Hi Folks.
Finally! Mystery at Morgoth has arrived and we hope it was worth the wait.
Lots of new rules and improvements, some not very nice people that you will have to dispose of (The Cabal) and a story line that links to the final instalment The Dark Tower (in production - estimated December 2024 - yes, really!)
The following is a list of the new rules/improvements added since The Curse of Feldar Vale:
New Adventure Rules and Features
Can be accessed when starting a new adventure and at the end of any battle turn.
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Rule: Chance of Critical Hit - Do extra damage by striking a vital area of the enemy.
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Rule: Chance of Critical Miss - No matter how easy the target.
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Rule: Combat Accuracy - Sometimes fighting units are just going to miss!
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Feature: Combat Ticker - If the Combat Accuracy rule is on, you can display a dialog in the bottom left corner of the screen that shows the 'roll' required to hit and the actual roll and adjustments.
New Advanced Rules
Can be accessed when starting a new adventure and at the end of any battle turn.
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Static Encounters - Improved AI gang-rushes if turned off.
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Death Blow - Characters have a chance to become Unconscious and/or Bleed Out instead of being killed outright.
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Allow Multiple Surprise - Only applies if the 'Chance to Surprise' rule is in effect. If this rule is off, once a unit has been spotted or engaged the enemy it can no longer be surprised by enemies in the vicinity. If the rule is on, a unit can be surprised again after the parties have disengaged and contact is re-initiated.
New Movement Features
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Jump Move - The party can immediately move to any point on the map it has previously visited. There are two new options in the Interface options dialog that control the behavior of jump moves (Jump Move Uses Real Time and Confirm Jump Move).
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Swap Positions - Player unit tokens can change position (marching order). Can be used at anytime but very useful when in confined spaces. There is a new option in the Player options dialog that controls this behavior (Swap Position Consumes Action).
Other New Features
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Animate Unit Dialog Messages - Found in the Interface options dialog. When turned on, will cause information/warning messages in the Unit Dialog to flash so that they are more noticeable.
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Reorder Unit Cards - On the battlefield, a new icon at the top left of the screen allows you to swap the positions of the unit cards found on the left edge of the screen. This does not affect the order of the unit tokens on the battlefield.
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New Unit Warning - When creating new units, a warning is now displayed if the unit will breach game limits (i.e. experience levels). The unit can still be created as you may want to dismiss a different unit to return within game limits.
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Auto Allocate Character Points - For busy people. When you are allocating character points to your units, the Auto Allocate button will do it for you, using the same algorithms it would apply if allocating points to the AI units.
Other Improvements
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High definition maps throughout.
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Improved Character Generation (change all stats) for new characters.
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Variable starting stats for new characters.
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Items with Abilities (Sword of Healing, Antivenom Pendant, etc.) Equipping a unit with one of these items will allow the unit to 'use' the abilities/spells within the item. For example, the Antivenom Pendant allows the unit to cast each of the Cure Poison spells once per day.
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Improved AI spell casting (with updated Trained and Veteran AI personalities).
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Improved AI combat (with updated Trained and Veteran AI personalities). For example, AI units may follow when the party attempts to hide or run away.
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Trap Descriptions. Many traps will now display a description of what has just happened when a trap is triggered (e.g. "You hear a faint click and suddenly the area is filled with clouds of fungal spores. You have triggered a trap!").
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Monster Mechanics. No, not huge folk with hammers! Many new monsters will use attack/defense behaviors not seen in The Curse of Feldar Vale (watch out for those Hydra Snakes!)
All the Best.
Ian & Jann