ive compiled a list of variants, and would like to hear what you guys think: first off im using the base set, artifacts and allies and relics of legend. i use the leveling exp: for first level up 1 exp for second 2 for third 3 etc... but no higher than level 8. i use the doom track except to keep it from going to fast any non fight challenge card that has like a quest (eg go on forest space without adventure counter to get 3 gold) that you draw, you keep it, stop drawing more cards, place the exp counter on that card. you will receive after you fulfill that quest. I am also separating the market deck into 3: weapons and armor, allies, artifacts. Also knockouts make you lose only half your gold and your most expensive item, but you can only buy items whose gold value is twice your value.

But the main point of this topic is if i made the the right choices with variants above, and an idea i have: what if i throw in a traveling merchant. What if i make him sell only artifacts while towns cant. what if i make a certain area in the board that sells only allies while nothing else cant. the ally center would be tamalir, and if one wanted, they could attack the traveling merchant who would be a different unused hero every time and would be able to use the items he carries. The traveling merchant and ally center sound interesting but i am skeptical. what do you guys think?

The thing I have found great about Runebound is that its very easy (and fun) to design lots of variants and then give them a try in game. If your lucky, you'll even have a group of fellow gamer's who enjoy play testing new ideas as much their creators. And if not, Runebound is a great game for solo play so the best way to test whether an idea works is just to play some games and roll some dice. After all, even if the idea turns out to be a bust... you still got in a fun game of Runebound so win-win!

I like the idea of a traveling merchant myself, although I'm honestly not sure I like the idea of attacking and robbing him. Might just be my chivalry streak! I always do like moving pieces though, which is what makes games against the Cult of the Rune or the Sandstorm so much fun. That said, I think you have you ideas fleshed out enough to play a game or two... so have fun trying out you ideas and let us know how the rules develop.

Game on!

Judd

I too would be interested to hear how the traveling merchant works out, though I'm not sure I would have it on the board ... there's already enough that every character in the land miraculously knows about and where it is. I think he might be better as an encounter card that appears twice in the Greens, once in the Yellows, and not at all in Blue or Red... or something like that.

i was thinking along the lines of that since the market deck is split in 3 and you could choose which deck to draw from in the town markets, some players wont have as much a variety if their looking for something, so the merchant would have like 1 or 2 of each deck, he would appear in places far away from towns: like forests or mountains, and players would be from his variety and he would disappear and reapear at another time with a completely new variety.

I've been toying with a traveling merchant variant myself. My idea is to have a Merchant Caravan that goes back and forth between Greyhaven and Vynelvale staying on the road and having each player move it one hex at the end of their turn. It would function as a market stack except it keeps its own pool of money. Players may choose to rob it instead of taking a market step on it, but have to face one or more challenges whose color and number depends on the size of the money pool. This would represent the merchant hiring summoners to protect the caravan. The merchant would swap stacks with towns as it moves through them and the gold pool would reset in Greyhaven and Vynelvale. If you do rob it there might be other repercussions. Possibly being banned from taking a market step there, or maybe even some kind of bounty system.

There are more details to work out but that's the gist of it.

shadow? said:

Yes, I like that. After encountering him, what he has to offer could just be discarded. The next time he shows up, he's been wheeling and dealing throughout the land and has something new. ALSO... maybe he buys stuff as well, just like in the main markets. MAYBE... he pays +1 gold over what you would get for selling an Item in the Markets. But I wouldn't have him buy or sell Allies.

anybody like my variant: whenever you draw an adventure card with like a mission: eg go to a forest space without an adventure counter to find treasure, then get 3 gold. If you draw an adventure card such as this one, dont draw another one, but instead put the adventure counter your piece is standing on and put your exp counter on that card. it will be rewarded to you when you fulfill that quest. I originally thought this would go good with the speed of the doom track, but now im skeptical.

Also about the market deck, i have a big market deck including artifacts and allies, and relics of legend and the base game. i thought it would be good since we never use at least half of it, to split it into 3: artifacts, weapons and armor, and allies. But then i would have a person choose a category when in a town so in setup each town would get one card of each category except for tamalir, and in a town a person picks the category and adds one into the towns market, but then in tamalir you would draw 3 one of each category each visit, but then i realized the market stack was intentionly random, especially in challenge cards like in Vorakesh's whose reward is a number of gold plus draw the top card on the market stack, if its an artifact keep it if not give it back. i reallized that the market stack is built for randomness. So i was thinking of buying a three sided die to determine these kinds of things since i wana keep it divided since it involves a variety which is my goal, i dont want a game with like 2 artifacts or something like that. But if so should i use the three sided die for store markets, and setup, and vorakesh style rewards. what do you guys think?

shadow? said:

I understand what you mean. After purchasing expansion decks and big box add ons, mine is at least twice as big as it started out. All those cool cards that never see that light of day! We usually draw three market cards during a market step and we still hardly get that far into it.

I like your variant idea. I might have to steal that. It does create a promise of more xp later at the expense of it during that turn. Maybe you could just make it worth xp and you still get to draw cards until you get a challenge.

shadow? said:

Tasks to complete might be interesting. I've built similar things for other fantasy games I own. There are multiple reward types that could be offered beyond gold. Perhaps having to draw until one gets and Item of such'n'such value or less. There is also the option of mundane items as well, which RB doesn't really have. Or perhaps the task card is kept, and it has a use on it like some standard cards, and even this might be a mundane something or other.

As to location for receiving rewards, there are three: the location at which you drew the task, the location where you complete the task, a third location such as a city or otherwise. And remember there are some named geographic places/regions on the map to use for task and or reward destinations.

And no, it wouldn't speed up the game. And no, it wouldn't work well with the track. Players feeling the pressures of the track might not bother, since what they really need is exp. counters to get to those Reds before its too late. But I don't think exp. counters would be an appropriate reward in most cases.

shadow? said:

The three sided die (or just a six sided counter 1-2, 3-4, 5-6) won't solve your problem. Depending on what you must be draw (item, ally, etc), the proportions are not equal like that roll of a die. This is another reason why me and mine divide our market deck by Mind, Body, Spirit, Ally. It still has a problem if a reward offers drawing for an Ally, but all other cards are split up by dominant benefit for whichever attribute, and sometimes a particular item with duplicates is in more than one of the decks. And even so, if the item is named as "Weapon", well then, most people draw from the Body stack with a higher chance of getting a Weapon.

Another solution I saw suggested elsewhere for Market draws only (which we're going to try) was to keep all cards together as standard. When drawing a card for a Market, a hero MAY declare what it seeks in shopping around town. So, in my case, they might declare "My Spirit stats suck! So I need something to bolster it or defend against losses in using Spirit." When a declaration is made, the hero draws 3 cards instead of 1. It may only place items that fulfill its declaration in some way into the Market stack

Something similar could be done for your divisions of the Market deck in putting it all back into one stack. The Hero could declare what it is shopping for by card type and subtype, draw 3 cards instead of 1, and any card meeting the criteria gets put into the Market stack. Any card that doesn't must be discarded.

Don't really have a solution beyond that, and it's not a perfect one.