New news article: The Descent: Quest Compendium coming out "this summer". Read the news here: new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp

Hard bound book with 16 quests by several different authors. Let the comments begin!

If it's done well, that would be very interesting.

My immediate fear is that, however much experience these 'celebrities' have from other areas, they'll overlook that a key point of Descent is that scenarios need to be short enough to stay fun, and very well-balanced. Otherwise, you get the Well of Darkness. Great to read. Nightmarish to play.

The other question, is what the expansion compatibility is. If it's 8 JitD quests and 1 for each expansion, nobody's going to be pleased.

This sounds like it has some serious potential. My hope is the quests will be challenging without being impossible and will not just use elements of the different expansions, but put them together all at once. Since this sounds like it's for the Descent completionist, it would be great to enter a room and find skeleys, shades, vampires (ferrox), and dark priests or something all milling about in some sort of undead tableau. In general, seeing all the content being accounted for in terms of terrain, effects, monsters, etc. with some solidly written quests could be very nice. I wonder how much this thing will cost...$20 $30?

I would be very surprised to see anything for RtL based on the description of it.

However, given the people writing it, if there were spots built into the Quests that had descrete end point for stopping and starting up again with the same Heroes/Skills/Equipment that would be nice.

All in all, pretty cool and depending on price I'll probably grab it.

Lack of Quests is what makes some games have a short shelf life (like Space Hulk. Love the game, but only so many missions to play through ). So, seeing a book of new quests is *awesome*! I honestly rarely play Descent outside of RtL these days, but still glad to see additional base content.

I can't tell though, these 16 quests, are they all new or are some reprints of existing quests?

-shnar

Hopefully more detailed info follows. I'd be interested in knowing, for each quest, what content is used in it, optimum hero count and average play time. And while I'm at it, an exact price and release date.

Another really great feature would be to contain multiple configurations for different expansions.

shnar said:

From what I can tell, they are all new. I really really want to see the Monte Cook one.

Feanor said:

Well, the Tide of Iron scenario book is also 96 pages and lists for US$29.95. One could make an assumption that this would be about the same price.

Veinman said:

This.

If you look at "The Chase" or it gives monster substitutions for if you have the expansion. Every quest should have this.

I'd love to see something like: 6 JitD (Bring in the newbies & casual players a bit more), 2 each for WoD, AoD & ToI (add value to the expansions), and 4 mixing it all together (for the hardcore fans and as a teaser to promote the other expansions).

I'm looking forward to this, particularly since it doesn't seem to be Road to Legend focused.

Hopefully each quest will include substitute creatures where appropriate.

I'm anticipating something along the liens of the Tide of Iron Designer Series where each quest will include a designer Bio. + design notes.

Slev said:

This got me wondering... has anyone "re-mixed" the original quests for any of the expansions?

It says "Volume One" right below the title (hard to read). I think we can expect (or at least hope for) a small series of Compendiums. Nice!

I'm definitely excited about this product. I expect they will all be new dungeons based on the description.

I would love it if at least some of these dungeons brought content from all the expansions together, but based on FFG's track record I doubt they will. FFG has a history of keeping different components separate so that the customer doesn't need to buy everything to use the one new expansion they just put out. A good policy overall, although admitedly annoying to those of us who have everything anyway.

Steve-O said:

This may be the time they break this trend. If the speculated price of $29.99 based on the Tide of Iron book is true I would think that they are marketing this to the hardcore fans who have all the expansions already. For $20 more you could buy WoD AoD or ToI that comes with a around 8 quests each(I can't remember exactly) and also get get all the other goodies that come with it. I would think that more people would opt for one of those before just a book of quests. So it seems reasonable to me that this could actually be aimed at those of us who own everything and would like to see all of the components from the expansions combined.

Here's hoping anyway.

edroz said:

I eagerly await this.

There was, at one point, quite the call for this type of thing on the 'Geek and FFG comes through, as usual.

I also don't tend to RtL as much anymore; my group actually does prefer vanilla D, so this compendium will be even more beneficial, it appears, to guys like us.

Color me psyched.

I have also the Tide of Iron's Designer series book, and it's really good value. In addition to the scenarios in it, the biographs of the authors and all other background material is very interesting. As I'm playing equally the core game & RtL, I'm really looking forward to this book. And I do hope that some scenarios take the whole palette of expansions into them. The ToI -designer book has some very imaginative scenario specific rules, and I'm hoping to see some out-of-the-box thinking in Descent scenarios also.

My appreciation for FFG is again even higher. Great games, loads of excellent expansions, now even scenario books. Life couldn't be better.

I like this idea. I was concerned about the longevity of Descent, but this is a method by which a game's longevity can be increased. Any more boxed expansions full of tokens, cards, and new rules, and the game would just be too cumbersome to play. I would love to see more RtL support, but hopefully that's coming. In the meantime, a book like this can be great, and chalk full of ideas. I love that they are giving a nod to Gary Gagyx as well.

Eh, one thing, though. In the Tide of Iron Designer series, FFG had a contest to allow players to submit fan-created scenarios and one would be picked to be included in the book. Why not do that with this book? I, along with many others I'm sure, would love to put their creative talents to the test to get one of our quests published.

Interceptor said:

Considering we've been teased with prospects of an up-to-date quest editor for over a year now but have yet to see so much as a screen shot, soliciting fan-made quests would be rather ironic, and probably rather foolish from PR perspective. Unless they actually gave us said quest editor at the same time.

Interceptor said:

I'm thinking they got caught up with the idea of having professionals from other areas of the gaming industry desgin levels and decided to use that for this book. As someone else pointed out, though, it does say "volume 1" at the bottom of the front cover, so maybe they'll ask for fan submissions in future volumes.

As far as the quest editor goes, I certainly hope that isn't the reason they held off asking for fan submissions, although it does sound logical. I think everyone who really wanted a quest editor has already found some other tool to serve the purpose by now (I use Tile System myself,) so if progress on the official Descent editor is lacking, here's hoping they give up the ghost and go in other directions. We loves ya FFG, but you're clearly a board game company, not a software company. =)

You happen to have ToI tiles for Tile System?

Antistone said:

I hope someone does. I have an idea for a scenario but it requires Tomb of Ice.

Antistone said:

No, not yet. But I will add it when I get a free minute.

what about integrate new pewter minis as bosses (special stats) in Descent: Quest Compendium quests? I know its way how to support only FFG budget but for owners give chance use them in game not only in Road to Legend exp. ... seems to me be logical step?