The groups i play with all complain about how difficult it is to swap items, is there something we are missing...

You can only GIVE an item on your turn, and when you are GIVEN an item it goes into your pack, and then at the start of the heroes turn they can equip it switch stuff around for free movement points.

They run into the problem of having a full backpack and not being able to just take it in their hands, and with the whole dropping an item and you loose it, when another hero is coming that way and wants it. They want to be able to drop an item and have it stay so another can come pick it up.

They always seem to have a really difficult time passing stuff off to who needs it and complain about it A LOT! To the point of one who doesnt even want to play any more because of all the "dancing" around they have to do any time they open a chest. Any ideas out there or things you guys have done to deal with this?

Are you playing basic descent or Road to legends.

With basic, a hero may give an item to an adacent hero at the cost of 1 move pt. then that hero at the start of his turn can equip it or place it in his pack. just after refreshing hero cards. Don't forget that the heros can go in any order that what to. you don't have to play in sitting orders. Heros can talk to each other and choose who goes 1st and so on. This is missed sometime by new players.

with Road's it states pg. 17 "potions and items discoved in chests are divided among the heros as the hero players wish. ext,..... and if two heros are in town you can swap stuff to each other for free. hope this helps.

We are playing with the basic, and will very soon be adding in Well of Darkness...

I think i might just let them divey out who gets what as the treasure is drawn, or see how it goes and adjust from there.

Hawknight said:

That what we do. It's hepls with the flow ( time wise anyways)

That's not entirely correct. "A hero who receives an item from another player may immediately equip it, place it in his backpack, or drop it" (base rules p.18). The FAQ also states "whenever a hero receives an item from another player or from a chest, he may immediately equip that item, dropping or placing other items in his pack to free up the hands necessary for the just-received item."

However, it still costs 1 movement point per item, you have to be adjacent, and you can only give items on your turn, not take them.

I've found that the backpack space limit generally isn't too much of a problem if you sell extra items on a regular basis, but it does get annoying sometimes.

Not to sound critical, but how much stuff are your Heroes carrying around? I mean its one thing to have a backup weapon stashed in the backpack and a potion, but space in that sucker is precious. Carrying around useless weapons for the sake of having a backup or to sell them in the basic game is somewhat pointless in my experience. In the basic game, when players open a chest everyone draws the number of treasure cards indicated, so while I do understand that you can accumulate things quickly, I've always been of the mindset that you grab what's best, drop the rest.

I mean if you really want to metagame it, are you going to be in a dungeon and refuse to grab the new shiny Gold weapon because you don't want to drop your Silver one?

I think they hang to so much stuff because they are simply trying to move fast and dont want to have to go back to town unless they absolutely have too, but when we play tonight i will talk to them about their hording problems, and we'll see what can be done.

I agree with you guys, i don't think it's that difficult and don't understand why they don't just drop stuff.

Antistone pointed out the bit on page 18 we seemed to miss some how...as the Overlord "rule nazi" it is ultimately my fault for missing this. Our heroes told me they looked up item trading and were positive it had to go IN THE PACK when some one gave it to them, i will most assuridly correct this tonight...thanks Antistone .

I'm not sure what the rules are for swapping the new feat cards between heros, or if its even allowed. The heros and I have made a house rule that lets heros treat feat cards like items. I let them swap for movement points in dungeons, and they may trade amongst themselves while in town or exploring the map. The bad side of this is I cant destroy the cards with crushing blow. Thats fine with me i guess. I have other ways to make the heros waste them. MWAH HA HA HA HA!

Earth Wyrm Jim said:

I'm sure that swapping feat cards is not allowed. I don't even think that you are supposed to "share" knowledge of the feat cards with the other hero players but keep them "hidden" in your hand. I read another post that got it spot on that having the heroes share the feat cards will only lead to more AP as they try to figure out who's feat card is best to play when in addition to bickering about who should go first in the turn etc....

Hawknight said:

I was under the understanding that you can only GIVE others stuff and it must always go to the backpack

Earth Wyrm Jim said:

.... Just... no. I dont think swapping MPs, Feats, etc is allowed... no.

I'm sorry your fellow feel that way, but the fact is that pack management and the lack of "swapping" is meant to be part of the game mechanics - thats why there is such a skill as "Bard" in the expansion sets.

Only the person bold/fast/tough/brave enough to open the chest is going to normally get the items out of the chest and they have to go through trouble to give items to everyone else - it allows the Overlord the chance to snag that person with various chest traps. For example lets say the fastest character rockets across the dungeon level to open a chest in hopes of giving the best Melee character a new weapon. The Overlord springs an explosive chest in order to severely wound him so that on his way back to said Melee character a simple Beastman can slap him down. So the next chest the melee fighter goes to get the chest since he has more wounds, then you slap him with a "Monkey" trap to make him helpless.

If your players don't like the time management mechanics of Descent, you can all agree, of course, to have house rules. I think everyone does. But just be aware that the lack of swapping is intentional.

PS - RtL avoids this mechanic in order to simplify the Dungeon Levels and make it easier to "save" your character between levels.

fimarach said:

Um, I'm pretty sure when a chest is opened and treasure items are found, they can go to whichever character the hero players decide should get it regardless of whether that character was the one who opened the chest.

Also, direct for the FAQ:

Q: When can a hero equip items?

A: A hero can equip, drop, or place items in his pack at

the beginning of his turn, just after refreshing cards. In

addition, whenever a hero receives an item from another

player or from a chest, he may immediately equip that

item, dropping or placing other items in his pack to free

up the hands necessary for the just-received item.

Also, direct from the FAQ:

Q: When can a hero equip items?

A: A hero can equip, drop, or place items in his pack at

the beginning of his turn, just after refreshing cards. In

addition, whenever a hero receives an item from another

player or from a chest, he may immediately equip that

item, dropping or placing other items in his pack to free

up the hands necessary for the just-received item.

That's not quite correct Obaewan.

When a chest is opened, and it says for example that there's one treasure, then one treasure is dealt face down to each hero. The hero's do not get to look at the treasures and decide who gets what. There is a skill called bardic lore that specifically allows that hero to look at all treasures before they are distributed and decide who gets what, but still has the requirement that all hero's get the same amount of treasure from each chest.

So, lacking bardic lore, player's will most likely have to swap items after a chest is opened. However, you are perfectly correct in that when a hero receives an item they can equip it immediately, rearranging items as necessary. How and when the player received the item does not really matter.

Puer said:

Yeah... I was thinking about the RTL treasure chests where you roll and get x-treasures. In either case, the character opening the chest doesn't have anything to do with the distribution.

Ah yes,

Your answer is correct for RtL, the treasure drawn is distributed as if the party already had bardic lore, and bardic lore is one of the skills which is not used in RtL.

I was thinking base descent, so I guess we just weren't communicating.

My bad.

Puer said:

no no... MY bad Puer... I should have specified. I just feel like we're going to be going over ALL of the questions that were asked on the old sight... Deja Vu all over again!

My question is this: must a hero have equipped an item to give it to another character? or can she give it to another character from her backpack?

Specifically, can a hero wearing armor that does not allow runes to be equipped give a rune to another hero?

hhh3 said:

No, they do not have to have it equipped and can give it from the backpack. As to your specific question, yes they can following the normal rules for trading items.