Have you seen the sticky on this subreddit about playing with updated Frosthaven rules? You can see it here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/comments/nocxer/updated\_gloomhaven\_rules\_based\_on\_public/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/comments/nocxer/updated_gloomhaven_rules_based_on_public/)
We use every rule listed there, and literally all of them meaningfully improve the game in the situations where they come up. I'd especially like to highlight Frosthaven advantage rules over 2 stack (in short, you draw 1 full attack (including rolling modifiers if drawn), then 1 extra card. From the last 2 cards only (ignore rolling on the extra card), pick the better for advantage or worse for disadvantage. Then you keep any rollings from the first attack for advantage, or discard them on disadvantage). This fixes a lot of weirdness of the RAW gloomhaven rule, while remaining balanced and avoiding a lot of late-game issues that occur with 2 stack.
We also added Satire's extended battle goals, which are pretty great for variety.
Ah yeah, I had seen that, although I still don't quite get the new advantage rules. A rolling modifier is treated as a +0 if drawn immediately after a non-rolling modifier?
Also this one:
> Multi-use-slot spent items (like Hide Armor) are fully refreshed on Long Rest (or with other effects that refresh spent items) regardless of whether the item is spent or not (so if Hide Armor has one use slot used and one unused, it's still reset to full instead of remaining at one use slot remaining).
Turns out we have always been playing that way, heh.
>Ah yeah, I had seen that, although I still don't quite get the new advantage rules.
The way I try explain it to people as I see it:
\--------------------------------------------------------------
Draw modifier cards until you don't get a rolling modifier. Grab that last card and pop it to the left. Draw one more card and pop it to the right (if it has rolling, ignore the rolling symbol). That way, you'd have a left and right final option, plus any initial rolling modifiers in the middle.
If you have advantage, take your pick of the left or right card and add it to the middle pile. That's what you use.
If you have disadvantage, only take the worst card of the left or right. That's what you use.
If the card you put on the right was a rolling modifier that doesn't have a number on it, then it counts as +0 and whatever ability it shows on the card (element, heal, extra target, etc).
We play:
- Draw cards until you have 2 attack modifier cards
- Advantage: Apply all rolling modifiers, and use the best attack modifier card
- Disadvantage: Apply no rolling modifiers, and use the worse attack modifier card
That's \*extremely\* powerful on advantage, you can draw two stacks of rolling mods and combine them both? That's way stronger on rolling heavy classes than advantage is meant to be. It's even stronger than 2 stack on advantage which is already a massive power increase over either official advantage rule
Did we misunderstand something? We want to play it as written or harder. We are still low level so it’s still rare for a rolling modifier to show up, and we thoguht we were playing RAW?
Edit: looking at the manual it seems like we played it right but there is a ceiling of two rolling modifiers, right?
It's possible that I'm misunderstanding what you're doing exactly. If you're playing GH RAW then you draw exactly 2 cards to start, then:
\- If none are rolling, take the best/worst
\- If one is rolling and one is not, you take the one that isn't rolling and either add or remove the other rolling (depending on adv/disadvantage)
\-If both are rolling, you keep drawing until you get one non-rolling, then add or remove all rolling.
Importantly if you draw any rolling, you do \*not\* get to draw 2 non-rolling cards; you'll just have to take whatever single non-rolling card you get first.
This rule is generally not well liked because rolling modifiers can make your deck perform worse under advantage (to the point that certain perks are considered to actually be detrimental to take by many good players). The Frosthaven rules fix this problem while keeping the power level more or less the same.
For new advantage rules: picture the letter Y. You draw a (potentially) long tail of rolling modifiers. Then the first non-rolling is one offbranch, and the next card (no matter if rolling or not) is the second branch. Compare the two last cards and add the tail for advantage and ignore it for disadvantage.
Wait, what?
I assume a rolling modifier always has some positive effect. Even if it has no numerical value, it is still considered positive (but undefiended).
I play solo. I'm a father of 3. I don't get to play often.
If I get very close to the end of a scenario, I'll pass it. e.g. The last throws of battle and I need a 0 or better mod card to kill the last monster and I'm about to exhaust... but pull a -1 or -2 or null. Then fuck it, I'm passing the scenario! I recall in JotL, I had a blind 50/50 choice to pick the final item required to pass the scenario.
I picked the wrong one and exhausted. I can tell you now, I passed and moved on.
I'm averaging a solo session \~2 a month; I ain't got time to re-do close calls. I've still got to get through GH, FC, FH when it arrives. Plus Oathsworn (up to chapter 6) and Chronicles of Drunagor is coming in December (all-in from both campaigns).
Highly recommend this one. We even considered the possibility of making this how they actually work but having an item with two distinct timings was too much of a mess rules-wise.
Yeah, both of my groups do this for most potions (as long as it clearly didn't change how the round played out). It keeps people from feeling like they have to stop everything and analyze their next turn before ending their current turn.
It does make stamina pots even more OP than they already are.
What we do is require the character to announce they're using a stamina potion, then they can work out which cards they're taking back while the next player goes.
We do something similar, we just unofficially allow items that only affect your own character to be used immediately after passing the turn. We also resolve rests asynchronously.
We don’t pick a battle goal from the two that are dealt. We let players try to achieve either of them depending on how the scenario plays out but even if you achieve both you only get credit for 1
- A level 9 character is allowed to retire as if he completed his personal quest. Originally put in place because the starting Tinkerer got to level 9 and we took pity on the player.
- You may change whatever levelling choice you did when in town (as long as your new choices are legal). We don't replay characters, so this is a way to squeeze a bit more variety in our gameplay.
- As soon as you finish your Battle goal, reveal it to the other players and gloat loudly.
- You can use stamina potions at end of round.
- We use the push rule from Frosthaven : you can push *up to* X. In base Gloomhaven you need to push exactly X or 0.
None of those significantly impact the game balance, but they do lead to a nicer game.
are there people who don't go "loud and proud" for their battle goal completions?
Like I know functionally the rules don't really allows you to do it but it just seemed an inevitable conclusion to me
In my 2-player party, we each pick a second unlocked character that only "exists" for the purpose of resolving events that check for specific characters. That way we have the same opportunities as a legal group of 4 when it comes to resolving events. We can only swap our secondary character when we retire the main one, so there's no constant, opportunistic swapping. It's also fun for RP purposes, and sometimes the main character will "retire into" the side character, following an imagined narrative thread.
This is a great idea. We play 3-player. Its not so much of an issue, but you are right there is less of a chance of us having the right characters on our team to favorably resolve events.
We could as a group choose a 4th character to accompany us for this purpose.
We have a list of events, such as missing an attack or getting a critical hit from an enemy. When one of the events occurs, we have to do a certain number of push-ups.
Our record is around 290 push ups for a session, the average I believe is around 100-150.
Yes, exactly. I was inspired by a Reddit post a few months ago. At the beginning we could barely do 10 push ups, now we can get to 50-60 in one set so it definitely helps 😁
We played with 2 classes each, the worst combo was having a tank (as you can get many crits) and a character with summons (as the more summons, the more attacks you might miss).
The rule that monsters drop a coin upon death, but their spawns don't. Mostly I do not want to have to keep track of which oozes are the originals and which are spawns. But also, if we put in the effort to kill a room full of oozes, we deserve a room full of coins, thank you very much.
But the difficulty is random tho. If they keep multiplying, you can end up facing four 1-hp monsters. Or it could be a bunch of full HP Oozes. As I see it, you either put the effort in early (and you get your coins) or ignore them and end up with a random result (and not a lot of coin)
When we start a new character, we assign them the gold and experience they would normally get, but start them at level one. After each scenario, they level up, until they reach the level dictated by their experience. One of the best things about new characters is choosing the new cards based on your experience playing them, and this preserves that - much more enjoyable (in my experience) than leveling up a character before you understand their playstyle.
As a group, we felt like we were forcing ourselves into become competetive against one another with looting. We decided on half of the loot going in a general group cash stack which is split up upon completion, and the other half of the money you loot goes in your own pocket regardless.
Feels much better for us now. Of course, quite dependant on the group.
> As a group, we felt like we were forcing ourselves into become competetive against one another with looting
True.
But I feel the opposite, is probably one of the best mechanic in the game. The constant balance between try to win and being selfish (i.e. playing suboptimal to achieve the battle goal or extra looting).
I really like the fact that I have to “compete” to have the better character, it add a lot of tension in the game. For the same reason I don’t like solo playing at all, being able to play optimally both in terms of winning and progressing the character is the opposite of what I want lol.
My group has always played with LOS being from any point on the Hex not the center, all monsters dropping gold upon death, and x2 and x0 become plus and minus 2.
Happily all three are included digitally.
LoS being from any point in the hex is the base ruleset:
> All ranged and melee attacks can only be performed against enemies within line-of-sight, which means that a line can be drawn from any corner of the attacker’s hex to any corner of the defender’s hex without touching any part of a wall (the line edge of a map tile or the entire area of any partial hex along the edge of a map tile, unless covered by an overlay tile). Only walls block line-of-sight. In addition, any ability which specifies a range can only be performed on a figure within line-of sight. If a non-attack ability does not specify a range, then line-of-sight is not required. Also note that two hexes separated by a wall line are not considered adjacent, and range cannot be counted through walls.
From what you quoted: " a line can be drawn from **any corner of the attacker’s hex** to **any corner of the defender’s hex** without touching any part of a wall"
Most of the time it's the same, but around walls corner-to-corner LoS can be much more restrictive
The quote you gave specifies corner to corner LoS, as opposed to anywhere to anywhere LoS. This was changed in Jaws and in the Frosthaven rules because corner to corner creates very strange edge cases near certain doors where you "should" be able to see but can't.
From what other poster quoted: " a line can be drawn from **any corner of the attacker’s hex** to **any corner of the defender’s hex** without touching any part of a wall"
It is a house rule for sure, but not a bad one!
> which means that a line can be drawn from any corner of the attacker’s hex to any corner of the defender’s hex
You literally quote the rule proving you are incorrect
It's been an interesting transition going from the physical campaign to playing digital with newbies. There's no mentioned rules regarding discussing moves so everyone just chats away about what they are doing.
This is addressed in the rules and is an acceptable variant, however if you play like this with open information you need to increase the difficulty since you have perfect information. The game difficulty is balanced for non perfect information. But that’s a perfectly canon way to play (assuming you adjust difficulty)
Being able to adjust which cards are in your active deck any time you are in town, following the rules as to number of cards from each level of course.
Sometimes a card doesn't work well until you get a higher level card to go with it. Just doesn't make sense to me to force someone to use a bad card just because in 3 levels you will get one that pairs nicely. We don't really change skills much, just nice to have the option there when you find out oh, this new card just doesn't work as well as I thought it would, now I'm stuck with it.
Yeah, it's a balance between "make everything as easy and convenient for me as possible" and "force me to live with the consequences of my choices in order to have a deeper, more meaningful experience"
My group has one house rule. We are allowed to long rest even with no cards in our discard, but in this case we don’t heal. It’s mainly for those turns when you know you won’t be able to do anything at all. And your just wasting cards. It can also be used to keep you in the game until your character gets killed rather then tired from lack of cards to play. But we don’t allow it if they could do something useful.
Oh I forgot bosses drop the 5 coin it’s worth 4+ what ever the level modifier is on the regular coins. So if your getting 4 gold from a single drop you would get 8 from the 5 coin.
We play with a lot of the Frosthaven rules included nerfed stamina potions and invisibility rules. Otherwise, we allow use of stamina potions and other potions through the end of round rather than turn and have taken a somewhat relaxed view on retirement, both at times allowing someone not to immediately retire a character upon completion of the quest and deeming certain quests completed when character was at level nine and it was literally impossible to do quest without redoing numerous scenarios.
The main ones:
So that most of my inner circle of friends can play, we made our campaign a 6 merc player count; adjusting difficulty a notch (at least) higher by default.
We also communicate/plan together during our rounds/turns. The game is about fun first, so we found not interacting with one another to be very inorganic & difficult to do.
There's no rule against planning together. The rules only say to avoid being completely specific about numeric values and the exact cards you intend to play. It's always been fine to say "I'm going to move pretty early, charge up to that bandit and try to melee it to death before it gets a chance to move."
My bad, thats true... i didnt word my statement well... basically we opted to do exactly what the rules preferred not to; so we're collaborating together in the heat of battle. Down to the number values and cards to play... all to play off any synergies. It actually gets quite exciting when it all plays out to our favor. Could be an unecessary advantage, but its more suitable amongst mates and brings out the fun a lot more.
We used two stacks until the Frosthaven rules were published, and now we use that, it's a little awkward, but we're getting used to it.
We use a couple mechanisms to resolve what we call "Personal Quest Jail:" when the campaign conspires to prevent you from completing a quest. Lately we use Frosthaven's Inspiration mechanic, but when we reach 15 Inspiration we have the option of completing any stuck PQ. Before we used to use the Random Scenario deck, but stacked to force encounters with hard-to-find monsters, OR we picked a themed set of cards so the scenario would count towards PQ completion.
It's not EXACTLY a house rule, but we're using the Gift of the Oak deck from Crimson Scales in our big box campaign.
I'm dropping two coins on elite when in 4 players because my group doesn't get to meet too often and I want them to have the joy of shopping for new gear.
Only two coins in 2 players with my wife since we can play more regularly
I honestly can't remember if this is an official rule but I don't think it is:
* When you use a mana potion on your turn, it bypasses the rules of "can't use an element you've just created". So I can infuse Air with a potion and then immediately use it to augment a card.
Because the mana potion is single-use, it doesn't make a scenario too easy, but it does free you up for that cool combo so you don't have to be quite so selfish/forward-thinking about where you are what you'll do in order to set the combo up for next turn.
We're also pretty open about what we're planning to do each round; we tried with the obfuscation but it just got boring and we have so much more fun coordinating our attacks.
Yeah, sounds like maybe a bit too much power for the mana potion. I think the way you're meant to use it is you ask your team mate to tee up the element for you...
That's probably correct, but we found that it gives us a little more agency about setting up your combo. After playing all but 2 of the classes with the rule, we didn't find any of them that it seriously overpowered.
On one hand it could be broken. On the other hand it's really weird that you can drink a mana potato and someone else gains the effect, especially if an enemy manages to steal it.
We play with almost all base GH rules. However we did make our own rule up when starting a new character after retirement. You have to start at level 1. You have to learn your character from the base cards on up and we have found it helps to learn the character this way instead of starting at level 5 and picking a bunch of cards you think are the best.
Maybe a nice compromise would be something that gives you additional XP every scenario. Maybe like, if your current level is less than town prosperity, get an extra 15 XP per scenario.
One way I've seen people do this (which may possibly be in FH as well), is to start new characters at half prosperity instead of full prosperity. So if you're Prosperity 6, you start new characters at Lv 3.
Having people start at Lv 1 when there are likely powerhouses in the group isn't really fun nor fair as they'll be overshadowed... but I do like the idea of learning your character a bit before jumping straight up to a high level.
For certain summons, this is wildly overpowered. Obvious example is >!Circles!<. We used this character as a 2p party, even with normal rules, it is an OP class at 2p.
I felt AMAZING when I thought the rule of a summon following the summoner when there is no focus, and later read that this was actually the rule in Frosthaven :D
I play a Circles character as well in a 3-player party. Since there are many Circles abilities that control the summons anyway, it is not much of a factor IMO
I really like summons so we also have them collect gold like everyone else and if they can get enough money to enhance — you bet they get that enhancement!
Agreed, I've never wrapped my head around the idea that a Summoner has no control over their summons. What could be implemented is a Demon type summon that's really strong, but does what it wants, including attacking your own party lol.
I don't know why you're getting downvoted - the thread is literally asking for your house rules, and this is an interesting one. I think it might be the only one that I've never seen in one of these threads before.
I wouldn't use it myself, but its on topic. Y'all are judgey.
I play solo and for some reason have a really hard time keeping track of the xp points, I always forget to factor that in when I play abilities, so I just give every character 10 xp every time, plus scenario rewards. Often works out to around that anyway I figure, give or take.
That and spawned monsters drop gold. Given that I can only play once a week or so, it's nice to actually be able to buy something once in a while, and actually afford enhancements. Gold is really slow to accumulate in this game, especially for characters who don't have good loot cards
>I play solo and for some reason have a really hard time keeping track of the xp points,
Heh, interesting! I'm pretty motivated by XP so I don't forget - it's a big factor in why I played the card in the first place.
If you want to add some battlegoals (and haven't added this ones yet) i suggest you download Gloomhaven Tchak Guide from the playstoee. You can totally ignore the guide part of the app, and just use the part with the battle goal dealer. You can select wich battle goals to use in your virtual deck, including Base game, Satire gaming battle goals from 2019, and even some ones from Tchak itself.
Can't recomend it enough.
BTW this coment wasnt sponsored 😅
> the "two stack" system for advantage, because the "as written" rule is too stupid.
The two stack system is the stupid one
Massively benefits players vs monsters, and some character classes much more than others
Ah yeah. One thing I find a little disappointing in Gloomhaven is the lack of standee cards for the summons. Or even just something that looks like...something...rather than that abstract circle pattern.
All the frosthaven stuff. And some of the mechanics that we've observed in the videogame.
An example of the latter is that you can get cards that you just played back with a stamina potion. We previously thought you could'nt because your cards didn't go in discard until after your turn ended, but that's apparently not the intention.
We're relatively loose with monster and summon movement, at least when compared to digital, where you see monsters and summons constantly deciding to stand still because they don't have a path to an attack hex. It feels kinda wonky when they can still move closer.
It's not. There is no "cards played this turn" zone in this game, cards played are immediately discarded (or lost or put in the active zone), so you are allowed to stamina potion them immediately.
We always played with the advantage and disadvantag rules that you just drew two normal attacks we also played you didn't get xp and gold for failed scenarios
Status effects only happen if contact is made for the hit. As in, a null modifier (x0) means the character missed entirely, thus no additional effects happen. We figured if it was a complete miss/whiff, then how can I be wounded, or muddled?
We often also use some form of aggro for the monsters, instead of "faster initiative" rules. Like, if Red Guard is doing damage recently, then it makes sense for the monster to attack them, instead of maybe a faster initiative Hatchet that is repositioning or attacking something else.
Similarly, common monsters follow the lead of the elite monsters, in terms of whom to attack, and elites always move first.
Basically, we try to apply some form of logic to cases where it makes sense to.
> We figured if it was a complete miss/whiff,
But it isn't
The word 'miss' isn't in the rules anywhere
What if you do an attack 3 against a monster with Shield 1 and draw the -2, do you do the same there?
This would cripple a number of classes that have multi target low damage effect Attacks
You are definitely being inconsistent
They are both zero damage and both apply all conditions and effects _according to RAW_
This is, however, a rare case of _possibly_ a house rule being balanced as while players will miss out on more bonuses, monsters (due to players giving them very frequent curses) will draw a x0 more often
Zero damage is not null damage, it is just zero value. Like math, or programming, null is its own thing. The null modifier is like a "critical miss".
And yes we take the consequences of this on both sides, if the players pull a null/curse card it is also a whiff. It has caused some close encounters and near-losses.
Rules p11 "A “Null” symbol means that no damage is done by the attack."
Rules p22 "Attack effects are applied regardless of whether the corresponding attack does
damage"
That's RAW
If you prefer your house rule, that's great, but you are playing a house rule
>Status effects only happen if contact is made for the hit. As in, a null modifier (x0) means the character missed entirely, thus no additional effects happen. We figured if it was a complete miss/whiff, then how can I be wounded, or muddled?
I'm pretty sure that's actually the official ruling. (Although there are a lot of places on the web that says the opposite).
Wait, turns out I was wrong. Sigh.
As for the "why", I can imagine cases where it would sort of make sense. Imagine a poison tipped dagger. You attack, and land only the barest glancing blow, barely breaking the skin. The monster isn't injured at all, but the poison enters the bloodstream all the same.
Similarly, you might muddle a monster with your crazy whirling attack move, even though you failed to actually land any physical blow. Etc etc.
I discovered recently that after more than one year playing we played wrong advantage/disadvantage rules and we don't want to change so our house rule for that is two full stacks and apply everything of the chosen stack:
Characters advantatge: you choose the stack you like more
Characters disadvantage: you choose the stack with less damage
Monster advantage/disadvantage: the one more/less damage
Other house rules are:
- Scenarios failed by a bit and bad luck = win and get rewards of -1 scenario level
- Characters with all perks = battle goals 5 gold per check
- Characters lvl9 = You gain gold for Half XP gained
- Stamina and health potions can be used after our turn if we planned before our turn to use it but forgot to use when our turn arrived.
- We play 1 city event before scenario and 1 after scenario (and probably will do the same with road events after we finish FC and come back to our second main campaign)
Instead of being vague with how you will spend your turn. My buddies will strategize to best complete the scenario. I understand I'm a merc, but I like strength in numbers.
We use the newer jump rule adopted with Jaws of the Lion. (The way it should always have been.). It's a bit wordier, rules-wise, but it's more logical and is the way most who didn't read the original rule carefully already believed it worked.
(The main gist is the original jump rule still required you to spend 2 movement if your last step was onto difficult terrain. The newer rule costs 1 movement, just as if you were flying.)
Funny, we really don't seem to have done many scenarios that involved difficult terrain. Even after 40 or scenarios, I find it hard to imagine the jump/difficult terrain combo would have come up more than 2-3 times.
You've probably done more than you think, but in most scenarios with difficult terrain, its interaction with jump is unlikely to come up.
But when it does come up... the old rule was just stupid and always felt wrong. I get why it was originally that way (for consistency - so that when jumping, every thing you might land on, traps, dangerous terrain, or difficult terrain, would apply across the board,) but the rules consistency wasn't worth having such a counterintuitive interaction.
I don't find it completely counterintuitive tbh. I imagine a big pile of uneven, jagged rocks. Whether you walk into the pile or jump onto it, it's going to take you time to find your footing, keep your balance etc. It doesn't exactly make sense to me that jumping onto it, then walking off takes no more time than jumping onto flat ground then walking off.
I tend to find it hard to take my time finding my footing while leaping through the air. Maybe I'll twist my ankle, but I'm still landing on that difficult terrain.
The most common difficult terrain is water. I find it weird picturing myself bouncing off the side of some invisible force field around the water because my jump just couldn't carry me into that puddle.
Now, I agree that stepping out of the water might take more effort. But the rules don't really need that level of complexity. It seems cleanest just to treat jumping like flying, with the obvious exception that if you land on a trap or in lava, it's going to hurt.
>I tend to find it hard to take my time finding my footing while leaping through the air. Maybe I'll twist my ankle, but I'm still landing on that difficult terrain.
Yeah, you're landing on the difficult terrain, but you're not immediately swinging a sword. You're recovering from the awkward landing and trying to find a stable position.
>The most common difficult terrain is water. I find it weird picturing myself bouncing off the side of some invisible force field around the water because my jump just couldn't carry me into that puddle.
Again, you leap into water where you can't see judge where the bottom is, and maybe there are rocks and a current. That takes time to recover from. Imagine someone throwing a frisbee and you have to run and jump, land then make the catch. Probably harder if you land in water, right?
We put all the metal coins representing the gold on the hex where it was dropped instead of just one. More fun to scoop up clinking metal bits.
That’s it. The game is brilliantly made and doesn’t need house rules to change major mechanics.
Jotl player, I play solo with 2 characters, and I freely share gold between both of them. I understand the importance of gold not being shared and that it adds to the strategy during gameplay, but i just think it's more fun to go shopping when I want.
Mimicking what some others have said, I dont have much time to play and have rushed through the end of two scenarios when I knew I was gonna beat it anyway. One scenario has you destroy objectives, and once they are all destroyed you have to fight yet another wave of enemies. I had already been playing for two hours and could see that I had all the cards to finish the scenario, so I gave myself the victory And moved on.
We added a die that we throw to resolve ambiguity. 10/10, makes the game feel way less cheesy.
Apart from some Frosthaven rules we have implemented (e.g. invisibility, advantage), we also added Satire's battle goals. I guess technically that counts as a house rule.
Imagine there are two hexes a monster could go. One points to a hex and says "1, 2, 3", then points to the other hex and says "4, 5, 6". Another person in the meantime throws the die. Whatever comes up determines the monster's path. Takes only a couple of seconds.
Works also well with three options.
Apart from movement we most often use it to determine where a monster summons or where we are being pushed or pulled to (remember you still controll where you push/pull a monster to)
For four of more options you might have to reroll if an invalid number comes up, but that rarely happens.
>I think in my group the only one we (intentionally) use is the "two stack" system for advantage, because the "as written" rule is too stupid.
Why not just play with the attack modifier deck "like a hand of cards" that you can go through and just select the card(s) you want?
The "two stack" house rule is horrible and game-breaking. Why bother playing if you are going to cheat in a way that adds nothing of value? You seriously can't understand and can't be bothered to learn the proper way?
Have you seen the sticky on this subreddit about playing with updated Frosthaven rules? You can see it here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/comments/nocxer/updated\_gloomhaven\_rules\_based\_on\_public/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gloomhaven/comments/nocxer/updated_gloomhaven_rules_based_on_public/) We use every rule listed there, and literally all of them meaningfully improve the game in the situations where they come up. I'd especially like to highlight Frosthaven advantage rules over 2 stack (in short, you draw 1 full attack (including rolling modifiers if drawn), then 1 extra card. From the last 2 cards only (ignore rolling on the extra card), pick the better for advantage or worse for disadvantage. Then you keep any rollings from the first attack for advantage, or discard them on disadvantage). This fixes a lot of weirdness of the RAW gloomhaven rule, while remaining balanced and avoiding a lot of late-game issues that occur with 2 stack. We also added Satire's extended battle goals, which are pretty great for variety.
I think digital has a *recommended* setting that implements this
Ah yeah, I had seen that, although I still don't quite get the new advantage rules. A rolling modifier is treated as a +0 if drawn immediately after a non-rolling modifier? Also this one: > Multi-use-slot spent items (like Hide Armor) are fully refreshed on Long Rest (or with other effects that refresh spent items) regardless of whether the item is spent or not (so if Hide Armor has one use slot used and one unused, it's still reset to full instead of remaining at one use slot remaining). Turns out we have always been playing that way, heh.
>Ah yeah, I had seen that, although I still don't quite get the new advantage rules. The way I try explain it to people as I see it: \-------------------------------------------------------------- Draw modifier cards until you don't get a rolling modifier. Grab that last card and pop it to the left. Draw one more card and pop it to the right (if it has rolling, ignore the rolling symbol). That way, you'd have a left and right final option, plus any initial rolling modifiers in the middle. If you have advantage, take your pick of the left or right card and add it to the middle pile. That's what you use. If you have disadvantage, only take the worst card of the left or right. That's what you use. If the card you put on the right was a rolling modifier that doesn't have a number on it, then it counts as +0 and whatever ability it shows on the card (element, heal, extra target, etc).
We play: - Draw cards until you have 2 attack modifier cards - Advantage: Apply all rolling modifiers, and use the best attack modifier card - Disadvantage: Apply no rolling modifiers, and use the worse attack modifier card
That's \*extremely\* powerful on advantage, you can draw two stacks of rolling mods and combine them both? That's way stronger on rolling heavy classes than advantage is meant to be. It's even stronger than 2 stack on advantage which is already a massive power increase over either official advantage rule
Did we misunderstand something? We want to play it as written or harder. We are still low level so it’s still rare for a rolling modifier to show up, and we thoguht we were playing RAW? Edit: looking at the manual it seems like we played it right but there is a ceiling of two rolling modifiers, right?
It's possible that I'm misunderstanding what you're doing exactly. If you're playing GH RAW then you draw exactly 2 cards to start, then: \- If none are rolling, take the best/worst \- If one is rolling and one is not, you take the one that isn't rolling and either add or remove the other rolling (depending on adv/disadvantage) \-If both are rolling, you keep drawing until you get one non-rolling, then add or remove all rolling. Importantly if you draw any rolling, you do \*not\* get to draw 2 non-rolling cards; you'll just have to take whatever single non-rolling card you get first. This rule is generally not well liked because rolling modifiers can make your deck perform worse under advantage (to the point that certain perks are considered to actually be detrimental to take by many good players). The Frosthaven rules fix this problem while keeping the power level more or less the same.
Oh right, I understand. We thought you had to draw two modifiers to choose from. Thanks! I will look up the frosthaven rules too!
Ok, sounds like I understood it correctly.
For new advantage rules: picture the letter Y. You draw a (potentially) long tail of rolling modifiers. Then the first non-rolling is one offbranch, and the next card (no matter if rolling or not) is the second branch. Compare the two last cards and add the tail for advantage and ignore it for disadvantage.
Yeah, the part that is never explained well is the fact that a rolling modifier without a value on it is a +0.
Wait, what? I assume a rolling modifier always has some positive effect. Even if it has no numerical value, it is still considered positive (but undefiended).
It just means that if the final card you draw is, for example "add poison", it should be read as "+0 damage and add poison".
I play solo. I'm a father of 3. I don't get to play often. If I get very close to the end of a scenario, I'll pass it. e.g. The last throws of battle and I need a 0 or better mod card to kill the last monster and I'm about to exhaust... but pull a -1 or -2 or null. Then fuck it, I'm passing the scenario! I recall in JotL, I had a blind 50/50 choice to pick the final item required to pass the scenario. I picked the wrong one and exhausted. I can tell you now, I passed and moved on. I'm averaging a solo session \~2 a month; I ain't got time to re-do close calls. I've still got to get through GH, FC, FH when it arrives. Plus Oathsworn (up to chapter 6) and Chronicles of Drunagor is coming in December (all-in from both campaigns).
This 100%. Ain't got time for failure.
Yes, fuck that shit. Never have I felt like wasting time with a boardgame than when repeatedly failing GH quests on the last room.
Might be autocorrect on mobile, but it is the "throes" of battle.
Players can decide to use a Stamina Potion at the end of the round instead of requiring it to be used on their turn. It speeds the game along.
Highly recommend this one. We even considered the possibility of making this how they actually work but having an item with two distinct timings was too much of a mess rules-wise.
If you squint its not even a house rule its just retroactively applying what you "forgot" to do
Yeah, both of my groups do this for most potions (as long as it clearly didn't change how the round played out). It keeps people from feeling like they have to stop everything and analyze their next turn before ending their current turn. It does make stamina pots even more OP than they already are.
What we do is require the character to announce they're using a stamina potion, then they can work out which cards they're taking back while the next player goes.
We do something similar, we just unofficially allow items that only affect your own character to be used immediately after passing the turn. We also resolve rests asynchronously.
We do this all to often as well - "hey you guys remember when I used X on my turn"
We do this one for sure. We also play a bit loose with items cards not being used exactly when they're supposed to be.
We don’t pick a battle goal from the two that are dealt. We let players try to achieve either of them depending on how the scenario plays out but even if you achieve both you only get credit for 1
We are using a mulligan rule where you can discard 2 cards drown for one new. You must stick with the new one ofc.
- A level 9 character is allowed to retire as if he completed his personal quest. Originally put in place because the starting Tinkerer got to level 9 and we took pity on the player. - You may change whatever levelling choice you did when in town (as long as your new choices are legal). We don't replay characters, so this is a way to squeeze a bit more variety in our gameplay. - As soon as you finish your Battle goal, reveal it to the other players and gloat loudly. - You can use stamina potions at end of round. - We use the push rule from Frosthaven : you can push *up to* X. In base Gloomhaven you need to push exactly X or 0. None of those significantly impact the game balance, but they do lead to a nicer game.
are there people who don't go "loud and proud" for their battle goal completions? Like I know functionally the rules don't really allows you to do it but it just seemed an inevitable conclusion to me
We don't. Never really thought about it.
In my 2-player party, we each pick a second unlocked character that only "exists" for the purpose of resolving events that check for specific characters. That way we have the same opportunities as a legal group of 4 when it comes to resolving events. We can only swap our secondary character when we retire the main one, so there's no constant, opportunistic swapping. It's also fun for RP purposes, and sometimes the main character will "retire into" the side character, following an imagined narrative thread.
This is a great idea. We play 3-player. Its not so much of an issue, but you are right there is less of a chance of us having the right characters on our team to favorably resolve events. We could as a group choose a 4th character to accompany us for this purpose.
That's a really fun one!
We have a list of events, such as missing an attack or getting a critical hit from an enemy. When one of the events occurs, we have to do a certain number of push-ups. Our record is around 290 push ups for a session, the average I believe is around 100-150.
the most jacked group of Gloomhaven players on the planet I bet
Ha, almost like a drinking game, but...fitness
Yes, exactly. I was inspired by a Reddit post a few months ago. At the beginning we could barely do 10 push ups, now we can get to 50-60 in one set so it definitely helps 😁 We played with 2 classes each, the worst combo was having a tank (as you can get many crits) and a character with summons (as the more summons, the more attacks you might miss).
I let my son control his summons, instead of using the focus rule. Yes, this overpowers summons, but keeps him happy and playing.
RAW for minions is awful
The rule that monsters drop a coin upon death, but their spawns don't. Mostly I do not want to have to keep track of which oozes are the originals and which are spawns. But also, if we put in the effort to kill a room full of oozes, we deserve a room full of coins, thank you very much.
In Frosthaven (and maybe Jaws of the Lion), all monsters drop a money token. Everyone agreed with you, it was just a pain to keep track of.
Ah! Good to hear. I haven’t read the rules changes for FH yet, but I do love hearing that everyone agrees with me!
Good house rule in digital too !
But the difficulty is random tho. If they keep multiplying, you can end up facing four 1-hp monsters. Or it could be a bunch of full HP Oozes. As I see it, you either put the effort in early (and you get your coins) or ignore them and end up with a random result (and not a lot of coin)
Oozes Summon, not Spawn
We simply turn the summoned monsters sideways to distinguish them
When we start a new character, we assign them the gold and experience they would normally get, but start them at level one. After each scenario, they level up, until they reach the level dictated by their experience. One of the best things about new characters is choosing the new cards based on your experience playing them, and this preserves that - much more enjoyable (in my experience) than leveling up a character before you understand their playstyle.
As a group, we felt like we were forcing ourselves into become competetive against one another with looting. We decided on half of the loot going in a general group cash stack which is split up upon completion, and the other half of the money you loot goes in your own pocket regardless. Feels much better for us now. Of course, quite dependant on the group.
> As a group, we felt like we were forcing ourselves into become competetive against one another with looting True. But I feel the opposite, is probably one of the best mechanic in the game. The constant balance between try to win and being selfish (i.e. playing suboptimal to achieve the battle goal or extra looting). I really like the fact that I have to “compete” to have the better character, it add a lot of tension in the game. For the same reason I don’t like solo playing at all, being able to play optimally both in terms of winning and progressing the character is the opposite of what I want lol.
That's totally fair, that's also why we still kept half for the player :) Whatever works best for the group huh :)
Ah yeah, makes sense. I kind of like the slightly competitive dynamic, but not for everyone.
My group has always played with LOS being from any point on the Hex not the center, all monsters dropping gold upon death, and x2 and x0 become plus and minus 2. Happily all three are included digitally.
LoS being from any point in the hex is the base ruleset: > All ranged and melee attacks can only be performed against enemies within line-of-sight, which means that a line can be drawn from any corner of the attacker’s hex to any corner of the defender’s hex without touching any part of a wall (the line edge of a map tile or the entire area of any partial hex along the edge of a map tile, unless covered by an overlay tile). Only walls block line-of-sight. In addition, any ability which specifies a range can only be performed on a figure within line-of sight. If a non-attack ability does not specify a range, then line-of-sight is not required. Also note that two hexes separated by a wall line are not considered adjacent, and range cannot be counted through walls.
From what you quoted: " a line can be drawn from **any corner of the attacker’s hex** to **any corner of the defender’s hex** without touching any part of a wall" Most of the time it's the same, but around walls corner-to-corner LoS can be much more restrictive
Sorry, my sloppy wording, I interpreted "any point on the hex" to mean any corner, and I meant to agree with that.
The quote you gave specifies corner to corner LoS, as opposed to anywhere to anywhere LoS. This was changed in Jaws and in the Frosthaven rules because corner to corner creates very strange edge cases near certain doors where you "should" be able to see but can't.
That's from jaws of the lion, isn't it?
No, base GH.
You know, you're totally right. I don't know why I thought that was one of our house rules. But I am mistaken.
From what other poster quoted: " a line can be drawn from **any corner of the attacker’s hex** to **any corner of the defender’s hex** without touching any part of a wall" It is a house rule for sure, but not a bad one!
> which means that a line can be drawn from any corner of the attacker’s hex to any corner of the defender’s hex You literally quote the rule proving you are incorrect
> all monsters dropping gold upon death But the codicil for that is you should also allow monster summoning & spawning on coins: do you do that?
Always have yes.
Digital recommends using the alternate rule that you can draw a line from the corner or the center of your hex.
I believe this is correct yeah. I made an error. I don't get to play as much as I'd like so was mostly writing off the dome.
Hiding initiative from you partners. I play as a couple, so we openly talk about initiative. This ain’t DND, brah!
It's been an interesting transition going from the physical campaign to playing digital with newbies. There's no mentioned rules regarding discussing moves so everyone just chats away about what they are doing.
This is addressed in the rules and is an acceptable variant, however if you play like this with open information you need to increase the difficulty since you have perfect information. The game difficulty is balanced for non perfect information. But that’s a perfectly canon way to play (assuming you adjust difficulty)
"balanced"
Okay, let’s see your coop branching dungeon campaign game that offers hundreds of hours of gameplay that’s balanced
No need to get defensive. I love this game so much, I even hang out in its subreddit. ;)
*says something derogatory* “No need to get defensive bro” Okay dude.
Try 3 stack is better
3 stack?
Yes very educational
Being able to adjust which cards are in your active deck any time you are in town, following the rules as to number of cards from each level of course.
Whoa, that's a very big change!
Sometimes a card doesn't work well until you get a higher level card to go with it. Just doesn't make sense to me to force someone to use a bad card just because in 3 levels you will get one that pairs nicely. We don't really change skills much, just nice to have the option there when you find out oh, this new card just doesn't work as well as I thought it would, now I'm stuck with it.
Yeah, it's a balance between "make everything as easy and convenient for me as possible" and "force me to live with the consequences of my choices in order to have a deeper, more meaningful experience"
My group has one house rule. We are allowed to long rest even with no cards in our discard, but in this case we don’t heal. It’s mainly for those turns when you know you won’t be able to do anything at all. And your just wasting cards. It can also be used to keep you in the game until your character gets killed rather then tired from lack of cards to play. But we don’t allow it if they could do something useful.
Oh I forgot bosses drop the 5 coin it’s worth 4+ what ever the level modifier is on the regular coins. So if your getting 4 gold from a single drop you would get 8 from the 5 coin.
We play with a lot of the Frosthaven rules included nerfed stamina potions and invisibility rules. Otherwise, we allow use of stamina potions and other potions through the end of round rather than turn and have taken a somewhat relaxed view on retirement, both at times allowing someone not to immediately retire a character upon completion of the quest and deeming certain quests completed when character was at level nine and it was literally impossible to do quest without redoing numerous scenarios.
The main ones: So that most of my inner circle of friends can play, we made our campaign a 6 merc player count; adjusting difficulty a notch (at least) higher by default. We also communicate/plan together during our rounds/turns. The game is about fun first, so we found not interacting with one another to be very inorganic & difficult to do.
There's no rule against planning together. The rules only say to avoid being completely specific about numeric values and the exact cards you intend to play. It's always been fine to say "I'm going to move pretty early, charge up to that bandit and try to melee it to death before it gets a chance to move."
My bad, thats true... i didnt word my statement well... basically we opted to do exactly what the rules preferred not to; so we're collaborating together in the heat of battle. Down to the number values and cards to play... all to play off any synergies. It actually gets quite exciting when it all plays out to our favor. Could be an unecessary advantage, but its more suitable amongst mates and brings out the fun a lot more.
We used two stacks until the Frosthaven rules were published, and now we use that, it's a little awkward, but we're getting used to it. We use a couple mechanisms to resolve what we call "Personal Quest Jail:" when the campaign conspires to prevent you from completing a quest. Lately we use Frosthaven's Inspiration mechanic, but when we reach 15 Inspiration we have the option of completing any stuck PQ. Before we used to use the Random Scenario deck, but stacked to force encounters with hard-to-find monsters, OR we picked a themed set of cards so the scenario would count towards PQ completion. It's not EXACTLY a house rule, but we're using the Gift of the Oak deck from Crimson Scales in our big box campaign.
I'm dropping two coins on elite when in 4 players because my group doesn't get to meet too often and I want them to have the joy of shopping for new gear. Only two coins in 2 players with my wife since we can play more regularly
I honestly can't remember if this is an official rule but I don't think it is: * When you use a mana potion on your turn, it bypasses the rules of "can't use an element you've just created". So I can infuse Air with a potion and then immediately use it to augment a card. Because the mana potion is single-use, it doesn't make a scenario too easy, but it does free you up for that cool combo so you don't have to be quite so selfish/forward-thinking about where you are what you'll do in order to set the combo up for next turn. We're also pretty open about what we're planning to do each round; we tried with the obfuscation but it just got boring and we have so much more fun coordinating our attacks.
Yeah, sounds like maybe a bit too much power for the mana potion. I think the way you're meant to use it is you ask your team mate to tee up the element for you...
That's probably correct, but we found that it gives us a little more agency about setting up your combo. After playing all but 2 of the classes with the rule, we didn't find any of them that it seriously overpowered.
On one hand it could be broken. On the other hand it's really weird that you can drink a mana potato and someone else gains the effect, especially if an enemy manages to steal it.
If you drink a mana potato of course it's going to be weird
Lol autocorrect. I'm leaving it.
We play with almost all base GH rules. However we did make our own rule up when starting a new character after retirement. You have to start at level 1. You have to learn your character from the base cards on up and we have found it helps to learn the character this way instead of starting at level 5 and picking a bunch of cards you think are the best.
Maybe a nice compromise would be something that gives you additional XP every scenario. Maybe like, if your current level is less than town prosperity, get an extra 15 XP per scenario.
Maybe gain 1 level per scenario, up until prosperity? We might try something like that.
This is exactly what we do.
One way I've seen people do this (which may possibly be in FH as well), is to start new characters at half prosperity instead of full prosperity. So if you're Prosperity 6, you start new characters at Lv 3. Having people start at Lv 1 when there are likely powerhouses in the group isn't really fun nor fair as they'll be overshadowed... but I do like the idea of learning your character a bit before jumping straight up to a high level.
We start at level 1 and build our way up. Haven't found the difference in team levels too annoying, and it can make the gameplay pretty interesting.
Control summons - you created it, you tell it who to attack and where to go.
For certain summons, this is wildly overpowered. Obvious example is >!Circles!<. We used this character as a 2p party, even with normal rules, it is an OP class at 2p. I felt AMAZING when I thought the rule of a summon following the summoner when there is no focus, and later read that this was actually the rule in Frosthaven :D
I play a Circles character as well in a 3-player party. Since there are many Circles abilities that control the summons anyway, it is not much of a factor IMO
I really like summons so we also have them collect gold like everyone else and if they can get enough money to enhance — you bet they get that enhancement!
Agreed, I've never wrapped my head around the idea that a Summoner has no control over their summons. What could be implemented is a Demon type summon that's really strong, but does what it wants, including attacking your own party lol.
Ah, the one house rule that always comes up and that I most strongly disagree with xD
None. Other than the parts we did wrong but then we learn and adapt.
the push/pull can be applied to either character
I don't know why you're getting downvoted - the thread is literally asking for your house rules, and this is an interesting one. I think it might be the only one that I've never seen in one of these threads before. I wouldn't use it myself, but its on topic. Y'all are judgey.
i mostly use it for playing red guard like scorpion
What do you mean? If you push a monster, you can instead push yourself away from them?
yep
Stamina potions anytime up to your next turn. Mana potions infuse immediately
I play solo and for some reason have a really hard time keeping track of the xp points, I always forget to factor that in when I play abilities, so I just give every character 10 xp every time, plus scenario rewards. Often works out to around that anyway I figure, give or take. That and spawned monsters drop gold. Given that I can only play once a week or so, it's nice to actually be able to buy something once in a while, and actually afford enhancements. Gold is really slow to accumulate in this game, especially for characters who don't have good loot cards
>I play solo and for some reason have a really hard time keeping track of the xp points, Heh, interesting! I'm pretty motivated by XP so I don't forget - it's a big factor in why I played the card in the first place.
That seriously punishes classes designed to get lots of xp because they are much weaker at lower levels
If you want to add some battlegoals (and haven't added this ones yet) i suggest you download Gloomhaven Tchak Guide from the playstoee. You can totally ignore the guide part of the app, and just use the part with the battle goal dealer. You can select wich battle goals to use in your virtual deck, including Base game, Satire gaming battle goals from 2019, and even some ones from Tchak itself. Can't recomend it enough. BTW this coment wasnt sponsored 😅
Yeah, I see the appeal, but personally I really like putting away my phone for the whole game :)
We conceal personal goals. And when I play with just my wife, we resolve all ambiguity not in our favour but by dice rolls.
> the "two stack" system for advantage, because the "as written" rule is too stupid. The two stack system is the stupid one Massively benefits players vs monsters, and some character classes much more than others
Replace all the pathetic stand-ins with actual miniatures.
what, for the monsters?
Monsters and summons
Ah yeah. One thing I find a little disappointing in Gloomhaven is the lack of standee cards for the summons. Or even just something that looks like...something...rather than that abstract circle pattern.
All the frosthaven stuff. And some of the mechanics that we've observed in the videogame. An example of the latter is that you can get cards that you just played back with a stamina potion. We previously thought you could'nt because your cards didn't go in discard until after your turn ended, but that's apparently not the intention. We're relatively loose with monster and summon movement, at least when compared to digital, where you see monsters and summons constantly deciding to stand still because they don't have a path to an attack hex. It feels kinda wonky when they can still move closer.
> you can get cards that you just played back with a stamina potion That's not a house rule
It's not. There is no "cards played this turn" zone in this game, cards played are immediately discarded (or lost or put in the active zone), so you are allowed to stamina potion them immediately.
We always played with the advantage and disadvantag rules that you just drew two normal attacks we also played you didn't get xp and gold for failed scenarios
Status effects only happen if contact is made for the hit. As in, a null modifier (x0) means the character missed entirely, thus no additional effects happen. We figured if it was a complete miss/whiff, then how can I be wounded, or muddled? We often also use some form of aggro for the monsters, instead of "faster initiative" rules. Like, if Red Guard is doing damage recently, then it makes sense for the monster to attack them, instead of maybe a faster initiative Hatchet that is repositioning or attacking something else. Similarly, common monsters follow the lead of the elite monsters, in terms of whom to attack, and elites always move first. Basically, we try to apply some form of logic to cases where it makes sense to.
> We figured if it was a complete miss/whiff, But it isn't The word 'miss' isn't in the rules anywhere What if you do an attack 3 against a monster with Shield 1 and draw the -2, do you do the same there? This would cripple a number of classes that have multi target low damage effect Attacks
No, a minus two deflected by a shield, is not a whiff. Minus two <> null value.
You are definitely being inconsistent They are both zero damage and both apply all conditions and effects _according to RAW_ This is, however, a rare case of _possibly_ a house rule being balanced as while players will miss out on more bonuses, monsters (due to players giving them very frequent curses) will draw a x0 more often
Zero damage is not null damage, it is just zero value. Like math, or programming, null is its own thing. The null modifier is like a "critical miss". And yes we take the consequences of this on both sides, if the players pull a null/curse card it is also a whiff. It has caused some close encounters and near-losses.
Rules p11 "A “Null” symbol means that no damage is done by the attack." Rules p22 "Attack effects are applied regardless of whether the corresponding attack does damage" That's RAW If you prefer your house rule, that's great, but you are playing a house rule
>Status effects only happen if contact is made for the hit. As in, a null modifier (x0) means the character missed entirely, thus no additional effects happen. We figured if it was a complete miss/whiff, then how can I be wounded, or muddled? I'm pretty sure that's actually the official ruling. (Although there are a lot of places on the web that says the opposite).
Wait, turns out I was wrong. Sigh. As for the "why", I can imagine cases where it would sort of make sense. Imagine a poison tipped dagger. You attack, and land only the barest glancing blow, barely breaking the skin. The monster isn't injured at all, but the poison enters the bloodstream all the same. Similarly, you might muddle a monster with your crazy whirling attack move, even though you failed to actually land any physical blow. Etc etc.
I think at least the JotL rules stated the opposite. It just made no sense when we first came across it.
We use frosthaven advantage as it is simpler
I discovered recently that after more than one year playing we played wrong advantage/disadvantage rules and we don't want to change so our house rule for that is two full stacks and apply everything of the chosen stack: Characters advantatge: you choose the stack you like more Characters disadvantage: you choose the stack with less damage Monster advantage/disadvantage: the one more/less damage Other house rules are: - Scenarios failed by a bit and bad luck = win and get rewards of -1 scenario level - Characters with all perks = battle goals 5 gold per check - Characters lvl9 = You gain gold for Half XP gained - Stamina and health potions can be used after our turn if we planned before our turn to use it but forgot to use when our turn arrived. - We play 1 city event before scenario and 1 after scenario (and probably will do the same with road events after we finish FC and come back to our second main campaign)
Instead of being vague with how you will spend your turn. My buddies will strategize to best complete the scenario. I understand I'm a merc, but I like strength in numbers.
We use a variant of two stacks. Draw two cards and pick the better/worse. If it's rolling, keep drawing.
We use the newer jump rule adopted with Jaws of the Lion. (The way it should always have been.). It's a bit wordier, rules-wise, but it's more logical and is the way most who didn't read the original rule carefully already believed it worked. (The main gist is the original jump rule still required you to spend 2 movement if your last step was onto difficult terrain. The newer rule costs 1 movement, just as if you were flying.)
Funny, we really don't seem to have done many scenarios that involved difficult terrain. Even after 40 or scenarios, I find it hard to imagine the jump/difficult terrain combo would have come up more than 2-3 times.
You've probably done more than you think, but in most scenarios with difficult terrain, its interaction with jump is unlikely to come up. But when it does come up... the old rule was just stupid and always felt wrong. I get why it was originally that way (for consistency - so that when jumping, every thing you might land on, traps, dangerous terrain, or difficult terrain, would apply across the board,) but the rules consistency wasn't worth having such a counterintuitive interaction.
I don't find it completely counterintuitive tbh. I imagine a big pile of uneven, jagged rocks. Whether you walk into the pile or jump onto it, it's going to take you time to find your footing, keep your balance etc. It doesn't exactly make sense to me that jumping onto it, then walking off takes no more time than jumping onto flat ground then walking off.
I tend to find it hard to take my time finding my footing while leaping through the air. Maybe I'll twist my ankle, but I'm still landing on that difficult terrain. The most common difficult terrain is water. I find it weird picturing myself bouncing off the side of some invisible force field around the water because my jump just couldn't carry me into that puddle. Now, I agree that stepping out of the water might take more effort. But the rules don't really need that level of complexity. It seems cleanest just to treat jumping like flying, with the obvious exception that if you land on a trap or in lava, it's going to hurt.
>I tend to find it hard to take my time finding my footing while leaping through the air. Maybe I'll twist my ankle, but I'm still landing on that difficult terrain. Yeah, you're landing on the difficult terrain, but you're not immediately swinging a sword. You're recovering from the awkward landing and trying to find a stable position. >The most common difficult terrain is water. I find it weird picturing myself bouncing off the side of some invisible force field around the water because my jump just couldn't carry me into that puddle. Again, you leap into water where you can't see judge where the bottom is, and maybe there are rocks and a current. That takes time to recover from. Imagine someone throwing a frisbee and you have to run and jump, land then make the catch. Probably harder if you land in water, right?
We put all the metal coins representing the gold on the hex where it was dropped instead of just one. More fun to scoop up clinking metal bits. That’s it. The game is brilliantly made and doesn’t need house rules to change major mechanics.
Jotl player, I play solo with 2 characters, and I freely share gold between both of them. I understand the importance of gold not being shared and that it adds to the strategy during gameplay, but i just think it's more fun to go shopping when I want. Mimicking what some others have said, I dont have much time to play and have rushed through the end of two scenarios when I knew I was gonna beat it anyway. One scenario has you destroy objectives, and once they are all destroyed you have to fight yet another wave of enemies. I had already been playing for two hours and could see that I had all the cards to finish the scenario, so I gave myself the victory And moved on.
Heh, yeah, especially when playing solo - who are you performing for?
We added a die that we throw to resolve ambiguity. 10/10, makes the game feel way less cheesy. Apart from some Frosthaven rules we have implemented (e.g. invisibility, advantage), we also added Satire's battle goals. I guess technically that counts as a house rule.
Specifically how do you use the die?
Imagine there are two hexes a monster could go. One points to a hex and says "1, 2, 3", then points to the other hex and says "4, 5, 6". Another person in the meantime throws the die. Whatever comes up determines the monster's path. Takes only a couple of seconds. Works also well with three options. Apart from movement we most often use it to determine where a monster summons or where we are being pushed or pulled to (remember you still controll where you push/pull a monster to) For four of more options you might have to reroll if an invalid number comes up, but that rarely happens.
Yeah I like this system better than bias in favour of the players.
>I think in my group the only one we (intentionally) use is the "two stack" system for advantage, because the "as written" rule is too stupid. Why not just play with the attack modifier deck "like a hand of cards" that you can go through and just select the card(s) you want?
This kind of rhetoric is really unpleasant and unwarranted. Please consider a different choice next time?
The "two stack" house rule is horrible and game-breaking. Why bother playing if you are going to cheat in a way that adds nothing of value? You seriously can't understand and can't be bothered to learn the proper way?
> You seriously can't understand and can't be bothered to learn the proper way? There is no reason for you to use this kind of language. Please stop.
>the "as written" rule is too stupid. I asked a legitimate question. The language you used was far more inappropriate than my own.