I'm new to the game after some very successful shopping at this year's Essen gaming fair and now own Descent with all 5 expansions. I've already read through the rules of the core game and did some research in these forums and over at boardgamegeek. My problem is being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information.
From what I've read so far, the base game rulebook is somewhat error-strewn and complicated. I've already downloaded the Descent Merged Rulebook v1.5 and will probably continue reading that. I've also come across the excellent gaming aid from Universal Head.
Now to my questions:
1. Balancing seems to be somewhat of a problem with Descent. Would you still recommend sticking to the original rules or to use one of the many many player-developed variants? If so, which one? Or if there are several good variants, what are the pros and cons of those?
2. How should we start the game? I had planned on going through the first quests from the core game, however I've read that those might be boring. Which quests are fun? Or should we start with Road to Legend right away (and Sea of Blood sometime in the future ) ?
3. My gaming group is fairly large. Is it advisable to play Descent with more than 4 heroes? If so, which house-rulings would work best? From what I've read simply increasing the number and/or health of monsters won't really help.
I apologize in case these questions were answered before. Please point me to the right threads in that case.
theasaris