Two Part Scenario Advice

[suburbaknght]

One of the things I love about LNoE is the narrative that builds throughout the scenarios. I'd like to create a scenario that takes advantage of this by retaining memory through the game. I have no idea how to go about this. Any advice on design would be appreciated. I'd like the game to include the following elements:

Part 1:
- A get out of town scenario such as Escape in the Truck or Run For It.
- Utilizes the Experience system from Timber Peak
- Can only play Non-Timber Peak heroes
- Board built with non Timber Peak tiles.

Part 2:
- About building a safe place. Reinforce buildings, locate food supplies, find survivors, or something similar.
- Board changes to Timber Peak. Only Timber Peak tiles.
- Heroes retain any equipment or special abilities from Part 1
- Anyone playing Sheriff, Sally, or Jake switches to the experienced version
- Replacement heroes can only be from Timber Peak



Questions
- How do I balance the fact the heroes will start stronger in part 2? What should the zombies get to offset this advantage? Should it be a total number or dependent on whatever strength the heroes go in with?
- What are good goals for part 2?

[Bokya]

One thing I can say with regards to using 2-part scenarios where items and the like can carry over is take note of the Sun tracker. Balance around that. It's safe to assume that the longer it took for a team to finish the first mission, the more items they have (or should have). This would give incentives for the Heroes to move fast, or decide to take it slow if they think they're doing okay.

Zombie benefits could range from spawning more zombies the longer the game rolls, or maybe even spawning some Zombie Heroes on some intervals (think the longer they take to escape, the less NPC survivors make it, because they are turned into Zombies themselves).

[wisdomknight]

Great ideas!
Id like to hear some serious development of this into a finished scenario

[suburbaknght]

Thanks for the advice. So here's what I'm working with so far and hope to get my roommate to help me playtest later today as we sit out this here hurricane:

Part 1
1) Set up as per Escape in the Truck scenario.
2) Utilizes experience point system for heroes and zombies as per Timber Peak.
3) Timber Peak hero and zombie decks are integrated into LNoE decks.
4) Heroes are limited to LNoE base set. Non-LNoE expansions may be used (i.e. Growing Hunger). Survival of the Fittest is not recommended as this will skew power toward heroes if they retain Unique Items or Survival Tactics.
5) The Sun Tracker starts at 1 and moves up each Round.
6) Heroes replenish. Heroes who are killed are not turned into zombie heroes but are turned over to the zombie player for Part 2.
7) The Heroes may leave at any time when they have at least one Hero with the Keys and Gasoline on the truck. Any Hero on the same square as the truck is considered a survivor. Other heroes are killed by the zombie (awarding the zombie player 1 XP for each Wound the zombie has left).
8) Zombies win by killing all four heroes or if the Sun Tracker reaches moves past 20.

Part 2
1) Set up the board in a similar fashion to Run For It however only use the Timber Peak Tiles and the Radio Station.
2) Place a Number Counter face up in one random building in each of the L-shaped board sections.
3) Heroes start in any of the Escape Zone squares. They retain any items, Experience Points, and Upgrades from Part 1. If Sally, Sheriff Anderson, or Jake Cartwright are among the Survivors, replace them with their Woodinvale Survivor versions from TP.
4) Zombie Player retains any Experience Points and Upgrades from Part 1. In addition, the Zombie Player gets a number of Experience Points equal to the space the Sun Tracker was on when Part 1 ended (i.e. if Part 1 finished on turn 8, the Zombie Player starts with 8 Experience Points).
5) A Hero who has a Movement roll of 5 or 6 may remove a Number Counter from a building he or she is in. In this case the Hero has found a TP hero (randomly Drawn) who joins the Hero in the same space with one hero card, following all other rules for Heroes joining in the middle of a scenario. The TP hero should be played by a player whose character previously died, or else by the hero who found him or her.
6) Any heroes killed in Part 1 are added to the Zombie Pool as Zombie Heroes (they may be spawned like normal zombies). If they are killed they are removed from the game (do not return them to the zombie pool).
7) If there are ever 4 Heroes in play, the Always Zombie Heroes rule takes effect for the rest of the scenario. If there are ever five Heroes in play, the Zombie Auto-spawn rule takes effect for the rest of the scenario. If there are ever six Heroes in play, the Zombie player(s) double their zombie pool using the figures from both sets. These rules remain in effect even if the number of heroes drops below the original requisite number.
6) Other scenario rules and Victory Conditions are as per Radio for Help in TP.

[mqstout]

Count up the number of cards the heroes have when part 2 is started up, divide by for as "number of bonus cards" they start with. Round up (thus into Zombie's favor). Find out how many dots that is, and add that dot value of zombie points to begin with -- maybe lights out or taken over ones first, then bonus starting zombies with any remaining dots.

This would be a starting point, since it's just not raw number of cards, but a filtered "I've kept the best equipment" too.

[suburbaknght]

Just realized a major problem with this scenario: the heroes are starting too far from the generator while the zombies can close in on it. I think Road Out of Town is the best starting location on a standard board.

[suburbaknght]

Just ran the first playtest. Zombies had a narrow victory by killing four heroes in Part 1. The heroes had a lot of trouble locating the keys which gave time for the zombies to put a hoard surrounding the truck and then a fire broke out on the truck.

I looked over the numbers and mixing TP in with the base set skews the numbers. There are 2 Keys, 2 Gasoline items, and 4 Just What I Needed cards in the base set, and a total of 40 Hero cards to draw them. Mixing in TP adds only 2 Gasoline but ups the total number of Hero cards to 85. It just takes too long to find the Scenario Items.

I want to keep the TP cards in the mix. I think the best way to handle the search issue is to put Free Search Markers on the board for Part 1. This will get the players their items faster, and give them more toys for Part 2, but I don't see that as a problem. Part 1 should be weighted to the Heroes since Part 2 is weighted to the zombies; it assumes the Heroes will be packing heat from the Part 1.