Game: Runebound - The Island of Dread

Thread: Re: Kar-Amag-Atoth question

Blue_rose — 2008-11-23T09:11:13+00:00

I thought it would have to be like Frank said. Otherwise the challenge would be very hard to kill since its life value is 7.

Thread: Re: Kar-Amag-Atoth question

MrSkeletor — 2008-11-23T07:59:25+00:00

Blue_rose wrote:
The silver challenge card Kar-Amag-Atoth has the following text: "This Challenge ignores all but the first 2 wounds inflicted during each combat phase."

Does this mean that during the whole combat, the challenge can only get two wounds from ranged combat, two from melee and two from magic? Or does "each combat phase" mean each phase each round of combat?

This was one of the cards where we couldn't agree on how to interpret the text. There seems to be a lot of them in Runebound...

Each attack can only do 2 wounds of damage maximum. So if you have an axe that does +5 wounds, you still only do 2 wounds.
The next time you attack with the axe, you do 2 wounds again, and so forth.

Thread: Re: Kar-Amag-Atoth question

LoneCleric — 2008-11-23T04:49:37+00:00

Blue_rose wrote:
Does this mean that during the whole combat, the challenge can only get two wounds from ranged combat, two from melee and two from magic? Or does "each combat phase" mean each phase each round of combat?
I've been fiddling around my answer in my head, unsure of a way to provide it without sounding too much like a jerk...
So, well, the rules explain that a combat round is made of several phases (range, melee, magic).
So if both words have very clear definitions, how could word A actually mean B?

Thread: Kar-Amag-Atoth question

Blue_rose — 2008-11-22T23:03:07+00:00

The silver challenge card Kar-Amag-Atoth has the following text: "This Challenge ignores all but the first 2 wounds inflicted during each combat phase."

Does this mean that during the whole combat, the challenge can only get two wounds from ranged combat, two from melee and two from magic? Or does "each combat phase" mean each phase each round of combat?

This was one of the cards where we couldn't agree on how to interpret the text. There seems to be a lot of them in Runebound...

Image

casterlyrock — 2008-11-19T23:19:12+00:00

"nothing will stand in the way of my ultimate quest..."

Thread: Re: Ripping it apart (before putting it back together)

Noogs — 2008-10-31T13:27:57+00:00

Hey Sean. I think the consensus is that Sands is better right out of the box. That said, I don't regret getting the Island of Dread. If you don't mind tweaking it, then it offers a lot of fun. See the link above for a thread I started about getting more tension into the game. I recommend using the expansions "Traps and Terrors" and "Beasts and Bandits." The trick is to use a threat track, and then make legendary items and map tokens harder to come by. I like to link them to quests and "dungeons." That's my opinion at any rate. If you come up with any ideas that you like, post 'em!

Thread: Re: Ripping it apart (before putting it back together)

aratus — 2008-10-31T02:51:23+00:00

Great article! Wish I had read this before today though - bought the Sea of Dread in Sydney for AUS$70 over Sands of Al-Kalim . Pays to be thorough when looking at reviews!

Yep, what caught my eye was the deep blue ocean, the sailing, the captains, the story line, all from the blurb. Hook line and sinker

However, my partner and I are so enjoying Runebound, that I think we'll enjoy this regardless, and is maybe just the thing to lead up to Sands. And I'll definitely be adding in some card expansions, which should improve it. Just not sure which ones would suit - any ideas??

Thread: Re: Emphasizing Search and Race Against Time

Noogs — 2008-10-28T11:55:04+00:00

Glad you enjoyed the ideas, Tim. I've had a chance to play with your suggestions, and here are some of my thoughts.

1. I definitely agree with you that the dungeons can become worth too much. After all, they generate gold, experience and either map tokens or legendary items. This is out of whack.

I really like your idea of making each additional T&T card (i.e., "level") produce a stamina hit. Other possibilities I think I'll try are to only provide the gold for the final challenge card and only provide XPs _after_ the final challenge is completed. Another possibility is to segregate map draws and legendary weapon choices -- maybe a player gets to pick a legendary weapon, but only after completing quests, and only gets to draw for a map token after completing a "dungeon." This would make legendary weapons more rare, while keeping constant the probability of getting a pair of map tokens (e.g., in the clue bag, replace legendary tokens with map tokens of a single color). I'll try all of these ideas and post the results.

2. You're right about the setup problem with sunbursts. My scrawlings..., er, notes, missed this point.

3. I'm not sure if all of the above will take care of your observation that the final battle occurred early (on the threat track) and ended up being anti-climatic. Partially this depends on the luck of the draw, and the kinds of "dungeons" that are rolled (i.e., the number of levels). I'm curious to see if this is fixed by linking map tokens to dungeons and legendary items to quests. It should also help to reward XP only when a dungeon is completed...or perhaps make all T&T card worth only a single XP??

4. When I used B&B, I just shuffled the cards in with the Isle of Dread challenge cards...except for the Blue challenges.

All in all, your suggestions make for an even better play experience!

Thread: Re: Emphasizing Search and Race Against Time

HuckmanT — 2008-10-24T02:38:18+00:00

Okay, so I played through a game using the above rules. It was definitely better than vanilla Isle of Dread, solo or otherwise. I think that the changes are good, and well executed. A few things to mention:

1) I used the "optional" Beasts & Bandits expansion (which does fit the theme), but the rules did not say how to include them. I just substituted B&B anywhere the rules said T&T and shuffled the two sets together by color to make the Dungeon Decks. It worked well, and I liked not knowing how many traps were going to be there - some of those traps are really deadly!

2) The change to the Map Tokens and the Legendary Items worked just fine, though I found them to be a bit on the forgiving side. I simply held all of my Legendary Items collected (6) until the final battle, making it a bit anticlimactic. Perhaps this was my "fault". I'm thinking that maybe dialing down the Red/Blue Dungeons to 1 guaranteed draw and 1 50%-chance draw might be better. The tension of completing the map was excellent.

3) The setup for the Dungeons does not work in two instances. There are no non-sunburst locations on the Isle of Ulthick, making the placement of the Yellow and Red Dungeons there impossible by these rules. I just broke the rules and it worked fine. I think that these need to remain Sunburst challenges after clearing the dungeon.

4) The dungeons were so important and lucrative (time-wise), that it made little sense to go to many other challenges. I won the game with the Threat Track at 5 (Challenge # = 14), largely because you can combine 2-4 adventures into a single turn in a Dungeon. Something has to change here- either:
1) Roll for the Threat Track after each card of a Dungeon
2) Proceeding one card "deeper" into each Dungeon costs one fatigue for all Heroes/Allies and a 50% of 1 damage to all Heroes/Allies. Ramps up the tension and avoids the "oh noes, I got a tiny dungeon!" paradox.

Didn't find too much else to write about, but a big THANKS to Mark (Noogs) for starting this variant idea.

Comments?

Thread: Re: Emphasizing Search and Race Against Time

HuckmanT — 2008-10-23T19:00:32+00:00

Hey, this is great! Thanks for giving me a reason to pull out Isle of Dread again. I've not opened it since I started playing Runebound solo since I like the base game plus mini-expanions so much.

and thanks!

Thread: Emphasizing Search and Race Against Time

Noogs — 2008-10-23T15:29:23+00:00

Overview
This variant is targeted at solo play, and its goal is to make Island of Dread more about a search for clues. The Island of Dread has lot of potential, but it has some serious pacing problems that I talk about here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/349635

This variant is a stab at dialing up the tension and making quests more meaningful. It does not fix the problem with Blue challenges that I mention in my review, but I still think it makes the game more interesting.

What you'll need
Traps and Terrors
Beasts and Bandits (optional, but I feel its flavor matches the brigands and pirates theme of 'Dread')
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General Idea
In general, you are going to have map tokens and legendary items ONLY show up with the successful completion of quests or dungeon challenges. Legendary items will be used ONCE and then they are gone from the game. You will ignore all references on cards to drawing map tokens. I am also assuming that you are using a doom track. Once this reaches 10 the Mad God has arisen and you lose the game.

Set Up
1. Pull 2 blue map tokens, 2 green map tokens and all of the legendary items. Place these in a bag / pouch. Put the remaining map tokens back in the box. The bag / pouch is your CLUE BAG.

2. You are going to place "dungeons" on the board. These will only go on non-sunburst challenges. Mark these however you wish. I simply flip a challenge marker so that its numeral is showing.
--Green dungeons: x4 on Torue Albus, x1 on Lorimor, x1 on High Higard.
-- Yellow dungeons: x1 on each of the land masses
-- Red dungeons: x1 on Ulthick, x1 on any other land mass.

a. Remove all non-challenge cards (except events) from T&T. Remove all Red challenge cards from T&T. Place the green T&T challenges in a pile next to the general pile of green challenges. Place the yellow T&T challenges in a pile next to the general pile of yellow challenges. Place the BLUE T&T challenges in a pile next to the general pile of RED challenges.

How Dungeons Work
3. Dungeons always consist of wading through 1 - 3 T&T challenges of the appropriate color and defeating a single general challenge of the appropriate color. When you decide to enter a dungeon, roll a D10. 1 - 6 means that you draw 1 T&T card, 7 - 9 means you draw 2 and 10 means that you draw 3. Good luck!

b. If you draw a quest card from the general challenge pile, it is reinserted.

c. The heart limit doesn't apply to dungeon challenges. That is, if you've increased you're heart by +2 you can still take on green dungeons.

d. You do not get to reactivate items between dungeon cards, and you can retreat at any time. If a retreat occurs any cards that were "defeated" remain defeated.

e. Experience accrues with each T&T card that has been defeated as if it were a single challenge. E.g., if you make it through 3 green T&T cards then you will enter the final green challenge having already accrued 3 XP.

Drawing Clues
4. After completing a quest you are allowed 1 draw from the Clue Bag. For completing a dungeon the draws are as follows:
-- 50% chance of a draw for completing a green dungeon.
-- 1 draw for completing a yellow dungeon
-- 2 draws for completing a red dungeon.

5. Map tokens can never be lost.

Other Suggestions
6. Remove the silver event card. At the start of turns 7, 8, 9 (remember, you are using a Doom Track), randomly destroy one city. You will place an ocean token on the city's hex when this happens. All cards associated with that city are lost, and there is no longer a market there, but you will be allowed to land a ship.

7. Double 0's are double damage ...on the hero's side ONLY.

8. Once the "lost city" has appeared, it never disappears.

9. Shipwrecks, knockouts, or the Doomtrack reaching 10 = You lose.

I'm sure I've forgotten some tweaks, but the above are the general ideas. You will essentially be in a race against the Doom Track to complete quests and dungeons. These will give you the legendary items and maps that you will use to take on the Mad God before he arises from the Island of Dread!

Thread: Re: Ripping it apart (before putting it back together)

nyhotep — 2008-10-23T12:25:22+00:00

Noogs wrote:

FFG seems to have a habit of this. Their expansions get better with each release. ...Sort of like the old canard about Microsoft, "Don't buy in until version 3." q]

Infinitely better than getting worse with each expansion..

Thread: Re: Ripping it apart (before putting it back together)

Noogs — 2008-10-23T11:33:58+00:00
Rindel wrote:
Yeah, although I quite like The Island of Dread I think it could have been done alot better.

Then again it was made before 'Sands' amd they seem to have got that right, I'll just have to get the money to buy it now

I'm with you, Rindel. Island of Dread introduces some cool ideas that are refined and linked together much more effectively in 'Sands.' FFG seems to have a habit of this. Their expansions get better with each release. ...Sort of like the old canard about Microsoft, "Don't buy in until version 3." If you haven't checked out the card expansion "Scepters" or "Scions" give them a try before "Sands." They're cheaper and a lot of fun.

Thread: Re: Ripping it apart (before putting it back together)

Noogs — 2008-10-23T11:27:35+00:00
Hi John!

Yeah, I wondered if my "grades" for the different parts might have been high relative to my overall opinion, but I went ahead and left them as they were. I'd say that there are a few things to consider. First, I'm a big fan of Runebound as a solo game. So, it's hard for me to outright reject an expansion, which also means that I have trouble being objective in my grades. It's like that student who is stupid and goofy and makes classes more fun than they would be otherwise, even as he's bombing tests (can you tell, I'm a prof). This is why I hedged at the start and said something about "not paying full price." I couldn't bring myself to say "avoid it at all costs"! Secondly, I do think that the Island of Dread can be tweaked so as to make it a better game. I'll post a variant about this in the near future that uses the "Traps" card expansion. BUT, if you are a gamer that expects the expensive expansions to be playable right out of the box, then you wouldn't want go through such a hassle. Finally, I give the plot/pacing/story elements much more weight. So a B on quests, a B- on events and a C on pacing, well, these tend to swamp out the production values (which I grade very highly).

I hope this clears things up...at least as far as my review.

Edit:
Here's a variant I've used that tries to get more tension into the game:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/349831[/url]

Thread: Re: Ripping it apart (before putting it back together)

JohnBandettini — 2008-10-23T09:01:23+00:00
Mark
I'm a little confused by the difference between your comments and your marks. Your comments seem to say you found it very disappointing and a game that just does not hang together really well. But your marks, mostly B's and C's, with even one A, while not suggesting a masterpiece would suggest a much better game when taken on their own.

Thread: Re: Ripping it apart (before putting it back together)

Rindel — 2008-10-23T06:55:33+00:00
Yeah, although I quite like The Island of Dread I think it could have been done alot better.

Then again it was made before 'Sands' amd they seem to have got that right, I'll just have to get the money to buy it now

Thread: Ripping it apart (before putting it back together)

Noogs — 2008-10-22T21:08:45+00:00
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Where I’m Coming From
In my opinion Runebound is not a compelling competitive boardgame. It is not a social party game. And it’s not much of a brain burner. So why play it? I can’t speak for others, but I play Runebound purely for the stories. What Runeboud is all about is a stage, props – lots of props -- a few extras wandering around, and the barest outlines of a script. The rest is up to the players…or, er player because I think that Runebound plays best as a solo game. Runebound is a decent storytelling engine that in the course of an hour or two spits out random deaths, ridiculously buxom heroines, and goofy, deranged wizards. Let’s just say if you are the type of person who couldn’t get enough of the special features from The Lord of the Rings DVDs, or the type of person who kicks into a daydream at the site of a fantasy map, the odds are you will like Runebound. It’s just that kind of game.

Given my take on the base game, I tend to judge the relative merits of the Runebound expansions along the dimensions of unexpected humor, evocative artwork, coherent plots, obstacles to overcome, tension, and memorable encounters. Of course, most of that is going on in my own head, but the mechanics and props of an expansion need to allow me to stay in that “Rorsasch moment” in order for me to rate the expansion highly.

So, in this review I’m going to consider the big box expansion The Isle of Dread from the p.o.v. of a storytelling engine. To use the theater analogy from up above, I’d like to consider just what sort of plays are possible in its venue. Will there be acts and if so how might they unfold? Are the props well-done? Is there the potential for complications, moments of goofiness, or tension? Yeah, the world is a stage and all that, but we get to choose whether or not to spend $$$ this particular world, and the question is will we wake up a week later full of regrets? Since this is going to be a thorough and LONG review, I’ll go ahead and give you a summary opinion up-front:

Short and Sweet
Isle of Dread is a hodgepodge of ideas that don’t cohere into a compelling narrative. I don’t recommend that a gamer spend full price to purchase it, and that’s coming from a Runebound fan-boy.

The Program (i.e., Rulebook)
We need to first get something out of the way. The rulebook. The rulebook for The Island of Dread sucks. Here.
1) Event tiles don’t get put on the board unless a card specifies.
2) Blue encounters earn the amount of XP as given on their cards.
3) You must hire a captain to travel the seas, and he won’t count against your ally limit.
4) When you travel by sea you move one “hex” / “anchor” per turn unless a card specifies otherwise.
5) You don’t have to take on challenges, and if you retreat you remain in the challenge hex.
6) A red+green pair of map tokens can be traded in for “legendary items” or for taking off to fight the Big Baddy.
There, now just start playing and the other details can be looked up as needed.

The Props
When you first open the box you’ll have the usual experience of “Big Box.” Kind of the same experience as seeing a 7/11 Big Gulp in the flesh…, or rather, in the plastic. They don’t call them “big box” expansions for nuthin’, and unless it’s a manhood thing (e.g., “Check it out Wizards of the Coast, my box is h-u-g-e.”), there’s absolutely no reason for Fantasy Flight to use such a voluminous box. Although, I guess it provides a 2-D space for the pretty fabulous cover art, and this is the kind of game where cover art matters. Box art is like a fishing lure in geek-infested waters. Make it shiny and bright enough, and you’re bound to get a bite!

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Besides, if the game is all about telling stories, then ambiance matters. Consider the board. It is fabulous. It’s essentially one of those tried and true coastal fantasy maps: a bit of mainland and coastal islands -- but with great production values. The oceans are blue, the green grasslands are wandered by rivers and roads, and the white tops of mountains look suitably imposing. And scattered across the map are the kind of labels you only ever find on fantasy maps: “The Shivering Hills,” “Stagwood Forest,” “Bog of Vipers,” “Sea of Smoke” and “Shrouded Gulf.” Dramatic overkill? You bet. But isn’t there something ridiculously pleasant about saying to yourself, “By ship I’ll cross the torrents of Dreadpeace, pass through the Narrows of Gracor and head north along the coasts of Lorimor. A short jaunt across the Cerridor Sea will bring me to Gafford where I’ll be able to set out for the Forest of Delight and take on the challenge that awaits there.”
Also, of the three Runebound games that I’ve got (vanilla, Sands, and this), the minis that come with the Isle of Dread are the best of the lot. At least in my copy, none of the figures were warped so that they looked like they were doing the limbo. There’s a nice amount of detail, and a nice range of figures. The Minotaur figure, for example, looks like a brute.

The artwork, minis and especially board are an A+.

There are two other props, though, that I didn’t really care for. They are the “map tokens” and “legendary items.” These are cardboard chits that have the same flag-like wave to them. I’ll get to how they are used below, but graphically they don’t do much. The map tokens come in two colors, and when one gets a pair of colors, then they can be turned in for various things. Maps…paired colors, surely some other, and more evocative graphics could have been used. A compass rose for example. However, this really isn’t such a big deal because the tokens are basically just a special kind of gold. Accrue and turn in. The legendary items, though, are a pain. First, compare the art on a card to that on the legendary item token (see the image below). Hmmm, which looks more legendary. Secondly, which of the card or token actually provides the information you need to use it? As it stands, I need to constantly refer back to the rule book, not only to figure out which legendary item is which (because the icons are so ambiguous), but also in order to remind myself of what they do.

Map tokens and Legendary Items: B and C.

Characters and Challenges
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The characters that are available are wacky in a good way. That’s wacky, not embarrassing. I.e., there’s no Red Scorpion with butt cheeks a-flashing. What you do get is an ueber macho “Trenlo the Strong” (“Nothing will stand in the way of my ultimate quest!”) who you kind of hope dies early when attacked by a bunch of fairies. There’s “Landrec the Wise” whose illustration has him sitting down in an apparent drunken stupor. There’s “Andira Runehand” who tragically is out to prove that a character can be sexy and gritty at the same time. My personal favorite is “Vyrah the Falconer.” Here’s the quote that goes with his card, “My loyal falcon sees far.”… Um, and you want to be a hero? Clearly Vyrah needs a better PR firm.

The challenges range from mad cultists, to pirates, to ghost ships, to rotting drakes…, in short, all the usual types of Runebound encounters. And yes, there is a “sea theme” in keeping with the setting. Which brings us to the mechanic of captains. In Isle of Dread to cross the seas one must hire a captain. These are basically NPC’s with stat cards, who sit in the market decks at the coastal cities. In theory it’s an idea that should introduce some color to the game. A character arrives in Orris and hires Captain Dorrock (“Not many dwarves understand the waves, y’see? But the ocean, she be as glorious as any vein o’ silver!”) and his scurvy dwarf dogs for a trip to Garnott. Each captain comes with a special ability such as moving two spaces instead of one or gaining an extra gold when sea challenges are defeated. Finally, captains can be used as a fourth ally when it comes to sea challenges. As I say, this all sounds great in theory, but in my opinion the captain mechanic falls flat. There are 14, and they get cycled through very quickly because when you dock at a city that already has a captain in its market deck, one of the captains must be discarded. This basically leads to using a single, most advantageous captain, for every single sea voyage. And really, there are only three captains who have worthwhile abilities. The rest are ‘ehhh. What this means is that the captain mechanic becomes very repetitive, very fast.

To sum up Characters and Challenges -- Characters: A (Captains B-), Challenges A-.

Pacing, Tension, Acts…
The basic story in the Isle of Dread is that there is a hidden island (think “King Kong”) where a mad god, Assif Shib-Sa, (think “Cthullu”) is rising and bringing with him a host of baddies. Your task is to locate this island, wade through the baddies until you smite down the mad god, himself, and throw his carcass to the sharks. Hooray! Bring it on!!

…Um, except that this hidden island is ridiculously easy to find, and besides, he/she/it (henceforth referred to as the Mad God™) doesn’t seem to be having much of an impact on the world at large. So why exactly should we care? It’s too bad because the plot contains so much pacing potential. Just as with the captain mechanic described above, the plot précis for the Isle of Dread looks fantastic on paper. How it is implemented in the game, on the other hand, is remarkably lame.

Lame Pacing…
In Runebound pacing and tension are accomplished in two ways: through the use of the differently colored challenges and through the use of events and quests that pop up as the challenges become more difficult. For example, in vanilla Runebound event cards hint at the rise of dragons, challenges contain color text that refers to a mad priest who is trying to raise the dragon lords, and when a hero finally gets to the blue challenges, he or she is going to come up against a LOT of dragons. Vanilla Runebound doesn’t have any quests, but there is coherence in all of its other elements. The Isle of Dread on the other hand, lacks almost any sense of pacing.

Random Events:
Yes, there are events, but as near as I can tell, only two of them refer to the Mad God ™. And one of these references comes when a hero is in the endgame. A bit late for foreshadowing! This event mentions the destruction of several cities. But so what? You are either about to win or lose the game!! The other plot-reference event comes with the Red challenges and refers to how lava from the struggles of the Mad God™ is driving sea creatures up from the depths. Except, red challenges are completely unnecessary to undertake in this game. If you do go for the few red challenges, they don’t engage the main plot in any way.

My favorite silly event involves the discovery of another city at sea. But oops, if you draw another event card, the city gets lost again. I guess maps aren’t updated in Runebound.

To summarize, the event cards in the Isle of Dread do not advance the story. They simply provide circumstances that make things easier or harder. A city appears and disappears. Land bridges appear and disappear. The dog appears and disappears…oh wait, the latter is mundane reality.

Events: B- on the “having anything to do with plot” scale

Random Challenges:
As I mentioned above, Runebound’s main mechanic for pacing is its challenge system. Green to Yellow to Blue to Red, the challenges get increasingly difficult. Challenges are the meat of a story, provide the increase in skills that define a character and permit a hero to purchase the items that will be the difference between life and death. If you add a clock / doomtrack of some sort -- and really, anyone playing Runebound should -- then the effect of the challenge mechanic is like rushing to diffuse a bomb where each step of the process is getting more and more difficult.

The Isle of Dread, though, flubs this pacing. The problem resides in the Blue challenges. In the Isle of Dread, Blue challenges are restricted to sea encounters, and the problem is that Blue challenges are all over the map when it comes to their difficulty. Some are easy (e.g., Sea Stallions with their 2 heart and stats of 11/1, 10/0 and 14/1) while some are hard (e.g., Leviathan with its 6 heart and stats of 19/4, 23/6 and 10/0). But the effect is to make sea travel kind of random. On the one hand, yeah, I get it. That’s the point. The ocean’s a mysterious place with dangers of all sorts lurking beneath the waves. On the other hand, that danger isn’t really such a big deal because the designers were careful to make escapes rather easy. They had to, or else a lot of games would end very fast. Also, sea travel is slow (a ship moves one space per turn), so the effect is that a hero spends a lot of time drenched in randomness while at the same time, knowing that it’s a mechanic. It’s like a movie where you notice the microphone hanging down over the scene.

Challenges: C on the “do I feel like taking a break” scale

Random Quests:
Yes, there are quests, which is a plus, but these quests have nothing to do with the Mad God ™ story-line. Except, for some reason the quest cards (which are kept when a quest is completed) can be discarded for bonuses during the end-game challenges. Why, exactly? Yes, it’s a nifty mechanic for making early quests useful at the end of the game. But if quests are a form of skill, why not just grant skill bonuses? On the other hand if quests are related to fame, why would that fame help when battling the baddies. What a waste. Wouldn’t it have been so much cooler if the quests yielded the clues or items that would point the way to the hidden Isle, or to the item that might just make it easier to slay the Mad God™? The potential is there, but it is so obviously there that it has the effect of making the actual implementation seem frustratingly ad hoc.

Quests: B on the “it all adds up” scale

Random Clues & Legendary Items:
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And speaking of ad hoc + frustration perhaps the largest irritant for me involves the map tokens and legendary items. I know, it’s silly that these small pieces of cardboard should become the focus of all of my ire with this expansion, but, well, we’re talking about a GAME here. Not a cure for cancer, so it’s fine to get ticked off by the details.

Here’s the thing, the story line of the Isle of Dread is that there is a hidden island. Over the course of the game heroes need to locate this island: hence the map tokens. The problem is that these tokens are given out like candy. They are NOT hard to come by, and the way one finds the island of dread is by turning in a pair of these tokens. That’s it. 20 minutes into the game and your hero knows where the Isle of Dread is located. Wow, that sure was mysterious. There sure was a lot of searching involved there…NOT. Of course, you won’t actually want to go to the island at that point because you’d get slaughtered. So what you do instead is trade the map tokens in for a legendary item of your choice. Once these are used they get dropped back into the pool.

Oy, legendary items. I’ve already mentioned above how these items are lacking as props. Unfortunately, they are also lacking in terms of pacing. Legendary items are relatively easy to come by, you use them once for a bonus, and then they go back into the pool. Basically, they serve a similar purpose as the “adventure packs” in Sands of Al-Kalim: they give a hero a momentary bonus. But since the rules allow a player to choose an item (rather than, say, draw an item), and given that they keep coming back, well, we’re not talking about legendary items. We’re talking about going to the grocery store for a six pack of coke. You’ll get that momentary jolt for the all-nighter, but it’s not exactly a thing of legend.

Map Tokens: B- on the “who photocopied all of these maps, tore them in half, and threw them out as trash all over the place” scale
Legendary Items: C- on the “your momma’s a legend” scale

Summing Up
I wanted to really like the Isle of Dread. I’d just come off of Sand of Al-Kalim, which is a very fine big-box expansion. I’ve enjoyed fiddling with the card expansions, and I’m a sucker for a big, colorful fantasy map. The Isle of Dread, though, out of the box just doesn’t provide much compelling play. It’s actually…tedious. Which is too bad, because the pieces are there for a much better game. Link quests to clues (map tokens), make legendary items harder to come by, use the events to trigger impending doom, and the pacing would become much more interesting. You’d still be stuck with the blue challenges / sea challenges problem, but I think that could have been mitigated with a different arrangement of land-ocean. But if you are not a fan who is up to making rule changes and to adding card expansions, then I’d avoid the Isle of Dread.

Thread: Re: HELP! Anyone have a card list?

Dreadnaut — 2008-10-19T15:58:40+00:00
You're missing the following:

Green:
Rising God Cultist
Dark Ritual

Silver:
Syncyll the Chosen

Thread: HELP! Anyone have a card list?

theggman — 2008-10-19T15:39:35+00:00
I have a copy of Isle of Dread but I am missing some cards. My game is incomplete! I know I am missing some green cards and one silver card. I will list what I have below so you can identify what I don't have.

GREEN CARDS I HAVE
Forbidden Tome
Shadows in the Night
Swamp Dragon
Feral Droontele
Wights of the Crypt
Denizens of the Marsh
Bloodfire Tribesman
Snake Dragon
Merriod
Coral Golem
Screeching Abomination
Shark Trap
Cerridor Pirates
Giant Roc
Master of Flames
Crimson-Tailed Lurker
Quest of the Silver Key
Quest for Black Lotus
Blessings and Curses
Quest for Lore
Dry Land

SILVER CARDS I HAVE
Antenil Soul Stealer
Kar-Amag-Atoth
The Earth Shakes, The Earth Sinks
Assif Shib-Sa
Slaggorrath
Assif Shib-Sa's Champion
Dar Hilzernod

Please e-mail me and let me know what cards I'm missing. Thanks so much!

theggman

Thread: Re: Misprint on hero card

meyberg — 2008-09-04T14:35:26+00:00
In the german version are some major typos as well (I know, it's the base game I'm speaking of, so it's a little bit off-topic, but if anyone here has experience with the customer serfice of ffg I would be glad to share her/his experiences...):
For example, red scorpion's special ability reads "Once per turn you may take 1 exhaustion and remove one wound" instead of "once per turn you may take 1 exhaustion instead of 1 wound" - which is slightly less powerful...
Is there a chance of replacing those cards? (or: could please anybody help me with a link to any related post at "Runebound Basegame"? I didn't found any...)
Thanks!

Edit: Today my copy of IoD (german version) arrived - Ker the Grey is misprinted as well... Hmph...

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Urtur — 2008-08-29T16:59:09+00:00
Polish version (by Galakta) - cover.

Thread: Re: Misprint on hero card

robertg611 — 2008-08-22T08:39:02+00:00
Three confirmed differences in the encounter cards between the two printings, all dealing with damage, all minor and having very little effect on gameplay.

(Yellow) Bloodythirsty Dalofer increased from 0 magic damage to 1.

(Yellow) Poisonous Drake increased from 1 melee damage to 3.

(Green) Shadows of the Night increased from 1 melee damage to 3.

Not sure if these are deliberate changes or typos. Once we finish comparing the rest of the cards I'll contact FFG and find out.

Along with Grey Ker and Lyssa of the East, this makes 5 confirmed differences between the printings! Of course, I'm assuming there were only two printings.

Thread: Re: Misprint on hero card

robertg611 — 2008-08-21T20:04:48+00:00
Well, one brave soul has stepped up to the challenge, and it's none other than Rich himself! He provided data containing all of the numerical information about the encounters. When I've verified any discrepencies, I'll post them here as well.

Now, all we need is someone to compare the 14 Captains and 11 Market cards. That won't take nearly as much bravery, will it? Anyone?

Thread: Re: Misprint on hero card

robertg611 — 2008-08-10T12:00:44+00:00
Grey Ker is confirmed to be misprinted as well. He should have 4/2 for ranged ability, not a wimpy 2/1.

I'm hoping to find that the Rune Enchantress ally card is misprinted, as she doesn't seem worth 6 gold. The rest of the challenges, captains and items seem ok, but I'm still hoping someone takes the time to compare what I typed from the new printing to an original printing.

Thread: Re: Misprint on hero card

Blue_rose — 2008-08-10T07:49:50+00:00
Thanks for the answer. Now I hope some would check those stats to see if there are other mistakes.

Wonder if FFG will make replacements for these cards... I know it's easy to correct them with a pen or something, but it's annoying.

Thread: Re: Misprint on hero card

rcmoore4 — 2008-08-09T23:02:25+00:00
Well, yes, they have. Take a look at this thread on the FFG message boards: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffgforums/posts/list/7603....

The long and short of it is that these errors are found in all of the latest print run and FFG does not have replacements with the correct text. Time to break out the old sharpie I guess.

As far as other misprints, there's someone who printed all the text of the cards on that link. Now it will only take some brave soul who ones one of the first print runs to check them all!

Thread: Misprint on hero card

Blue_rose — 2008-08-09T08:03:15+00:00
Yesterday I got my copy of IoD, and as I looked through the cards I noticed something funny. I knew the heroes in IoD would be the same as some of the heroes in Descent, but I wondered why Lyssa was renamed Rune Enchantress. She's not even very good at magic. I soon discovered that the only ally in IoD is named Rune Enchantress. I checked the pictures here, and found out that Lyssa's name is supposed to be Lyssa.

So I got a card with a misprint. Argh. It's not such a big mistake that I would ask FFG for a replacement, but the perfectionist in me doesn't like having a hero card with the wrong name.

Well, I can live with the misprint, after all everything else on the card seems to be right. But I was wondering, has anyone else encountered such misprints? And are there misprints on other cards that I should be aware of?

Thread: Runebound - The Island of Dread: Impressions after first play

SusanRoz — 2008-07-26T14:30:00+00:00
Playing this on the heels of Sands of Al-Kalim was a bit of a disappointment but it should not have been. This is a rather nice expansion as well. It just doesn’t change the game quite as much as Sands.

The first big difference from the base game is a gorgeous, gorgeous new map with islands connected by sea routes between towns. The routes are interrupted with sea encounters that replace the blue encounters present in the base game. The green, yellow, and red encounters have new decks and occur on designated land locations, just as in the base game. In addition, there is a deck of silver encounters. These occur on the Island of Dread, for which there is a separate tile set off to the side of the main board. The goal of the game is to find this island and defeat the evil god there, drawing and defeating the silver challenges until you draw and defeat him.

The biggest change in this expansion by far is sea travel. There aren’t enough encounters on a single island to keep everyone busy for long, so you’ll soon be wanting to voyage on to greener pastures. There is now a new deck of captains. In order to travel by sea, you must hire a captain at the market of the town from which you are departing. Captains vary in cost and have special abilities. They act like an ally but don’t count against your ally limit. However, if your captain dies in battle with a sea encounter (or the hero does) you will be shipwrecked and the player on your left will choose an adjacent land space. You’ll lose your gold and most valuable item just as in the base game when you are knocked out. You don’t roll movement dice to travel by sea; instead you just move to the next sea encounter space (or town), draw the encounter card and resolve it. When you do reach a town, your captain immediately goes back into the market stack. You can never have more than one captain and it you don’t set out to sea on the next turn after hiring one, you lose him. Also, if you don’t have the money, you can still get a captain and head out to sea, you just don’t get any of the rewards or experience for defeating sea encounters for that voyage.

Another big addition to this game is the map tiles. Map tiles are used in matched sets of one green and one blue tile. You’ll earn these by defeating sea encounters as well as in a few other places during the game. You’ll draw them form a facedown pile, so you can’t depend on always getting a set. Sets are discarded during your experience step while voyaging to do one of two things. You can discard a set to “discover” the Island of Dread” and take on the final challenge. I don’t recommend this until you are leveled up and good and ready, however. More often, you’ll be discarding a set to find a legendary item. There are eight of these, all different, that you can choose from as long as they are still available. These each have a unique, powerful ability that you can use at the appropriate time by discarding the item and placing it back into the pool to be found again. These marvelous abilities include things like automatically winning combat rolls of certain types, starting the combat phase of an encounter in any phase you like, having fatigue dealt to you instead of health in a round, replenishing encounters on the board, etc. It is strongly advised to get a few of these items to help defeat some of the harder sea encounters before you have leveled up and before you take on the final challenge.

There is one final change in this expansion although it is not quite so dramatic. These are tiles that are placed on the board due to an event that is drawn. They include things such as turning sea encounter locations into regular sea channels, making it easier to travel, or causing several cities to sink into the sea and disappear.

Finally, there are eight new characters to use in the expansion or the base game.

While this expansion did not change the game as radically as the Sands the Al-Kalim, it still provides a nice change of pace from the base game and I really enjoyed it.

Thread: Re: Do I need the 2nd edition Runebound?

Windopaene — 2008-07-06T01:26:19+00:00
Yes.

Yes.

1st edition was basically totally abandoned, (pretty much because it sucked BTW).

Thread: Do I need the 2nd edition Runebound?

naruto55 — 2008-07-06T01:08:53+00:00
I was just curious if I neede the 2nd edition Runebound to get this expansion? How about the other ones? Thanks guys!

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jasamhen — 2008-04-19T23:43:50+00:00
Figures painted by Greg Cymbalist of Distant Light Miniatures (www.distantlightminiatures.com)

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jasamhen — 2008-04-19T23:43:29+00:00
Figures painted by Greg Cymbalist of Distant Light Miniatures (www.distantlightminiatures.com)

Thread: Re: Designer article

Zadok13 — 2008-04-01T00:27:27+00:00
ahoodedfigure wrote:
Nice article. If you want to write more of these sorts of designer articles, please do so

I second that, I find them very useful and fun to read. Runebound is a new discovery for me and I am quickly getting hooked.

Thread: Re: Designer article

ahoodedfigure — 2008-03-23T00:53:19+00:00
Nice article. If you want to write more of these sorts of designer articles, please do so

Thread: Designer article

Game Geek — 2008-03-22T09:35:40+00:00
One Island, Two Editions
by John Goodenough
(This was a preview article posted before the expansion was released)

Designing Runebound: Island of Dread was certainly a challenging experience. The Runebound design is structured to easily accept expansions – since challenges and items are card-based, expansion packs can be as simple as a few extra cards to add to (or replace) the existing decks.

You may have noticed by now that Island of Dread is a bit more than that. It's got a whole new board, new rules systems (such as the map tiles), and an entirely different endgame – not to mention a few new heroes, and the plastic figures to go with them. In fact, when you lay the Island of Dread map down over the Runebound board and lay out your new adventure deck, the only pieces you've got left from Runebound are the market deck (augmented by 11 new cards from Island of Dread), the characters, and the counters.

With all these changes, it's almost inaccurate to refer to Island of Dread as an expansion at all – it's almost like a whole new game. For example, sea-creature encounters are unique to Island of Dread - since sea travel plays a major role in this take on Runebound, there had to be a nautical challenge deck to go with it. Maybe someday there will be another nautical Runebound adventure and these creatures can come out to play once more, but in the meantime they are not only exclusive to the Island of Dread box, but they aren't really compatible with any other current Runebound products. In fact, the entire adventure deck from Runebound (either edition) is replaced by the Island of Dread adventure deck (the sea encounters replacing the blue challenges). Can you mix-and-match between them? Sure, but there are so many Island of Dread-specific events and encounters built into the adventure deck that diluting your draw might dramatically change your game. And what happens when you're playing Rise of the Dragon Lords and that challenge card you just vanquished invites you draw a map tile? None of these are insurmountable quirks if you're a determined player, but it is certainly accurate to state that Island of Dread is meant to be played with its own cards.

What it all comes down to is that Island of Dread is a complete adventure in its own right. It's designed to mesh smoothly with (and largely replace) Runebound Second Edition, but it could also be used with First Edition. Here's how:

1. Shuffle the 11 market cards from the Island of Dread expansion. Randomly place one of these market cards in Garnott, Orris, Dallak, Gafford, Trelton, Shellport, and Hardell. Place the remaining 4 market cards in Tarianor. Then shuffle the market deck from Runebound first edition and randomly place one card in each town. Every town should now have 2 market cards, except for Tarianor which has a total of 5 cards. This will ensure equal access to the "new-style" items and hide their Second Edition cardbacks.
2. All of the Heroes from Runebound Second Edition were modified due to the increased difficulty of Second Edition adventure cards. If you want to use the improved versions of the original heroes (rather than the heroes included in Island of Dread), use the improved statistics presented here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/runebound_heroes.html

Thread: Re: How's the endgame?

flapjackmachine — 2008-03-17T06:52:23+00:00
The endgame is tougher than the red challenges in the base game.

Thread: Re: Obsidian Library Question

flapjackmachine — 2008-03-17T06:46:22+00:00
The rules state that with map counters 'If none are available in the pool, you may choose to take any map counter (of a colour of your choice) from another player'. (page 1)

But with Legendary Items 'You may not find Legendary Items if none are available in the pool.' (page 4)

The rules seem pretty clear to me on the issue, no you don't get the Legendary book from the Obsidian Library if it's already been looted.

First come, first served when it comes to getting Legendary Items.

Thread: Re: Using with base games.

flapjackmachine — 2008-03-17T06:39:57+00:00
I've found all the new characters much stronger than the base Runebound characters (not just Trenloe the strong). The Island of Dread adventure has slightly tougher challenges so that might be the reason.

I'd beef up the base characters with a starting XP counter if using with the Island of Dread characters.

Thread: Re: Knockouts

flapjackmachine — 2008-02-21T06:36:25+00:00
Legendary Items (according to the lastest FAQ on Fantasy Flights website) have a item cost of 0 along with adventure cards that turn/act as items/allies. So if that is the most expensive item/ally then, yes, you have to discard.

I have had to assume that the 'nearest town' for the purposes of knockout doesn't include towns on other islands. Otherwise that would be a simple way to cross the sea... .

Thread: Re: IOD and the Doom Track + Blue Anchor Spaces

flapjackmachine — 2008-02-21T06:27:44+00:00
I have the reprinted copy of Island of Dread.

1) Haven't tried the Doom track with IoD yet but the Doom track needs house rules even with standard Runebound. I'd suggest just using a (real) time limit.

2) According to the Island of Dread rules you have to reveal a sea encounter.

3) According to the IoD rules (sheet) the sea encounters never become an undefeated challenge.

Note that the Island of Dread rules have changed how escape (from encounters) works.

I've had to make some assumptions with this expansion. For example, 'nearest' town for knockouts doesn't include towns on other islands and Sea Captains can be added in addition to two allies. Also Captains add an exhaustion marker during the Experience phase even if the player turn is 'over' because of an escape.

Thread: Knockouts

mikecl — 2008-02-02T18:28:56+00:00
When you are knocked out in IOD, do you have to give up your map counters and/or legendary items?

Thread: Re: "before moving" on IoD

skyde — 2007-05-21T07:26:08+00:00
I agree with Frank La Terra. Although I don't have my rules here to read.

Thread: Re: Obsidian Library Question

skyde — 2007-05-21T07:25:16+00:00
We also played like Jeff Hoffman here.

Thread: Re: Landrec leads the way

Jackwraith — 2007-04-09T03:12:39+00:00
Oops. Yeah. Had Martin Wallace on the brain. Wonder how that '0catch' got in that link? Thanks for the link correction, though.

Thread: Re: Landrec leads the way

Mishenka — 2007-04-09T02:22:19+00:00
Great session report. One minor point is that Martsville is not Martin Wallace's website (i.e. Martin Wallace the original designer of Runebound and many other games), but Martin Knight's. And the correct URL is http://www.martsville.co.uk/Fantasy_Flight_Runebound.htm

Thread: Landrec leads the way

Jackwraith — 2007-04-09T00:36:26+00:00
So, we got together to play some Runebound again. We've played all of the alternate endings multiple times except for Avatars of Kelnov but have only played Isle of Dread twice (once we failed to finish, but I was leading; the second time I won outright with Grey Ker.) Therefore, the Isle was on deck, especially since we hadn't played it with the latest round of expansions to the Market Deck, so it would be interesting to see how some of the newer and more powerful allies and items would affect the difficulty level of IoD, generally believed to be more strenuous than the base game.

We would also be using Martin Wallace's alternate rules for the Market (http://www.martsville.0catch.com/images/FantasyFlight/Runebo...) which we've recently adopted for the base game. I find these rules to be far superior to the standard Market Step approach, as it opens up a great set of options for the players, as well as making it easier to navigate the now enormous Market Deck. So, if you really want to get a weapon or shield or ally, your chances are much improved rather than ending up with yet another Alchemist's Flash Bomb. It does, however, highlight the dearth of armor items in comparison to allies, magic, and weapons.

Leigh was playing Lyssa; Alistair played Ispher; the normally-reluctant Adrianna was playing Bogran; and I tried Landrec. The latter is considered to be the worst of the Runebound characters by our group, as he has to survive until the magic phase to have a solid chance at succeeding (0 in melee) and only has 3 wounds to do it with. Despite his special ability allowing him to get to the Magic phase first, it can only be done once before resting, unlike many other characters' abilities. Since I tend to win most often in Runebound, I figured I'd 'handicap' myself and take the one character that everyone avoids. Quickly, we also noticed that all of our characters were hunched over in some fashion, so it looked kind of comical to be considered the 'champions/saviors' of Terrinoth...

The game started smoothly for 3 of us, as we swept out of Dallak and started knocking off Green challenges. Lyssa even picked up the Black Lotus quest in her first draw (as a side note, I REALLY like the fact that Encounter cards in IoD have themes tied to locations as it provides a great story element with a solid reward for most of them. This is an aspect that I think is really missed in the base game.) However, Ispher went through the most catastrophic luck I've yet seen in a game of Runebound: 3 straight Green challenges, 3 straight knockouts. Of course, you're at least not losing gold or items/allies from suffering in that fashion, but you're also gaining nothing. Despite that streak, Ispher would recover somewhat and be in the running near the end until one fateful moment.

I picked up the Mountains of Ash quest and also was fortunate enough to face challenges that gave me a significant amount of gold to convince me to return to Dallak and Trelton and pick up cheap items and allies (Tallag Beast-Skinner, who later got me a suit of Padded Leather Armor on the cheap, and Winter's Woe) which pushed me forward sufficiently to take on a Yellow challenge first. In many of our games, it's been seen that the first person to take on a Yellow is often the winner. I also continued my trend of the previous IoD game in managing to acquire almost exclusively green Map counters. Bogran countered with mostly Blue counters. Nothing is more frustrating in trying to advance in IoD than drawing only part of the very crucial Maps. However, I did have the forethought to turn in my first completed set for the Book of Korsec-Amin quite early in the game and I held onto it for the rest of the way.

Dry Land was drawn about 2 or 3 turns into the game and remained for the majority of it, so we didn't get to Sea adventures until fairly late into the evening. Also, the dearth of events exposes the somewhat fewer Adventure jewels on the IoD map, making it a slightly more tedious game than the base map. Ispher had recovered sufficiently, picking up the Champion's Plate and the Bow of Fire, to be in the running until Stormy Seas knocked out his Captain and shipwrecked him, costing him the Bow of Fire. Lyssa never really got going, dying once or twice and never having enough gold to pick up decent items. Bogran, OTOH, jumped ahead in leaps and bounds from a fairly mundane beginning. At one point, he was wielding the Touch of Death, Soul Burn, and Immolation, simultaneously, while still being fairly powerful in the Ranged phase. Using that power to knock out 2 or 3 Red challenges and gain the consequent instant levels gave Bogran a giant step ahead of everyone else. With that armament and enough advances, he traveled to the Isle of Dread to open the showdown with Assif Shib-sa. On top of that, he drew the evil god off the top of the Silver deck. However, still needing 16s to make his magic attacks go off, including Touch of Death, and only possessing the Spear of Trelton from the Legendary items proved too much and Assif knocked out his first challenger.

Meanwhile, I managed to work my way up to Reds, as well, now wielding the Rune of Healing, the Shield of Light, and the Elven Wraproot, in addition to two more Wounds. I knocked out the Red challenge that I think is essential to approaching the endgame: Cardinal Thok. The power to do +2 damage in any phase gives you a huge leg up against any of the Silver challenges, regardless of their special ability. Grabbing the Crystal Staff just before I departed (although I was really tempted by Terig, Wyvern Rider), I traveled to the Isle of Dread and proceeded to work my way through the ENTIRE Silver deck, finding Assif Shib-sa on the very bottom (thanks to the ability to discard a couple challenges, I didn't have to fight all of them. I'm not sure I would have made it if I'd had to.) Even with a base 10 in magic, it was no sure thing. However, with the Book and 4 other Legendary items (Helm, Jewel, Sword, Shield), I took 3 of my 5 wounds and defeated Assif Shib-sa in the second round of combat, winning the game with the 'worst' of the Runebound characters. One other positive outcome is that Adrianna actually enjoyed a game of Runebound, so prospects for more plays seem brighter.

Next up: Avatars of Kelnov. Then I'll perhaps finally have enough money stashed aside to pick up Sands of Al-Kalim...

Thread: User Review

computerarif — 2007-01-31T22:26:21+00:00
This review is intended for people who have played Runebound and want to expand there game play. Not for those who have never played Runebound.

The Box
Well for the items in the box I do feel a bit of a let down for the price. There is a new game board that fits over the old board. Eight new characters, the new ally “Captain” , new adventures that are used instead of the old ones, some new items for the market and one ally. The quality of the components are the same from the base set to it will last for quite a few games. But in all I do feel that the MSRP of $40 is a bit much.

Gme Play
The game is about the same as before. The only real difference is the sea travel. Which you need captains to travel across the sea. There are also new rewards called map tokens, one green and one blue. You will need a set (one green, one blue) to get the new epic loot tokens which are one shot items. Also you need them to travel to the Island of Dread which the boss of the expansion is.

Another note is there are no blue adventures. They are replaced with the sea adventures. Now that’s where some of the problems come in. The new sea adventures are all random. So you can get one that’s easer than a green and no exp or one that’s on the level of a red.

Pros
If you are like me and have played the base game to death than this is a great new way to breed life back into Runebound. The addition of new adventures and characters will make for a different kind of game play than before. Also the difficulty of the game has been increased thanks to the Island of Dread adventure cards and the random sea encounters.

Cons
The components of this box feel a bit cheap when compared to the cost. One of the characters Trenloe the Strong is board line broken, one less exp to level! Then man will level up at a drop of a hat. New players that try Island of Dread will feel overcome with all that’s going on in this expansion.

Conclusion
In all this is a good expansion for the game. True there are some issues to address in the box, but I think fans of Runebound will love this new add on to the game. Pick it up and let the dice roll.

Thread: Re: Isle of Dread vs. "vanilla" runebound

HuckmanT — 2007-01-02T01:14:07+00:00
A nice review, but I did want to mention to those considering Isle of Dread that the "Sea Adventures" (blue cards) are actually quite nicely balanced. If the adventure is one of the 6-7 "difficult" encounters, it comes with a free Escape possibility so that you can just skip it and sail on. You don't need to fight the Sea Serpent or the Kraken until you are feeling up to it. This fact was not mentioned in the above review and I felt it was worth noting.

Thread: Re: IOD and the Doom Track + Blue Anchor Spaces

Grimwold — 2006-12-06T12:05:04+00:00
To try and answer your questions...

1) There's nothing official about using the Doom track, as far as I know, but I once tried a solo game with modified doom track rules, as follows:

I decided to use modified Doom Track rules as follows:
3 discarded cards per Doom Counter
4 experience points per upgrade
Once the Doom Track was completed, if my hero did not have a set of maps AND enough gold to hire the first available captain, then they had failed. Otherwise my hero would travel immediately to the Isle of Dread and face the challenges there.

2) You must reveal a card. In the case of sea travel, something encounters you, instead of you choosing to encounter something.

3) As far as I remember the challenge is discarded. I think this only happens if you successfully flee, otherwise you've either won or died.

Thread: IOD and the Doom Track + Blue Anchor Spaces

Latex Jedi — 2006-12-06T10:36:57+00:00
We played IOD for the first time last night and all really enjoyed it, but there are a couple of questions that we have that we don't seem to be able to answer from either the original Runebound or IOD manuals.

1) IOD and the Doom Track - can this be used as a way of limiting the games in the same way as the original or is it best not to use this varient?

2) Blue Anchor Spaces - when sailing and you move to a anchor space do you have to reveal the card or can you choose not to as if you were on land and then carry on moving in your next turn?

3) Blue Anchor Cards - If you do not complete the encounter does the card become an undefeated challenge just like the green/yellow/red cards?

Can any one help?

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Pableras — 2006-12-03T14:18:58+00:00

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jamesmattbob — 2006-11-01T01:19:41+00:00

Thread: Re: Event Card Question

GameMasterX0 — 2006-10-17T17:27:15+00:00
I'm also pretty sure there is a rule in the faq that no item can be both bought and sold in the same turn. So I think you could sell an item back for a profit in this situation, but you'd have to spend a whole new market step to do so.
-Mike

Thread: Re: Obsidian Library Question

Gamemaster — 2006-10-16T05:36:34+00:00
We always play it that the player who successfully made the Lore test gets the Book no matter who has it. The "other" book is a fake!

Seriously, we do use the Map Counter rule which is that if there is no more of the counters in the cup, then you get to take a Map Counter from another player.

Thread: Re: Obsidian Library Question

MrSkeletor — 2006-10-15T07:34:39+00:00
Don't know the 'official' ruling, butt we play that the Library lets you take it off another player.

Thread: Obsidian Library Question

cbrua — 2006-10-15T02:30:54+00:00
If you make a Lore check after defeating the Obsidian Library you receive the Book of Korsec-Amin legendary item. What if somebody else already has it? I assume they get to keep it, but it's the kind of thing that starts arguments without a FAQ ruling (with some of my friends, unfortunately).

--Chris

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Mishenka — 2006-09-27T05:03:05+00:00
Island of Dread characters

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kroxldyphivc — 2006-09-25T02:24:54+00:00
Runebound doesn't play too badly while camping

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BattleZone — 2006-08-27T14:34:32+00:00
Another angle of Isle of Dread once game is under way

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BattleZone — 2006-08-27T14:20:57+00:00
Isle of Dread ready to go