I only have the original Descent box and was wondering whether you could play a campaign were you keep items without it becoming pitifully easy

One where you keep items would be too easy, as you'd be starting quests with the insanely powerful gold gear. There are campaign rules in the base set that you can use, but if you want more than that you'll need Sea of Blood or road to Legend.

Neon said:

That depends on what you mean by "campaign." There are rules for a "basic campaign" included with the base game, where each quest the heroes beat allows them more and more gold/skills to buy at the start of the next, but it's still not the same as keeping what you found the first time into the next dungeon.

Unfortunately, keeping what you find isn't really an option since each quest gives access to gold items near the end. Gold items tend to be ridiculously powerful compared to the monsters' stats in the base game and are only really balanced by the fact that the heroes don't have access to them for long. To play a proper campaign you'd really need to get Road to Legend or the upcoming Sea of Blood. Either that or be prepared to write a LOT of house rules.

Deleted; never mind...