Descent, Doom's little sibling, gets upgrades... *next month*... upgrades... *next month again* UPGRADES! So many upgrades for the youngin', but ABSOLUTELY NONE FOR THE OLDER ONE? There's no sense in that. Here's what I see though after seeing preview after preview after preview of the game that stole the spotlight from the awesome Doom.

These previews, what I see is not new stuff for Descent (too many of that already), but the POTENTIAL to expand Doom as well. All these upgrades Descent got can be somehow used to make updates for Doom as well.

My question is, why hasn't FFG done this yet? Why don't they use the ideas they use for the spotlight thief and give the 'futuristic' versions of these upgrades for the original game Doom?

I feel your pain... but I think the trouble here is that doom is a licensed product. They can upgrade Descent as much as they want to, it's their IP.

Maybe when the videogame Doom 4 comes out... That's my hope anyway.

What if it doesn't come out? What if Doom is finished totally? That does NOT mean the Boardgame version should die too. And the Boardgame WILL die if no new expansions come out. What Doom needs are MORE EXPANSIONS. The Descent expansions, as I said, already gives a ton of possibilities (broken machinery rolling around killing everything in its path comes to mind). It's just up to FFG to THINK about it and decide that this idea is a way to save Doom. I remember an article saying Doom is one of the staff favourites. Why isn't that said staff doing anything to keep Doom alive?

I think dooms board game didnt sell well. Do we have any stats for that to see if im wrong? And i think that gears of war might replace the idea ; these are license products, so to help the marketing, thats all ; the real engine comes from descent, let us keep on enjoying with it

I prefer futuristic games, why should I suffer because I don't want to play a fantasy dungeon crawler? Besides, I got Doom and I don't want a Doom Wannabe game as well.

I enjoy both

If you ask nicely, maybe Antistone could create Monophonic Malevolence for Doom.

=P

FFG is obviously a very marketing driven company. If they thought they would make a lot of money with a Doom expansion, you can bet there would be one. Laying blame at the feet of Descent is incorrect; these games don't steal market share from each other (in my opinion). They could both co-exist easily if FFG wanted to let them.

Knuckles Eki said:

Actually it does mean the board game will die. IP law and practices here in the USA often result in situations like this. As an IP expands in other areas the IP is still owned by the original creators (most likely). I understand you can write anything into an IP contract but most of the time this is how it ends up. This most likely means that FFG has no legal right to make an expansion to DOOM the board game. I actually point to the exsistance of Descent as one of the main evidences that this is true. Clearly FFG took the game engine tweeked it a bit and put IP they owned on it. Given that art resources are one of the most expensive things in game creation the fact that FFG did this shows that they were backed into a corner. I really only see game play issues or legal issues putting FFG into this situation. Given the DOOM IP state outside of FFG I would say it is most likely legal issues. I understand the argument that they really wanted a game to compete with products produced by a certain beach living fire ball thrower and I would say that is less likely the cause of the IP switch but instead the reason they picked the IP they did for the new product.

Monophonic Malevolence

Now THAT is funny.

I expect that it's a combination of the licensing as well as the popularity. I think if Doom was a massive hit, there would be someone somewhere wanting to keep the cash cow alive. A new Doom video game could breathe life into the board game, but I doubt it. I've been combining my Descent stuff with the Doom stuff to explore new things, and it's been pretty entertaining. I also made a couple decks of cards for a totally cooperative version of Doom, which is now our preferred version to play. It may be dead, but that doesn't mean I'm done with it.

I agree with the Warp. The issue is most likely related to the fact that Doom is a licenced product, and given that is been out there with no new material for several years now, I think it's safe to say that game is not dying, but in fact is dead. That doesn't mean we in the fanbase have to take it lying down, mind you.

There's been a fair amount of fan-created material for this game, all of which looks good to me, and we can always make more if we are so inclined. Shnar is working on a campaign "expansion" which I'm really looking forward to and Warp, while I'm here, tell me more about this cooperative system. That sounds intriguing to me.

Yes, The Warp, we're especially interested in knowing if you have any MAPS ready to share. This idea is almost as exciting as Shnar's expanded campaign.

P.S. Shnar, I have no problem with some type of "Fatigue" equivilant being included. It adds a degree of flexibility. Thumbs Up on the whole Project again!!!

I'm still plugging away at Doom: And Hell Followed, the Advanced Campaign for Doom: The Boardgame. Working on the skill trees now and have it pretty much done, just need to do the visuals in the manual. The manual should be done probably in a month or two, then work on the Sector levels and Outpost missions and Hell Encounters, and final Hell Mission needs to be done (which is probably where I could use the most help).

I prefer the idea of keeping this one as close to the base game as possible, and maybe making a second expansion that adds some of the Descent tweaks (i.e. Fatigue). Adding Fatigue right away to Doom just doesn't feel right...

-shnar

Steve-O said:

I have some images and descriptions for Doom Co-op here: www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/435874

There are 2 decks I made for it on Artscow.com, and I'm compiling a set of maps for it to post on BGG (only played Co-op about 5 times so far, and uses the same 3 maps, but I am going to crank out a few more for a compilation).

I've also been working on using a lot of stuff for Descent Quest (I made several decks for it that are also on Artscow)- as I want to play Descent as a co-op too.

The combined Doom and Descent project came on from remembering one of the goofiest and most entertaining D&D modules I played as a kid (S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks). I still have it, and I'm using it as a loose blue print for making a long adventure for Descent. It will be a crashed space ship in the mountains, and so will have Invaders and guns and stuff. It also involves the Psionics system I developed for Descent, for which I created a special die (and new monsters with miniatures I picked up online). www.boardgamegeek.com/image/561210

The artwork is great. Did you do it in Photoshop? And have you uploaded the files to BGG? I'd love to use them for my custom cards I need to create in the Advanced Campaign.

Also, I've been wondering how to do print the custom cards in the advanced campaign. How well does Artscow work? Any issues to worry about?

-shnar

I have not uploaded the cards to BGG, because the files were too big, and I didn't feel like having several files of them. I did upload a template for making the cards in Photoshop, so others can make them too.

I am using Artscow for a LOT of custom game expansions (especially Pandemic, since they are the same sized cards). The interface is very easy to use. The cards are printed in China, so it takes a few weeks for them to ship with standard shipping. They have frequent specials and coupons so you can order a deck of 54 cards with shipping included for about $6 or so (that's one deck with the same back art). You can also do a deck with up to 54 different back arts, and those are a dollar or so more. I tend to order about 20 or more decks at a time when I do order them. There's another decent place called SuperiorPOD that does custom printing. You'll need to have your monitor calibrated for the printing to turn out. But otherwise it's a good place to go- even better card stock than Artscow (which is pretty good as it is).

Excellent, thanks. I'll have to grab that template when I make may cards. Thanks for the pointers

-shnar

Well to further dilute the orginial post ..has anyone else noticed that DooM & Tannhauser are a great fit theme wise.We've combined the games & play Tannhauser on the DooM boards with the DooM monsters.

OD

*That* would be interesting to see (though oddly enough, we're talking about Doom and Tannhauser on the Descent board ). I bought Tannhauser because it *looked* like a great game, but the two games I've played they've been very lackluster and the game has sat on my shelf since. I think because there is no overarching goal to the game, it's just kind of random run-n-gun.

Adding missions would be really cool. How does your merge work?

-shnar

See, Eki ? Everybody goes further with what they already have

(good jobs, everyone, although I'll keep on sticking with the original ones for now!)

I dream of a Starwars Boardgame mixed up with Doom- and Descent-Ideas. Blastershots in the bar, lightsaber-duells on the bridge of a star destroyer - but without the silly "Collectible Boxes with common and rare Minis". That would be a formidable boardgame! Trust me ;-)

I'd agree with this statement. I am always amazed at how many IPs FFGs has on the go at once. It shocks me. I just hope they don't go too thin.

Veinman said:

That would be very cool. It would be similar to a Space Hulk in the Star Wars Universe. Do it up.

Mikaeel said:

You can do all those things in the Star Wars roleplaying game, of course - but that would still be different from a Descent-type game and unfortunately (and illogically, in my opinion) the Star Wars RPG does use those randomly assorted collectible miniatures. I've had two years of great gaming with that game, though!

It's a short jump from Starwars to StarCraft. So why not use the Doom boards with the StarCraft figures to create indoor missions to work into StarCraft with the more intimate combat system Doom can bring to the table.

Now how to accommodate 6 different factions on a map.....