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Part II: Tiles

I think it would be great to have tiles where weaker creatures and treasures can be found, as well as strong tiles for when characters get powerful towards the end of a game. To this end, I thought of this arrangement:

Dales (weaker woods): weak creatures, weak native dwellings. Hills (weaker mountains + caves): weak creatures, medium creatures at treasure sites. (Perhaps give these four clearings, with some being mountain clearings--and maybe a few caves.) Woods: medium creatures, medium native dwellings Mountain + Caves: medium creatures, strong creatures at treasure sites Special: strong creatures, very strong creatures at treasure sites (magic mountain, volcano, underworld, hidden mines, badlands, world's end)

There's probably no need to have a strong version of the woods, since these tiles are supposed to be obstacles to travel and places to find natives, and you don't want to overwhelm weaker or solo characters with such strong obstacles.

My idea for the ideal character progression: First level characters should team up and stick to the dales. They can venture into the hills if they stay hidden and the treasure site monsters don't pop up. Second level characters of the stronger types can go it alone in dales, or team up to tackle hill monsters and sites, the woods, and even mountains/caves if they stay hidden. Third level characters can handle everything but the mountain/caves solo. As teams they can even kill the strong treasure site monsters. Characters should get their faster H fight chits and T fight chits at fourth level. Now they can take on strong monsters solo, and can tackle the special tiles as a team, and/or with the help of strong equipment, native help, and magic items. (Note that in my conception, very strong treasure sites cannot be looted by stealth. Very strong creatures always appear if their sites are looted, and characters always become unhidden the moment they make a loot roll at these sites. Dragons and Liches guard their treasures well.)

Obviously, sound/site chits must be divided into groups, so that the weaker sites go in the hills and stronger sites in the special tiles. There should be more "strong" sites than weak or very strong, and at least one strong site should be found in the weak tiles and one in the special tiles. Warning chits can function as before.

Maybe dwellings that are in the mountains, caves, forests, or wherever monsters could also be found (assuming I'm going with Robin's idea of having more than one chit in forests and such, to encourage characters to stay and risk summoning in order to find minor sites or meet natives) might have a number on them (7 for mountains/caves, 4 for woods). The dwelling actually represents a kind of separate clearing, and to move there you must record M-CV 7? or whatever (and you can only move there from the clearing that contains the dwelling). This represents climbing to the Elf town, entering the Dwarf fastness, etc. Monsters can't enter this special clearing, though they can still be summoned to the board like normal (and enter the clearing containing the dwelling, rather than the dwelling itself, when summoned by a yellow chit.

Whether this is strictly speaking necessary is questionable.

Monsters can inhabit clearings with natives in the rules as they stand now, albeit not as often as with these new concepts. It might make sense for the Fastness of the Dwarves or the Elves Tree-town, but not for campfires, shacks, or the like. It is sort of a cool mechanic-I envision entering the Dwarf fastness and then waiting around for the dwelling to summon them (waiting for an audience). Perhaps there should be other things you can do in the fastness while you wait, like get armor repaired. The power of the Dwarves and Elves should make it worthwhile to do this-say that when hired, each Dwarf or Elf acts as a native leader, and they are fairly strong in combat and not so expensive (but perhaps only the first couple can be hired, to restrict things a bit). Also, they will buy certain treasures for high prices, much like the Visitors. Maybe other things can be summoned by the Fastness as well (you may receive a weapon, piece of armor, or gold as a gift). One of these dwellings could serve like a Tw T? site, where you roll to see if you gain an audience, and if you fail, you might still get something else (or something bad!)