Now I know for a fact that some of you bought this an GenCon. I find it hard to believe that you're all waiting to play before reading through. So, what's the verdict? I'm a bit undecided whether I'll get this one or not as it could so easily be a massive let down.

I'm extremely pleased to hear that nine out of the sixteen quests will make use of expansion material. Sure, it's a little disappointing that there isn't even more cross over with only two using more than one, but realistically (given that FF wants to sell this to as many people as possible) I think that this is about as good as we were going to get. I'm especially pleased that there are four ToI quests which will presumably make full use of these interesting tiles taking up space in my box.

So things I'm interested in are....

Game length... I've heard these are looking long. Great in theory and it'd be fun to have a chance to do an ALMIGHTY game of Descent some time, but I'm very concerned that they'll end up being like the WoD... looking fantastic but a miserable slog to play. Especially true if you commission some big names to write a scenario who are only loosely familiar with Descent.

Theme... this is where I expect these to really work well. Do they have the feel of a monster's lair/castle, rather a series of unrelated monsters with ludicrous flavour text? Something which really bugged me was RtL's attempt to integrate the expansions. Those two rumour quests, especially Down in a Hole, were clearly just throwing in WoD/AoD stuff to fulfill the expansion brief rather than to make a good quest.

Playability... obviously hardest to say anything about as I don't suppose many people have had time for a game, but you never know.

Variety... ? 16 is a lot of quests. Something for everyone? Lots of quests with special rules to make me rethink strategy?

What else? Come on, people!

I'm in a tight spot on this one. I've got the book, and have been reading the introductions. I'm not going further because this weekend we are playing one of the quests, and I am actually going to get to be a hero. This will only be the second time I've been a hero, and it will also be the second time that someone has been the overlord. We are also going to have 2 people that have never played before. Definitely not ideal circumstances, but I just bought this book, my main group is knee-deep in RtL, and I want to play one of these quests!

As I'm going through, I'm throwing out ones that radically change the way the game plays, mainly since it's the first time for some of the players. I want them to see what Descent is about. I'm also throwing out ones that are obviously crazy long. The one from Kevin Wilson, which looks fantastic, is so long that it has two maps.

I may settle on the quest from John Kovalic. It's a direct sequel to the very first quest in the base game, using a modified version of the same layout.

I can say that from what I have read, these quests all attempt to be "different". I can't tell you if they are good or not, but they certainly look good.

After this weekend's game, I'll probably break down and read some all the way through.

Have we found out any ETA for the general public to get their hands on this book?

www.amazon.com/gp/product/1589946111

Amazon seems to be selling it, although it takes a while to ship.

Veinman said:

T'riffic. I'll look forward to what you've got to say, both on the game and the look of the rest of it.

Thanks for all the SoB report, by the way. Without your pictures, we'd all probably be still wondering whether there were miniatures.

SoylentGreen said:

Watch the "Upcoming" link at the top of the page. FFG has been fairly good at keeping it up to date lately. The Compendium is still listed as "On the boat". Of course, the FFG gang is probably trying to recover from GenCon. So, I'd give them a few days to recover before expecting any new updates. But once the status changes to "Shipping now" it's about a week or two to get into the local stores.

Also, several online game stores I checked have it available for pre-order.

Veinman said:

Yeah - I saw that link - but there are no reviews or any comments about it - Just strange that the "1 to 2 weeks" for shipping is on there... I dunno. Anyone here order from there?

I am curious about the quests using RtL. I hope they can be used in the campaign!

Veinman, great review and Gencon pics on your site! Glad to hear that the book has a selection from multiple expansions! I think I might buy this book next to run quests from Journeys in the Dark, and then return to it after I get the expansions.