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The rules specify that your campaign game can only play modules that are unlocked, and not repeat. It implies two parties moving simultaneously through the world, changing things permanently.

The only other option provided is the casual play mode, where you just pick any scenario that you've unlocked, earn gold, items, and XP normally, but don't adjust the state of the world at all through play.

I want something in the middle: able to play and progress, but starting from the earliest scenario. Has anyone done this hybrid?

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    Just to be clear, are you asking how to use a single physical copy of the game to run two simultaneous and independent campaigns?
    – ikegami
    Nov 6, 2018 at 3:19
  • Correct, I have one copy of the game, been playing for a year, want to show some other friends what it's like and give them a great campaign experience.
    – MrWonderful
    Nov 6, 2018 at 21:02
  • This is why I didn't use any of the stickers yet=) Might be too late for you tho.
    – joedragons
    Nov 7, 2018 at 22:39

2 Answers 2

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There are many questions over on Board Game Geek asking this. here links to many others asking the same.

What I would ask is how important is the consistent world logic to you. I'll try and give this answer with general concepts rather than specific spoilers.

As you play through the game you will notice that certain quests have prerequisites that certain party/global achievements have or have not happened. If these revolve around an NPC being alive or dead then it wouldn't make sense for one party to be carrying out a task for someone who the other party killed.

Also you may have logical inconsistencies with road/city events. Say Party A has an event which involved meeting an NPC who promises something later. Then Party B has an event which references what the other party did.

Would you be OK with either of the above?

Having two parties might also cause problem with item supply. Some items have 4 copies so, in theory, are available to everyone. Are you happy with this or would you try and keep a record of who has what item so each is available to either party>

So my answer is the possibly controversial one of 'feel free to break the rules in whatever way makes your group happy and enjoy the game'. If you you want to start another party from the beginning and you're happy with potentially illogical storylines, then that's up to you - if that's what your group enjoys.

My other suggestion: if you're wanting to try new characters and can't wait till retirement, perhaps break the rules and allow your party to have more than four characters. Then before each quest/road/city event decide which character you are taking along.

If this is what you want to do, then you just need to decide beforehand how you will handle these issues. Trying to run two separate campaigns might work for missions being locked/unlocked but trying to keep track of two separate road and city decks less so.

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  • Re "would you try and keep a record of who has what item", There's already a spot on the char sheet for that. Just mark down the item numbers, and return the items to the deck once you're done playing.
    – ikegami
    Nov 7, 2018 at 3:56
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    Re "if you're wanting to try new characters and can't wait till retirement, perhaps break the rules", Nothing says you have to play a character to retirement. You can literally start a new character from those available at any time you are in town. The rules simply don't allow you to reset a character until it retires. In theory, these "abandoned" characters could horde items, so you might want some house rules to address that.
    – ikegami
    Nov 7, 2018 at 3:59
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    For the record I never thought I'd answer a question with "feel free to break the rules"! But I think with a game like this it really is up to the players what they want to do that they enjoy. In theory a group could just rip open all characters and say they want to play games with all perks and at level 9 with what ever items they wanted and if they enjoyed that in private so be it!
    – StartPlayer
    Nov 7, 2018 at 9:22
  • I fully agree. Gloomhaven is a sandbox; go play in it as you wish.
    – ikegami
    Nov 7, 2018 at 11:12
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Nothing needs to be done for the following since they are tracked on the party sheet or character sheets. (You could also track them electronically using a number of apps.)

  • Reputation
  • Party achievements
  • Items owned by characters
  • Perks unlocked by characters

The following can easily be tracked on paper or electronically using a number of apps:

  • Global achievements
  • Available scenarios
  • Completed scenarios
  • Obtained treasures (of attempted but failed scenarios)
  • Prosperity
  • Opened envelopes (including character envelopes)
  • Progress in the Town Records
  • Action card unlocked by Characters
  • Event Cards

Events Cards are a little tricky to track because the order of the cards in the deck is relevant, not just which cards are in it. But that's not really a hardship. And really, it's really not a big deal if you don't preserve order.

Finally, there is one thing that will cause problems: Enhancements. If the first campaign uses the provided stickers, you could use little pieces of Post-It Notes to mark the enhancements of the second campaign. Sleeving the cards will help keep them from falling off.

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