The Chains that Rust

By Indalecio, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

From the Mists of Bilehall rulesbook:

" The Mists of Bilehall expansion can also be combined with The Chains that Rust (an expansion to be released in 2016) to form a larger, two-act campaign.Together these expansions weave the two stories into a single, seamless narrative. Instructions for how to combine the two can be found on The Chains that Rust ."

I think it's kind of odd, as part of me now considers Mists as the first half of an incomplete campaign. Should we wait until Chains get released before starting a Mists campaign? I´m not sure here.

I´m also wondering if Chains might include the Act II version of the Mists lieutenants, or if it introduces new ones and only their Act II variant?

Interesting...

Edited by Indalecio

Pros: That's cool that there's another expansion on it's way.

Cons: Why didn't they just release a full expansion? Thanks for being subtle about milking your customers for their money.

Conclusion: If this is indeed the case, I think I'll wait until the second expansion comes out and just get both of em.

I will purchase Mists of Bilehall up front (more from a potential concern of not being able to get my hands on it later).

I will say, however, that it is somewhat disappointing to find that it appears that this is a planned two part expansion. I understand that it can be played separately, but if it truly is as described, I wouldn't want to play it that way.

FFG, I really hope that this is a one off, due to the crunch of all of the Star Wars releases and hoopla this year. I do not want to see this become the norm for this game.

Just my two cents.

I second that.

So, we can take a guess that the next expansion will not contain new heores and classes. :unsure:

The second one better have some new heroes and classes, since Mists was aimed at the OL. Balance out Healer and Mage available classes.

More money FFG, Your going to get More Money from me...

They might released the rumor cards in the second expansion...

It there online copy of the rules for Mists of Bilehall?

It there online copy of the rules for Mists of Bilehall?

Not yet.

From the Mists of Bilehall rulesbook:

" The Mists of Bilehall expansion can also be combined with The Chains that Rust (an expansion to be released in 2016) to form a larger, two-act campaign.Together these expansions weave the two stories into a single, seamless narrative. Instructions for how to combine the two can be found on The Chains that Rust ."

I think it's kind of odd, as part of me now considers Mists as the first half of an incomplete campaign. Should we wait until Chains get released before starting a Mists campaign? I´m not sure here.

I´m also wondering if Chains might include the Act II version of the Mists lieutenants, or if it introduces new ones and only their Act II variant?

Interesting...

I might have missed it if you've already posted your thoughts - but what do you think of Mists of Bilehall? The news about "The Chains That Rust" makes me happy because it looks like there will be more support for Descent in 2016. :)

No worries - found your post here .

Edited by Brute

It is difficult to say anything having not played the campaign yet. The quests are all single encounters and do look interesting. The Finale is a two encounters quest and is litterally stuffed with rules. Rewards seem nice, relics look good, new terrain rules are interesting, monsters too etc. so first impression is definitely positive.

Note the Introduction quest says everybody starts with 1 XP they can immediately spend, which is new.

The only issue I have though is the announcement of Chains as the continuation of Mists. Knowing my play group, I would probably need to wait until chains gets released to be able to play Mists. We were prepared to the fact Mists would be an act 1 campaign only, but the announcement of the act 2 makes us lose interest in playing Mists as stand alone.

I personally don't care if there are no rumor cards in Mists. I don't like rumors anyway.

Edited by Indalecio

I think the operative word here is "can" and not "must", so all should be well. You can buy Mists and not feel cheated if you don't also buy Chains. I think there's nothing wrong with linking campaigns, since the link feels optional.

I am disappointed there are no rumour cards but I am still looking forwards to using the monsters and conditions for other campaigns. The Mists of Bilehall campaign itself sounds interesting and it will be good to have a more challenging/brutal campaign to play agains and experienced party.

The second expansion/campaign half is an unknown quantity at this stage. There are a lot of possibilities, it could have four heroes and classes, more map tiles, more monsters, and overall add up to the equivalent of a single big box expansion.

In the meantime I am hoping MoB gets released soon in the UK so that I can incorporate the monsters into my SoN campaign.

I expect more Chains of Rust information will start to be released after MoB is released in the US.

It sounds like Mists of Bilehall and Chains of Rust combined equal into a Big Box Expansion. Consider that this whole mini Mists of Bilehall campaign doesn't have Rumor Cards, so the fact is you will not be able to incorporate any quests from Mists into another full campaign. But then, as Indalecio says, it will be able to be combined with Chains of Rust. It's purely speculation, but that probably means Chains of Rust is an ACT2 Mini Campaign. If that's the case there still will not be any Rumor cards available for it. It's unknown how many heroes or classes we'll receive from Chains.

Why didn't they just release a Big Box?

Maybe the disappointment over no heroes and classes prompted a second expansion for the heroes.

Bilehall isn't really a mini campaign- rather than heroes starting with several XP and gold and playing 3 set act 1s and then an act 2, the heroes start with just 1 xp, play an intro, 3 act 1s based on choice, and then an act 1 finale. I mean, yes, it's a short version of a campaign- but it's different from what so far has been labeled "mini-campaign" (lair, trollfens, and ravens.) Additionally, there are 3 monster groups (not 2 like a small box or 4 like a big box) and 3 LTs (more like a big box than a small box's single LT.)

Right, so I'm thinking Chains will really be hero based. Maybe we won't get as many monster groups, or really anything for the OL side but will get a whole bunch of heroes and classes. Then You get the second part of the whole Campaign with it. Maybe some more new shop cards. It's purely speculation of course.

Right, so I'm thinking Chains will really be hero based. Maybe we won't get as many monster groups, or really anything for the OL side but will get a whole bunch of heroes and classes. Then You get the second part of the whole Campaign with it. Maybe some more new shop cards. It's purely speculation of course.

Right so as the overlord in our group I will pretend the Mists Finale has no sequel :)

Right, so I'm thinking Chains will really be hero based. Maybe we won't get as many monster groups, or really anything for the OL side but will get a whole bunch of heroes and classes. Then You get the second part of the whole Campaign with it. Maybe some more new shop cards. It's purely speculation of course.

Right so as the overlord in our group I will pretend the Mists Finale has no sequel :)

Well if the heroes all die on it, could be an astute assumption.

Right, so I'm thinking Chains will really be hero based. Maybe we won't get as many monster groups, or really anything for the OL side but will get a whole bunch of heroes and classes. Then You get the second part of the whole Campaign with it. Maybe some more new shop cards. It's purely speculation of course.

The "problem" that I can see on this, is the fixed monster groups on the quests. If there are no new monsters, they are then "forced" to pick only base game ones (open groups aside). I usually like that the expansion quests are "thematically linked" with the new monsters.

I like the idea of connecting the content. I don't like the idea of splitting content and selling it in two parts. Just make a big box alright? But maybe we should stop judging before we can actually play MoB, and CoR.

Have you guys thought that FFG came to the conclusion that small box content is easier to sell even if it means splitting the stuff in two boxes... just saying...

It might not just be 2 boxes.

A 3 act campaign wouldn't fit in a standard large box expansion but it would fit in 3 small box expansions.

The future of descent might be mini-campaigns.

Choose any act 1 mini-campaign then choose any act 2 mini-campaign (possibly choose an act 3 mini-campaign).

I don't have a problem with some monsters only being available in certain acts, it could give a sense of progression.

I do wonder if the overlords can switch lieutenants between the two mini-campaigns.

A 3-act campaign looks a little too long in my opinion. 30+ Hours of gameplay might feel like too much of drag. It would also mean the heroes have access to all their skills in the finale.

It is extremely unlikely they will ever do a 3 act campaign as it messes up the basic design. The big things is no act3 gear and monsters. Also heroes would start to run out of stuff to spend XP on. Adding in act3 monsters would be a big deal as there are monsters added in many different expansion.