hey guys, quick question for you...

When the heroes open up a new area and there is an "if the heroes have X then read X" in the overlord directions, do you read it right when you reveal the new area or does the hero that has X item have to be IN the room? I ask this because last night was my buddies first time at trying to be the overlord and I got into a screaming match with him about this.

We were playing the last quest in Well of Darkness where you get the crazy relics. We opened up the door to the area with the demon and he read the first box so one guy walked in and got a bunch of effect tokens on his guy. He then walked out and i proceded to kill the stuff with my bow relict. We used shadow soul to walk into the room and switched with him, grab the runekey and the glyph. He went to town and came out in the middle of the board. "pretty clever on our part eh?"

Then we went into the room with the dragon. 2 guys walked up to fight it and they got bolted and one guy took 666 pts of damage. The other guy had the shield relic and then he decided to read the paragraph about the shield ignoring his bolt attack. I asked to see the book which he let me look at. Now...

there is the regular grey dialog box then the conditional if paragraph that says:

If the heroes have the (insert relic here) then read the following:

Should this not have been read when we revealed the area being we started with the relics? So when we revealed the area with the demon in the room with the status tokens should he not of told us the guy with the staff of light is immune to those effects in that room? He declared being said character didn't go into the room that he didn't have to. It also says "If they have the relic read". not "if the have the relic and enter the room"

He said, "Being that the quest starts you with it why the "if" in the first place."

SCREAMING INSUED!!!

I told him the "if" is in EVERY quest in the game. It's a conditional statement that is copied and pasted and the condition is typed in. I also said being that when we revealed the new area he had to tell us about the artifacts as we had them when the area was revealed.

So here's my question with the real conditions in to clarity one more time

1. Heroes reveal new area.

2. overlord reads first dialog box.

3. directions say "if player has x relic then read the following."

4. Should the overlord read the following when we reveal the area or after a player WITH the relic walks into the room?

sorry this was so long

tage

Unless it says "read this when the hero with X enters the room" it should be read immediately. In other words: do exactly what the text says, not what you wish it said.

never played the quest but you can just the artifact on the ground and therefore they are not in posession anymore (which would make no sense in 99% of the games).

on another note you are not allowed to switch places with shadowsoul while you are in the city (if i understood you correct)

I can't immediately recall any other quests with blocks that activate "if the heroes have a relic." Don't have the quest book handy to check the context--is that right below the main area description, or is it below some section that describes the nasty effects the heroes experience for actually entering the room?

From what I recall, that looked like a rather terrible quest anyway.

The OL should not read out the grey box untill it is "triggered". Normally this happens when a new area is revealed, and sometimes (also in this case) you only read out the grey box when something additional happens.

You are talking about the Staff of Light: iirc the grey box states something like "as you move towards the streamers (the things damaging you normally) the Light starts to shine extra bright, and absorbing all damage". It also states that this should be read when "a hero carrying the Staff enters a space in this room".

The same goes for Fortuna's Dice, which has the same effect on the animated weapons floating around.

In short, i believe these aditional texts should only be read when appropriate. This also means that if the heroes clear the area with the animated weapons without carrying Fortuna's Dice, they won't hear that text.

On a side-note (this is just using common sense, thus not directly applicable to Descent....) the texts are written so that they only make good sense when read after a hero carrying such a relic actually enters the area/spaces effected.

Shmoozer said:

I agree. Assuming Shmoozer has quoted the condition correctly (and he seems to know what he's talking about) then the text should not have been read until and unless the hero carrying the staff entered the room. In other words, sorry Jerzy, but it sounds like your OL buddy was playing it correctly.

The OP, in his post presented us with the condition "if the heroes have item X, read the following" which would mean the text should be read regardless if item X is a relic they cannot (reasonably) avoid possessing. The real question here is "what does the quest book ACTUALLY say?" It sounds like Shmoozer remembers the quest details better than any of us who've posted so far (certainly better than me), so until I'm able to get at my quest book and check it myself, I'm going to side with him.

I have the quest book right in front of me right now and it say AND I QUOTE

" If one of the heroes has the Staff of Light:"

"If one of the heroes has Fortuna's Dice:"

And there is nothing there for the shield or bow.

It says nowhere in there that if one of the heroes has this and steps in the room.

The actual text in the text box is what made my buddy wait to read it. That specifically says:

"Glowing streamers of magic fill the air beyond the doorway, looking for all the world like grotesque glowing snakes hanging in the air. The energy from the streamers makes the hairs on the nape of your neck stand straight up.

the second on says

" If one of the heroes has the Staff of Light:"

As one of the streamers of energy gets too close to the Staff of Light, the Staff begins to glow and pulls the streamers into itself, seemingly devouring it.

My buddy said because of what it says he had to wait till the guy holding the Staff entered the room. I said that is not the rules though. The stuff in the grey boxes that you read to us are just story and nothing more. The rules are the bold lines tellling you what to do.

Dirty Jerzy Boy said:

You were completely correct. He should have read you the text as part of revealing the area. Waiting until the text makes sense is a good house rule for groups looking to make Descent feel more like an RPG but unless you've agreed on a house rule in advance, straightforward directions are given and should be followed.

I kind of agree with that but 2 of the guys in the party are new to the game. The first dude, our "tank" went in, got the 4 tokens on the first space he walked on and walked out. My other buddy, the dude with the staff playing Mad Karthos was like "with only 8 hit points, there is no way I am going anywhere near that room."

If it weren't for the shadow soul familiar we would never have gotten the red runekey lol.

Dirty Jerzy Boy said:

It's unfortunate that things played out that way, but it doesn't mean the game was played incorrectly. As has been said often before, there is no guarantee the heroes will emerge victorious in this game. Sometimes the OL wins and the good guys die. These are the sorts of things that happen when players are still learning the game, I'm sure you'll do better next time.