lot of games before ever cycling back to "vanilla" runebound. And when you mix in several challenge expansions to the game you aren't going to be recycling challenges too often in the base game either.
here's a repost of something I said earlier about Adventure Variants:
"Adventure Variants: Avatars of Kelnov is by far the most similar Variant to the base game. Its a good way to switch up the challenges you face during the Endgame, but doesn't change much else. The Scepter of Kyros plays very similarly for 70% of the game but has a different Endgame experience. I'd recommend trying either of these Variants first if you like the way the base game runs but have grown bored/familiar with its endgame.
The Cataclysm and Cult of the Rune change the game in a much more fundamental way by altering the victory conditions (you aren't trying to just defeat the big bad Red Challenges) and adding new tokens to the game play. Cult has a marker that gets moved throughout the game which represents an evil Cult that you are hunting. You need to root out the cultists w/out becoming corrupt yourself. Cataclysm destroys and curses the towns of the map with special new tokens. You then need to work to free the towns via special quest cards, while depending on the meager resources of caravans (a new game mechanic) to sell you items and heal you. These offer a much more significant variation than the above 2. They are a fun way to really shake up your game without spending 40 for a big box expansion."
Since then I've tried and enjoyed all 6 adventure variants. I hope that helps in your starting selection.
For the most bang for your buck go with The Cataclysm. As stated before it changes the game as much as one of the big box sets minus the board overlay. The questing mechanics to free each city and the wandering merchant rules add a fresh new dimension to gameplay. Some of the monsters are very tough and from my experience the games are longer.