A Quick Summary pulled from my memory of two saturdays ago, in preparation for this saturday.

I played the OL and we were playing quest 1 of the original game. [Narthak the Giant]

4 Heros - 2 first time players.

After a lengthy rule discussion and a call to Pizza 73, we started playing at about 6pm Saturday evening. For the most part I allowed the group to pick their characters from the stack which caused me to end up with:

Jaen the Battlemage, [boggs the rat familiar]
The guy with a hook,
A purely ranged character [Can't recall the name]
A cloak and dagger sort of sloth dude [Can't remember name lol...will edit later]

TURN ONE:

We played Quest one in which the heros have to enter a dungeon and Kill Narthak, a giant with a moderatly sized dungeon. When we first started all the heros were hoping for a roleplaying experience, so I made a big deal of describing the room in detail. I used lighting to limit their LOS, saying that the initial chambers were near pitch black. I described a slime-like mist billowing from the well in the middle of the room, swirling about their ankles. At this point all ther heros were getting excited, and armed with their beginer items from town, they surged forth into the dungeon.

The Boss Beastman was hit with a ranged attack on turn one that failed to kill him, His startled grunt of pain alerted his minions to his aid, and they rushed from their corners to meet the heros on OL turn 1, though they had very little effect...[and subsequently died on Hero turn 2]

TURN TWO:

Heros finished off the Beastmen, notiucing the green mist had failed to "affect" Boggs [who was much closer to the floor, and determined it was harmless] Not worried about poison they finished searching the room and moved on, leaving boggs to prevent the OL from spawning from behind.

OL Turn 2 uneventful for the most part

Turns 3&4

The Heros got the glyph and the treasure and moved on to wipe out the pushover Skeletons [thought the red one came back twice] They split up to open the East doorway [to hellhounds] and North doorway [to Spider]

[Mistakes Made! - Allowed heros to share/trade/barter money and items freely. allowed heros to "rest" in town to regain Health.]

By turn 5 they could mow through the majority of monsters without suffering any wounds - Turned a ranged character into the monkey with "Curse of the monkey god" - then killed them them with a falling boulder. Managed to spawn some units...[which I found to be futile at the characters development level, it was just giving them CP when they killed the red monster.]

On turn 8 they killed the troll and took the key back to the door, opening the door to Narthaks chamber. Jaen the Battlemage stepped forward with a Weapon Rune that gave him a fireball with Blast 1, Cast it on a manticore space, Incredible roll with exhausted fatigue for more power dice...brought manticores both down to 1 wound remaining each.

OL Turn 8 - Manticores both used "Rage" combined with Quickshot for four attacks each. devastated the battlemage and almost killed the hook handed guy.

Turn 9 - Heros finished off Manticores, and then range burned Narthak....I found the gaping chasm in his chamber grossly unhelpful. The heros used magic+ranged to kill Manticores, then the giant is stuck in a room while players lined up at the chasm like a shooting gallery. When I moved him forward to use his sweep in OL turn 9, they backed up into the hallway and continued the ranged barrage until Narthak went down.

[QUESTION! CAN NARTHAK CROSS THE PIT?! I wanted to pursue down the hallway, but the Heros argued there wasn't enough space on either side of the chasm for him to cross. In a previous situation when a spider got jammed in a place he couldn't move...I explained to the heros that spiders ignored rubble/pits because they can crawl on walls and cielings. That however did not work for the giant [Who would just step over the chasm in My opinion lol].

Narthak went down the heros rejoiced....we tallied CP points per hero to find the "competitive play victor" The general consensus after 4-5 hours of playtime [we went back to the rules alot] was that descent was the best game ever made. We looked at the clock and decided to play the next mission.

------uh oh------

You guys....I think..you have to give all your items and armor and weapons back and start again with noob characters....but hey..on the bright side..you get 100g extra this time.

--------------------

Yeah....that really dissappointed my group. They had just spent four hours getting the best weapon armor and skills they could afford and manage, just to kill the giant and give it all back. That really put a damper on the game. They decided not to play the next mission, purely out of dissappointment at the loss of their items, and we watched an anime for the next 3 hours.

The group is getting together again tommorow for Mission 2, how can I alter my playstyle [besides dropping the roleplaying...because I understand that roleplaying is a no-no for most groups] so that the game is funner overall?

Yes, the Giant can step over the pit. The giant would have to have all four squares occupying pit spaces in order to be affected by it. The pits are there, IMO, for knocking heros into.

The first Quest isn't very satisfying. If your groups is looking for a more RPG feel to things, and if you don't own it already, go buy the Road To Legend expansion which gives Descent that RPG feel.

I ordered all the expansions from a collectible/hobby store in a large city about 4 hours from my smaller hometown...probably won't be able to go pick them up till August, just because of work schedule

I heard the second quest can be a pain for newer players because the giants are thuggly.

Yes. The second quest is there to teach the Heroes a lesson on tactics. You don't need to wade your way through the monsters in the game. Sometimes its better to run in, grab what you need in the room and get out. That way the monsters have to come to you.

If you keep the same party, Boggs is a huge help in that dungeon.

Boggs is by far the most annoying little.....

But yes, it's the same party.