Picked up the game yesterday and played it once by myself. I have to say, there were some memorable moments in the game, especially when Gandalf saved the day when the situation seemed the most hopeless.

My first question is, if nobody commits any characters to the quest, do the players get any threat damage that phase? I think not, but it never hurts to be absolutely sure.

My second question is, do you add in engaged enemies' threat values when determining if you were successful during the quest phase? I think you do? Only the location being explored doesn't add it's threat value to the mix.

Rexor_80 said:

Found the answer to this question in the rule book, "… against the combined threat strength of all cards in the staging area.". Apparently, I made the game harder to win by adding the threat strengths of attacking enemies to the quest success resolution phase. But I still won the game, awesome.

Sorry, but you are also making it easier as well. If you do not commit any characters in the Quest Phase, it still happens. You still have to add X Encounter cards to the staging area - X = number of players - and all players threat levels will rise by the total threat of all cards in the staging area! You are not forced to commit characters to the Quest, but not doing so will push your threat level up very quickly to dangerous levels. You were right about not adding threat from 'engaged' enemies, so with 1 bit easier but 1 bit harder, your success rate should be about the same. Have fun! Cheers!

Rashley said:

Thanks for setting me straight. I'm glad I asked this before I had the chance to play the game with a friend. Wrong habits aren't easy to forget.