by Vetinari
I don't have this game in my hands yet, but I'm hoping to have it soon. More importantly, I'm thinking about ordering the conversion kit even though I don't have the first edition (and have never played it). For those of you who do have the 2nd edition and the conversion kit, please give me your feedback on my thought process.Initially, even if I never track down the original games, I can find miniatures to use with the conversion kit.
The reason I would get the conversion kit is play balance:
(1) It seems to me that the conversion kit would favor the overlord. Even if the creatures are all well balanced, having more options for open groups gives the overlord a greater ability to pick monsters that are well suited to the specific objective of the scenario and the specific abilities of the hero group. The kit adds more heroes, but the chosen heroes cannot be changed for each quest.
(2) My play group is very much a group of mini-maxing sharks that will squeeze every advantage they can out of the rules and their character abilities.
(3) Having more options for the overload can help balance the game where the heroes players are not likely to give too much away.
(4) If having access to all the extra monsters (within the appropriate setting restrictions) is too strong for the overlord, we can experiment with ways to reduce the advantage by reducing the options (perhaps randomly, by hero vetoes, or by campaign limits on powerful monsters).
Does this make sense? If I'm going to be the overlord against a group of strong gamers is it reasonable for me to get this as "play balance insurance"?
I'm very lucky to have a group that is highly competitive, but where people want to win a well fought game rather than just win. I have high hopes for this game and I want to make sure it goes over well.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.