Hi, I'm new with this game and I have played two games with Threat track at level 16 (it says normal difficult). But I have a problem. I only have time to get four levels until trigger the Endgame. The first time I win thanks to the abilities of the rune dragons I won during the Engame, but in the second game I lost with Margath.

Is it me or the game is too short in that difficult? Is it better play doom track with 5 cards to trigger a doom counter?

For your information I use the rules of threat track says put a doom counter in the pool before rolling the dice.

I never played with the threat track rule but I had a lot of solo games with standard Doom track rules. The rules you need to understand are:

1) do not attempt a Challenge that's not really worthy (most true for Green Challenges)

2) always try Challenges that are not discarded after completion but are kept for later use. Do never use the bonuses they give but keep them to avoid Doom Track advancing. For the same reasion, do never complete the tasks given by an Encounter.

3) Hope not to draw too many Encounters and Events that are immediately discarded

4) Carefully consider the introduction of new cards from expansions, as most of them will change the equilibrium

You may argue that with this approach the game loses something, but if you want to play solo you need to have a hard time or it won't be challenging. Making the Doom Track advance slowly only makes the game easier. The basic rule is well balanced and usually you will be able to succeed if you follow the above practice.

Still you will lose quite often and learn which Heroes/Items/Allies are most useful and in which situations. This increases your experience and awareness in standard games with other players.

The_Warlock, do you play the doom track with 3 cards to trigger a doom counter like it says the rules?

I think the encounter cards shouldn't go to the doom track because these cards are removed from the game normally although the rules say that.

With one player a Doom counter is placed every 2 discarded cards, including Events. I agree that it's somewhat annoying if the track advances all of a sudden because of Events, therefore you may choose not to consider them.

You're right about the Encounters; they must be removed from the game so they do not influence Doom Track.

When I play solo, I need to consider that I can max. discard 16 challenges + Events in total, so I need to reduce Green Encounters at minimum. In solo game you have the advantage that you don't have to wait if you decide to go to a town or if you roll bad for movement, and there are no other players to steal you Challenges or useful Items/allies. You have to counterbalance this with an increased difficulty and only the standard rules doom track grants that type of challenge.

I should use the travel hazard variant in solo games with the doom track for choose wisely the place I end the movement. In addition for every turn I stay in a town after the first for find a good item I would add a challenge card. I think these rules let you to hurry.

The_Warlock said:

I just tried a single game and was totally defeated... that's why I looked around the forum.

But when I read this I wondered... Maybe I got the rules wrong, but as far as I read it, a Doom Counter is places every two cards, but one of them remains.

So that's a max of 8 challenges + events.

Or were you playing with house rules?

Yeah, sounds like a lot of Doom going around.

Vitus_Prem said:

In my rulebook it says 3 cards to trigger the doom track with 1 player. It seems there was a change since the publication of the first rules of Runebound.

A few more questions: When anyone uses the threat track, does he or she put a doom counter before rolling or after rolling? And when the threat track reach 10 or passes 10 begins the endgame or you lose? I want to know what rules you usually use.

Vitus_Prem said:

You're technically correct. The Doom Track as explained in the Rulebook has that strange (and unnecessary) rule that makes a card switch from the bottom to the top every time the triggering number of cards is reached. In a 4-5-6 player game this is not overwhelming, but it makes a solo game impossible. 8 discarded Challenges + Events are too few, it would be surprising that you're able to face a Blue Challenge at that time.

So I interpreted the rules differently and in fact I adopted a house rule. I place cards from Frostgate to Vynelvale space also in a single player game and I add a Doom counter every 2 cards, but I discard (and switch the last card to the top) only when I reach Vynelvale space. This means I place 8 cards aside (adding 4 counters), then I discard seven and put the last to the top; I get to discard seven other cards before the Endgame is triggered (total is 15, not 16 as I said).

In this fashion, the Doom Track variant is challenging enough but it's doable with most Heroes (I still have to win with Runewitch Astarra and Sir Valadir). With 8 cards it's impossible.

   What is this "Threat Track" mentioned in this thread. I've read all through the 2nd Edition rules and the 2nd Edition FAQ and don't find any mention of it. Is it something from 1st Edition that was later dropped, or something from an expansion?

XerxesAragon said:

The threat track is a popular homebrew variant for solo Runebound. It was posted on BoardGameGeek by an user called Mr.Skeletor, I think. It used components from Runebound Midnight but can be easily prepared using other materials. It attracted attention because the track and the game difficulty was adjustable. This is a link to these solo rules: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/49058/runebound-solo-rules

I've never used the Threat Track personally.