Hi all

I have recently picked up the Road to Ledgend expansion and my group will start it tomorrow. Campaign mode suits us better than vanilla because we often do not have time for a full vanilla level, and all but one of the players are expirenced RPGers, so losing all stuff between levels annoys us.

Does anyone have any advice for a group new to RtL?

Please do NOT say to make sure we have a lot of experience with vanilla. I have read that advice a million times, and am likely to ignore your post after seeing that line.

We have base descent, Well of Darkness and Road to Legend.

We each have a half dozen games under our belts, I know this is less then you want for campaign mode, but we are unable to find a regular time for more vanilla. We all have the same amount of expirence.

I have Overlorded every game we've played (I like it more than heroing) and the party have been the same players since we first bought the game.

Thanks in advance for advice.

Vye King said:

Study the options available, to both sides. Before your start. Both how either side gets those options, and what those options will mean to both sides. Recheck frequently.

Always play with an eye to both medium and long term goals as well as immediate game situation. Both your goals and your opponent's goals.

Understand what it takes to win the game. That is your long term goal.

This is a very tough, tight, demanding, fun, strategic challenge, wrapped up in a great tactical package. Enjoy. It has depth in it that few other games have, and probably none in this genre.
But if you don't like challenges, or if when the going gets tough... you pull out (proper catch phrase is 'the tough get going'), run now and save yourself the bother.

Also, it is usually quite important for the hero players to be prepared to let others run their heroes if they will miss a session. It can be difficult to keep 5 people together regularly unless you are very fortunate. Real life tends to intervene all too often for someone or other (its my wifes birthday, my brother's in town this week, I have the flu...)

Thanks. We'll keep all that in mind. We started last week, but we didn't get very far, and as I bought WoD since then we've decided to restart. 1 problem we ran into last time was the party bought a rumour and, as I was running the darkness plot, they placed it away from my keep to avoid the fatigue loss. This ment that when Lord Farrow (Sir Farrow? whichever one you get for free) reached a city on the second week they wouldn't be able to finish the rumour and chase him away before the city had to roll for a few seiges. Any advice on handeling this situation?

Vye King said:

First Note: Rumours are a mug's game until mid-late silver. They just encourage the heroes to go too deep into a dungeon and give the OL too much resources. The heroes should not touch rumours until they can regularly and reliably finish levels in 2-3 turns.

Second Note: This is exactly the sort of tough choice the OL needs to be putting on the heroes at every possible opportunity. Any time they want to do something, he should be making them take risks and pay costs to get it. Get used to it. You have to decide whether defending the city is important or not. That will depend on many factors. In this case I wouldn't be interested in doing the rumour in the first case, but I wouldn't necessarily be desperate to defend the City either. Razing a city is good for the OL and bad for the heroes, but unless that city is Tamalir it isn't a game-critical move. At least not yet. You also have to decide whether you can fight Alric yet and win or not. There are lots of variables, few of which you have even thought about I'm sure, let alone listed.

Finally i tottaly agree with corbon. This is the most in depth tactical game you will find in this genre that also racks up hours of game in the 100+. Most people don't understand that you win on the map and not on the dungeons. Choices that you make either as a OL or as a player will mean about everything. Do you have to power to go face that Lt sieging a city or you will waste 3 to 4 weeks going there and then getting killed in the process? (we found out that the hard way even merrick TPK us with a single manticore as if you are not ready to deal big amounts of damage to soaring you are toast). Choices, choices, choices... The more i play this game the more i love it. The most important thing i have find out is that NEVER ever give up. Play it to the end. Let the OL roll for win in tamalir you just never know. Go in dungeon and beef up to come and kick these LT ass. This game has big swings. One minute you feel you have lost 2 sessions later you are still in it and kicking OL's ass.