Closing the Rift: The Return of Strahd | Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game

Michael Valenta

(mvalenta)

Canada
Kanata
Ontario

The scenario looks like it will be fun. I'm planning on giving it a go in the next few days. The adventure doesn't state where the heroes start. Do they start on the Chapel tile?

Also, I assume the special rules for Gargoyles are in expectation that there will be some in play when the moment comes since the adventure doesn't mention the placement of any Gargoyles.

Posted Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:26 am
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Eric Ruhland

(Eirikr)

Canada
Ottawa
Ontario

That's right, the heroes start on the Chapel tile. I will add that to the file. Thanks.

The special rules for the Gargoyles affect any Gargoyles in play. If there are none then they won't come into affect. If you are playing with 2-3 players there are usually a few Gargoyles about the place, often waiting on the Rotting Nook tile. If I were to run this scenario with a few other people I would keep the special rules for the Gargoyles as a surprise and play as though I didn't know. More fun that way I think.
Also don't forget that even after you seal the Rift you won't have encounters when you don't explore new tiles so if you get to that point it is a relatively easy run to the exit, or you could just kill all the monsters on the board if you prefer.

I am curious how it plays out for you. Are you going to play solo (with one character?). I tried it out again a few times the other night and didn't do so well but I used a selected set of tiles from both CR and WoA which resulted in very long hallways with dead ends at the end. If I remember correctly with the standard tile stack from CR it was quite doable with one character.

Edited Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:41 am
Posted Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:11 am
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Michael Valenta

(mvalenta)

Canada
Kanata
Ontario

I was uncertain as to whether I would try the scenario with a single character although I will since you asked, even though my success with single character quests has been limited. I'm also hoping to entice my sons to play so we would have the full compliment of 3. I'll let you know how it goes.

Posted Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:08 pm
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Eric Ruhland

(Eirikr)

Canada
Ottawa
Ontario

I'm looking forward to hearing about it and any criticisms and/or ideas you might have for improvement on this or future scenarios. I enjoyed writing this one up and if I get a chance to play a little more I will likely be inspired to create some more scenarios in the future.

Posted Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:15 pm
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Michael Valenta

(mvalenta)

Canada
Kanata
Ontario

I had a chance to try a solo quest tonight but it was a pretty rough go. I played as the Cleric and the item I got was the one that allows you to flip a used power so, in essence, I had 4 healing surges since I could use the Healing Word twice. The Dwarf got a bit beat up as he left the starting room and then had this misfortune of drawing 3 or 4 tiles with black triangles. On top of that, I had a couple of bad roles on key combats so he was starting to get pretty beat up. Unfortunately, one of the encounters was the one that sends you to the farthest tile from where you are and I didn't have enough XP to cancel it. It was back to the starting tile and another good beating. I managed to get out but used both Healing Words and one surge. I just made it to the Laboratory when my sons appeared and were interested in playing so I admitted defeat and reset for a 3 player game.

We only made it two rounds into the 3 player version with the wizard, fighter and cleric but things were going a lot smoother. We made it out of the room with pretty much full hit points and are now set up such that the cleric and fighter are revealing new tiles while the wizard is sending magic missiles back at the chasing monsters. We had to pause for the night but will pick it up again tomorrow night.

My initial impression is that I like the scenario. I think I prefer having more monsters and less encounters. The encounters always seemed to be random things that happened out of the middle of no where, especially when they happen almost every turn. In this scenario, they still happen, but at a rate that seems more reasonable to me. Once were done our 3 player game, I'll try it again solo but I think I'll go with the Ranger. I think a speed of 6 and the auto-damage would help a lot.

Posted Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:12 am
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Eric Ruhland

(Eirikr)

Canada
Ottawa
Ontario

Thanks for the report. It is challenging with one hero. I have found that it is pretty much necessary to fight a few monsters early and build up enough experience to cancel the worst of the encounters early on.
I agree that shifting the pressure from the encounters to the monsters creates a very different play experience and one that may be preferable to many. We can thank Shnar for that innovation.

Posted Wed Sep 14, 2011 3:39 am
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Michael Valenta

(mvalenta)

Canada
Kanata
Ontario

So we played through a three player game and a big question arose. What happens when all the monster cards are either in play or in the experience pile? The answer to this would really affect the end game when you are not exploring anymore and are thus not turning over environment cards. Now that I think of it, one way to handle it would be to start turning over environment cards until monsters were returned to the discard pile.

My son was getting tired by the end of the game, so we just stopped turning over cards when the monsters ran out and played out the game. It looked like it would be an easy victory but the three gargoyles activated and would have finished the party off if all three rolled hits. One missed and the Wizard took them out with a lightning bolt. (he hit all three).

Posted Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:27 am
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Eric Ruhland

(Eirikr)

Canada
Ottawa
Ontario

That's a good question and one that has come up for the game in general. There is no official response. Usually it inolves a player controling one of each monster and thus not being able to draw a new one. In your case you have likely put at least half the monsters in your experience pile.
Usually the answer is you don't draw another monster. In this case that seems appropriate as well which means you've beeten the scenario if you can manage to survive the gargoyles and any remaining monsters and escape the dungeon.
I could build a response to this situation into the scenario such as having one of the minor villains come through the rift if you can't draw a monster card.

Edited Sat Sep 17, 2011 1:04 pm
Posted Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:59 pm
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