a lot of people really wanted to see harad or rhun, and gondor is of course a great hit. what i really want to see though i more adventure quests.

though i understand the stewards fear is a good narrative quest (no spoilers please- im still waiting for it in the post ) and of course black rider looks to be exactly what i want

rich

A mixture of both throughout a block would be the best way to go IMO.

Yeah, I like quests that are a combination of both, much like Down the Anduin was; you really need to keep going, but you still need to waste fools that get in your way. I certainly don't like quests where you have to wait for the encounter deck to spit out the Thing You Need, but a good balance makes a good quest (such as Peril in Perlargir).

i'm more of an adventure quest person. i like the way they seem to be bringing in new mechanics for each quest. i think that is what keeps it interesting, otherwise it would just be like playing the same game everytime, over and over, but with different pictures on the cards.

one mechanic which i thought was really good, which i think they should bring back, was the one in "massing at osgiliath". they made it so the locations were all on one river bank or the other. and you couldn't travel to some of the locations until you crossed the river bank. that was the closest they've ever got to making the locations feel like real locations in a real place, i think, instead of just random ones out of the deck. they should do more of that kind of thing.

one idea i had which i thought might be quite good, which is the same kind of thing, is having a location off in the distance which you are travelling towards as quickly as possible, but dont actually get there until stage 2 of the quest, or whatever. and every time a certain kind of enemy came off of the encounter deck, it would just go under the location, out of play until you reached the location -- so they'd be building up their forces. so the more time you took to get to the location, the more time the enemies had to gather their strength. it would be like marching towards a hill, and seeing the enemy army grow and grow as time went by.

come to think of it… isnt there a quest in the khazad-dum box which is a bit like that? where the enemies gather behind a gate until you break it down? i like that kind of thing. locations can sometimes be the weakest part of this game, i think. and the more they can do to make them feel like actual places that you are heading towards, the better

richsabre said:

can you define what you mean by "adventure" quest? dealing with and attacking enemies seems to be the largest component of the game (location exploring is largely a dull affair) so i'm not sure what differentiates the two?

do you mean a quest where, to win, you have to kill a "boss" enemy versus not?

@ Cunir- they're good ideas- and the location you are thinking of is the East Gate….very tough in 3 player when all those enemies are added to staging and you can engage

@Dain- i think what i call an 'adventure quest' is something like peril in pelargir, or redhorn gate. something where there is a strong narrative focus. now one could probably say the same of all quests….and that i think is due to the merits of great designing…however i see quests such as 'conflict at the carrock' and shadow and flame less so

rich

richsabre said:

gotcha. my favorite quest is Journey to Rhosgoel, which I suppose is more narrative than adventure, but as a primarily Tactics player, I certainly love smashing enemies. Can't I have strong narrative and kill stuff - like Siege of Cair Andros or Battle of 5 Armies? haha.

Dain Ironfoot said:

sure - guess they're the best quests of them all!

hopefully the new campaign mode will make all quests seem a bit more narrative and a bit more like one big adventure, because it's going to string them all altogether and take your characters along with it.

i think its hard to be narrative when a quest ends in a few rounds.

i like the "adventure" quests because they stand out more and generally seem to be more unique. Thematically i love the redhorn gate, just trying to brave a crazy blizzard in a mountain and i think the designers did a really good job making it. Would like to see more quests like it