New type of Descent Gameplay

By bisuax, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

We have been designing a new setting of gameplay for descent quests in order to make it a much more competitive experience between two opposing teams where technique and team work will be essential. We will be uploading our designed quests with all these instructions added to them named "War of the Lords". It is important that every team sees only one of the two maps, so as to keep the game fair. If you have any comments or suggestions we will happily accept them. Thanks and have fun!

Two seperate teams consisting each of an Overlord and a number of Heroes, preferably equal. Every team has its own map side, in which the opposing Hero has to fight his way through in order to reach the Enemy Hero and end the War face to face.

Regards Number of Players, that is equal to the number of players in the opposing team. The Players should opt to choose their heroes instead of picking randomly.

Round of Turns:
Each team must throw 3 Power Dice. The team getting the biggest number of surges starts. So, its first that Hero and Overlord of this team, followed by turn of the other Hero and Overlord. The turn of the Hero and Overlord from the same team may be decided accordingly, and taken in consideration as single team of Heroes. When using Overlord Cards stating that they have to be used at the Start of a turn, the Team's turn is taken in consideration.
Yet it is important to note, that at the very beginning, when the Enemy Hero hasn't yet come into the map from town for the first time, that land hasn't been revealed yet, and thus Overlord may not spawn any monsters there yet!
When it comes to the point of no return where all doors are open and all the Areas are then connected, the Round of Turns shuffles. The turn of the Hero who has opened the common door is followed by that of the opposing Hero. It is then the turn of the Overlord in the same team as the Hero who opened the common door, followed by the opposing Overlord.

Portals:
Encounter Markers represent unactivated portals. Once a hero steps on an encounter marker, the portal is activated to its corresponding colour, that is White in the case of Team of Light, whereas Red for Team of Darkness. That team gains 3 Conquest Tokens. Once activated, an opposing Hero may opt to reactivate it to his corresponding colour, and gains 1 Conquest Token.

Overlord Cards Deck:
Both Overlords take from the same deck of cards at the start of each of their turn. Once the last card of the deck is taken, 1 Conquest Token is removed from each Team.

Spawning :
Every overlord can make use of the Overlord cards on any side of the map visible, always respecting the card's instructions. As regards to spawning, line of sight of both Enemy Hero and Monsters are taken into consideration.

Monsters :
All map based monsters (found on revealing Area), are Master Monsters. All spawned monsters are normal Monsters.
As regards to Figures used : White Figures for Team of Light
Red Figures for Team of Darkness
White Figures with Burn/Stun Token for Spawned Monsters by Team of Light and Team of Darkness respectively.
Monsters may not make use or pick up any type of items.
Monsters may not activate or make use of Glyphs.
Monsters may not open Rune Locked Doors or Treasure Chests.
Yet Monsters may open doors leading unrevealed areas of the Opposing Team, but not of the same team.

Team of Light will have white monster figures, whereas the Team of Darkness will have red monster figures. Spawned Figures will have white Monster figures with a Burn Token in case of Team of Light, whereas a Stun Token for Team of Darkness.
Maximum Spawnable Monsters between both teams at any time (this will have a hint of first come first serve basis) :
3 Beastmen
3 Skeleton Archers
3 Bane Spiders
2 Razor Wings
2 Hell Hounds
2 Sorcerers
Important : All spawned monsters are normal monsters and not Masters. (eg. Beastman War Party spawns 3 normal beastmen not 2 normal and a master.)

Ending the Game:
The game ends when-
either team has no conquest tokens left(conquest tokens are removed from pile as soon as a hero dies, like normal play) declaring the other team winner.
either team takes control of all glyphs declaring himself winner.

Might be fun to have an added element where teams can do specific tasks - or if they complete a small side quest - etc... they could undo progress made by the other team...

And example might be a way to deactivate glyphs on the opposing map through successful events on your side of the map... Something to think about. :)

Have you thought about this: Two diffrent overlords want to take control of the cave, and the heroes are in the middle of the cross fire. It would be a 3-team competition.

Hmmmm, sounds interesting to have 3 groups instead of 2. Imho it wouldn't be needed to split/seperate/hide a map, just keep everything open. Also having 1 overlord (perhaps with 2 seperate turns) would be easier to play.
You could have goals of all 3 groups, and the first one to achieve this is the winner (gaining a certain amount of conquest tokens).

Keep us updated on more ideas, i'm curious on how this could turn out! happy.gif

any official rules (pdf or otherwise) available for download yet?