My group and I just finished a Descent 2e campaign and were going to start a new one. I'm also currently playing an Imperial Assault campaign with some members overlapping.

There are rules introduced in IA that we really like and were wondering if introducing them into Descent would imbalance or break it. We don't see why they would but I was hoping people with more experience could chime in with their opinion.

The two rules we were looking at introducing were:

1. Only allow two Fatigue to be used for additional movement per player turn (as opposed to all of it if available).

2. Alternate have the Heroes take a turn, then the OL (activate one Monster group). It would go Heroes > OL > Heroes > OL etc.

This would be used with the base Descent game, no expansions or additional heroes/characters.

Some people (including myself) prefer to keep Descent rules for Descent, and IA rules for IA for risk of upsetting the balance between ranged and melee attacks, among other things. Other people would like to introduce the "more realistic" rules of IA to allow for cover to be more useful. If you have a group that is willing to give it a trial run, there's nothing stopping you.The only way you're really going to know how it changes things is to test it out.

My group and I just finished a Descent 2e campaign and were going to start a new one. I'm also currently playing an Imperial Assault campaign with some members overlapping.

There are rules introduced in IA that we really like and were wondering if introducing them into Descent would imbalance or break it. We don't see why they would but I was hoping people with more experience could chime in with their opinion.

The two rules we were looking at introducing were:

1. Only allow two Fatigue to be used for additional movement per player turn (as opposed to all of it if available).

2. Alternate have the Heroes take a turn, then the OL (activate one Monster group). It would go Heroes > OL > Heroes > OL etc.

This would be used with the base Descent game, no expansions or additional heroes/characters.

While I don't think number 1 above would have too big of a negative impact on game play, I do think that number 2 above would.

All of the design and play testing of D2e was based on the premise of all of the heroes going and then the OL. If you alternate, I think it will cause significant balance issues, and massively change the way the game is played.

And I believe this is true just due to alternating turns. But take it one step further with an example ... in D2e, the OL reinforces usually at the start or end of his turn ... if you alternate turns, the OL would get to do this up to 4 times, rather than just once. This is an example of how things will go wrong in a hurry.

I believe both of your houserules to Descent would imbalance the game. For one thing, giving the heroes the first turn of every quest and forcing the overlord to wait until they all go is a very strong point in favor of the heroes in each quest. Alternating turn order would take away that advantage from the heroes. Secondly on this issue, monster groups in Descent are bigger than they are in Imperial Assault, meaning the overlord has more stuff to do on each turn. I would avoid toying with this.

As for the first one: the game is designed with map sizes and characters expecting to be able to use as much fatigue as possible to move each turn if they want to. Restricting that is a huge nerf to heroes, and not one that's needed.

I would have to say do a one shot game with your changes and see how it goes. but i think you will find the base game rules are the best fit.

Thanks for all the feedback. It makes a strong case for not tinkering with the Descent 2e rules.

I'd have to agree with all the others that are saying to keep the 2 rules separate. Lots of things would have to be considered when implementing the 2 rules you would like to add. Off the top of my head, since you are limiting heroes to using 2 fatigue to move 2 MPs are you now going to allow movement rules from IA into Descent so that the heroes can move thru enemy figures? That's just one of many things to consider.

I think it's best to keep the rules seperated. Only thing missing in Imperial Assault is the Travel Step as in Descent.