Me (OL) and my playing group (4 players) just started SoN recently.

This was pretty shocking experience and not in a good way.

We finished 3 Act I quests in 6 hours. And most of them needed more time to place map tiles than time for actual playthrough. F.e. heroes lost to OL in Enc. 1 of Local Politics and refused to play Enc. 2 properly and just looted three treasures.

Also most quests looks like race against the clock. Not a favorite thing of any of our playgroup members.

Does it get any better in Act II?

P.S. I have much better imressions from balance and overall feel of Shadow Rune campaign. And after all recommendations for SoN I'm a bit disappointed.

Me (OL) and my playing group (4 players) just started SoN recently.

This was pretty shocking experience and not in a good way.

We finished 3 Act I quests in 6 hours. And most of them needed more time to place map tiles than time for actual playthrough. F.e. heroes lost to OL in Enc. 1 of Local Politics and refused to play Enc. 2 properly and just looted three treasures.

Also most quests looks like race against the clock. Not a favorite thing of any of our playgroup members.

Does it get any better in Act II?

P.S. I have much better imressions from balance and overall feel of Shadow Rune campaign. And after all recommendations for SoN I'm a bit disappointed.

The balance for the Shadow Rune is notorious so you post comes as quite a surprise. I played act 1 of SoN and found the quests very good. They are certainly not race quests that have to be completed in X turns. If they are races they are races against the OL/heroes. And 3 (!) quests in 6 hours is fast, but also not surprising if you only play 1 encounter and then forfeit the second. Our group has yet to play Act 2 of SoN, but I am looking forward to them since I felt that balance and challenge was much better than the Shadow Rune.

Which quests did you play? "Local Politics" is indeed difficult (but not impossible) for the heroes unless they have a teleporting ability, and "The Rat-Thing King" is tough for the OL to win, but even those depend on hero party. Most of the other quests I found to be engaging, and close. I played SoN twice in campaign mode- both times as an OL. In one, a strong hero party won most of the quests (though the were generally close, the only quest they destroyed me in was "The Rat-Thing King". The finale was epic, came down to a brutal battle the heroes eventually won. The second time (against a different group of heroes) I won more of Act 1. We never got to finish Act 2 because of other circumstances.

In general, the influence mechanic makes SoN a lot more interesting- there is a degree of the OL trying to trick the heroes in suspecting the wrong influence effect. The story is rich, and while the maps are more complex than the shadow rune, that makes them absolutely a blast to play.

F.e. heroes lost to OL in Enc. 1 of Local Politics and refused to play Enc. 2 properly and just looted three treasures.

I realize that you may not like it as OL, but the heroes always need to consider a strategic decision as to whether or not they feel they can win a given encounter by meeting the winning conditions. If they end up deciding that it is not possible (for whatever reason), then a very valid approach to this game is for the heroes to simply perform all of the searching they can, in order to maximize the amount of gold they can get.

That gold can make a big difference to their chances of ultimately being successful in the finale. So, while it may definitely seem to the OL like they are not playing to the "spirit" of the quest in the short term, they are playing a long view strategy that is very valid.

The reason I don't like it as OL is amount of time spent for setup but very little actual playtime in comparison to Shadow Rune. Most quests feel like running around for objective without actual monster fighting. And many quests also limited in turns in one form or another.

But I actually like more even quest rewards which prevents snowball effect for winning side.

Campaign so far:

Prologue: skipped by heroes by turn 3 as they decided they couldn't kill Olliven and just did some looting.

Local politics - lost by heroes.

Prey - lost by OL, I decided to go with a bit stupid risky move and my Barghest leader was wiped out by turn 1.

Respected citizen - technically lost by OL because heroes decided to lose enc. 1 in exchange for 9 items from the shop but killed demon in enc. 2 and OL still got shapeshifter card.

We are in the final quests of our second SON campaign. 2 first-time but sophisticated overlords. Always with plot decks and 4 heroes.

In both, OL won about 80% of quests (including finale of the first campaign). We all agree that SON is very hard on the heroes. Hardly allows for any mistake - one hero goes down out of 1-turn-reach from the rest? As good as finished. Apart from 1,2 encounters, however, outcome of the adventures always felt "tight".

All 5 members of our group agree that SON quests are much more fun and better designed than SR. Even though the Overlord seems to have the upper hand in Nerekhall, whether that is for our hero-class combos, too-daring hero plays, genius OL turns or sheer luck - we loved it.

Can only hope that Labyrinth or Heirs will deliver a comparable experience.

The reason I don't like it as OL is amount of time spent for setup but very little actual playtime in comparison to Shadow Rune. Most quests feel like running around for objective without actual monster fighting. And many quests also limited in turns in one form or another.

But I actually like more even quest rewards which prevents snowball effect for winning side.

Campaign so far:

Prologue: skipped by heroes by turn 3 as they decided they couldn't kill Olliven and just did some looting.

Local politics - lost by heroes.

Prey - lost by OL, I decided to go with a bit stupid risky move and my Barghest leader was wiped out by turn 1.

Respected citizen - technically lost by OL because heroes decided to lose enc. 1 in exchange for 9 items from the shop but killed demon in enc. 2 and OL still got shapeshifter card.

I can see that you find the setup too long. But, as you get more experience the setup will go faster. I don't know how you store the game, but organizing that also makes a difference. And well, the setup for prey compared to losing it in the first turn is quite anticlimatic...

About the monster fighting, Descent is a more objective based game where killing monsters is always instrumental.

One final thing, forfeiting quests is not always wise. I have seen some remarkable comebacks from both the heroes as the OL after one side has begun stalling the game. Especially greed from the heroes often proves them to be fatal.

We all agree that SON is very hard on the heroes. Hardly allows for any mistake - one hero goes down out of 1-turn-reach from the rest? As good as finished. Apart from 1,2 encounters, however, outcome of the adventures always felt "tight".

This is exactly our problem with SoN - little room for mistake and constant stress of "tight" situations. We like our Descent a bit more relaxed.

Anyway this is just how our group feels it I guess.

I must admit to being a bit confused. You acknowledge that the encounters of SoN feel tight and tense- but you prefer the balance of Shadow Rune? When I think "balance," I think "winner could be either side right until the end" which SoN delivers very well for most quests. With a few exceptions, I didn't feel in this campaign that all I was doing was prolonging the inevitable.