It's Christmas time, and I am thinking of getting my friend another Descent supplement. He has, so far:

* Descent: Journeys In The Dark

* Descent: Well of Darkness

What would be the recommended order in which YOU'D buy more supplements?

Note: We prefer non-campaign play, because we can't be assured of all players every week (or, frankly, we'd be playing a campaign RPG).

Thanks in advance for you advice and reasons why!

I personally would buy Altar of Despair because I:

A) Love some the heroes that come with that set.

B) Love some of the monsters that come with that set.

However, depending on your groups feeling concerning OL vs Hero power, ToI introduces Feats that help the heroes so you might want to go that way.

I would actually get Sea of Blood, but your friend might not like the length of Advance Campaigns.

If not SoB, then I'd go for Tomb of Ice. It's got some of the most creative things I've seen in Descent, from Heroes to Dungeons to Monsters (and that stomach). A really good addition, IMHO

-shnar

I think I'd have to go for ToI over AoD, as well (in fact, that's the order I actually did purchase them in), but either is certainly a defensible choice.

I'd probably go with altar of Despair first, but as I tend to Overlord a lot, the Dark Priests have a strong hold on my soul.

You can check out the heroes, monsters, overlord cards, and treasures for each set at descentinthedark.com, if that helps.

So far, so good, in that I have some notion of what to get next. But what about the whole line? I'm mainly trying to figure out what order to eventually get ALL of it, based on the opinions of folks who've played all of the expansions.

Also, the fact that we don't play Campaign does not means that we wouldn't love having the other tools of Campaign-oriented sets, assuming they are worthwhile in one-off play. So the Sea of Blood expansion sounds really sweet, if only because it introduces ship-to-ship play and (I think?) outdoor terrain. We might eventually play a Campaign, but I know it would be fun to play some one-offs with sea adventures.

So I guess that's my "redirect," follow-up question:

What order would you buy all of the remaining expansion, to be able to use the most interesting elements in one-off play, though maybe also in eventual Campaign play?

Thanks again, y'all!

David

David Artman said:

As far as I know, RTL and SoB really are just for the Advanced Campaign. Adjusting components etc from them for one-off play would require house rules and a reworking of things (and I know some folks have already been brainstorming on this) and I don't know if that type of thing would be considered "worthwhile" for your group given that it sounds like you don't want to devote the time/resources for the advanced campaign (I think adapting them for one-off would take time, work and effort).

I would pickup AoD then TOI (maybe revervesed to get Feats... the WoD and AoD can be tough), then the quest compendium, then SoB and then RTL if you want to get into campaign mode. Who knows, maybe Kevin Wilson will streamline his idea for the Delve that he was tossing around earlier (basically just use RTL dungeons one after another and slowly upgrade characters/monsters as you go). I suspect that is would work for SoB but it's hard to tell given that he's not really given us much on his concept of the rules for it in the first place.

Personally, I have all but the Quest Compendium and SoB and haven't even gotten through all the WoD quests and only one and a half RTL campaings so far. There are MANY hours of dungeon exploration to go through without even introducing the advanced campaign into the mix.

Best of luck!

Jeff

Yeah, I don't see much point in getting anything other than AoD and ToI until you want to do an extended campaign (given you already have WoD); RtL and SoB are both really built around the campaign, and while you could theoretically use the components for homebrew projects...that requires having homebrew projects in which you want to use the components, in which case no one can tell you which boxes you need, since it's your project. I'm pretty sure there are no rules for just fighting a one-off ship battle or incorporating ship battles into standard quests, for example.

And the quest compendium apparently has some significant problems with it, not to mention the fact that it will probably take you a very long time to finish all the quests from JitD, WoD, AoD, and ToI (30 quests total, I believe), plus various official and unofficial quests that can be downloaded for free. And even if you decide to get it, you should get AoD/ToI first, since a lot of the compendium quests use expansions.

So I'd buy ToI & AoD, then stop and re-evaluate your needs.

David Artman said:

I would say:

1) AoD

2) ToI

3) RtL

4) SoB

3 and 4 could be swapped if you really want the sea battles thing. The reason I suggest AoD first is mostly because it was released first. Each expansion is stand alone, so if your intent is to get everything anyway then that's as good a rule as any. I'd suggest AoD and ToI before either of the advanced campaigns simply because you expressed a greater interest in non-campaign play.

As far as using components from RtL or SoB for a non-campaign game, I think that's more effort than it's worth, frankly. Everything in those expansions was designed to be used in a longer campaign. Yes, Kevin has published his own unofficial "dungeon delve" rules to use RtL dungeon cards in a one-off variant game, but frankly I see little benefit to doing that over just playing a non-campaign quest from one of the other expansions. Maybe if you've already done everything else and just want new dungeons it would be worth you time, but not otherwise. That method also ends up ignoring a lot of the materials that come with the expansion, too. No LTs, no overworld, no tavern or encounter cards... Using the delve with SoB would probably end up ignoring even more stuff, although I can't say for sure since I don't have that one yet.

OK, so Altar or Tomb, this gift, thengot it! Probably Tomb, for the new die type.

Thanks, all!

im pretty sure Chronologically is the best way to go

Steve-O said:

I agree! This is the order I would do it in too. I think AoD and ToI are key to really fill out the game and for the added quests.

Were the rules for "The Delve" ever actually printed? I thought about this last week but didn't remember seeing anything posted anywhere.