On a wild hair I bought the entire game -- all expansions, monster boxes, big box campaigns, and lieutenant packs.

A week later after reading the rules, I'm still a little uncertain what the best approach is when integrating the expansions into the campaigns.

I'd like to avoid playing it linear -- Shadow Rune, Lair of the Wyrm, Labyrinth of Ruin, etc.

Here's my understanding of how the campaigns flow according to the rules using rumor cards:

Shuffle all rumor cards and draw the top 3

Shadow Rune Act I - complete the intro and 3 quests. During this phase, 3 rumor cards are played that may or may not trigger quests in the 4 monster packs or the 3 expansions.

Shadow Rune Interlude

Shadow Rune Act 2 - complete the 3 quests. During this phase the act 2 expansion quest(s) is(are) completed if triggered.

Shadow Rune Finale

Discard the 3 rumor cards used in Shadow Rune

Shuffle the remaining rumor cards and draw the top 3

Complete Labyrinth of Ruin

Then again with Shadow of Nerekhall

I also assume I could choose the rumor cards if I wanted to play Trollfens during Shadow Rune. In other words, rumor cards don't need to be random.

Is this correct?

HI, and welcome to descent

First thing first, the main campaigns dont 'flow', that is to say you dont finish 'the shadow rune' and then take all the characters, skills, items etc straight into a campaign in 'labyrinth of ruin'.

Shadow rune finishes, campaign finishes. Start new campaign in Labyrinth. There is nothing stopping you using the same heroes but you and the overlord will be back to level 1.

The rumor cards are all combined (if you want to play with all expansions that have them) and you draw 3 cards, these MAY be played at the overlords discretion (baring 1 travel card that forces the OL to play one) and these are how the small expansions are played in a main camapign so this is where you will have 'flow'. If you only wanted to add Trollfens to the main campaign then you would only add trollfens to the rumor deck.

You will combine all shop items for decks 1 and 2 from all expansions and use them in whatever campaign you are using though, so finding nerekhall plate in the shadow rune is totally a thing.

You will combine all shop items for decks 1 and 2 from all expansions and use them in whatever campaign you are using though, so finding nerekhall plate in the shadow rune is totally a thing.

Just to expand on that point- at the beginning of any campaign, everyone should agree on which expansions are going to be included. This determines which cards are in the shop decks, the travel deck, whether or not you're using Rumor cards (you do draw 3 at the beginning of act 1 and the OL puts them in play as he sees fit), what heroes and classes are possible, and what cards the OL has access to.

Even though you jumped right in, I do recommend playing a couple quests with just the base game materials first- the mechanics of Descent, while pretty simple on the surface, can have very subtle differences in text that make a huge difference. Learning how the gears of the game turn early will save you a lot of headache later on.

I just did the same thing... I've been reading forums and watching videos like crazy...

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this is my new understanding...

You can use the characters and monsters from any expansion to start off the main game?

I can bring in some expansions using the rumor cards, but not all. Some expansions, when they have thier own map, are new adventures, where you start back at level 1...

I can also mix store items accross any campaign?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Look in the rules books of the expansions- each one should have a section called "using this expansion" and they should all be about the same. The gist is this:

If you're playing a standalone quest, or a campaign, it doesn't matter- all players decide at the beginning on which expansions are being included in the game. Once that has been decided, you mix together all the heroes, monsters, shop cards, travel cards (exception for Nerekhall here, that uses its own separate travel deck,) rumor cards, classes, conditions, etc, together. Then, you begin the campaign (or epic play quest) as otherwise normal, but with all of those extra cards. The base game cards are always included, no matter what you're playing (again, exception for Nerekhall travel deck.)

For example, say you were beginning a "Shadow Rune" campaign. You have decided to include "Labyrinth of Ruin." At the start of the campaign, the heroes can choose any of the base game heroes or classes, but could also choose any of the LoR heroes or classes. The OL could choose to use the basic or basic 2 deck, and could choose LoR monsters for his open groups during the campaign, if he so chose. When the heroes shop, they will be shopping from a deck consisting of both the base game and LoR shop cards.

Thanks for the help.

So, for the heros, we can use any hero that came with any expansion we included, or can we use any hero, from any expansion, any time, to start with? I was really under the impression, any hero could work anywhere, even if the expansion it came with was not in play.

Thanks

Strictly speaking, an expansion is supposed to be included entirely, or not at all. If you're not using the Labyrinth of Ruin shop cards, you shouldn't be choosing Labyrinth of Ruin heroes or classes.

That is not to say that you can only use Labyrinth of Ruin heroes during a Labyrinth of Ruin campaign- you can play the "The Shadow Rune" and use Logan Lashley- but then there are Labyrinth of Ruin shop cards, and the OL can use basic 2 deck. Does that make sense?

Maybe some extra info on the complexity, and choosing to start with the base set or not:

Our group is new also, and we had acces to the base set + Trollfens + Nerekhall + one Heroes and Monsters pack + some lieutenants.

After 2 quests from the vanilla game, we had great fun and got greedy, and switched to the Trollfens mini-campaign.

In which you start with 4 xp and some gold each. We also tried a Nerekhall quest, with the added influence mechanics.

The whole thing was a bit too immersive, especially since English is not our native, and as Zaltyre said: the rules are simple but a lot of subtle details for everyone to learn. So a lot of those "look it up just too be sure" and "i forgot this or that ability" moments made our play speed drop...

In the end, we decided to go back to the now "enriched" (extra heroes, loot, monsters, overlord cards, plot decks) base set campaign, stick to our choices, and gradually work our way through :-). That way we can truly appreciate the expansions, once everyone of our group is more on par with the details of the mechanics!

Very helpful! Thanks!