I, as the Overlord, had a barghest that was down on his luck and had been attacked by heroes until he only had 1 "life" left. During the last attack, he had also been poisoned. The heroes, seeing that he only had 1 "life" left and was poisoned, decided not to attack him and let the poison kill him at the start of his turn. The poison card reads, "At the start of your turn, test Might. If you pass, discard this card or token. If you fail, suffer 1 Heart and keep this card and token."

At the start of my turn (the Overlords turn, not the barghests), I played the Overlord Card "Dark Remedy" which states, "Play this card on a monster group during your turn and choose 1 condition. Each monster in that group may discard 1 token corresponding to the chosen condition." After removing the condition from my bargest, I activated the Barghest, attacked the NPC, and won the game! Hooray!

The heroes were not happy and said that "at the start of your turn means MY turn and not the OL turn" and explained that the barghest should have died during the very beginning of the OL turn during the Start of Turn Abilites stage before the OL even draws his card.

What do you guys think?

Hello, Ghostly Silence

I would say that you could argue your position on this incident. A lot of Descent is weighted in the heroes favor anyway and if they win via overkill everytime, they will get bored. So they get sour grapes once in a while because you win? Too bad, so sad. They'll come back next week itching to try harder. It's part of the fun and challenge. If they always hate you for it and you are arguing a lot -consider getting another group because that isn't about gaming for fun anymore, that's about insecurity needs and fragile egos. No thanks!

There's my emotional two-cents from one Overlord to another. Now for the mechanics:

My interpretation of "At the start of your turn" has always been, "When the living person who controls a particular figure on the gameboard declares action, rolls die, moves the figure, checks a skill,etc." So, on the one hand, your hero players are right IF you all agree that this definition of what turn is applies to all your games. The card would mean "At the start of your (the player who is the Overlord) turn."

On the other hand, you can be more precise and say that the start of the turn for conditions, etc.,is "Only when a miniature on the board affected by the condition takes an action." Then you would be right, because you were simply acting as an Overlord and the Barghest had not made an action. Healing the Barghest as the Overlord could be considered different from a Barghest making a skill check...I'm splitting hairs here, but you get the idea. As you know, un-named monsters, familiars and NPCs automatically fail all skill checks.

In any case, this is another good reminder to us that some of the Descent rules are vague (intentionally or not) allowing us to create interesting gameplay, but also requiring us to agree on rules, interpretation, etc., BEFORE the game starts.

Talk it out with your group. Consider how many games they have won and how many you have won. If they can'tstand to let you win one game to their twenty wins, I'd say that's a red flag. Maybe consider letting this last game go, but agreeing on an interpretation for the rest of the campaign.

Good luck and have fun!

At the start of your turn in this context means at the start of the monster's activation, not the start of the overlord turn. As overlord, you are perfectly able to do what you did and you are correct.

At the start of your turn in this context means at the start of the monster's activation, not the start of the overlord turn. As overlord, you are perfectly able to do what you did and you are correct.

Correct.. the condition card/token applies to the figure, not the player. When that Barghast model start's its turn (when the monster group is activated), then it would take the hit from the poison.

Let's say a player was controlling an ally, and that ally had a poison token -- you would take the poison damage when you activated the ally and failed a check... not when the player controlling the ally took their hero's turn.

At the start of your turn in this context means at the start of the monster's activation, not the start of the overlord turn. As overlord, you are perfectly able to do what you did and you are correct.

Yes. GhostlySilence, I actually very recently asked this same question of FFG, and received an answer. The link is to the FFG Sez thread, where I posted my answer. In summary, when a monster has a condition, the "start of turn," "end of turn," text on the card is essentially replaced with "monster's activation." That is, poisoned on a monster should read. "At the start of [this monster's activation,] test . If you pass, discard this card or token. If you fail, suffer 1 and keep this card or token."

However, it's important to note that if you've got a hero controlling a familiar (such as a Geomancer) the text says that the trigger is at the start of turn, which is before a familiar would activate, even if it were activating before the hero.

any timing conflict gets resolved in the favor or after the will of the party controlling the turn. (rule page 21 or something in the golden rules). whoever is in in his turn gets to decide EVERY time conflict. flat

This is what makes it in your favour: "during your turn"

That means you can play any time during your turn, including BEFORE the barghest activates.

The poison only comes into effect when the monster activates, if you did not remove the condition the monster dies when activating. This is important as it has far reaching game effects!

This is incredibly useful for the heroes as they can poison a monster that only has 1 health left, leave it alone and it will have to wait until the round after it dies to reinforce which is incredibly annoying for an OL. Otherwise you could choose to let the monster die to poison at the start of your turn, then choose to reinforce monsters next at the start of your turn (your the current player, thus you get to choose the timing of start of turn game effects).

Your win was totally legit, grats.

Thanks guys! I appreciate all of your responses. My campaign continues and may the darkness of the Overlord sweep across the land of Terrinoth!