Howdy! OK, so my son and I just played Runebound, fun as expected, but I have some questions to verify we are doing things correctly, if players could chime in, I'd appreciate it!

1) You can only heal wounds in a town, and one coin per wound...correct? I ask this because it seems, especially early in the game, you don't have many coins (one per challenge) to heal two or three wounds. And if you spend your coin, you can't buy items. Understandable, since you are "young" but is this correct?

2) If an event level IV is in play (we happened to draw that one first in the red deck!) then a lower event card is drawn later, is the "star" applicable? That is, are the star spots on the board replenished? Or only if an event "takes affect" are the star spots replenished? The point is, since I gambled and tried a red challenge early--which I won =) then if you couldn't replenish any other star spots, it seems you could run out and not get powerful enough. Yes/no?

3) My son had two items, "Soul Burn" and "Soul Bite", both give +3 damage for a total of 6 damage. It seems that once you have several combinations of cards you can do 4-6 damage on the first round of combat and if you survive the attack, you kill the challenge. Is that correct? This almost seems like heros goes from "not much" to suddenly +3 damage by simply getting an item. That +3 damage can kill any green challenge and almost always causes a yellow challenge to get killed immediately. So perhaps the game starts to move quickly now because you really should be attacking blue challenges. Comments?

Thanks for any responses!

Looking forward to game #2 tomorrow.

- Kijug

Hello there, it's nice you enjoyed your first game very much. I didn't, it took me several games to really understand and enjoy Runebound, which is now among my favourites.

Kijug said:

In Towns you can discard ALL your Exhaustion counters for 1 Gold and heal your Hero for 1 Gold per Wound. It's correct. Green Challenges are easy (low damages and low difficulty) and you should avoid taking Damage against these ones. Most of them won't harm you if you're cautious, but an Assassin on the Loose can easily kill any Character with no Experience/Items. You start with 3 Gold and your best bet is to gain one or two more and head for a Town that has a low-cost Ally or Armour Item for sale. Acolyte of Flame costs only 1 and is excellent, same for Rune Seeker (cost 4) and Burning Priest (cost 3). Gauntlets of Shadow, Chain Mail and Padded Leather Armour are your best choice as a first Item, but it depends on the Hero you're playing.

To play Runebound well, you have to know Items and Allies well; newbies tend to underestimate low cost stuff and focus on gaining the occasional Soul Bite and Jirta the Fierce.

Kijug said:

This is clarified in the current Runebound FAQ, which I recommend you to download from this website. You replenish Adventure Gems every time you draw an Event card, regardless of whether or not it is put in to play.

Kijug said:

Items can strongly improve your hero. If you can easily do more than 3 damage with a single attack and have Armour or two Allies, it is more than time to face Blue Challenges. I recommend you start playing with the Doom Track optional rule when you're skilled enough, or the game will quickly become unchallenging for you and your son.

But it looks like you're missing the Item Activation Rule, which is very important but easily forgotten (I did it for many games). You may use only ONE Activate-to-use item (green sandglass icon) per round of Combat , and one in the Before Combat Phase. If your son had Soul Burn and Soul Bite, he cannot activate them both in the same round. No +6 damage in Magic Phase!

If he had the Crystal Staff (2 damages in a Before Combat magic attack), he succesfully uses it and then manages to hit in Melee/Magic, he can activate Soul Bite, provided he hasn't activated other items in that turn of combat (i.e. an Armour Item to cancel some wounds).

All makes sense...thanks!

And now that you mention it, yes, I recall the one-use rule. I'll have to review that and read the FAQ.

Thanks!