Dungeons and Dragons Preview Week 3!?!?!?!

[Therrian]

Originally Posted by Xn F M

So did anyone else notice Truth said they'd be talking about "which treasure glyphs are in the master set?" Is it just me, or does that imply treasure glyphs that aren't in the master set? Possably even in the wave 11 boosters? *crosses fingers*

Given that treasure is a core part of the dungeon experience, I would guess that each booster pack of critters will come with a new treasure glyph.

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by GromBloodboy

Rereading the quote on Pelloth, they seem to have missed the flavor on him. Drow males could not apsire to priests. It was reserved for only females. Lolth even regarded males as scum, only there to reproduce. So him getting his powers from her is suspicious....

Hmmm where does it say he is a priest?

[ProtoFury]

Well, I read through the whole thing with an open mind, glad to see at least some form of new Scape--but I can honestly say, I'm still not impressed. As I've always said, I'm going to be buying two sets--but still just for the terrain (which I'm not even super impressed with either).

I wasn't a fan of the sculpts for the figures (especially not the troll) originally, but I figured wih a decent paint job they'd look better. Not fantastic, but better. If those were pictures of the actual paint jobs on the new figures, I'm a little disappointed. They kinda look like a four-year-old painted his army soldiers--not near the level of detail we usually see. The Drow look kinda cool, but everything else just looks... meh. My call on this point is a negative for the figures. (However, I do actually like that dragon.)

I'm a sucker for new terrain, but I'm iffy on the whole "shadow tile" idea. It makes the battlefield interesting, true--but it doesn't look so hot aesthetically, IMO. I've never been one to sit half-tiles just straight out on top of terrain, however; I've always nested my water/swamp water/lava/whathaveyou in terrain (except for ice tiles--which are the only half-hexes to date, excluding lava sometimes, that make sense just sitting on top of terrain from an aesthetic and realistic point of view). Now granted, perhaps if one created a few 2- or 3-hex "holes" in Level 1 of a map, and filled it with shadow tiles, it could make things interesting (defensive height advantage for those with no height, anyone?), and aesthetically pleasing. But I'm not a fan of the rocks coming out of the shadow tiles either (although I realize that this is a practical solution, and not really an attempt at realism for these pieces). The dungeon terrain having terrain bonuses for certain figures is ver interesting though--and I can see myself incorporating the new slate-gray tiles into quite a few new maps. All in all, I feel good about the new terrain. The more I think about it, the more map-making ideas I'm having for it--positive on this one.

Now, Uncommon Heroes--I'm psyched. This opens up a whole range of possibilities--for new figures, for customs, for army builds, and more. It strikes me as a good idea as well, since I didn't want to waste a power of one of my new customs limiting them to three for the Common Hero cheerleaders. If everything turns out, I can go ahead and label them Uncommon. Plus, I believe that these are limited to three, becaue of GB's cyptic remark elsewhere in the forums to make sure and buy three sets. (I'm most likely not going to buy three just for the fiures, but if you like them it makes sense). For originality and practicality, I give Uncommon Heroes a positive mark.

Lastly (as far as we know for now), the treasure glyphs. It's true that don't know exactly what effects these glyphs will have, and the concept is interesting--but I'm not super thrilled. They remind me of the Marvel glyphs--which have proved relatively worthless for me (as has almost all of the Marvel set except, you guessed it, the terrain)--and that leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I'm gonna give this one a negative for now, but depending on the effects of the glyphs that will be revealed, it's very likely to change.

All in all, thats 2 negative marls and 2 positive marks for the DnD set, more than I was expecting when I originally heard about it. I'm not hating it, but I'm not thrilled about it, and my thoughts are fairly balanced for and against it. My only mark that may change is going to be the Glyphs mark, and there's still marks to made made for the scenarios, maps, and character stats. I'm not jumping up and down, but it's better than nothing I suppose.

EDIT: I have to add, the shadow tiles could make for some cool-looking oil spills or whanot, for custom maps and terrain based around Vydar and his factories.

[rouby44]

Originally Posted by Warlord Alpha

That, is awesome. How come we never considered this before? It is simple, just...wow. How did we not think of this?

Trust me - it has been thought of. Common heroes have been designed to only have one life because it would be difficult to keep track of wounds on figures that have multiple lives but are physically identical.

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by LilNewbie

Maybe Uncommon Hero allows you to purchase multiples but only have one active at a time. When one is destroyed, another appears in your start zone. You clear all the wounds on the card and it can be activated using the next Order Marker on it. You can replace the destroyed figure up to the number of times you purchased another card beyond the first.

Just an idea and it allows multiple wounds on a "common/uncommon" hero unit.

Newb.~Not an HS Playtester but I play one on TV...

That is a cool idea, REALLY cool! But in DnD there are times when a party of adventurers may face more than one of a certain kind of bad guy at one time.

[GromBloodboy]

I am limiting myself to a 2 post difference between every post to try and not get annoying..........

Based on what this preview says, I have my ideas about the expansion packs. I bet my money that there is going to be 2 hero packs. One with good guys for PCs, to fit the DnD theme, and a hero pack for Utgar's guys. Then there will be two packs that will have common squads and/or uncommon heros. You can buy these to supplement your Heroscape armies or to have new units to play with as a RPG. My final thought is that there is going to be a rehaul on the Heroscape offical site, or on this one. They are going to try and post new "adventures", or offical scenarios that can be used with the waves. This seems like what a possibility could be.

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by rouby44

Trust me - it has been thought of. Common heroes have been designed to only have one life because it would be difficult to keep track of wounds on figures that have multiple lives but are physically identical.

True and yet DnD minis players somehow seem to have no problem keeping track of their multi-wound identical figures during thneir games and many of those players are little kids... Just sayin'...

[Therrian]

Originally Posted by ProtoFury

I'm a sucker for new terrain, but I'm iffy on the whole "shadow tile" idea. It makes the battlefield interesting, true--but it doesn't look so hot aesthetically, IMO. I've never been one to sit half-tiles just straight out on top of terrain, however; I've always nested my water/swamp water/lava/whathaveyou in terrain (except for ice tiles--which are the only half-hexes to date, excluding lava sometimes, that make sense just sitting on top of terrain from an aesthetic and realistic point of view). Now granted, perhaps if one created a few 2- or 3-hex "holes" in Level 1 of a map, and filled it with shadow tiles, it could make things interesting (defensive height advantage for those with no height, anyone?), and aesthetically pleasing. But I'm not a fan of the rocks coming out of the shadow tiles either (although I realize that this is a practical solution, and not really an attempt at realism for these pieces). .

I could be way off base here, but I still don't think that Shadow Tiles are something you can just place anywhere on the board. Drow summon globes of Darkness that would fit this bill perfectly.

[Takanuva]

Curse your cyrptically evil remarks! I'm going to have a heart attack from all this exitement! Every post changes my ideas about this set!

[ProtoFury]

Originally Posted by Therrian

I could be way off base here, but I still don't think that Shadow Tiles are something you can just place anywhere on the board. Drow summon globes of Darkness that would fit this bill perfectly.

Would that not be more of a special power thing? So fr there's been no official units that can change the actual terrain itself, or the map in which the terrain sits. Also, what if you are playing with just one DnD master set, and are playing on a map utilizing the shadow tiles--where are you going to get more shadow tiles to summon? I've always thought altering terrain mid-game would be cool, but I fear ther are just too many difficulties to make it official, unless a unit comes with specific terrain to do so. Even then, the ability to place terrain in the thick of a battle could be a potentially game-breaking feature--imaging playing on a map like Highways and Dieways, and the ability to summon shadow tiles to the height, and get yourself +2 defense (height and shadow tiles)! Or the ability to summon some other terrain, to essentially create height for yourself somewhere else--say, summoning a few 1-height hexes on top of the second level in Fire Isles, to create some height that doesn't carry risk of lava damage? It changes the playabiltiy of a map itself, and would be such a unique feature that a unit that could do so should cost a fortune. Think Taelord with no aura, no flying, no attack, and no defense, and you'd probably be right on.

[Toad Rocket]

At first reading the discriptions I was concerned how so many figures mentioned how powerful they were and I feared WOTC induced power creep!

However, the player testers involved should prevent such things from happening. Also, Khosumets bio made him sound tough also. So everything should be ok.

[ProtoFury]

True, but I'm not worried abot power creeps with these guys. I was only arguing the un-merits of a figure who had the ability to summon actual terrain.

If the shadow blob ability or whatever was a special attack, then sure. If it summons terrain, that's bad.