So looking over the Party Upgrades in Road to Legend when we played it for the first time today, the Guide made me do a bit of a double take. It seems on the face of it that using this card the majority of High Threat trails become completely safe. Which seems pretty strange, these are supposed to be the most dangerous paths to take on the map. It seems like the text should include a stipulation of "to a minimum of 1 power die rolled", especially since the upgrade isn't all that expensive with how easy it is to make money in the advanced campaign. Has anyone else run into problems with this?

WarrenLocke said:

Easy to make money? Cash is often the least available resource that heroes can spare - especially early on when encounters are more dangerous.

Further, its a Guide. Umm, its supposed to make those dangerous trails safe, thats what you pay for!

In addition, by mid campaign most encountersare pretty easy for the heroes and they are actually likely to be trying to get encounters for the extra CT and cash.

I personally don't think its as powerful as the staff that lets them move twice AND CHOOSE WHICH TRAIL THEY ROLL! Some careful map movements and they can probably circumvent all the red trails by rolling a yellow or green trail adjacent to the red trail.

The power of the Guide is not so much avoiding the red trails but more likely to put an extra die when rolling for green trails (and yellow trails later in the campaign). And especially if the OL have been dumb enough to pay for the Lawlessness upgrade, the Guide is a sure way to make a lot of XP and gold. Combined with the Staff of the Wilds it gets even better for the heroes, and the OL better start thinking on how to prepare for the final battle.

Heebøll

Heebøll said:

Cheers for making a newbie RtL Overlord feel like a ****! Appreciated

Because Lawlessness is a bit rubbish, we have houseruled it so that it does the same as the guide. i.e: The OL can choose to increase or decrease the number of dice by 1. This makes it a useful card again. Now the OL can force them to roll extra dice if they are finding encounters tough, or remove a dice when the group are strong enough that they want easy XP and cash.

Of course, it doesnt really make sense that "Lawlessness" could make it easier, but it also doesnt make sense that a "guide" wanders around blowing a horn to make so much noise that all monsters within a mile hear it.

Sorry. I did not intend to step on anyones toes, and I hope I haven't.

It is perfectly understandable that a person new to the art of overlording would think that Lawlessness is a good card to play early in the campaign to reap the rewards of an increased frequency of encounters through the whole campaign. Unfortunately its the heroes that do most of the reaping, which should be evident from late copper (possibly early silver) and onwards.

Its true that Lawlessness can make it tough for the heroes at first at the early beginning of the campaign, but the simple counter strategy is to take only those dungeons close by that you can reach through green trails, and there is enough of those so that the heroes can afford that essential equipment and the boat and the guide.

The turning point, where the heroes go from fearing encounters to hoping for them (preferably the green ones), coincides roughly with the time when the heroes have bought the guide or the staff (or them both) and they have all obtained some more specialized equipment and their first skill.

After that, the overlord will curse himself many times for spending XP on the Lawlessness power. The only thing he can hope for then, is that the heroes at some point underestimate a red encounter, which I have seen happen quite a few times - that's the chance for the overlord to get his XP back in a ruthless massacre of heroes.

So once again. The guide is not only a good card that lets the heroes avoid encounters, or provoke them if they choose, it is also a counter strategy to Lawlessness, and it actually makes a card played by the overlord into an advantage for the heroes.

Heebøll