Has anyone made house rules for JitD?

Our group has adjusted a few bits:

Troll spawn card treachery cost increased from 1 to 2.

Golem spawn card treachery cost reduced from 3 to 2.

"Envy" power card threat cost increased from 15 to 22.

"Gluttony" power card threat cost reduced from 22 to 15.

Cost for heroes to buy a skill reduced from 1000gp to 750gp.

These were done with the general idea that is it always/never gets used in a game, its probably too good/bad.

Who else has some good ones?

Depending on the win/loss ratio of the hero players, the OL either doesn't get treachery, draws only 1 card per round (2 with evil genius) or both.

There are plenty of peoples house rules for Descent. One common one is to use the reinforcement marker from RtL in normal quests.

I've only played quest 1&2 from JitD, but I have heard the quests in WoD are virtually impossible, so they might need some house rules in order to make them a bit more playable.

I'm currently only playing RtL, which *is* in need of some tweaks / house rules IMO.

As for your suggestions for normal descent, they sound good. Its a real shame the Golem isnt very good, maybe the monster itself needs changing too?

Paul Grogan said:

Well, he doesn't do much damage, but i've thought he looks more like a giant road block than anything else - just park him on that chest and see how long it take them to kill him with an axe!

Trees give Stealth (from non-adjacent attacks) instead of Shadowcloak... Dragons hiding behind trees annoys me. If I was playing hide-and-seek with Smaug I'm pretty sure I'd notice him if he was behind a tree...

Chests in RTL are nerfed - no risk to opening them. So we've added a chance for curses:

In addition to rolling the 4 power die to determine the loot, the OL rolls one too to determine the curse (if any):

* Enhancement: Nothing

* Surge: Normal Curse (OL Gets threat: 4 in copper, 6 in silver, 8 in gold)

* Blank: 1 Curse token on the player that opened the chest

This adds some risk to the reward, and makes opening them more tactical. In copper, chests are about the same as a normal dungeon, then slightly higher threat reward in silver and gold as the heroes get stronger. With 3 chests in copper phase and 1/3 chance of hitting them per chest, it only amounts to a total of 4 threat for the OL (on average) so it's not substantially game changing. Anyone like or dislike this or think it's too strong or too pointless?

I really like it. However, everything I read (apart from my own campaign reports) say that the heroes really struggle early on in the campaign. If this is indeed the case, and then the OL brings in a house rule to give him more threat - he may not be popular

But, unless other people persuade me otherwise, I might adopt this rule for our next campaign.

poobaloo said:

The only time there is no risk to opening chests in RtL is when the OL has no cards (or no threat and 1 card).

Here are my House Rules

1. Mata and Kata can each carry a single coin token as their item.

2. The first bounty collected by killing a Master Monster does not get halved should the hero that collected it be killed.

Saving the best for last...

3. The Overlord does not have to bring drinks, snacks nor does he have to pitch in for the pizza.

MidWestOverlord said:

Where did that rule come from?

Paul Grogan said:

And why does it sound like the Heroes are getting multiple bounties from killing the same Master Monster?

The House Rule of the bounty not being halved only will apply to the first red monster being killed. It can only be collected once per game and only goes to the Hero that delivers the death blow to the monster.

2. The first bounty collected by killing a Master Monster does not get halved should the hero that collected it be killed.

The House Rule of the bounty not being halved only will apply to the first red monster being killed. It can only be collected once per game and only goes to the Hero that delivers the death blow to the monster."

Sorry, I still dont get what you are changing here. In normal descent, the hero who deals a killing blow to a master monster gets 50 coins. In RtL, this means that the 'party' get the 50 coins as all money is shared.

You are suggesting that the bounty does not get halved? There is nothing in the rules to say that it does get halved, so I have no idea what it is that your rule changes.

Also, you get the 50 coins for each master monster killed, not just for the first one. I am confused by you saying "it can only be collected once per game"

C.H.A.D. said:

Great house rule!

I think I'll use it, as the shadowcloack things get old very fast. I'd allow stealthy characters to reroll the stealth die if they are attacked by a non adjacent figure while in a tree.

I see from where your confusion stems. You are making the assumption that I am using the Road to Legend Expantion.

MidWestOverlord said:

No, I didn't assume that and I'm still confused. So if you are playing say the first Quest of JitD and you kill a Master monsters you get the 50 gold but you don't get the 50 for any of the other Master monsters you kill?

MidWestOverlord said:

Sounds like they play that the first 50 coins that you earn by killing a master monster are "special", i.e. they don't count towards your money total when you die (in basic Descent you lose half your coins if you die). In effect, this would seem to save each heroes 25 gc over the course of a scenario... doesn't seem too unbalancing a houserule to me ;-)

NO, every hero that kills a master monster collects the 50 gold bounty. The first hero that kills the first master monster collects the 50 gold in full in town. The first bounty collected is exempt from being halved should that hero be killed.

MidWestOverlord said:

*scratches head* Sorry, I still don't understand this rule. Why should a hero collect the bounty in town? He immediately gets it when he kills the monster. And under what circumstances would it be halved?

The only real house rule we use that I can think of is that a monster has to actually wound a hero to apply an effect token. It makes a few specific monsters a little less threatening... but those monsters can usually put out some damage anyway, and it only makes sense that the invulnerability potion makes you very resistant to them.

glenn frog knight said:

That makes characters with high armour too powerful IMO

I agree. Effect tokens are sometimes the only way to hurt the high-armored characters, which are overpowered already.

My players fear the Ferrox's Bleed attacks as well as the annoying Stun from the Master Razorwing. Dragons are already a push-over, why nerf their Burn?

We use a few house rules:

• When a chest is opened, each player draws his treasure, looks at it, and may freely trade with the other players for the most suitable loot cards. The only stipulation is that every hero must get his allotted treasure. I'm thinking of changing this though, as Mata and Kata have become useless. The reason we do this is because loot is fun, and the players really enjoy getting new toys. It's boring and a hassle to have to trade an item to the person who really needs it. Our catch-phrase when playing Descent is, "Battlebattlebattle."
• For my custom-made, very difficult dungeons, I allow the players to choose their own heroes. They may also choose one skill card from a deck their character would normally have access to. However, they must draw the next two with no option of trading in. Both of these are optional but have proven to be necessary. But I will say the players have really enjoyed my dungeons.
• The 5 die upgrades from Enhancement Potions may include silver and gold dice from RtL. Likewise, heroes may choose to buy silver/gold upgrades instead of more black dice. They may also buy the RtL health and fatigue upgrades for 750 gold (same price as a Gold Treasure).
• Heroes may buy a random skill card for 1000 gold as normal. They may spend 1500 and buy three skill cards (from the same deck) and choose the one they want. Or they may spend 2000 and buy the specific skill they want (nobody has done this one yet so I may lower the price).