The game group just picked this game up, we loved our first playthrough and are eager to have many more.

We only had 3 things come up that we would like clarified.

1.) The rulebook states that the Item limits are as follows - 2 weapons, 1 armor, and 2 allies. What is the limit on the number of artifacts a hero can possess and use?

2.) On certain challenges if you fail the before combat test it says to take -4 to your first combat roll for example. If after the challenges before combat even you use your OWN before combat ability or item is this the roll you take -4 to or do you wait until the actual combat starts to take your -4? Furthermore if wording in the game says "Combat Roll" it doesn't matter whether you are attacking or defending right? both are still considered "Combat Rolls" correct?

3.) In the base adventure the dragonlords turn into usable runes toward the end of the game. Do their activate abilities count as your one item per combat round activation or can you activate say a weapon AND a dragonlord rune in the same combat round? Do they refresh as normal on your next refesh step or are they one time use type deals?

Thanks for the input folks.

Oh and since there are so many expansions both big and small out there does anybody have any recomendations on which ones are really the "essentials" to get?

In reply to your questions: 1. there is no limit on artifacts or runes so far as I know. 2. if it says -4 to your next combat role it would not apply to your before combat action. The rules make major distinctions between combat roles and before combat roles. Also note some cards say "next combat role" others say next "attack role". It is important to note the difference as a defending role is a combat role, but not an attack role obviously. 3. Yes, the dragon lord runes function as any activation item, one pure round and refreshed for next turn.

Cheers, Jason

I concur with Jason on the answers to your questions.

Shenzou said:

Well, it will depend on your personal preferences for the game, of course. Personally, I would say get as many of the Adventure Variants as you can, since those breathe the most new life into the game IMHO. It's probably a good idea to get one or two each of the challenge/item decks, but I don't think any particular decks are that vital.

Class decks would be essential if you enjoy PvP interaction, not so much otherwise.

Each of the Big Box expansions is it's own game and they don't generally mix well with the card expansions, so those are in a category by themselves. Each one will give you a whole new adventure to play through, but none of them will really be enhanced by anything else you might have. The Big Boxes are also reliably in print, whereas the card expansions seem to be disappearing and going through some sort of metamorphosis right now. All that means is the big boxes can be found easily and reliably, whereas the card decks might be here today, gone tomorrow (and may or may not show up later in some new packaging.)

Ok, i'll check out the card expansions then as well as the big box sets.

We had one more question about the game. If you deck out a particular color adventure pile (say the green pile for example) do you reshuffle the cards that aren't held by players and make a new green deck or is the green deck just gone for the rest of the game?

Shenzou said:

Personally I would reshuffle, but I'm not sure what the official rules say. I have a few challenge card expansions in there so we don't generally run out during a single sitting.

Steve-O said:

The official rules say that resolved cards are put at the bottom of the deck, not in a discard pile. As per official ruling, you needn't reshuffling at all.

I do reshuffle anyway, because I get annoyed if I have to put cards at the bottom of the deck each time.