Open Lord needs to be balanced or removed

[ZimZam100]

This Intrigue card lets you be immune to all Attack Intrigue cards for the rest of the game. It is the only "permanent" Intrigue Card, as its effect cannot be taken away. In absurd games, it's even possible for the Intrigue deck to be recycled and 2nd player become Open Lord as well.

The drawback is you reveal your lord's identity openly. This is not a disadvantage at all, as you can quickly guess what someone's goals are based on their quests and worker placements. And rarely will knowing a lord's identity be so dramatic as to give you an edge.

While I think Open Lord is unbalanced in 1v1, it's even worse in 3P+. This is because in a 3 player game, the other 2 players are **forced** to target each other with Mandatory Quests and Attacks. What almost always ends up happening is they attack each other in a never-ending cycle of revenge, while the Open Lord player gets to play solo solitaire and go ahead unopposed.

I would ask the devs to at least allow the card's presence to be a togglable option, e.g. "Allow Open Lord", if they are not in the business of making balance changes.

If there were to be any balance changes, the Open Lord should no longer be able to play Attack Intrigue cards at the very least. And maybe the Open Lord has an ongoing upkeep, a player needs to expend 1-2 resources every round to stay Open Lord.

As is it's a completely broken mechanic and Intrigue card, and I will no longer play with Undermountain expansion until there is some kind of toggle or fix.

[dcain3456]

Welcome to the forums. This has long been discussed with no response.

[Chadworthy]

Completely agree and this card is always taken out when I play in person. The devs will not adjust this game or even read any posts here. The best workaround is when playing with the Undermountain pack (which is the expansion that contains open lord) your discuss with your opponent how this card will be handled beforehand, which is easy to do when organizing matches through the unofficial discord: discord.gg/CwpCwza

[Narcissistic Cannibal]

Originally posted by BlueRanger:

While I think Open Lord is unbalanced in 1v1, it's even worse in 3P+. This is because in a 3 player game, the other 2 players are **forced** to target each other with Mandatory Quests and Attacks.

Nobody is "forced". One player reveals his lord, everyone stop playing mandatory quests. Case closed.

[Chadworthy]

Originally posted by Narcissistic Cannibal:

Originally posted by BlueRanger:

While I think Open Lord is unbalanced in 1v1, it's even worse in 3P+. This is because in a 3 player game, the other 2 players are **forced** to target each other with Mandatory Quests and Attacks.

Nobody is "forced". One player reveals his lord, everyone stop playing mandatory quests. Case closed.

Don't purposefully misunderstand the phrasing. If the two other players are to play mandatory quests or attack intrigue cards, they are forced to target each other. The only other option is to stop playing attack cards and mandatory cards. Case indeed closed, but the result is a much less engaging game.

[Narcissistic Cannibal]

Originally posted by Chadworthy:

Don't purposefully misunderstand the phrasing. If the two other players are to play mandatory quests or attack intrigue cards, they are forced to target each other. The only other option is to stop playing attack cards and mandatory cards. Case indeed closed, but the result is a much less engaging game.

What you don't understarnd is that revealing own lord draws much fire. Not a single thinking person will target you with positive effects like "give 4 coins" until the end of the game. Many attacks also have an alternative text if you cannot target someone, which are even better for the person who plays them.
Plus, mandatory quests don't exactly make the game "engaging". Playing a positive effect on yourself is almost always more preferable than wasting an action on someone else.

[Chadworthy]

You are correct, it makes the game much less engaging because you do not want to target that person with benefits, and you are prevented from targeting them with negatives, it essentially removes a player from the game, which most players find not enjoyable.

[FLIPDOG]

In my case was playing 3p and Two Open Lord cards were drawn in the same game. so i was crapped on by both plays. This has happened to me twice now. seems to be triggered when one person gets 3 or more mando's applied in a short periods of time. they draw an intrigue and a 2nd is pulled. There is only suppose to be one of those. This most be a bug. I am fine with the Open Lord card. Don't want to see it removed, but would not mind making it a toggle option pre-game

[baker.nole]

The AI got enormously more difficult in the last six months, so they're definitely updating some things. I'd love to see this happen, or at least allow us to do "house rules" and remove specific items from games with friends.

[High Quality]

Not meant to necro and/or side track too much. But what are the conditions for Open Lord to activate properly? The card says " Reveal your lord and remove all mandatory quests ". Do you need to meet both conditions? Or just 1? I ask because I played the actual table top board game recently. Most of the players voted to allow the Open Lord use when the player using Open Lord did NOT have any mandatory quests in front of them.

[Narcissistic Cannibal]

Originally posted by High Quality:

Not meant to necro and/or side track too much. But what are the conditions for Open Lord to activate properly? The card says " Reveal your lord and remove all mandatory quests ". Do you need to meet both conditions? Or just 1? I ask because I played the actual table top board game recently. Most of the players voted to allow the Open Lord use when the player using Open Lord did NOT have any mandatory quests in front of them.

You don't need to have any mandatory quests to play it.

[High Quality]

Originally posted by Narcissistic Cannibal:

Originally posted by High Quality:

Not meant to necro and/or side track too much. But what are the conditions for Open Lord to activate properly? The card says " Reveal your lord and remove all mandatory quests ". Do you need to meet both conditions? Or just 1? I ask because I played the actual table top board game recently. Most of the players voted to allow the Open Lord use when the player using Open Lord did NOT have any mandatory quests in front of them.

You don't need to have any mandatory quests to play it.

Thanks Cannibal.

[undefined]

Originally posted by baker.nole:

The AI got enormously more difficult in the last six months, so they're definitely updating some things.

The last update was 3/3/2022 according to the update history page.