I'm looking at getting the game but I'm not really sure. Why should I buy the game? I really want it so please convince me!

You should start by telling us what you are looking for in a dungeon crawler. Then we can tell you if Descent will satisfy you. It's probably not going to match up perfectly with anyone's list of demands... it didn't meet all of mine but I bought it anyway and never regretted it. It's also fairly easy to mold into the game you want it to be, if it's not already.

Have you ever played Hero's Quest or Warhammer Quest? If so, I describe this game as a hybrid between those games. It has constructable dungeons like Warhammer Quest, yet the quests are pre-defined like Hero Quest.

-Do you want to play the game solo, or do you want to play the game in a group? It was intended to be played with 5 people(one overlord and four heroes). Yet, I actually play the game solo (see below)
-Do you want a game with tons of support/expansions. The support for this game blows Hero Quest and Warhammer Quest out of the water!
-Do you have plenty of storage space for the game and its expansions?
-Do you have a big enough play area?
-Are you flexible with rules or a stiggler for the rules? You can play the game the traditional RPG way (see below) or the competitive tactical miniatures way(rules all the way) like most gamers here. Stigglers cannot enjoy a "flawed" game and only want to play it cut-throat with a group of people. Nothing wrong with either way, but I am one of the few you will find who says this is a great solo game.

The main difference between this game and Hero Quest/Warhamme Quest is that you don't keep experience between dungeons. Road to Legend and Sea of Blood allow you to do this. There are campaign rules mentioned in the core rules but they seemed tacked on and unbalanced so you might as well skip them. The campaign expansions seem like they will make it more of an RPG experience. These also make it like Warhamme Quest in that the dungeons are somewhat random (pre-defined levels, but drawn from a deck of cards).

At first I thought this game was weak compared to Warhammer Quest, but definitely better than Hero Quest. Now I am starting to see how this game will likely usurp Warhammer Quest as my alltime fave boardgame. I think the combat and gameplay is much deeper. And now Road to Legend and Sea of Blood are filling in the dungeon creation and RPG gap!

My solo variant...

Personally, I only play this game solo and love it. This allows me to leave the game setup, and to play the game in shorter sessions without Road to Legend. I don't use any of the solo rules posted here or on BGG. Instead I play it like an RPG and to give the Heroe's a chance I start the Overord with 4 threat(by the rules), no cards(rules say 3). He draws 2(like rules) cards and gets threat that way. He does not gain 4 threat each round like the rules say. This makes the game much faster and more manageageable for one player playing 5 roles (Overlord and 4 heroes). I still try to and succeed killing heroes with the handicapped threat pool. A few other changes I make are that heroes do not spend MP to throw potions to adjacent figures or trade items. When they go to town they can toss items back and forth all they want. They heal all wounds and fatigue while in town (like a computer RPG). All other rules I keep the same. While the heroes are in town the Overlord gets an extra round to spawn creatures and aquire threat by discarding cards etc. I'll keep tweaking this to make it fun.

Frog, just so you know, the rules actually have the OL starting with 0 threat and 3 cards.

Veinman said:

Ok. I had him start with zero cards and 4 threat, and then had him drawing 2 cards each round but not collecting 4 threat for the heroes. I'll tweak that.

Well, I'm not really sure what I want out of the game. But I love painting, I'm flexible with rules, have storage space, love expansions and collection/modelling ect. It just looks really cool but I don't know much about the game. I guess what I would want is not something too complex with plenty of action.

Why don't you go to your FLGS and see if anyone is willing to play a game with you? A lot will do so, especially to sell $100+ worth of games. This will give you a feel of the game, if you like it enough to start buying all the expansions, etc. When I introduce new players, most like the concept and theme, but have issues over some of the rules, since they feel play by the RAW breaks the "feel" of the game. Others have no problem playing RAW, but to each his own

-shnar

Descent is not simple, but while it has a lot of rules, they're grouped in a nice hierarchy that I find makes them easier to remember than in many games, and also pretty easy to look up only the rules you need right now so you don't need to learn everything at once. You can explain the core rules to a new player in less time than it takes to set up the game. On the other hand, the rules editing is notoriously bad, resulting in many confusing passages and many pages of errata and clarification--which, frustratingly, results in the rules scattered about many documents, rather than a single unified source. There's a downloadable PDF of the rulebook, but it's actually older than all printed versions (as far as I can tell) and has never been updated as various fixes and clarifications were made.

But, hey, there's a downloadable PDF of the rulebook, so you could take a look at that if you want more details on how the game works.

In terms of gameplay, there's some clever core mechanics. The overlord gains more resources as time goes on, so the heroes are always under time pressure, even if there's no monsters currently on the board. The heroes accumulate "conquest tokens" as they go through the dungeon, and lose them when a hero dies (losing more for the harder-to-kill heroes), but heroes revive, so players never get knocked out of the game early, and the heroes are at risk of losing most of the time if they're not careful. Heroes have several things they can do on their turns, and an expendable resource called "fatigue" that can be spent for bonus movement or attack power, leaving room for some fairly clever tactics. Attacks use special dice to determine damage, range, and "power surges," which can be used for different bonus effects depending on the weapon you're using.

The game is designed to scale to different numbers of players, but there are a couple of tragic flaws that prevent the scaling from actually working, so most people always play with the same number of heroes, regardless of how many players are at the table.

Descent is very deadly. It's not uncommon for a hero to go from full health to dead in a single round, and it's even more common for a monster to go from full health to dead in a single attack . I don't know whether you'd consider that good or bad.

Speaking of many rule books to flip through, someone has made a combined rulebook that is *very* handy:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/46083

Download and print it up if you do buy Descent and any of its expansions.

-shnar

I guess to try and make one post in here to maybe "sell" you...

The reason I got it - and why my gaming group loves the game - is we all enjoy Dungeons and Dragons and other RPG's - this allows us to have a good dungeon crawl without the time commitment of a DnD campaign. A few of the guys also played Hero Quest - I never have - but they love that this game is similar in theme. It is a really enjoyable game - it is complex and the first time you play will take like 5-6 hours... but once you are through that - games roll along and are a ton of fun.

I also enjoy the difference of the Dungeon Master in DnD vs. Overlord in Descent. In DnD the DM is really there to guide the players through the campaign and storyline. BUT - with Descent - it's heroes pitted against the Overlord - and the Overlord - which in charge of running the dungeon - but is also trying with all his might to kill the heroes and thwart their efforts.

A great game... setting aside all the rule quirks that are still waiting to be given answers too - it is still remarkably fun.