Hello All,

I just purchased this game and plan to pick it up tomorrow. I'm looking forward to reading through the rules a few times and trying the game out tomorrow evening. One problem we have though is that we have 6 total players coming to game night. Is there a common way to allow for a 6th player? I've seen advice on board game geek that suggests having two people play as the overlord, or adjusting the monsters the overlords controls to balance an additional hero.

Does anybody have any suggestions or has had a positive experience with 6 players?

Thanks!

Never actually done it before but maybe these ideas will work:

Extra player as a hero: Players all start with only 250 gold instead of 300. Each player gives +1 conquest token when killed. When treasure is picked up, no more than 8 total treasures are drawn; let the heroes divide it up. When money is picked up, no more than 400 coins is given; again, let the heroes divide it up. Give monsters 1 extra wound.

Extra player as another overlord: Divide the turns up as such, hero-hero-overlord-hero-hero-overlord. On an overlord's turn, he only gets half the normal threat (in this case 2) and only draws one card. Whenever threat is gained (through surges or other actions), it is divided between the two overlords. They only start with one card each at the beginning of the game. Heroes start with one extra conquest token.

Hope this helps.

6 players is do-able. You may want to skip the first two quests in the base game if you have 5 heroes (+1 OL) as they favor the heroes anyway. Your first few games I wouldn't make any drastic changes, get a feel for the game first. Don't bother with adjusting the monster stats, just use the 5 player versions.

You could limit the treasure (in terms of gold, coins, and potions) to what would be received by 4 heroes. You may want to impose a limit of 12 total Conquest Value amongst the heroes (this should ensure the Overlord will be able to get some kills in).

Have fun with it.

Another suggestion would be to have the OL start with a power card in play, or alternately he could start with more threat and a larger hand of cards. If you have the expansion that deals with Treachery, up the amount that the OL gets.

All in all though, try the game as-is first, and see how hard it is for the OL. Since there's no tried and true way to add another player, you'll have to fiddle. For those first games, play more as you would as a GM in an RPG, and fudge things a little to see how the players handle it (for example, you could add an extra monster or two in each area, or upgrade a monster to their master form.

Finally, as someone else has suggested, limit the amount of gold and treasure the party gets. If they're not getting swag faster than they would, that means the treasure is getting spread more thinly, and therefore their collective power won't grow much faster than it does with one less hero.

As far as having a second overlord player, it could be fun, but you don't necessarily have to change any rules to accomodate it. I find that when I play OL, I often overlook options or strategies, and sometimes it even slips my mind to drop that crushing block at the opportune moment I'd been waiting for these past five turns. Having a second brain to collaborate with will make the overlord and the critters smarter without making them more powerful.

To make a long post short, play. Fiddle. Most importantly, have FUN!!! :-)

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I just picked up the game (along with a few others including Android) and I'm eager to start reading. I'll let everyone know how it turns out tonight.

Oh, and I just found out we'll have 7 total players