My Game group have recently started playing Descent and we are all kind of confused as to why certain campaigns have 2 encounters when there aren't any advantages or consequences for success or failure. I understand that some encounter outcomes greatly affect the following encounter but in a quest such as Rellegar's rest, why split the encounters when failing or winning the first has no outcome on the second?

I can't recall that particular Quest, but remember that damage (health), search cards, and overlord cards all carry forward from the previous encounter, as do any quest related fatigue tokens or other tokens earned by the overlord. So even if encounter 2 does not specifically state and differences based on winning/losing the first encounter, it can still have an effect.

That said, I certainly do not recall any quest where encounter 2 was not effected by encounter 1. Sometimes it is subtly, such as the OL earning fatigue tokens for objectives in encounter 1, and then spending those tokens for reinforcements in encounter 2.

It sounds like you are saying the first encounters are filler for filler's sake, which I do get that feeling sometimes. Usually the effect is subtle like Silidus mentioned.

Although, I find some first encounters (Archive of Arrizon, or the Nerekhall quest where you're chasing a guy down an alleyway, for instance), to be really fun in their own right.

i find that 2 encounter runs are easier for the overlord since the heroes start the 2nd encounter already worn out.

You can try to save as much cards as you like for the 2nd encounter and have like 10 cards hand by encounter 2 and also try to damage the heroes as much as possible near the end of the 1st encounter since health carries over.

As a hero, run! and complete the objective = less fragile for encounter 2 which is an advantage by itself

Rellegar's Rest btw lets you skip one entire turn waiting in encounter two(which is good), if you win encounter 1 as the overlord, since it lets you place 2 fatigue tokens on the library's support pillar. I actually won encounter 2 of Rellegar's Rest recently (as overlord) with one-turn difference after even winning encounter 1 which put me in advantage, meaning one more turn and the heroes would win. It meant that winning encounter 1, was gamechanging, for me at least...

3 hours ago, Jaam_ said:

My Game group have recently started playing Descent and we are all kind of confused as to why certain campaigns have 2 encounters when there aren't any advantages or consequences for success or failure. I understand that some encounter outcomes greatly affect the following encounter but in a quest such as Rellegar's rest, why split the encounters when failing or winning the first has no outcome on the second?

I don't currently have the quest in front of me, but as I recall the 2nd encounter Relegar's Rest does actually have consequences based on whether the heroes passed or failed the 1st encounter.

Either the pillars already start with fatigue damage on them, or the spawning positions of the heroes/monsters are altered, or something like that.

I'll review it when I get home.

In general though, I don't think there are any 2-encounter quests in Descent in which the outcome of the 1st encounter doesn't affect the success chances of the 2nd.

As far as I know, all 1st encounters have an impact on the second one. However, in some quests the first encounter is supercritical whereas for others it makes little difference.

But as the others said: it is the fact that the heroes are already worn out and that the OL can collect cards that makes a huge difference.