Fire in the Night epic multiplayer adaptation

The following article was written by the Wandering Took. He represents the entire team that has worked on this fantastic adaptation of the Fire in the Night scenario. They are credited in the article. This is a fan-made quest adaptation to allow more people to fight off Dagnir and the new dragons in defence of Hrogar’s Hill. The quest can be played for free on DragnCards (fitting name for this quest) or printed using the links at the end of the article. I have enjoyed this quest during the Can’t of the Rings event in 2021 and loved the interaction between the teams trying to save the town. I hope everyone enjoys this epic multiplayer adaptation on a very recent quest. – Durin’s Father

Fire in the Night has long been a fan-favorite quest, with high re-playability, great theme, and one very angry dragon mama, the fearsome Dagnir. And as you have perhaps experienced before, angry dragon mamas can be hazardous to one’s health…

Here’s hoping the inhabitants of Hrogar’s Hill have good fire insurance policies. They’re going to need them because THIS time Dagnir brought some friends along!

In October 2021, we debuted our epic multiplayer fan adaptation of Fire in the Night. This adaptation adds new cards and rules to the base scenario, which expands the experience to three teams of 1-4 players.

Many community members helped bring this project to life; so, if you were unfortunate enough to be eaten by a dragon, you can blame The Purple Wizard, WanderingTook, MrThomnas, BigFomLof, Autumn, Sappidus, and Thaurdir.

What’s going on?

Dagnir is once again assaulting Hrogar’s Hill, but she brought along a couple of friends this time. In order to protect the town, the heroes must split up into three teams to defend the three sections under attack. The twist in this adaptation is that teams are allowed to move around in between rounds!

The flow of the game

The town is divided into three sections, each represented by its own Quest deck that comprises a Quest card, a unique Mission objective, and some other fun cards that are specific to the region that you are defending.

Each round, the dragons split up to assault the city on three fronts: the perimeter, central town square, and Hrogar’s Hall. The heroes then decide, as a group, where each of the teams will go. Each team picks up the Quest cards that correspond to the area they are going to defend, takes them back to their table, and plays the next round.

At the end of the round, if Hrogar’s Hall is still standing, each team brings their Quest cards back to the main table. The dragons redistribute, and the heroes may change Quest decks. This gives each team the opportunity to experience the entirety of what this adaptation has to offer and also adds a layer of strategy that is crucial to fighting back the dragons. The players win when at least 2 dragons have been defeated but lose if Hrogar’s Hall falls.

There is a lot to consider when deciding where to send each team:

– Which teams are equipped to handle each Dragon? The dragons have different attack strengths and different engagement timings. For example, Dagnabit only has 6 Attack but engages the players when there are 2 side quests in the victory display.

– Which teams are able to take advantage of the Mission cards? Each Mission has an effect that benefits all teams, but the only way to trigger them is by completing certain Encounter Side Quests at their corresponding stages.

– (Early game) Which teams are able to take advantage of the Town Objectives? Two of the regions have 4 Objectives that provide benefits (for now, at least!) For example, the Town Square (where the Smithy, Market, Inn, and Stables are located) offers the players options for tutoring cards from their deck and getting discounts when playing them. On the other hand, the Perimeter offers options to make it easier to deal with Goblin enemies and eliminates the nastiness from the worst locations.

– (Late game) Which teams are able to suffer the ill effects of a damaged town? The Town Square and the Perimeter are great in the early game, but as the dragons deal damage to them, those juicy Objectives flip to their Razed side, which replaces their benefit with a downside. Oh, and don’t think you can shirk your defense responsibilities by hiding in the town. Once each Objective has been razed, all further damage gets assigned to Hrogar’s Hall.

– Which team is most likely to survive the round? The third region, Hrogar’s Hall, is also the most important. If it falls, so does the town, so it must be vigorously defended. The problem is there are no beneficial Objectives here. On the contrary, whoever goes here must deal with a Treachery from the Dragon Deck (not to mention some truly draconian shadow effects). These are particularly nasty and can only be canceled by dealing the Dragon’s attack strength to Hrogar’s Hall. Can you risk it?

Having now played this variant with 2 full playgroups, I am really impressed at where this ended up. This is a tough quest — after all, the original version is tough too — but there is enough strategy to keep it engaging and fun. At first, there’s a lot to take in, but we found that teams generally got into the rhythm of things by the second round. It helps that the town is divided so that each team only needs to focus on a few cards each turn.

Personally, I am most impressed with how interactive this became. The choices listed above are really important and not necessarily cut-and-dry. Sometimes, one team has to hold the Hall so the others can get back on their feet, but nobody is particularly well-equipped to do so. How will you decide, and how will you compensate the team that has to take the hit? Alternatively, it’s easy to play hero when you’re off to a good start, but sooner or later, you may want to take advantage of the Town Square, and those town objectives might not survive to the end game…

How do I play it?

You have two options:

Play on DragnCards, using the txt game file found right here.
That same link will also take you to where you can download the Print-and-Play files. You will also need a physical copy of the original Fire in the Night scenario.
If you would like to print them using Make Playing Cards, the project link is here.

Community streams

If you don’t mind spoilers, you can also check out some community play videos.

Wandering Took
Card Talk (Note: there are a few rules mistakes)
Durin’s Father (Note: Some audio issues here)

Errata

We made a couple of changes that will impact people who obtained a printed copy at Con of the Rings 2021:

Each Quest stage 1A: The full set of encounter icons is included. This was an oversight on our part that can cause people to set up the encounter deck improperly.
Each Quest stage 1A previously said, “The first player adds (X dragon) to the staging area. Each other player reveals an encounter card.” We found that some of the treacheries that could be revealed at this point were rather unfair, so we have switched each stage to adding specific types of cards to the staging area instead.
The Perimeter now reads: “The first player adds Dagfahr to the staging area. Each other player discards cards from the encounter deck until they discard an enemy and adds that enemy to the staging area.”
Town Square now reads: “The first player adds Dagnabit to the staging area. Each other player discards cards from the encounter deck until they discard a location and adds that location to the staging area.”
Hrogar’s Hall now reads: “The first player adds Dagnir and Organize The Chaos to the staging area. Each other player discards cards from the encounter deck until they discard an enemy or location and adds that card to the staging area.”