I have been thinking of buying descent for some time now, but he price tag has kept me from making the commitment. My initial impression of the game is that it is a simplified rpg, but i havent had a chance to test it myself. Im hoping that it has a good combat system with lots of room for character development. I guess im just looking for anyone's opinion on how it plays compared to a tabletop rpg.

Descent does have some similarities to a tabletop or pen-and-paper RPG, in that the characters do develop. However, in Descent without any expansions, this character development is very compressed: Within one single session, in one dungeon (anywhere between 4-7 hours usually), the character goes from complete rookie to power house, almost exclusively by means of new items - armor, weapons, trinkets, that kind of thing - which are drawn at random when a chest is opened. Additionally, the players do not shape a new character from scratch, but rather take one of the many pre-created characters (either drawing it, or choosing it if you want to house rule that), complete with name and everything, and draw skills according to that character's skill set from the start. There is a custom character creator, but it is not incredibly well balanced, easily leading to overpowered hero parties with too many synergies.

Character persistence and longer-term character development was asked for by the community, and is added with the Road to Legend or Seas of Blood expansions - even though they also start out with the pre-created characters. With these, you get an overland map, an evil plot that the Overlord tries to complete, lieutenants the Overlord controls, both character and monster development, various cities where heroes can also learn new skills, experience points gained in much smaller dungeons. If you're looking for a simplified RPG with lovely miniatures, you'll probably want either of those - choose by the setting, they're pretty similar in terms of rules. If you like pirates and islands, take Seas of Blood, if you like a more traditional high fantasy setting, take Road to Legend.

The combat system on the other hand is very well-done. It debuted in Doom, and was refined a bit for Descent. You roll one set of dice, dependant on the hero and what weapon you have, or the monster type - the different colors of dice have different sides, leading to the weapon doing more damage or having more range on average. With one roll, you then know whether you have hit or missed, how far the attack goes, and how much damage it does.

Descent bares some resemblance to an RPG, but it's definitely a tactical game, not a storytelling game. The overlord player in Descent is not a referee, he's an opponent; he follows specific rules with limited power, and tries very hard within those rules to mercilessly crush the heroes.

Character advancement, in the base game, is compressed into one dungeon: the heroes start off with basic equipment and some randomized skills, and during the dungeon can gain access to three new tiers of (randomized) equipment, as well as buying stat upgrades and (occasionally) new skills, leading to heroes that are much more powerful at the end of the game. Then you press the reset button for the next dungeon and start over. You get rapid advancement every time, and the randomness means the heroes don't turn out the same each time, but it makes it hard to get attached to your character. There are expansions for campaign play (Road to Legend and Sea of Blood), which some people seem to really like, while others...don't.

Combat's pretty robust, with positioning, line-of-sight, resource management, and special abilities. There are also rules for spawning more monsters on the overlord's turn, which means the heroes are never "safe," and need to hurry through the dungeon to avoid being worn down by endless attacks. The overlord wins by killing enough heroes, but dead heroes aren't eliminated from the game, so everyone can keep playing, and it's a simple house rule if you want to finish out the dungeon even after the overlord "wins."

The basic engine's complex, but fairly easy to wrap your head around; it's subdivided well, and a lot of special-case rules can be ignored until they actually come up in play. The editing's pretty lousy, though, which means that the details and unusual interactions are often unclear; you'll want to read the FAQ. The rules are available online, but the online version is grossly out-of-date; the printed version of a new copy will include some errata that you'd need the FAQ to know about if you read the online version.

There are also some well-known flaws. The player scaling rules don't work, so most people always play with the maximum number of heroes, regardless of the number of players present. A lot of cards that you may draw randomly are much weaker or stronger than others. Quest difficulty also varies significantly, and not always in a "hard quests are toward the end of the book" sort of way.

I'd say Descent is less "D&D RPG" and more "Diablo Hack & Slash". At it's core it's a small scale tactical mini's game with some fantasy trappings thrown over it.

Thanks for all your input guys it's a big help. I'll probably buy this game next chance I get