I am starting a new RtL campaign tomorrow with 4 new Descent players. Overall, my goal was to go with extra flexibility so that I could try a lot of things, without feeling like any one failure hurt my progress as a whole.
Avatar
This time I have chosen the Sorcerer King as my Avatar. The reasons are:
- I wanted to avoid a large Avatar (Demon, Giant and Dragon) to give some contrast from the Great Wyrm that I played last time.
- Evil wizards are archetypal bad guys for fantasy campaigns.
- His Lair is awesome with the age-old multiple sorcerers in a mirror maze trick for added old skool awesome.
- I wanted to use the new minis being released for the Lieutenants and the Beastman and Sorcerer were the first two that got their full complement. Plus Krieg, the undead Lieutenant is almost unkillable meaning that I can have fun fielding him without stressing about loosing him.
- He's got some really cool upgrades - +100 wounds & sorcerers with Blast 1
- His special power is cool, essentially adding 15 more threat to every dungeon. This will allow me more resources to play with.
- He is more about events (my favourite) than the Beastman, and less about the spawning (my least favourite).
- He does focus on traps which I tend to suck at so it will be good practice to get more utility from traps.
Plot
I went with the Eternal Night plot, over Obsidian Shackles and Ascension. The reasons are:
- I wanted to choose something other than Obsidian Shackles.
- Eternal Night is again an archetypal bad guy plot in fantasy campaigns.
- I wanted to get more use from Lieutenants. Both Ascension and Eternal Night see Lieutenants used more on the overland map. Ascension costs less XP as it progresses when cities are razed. This seems to elevate the importance of Lieutenant progress as razing a city is already a big deal. Ascension can also speed up the end game, which I am not so keen on. Eternal Night costs XP but sees the Lieutenants pursue a parallel storyline to bring on Eternal Night. As such, the Lieutenant game is just as important but each battle is less vital, allowing some room for fun. I also like how if the Eternal Night plot fails, then it has no impact on the main plot.
- When you add in the almost unkillable Krieg, I get extra flexibility around the use of Lieutenants which should be fun.
So, King Obsidious, the Immortal Sorcerer King, wishes to cover the Terrinoth in darkness so his undead legions can conquer all and bring about a new age... or something equally cheesy.
