Hello all,

As the subject suggests "how viable is 2 person play?" keeping in consideration that neither of us will have played a dungeon crawling game per say...

My wife and I are on a constant search to find a game that we can play at home together and really enjoy. We both enjoy board games, but since we have young kids it is normally just me and her.

We tried playing Tailsman, which we both enjoyed, but found it was too long to finish a game, and our house isn't conducive keeping boards set up over one evening.

Would this be a good buy for me, or should I keep searching? Also, please feel free to recommend any games that you might think we should try

Cheers

P.S. we are currently playing "DC comics deck building game", "Tailman" (kind of, when we can), Horus Heresy (she doesn't hate the game but she hates 40k universe - my bad for trying to teach her to play the table top game), Settlers of Catan 2 person card game)

I think you will find this game conducive to the 2 of you. You can play individual enocunters/quests, or you can play a full campaign. Either way, they are broken down into small pieces, which individually can be finished in a relatively small amount of time (a couple of hours).

This allows you to put the game away, and then pick up where you left off (in order to do so, you will have to make a log of some things, but that is not tough).

One of you are going to have to play OL (Overlord), and one of you is going to have to play the heroes. The hero's team is made up of anywhere from 2 to 4 heroes, and I highly suggest NOT choosing 2 hero mode, as I don't think many of the quests are well balanced for it.

2 players is very doable, but to maintain the balance one person will probably be playing all four heroes. This can really stretch any gamers attention span, remembering the abilities of 4 characters and how they interact. If you are both solid gamers who love a challenge though, then you're looking at a great buy.

The rule book suggests that in a 2 player game one person should play 2 heroes, and the other player should play the overlord. A lot of people think the balance breaks down when only using 2 heroes, so you may find a few missions unsettling if one side wins too heavily.

If you are looking for a solid 1v1 game you might look at Netrunner, or if you extend outside the realm of Fantasy Flight games, Mage Wars, which is a wonderful game for 2 people who live in the same house, due to it's incredibly heavy customization.

Going back to Descent 2nd Edition though; it's for sure doable as a 2-player game, whether you decide to play all 4 heroes or simplify it down to the suggested 2. It's a good answer to your "game is too long" problem since the game's long campaign is broken into 9 smaller pieces, which you can play once a night if need be.

Message me if you'd like. I live with a gaming girlfriend (fiance) as well so we've got plenty of games, just no kids.

Message me if you'd like. I live with a gaming girlfriend (fiance) as well so we've got plenty of games, just no kids.

I was about to "Like" this post, as it said what I wanted to say above, far more eloquently, but then you went and took it too far. I don't know what is more unlikely ... that you have a girlfriend/fiancee, or that she games.

Here I go again ... jealousy is rising ... becoming enraged ... ARRRRRGHHHHH !!!

I play this game the most with my fiance. She finds it hard to get into video games because she has not built the muscle memory for it. However she does enjoy board games and liked playing your traditional mainstream board games, which personally bore me to hell. So as a compromise to video gaming together i suggested we get some more modern adult board games (because the other ones bore me to all hell), this opened her eyes to a whole new world of gaming and she and i have both been enjoying ourselves thoroughly. Now we are building up a bit of a collection of different sorts of games and even attend monthly board gaming meetups together. One of us will control 4 heroes while the other controls the overlord.

TLDR: i play with my Fiance, 4 heroes vs 1 overlord and we have a great time. So buy it and enjoy !

Don't worry any2cards it's not some dream fantasy board game girlfriend thing. We have a ton of fun but we can get varied on what games we like. She still loves Magic and I'm like uuuug.... 20 years of that gaaaaame... come try Mage wars or Summoner wars or Netrunner love, they are amazing! But alas, it's an uphill battle.

Descent is where we happily meet in the middle however, and we've played full campaigns with just me and her. The last one she was overlord (Original campaign) and she was very sad I killed her dragon(Hero Finale)... I think in the end we ruled the story that we didn't KILL the dragon, just tamed it and it helped farm crops and such, but Zachareth was still dead cause he got eaten...and was also a jerk.... oh compromise...

Just wait until you get married ... the games should become so much more interesting ... after you both lose the need/fantasy of compromise ...

KILL THE HEROES !!!

My wife and I play Descent a few times a week and have a great time. What made it really enjoyable for us is automating the Overlord. Each of us plays two heroes, and I run the automated Overlord. Instead of the game being us competing against each other, we are working together to defeat the Overlord.

Head over to Board Game Geek and look up Descent Second Edition. You will find quite a few good co-op/solo variants in the files section. Also take a look under the Variants forum. Nerdook's d6 variant is very good. I'm currently using RedJak's Automated Overlord variant and it works quite well; but I'm a bit biased since I created it.

@RedJak ... I have played with Nerdook's variant. I have attempted to find your (biased) version, with no luck.

Would you care to post a link for those of us that are search challenged? Thanks in advance.

My boyfriend and I play Descent with only 2 players (me as the Overlord and he usually uses 3 heroes). To be honest, I haven't found the balance that different from 3 heroes or 4 heroes. I think the strategy element is what makes it great, because instead of having two or three other people to bicker with about strategy moves, you only have yourself with your heroes. I guess it depends on the level of strategy both people are willing to put in, though.

My boyfriend and I play Descent with only 2 players (me as the Overlord and he usually uses 3 heroes). To be honest, I haven't found the balance that different from 3 heroes or 4 heroes. I think the strategy element is what makes it great, because instead of having two or three other people to bicker with about strategy moves, you only have yourself with your heroes. I guess it depends on the level of strategy both people are willing to put in, though.

I find the first part of this paragraph surprising. I find that a 3 hero party team has a large advantage in this game. They have exponentially added to their skills, attacks, abilities, etc., while they OL has received modest monster upgrades (if any - depending on the traits involved).

I almost always play OL, and have quite often played with 1 individual playing 4 heroes. Depending on that individual, I have enjoyed the amount of schizophrenic bickering that goes on with him.

@RedJak ... I have played with Nerdook's variant. I have attempted to find your (biased) version, with no luck.

Would you care to post a link for those of us that are search challenged? Thanks in advance.

You can find my variant here

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/104973/redjaks-automated-overlord-variant

And the forum thread here

http://boardgamegeek.com/article/16191744#16191744

@RedJak ... so, I go out to BGG and download rules version 1.7. Within it, I notice that there is a link to a google drive that has a folder which contains a bunch of JPGs for what appear to be OL cards. I went ahead and downloaded all of those as well (6 sheets). The rules on that page said version 1.6, so I did not take them.

Is there anything else I need?

Also, perhaps I missed it, but no where did I see on BGG that you needed to grab these cards as well. You might want to consider bundling everything together. I will be playing this today to test it out. Thanks !

My boyfriend and I play Descent with only 2 players (me as the Overlord and he usually uses 3 heroes). To be honest, I haven't found the balance that different from 3 heroes or 4 heroes. I think the strategy element is what makes it great, because instead of having two or three other people to bicker with about strategy moves, you only have yourself with your heroes. I guess it depends on the level of strategy both people are willing to put in, though.

I find the first part of this paragraph surprising. I find that a 3 hero party team has a large advantage in this game. They have exponentially added to their skills, attacks, abilities, etc., while they OL has received modest monster upgrades (if any - depending on the traits involved).

I almost always play OL, and have quite often played with 1 individual playing 4 heroes. Depending on that individual, I have enjoyed the amount of schizophrenic bickering that goes on with him.

Well, it seems pretty even for us anyway. And we're both pretty strategy-focused people. Maybe he just sucks at Descent, who knows.

You have everything you need. The header in the rules file says v1.6 because some idiot forgot to change it with the last update. I corrected it.

They are not bundled together because it is easier to change the individual components and upload them separately.

@RedJak ... so, I go out to BGG and download rules version 1.7. Within it, I notice that there is a link to a google drive that has a folder which contains a bunch of JPGs for what appear to be OL cards. I went ahead and downloaded all of those as well (6 sheets). The rules on that page said version 1.6, so I did not take them.

Is there anything else I need?

Also, perhaps I missed it, but no where did I see on BGG that you needed to grab these cards as well. You might want to consider bundling everything together. I will be playing this today to test it out. Thanks !

Thanks for all reply's and extra info everyone. I have high hopes, and have already found a place I can purchase after the weekend.

Wish me luck

To give hope back to others, when I first got together with my wife she didn't play any games, and had a bias against anything sci-fi or fantasy based. My strategy has been slow exposure (like hunting, you don't want to spook the game.) I started with Parker Brother games (uck), then setting neutral games like Settlers of Catan, then slowly pushed into better games. The actual game that started her getting comfortable with playing with miniatures on the table (which was a big hurdle) was X-wing (surprising because she hates Star Wars with a insane bias passion), but the simple rules and fast style of play made her forget that it was a star wars game.

My only other rule that have helped make this transition happen is, "Never refer to or mention D&D in any way!!! Even if it is a game based on D&D (like Lords of Water Deep). Same goes for Warhammer, 40k, and Lords of Rings. I mentioned any one reference to anyone of those brands then she rolls her eyes and humours me, but she will never want to play the game again if I suggest it.

Thanks again to everyone, cheers

My boyfriend and I play Descent with only 2 players (me as the Overlord and he usually uses 3 heroes). To be honest, I haven't found the balance that different from 3 heroes or 4 heroes. I think the strategy element is what makes it great, because instead of having two or three other people to bicker with about strategy moves, you only have yourself with your heroes. I guess it depends on the level of strategy both people are willing to put in, though.

I find the first part of this paragraph surprising. I find that a 3 hero party team has a large advantage in this game. They have exponentially added to their skills, attacks, abilities, etc., while they OL has received modest monster upgrades (if any - depending on the traits involved).

I think there's also a decently big difference between 1 player playing 3 heroes and 3 players each playing 1 hero. Mechanically, 3 heroes probably has the advantage, independent of how many players there are, but realistically, it's going to be more difficult for a single person to remember all of the abilities that every hero has and come up with the same level of strategy compared to 3 people able to coordinate and bounce ideas off each other.

My wife and I have been playing the core game for several weeks now and we've finally reached the finale. We love it as two player, but I have to admit she's been beating me very badly almost every session. (She's the overlord).

Anyway, we love it because we can set up and play an encounter in under an hour. And with two kids and jobs, etc. this is crucial to keeping a game going...

But back to the point: I've read that two heroes vs. the overlord is unbalanced toward the overlord and my experience goes along with this. Out of all quests, I've only won two. This last quest I added a third hero and it didn't seem to make much difference. Then again, it was well into Act II and I didn't "level up" the hero but simply added it to the two heroes that I had been using. I've already decided for the Finale that I will add a fourth hero and we'll see how that goes.

Of course, after the Finale, we're going to play through the campaign again and I get to be the overlord. We'll add the "Wyrm Queen" expansion on that run through. Hopefully I'll kick her butt good. Or, she'll still cream me and I'll truly hang my head in shame.

Even so, no matter how frustrating the game gets, I still love it. I like the tactical challenges of each quest. I like the strategy of leveling up the heroes. (I suspect part of the reasons for my failures are poorly picked skills and characters). I like the theme and setting and the story line. It's a good game. I say go for it!

@Cleifperry - If you were only playing with 2 heroes that why you got your ass handed to you.

General consensus is:

2 players heavily favours overlord

3 heroes favours heroes

4 players is about as fair as its going to get

My wife is a little more casual and is not a fan of head to head confrontation as much. She does not like this game as 2 players (me: overlord, her: heroes) because it's actually a pretty confrontational, competitive game. Whenever I did just about anything as overlord to harm or hinder her heroes she was left feeling like I was just being mean. I think she was (and is) used to the game master (me) being more of a facilitator like our old HeroQuest games. If there were 3 or 4 more people playing heroes, I bet she wouldn't feel that way though. Just wanted to throw that out there as a warning to people interested in this that have a 2nd player that doesn't enjoy direct confrontation / take that mechanics.

If there were 3 or 4 more people playing heroes, I bet she wouldn't feel that way though.

In my experience, this won't change much with these kind of players. Any time you target her character (even if it's the strategically sound choice), she'll still likely feel that you're being mean.

I can see some viability for solo play in this game, even if I don't see myself doing it or at least doing it for an entire quest.

You can easily make abstration of the OL cards or hidden information by making your decisions informed for the side you represent. It just requires that you differentiate the context of the OL and the context of the heroes. It's perfectly doable. You can therefore still being trapped by the OL because you estimated that Hero A had to execute that action and Overlord had to play this card in response, as this is is how you would have played it yourself against a party of heroes.

This is where I have a picture of Sheldon Cooper in my head playing Descent in solo mode and screaming in total surprise upon playing Web Trap on himself. I wish they released this episode, lol.

I don't think you can get much fun out of this, though. I would only do it for testing purpose. Like in most other games, the fun comes out of the social experience. But if you´re Sheldon then go ahead dude, you´ll be fine.