Is the overlord supposed to read all of the text on the page during the final stage of a rumor, or just the portions in the AREA text boxes?

They are supposed to read the entire thing I believe.

I find that this ruins some surprises and makes for a less enjoyable game, but if you insist on playing by all the rules all the time, then yes, you must read and reveal EVERYTHING

hey there,

yet another one:

what about the "normal" dungeons, secret areas, master monsters in dungeons....

does the OL always have to read the entire text that is written on the dungeon cards or the description for rumours in the rulebook?

and what about the special abilities the OL´s LT´s have? are the heroes in favour of knowng everything abouth them or is it written in the rules that the OL can decide what he wants to read and tell the heroes?

thanks for your answers

I haven't played RtL, so I don't know about rumors..

However, I do know the rules about normal quests. The Overlord should only read the boxed texts to the players. When a monster has special abilities or different armor/wounds, then the OL has to tell only the armor and amount of wounds. The heroes will have to discover the special abilities hard-handed.

Some rules are in a grey area, because you need to tell the players something (e.g. the Spoiled Brat quest). I guess that has to be done by your own insight.

thank you, but anyones knows how to handle this at rtl?

In RtL, normal dungeon levels are set up all at once. The whole map is put on the board, fully populated with monsters and stuff. Everything is read out and then the level is played out.

A rumour level is slightly different because it contains multiple areas. So, it is played like a normal Descent JitD game. The board is completely set up, but only the start area is populated with monsters and stuff. The next area is revealed as in normal descent.

thank you very much!