We've all been there. It's a 5-player game with all the expansions on and you're stuck with Halaster Blackcloak or Sangalor. Either of these two Lords of Waterdeep are arguably viable in a game with only their own expansion, but in a game with all the quests and buildings, your Lord's victory conditions become much harder to meet. If you start with a bad draw, your troubles are made even worse.

Consider that a 'regular' Lord offers two reward categories related to two quest types. This victory condition covers 40% of the quests with 48 cards. From a quest perspective, both Halaster and Sangalor's coverage is only 25% (30 cards) with both expansions in play. The coverage goes up to 33% with only one expansion.

The game compensates for the quest coverage shortfall by offering a bonus for expansion-related buildings as well. The same ratio applies (2:1:1), but in terms of volume the buildings have a lower impact on scoring than quests. Scoring can only come off 42 quests and buildings, which is still less than the 48 quests available to regular Lords for scoring.

When we play Lords of Waterdeep in person, we use a drafting mechanic to even out the odds a little bit. In total, there are 11+6 (17) Lord cards. Depending on the number of players, we hand out as many Lord cards as required for everyone to have an equal number. For example, with 4 players everyone gets 4 Lords. With 6 players, everyone gets 2. Players would then choose the Lord that best matches their quests in hand and the buildings and quests on the table. We believe it makes for a more fair game.

Oh, and one more thing: have you ever played a 2-player game where your opponent drops the Open Lord card in turn 2 and basically nerfs those attack and mandatory quest Intrigue cards in your hand? Even if you try and resolve this imbalance with a gentleman's agreement to not play the Open Lord, your opponent gets stuck with a card he can't use. If you don't have an agreement in place, the game devolves into a frantic mining for the Open Lord card to either be able to play it first or just deny it for your opponent.

TL;DR: The IOS implementation of Lords of Waterdeep could benefit from some optional house rules:

1. Introduce an optional drafting mechanic to allow players to pick a Lord of Waterdeep from 2 or more Lord cards at the beginning of the game
2. Introduce an optional setting to remove the Open Lord card from the deck of Intrigue cards at the beginning of the game

We'll send this petition link off to Playdek and Wizards of the Coast. With enough signatures, I'm sure we might be able to convince them to enhance one of the best IOS board games out there just a little bit more.