Don’t know about the digital, but the main reason for retiring characters in the boardgame, IMHO, is that you get to open a new box and try a new character.
Yep - retiring characters unlocks new characters, and then you got to spend your gold on permanent enhancements
And the permanent enhancements were really more of a fun “what would I do if I were to play this again” hypothetical because we hardly ever played characters again–why would you when you have some new mechanics to try out?
(My wife ended up playing my Cragheart again and I her Sun-symbol again, but that was when we went to 4 characters with two players, and it was a bit easier to play something we were already familiar with in our “off hand”, so to speak.)
I have played 2 up to 4 players. You’re right with 2 players there isn’t much reason to replay a character. With 4 players, however, it makes more sense because you unlock everything quicker
Potentially anyway. My group of four ended up all with really long personal goals. We’ve had 4 total retirements (me twice, one player not at all) and are a couple of scenarios from the end of the campaign. I think we’ve unlocked about half the characters now. There’s certainly been no reason to want to reuse a previous class, so no relevance to whether enhancements carry over.
only 4 retirements in what, 70+ scenarios? That is crazy
More like 60, but yeah.
The balance on retirements can be really weird. There are some that are simple ‘kill 20 bandits’, or ‘complete 3 crypts’ then there are others that are like ‘buy 4 enhancements’ or ‘see two other characters complete their quests’.
It isn’t hard to get a weird block… then other times you see characters retire in short order.
We were excited but maybe it doesn’t work in multiplayer? I’m the host and it’s been greyed out this entire mission.
Yeah, they’re super variable. I started with a tinkerer who retired after about seven or eight quests, but Triangles went on forever, and our Saw maxed out and couldn’t retire until we finally figured out we’d need to revisit a location to meet his requirement.
I’m liking the digital version pretty well, though it took me a while to get used to the tactics (and starting characters with no items and no enhancements).
I will confess to having comparatively little patience with shitty results from the RNG. One thing about not having to set everything up is that it’s very easy to say “Yeah, no, fuck you, we’re trying that again later” when a string of lousy cards means you’re going to be spending ten rounds in the first room.
Is this a digital edition thing? Despite its massive accolades, I have not played they physical game. I did play whatever the pre-campaign release version of the digital was and enjoyed it a reasonable amount (I stopped just to wait for the “real” campaign), but there was no retiring in that. It would seem kind of silly to play a character for a few missions, never really level up, then retire. Or so I would think. Is this retirement thing a problem with the game?
It depends. When you draft a new character you get to choose between 2 “personal ambitions”, which automatically trigger retirement. With a little experience you can suss out a rough idea as to how quickly they can be achieved. For example, my Cragheart had “kill 20 bandits”. In hindsight, had I known that would be met by the end of the first dungeon, I would have chosen the alternative.
Then again, with every retirement a new class is unlocked, so there’s good and bad in everything.
It is just part of the core game, digital or board.
I like the mechanic. It shows that the game is not about the characters but about the town itself. Characters come and go. Also gives flavor to the characters as you can build narratives around their personal goal. Might even change the mechanics of the scenarios, as someone may choose to play less than optimal to complete a personal quest.
In the board game you are rewarded with retirement by using your gold to permanently enhance cards, so if you take that class again you get some added benefit for the next character. That does not exist in the digital version ( yes, I harp on this every post, because the decision drives me insane and I can’t let it go)
Why would you let it go? It’s a huge red flag. Either the rules as written in the original Gloomhaven are right for the game, or a team of devs from Lionhead, whose most recent good game was… uh… 20 years ago… made the right decision by fundamentally changing a core rule from the board game. Pick one. If the Lionhead guys made the right choice, then why hasn’t it been folded into the original board game? What makes it right for the PC but not for the tabletop?
My understanding is that the table top used stickers, so getting them off wasn’t really an option in the original design.
But it’s weird that they think the “advantage” of taking multiple of one class is the better way to go in digital.
Like you can have 2 Tinkerers, I guess? I’m fairly sure no one wants to do that, but it also means every Tinkerer has their own deck unlike table top where everything is shared.
The addition of not making enchancements cheaper has people fairly annoyed (though there is a mod to make them cost less). I never really wanted to replay anyone much so I never thought about it, but it’s an odd decision and I do at least get why it bothers some people.
This is a false dilemma. In fact (according to their statements on the matter), Lionhead have been collaborating with the original designer and have full support for any and all campaign rule changes that have been made.
So yeah, the obvious conclusion is that the constraints of board game format (stickers, limited cards) made the ideal design impractical for the board game and the digital design can match the original intent.
Thanks! That did it.
My Brute-Mindthief-Scoundrel won its first scenario, despite some ragged play on my part. Turns out that I had forgotten quite a few important things! But I had great RNG at a couple crucial moments.
Lots of fun. There’s a chance that this is going to break my Caster of Magic for Windows addiction. :)
In my opinion, quick retirement has only upside. You unlock a new class – for replacement of this merc or for an additional merc or for use later or for never. And you lose nothing, because if you want, you can take exactly the same class again. The quickly retired character probably had next to no perks or levels.
And unless I misunderstood the rules of the board game (obviously I have not gotten this far in digital), you don’t have to wait for a character to retire to leave them out of your party. So the early retirement opens up options if another character is getting higher level than they are worth (and thus raising the level enemies).
The worst thing, to me, is forced retirement of a high level character I am dependent on.
But who knows, I might have been misinterpreting the rules in the board game, and this is skewing my perceptions.
Yeah, I simply do not get this. Why take something really fun out of the game? Hopefully a mod will put it back in.
I’m still really early in, but are enhancements the same as perks? I haven’t seen them referenced in the game yet.