I never got into Descent. Not sure why (big into fantasy and RPGs), just never picked it up.

I know IA comes with 6 characters to choose from for the players. What I'm wondering is do the future expansions typically come with new characters? Or will these 6 persist as the only official characters ever?

The groups I play with are long time RPG fans, so continuity is fairly important. Once a character has played through an adventure (leveled up, received new abilities, etc), it's hard to reboot that character in everyone's mind.

In Descent, there are three types of expansions:

-Lieutenant Packs (comes with a plastic Lieutenant figure and an overlord deck)
-Big/small box campaign expansions (comes with new boards and campaign adventures)

-Hero and Monster Collections (comes with figures and cards for two heroes and new monster groups)

The campaign expansions usually come with two heroes and the Hero and Monster Collections usually come with two heroes. There are tons of heroes to choose from in Descent and you can play the same hero multiple times because they can take different classes.

In Imperial Assault, the class system is gone, which cuts down on replayability of each hero. However, I think we will definitely see more heroes as new expansions are released. Personally, I'm hoping that the characters from each of the RPG line Beginner Boxes gets turned into an Imperial Assault hero. It saves on artwork and it gives continuity for FFG's games. After all, Lowhrick already made it into the LCG.

Normally, every expansion comes with 2 new player characters. Like the Trollfen expansion for example.

So rest assure, FFG will add more characters in the future.

EDIT: Budgernaut was faster than me

I bought the next 2 expansions for Descent 2e (Lair of the Wyrm and the Trollfens), and both of them came with 2 new characters. FFG has indicated pretty clearly that they'll be using Descent's marketing and product pattern, so I think it's pretty safe to say that we'll likely get 2 new heroes with each new boxed expansion.

In Descent, there are three types of expansions:

-Lieutenant Packs (comes with a plastic Lieutenant figure and an overlord deck)

-Big/small box campaign expansions (comes with new boards and campaign adventures)

-Hero and Monster Collections (comes with figures and cards for two heroes and new monster groups)

The campaign expansions usually come with two heroes and the Hero and Monster Collections usually come with two heroes.

Normally, every expansion comes with 2 new player characters. Like the Trollfen expansion for example.

I bought the next 2 expansions for Descent 2e (Lair of the Wyrm and the Trollfens), and both of them came with 2 new characters. FFG has indicated pretty clearly that they'll be using Descent's marketing and product pattern, so I think it's pretty safe to say that we'll likely get 2 new heroes with each new boxed expansion.

Incorrect. Descent expansions come with:

Small box - 2 heroes.

Big box - 4 heroes.

Hero and Monster Pack - 4 heroes.

Not to mention monsters, map tiles, quests, cards, etc. If FFG follows suit with IA expansions, there should be plenty of heroes to go around.

With regards to progression and persistence, IA and Descent can be played as a campaign, and a hero grows during that campaign, but all campaigns are separate, so each time you start a new campaign, you start over from scratch with a new character. These games are not full RPGs, they are tactical skirmish board games with light RPG elements.

I know they aren't RPG, it's just we have a lot of background there. These aren't blank characters though. It's not a nameless jedi you slap a name/background onto. It's an established character with background and lore.

Once played, and leveled up, those experiences stay attached to that character. It becomes part of that character's background and lore.

To wipe the slate clean, or reboot the character from scratch feels 'odd'.

We still talk about and remember characters from decades ago.

Certainly not a road block to getting into the game (I have the game and all expansions pre-ordered already), just a system and style of play that my groups, and myself will need to come to terms with.

The news about the likelyhood of new characters though is good. At least we may not need to relive the same campaign with the same characters (which will add to the replayability). Just having the ability to retire a recently used character for a period of time will make it easier to bring them back later.

Incorrect. Descent expansions come with:

Small box - 2 heroes.

Big box - 4 heroes.

Hero and Monster Pack - 4 heroes.

Thanks for the correction. I actually have never bought or played Descent, though I've had my eye on it for over a year.