A few Castle Ravenloft (boardgame) questions...

[Jasperak]

Thanks Marius for the help.

I started a longish post on questioning when and how monster and encounter cards are drawn and have realized that there may be a gross misreading of the rules on placing tiles and drawing monsters and encounters and the effect that white triangles have on both.

Before I post more, I am going to ask my friend how exactly THEY ran the game. When we played it seemed much safer to explore new tiles than to stick together. The game ended with ONE character fighting the big bad monster and everyone else at least two tiles away.

Again, we had a blast playing but something didn't seem right with me, and I am beginning to think they misread the rules. I am glad that WOTC posted the rules for the game so I can see if we misinterpreted those rules.

As a postscript, while they have had a lot a fun playing the game, they also mentioned that more games than not end in defeat. While they attributed that to bad roles, their tactical knowledge and application of abilities was good, and I at the time questioned the design intentions. I may have been wrong, based on their flawed interpretation of the rules. I hope so because we had a lot of fun, but the game seemed way too deadly to me to use as a go to game for hack and slash fun. I even said that games such as Dungeon! and Heroquest--of which between us we have both copies--would be better to play. I really want to like this game (and others following in its line).

If you are interested, stand by to see how this turns out. I will say this though. We had a ing blast playing. Aside from a lack of clarifications in the rules (concerning adjacency and a few others), this game delivered an evening of fun; the problems I encountered may have been from this group's reading of the rules.

 

[Marius Delphus]

We have had a lot of fun with this game on many nights (it is just short of being a "D&D fix" without actually being D&D), and I would say our win rate is roughly 50-60%. (I'm counting as losses those times when we actually lose the game but continue on to "win" by spending healing surges we don't have or bringing in fresh replacement characters.) We typically have 3 players.

I agree the game is not easy to win. It's meant to inspire a little desperation, I think (it needing to live up to Strahd's rep, after all), so that IAOI doesn't really trouble us. We find the game easier to win when we rack up XP so we can cancel Encounter Cards, so some amount of spreading out can be helpful, but at the same time, there comes a point at which the rolls or card draws go against you and you manage to die ignominiously anyway. So the "lone wolf" approach is almost certain death, IYAM.

As far as the white/black triangle thing goes, here's how we handle it at the table (absent any special scenario rules of course).

If the Active Character Explores and Turns Up a White Triangle
Draw a Monster Card, place the monster's figure, give the Monster Card to the active player to control, and end the Explore Phase. Begin the Villain Phase.

If the Active Character Explores and Turns Up a Black Triangle
Draw an Encounter Card and a Monster Card, place the monster's figure, give the Monster Card to the active player to control, and end the Explore Phase. Begin the Villain Phase by resolving the face-up Encounter Card. (Drawing both cards at the same time is a tool to help us remember to deal with the encounter before moving on to the monster.)

If the Active Character Doesn't Explore
End the Explore Phase. Draw an Encounter Card and begin the Villain Phase by resolving it.

HTH. HAND.

 

[Jasperak]

>Marius: That sounds like how they ran the game. I cannot wait to talk to my friend and see if it resembles how we played. While I understand the game is meant to encourage a sort of fear and trepidation, I find it odd that they naturally found it in their best interests to split up in order to find the tile with the goal encounter faster and reduce their draws from the encounter cards. For the first hour or so I kept questioning the group splitting up.

 

[Treebore]

We've greatly enjoyed the game as well, with the Dracolich scenario being the most exciting. Mostly because we won on the absolute last die roll before we would have lost.

 

[Stormonu]

I'm of mixed feelings on the game. It comes with a terrific pile of minis, but I didn't find the game running smoothly and easily; I came away from it thinking it was a poor combination of Betrayal at Hill House and Descent.

And for pete's sake, Kobolds? WTF? Why are there kobolds in a Ravenloft-themed game? There surely could have been something else they could have put in place that would have better fitted in with Ravenloft!

 

[mach1.9pants]

So it is definitely encounter AND monster card for a black triangle?

Whoops... but my 5 and 6 yr old boys like to win anyway. And the Ranger rocks with his auto damage killing machine.

 

[Marius Delphus]

Pretty sure, but obviously drawing fewer Monster Cards is going to make success (and happy kids) more likely.

And our "Neutral Dietosser" player also loves the ranger's auto-damage.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Cheers, the way I read it a black triangle was just an encounter, but I was fast reading cos the kids were so keen to game!

 

[Wednesday Boy]

We've greatly enjoyed the game as well, with the Dracolich scenario being the most exciting. Mostly because we won on the absolute last die roll before we would have lost.

That absolute last die roll was the same thing we had with the Klak scenario--definitely made it the most exiting one yet!

And for pete's sake, Kobolds? WTF? Why are there kobolds in a Ravenloft-themed game? There surely could have been something else they could have put in place that would have better fitted in with Ravenloft!

I know what you mean, I think there should have been something more undead or dungeony and save the kobolds for the Wrath of ArsharardarshardalonadingdongyouknowwhoImean.

So it is definitely encounter AND monster card for a black triangle?

I think so. All explored tiles get a monster and if it has the black triangle it gets an encounter too.

 

[Treebore]

I think so. All explored tiles get a monster and if it has the black triangle it gets an encounter too.

One thing I do have to complain about, the rules are not as clear as they could be. Not that the rules aren't there, but they are not easy to find/spot. So even though I know a rule exists, I have had a heck of a time going back and finding it again.

However, when you do find it it is pretty clear that the black triangle means an encounter card in addition to the monster.

The most brutal thing we find is that the monsters activate on each players turn, so they get an attack for each of our turns, while only one player gets an attack for the turn.

We are thinking of only allowing monsters controlled by the player whose turn it is to be able to activate. Not all monsters.

But we do like how deadly it is this way. So we may just stick with it.