by aturtle
Obviously, these tunings are not for everybody- they are definitely geared for a specific taste, and they certainly won't make you like the game if it's not your type to begin with. For some people, however, they might bring out some of the more exciting parts of the game and possibly add to the general feel.Small adjustments (if possible, change these directly on materials with bits of post-it; however, for shards, this would require card sleeves).
If using BOW:
Roc: 3 health
Siege Tower: 4 health (do not adjust if playing without BOW)
Vampire: target need not be routed for the effect (cover up the “routed” part)
Great Wyrm: remove/cover up “fast”
Lyonx Rider upgrade: costs one additional wood
Obscene upgrade: move to any controlled area, not just home realm.
Whether using BOW or not:
Timmoran shards: add “keep faceup”
Reasons: the BOW adjustments are minor, but meant to make recruitment choices are a little more interesting in cases where one unit tends to overshadow another without the adjustments (Roc vs Siege Tower, for example). The Timmoran shards adjustment is to make endings less abrupt, and for making hero combat more enticing and exciting.
Small rule changes:
If not starting a battle, a move order (mobilize or conquer, not strategize) can be used to make heroes duel. This is not a battle (for the purposes of mobilize).
Heroes always explore (flip exploration tokens) in the area they end up in, not only during the quest phase. If battling alongside an army, they will explore after the battle, because they may end up retreating to a different area.
“Dungeon” exploration tokens always affect heroes, not just when moving during the quest phase. A hero can attempt to move to an otherwise reachable activation token and stop short because of a dungeon.
Tactic cards can be used on the turn that they are acquired.
Reasons: Exploration feels more like exploration if you do it more often than once a year, and the dueling keeps heroes' lives more exciting and engaging outside the quest phase. The tactics card rule is to avoid the fiddly original rule and to give the excitement that comes from hoping that this next tactic card will save you.
“Diplomacy experience”, based on the variant proposed by Saan in this thread: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/509383/diplomacy-experience
Fairly minor adjustment in practice, but kind of nice. If diplomacy fails, place one influence token under a participating unit as diplomacy experience. Future diplomatic attempts give an extra fate card per token (you still need to spend at least one influence). Remove a token after a gold result.
Bigger changes:
Most quests are public-
Players start with one quest from the set of quests that do not have an area on them (exclude "Trials of Zorek" and "The Frost Tower"). The rest of the non-area-specific quests get shuffled into the quest deck as normal. The starting quests are the only ones in the entire game that are private (do not draw new ones, ever). The rest of the quests come out into a public pool, one each season, up to a maximum of two above the number of heroes in play. Anyone is free to be the first to complete them, but only during the quest phase, as before. They are not immediately replaced when completed unless the card states so.
Reason: when quests are private, no one really cares who is doing what in the quest phase. With this adjustment, one gets read each turn, and they feel more ingrained into the game, both because there is time to hear the flavor text, and because they are open for everyone to see. The starting private quests are just so that heroes definitely have something to do early on. Tip- use hero death markers to mark where the quests take place if they are area-related.
Hero stats have additional value-
Use stat tokens to lay out your hero's starting stats. At any point during your turn except during a battle or duel, you can trade in any number of your hero's stats for benefits:
Wisdom for influence (1 to 1)
Agility for tactics cards (2 agility for 1 tactic card)
Strength for triangle units (1 to 1, in hero's area, area cannot be enemy-controlled).
As usual, you can train to increase your attributes, and your attributes cannot rise two above the starting value.
Reason: Heroes should be able to help your cause at the cost of their own adventuring. This also makes heroes feel more like a part of the bigger picture and makes them more exciting and valuable to have.
(BOW only) Commander cards work differently-
Commander cards are "banners" and a "commander" is just a hero with a banner- they still count against the hero limit (3), they are still heroes, and they can still quest as normal. Each player's first hero starts with a banner. If all of a player's heroes die, the next hero the player acquires starts with a banner. New banners can also be drawn as the "quest card" option from cities, but a player is still limited to one commander (without the relevant tactic card), so the old banner would be discarded if replaced. An existing banner can be handed off between friendly heroes as an item, but is not dropped if the hero is killed- it is lost (torn).
Reason: a fourth hero is not worth dealing with just for a small boost, but the commander cards should be usable, and BOW should include actual banners.
Possible questions:
Q: Say I want to recruit more units for an attack using my hero, but doing so would cause me to go over the unit limit. Could I move the existing units in to attack, recruit more units using the hero, and move those in as well?
A: Yes, that is allowable (and fun). All the more reason to fear heroes.
Q: Can I trade in stats at the end of my turn, after resolving my order card?
A: Yes, that is still during your turn. You just can’t trade in stats while you’re dueling, while you’re battling, or outside of your turn (during another player’s turn or during a season card resolution).
Q: What if I need to test an attribute, but it is zero because I traded it all in?
A: You automatically fail the test, of course.
Q: For the public quests that do not reference specific areas, is it just whoever satisfies the conditions first?
A: Yes. Also remember that quests are still only completed during the quest phase, and that turn order is still determined by the previous season’s order card.
Q: Does a new quest come out when a new hero is recruited? Does a quest get discarded from the pool when a hero dies?
A: No and no. At the start of every season, if the number of quests is less than the number of heroes + 2, you add one quest. Otherwise (if it is more or equal) you do nothing.
Q: For diplomacy, does a “silver” result cause a loss of diplomacy experience?
A: No. Your diplomat learns from failure, doesn’t learn anything in a medium success, and gets cocky after a great success.
Q: If a hero retreats into an area with an exploration token, does he/she explore it despite being routed?
A: Yes.