Ok,

Right to the point. I have picked up everything except for a few leuitenants and Shadow of Nerekhall.

Base Game

LoW

LoR

TF

few extras

We have played lots of little "solo" quests. Not keeping track of anything after both acts. Just a dry run type thing. We have been holding off on a full blown campaign because people have been flakey (Had this since initial D2E release!). But NOW WE ARE SET!

Question is - How in the world should I organize this!? We want to squeeze all we can out of our first run. But as overlord, I'm kinda looking for a "Descent for Dummies" starter thing..lol. The instructions read like Japanese stereo instructions from the 80's at points.

Is there a "map" of sorts as to how things need laid out (Act one, shop, buy, sell, next Act, side quests, expansions, etc)? I need all the help I can get here. I cannot find anything in black and white english! I know the core game should be run first, but how to add extras from other expansions and plan for side quests? I just don't want to mislead the team or spend too much time digging for things between Acts and possible side quests......

ANY advice would be stellar.

-Chachi

the campaign phase is on page 20 to page 22 of the main quest book

to insert rumors into the main campaign read page 7 and 8 of the lair of the wyrm quest book

re-read these and if your still confused let us know what points are confusing.. otherwise we are virtually rewriting the those pages for you.

Thanks Bento. I guess trying to soak in a core game and all the current expansions is a bit much to me

I know it says to mix in all cards and such. I am just trying to avoid any mistakes on my part before dragging other players through it..lol. Also, I know things can be re-written as far as official rules from time to time. Maybe I'll just run the core game with added heroes, monsters and items. It's only a 20 hour quest. Not like D1E...

Thanks again, sir!!

The only differences between the core game and playing with the expansions is the rumor cards and the added campaign phases.

The overlord draws 3 rumor cards at the beginning of the campaign. The overlord can play any of these 3 rumor cards during the campaign (it says when to play them on the cards).

Some of the rumor cards add available quests to the game. Once the rumor card has been played by the overlord (which you gain 1 threat token for if you own a lieutenant deck). You or the heroes can pick the played rumor card as an additional quest to the act.

When playing rumor quests you add a whole additional campaign phase to the game: pick a quest, play a quest, spend xp, shop cards. Rumor quests DO NOT PROVIDE ADDITIONAL XP POINTS.

If you play the interlude, all rumor cards that had been played, but the quest was not undertaken are discarded and returned to the game box. They need to be played before act 2 kicks in.

When you finish a rumor quest the quest guide will tell you to take an act 2 quest card out of the game box, this card becomes a playable quest and acts just like the act 1 rumor cards (except you do not gain a threat token and the quest is only available in act 2 to play).

Personally i think the rumor cards are a bit of a joke, i only ever play them if i have been kicking the heroes asses and want to give them the opportunity to catch up.

I would personally recommend not playing with them and just playing the mini campaigns separately.

There are some travel cards that can force the overlord to play the rumor cards against their will, and they do give you threat tokens when they are played, but in general yeah, using them favors the players more than the overlord, and it's entirely the overlord's decision.

If you're finding the rules confusing, then I would recommend keeping the rules as simple as possible the first time by leaving out add-ons like secret rooms, rumor cards, and plot decks. Use just the core game mechanics, but (as you said,) incorporate classes, items, and monsters (this will necessarily mean conditions, as well) from any expansions your group is comfortable with. Whoever is playing as OL should have the best grasp on the rules to make things run smoothly.

And, as has been stated, the outlines in the rulebook are very helpful when it comes to determining the order of the campaign phase.

My situation is similar. Bought everything including shadows of Nerekhall and some of the lieutenants.

I'm running my first campaign.

here's what I've done

Fully integrated:

all shop decks

all conditions

all classes and all characters ( your players will stick with the same four characters throughout the campaign so you only need to read and understand 4 class decks and 4 characters)

all overlord cards

all travel cards

all monster and lieutenant cards split into two decks act 1 and act 2.

all relic cards (which are only needed when a specific quest grants one anyway.

put back in the box:

all rumours (use these to add spice when revisit the shadow rune campaign 3 cards introduce lair of the worm and trollfens encounters)

all treasure room cards and the treasure search cards i.e use only base game search deck

overlord cards that you cant use ie the quest/rumour reward ones from the expansions

all plot decks from the lieutenant packs

the first advance rule i'd introduce is the treasure room rules. possibly add them in for Act 2 quests once you've mastered the complexity of running a campaign during act 1.

I've also designed a better campaign log on excell than the ones in the box. Mine holds a lot more info on it.

I'm playing shadow rune with treasure room rules

then I'll do lair of the worm

then troll fens

then Labrynth of ruin with rumors which adds the two mini expansions as optional extras if the right rumor cards come up.

then Shadows of Nerekhall.

I have 6 players so we have two splitting the overlord duties or covering for hero player absenteeism or for someone who has to leave early, which between 6 players happens more than not.

I've also designed a better campaign log on excell than the ones in the box. Mine holds a lot more info on it.

There are also a number of these on boardgamegeek.com for those that don't want to build their own.