"Rise of the Runelords CG solo" Topic

30-turn limit.
Scenario: Approach to Thistletop
Locations (3) the Woods, the Treacherous Cave and the Goblin Fortress.

I choose Valeros, the Fighter as my PC. After sorting out the right number of cards and filling out his deck, I opted to explore the Woods first. Things were going well, The Giant Hermit Crab, Goblin Snake and Boar were defeated when I ran smack into the prime villain… TANGLETOOTH!

Being a solo game, I had no other players at any other locations, so I could not seal off the other two. He ran away (probably to the Fortress!)

I next ran into a barrier I could not overcome… the Shopkeepers Daughter. She was too fair, I could not resist (WIS 8 or better to defeat the card, Valeros rolls a d4 for WIS.)

Even discarding a Blessings of the Gods card for an extra die, I would have to roll 4 both times to defeat her wily charms. I had to escape and explore another area of the Scenario and obtain *something* that would help me return to resist her charms.

Alas, the rest of the adventure was fairly mundane, due to Valeros' prowess, the various monsters, henchmen and finally the BBEG villain himself were handily defeated.

Valeros had cleared and sealed the Goblin Fortress, but apparently had upset the gods, not being able to obtain enough bonus dice to clear the last remnants of the Cave, nor defeat the charms of the Shopkeepers Daughter.

Resources were thin and my Player cards was running low from the discards as well (run out of Player cards and your PC dies.)

In the end, Valeros was nagged into retiring from adventuring, spending his remaining years a cuckoled husband to a lovely to look at, yet overbearing wife who takes him completely for granted…

LESSONS LEARNED: While solo means single player, going single PC is not a realistic option for this card game.

Valeros is awesome in combat itself. In all the Scenario 1 deck, most enemies are 8-10 to defeat, and he rolls a d10+3 in melee by himself (add in the longsword card its an additional d8 for a effective damage range of 5-21, handily defeating all enemies in the first go around.)

Valeros needs help with overcoming the roleplay barriers that have to be defeated to advance the game. While it technically is POSSIBLE for him to act alone, he would have to be extremely lucky to survive and win.

Was not expecting a card popping up that allowed a, "random draw from the box," so I had to look up exactly what that meant. I really did not want to combine all the various Boon cards to draw a single random, so I shuffled the Blessings Deck (the largest) and drew from there.

Hope you post another report, I've been eyeing this game for a while and wanting to pick it up

With two or more PC's, they can trade a card to another player at the start of their turn, so they can in effect, make up for one another s shortfalls. I have to check if they can only do that if they are at the same location. *BUT* adding another player adds more Locations that must be closed, the Scenario card tells you how many more per player.

Locations are populated with an assortment of random armor, weapon, monster, item, blessings, barriers and henchmen, not all have the same mixture. Each different Location Deck is shuffled and placed face down. These have to be drawn to "explore" the location. If you are able to explore and then close out all the Locations before the 30 turn deck is empty, you win the Scenario.

Locations can only be closed after the location decks are completely empty, or when a card in that deck comes up that allows an attempt, or if you run into the BBEG Villain. Any PC's at any other locations can try to immediately close that location or the Villain runs away to one of them when defeated where he was drawn (sneaky little git.)

Failing to defeat the Monsters means auto-damage. Some monsters have damage reduction to your rolls, or an auto-damage feature (before you can attempt to defeat them, take 1d4 fire damage, etc.) Taking damage means you have to sacrifice a turn a point to heal unless you possess a card that allows some other method of healing, so the turn deck keeps getting lower if you keep getting injured. There are some magic item cards that mitigate certain types of damage. Like the "Wand of Shield" takes away 1d4 missile damage.

With multiple-PC games, especially at three or more, it is best to hit different locations at once rather than all go together, as you have only 30 turns to close all the locations.

Succeeding the Scenarios gains your PC FEATS, bonuses to their abilities and skill checks for the more difficult Scenarios in the next expansion pack in line…

And it keeps escalating up from there… as your PC's get stronger, more skilled and tougher, the monsters get harder, the barriers more difficult, the Villains more dangerous, the rewards greater, etc.