Hi everyone,

I recently got the Road to Legend expansion for Descent: Journeys in the Dark. I've played many games of Descent, but I haven't had the chance to play RTL yet. So far, I've just read through the rulebook a few times. In so doing, I've encountered a number of things that are not very clear to me. After reading the FAQ, I still have a few questions. Any help you can provide with these would be greatly appreciated.

DUNGEONS

What happens if an entire party leaves a dungeon to return to town, but DOES NOT declare that they are fleeing? Are they still considered to be exploring the dungeon? Can they only return to that dungeon, and not leave town? Can they not take the Train/Recuperate action?

If one hero character enters the portal in a dungeon, and then the other three decide to return to town, what happens? The rules make it sound like the entire party is suddenly teleported to the dungeon's next level. Is that correct? If so, does that happen as soon as the third hero going to town arrives there? Does that hero have the chance to restock in town first?

UPGRADING TRAITS

The "gold campaign" text in the rules for upgrading hero traits is confusing. The first part says that any number of black and silver power dice can be upgraded to gold power dice, but the second part says that up to a maximum of one silver die can be upgraded to a gold power die. Which statement is correct?

That's all my questions for now. I'll probably have more once I start to actually play.

Also, if anyone needs to know the specific rules I'm citing, I can post them here.

Thanks!

Venthrac said:

As long as they are not fleeing they remain in "dungeon mode." They cannot train/recuperate, they cannot go back to the Overland map. They can hide in town as long as they want but the OL is still gaining threat and will eventually cycle the deck twice, thus winning the game (that's from the FAQ in case you missed it.)

Venthrac said:

AFAIK, the game advances to the next dungeon level as soon as the last hero is finished his turn. So if the last hero to leave the board goes back to town, he can still complete his actions in town but then the next dungeon is loaded. At least one hero must go through the portal or they will stay on the same level.

Venthrac said:

The line on page 23 about only upgrading a maximum of 1 silver die in the gold campaign level is a mistake. Obviously if you're allowed to upgrade 3 dice to gold in the Silver Campaign level, it doesn't make much sense to then restrict it to one die in the Gold Campaign. I'm not sure if there's been an official answer on this, but I'd go with the bullet list on page 9.

I thought that hero's could goto town via glyph and heal if they wanted to but that costs money and a turn to do so. is that wrong?.

The Hero's in our campain are never all off in town, leaves to many spawn points open.

Also recycle the deck I thought that just removed them automatically from the dungeon, if recycled twice in the same level.

Thanks for your help!

Mordak said:

They can if they start their turn next to the glyph of transport. I think it costs 75 and is based off of Tamilir's temple rating.

Mordak said:

Yeppers, no insta-win there. It's usually only important during Legendary areas where you actually have a chance to recycle the deck twice on the last level.

I'm trying to understand this whole "conquest tokens as XP" concept. I understand that for each conquest token the Overlord earns, he gains 1xp. That's pretty simple.

I'm a bit less clear on how the heroes work. So, am I correct in assuming that when any single hero earns 1 conquest token, every hero in the party earns 1 xp? Since there are four heroes, does that count as as total of 4 conquest tokens in terms of tallying them up to see if the campaign advances to silver, gold etc? Or is it still counted as just one conquest point toward the total hero pool?

If the party earns three conquest tokens, for example because they activated a glyph in a dungeon, does that mean every hero earns three xp? And is that a total of three conquest tokens added to the hero pool, or a total of 12?

Venthrac said:

It is extremely simple and a lot of people over think it screwing up entirely.

CT is CT. CT can be earned by the OL or (collectively) by the Hero Party. THere are no multipliers, no 'individual' CT scores, or earning, for heroes. This is unchanged from vanilla descent.
CT also translates directly into XP. Each hero has XP equal to party CT, less what he has spent*. The OL has XP equal to his CT, less what he has spent (and not counting his initial 'free' purchase).

*Tamalir upgrades require each hero to spend XP, individual training upgrades are separate, thus different heroes may have differing amounts of XP left after spending it on different trainings.

Can anyone explain to me how simplified treachery works in Encounters that involve a Lieutenant? The rules for simplified treachery only seem to cover dungeons (they specifically say "at the start of a dungeon...")

Should I be using those same dungeon rules when the players meet up with a Lieutenant outdoors?

Also, some Overlord cards just don't seem to make much sense to me being used outdoors. For example, the crushing boulder trap that drops a rock onto the heroes. Are all Overlord cards considered to be legal for play in outdoor encounters, even if they don't make a lot of sense when used there?

Venthrac said:

The standard rules for lieutenant encounters already give the ability to use treachery without owning any other sets, so I'd stick with those.

Also, some Overlord cards just don't seem to make much sense to me being used outdoors. For example, the crushing boulder trap that drops a rock onto the heroes. Are all Overlord cards considered to be legal for play in outdoor encounters, even if they don't make a lot of sense when used there?

The cards are legal.There is some debate (and no official answer) about cards that refer to "the dungoen" on themselves, such as Animate Weapons and Dance of the Monkey God. For those you'll have to decide amongst yourselves. For all the rest, they're definitely legal no matter how strange playing them might seem.

Mordak said:

Yes they can, healing is an option available at the Temple while in "dungeon mode." I don't remember if helaing while in a dungeon is the same as healing from the Train/Visit action, but the point is the actions you take in town while inside a dungeon (Restock actions?) also allow for healing, so that's not a contradiction.

Mordak said:

Maybe that's it. My bad. Truthfully I've never actually had to employ the rule in my RtL games and - as far as I can tell - it was only really added to shut down the rather questionable hero tactic of waiting inside a dungeon until the OL gained enough CT to trigger the final battle, thus denying him the option of buying any more OL upgrades (since the heroes never go back outside, the overland turn sequence never resumes.) I've never had the heroes pull that on me personally, so I've never bothered tracking how many times I cycle the deck.

Yeah Hero's in our game don't hang about, am lucky to recycle the deck once per dungeon never mind per level.

Does the acquisition of treasures from chests work the same way in RTL as it does in vanilla Descent? That is, for each treasure found in a chest, does each of the four heroes draw a card?

I wasn't sure because it's possible to get 3 or even 4 treasure results when rolling the black power dice to see what the heroes find in a chest. That would mean 12-16 treasure cards in a single chest, which seems like a lot.

No. In RtL what you roll is exactly what you get (i.e. one treasure card per blank, each hero does not get a potion for every surge, and you never multiply the gold found by 4).

Okay, that makes a lot more sense to me. Though I would not mind if the rules had made it more clear. In fact, it speficially says to treat gathering treasures "as normal". For a former vanilla Descent player, "normal" is that each hero gets a card for each treasure in the chest.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Venthrac said:

RTL pg 17
Chests in Dungeons
When a hero opens a chest in a dungeon, the party rolls four black power dice and consults the chart below for each one to see what is discovered.
Chest Loot
Die Result Copper Campaign Silver Campaign Gold Campaign
Enhancement 100 coins 200 coins 300 coins
Surge 50 coins and any 1 potion 100 coins and any 1 potion 150 coins and any 1 potion
Blank 1 Copper Treasure 1 Silver Treasure 1 Gold Treasure
Coins are added to the party treasury. Potions are selected by the hero players as a group; for example, a party that discovered two potions could choose one healing and one vitality potion. Treasures are drawn from the listed treasure deck as normal .
Potions and items discovered in chests are divided among the heroes as the hero players wish. Heroes may immediately equip any items they discover in chests, as usual.

It does not say to 'treat gathering treasures as normal'. It says roll 4 dice and for each one collect the reward. It later (after being given explicit numbers) says treasures are drawn from the treasure deck as normal. That's drawing - the number to drawn is already explicitly given (1 treasure for each dice that came up blank). I'm afraid that it is rather clear as written, you've just not read it properly (as indicated by the unfortunate paraphrase - but don't fret, you are not alone).

After reading the vanilla rules over again, there's something I am not clear on. This isn't explicitly a Road to Legend question, though it certainly impacts my RtL campaign.

My question is this: can characters move through or attack through corners? Or does the cornering wall count as blocking movement and line of sight?

They can attack from a space that is diagonally adjacent to another space, even if there is a LOS and movement blocking obstacle next to the space. A diagram will be better, so here.

HH H HHHHH

H O WWWWW

HHW

HHW

HHW

The hero (represented here by the O) can attack the italic H in the top row, even though there is a wall (W) kitty-corner between the target and the attacker. Since LOS is measured from the center of a sqare to the center of the targeting square, and is only blocked if it crosses something that blocks LOS, then true diagonals are only blocked by obstacles if there is something in one of the true diagonal spaces. Otherwise the LOS passes through the boundry of the spaces at the corner, but not through the spaces themselves. Yes, this also means that in some scenarios the heroes can move behind a door without opening it if it is placed in the right way.

SamVimes said:

If you're thinking of two room tiles connected together with a door on the boundary, I would argue that intent is clearly for the door to act as a clean extension of the wall, rather than allowing figures to see and move through the point where the door and wall join. Otherwise, the next area would tend to be revealed very early, since it's revealed as soon as any hero has line-of-sight into it.

If you're thinking of something else, then nevermind.

Oh, I agree the intention is for the door to act like that, but by RAW you can be a bit of a jerk and still be within the bounds of the rules.

You can move or attack diagonally, even if it means you're "squeezing" through two obstacles. There are diagrams and examples for this in the rulebook.