Starting the Descent: My questions about getting into the game.

By Chronos96, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

So I've been eyeing Descent 2ed for about a month or so now and I'm still not entirely sure what I'm getting into exactly. Not the actual contents of the box but I guess the flavor or how it plays. I play DnD and enjoy it a lot so it seems like it would be up my alley but for those that have the game what's been your experience with it?

  • Is it an easy game to convince regular non-board game people to play?
  • How much content is in the base game before it gets stale?

  • When buying expansions do you feel it adds more to the experience rather than convolute it?
  • Is it true that the heirs of blood campaign replaced the original campaign in the base set?
Edited by Chronos96

1. I personally have a hard time getting anyone to play it, but thats because Im young, and my family hates me, and I dont really have any friends at all. However, for the right people (and for the correct amount of time) this can be an enticing game.

2. I bought the game a little over a year ago, I havent even played through a full campaign, hell, of the groups ive played, only one made it to the interlude. But, the base game is really fun by itself. And its far easier to set up, which helps with finding players who get scared off easy.

Its fun to get to see new monsters hit the table. In any miniature combat game thats the case, really. You will be content with the base game, but eventually you will fall under the spell we all have.

3. It both adds to the experience of the game, and the set up and teardown time. I keep my game (Core, LotW, LoR, TTF, SoN, MoR) in the three big boxes, in these sort of modules. Lair of the Wyrm resides in the core box, The Trollfens resides in Labyrinth of Ruin, Manor of Ravens resides in Shadow of Nerekhall. Its actually a pretty thematic system.

But yeah, expansions really help you out, especially when players start to lose interest.

4. Yes. This happened, I want to say May, but im pretty sure thats wrong. People say its a good thing, but some folks want to play The Shadow Rune.

  • Is it an easy game to convince regular non-board game people to play?

Hmm. There are basically two ways to play Descent: cooperative with the App Roads to Legends (RTL), or competitive playing single scenarios or in a Campaign.

I personally enjoy the campaign play most, but the App has its upsides as well. The game is not that hard to learn, but a campaign is simply very long and it is bad for one side if you make errors since the game balance may suffer from that. For causal play and to learn the game, I'd recommend single scenarios or Delve (App). Everything else depends on the character and interests of your people.

  • How much content is in the base game before it gets stale?

One campaign takes about 8 months to complete if you play once per month. You can play the campaign at least three times before it gets stale.

The app adds a cooperative campaign. Another 6 months or so.

  • When buying expansions do you feel it adds more to the experience rather than convolute it?

It adds a lot to the experience. However, more stuff may be too much for new players. If you like the campaign play, add a big box after playing the original campaign 2 times or so.

  • Is it true that the heirs of blood campaign replaced the original campaign in the base set?

Yes thats true. However, you might get the old campaign if you happen to get an old box. Depends on your retailer. Shouldn't happen.

Still, you can find the old campaign online. Just google 'shadowrune campaing' or so. (Another campaign, another 2x 8 months)