So I played some more Return of the Heroes at 1am in the morning because I wanted to try out my Threat Track:

The way the threat track works is this:

1. After each turn, roll 2d6 and add any gold counters below the line (other than the one marking the current difficulty, which is 11 in the morning scenario and should have been 12, given how things turned out).

2. If the result is ≥ the difficulty (should have made it a strict >), move the gold counter above the line one along the timing track. If it reaches 15, game over unless you decide to wrap around.

3. If you advanced along the timing track, remove all counters from below the line (other than the one marking the current difficulty).

4. Otherwise, add a gold piece below the line.

On reflection, I should have extended the track to at least 20, maybe even 25 or even 30 (maybe different thresholds for different numbers of players). This would yield, especially in a solo game, more time to get more chits out of the bag and turn up requisite quest and task items. The track did at least give a sense of racing urgency to the single character on the board, which made the game much more fun as a solo outing.

More pictures:

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And now off to shower and breakfast. And clean up the game, or possibly play another game with adjusted Threat Track; or to go straight to Wrath of Ashardalon. I’m also thinking of adding, alongside Runebound and a couple small variants, Arabian Nights and Knizia’s first Lord of the Rings game. That should be some interesting variety.

I actually ordered Castle Ravenloft (the boardgame, not the RPG) to combine with WoA. We’ll see if I like it enough to not regret the purchase. (Plus, werewolves! I mean. Werewolves!)