I have always loved these types of games. Warhammer Quest and Hero Quest are very fond memories for me...and I still play HQ with my 10 year and 9 year old.

Any case I have watched Descent on the sidelines....until recently. I dove in...headfrist and with both feet.

Bought the core set, Heirs of Blood, Shadow of Nerekhall, and Deepenhall.

The only thing that eludes me is the campaign system and by that I mean:

1. What are Rumor Cards and where do I find the rules?

2. Plot cards? Same thing as Q1

3. Advanced Quest cards?

I ask because I am playing solo to learn the rules until i can convince my club to play a quest or two (we are in the middle of Imperial assault and plan on something after that). So as I am going through this I played First blood, then did the travel part. The first card I drew was the Deepenhall quest. Is that right? Is that how it works?

I don't know. Any case...help a brother out.

HA!

Rumor cards and Advanced Quest cards come in small box expansions such as Lair of the Wyrm, The Tollfens, and Manor of Ravens.

Plot cards come with every Lieutenant Pack.

Go to the top thread in this forum titled Index of Useful Links. This provides some really good information for the game. Included in this is a section called Community Tools & Game Aids. Under there you can find a link to Descent 2nd Edition Expansion Info which will tell you everything you could want to know about any of the expansions.

In addition, within the same thread, under the Game Rules section, you can click on one of the small box expansions I mentioned about, and you will find rules for Rumor cards. Further, if you click on the Lieutenant Pack link, you will find rules for plot cards.

As for your other question, if you played First Blood, then you are attempting to play a campaign from the base game. The quest you play next, after First Blood, depends on who wins First Blood.

Re-read the base game rules, pages 19-21. They tell you how to play a campaign.

I have no idea what you are referring to when you mention Deepenhall. You never draw a card to determine what quest you are playing next.

But you are correct that once you determine the next quest, there is a travel step.

Thanks.

I am a noodge. I spent a few weeks reading and such....even the Index you mentioned.... and never saw the rules for Lieutenant Cards.

gawd. Sometimes you just have to open your eyes eh?

No worries. This forum is filled with great people that are happy to lend a helping hand. We all had to start somewhere. Welcome to the game. Enjoy !

1. The rules for rumor cards are explained in the mini-campaign manuals like Lair of the Wyrm or Trollfens.

(Now that I think about it, it does seem kind of weird that those rules don't come with the H&M packs, though, having only the rumors from 1 pack isn't very useful)

Basically, at the start of the campaign, before the first quest, you draw 3 rumor cards. Rumor cards can either be quests, or special 'events' that target the travel or shopping step among other things.

When to play these will be described on the card itself. Some cards might tell you to discard them and draw a new one when you've played a rumor quest from the same expansion, but normally you don't draw other rumor cards at any point.

Since you have bought only Guardians of Deephall, you only have 1 card (1 rumor quest) to draw (since you put aside the second one, which is the advanced rumor quest, you only play that in act 2) so I would just advise you to play without rumor cards until you have more. (Unless you really want to play the Deephall quest, but the element of surprise that the rumor cards offer isn't there, since you only have 1 'secret' card.)

2. Plot cards work very similar to hero skills, but for the overlord. You choose 1 'class' and recieve the first skill of that class for free. Then you buy more of them with threat tokens (instead of XP) you can gain during the game.

The plot deck rules are included with any of the Lieutenant packs, but as you haven't bought any of those, feel free to ignore any reference to it until you have bought one It's not part of the base game.

3. Advanced quest cards I have already mentioned in point 1. In the Guardians of Deephall pack you should have received 2 cards. One with a brown border, which is the rumor quest card (Guardians of Deephall), and one with a red border, which is the advanced quest (The Curse of Iona).

If you put the rumor quest card in play during act 1, the heroes have a chance to attempt the quest before the Interlude. When you play that quest, the rewards will mention putting the advanced quest card in play, which can be played in act 2. Some rumor quest cards will also mention on the card what to do in case the heroes did not attempt the quest before the interlude, which often includes putting the advanced quest card in play anyway, and might include some reward for the overlord.

Hey there and welcome to Descent. First of all I am wondering if you are referring to the Guardians of Deephall Hero and Monster Pack when you refer to "Deepenhall".

Anyway, some people already answered your question, but I would like to emphasize a bit regarding the Rumor Card and plot deck system.

Now in the base game, The Shadow Rune, the OL is only provided with the Overlord Cards as a way to interact with the heroes. But as the game expanded, the Rumor and Plot Deck System was added in to give the Overlord some additional ways to interact with the heroes.

You may have noticed that there are some small box expansions for the game. Lair of the Wyrm, Trollfens, Manor of Ravens are those expansions. These are not actually full campaigns, unlike The Shadow Rune or Nerkenhall for example, though they can be played as separate mini campaigns. These expansions introduce the Rumor Cards and are where you can find the primary rules on how to play them. You also get more heroes and classes, some new map tiles and tokens, new conditions and access to the Secret Room mechanic.

When you begin a campaign, you take all the Rumor Cards that you own, shuffle them and draw three. This is the OL's Rumor Deck. He can then play a Rumor Card once per Campaign phase and only during the specific campaign phase that it says on the card. Rumor cards can do different things and some of them are quests. Specifically a good strategy for the OL is to play a Quest Rumor Card if he wins the last quest as he then can force the heroes to attempt it. There are icons on the Quest card as well that indicate how the heroes travel during the travel phase. When the quest is over, you then find the specific Advanced Quest card. This quest is an ACTII quest and can only be attempted during the ACTII phase. It's a reminder that it can be played in addition to the main quests of your current campaign. If an Overlord plays a Rumor Quest card and the heroes decide not to go on the quest, it stays active until the Interlude. Once the interlude is over the quest cannot be attempted. Same for Advanced Quests. One the Finale is completed, then the Advanced Quest can't be attempted.

When the Overlord plays a Rumor Card, he also generates a Threat Token for himself. What are threat tokens? That gets us into the Plot Deck system.

Plot Decks are cards that are separate from Overlord cards. You can only play one specific type of Plot deck during any campaign. Where do you find Plot Decks? In Lieutenant Packs.

Lieutenant packs consist of a plastic figurine ( in some cases two) of the lieutenant that you can play in the game instead of the tokens that represent them. They also contain threat tokens, a Plot Deck, and the Rules on how to play Plot Decks and threat tokens. Each card in a Plot deck requires threat tokens to purchase the card for use and then threat tokens to actually use them in a quest. You gain threat tokens as the OL by playing Rumor Cards as mentioned above, knocking out heroes, or spending experience points. Each plot Deck also has an Agent card, which basically allows you to substitute a lieutenant for some monsters in any given quest should you so choose. When you do this, you use the Plot Deck's Agent card- you might notice there are some subtle differences between a lieutenant's Agent card and actual Lieutenant card. For example, in the current quest I am doing, the quest says both Splig and Ariad are on the map. However I spent some threat tokens to substitute a monster group for the Valyndra Agent.

I hope this explanation helped.

When the Overlord plays a Rumor Card, he also generates a Threat Token for himself.

Only when that rumor card features a quest

Hello, as we are speaking of beginners and above all OL beginner..

I will give an advice based only on my experience and my point of view (even if I'm not the only one to have such a view..)

When you begin a campaign, you take all the Rumor Cards that you own, shuffle them and draw three.

that's the theory.. in practice I use all Rumor Cards except the Quest Rumor Cards of Lair of the Wyrm (3 cards) and to a less extend those of Trollfens (3 cards also) !

Indeed the way Rumors have been done at the beginning where rather in favor of heros, Since the Manor of Ravens and the first H&M packs the system for Quest Rumors has changed.

But the worst is if the heroes win the first Rumor of Lair of the Wyrm .. the relics grated to them as victory rewards are really overpowered !

It doesn't mean that they are doomed to win from then on... but the chances for them to win will be a lot more highter than the average !

But Bio9, when you will have the Lair of the Wyrm, if you are not afraid to be flatly beaten buy your sons you can give it a try !! ;-)

I will finish as I started.. It's only my point of view based on my experience...

Anyway

Good game !

Alot of people do not like Lair of the Wyrm. I'm not among them. Typically though, Rumor Quests are OL favored. They are intended to be so that the OL can gain more powerful Relics and OL cards. Even so, with risk should come reward. Should the heroes win, I see no problem with them coming away with something good. They earned it.

I also really like Lair of the Wyrm. The champion and the geomancer are two very interesting classes, and hybrid sentinels and fire imps are both really interesting monsters (healing from lava is a cool effect.) While rumors do seem to grant powerful rewards to both sides, as well as give the heroes additional opportunity to search gold, the more recent rumors (hero and monster packs) correct this by actually providing fewer search tokens. In general, I find that the rumor mechanic adds a welcome "side quest" option to campaigns if it is desired.

this topic has already been largely discussed and it's not the place to start it again ! ;-)

But specificaly for this expansion the relics for OL are not this powerfull compared to the heroes ones !

And since the OL can only use one relic per lieutenant and only if there is a Lieutenant on the map, I think, if the OL must try to have a relic there are better ones.... I'm not against a reward..

But the heroes have already the gold and if they win the relic the OL finishes with nothing.. or some threat tokens if playing with Intrigue Packs !!

Nonetheless my main problem is that any of the relics (always for LoW) are equivalent or better than acte II objects !?!! and the Rumor Quest can be at the beginning of Acte I ! they are not something good, they are something very very very good !!

I also really like Lair of the Wyrm. The champion and the geomancer are two very interesting classes, and hybrid sentinels and fire imps are both really interesting monsters (healing from lava is a cool effect.) While rumors do seem to grant powerful rewards to both sides, as well as give the heroes additional opportunity to search gold, the more recent rumors (hero and monster packs) correct this by actually providing fewer search tokens. In general, I find that the rumor mechanic adds a welcome "side quest" option to campaigns if it is desired.

I also like what the Lair of the Wyrm has brought... I just have a problem with the rewards on the Acte I Quests when played as Rumors, not against Rumors!

I keep playing with rumors.. just not the quest ones from LotW ! :-)