I know we'll be getting the rules soon, but does anybody want to speculate whether or not 2E will include leveled treasure cards like 1E did? (Copper / silver / Gold)

There are two ways they could do it that I can think of:

1) Just like the vanilla 1E game, each dungeon map could specify the type of treasure available to be found.

or

2) Just like the advanced campaign in 1E, the treasure level could correspond to campaign level. So in 2E, the type of treasure card you get corresponds to what stage in the story you're at.

Also… Relics? I reeeeally hope so.

We already know there will be relics. The Dawnblade is a treasure received as a reward in one of the quests of the same name.

However, regarding other treasures: that seems to be the preview they skipped!

Well, I heard somebody say there were no chests in 2e (don't know how official that is, mind you.) It's entirely possible that relics are the only items heroes find "in the field" and the rest are just bought in town after the heroes save up enough cash. More powerful weapons being more expensive, natch.

It's also possible that all the non-relic weapons are roughly the same in terms of power and the heroes improve their combat potential primarily through their class deck and the abilities it provides. There do seem to be a fair number of skills that say "make an attack with X bonus applied."

I do hope there's some mechanic for looting treasure in the field, however, if treasure is "leveled" like it was in 1e, I sincerely hope the tier system is more granular than just "copper/silver/gold." With weapons and armor falling into "crap, moderate and god-powerful" the power curve was a bit wonky in the old system. If there were more tiers the power levels could be more evenly distributed.

We know the campaign is divided into Act I and Act II, so perhaps there are "Act I" gear cards and "Act II" gear cards. That would be going in the wrong direction for my hopes, though. There also hasn't been any obvious sign of the weapons they've shown us being divided like that.

Steve-O said:

Not in the official previews, but someone "found" pictures that indicated the shop items are divided into Act I and Act II.

Steve-O said:

I really hope this isn't the case. Who DIDN'T like opening a treasure chest previously? Plus, the mimic trap was hilarious (but sadly not as brutally powerful as the one on Dark Souls…).

Sausageman said:

EXACTLY!!! What's a dungeon crawl without being able to find some loot!?

Well that was an interesting reply here, lol. Guess we can allude to there being chests, lol.

Coldmoonrising said:

Don't take my reply to be anything official! My username was formerly "SoylentGreen" but I registered a Con (Game Challenge) I help run in Fargo. So my user just looks different now. My color is simply because I help run a con… nothing more!

I am waiting to see just as much as the rest of you if there will be chests!

Game Challenge said:

Watch him!

wait… what…??? lol

Sausageman said:

From what we know, chests have been replaced with "search tokens", though they seem mechanically pretty much the same. It's only thematically that there's a difference.

Rules are posted. Looks like the answer is: we have standard class items + Act 1 shop items + Act 2 shop items + relics.

In the dungeon encounters, you can find search tokens, which allow you to draw search cards. These search cards can be items you keep only for the duration of the quest (like potions) or (presumably?) tell you to draw a shop item card.

I love that the overlord can have relics, and that the relic works differently depending on if the heroes or overlord have it.

jwdenzel said:

I'm kind of annoyed by that, actually. I'm hoping the differences between the "hero side" and the "overlord side" will be limited to excluding mechanical terms that one side or other can't apply. Why would an item behave differently in a bad guy's hands than a good guy's? I mean, I can understand if the relic somehow "draws on the power of the wielder's soul" or something, but how many times can you really pull that stunt before it gets old?

(Note: "annoyed" does not mean I'll refuse to buy the game. It'll just be something I make a point of mocking at a the game table =P)

I could easily imagine a relic those thematic effect is the same but whose game mechanical representation is different. Like, maybe an energy source that gives the heroes extra fatigue or lets the overlord draw extra cards. Or a reanimation item that revives knocked out heroes or spawns additional monsters.

Antistone makes a good point. And besides, we don't necessarily know that the Relics on one card are the same, just that the Hero relic and the Overlord relic are mutually exclusive when making appearances in the campaign. Thus, in a particular scenario, one side could, by winning, both find a relic of their own and prevent the opposition from securing their relic.

Walk said:

We do, actually. One is called the Dawnblade, which allows you to target two adjacent monsters with the same melee attack (on a surge), and the evil counterpart is called the Duskblade, which give all adjacent heroes -1 Speed and gives Pierce 5 on a surge.

Another is the Staff of Light, which gives AoE healing, and the Staff of Shadows, which allows the OL to reroll dice.

Well at least the OL and hero version of the relics have different names, which is why I don't really mind the different effects.

Steve-O said:

You mean something like a magic ring that makes only the Heroes invisible while it makes the Overlord into an unstoppable force? Yeah, I've never heard of artifacts behaving that way.

(I get your point though!)

Bleached Lizard said:

Wait, seriously? So heroes who begin their move action adjacent have their movement hindered, but heroes can walk past without penalty as long as they started at least 2 spaces away?

It could be that the heroes' version represents the relic's original form, while the overlord's version represents the same relic after it has been corrupted by the overlord.

For example; if the heroes fail to recover the legendary Staff of Light, the overlord's minions bring it to their dark master who twists its powers, transforming it into the foul Staff of Shadows.

Indeed, one of the quests is called The Ritual of Shadows, perhaps the heroes are attempting to prevent this from happening.

Antistone said:

Yep.

Scy800 said:

I am also soothed by this new information.

jwdenzel said:

Was there anything in any of Mr Tolkien's books that ever suggested the One Ring wouldn't make Sauron invisible? I know he was visible while wearing it in the opening scene of the first movie, but that would hardly be the only thing that changed from page to screen. Maybe the ring does many things if you know how to work it, but unfortunately it got stuck in "ring of invisibility" mode when it was cut off Sauron's hand and no one who held it since has had the ability or the knowledge to make it do anything else.

I see what you're saying, though. =P

Like I said before, I'm cool with some magic items that change their effects depending on who's holding them, but if EVERY magic item does that sort of thing, it gets old fast. That's all I was saying.

Antistone said:

I've known mud puddles that did the exact same thing to my car. Momentum is a ***** (well, depending on your point of view. =P)

Steve-O said:

If I recall correctly, it only makes mortals invisible. In the first book, Tom Bombadil puts it on at one point and specifically does not disappear.

Steve-O said:

"On the same turn" does not necessarily equate to "momentum". I could move two spaces towards you, attack, and then move two spaces in exactly the opposite direction - momentum cannot possibly be helping me there. On the other hand, I could spend all of my actions on two consecutive turns sprinting in a straight line, and still happen to be next to you at the end of the first turn.

Turns are just arbitrary time-slicing to reduce the complexity of the sim - there is no thematic construct that corresponds to "the end of a turn".

Antistone said:

Yeah, and magic is MAGIC . A fictional force whose primary purpose is to defy the laws of physics as we know them. Use whatever rationale helps you sleep at night, magic doesn't need to make sense.