Descent: Road to Legend

Hey, that was some interesting new information in the Kevin Wilson interview about RtL (well, new to me anyway). I didn't know about the towns or "legendary" locations.

It sounds like the legendary spots will be for high level adventuring. So you have to level up for a while in the random dungeons before you can take on the big boys. Sort of like boss dungeons.

That way, you can swap out legendary dungeons (more expansions?), if they use a marker that is placed on the board, they could even have the different dungeons in different places.

I'm totally getting this.

Yeah, this looks to address the (very few) complaints about Descent. Now with an "overworld" system and a campaign system, this might just finally do away with the need for Runebound.

I'll be interested to see how this whole "overlord leveling" thing works out... plus didnt they say before that the overlord would have it's own character piece?

It's either going to be really cool, or really lame.

The rest of what we know sure sounds freakin sweet - I do think though at this point, that without too much solid fact that everyone's inventing their own perfect expansion - hope we're all still on board when it's released!

Yeah, it definitely has potential in both the "suck" and "rock" categories. Its a shame the first expansion absolutely killed the game in our group - oddly, no one wanted to play a game where the overlord would stomp the players if he put even the most half-assed of efforts into it.

The overloard does not get his own piece. There are no miniatures in the expansion.

I found the interview interesting. I haven't played Descent yet, mainly because of the need for an overlord. But the random dungeons struck a bell... Is this expansion going to turn the game into a "roguelike" boardgame??? That'd be nice

Maybe if the dungeons are randomly generated, the monsters could be too and the need for an overlord be eliminated...

-Jorge

Yes! Another forum in which to talk about Descent! I for one think the Road to Legend will be a great expansion. Neither Well of Darkness nor Altar of Despair disappointed me.

The thing I'm looking forward to the most are the short, random dungeons. Sometimes it's just too exhausting to play a 5 hour quest or to get everyone over for a game. A 2 hour game session would be fantastic!

I'm also looking forward to the hero/overlord leveling. That'll really add to the rpg feel.

The rest: overworld map, new skills, new items etc are all just icing on the cake! Now when the hell is it coming out!?

Yup, i'm really dying for this expansion to come out.

FFG says the game is still at the printer. I hope we see it before June though, preferably March/April but i'm doubtful of a March release.

My best guess is that after Tide of Iron: Days of the Fox ships that FFG will start heavily pimping RtL.

I think this expansion is probably going to be pretty good, and i'm buying it no questions asked. I just hope it doesn't let me down too much.

Since I usually play the Overlord i'll be most interested in seeing how FFG will tweak that role.

On.The.Boat.

Online retailers say: Expected Sometime in March (FFG's website also states this).

I'm dying to play this, or just give the rules a nice read through.

ToI:Days of the Fox is out now, as is Runebound Expansion Decks, Micro Mutants, and FFG just released a bunch of Press Releases...so hopefully...hopefully we'll seen a preview on this game soon. Maybe this week?

I'm far too impatient for this game.

I've been interested in this game, but I've heard a lot of negatives. Do the expansions help? Can anyone give me a little more information on the game in general?

Count Orlok wrote:

I've been interested in this game, but I've heard a lot of negatives. Do the expansions help? Can anyone give me a little more information on the game in general?

What specifically do you want to know about Descent and its expansions?

Just remember RtL isn't out yet, which is potentially poised to change how many people play the game.

Well, it would help to hear what the detractors say to ease your fears of Descent, but I'll just give you the pros and cons as I see 'em.

Descent is a dungeon crawl along the lines of Hero Quest, Warhammer Quest and several other games.

One player is the Overlord who controls all the monsters, sets up the board, reveals areas, reads the quest descriptions, etc. Like a GM in a roleplaying game. The rest of the players take on the roles of the heroes.

The game uses a modular board so every dungeon is different. the base game and the expansions come with several different scenarios (I've had the game for 2 years and I still haven't played through them all). You can also even make up your own scenarios if you feel so inclined.

Heroes come in 3 'classes': fighter, ranger/rogue and mage. Though there are some multiclass characters as well. The heroes attributes are health, fatigue (used to make extra movement, roll extra power dice in combat or to activate skills and abilities), speed (how many space they can move in a turn) and armor. Then they have three stats which determine how many of the black power dice you roll in combat: melee, ranged and magic.

Descent has a unique dice system (well Doom uses it too) for combat. There are several colored dice (red, green, white, yellow, green and blue) and black power dice. What weapon you use determines which colored dice you use. For example if you use a sword you roll a red die and a green die. then you see what your melee stat is, for example lets say your character has 2 dice for the melee so for your combat roll you roll the red, green and two black dice. The colored dice have three different symbols on each face. There's a number which indicates range, hearts that indicate damage and lightning bolts called surges that let you do extra damage and whatnot with your weapons and skills. Some dice have 'X's on them which indicate you missed. The black dice have blanks (which add nothing), or can add surges or damage or range to your roll. It's an interesting system.

Then your character card will also say how many cards you draw from the 3 different skill decks which correspond to the melee, ranged and magic stats.

On a hero's turn he can advance (move equal to speed and make one attack), battle (make two attacks but not move), run (move up to twice the amount of speed) or take a ready action (move or attack and then do one of the following 1) guard: make one attack on OL's turn 2) aim: reroll any number of dice on an attack on your next turn 3) dodge: force the OL to reroll when he attacks you or 4) rest: regain your fatigue on the next turn).

The Overlord player has a deck that allows him to play traps on the heroes, spawn monsters in addition to the ones already on the board and play permenant effect cards the allow him to draw more cards each turn or make his monsters stronger, etc. At the beginning of his turn the Overlord gets one Treachery point for each hero. Treachery is what the Overlord spends to play his Overlord cards. He can also discard cards to receive more treachery. The expansions allow the Overlord to customize his deck for playing style.

Heroes 'level up' by getting better equipment through treasure chests found throughout the dungeon. Heroes can also 'train' in town for a fee, that lets them permenantly raise one of their melee, magic or ranged stats.

The game ends if the heroes defeat the big bad boss at the end of the level or if they run out of conquest tokens. Each scenario lists how many the heroes start with. Heroes acquire more conquest tokens by activating glyphs (they teleport the heroes back to the town), or from treasure chests or whatever else the scenario assigns them for. This is a shared pool of conquest tokens for the whole group. The Overlord takes conquest tokens from the heroes every time he manages to kill one. Every hero is worth a different number of conquest tokens. Some 4, some 3 and some 2. The Overlord takes some tokens if he has to reshuffle his deck. The heroes win or lose together.

The penalty for a hero's death is pretty small (except the loss of conquest tokens). They are returned to the town and lose half of their gold. They keep all their equipment and are returned to full health.

That's pretty much the game in a nutshell. Each scenario has a different story: your heroes encounter some dorks who are in need of some help and you rush off into a dungeon. Scenarios often switch up the rolls for certain creatures or events.

So what are some problems the game has? Few in my opinion. Descent can take a long time, so be prepared to be playing for at least 3 hours. 3 hours for a short quest and players who play fast. The game can feel bogged down if the OL spawns lots of monsters and clogs up the corridors, or if the heroes fill like they need to pick up every single item on the ground and kill every single monster there is.

For me, winning as the OL isn't all that fulfilling, because you're left with 1-3 grumpy players who've been playing for 3+ hours only to see their heroes fail.

With just the base game, being the OL is kind of boring. Your deck is pretty limited in what it can do. The two expansions really make playing as the OL more fun. You get more monsters, more traps and you can customize your deck. If you really like traps you can load up on trap cards. If you really like spawning monsters you can fill it with lots of small critters, or spawns for bigger, tougher monsters.

The expansions also include new heroes, new skills, new items that can be bought in town and new treasures. They are great additions to the base game.

Now what I'm really looking forward to in the Road to Legend expansion is the campaign aspect of continuing to play as the same character from quest to quest and for the Overlord to level up between dungeon romps as well. What has me most excited though is the new shorter playing time it will allow. RtL will have a deck of cards that show dungeon rooms (or something, it hasn't been elaborated upon) that will allow you to take a break in between areas of a dungeon, each of which should take about an hour. RtL will also offer an overworld map and different towns to visit. I think it will be a very exciting expansion.

I hope that helps.

Great comments, metalface13! I've been swaying back and forth on this game. It would largely be a two player, though. And I've not liked Return of the Heroes--but this seems different.

Your comments were among the best I've read in describing the game without going into nauseating detail. Thanks.

I didn't go into nauseating detail? After I posted I was like 'crap that was a long post!' Glad I could help. Though I would say I don't think Descent is at it's best with just 2 players. It works, but you don't get multiple minds working together to thwart the overlord. On a bonus though, FFG has a new Road to Legend preview and it looks pretty awesome. I really can't wait for this. The shorter dungeons are gonna mean Descent comes to the table a lot more often.

fantasyflightgames.com/descent_preview1.html

I just read the preview.

Looks great and is in line with basically everything they've said about the game before though it is nice they showed some graphics.

I'm glad to see those who bought WoD and AoD will get to use the monsters within those expansions.

One thing i'm curious about is how the Overlord's Deck will work. Will he still customize it prior to each dungeon?

So many questions...

I like the idea of encounters and incidents and I think what little we can see of the outdoor terrain looks great.

Special rules for dungeon levels is great.