So we just finished our first game of RB 2nd edition. Here are a few questions that came up while we played:

1. Can you move through a town without stopping? I know the rules say towns are "wild cards" and any die can be used to move into them. But we weren't sure if you had to stay in town on the turn that you enter it.

2. On the Lightning Mace card, it says "Your Hero receives a +4 bonus to his melee combat rolls". The only time that bonus is applied is when you roll the dice to determine if you hit/defend in the melee combat phase, correct?

3. We assumed that Before Combat is not considered part of the combat round, is that correct? It seems to be a one-time thing before the real combat starts, and then the rounds cycle through the 3 phases.

4. On the card "The Sky Full of Wasps", part of the reward says "Give this card to another player during his movement step to change one of his movement dice to a side of your choosing. Any player who receives this card can use it on another player's movement step as described above." To us this meant the card kept bouncing between the two of us for the rest of the game. Is that correct?

5. Is it possible to get "stuck" at the end of the game and not be able to finish it? We were at a point where all of the adventure counters except the reds were gone. We weren't sure if we would be able to handle the dragonlords yet. Fortunately, our first red card was the red event card which replenished the starburst adventure counters which allowed us to keep adventuring to gain more Xp, gold, allies, etc. After a while we were then able to handle the dragonlords and we finished the game. So if we wouldn't have drawn that red event card and had been knocked out by a dragonlord instead, we would have lost an item/ally, making it even harder to attempt the next dragonlord, which would cause a downward spiral into us having nothing and the game ending. Is that a possible ending?

Sorry if any of these have been answered elsewhere in the forums and I just couldn't find them. And thanks in advance for any answers.

MuneMud said:

Yes, you can. Town spaces are "wild" and you can use any symbol to move on Towns.

MuneMud said:

Exactly.

MuneMud said:

You did correctly. Before Combat is a limited timespan before combat starts: here you have to solve the Challenge "Before Combat" instructions, then you can use your Hero's Before Combat Abilities and activate ONE Object that can be used Before Combat.

MuneMud said:

You're not the first to complain about this Card in a two player game. It becomes a continuous torment for each player, because everyone plays it on the other on each turn. The cards allows you to do this; if you think it's annoying after a while, make it one-use only, or simply don't use it to prevent the other player using it on you next turn. When you play with 4+ people, this card has a different impact.

MuneMud said:

With only two of you, a full board depleted of all adventure jewels except Red is almost unbelievable. You should have plenty of experience and Gold after such an harvest and lots of Items as well, if you visited Towns to spend your Gold. Allies and Objects strongly improve your Character and if you don't play with the Doom Track you should be able to face the Red Challenges with no trouble.

A Hero needs nothing more of 5-6 Green Challenges, 5 Yellow Challenges, 4 Blue Challenges and by then he/she should be able to face a Red Challenge and win, considering the Items and Allies acquired in the meantime. If you don't play with a time limitation such as the Doom Track, Runebound is going to be an always-win game, IMO. But for the first games it is better to avoid the Doom Track, because you need to know the Market Deck to decide what to buy with your current Gold. Don't hoard treasures to buy the higher cost cards; spend your Gold gradually and you will gain continuous benefits that make your game easy. By the way, if you've spent your Gold you won't lose it if you're knocked out.

Thanks for the clarifications.

Regarding #5: Looking back after we finished the game, I think we underestimated our overall "preparedness" (or overestimated the "toughness" of the dragonlords) because when we fought them we were able to defeat them. Only having one game under my belt, I do agree with your statement that by the time you get to the reds, the heroes will be ready to take them on. The game seems really balanced in that respect.