I really want to buy this game, but I have questions.
1. What kind of material are the minis made of? Are they a hard plastic,or a bendy type more forgiving plastic?
2. How many dungeons tiles are included? Do the minis and board pieces work well with DnD?
1. The models are more flexable. More often then now, you'll have the weapons that are sticking out bent to an odd angle. It's not hard to bend it back into place.
2. According to the book, the basic package has 61 map pieces, and they are the same 1" sq. tiles that are used in D&D. The big problem is that they do not lend themselves to a large open area, so you'll have to do some work if you're doing any outdoor encounters.
True.. some of the weapons get bend a lot, And the larger "bases" of some of the creatures warp quite a bit.
If you are thinking about painting the models from the Descent box, you can, they will hold the paint just fine, and the monsters are actually pretty nice.
However, I was disappointed with the heroes which I find too small, and hard to paint as the detail on them is poor for them to be fun to paint. But that just gives me a reason to find some nice replacements
Heh, yeah. About any of the current minis out there work just fine with descent... the proportions are just a little off, but they fit on the board just fine. For our advanced campaigns, we've used figures from Warhammer, Reaper and D&D.
Just, as always, make sure to clean the plastic figures completely before you start painting... there's a really good article on how to paint the new Lt. figures that works great for the plastic ones as well.
Here's an article about painting the pewter figures:
www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp
and one about painting the PVC ones:
www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp
That second article includes advice on straightening bent figures:
If you need to straighten a bent figure, you can do so by holding it under hot tap water until the plastic becomes soft. Bend the figure into the correct position, then hold it under cold water, keeping it in the correct position until the plastic re-hardens.
I recommend that you spray prime the plastics. It gives you a much more solid base to paint upon, and I am sure the paint will stick much better.