Hi!

New to the forum and thought I would ask if anyone has advice for someone running their first campaign of Descent 2nd Ed.

I've heard some people use house rules like limiting player turns to 10-15 mins as to not let the discussions drag on and waste too much time.

If anyone else has some useful tips it would be most appreciated.

My campaign starts up in 3 weeks and I will be playing OL of course.

Thanks!

Read the rules. Learn the rules. Know the rules. D2e is a streamlined improvement over the first edition- but it still has some obscure rules and subtle distinctions in terminology. As the OL, it is not necessarily your job to be the rules guru, but you have the most to lose if the game is played incorrectly- if there is confusion, the on the spot ruling will go against you EVERY TIME, because there are 4 of them, and just 1 of you.

For this reason, it is important that you above all know what you are doing- and what the heroes are doing. Also, the rules that do exist in descent are there to maintain balance. If either side is ignoring them, things can get tipped very heavily against either side, and this is no fun for anyone. The point is to have fun, and my opinion is the best way to ensure that is to play the game correctly.

Find a play area and learn how to setup a quest yourself. Then play through that quest as the heroes and the OL. It may seem a bit confusing at first, but this will help you get an idea of how the game is supposed to run. Learning how to choose heroes and classes is important. When you finish the quest, run through a Campaign phase so you get an idea of that works as well. Start off with the base game, implement more when you get more familiar with it.

My game box has the parts in it like so. ( Ditch the cardboard mural inside it so you can have more room.)

-Bag filled with Fatigue and Heart Tokens.

-Bag with all other Tokens. (take em out and separate them when setting up.)

-Bag of Heroes and Lieut figures (you can get them in packs)

-Bag of Monster figures

-Bag of small class cards

-Bag of Act1,Act2,Relic,Search and Condition Cards.

-Bag of Large Cards.

-Bag of Dice

-Bag of Hero Sheets and Quest Pads.

-Pencil

-Rulebook, Quest Guide.

I've also made my own Quest Log because I don't like the Logs they provide you with the game. Get on a Word Processor and make a Log Template. My Template looks like this:

Hero:

Token Color:

Class:

Abilities:

Equipment:

Experience:

(repeat 3 more times)

Gold:

Additional Items:

Overlord

Experience:

Threat Tokens:

Relics:

Cards:

Threat Cards:

Rumors:

When heroes have Items I usually abbreviate what deck they are from. (AI= Act 1, Relic = R)

Also with the OL I usually abbreviate what cards he has ( Universal= U1, Warlord1 = W1)

I think this is important to do so you don't lose track between game sessions.

If questions come up don't hesitate to ask on here.

Thanks for the advice both. I hope to post some updates on the campaign as it progresses.

I am a little late to the party but I recommend that you print a copy of the Errata and FAQ (version 1.5) from FFG website.

It has a lot of information and clarifications on "newbie" questions.

Of course, you should read it before starting your campaign.

In addition to all the advice given so far, I would recommend :

1. Any first timer should invest 20 minutes to look at an "how to play" video so you don't waste an hour (or more) to explain the base rules.

2. Make sure that everything is properly stored else you waste precious time on the quest setup.

3. Have fun!

Zaltyre also has a great house rule on Movement:
Movement is re-doable until another action occurs. Basically, you get take-backs until you trigger/do something else.

So we had our first session of the Campaign today and it was by all accounts a success.

The Heroes chosen were:

Avric Albright

Jain Fairwood

Widow Tahra

The heroes won the "First Blood" quest quite comfortably but had a tough time with "A Fat Goblin" E1 losing 3-1 on the amount of crops rescued.

Encounter 2 was extremely close, with Avric and Widow Tahra going down at one stage under the monster onslaught. Unfortunately for me Splig had some terrible luck with his interrogation and revealed all of the prisoners before getting it right. By this point all of my minions were dead and it was always going to be a challenge to get to the exit alive without any support. However, I made it within about 4 spaces of the door before the Heroes took splig down, which made for a very tense encounter that swung back and forth several times.

The heroes did manage to accumulate a ridiculous amount of gold though and bought themselves a nice new crossbow for the archer, which I am worried will greatly tip the balance in their favour.

Be aware of the following:

2 Heroes in play - favors the OL

3 Heroes in play - favors the Heroes

4 Heroes in play - is generally suggested and accepted as the most balanced game

You chose to play 3 heroes, and that is certainly acceptable. Just know that such a game in terms of balance is going to lean towards the Heroes.

Even if you only have 3 physical players, you may want one of them to play 2 heroes so that you actually have 4 heroes in play.

I often play with a total of 2 players - one who is the Overlord, and one who controls all 4 heroes. I should point out that both physical players are very good gamers with hundreds of hours of play under their belt. They also both know the rules very, very well.

Why is it that 3 Heros is favourable to them?

The amount of Monsters correlates with the number of heroes playing. With big monster groups the overlord usually upgrades a minion to a master monster. The amount of actions for this monster group remains the same, while the heroes get two additional actions via adding a hero. In a game where actions are the most valuable resource this strongly favors the heroes.

I've read a lot of posts about Balance and there seems to be no conclusive answer. Any suggestions for rectifying the balance with a 3 Hero set up? i.e house rules?

The easiest way is to simply play with 4 heroes. Let one of the players control two heroes. Maybe change which player plays with two heroes every mission. The game is more or less balanced around a party of 4 heroes.

Alternately, as Funkfried pointed out, this is largely an effect of monster group size vs number of hero actions. By utilizing mainly small monsters, the OL minimizes this issue- but it still exists.

... invest 20 minutes to look at an "how to play" video ..

I agree 100% with this, but with the following caveat: Watch more than one!

They all have their merits, but many contain "errors" - some correct their mistakes, others never do.

I found this series to be extremely informative, while also being very accurate. They edit their videos to show where they made a mistake in the rules. The entire 8 video series shows the setup and playthrough of an entire encounter, and I feel it's the best one I've found. watching all 8 will take a while, but it really gives great information.

If you're short on time, then I would recommend just watching the 3rd one in the playlist , for the rules explanation.