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Just picked this up for $95 on sale on Amazon. I've done a lot of reading on it and it seems fun, but what's the best way to have multiple campaigns running with different groups of players, at different times, while using the same map, where the separate groups aren't unlocking stuff for each other and revealing spoilers. Is there even a way to avoid that, it is that just the point of the game? I'd like to have a casual group and a more serious group that I play with. One group may meet more than the other and I want to more or less be able to pick up where each group left off, individually. Like creating a save state (maybe using reusable stickers and taking a picture of the map). While each member of the group would ideally be encountering the scenario for the first time, id be running each scenario twice, giving me an unfair advantage. Not sure what to do about that. Do the quests always go in order, or is it like a choose your own adventure, where certain missions have "branches" and each group would eventually be doing septate missions?
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Nov 28, 2018 00:33
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I've played my first game as Lightning Bolts and have a mechanics question: Resolute Stand and Glass Hammer both give 1 exp per 5 damage dealt, but it's possible to do absolutely ludicrous amounts of damage with things like a Battle Axe or drawing a crit. Under the right conditions and bringing both cards you could easily end up doing something like 200 damage using them, which would translate to earning 40 exp as the cards read. As far as I can tell from BGG and reddit that's the proper way to treat the exp gain, but it can't possibly be right. Is there an official ruling from Isaac, or should we just come up with a house rule on our own? E: Jesustheastronaut! posted:Just picked this up for $95 on sale on Amazon. I've done a lot of reading on it and it seems fun, but what's the best way to have multiple campaigns running with different groups of players, at different times, while using the same map, where the separate groups aren't unlocking stuff for each other and revealing spoilers. Is there even a way to avoid that, it is that just the point of the game? If you make sure to be the one handling the scenario book on any scenario you're doing twice, you won't have much more of an advantage than most players, since most people who play the game without apps will have one guy who has a good idea of the scenario you're going into. I'd just use one map and keep notes about which group has what unlocked on the side, since all the stickers are available and visible from the start. The plot does diverge somewhat, but there's fairly few scenarios that are locked out entirely from going down a separate path. There's enough scenarios that each group could avoid too much overlap, but you're likely to be playing a bunch of them twice. You can keep some things like the item shop separate by splitting it into a pile unlocked by group A, a pile unlocked by group B and a pile unlocked by both groups, but keeping track of personal quests and random events is probably going to be a hassle. You'd probably have to keep detailed notes about that somewhere, but you might also try your luck by e-mailing the creators with the specific situation and asking if you could buy a separate deck of city/road events and personal quests, or a printable pdf for one of your groups. E2: Yeah, get a tracker app. That's way easier. Zulily Zoetrope fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Nov 28, 2018 |
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Nov 28, 2018 00:52
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There are two different ways of splitting up groups in gloomhaven - you can have two different campaigns or two different parties. The difference is that stickers on the boards, unlocks and character boxes etc are per-campaign, whereas party achievements are per-party within a campaign. Tracker apps like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.timmcode.ghcampaigntracker.droid&hl=en can handle both. To me it'd be super neat to be playing the brute or whatever and have enhancement stickers show up from the other campaign so I wouldn't worry about splitting that but I can see people disagreeing on that.
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Nov 28, 2018 01:07
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(Note that app handles separate road and city piles per-campaign too)
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Nov 28, 2018 01:10
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I've run two campaigns out of the same box with the Gloomhaven Campaign Tracker app and it works just fine. It lets you keep track of events, cleared scenarios, prosperity, what items are in your shop, whether you collected the treasure in a scenario. Anything you are supposed to do with stickers/checkboxes/cards the app handles. You can also include the characters and their retirement goals. The only thing you have to handle physically is sleeving your ability cards so enhancement stickers can go on the sleeves. You then would need to change out the sleeved cards when switching campaigns. I would put a scrap of paper that says "Leaping Cleave, 2-player campaign" in the sleeve when it's not in use. I also moved all the characters into crayon boxes so I have to handle everything when I demo the game for someone or bring it to game night because of class spoilers. It's a little extra work but it's better than buying a second box.
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Nov 28, 2018 15:24
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Jesustheastronaut! posted:Just picked this up for $95 on sale on Amazon. I've done a lot of reading on it and it seems fun, but what's the best way to have multiple campaigns running with different groups of players, at different times, while using the same map, where the separate groups aren't unlocking stuff for each other and revealing spoilers. Is there even a way to avoid that, it is that just the point of the game? It's like a choose your own adventure, yeah, there are different branches and you can ally with or kill most major NPCs and that has plot consequences etc. What I would suggest is using the tracker app for the casual group and the map and stickers and more "permanent" stuff for the other group. More substantively, though, I'm going to make a radical suggestion: get two copies. Reason being, there's no one unified app for Gloomhaven that tracks every legacy modification. You'll need one app for the map, something else to track card enhancements, something else to track which characters and items are unlocked, I forget whether there's an app for maintaining two separate sets of road/city event cards (which matters because some event cards are unlocked by prior event cards, etc). Plus, if you use an app to track the map, you lose a lot of the tactility and joy of putting stickers on things and watching your campaign grow over time. You'd think it would be trivial but it turns out, no, putting a new sticker on the map is awesome, as is looking back at the map afterwards. My *guess* is that one of your playgroups will be long term interested in Gloomhaven and the other will bounce off of it -- in my circle the hardest thing was finding people willing to commit to playing it. Try it with the hardcores, make your casual friends jealous, then if they want to play also, buy a second copy. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Nov 28, 2018 |
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Nov 28, 2018 15:30
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Scenario 35/36 spoilers So I either choose to raze Gloomhaven to the ground or miss out on like, 3 scenarios? If I do 35 I can still go back and do 21, then do 45 and either 49 or 50, but if I don't do 35 I have to choose between 21 and 36 and miss 45 + 49/50?
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Nov 28, 2018 15:38
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Yeah, sounds about right if 36 doesn't unlock any follow-up scenarios. The storming of Gloomhaven, killing the demon king in his lair and the rebel-quashing scenarios are all top notch, too. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
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Nov 28, 2018 15:51
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Reason being, there's no one unified app for Gloomhaven that tracks every legacy modification. You'll need one app for the map, something else to track card enhancements, something else to track which characters and items are unlocked, I forget whether there's an app for maintaining two separate sets of road/city event cards (which matters because some event cards are unlocked by prior event cards, etc). Gloomhaven Campaign Tracker covers all of that except for enhancements on cards, and that can be done by just using sleeves and putting the stickers on the sleeves.
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Nov 28, 2018 16:44
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Zurai posted:using sleeves and putting the stickers on the sleeves. Eeeeuuurghhhhhh then the stickers will come off when you shuffle I just really don't like the experience of using the apps, I guess. Using the physical components is so much more tactile. I have the map on stand in the game room and putting a new sticker on it, or looking at it to see what we can do next, is such a big part of the experience. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Nov 28, 2018 |
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Nov 28, 2018 16:59
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Hasn't been a problem for us 
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Nov 28, 2018 17:01
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Eeeeuuurghhhhhh Why are you shuffling the action cards?
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Nov 28, 2018 17:15
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Piell posted:Why are you shuffling the action cards? Short rests, or just general handling.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:16
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Sharing the enhancements alone between campaigns is probably fine. Personally I wouldn't spill too many tears if my cards got better in between games. Maybe I'm weird but we haven't really bothered with the big map. I'm sure it will become more useful as our list of available scenarios grows but for now, having just finished scenario 8, we've just kept track ourselves.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:20
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Sharing the enhancements alone between campaigns is probably fine. Oh it's not useful, I actually use the little web app to track what our next options are, but it's so cool. Not using it is like ordering a chocolate sundae and then throwing away the cherry on top instead of eating it.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:23
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I'm not sure the map is useful to the vast majority of people. I think its just cool to keep it updated and have that visual representation. E: lol beaten.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:23
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Okay that's fair and I did order the removable stickers, which was my initial hesitation. Maybe I'll try it and see how we like it.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:26
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Okay that's fair and I did order the removable stickers, which was my initial hesitation. Maybe I'll try it and see how we like it. I bought the removables too. In retrospect, the only advantage was being able to make sure we place the stickers exactly correctly. If it comes time to do a second playthrough, I plan on buying a second copy.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:31
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I bought the removables too. In retrospect, the only advantage was being able to make sure we place the stickers exactly correctly. If it comes time to do a second playthrough, I plan on buying a second copy. I can't even fathom a second playthrough. We've played maybe 35 sessions and have tons left to go. All but 1 of the solo scenarios. All of the community campaigns. The new exp coming out next year. Whenever he releases the Big Box expansion. It never ends.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:36
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ChiTownEddie posted:I can't even fathom a second playthrough. We've played maybe 35 sessions and have tons left to go. All but 1 of the solo scenarios. All of the community campaigns. The new exp coming out next year. Whenever he releases the Big Box expansion. It never ends. Ditto. We've also been going back to locked missions in casual and I still want to try out a few random scenarios when there's fewer than 4 of us. I feel like by the time we have people really clamoring for another playthrough, the online game will hopefully be released anyway.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:42
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ChiTownEddie posted:I can't even fathom a second playthrough. We've played maybe 35 sessions and have tons left to go. All but 1 of the solo scenarios. All of the community campaigns. The new exp coming out next year. Whenever he releases the Big Box expansion. It never ends. I hope! It took me a long time to find people willing to play BUT good lord now that I have these people are into it! I thought I was hardcore! We did three scenarios in a row all day this past Saturday! We're playing again tonight! I have a real concern that we're going to run out of game before the expansion is released but worst comes to worst we can take a deep breath and pause for a few months.
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Nov 28, 2018 17:51
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Hey folks thanks for all your suggestions about how to run two groups. You guys also answered some stuff about rather or not I should get the removable stickers. It was something I was going to get before, now I'm leaning towards not... Though maybe it's worth it if I ever want to sell my copy on eBay or something? I think I'll do what you guys suggested and try to get a hardcore group going, and if I ever want to demo the game or run through the first few scenarios with a short term group, I'll just use the apps. Not entirely sure how I'll handle the enhancements, but that's not a huge problem compared to the other stuff.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:11
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Jesustheastronaut! posted:Hey folks thanks for all your suggestions about how to run two groups. You guys also answered some stuff about rather or not I should get the removable stickers. It was something I was going to get before, now I'm leaning towards not... Though maybe it's worth it if I ever want to sell my copy on eBay or something? The one other thing I'd suggest: get an organizer. I don't use the apps largely because *with an organizer* and *with four people who know the game well*, it's actually faster to manage the moment to moment admin than it is to use the app, at least in our experience. OTOH the organizers aren't cheap and the combat app is, so that might be a personal decision. If you use the app to manage combat a lot of the more fiddly bits with the AI cards etc don't require as much organizing.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:18
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Caveat: You don't have to get an expensive organizer. A couple Plano boxes and an accordian folder is all you really need.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:23
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Yeah the app is super nice in combat, though I have the luxury of playing in front of a projector visible to everyone. We all see all the HP values, turn order, and status effects at a glance.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:26
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:I've played my first game as Lightning Bolts and have a mechanics question: Boltsif the stars align and you do a shitton of damage, you get a shitton of XP. I'm not sure why you need a house rule? The game is pretty well designed to cope with disparate levels.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:27
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Yeah the app is super nice in combat, though I have the luxury of playing in front of a projector visible to everyone. We all see all the HP values, turn order, and status effects at a glance. I'd use one of the apps in a heartbeat if I had that setup. Very nice.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:28
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thespaceinvader posted:Boltsif the stars align and you do a shitton of damage, you get a shitton of XP. I'm not sure why you need a house rule? The game is pretty well designed to cope with disparate levels. Well, I also killed about three quarters of the enemies in the scenario and managed to do 78 damage with Resolute Stand the first time I ever used it, without ever needing to be healed or losing a card to avoid damage. It was a lucky scenario, sure, but the game is most fun when every player gets a chance to shine, and I'm trying to be accommodating. We've also implemented a bunch of house rules to restrict another class, and agreed that nobody pick a certain third class after it retired. (Unrelated class spoilers)The certain classes mentioned being Three Spears and the Music Note, obviously.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:44
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I know I post this every time I play Gloomhaven, but holy poo poo is this game so much fun. We just did the Gloomhaven Warehouse scenario 8. Spoilers below for that scenario: We got to room 3 with the 2 Inox Bodyguards, our Mindthief exhausted after doing a decent amount of damage, but still between Craigheart and Scoundrel we had almost 40 points of damage to drop. We were able to kill one of the Inox Bodyguards, but then still had to do 21 points of damage at level 1. I was able to FINALLY drop a 7 point backstab which was a crit so I dropped 14 points of damage on it (13 after shield) and then an additional 2 damage from my card that has 3 attack on the bottom. I popped my invisibility cloak, and then proceeded to finish it off the next round. The whole time our Mindthief (who was exhausted) was just telling us we were going to fail! BUT WE loving DIDN'T!!!!!!!!!!!! Arrr I felt so awesome! They really thought about everything.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:56
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ChiTownEddie posted:I'd use one of the apps in a heartbeat if I had that setup. Very nice.
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Nov 28, 2018 18:58
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:I've played my first game as Lightning Bolts and have a mechanics question: Lightning Bolts Don't worry, that's the only exp you're going to be gaining with that class. I'm pretty sure they balanced the exp on other cards expecting you to do just what you've described.
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Nov 28, 2018 19:48
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We had our first genuinely disappointing scenario tonight. For a couple of reasons. It was #81 Temple of Eclipse Cragheart 7, Triforce 4, Cthulhu 4 Triforce, Cthulhu, dungeon spoilers... First of all, what a terrible loving scenario for the debut of our Elementalist! He's too low level for effective use of light and dark, so he was hosed. He couldn't get his character working at all. If he was higher level, sure, great, but 4th?? Second, none of us are exactly damage machines. Ol' craggy has fallen behind. So we actually made it to the last room barely in one piece. And then the boss is a summoner with 42 hp  So we went kamikaze. I got the item, which would be amazing if we planned on doing this dungeon anytime soon. We don't, and I'm a Cragheart, so that was 25 more gold towards retirement for me. We lost. No reason to even go back soon, what with such a meager reward.
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Nov 29, 2018 06:42
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#81 with a low-level Triforce was clearly never tested or even considered during development.
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Nov 29, 2018 07:40
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Doctor Spaceman posted:#81 FTFY. Even more than the central gimmick, it's completely ludicrous what they did with the boss abilities. The boss deck, if I recall correctly, is 3 copies of special #1, 3 copies of special #2, and 2 other rando attacks. Thus there's a really good chance the colorless will spend the entire fight repeatedly going invisible and healing himself, and this is NOT TIED to his element consumption which means it's unstoppable. He can, e.g. spend 3+ consecutive turns chaining invisibility and force your whole team to fatigue out and there's nothing you can do about it. It's a cute idea behind it but #81 is a total mess.
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Nov 29, 2018 09:06
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King of Bleh posted:FTFY. Even more than the central gimmick, it's completely ludicrous what they did with the boss abilities. The boss deck, if I recall correctly, is 3 copies of special #1, 3 copies of special #2, and 2 other rando attacks. Thus there's a really good chance the colorless will spend the entire fight repeatedly going invisible and healing himself, and this is NOT TIED to his element consumption which means it's unstoppable. He can, e.g. spend 3+ consecutive turns chaining invisibility and force your whole team to fatigue out and there's nothing you can do about it.
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Nov 29, 2018 09:43
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thespaceinvader posted:Angry Face/81:Bring Expose, loving Invisible 81 was my first scenario with Angry Face for that reason.
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Nov 29, 2018 09:44
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Reik posted:Lightning Bolts Don't worry, that's the only exp you're going to be gaining with that class. I'm pretty sure they balanced the exp on other cards expecting you to do just what you've described. Lightning bolts: Yeah, seconding this. The class is very clearly balanced around doing the odd spike of insane XP, and then not really getting much the rest of the time. I've hit three of those nonsense crits, and yet I'm absolutely level with the other three of my team in XP, although I did level up before them. As for soloing the mission, I dunno what to tell you, but that won't always be the case AT ALL. Maybe your comp is vastly different, but I find that because I'm generally slower, I have to actually work pretty hard to be relevant on certain turns. You have a few good normal attacks, but the insane damage is on loss cards, so on the missions with larger numbers of smaller enemies you definitely don't shine as bright.
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Nov 29, 2018 10:19
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dwarf74 posted:We had our first genuinely disappointing scenario tonight. For a couple of reasons. It was #81 Temple of Eclipse Uuugh. We really liked that scenario, BUT our party was Sun, Eclipse, Two Minis, Cthulhu, so for us it was a playground.
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Nov 29, 2018 14:08
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Doctor Spaceman posted:#81 with a low-level Triforce was clearly never tested or even considered during development. King of Bleh posted:It's a cute idea behind it but #81 is a total mess. Otherwise I agree on all counts. 
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Nov 29, 2018 14:57
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dwarf74 posted:We had our first genuinely disappointing scenario tonight. For a couple of reasons. It was #81 Temple of Eclipse My party went through that just recently. Luckily my Spellweaver was able to use the gimmick and sometimes even go faster than the Elementalist we had to give them a chance to be useful. We were lucky that the boss only went invisible like once. I then promptly retired and unlocked Angry Face and facepalmed.
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Nov 29, 2018 16:00
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