Greetings,

I am a new Overlord playing my first Shadow Rune campaign with a party of 3 heroes.

We came across a small argument as to when can the Overlord use a newly deployed reinforcement while we were playing "The Shadow Vault". The rules states that I can deploy a reinforcement at the Entrance tile at the beginning of my turn while respecting group limits. I was basically activating them the same turn since the rules didn't say I could or could not.

One of my players remembered the reinforcement rule from Encounter 1 of "A Fat Goblin":

"These monsters may be activated during the turn they are placed. Thus, you can use them instantly which is great for that map. They all agreed that I could not activate the monster on the same turn although it was deployed at the start of my turn.

Now my question is, when can you activate a reinforcement?

a) The same turn;

b) The next turn;

c) Whatever the rules states in case of a special quest.

If this has been addressed in the past, please provide me with a link.

Many thanks.

It depends on the encounter. Reinforcement rules differ from encounter to encounter. For example, in first blood, the goblin archer reinforcements arrive on the end of the overlord's turn, so they cannot be activated until the next turn. In other quests, they come in at the start of your turn, in which case they can be used that turn.

Take a look at the overlord turn summary:

My esteemed colleagues Whitewing and Sixko are correct.

One of my players remembered the reinforcement rule from Encounter 1 of "A Fat Goblin":

"These monsters may be activated during the turn they are placed. Thus, you can use them instantly which is great for that map. They all agreed that I could not activate the monster on the same turn although it was deployed at the start of my turn.

Unfortunately they fell prey to the 2nd most common board game rules fallacies: "This clarification that was made in one place isn't listed here, so it must not apply." FFG tends to do this a lot: where it makes sense (early on and/or when there is applicable space for the text), they'll include a clarification/reminder; then later on, they won't, and people suddenly say "Well, it no longer says this, so that must mean it no longer applies." For some reason, they see these clarifications as rules exceptions.

Unfortunately this sometimes feels counter to the most common board game rules fallacy: "It doesn't say I can't, so I can."

Awesome thanks guys.

If you're new, Zelgadis, prepare for this sort of thing to happen a lot... FFG doesn't seem to have heard of proofreading, and the concept of "templating" is an advanced technology that their scientists won't discover for another 20 years.

I would suggest becoming familiar with this thread on BGG, which collects FFG's Descent rulings:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/863073/ffg-sez-thread-link-to-wiki-in-1st-post-unoffici

Of course, take anything you read in there with a grain of salt, because it's written by the same team who wrote the rules in the first place... so it's just as mistake-ridden and occasionally nonsensical. In at least one place, they issue a "clarification" which dramatically alters the function of the card that it applies to. BUT, for many simple rules questions that aren't well-answered in the book, you can find the answer there.

Also use the FAQ - it doesn't cover nearly as much stuff, but it is marginally more readable and more consistent. Also, it has functional changes to several poorly-designed scenarios that make them more even.