What is the procedure (order) for playing a dark relic treachery card on a player in Road to Legend. In Vanilla Descent, you know that a given chest offers treasure and that each player gets to pull a treasure. In Road to Legend, when the players role their four power dice to see what they get, we usually have one player (the guy who feels he has a hot hand for the night) roll all four dice. Then they distribute potions and treasure, if any to the party. I can't play the Dark Relic trap card when the open the chest because I don't know if they will roll a treasure. Once rolled, they all look at the treasure card to decide which player gets it. Do I then play the Dark Relic card and replace the treasure with a Dark Relic?

good question. as i understood it, you just hand out the dark relic and they get nothing else out of the chest. bad day for the heroes?

Dark relics only replace treasure cards. You'll have to cast Dark Relic after the heroes roll the dice, otherwise you have no means of determining the contents of the chest. I don't have access to the cards right now, but I think the triggering condition is the distribution of the treasure. There was a discussion about dark relics in an advanced campaign. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the overlord is allowed to see the treasure card he would replace before he plays dark relic.

According to the FAQ, the overlord is NOT allowed to see a treasure card before choosing to play Dark Relic (p. 11).

I don't have any particular idea how they expect it to work in RtL. Though based on a quick skim of the rules, while it says heroes can choose how to distribute treasures, it doesn't specifically say that anyone gets to look at the card before that - perhaps they're supposed to choose who gets how many treasures before drawing them, or perhaps the heroes (but not the overlord) get to look at them before they're distributed?

Thanks for the replies. Our group is just starting a new campaign (Dark Relic never was played in last one). We've decided that the group will each roll for treasure individually. Whoever rolls the treasure card gets initial possession of the treasure. Overlord will not know what the treasure is prior to deciding to play Dark Relic.

An alternate way discussed is for the group to decided who gets the treasure without the Overlord knowing what the treasure is. Then Overlord has opportunity to play the Dark Relic card.

i'd have a question or two too:

a. Who decides exactly when and which hero gets the dark relic? we had a fight again today over this. i would have played it that way:

hero1 takes treasure and rolls the 4 black power dice. he rolls one blank and wants to draw the treasure card. i stop him and want to give hero2 the dark relic. hero2 needs to roll a black power die (in his case even two, because of his skill) if he's affected by the trap at all and thus recieves the dark relic. i'd have choosen "load stone", which would have meant, that he needed to two runes (in his pack), 2 potions and a "other" card, because the load stone needs to be equipped as a other card, and the hero already had two others equipped.

instead my heros refused and told me that i can only play the trap card on the hero that opens the chest and thus only give HIM the dark relic, which was almost pointless.

there's no clear ruling on that in my opinion. i've seen it being played out my way on bgg, but i'd rather have a good explanation, possibly covered by the original rules, which i can present my players.

b. if i understand it correctly, the hero with the dark relic can get rid of it by buying the 500g item from the shop or die. so the heroes can get rid of it, by killing the hero with the dark relic card. is that correct?

a. The triggering condition for the Dark Relic card is when a hero receives, NOT when a chest is opened. I don't know exactly how that interacts with the weird chest rules in RtL, but it is definitely NOT restricted to the hero that opens the chest.

b. Yes, that's correct. It's kind of a stupid mechanic.

One way to ensure the effectiveness of the dark relic in the advanced campaign is to extend the relic's influence on the hero, and maybe forbid heroes from killing one another when they're afflicted with some sort of crippling mechanic.We actually have never allowed heroes to self-consciously attack each other on purpose(only friendly fire is allowed, say from a breath attack).

You could extend the relic's power by houseruling that the item doesn't disappear upon the affected hero's death and that each time he is resurrected he'll have to roll a power die. On a surge, he discards the relic. On any other result it stays on him.

is there any official ruling on the timing and targeting of a dark relic? because i can't find ANYHTING in the rules really. there must be someone who knows, how to play that trap without house ruling or guessing?

eNTi said:

In RTL? No. Unfortunately. Luckily RTL nerfed it so horribly by making it so easy to get rid of that it's not worth the 2 treachery and ***** of threat it takes to play it anyway. So, at least for our group, the point is moot.

James McMurray said:

on a fully packed mage with potions and 3 alternative runes in his pack and already two "others" equipped, loadstone can do tons of damage. also, the heroes do not recieve a possibly powerful item or at least the gold from selling a treasure. them having an item less and possibly letting them have to drop some too, is almost unfair. then they either have to deal with the dark relics consequences, have to give you the hero's conquest by killing him, or pay 500 gold, which is another power dice upgrade for example. a well timed dark relic can be devastating and that's why i want know how to play it. it's not even clear who gets it in a normal campaign!

The normal game is covered by the rules on the card and in the FAQ. Whichever hero you want to receive it gets it, because it happens when a hero receives a treasure. It is given before you see what he has gotten, because that's what the FAQ says.

If you want an answer for RtL, you'll have to make one up. The current rulings simply do not work, and FFG is silent on the matter.

ok so i'll probably do it this way: one hero rolls the dice and draws the treasure cards. then when he distributes the treasures i'll chose this as the trigger for the card. if i played it the way, the extended list of answers would have me do it, then i'd simply replace a dark relic for a treasure and the heroes would be able to give it to a hero so it does the least harm. almost useless.

You could have the distributing hero look at treasures and hand them out without you seeing them, then they're revealed when the other heroes get them. IIRC that's the way we ended up doing it the one time it happened (it was the final keep, so no 500gp easy fix was available).