Tips for Two Players

[Bookman]

Ok so I got the game for Christmas (YAY!) and as of now I have only my sister to play with. Are there any tips or ideas on how to make this more effective? When we tried our one game it seemed we were seriously outclassed by all the monsters. It may have been because we're still learning. Or maybe not. Any ideas how to make it more fun/not as much work?

[smellie_hippie]

There's rules in the game for NPC players. They assist you and still take loot for their aid, but cannot attack you. It'd still be the two of you pitted against each other, but it at least gets the rest of the OOTS cast on the board.

I had also entertained a notion about a "short-short" version of the game, since our maiden voyage took a whopping 8 hours.

p.s. I got mine for Christmas too! Yay!

[Enaloindir]

We found that using the Me and My Shadow rules variant (p23 of the rules) results in a more even game. This way, the player who's lagging behind a level can still get some assistance to defeat monsters.
We also introduced a house rule where an NPC doesn't automatically accept to help you in exchange your loot. If you want their assistance, you have to roll >6, with a bonus to the roll equal to the number of drool icons on the offered loot. Put more simply: they don't accept to help you if you roll 1-4 for loot with one drool icon, 1-3 for loot with two icons, and 1-2 for loot with three icons.

This game's a blast!
Enaloindir

[wrath]

There's rules in the game for NPC players. They assist you and still take loot for their aid, but cannot attack you. It'd still be the two of you pitted against each other, but it at least gets the rest of the OOTS cast on the board.

I had also entertained a notion about a "short-short" version of the game, since our maiden voyage took a whopping 8 hours.

p.s. I got mine for Christmas too! Yay!

The speed of play picks up as you get familiar with the rules. Still it can be hard to get people to to sit for a three hour game.

I have thought a bit about variant rules for an even shorter game than the three floors before Xykon's lair, 8 loot and 8 schticks. It would be nice to have a way to get a brief hour or so of OOTS goodness.

So far what I have been thinking is draw one extra schtick and loot on start and a quick loot trading session at the dungeon entrance, giving you a chance for another schtick, which helps defeat the monsters without so many lost turns due to resting. Still fine-tuning the ideas, and would be interested in what other people are doing to keep the playtime down.

[Mazlynn]

I would love to see what people have come up with for short game versions. I've been thinking of doing a similar thing myself, but haven't tried it yet. I'm going to go start a new thread and see if anyone else has any suggestions!