As someone who is getting into Descent for the first time, I've done some looking around. While I have heard that Imperial Assault has better mechanics than Descent, I just don't like the theme. I much prefer my miniature games to be fantasy based. One of the things that interested me though are the character specific side quests. I don't see why something like that couldn't be done for Descent, right? If Descent isn't going to be supported anymore, at least they have tools to create your own quests. That's what I'd like to do, and see if anyone else had the same thoughts.

So for example I thought of one based off the fluff from Widow Tarha. So her fluff states that her husband was murdered by soldiers who thought he was an evil orc. Her sidequest could be two encounters.

The first one has her hearing a rumor that the regiment that killed her husband is on patrol nearby. It was the captain of that regiment that personally killed her husband, so she goes looking for revenge. Once the heroes arrive, they see the soldiers fighting off some of the Overlord's monsters. They decide to help out, as she doesn't want the monsters to kill the man before she can confront him. The encounter would have civilian tokens acting as soldiers. You'd have to break through a few lines of defense to get to them. The goal is to talk to the captain within a certain number of rounds. If you do, he will tell you that he's not the one who was with the regiment years ago, as that man had retired. He gives you the location. If the captain dies or you take too long, Tarha will see his face and know he's not the real one. It will take longer, but you can research who the old captain was and find where he lives. Either way you go to encounter 2.

Encounter two sees you walking into a town. There are objective tokens around the area in the houses and buildings. One of them is the old captain. The Overlords monsters are here too. They want to kill all the villagers, and if they kill the captain it's a loss for the heroes. Neither side will know which one is the captain. If the heroes won the first encounter, they can secretly look at all the tokens, so they will know where the captain is and the overlord will not. They need to reach the former captain and escort him off the map. This could be fun if the heroes won, because they can trick the overlord into sending his monsters where they know the captain isn't.

If the heroes find the captain, Tarha will first think to enact her revenge. However, she sees the feeble old man and gives him mercy instead. If the old captain is killed, then Tarha will still feel that emptiness inside. I'm not sure what the reward could be though, other than extra XP or some shop items.

What would you do for other heroes?

I would like to see something like that, and we very well may in Descent 3e (whenever that is). It could also work with the RtL app. It could even be worked into the main game via the rumor deck.

I think the main issue (in terms of theme and continuity) is that in IA, the character and class are tied together. In Descent they are separate. I know that doesn't change the back story, but I can see it making less sense with some combinations.

I like the idea. If the storyline for the personal quests focused around their personal lives and relationships rather than their talents, training and abilities then it becomes less of an issue that the class and character are separate in Descent.

One way to handle the reward is through a buff to character stats (like bonus to health, attributes, etc.) or an enhancement to the heroic feat or ability.

Maybe have the ability to use your heroic feat twice maybe?

I don't think hero specific quests would work well from a practical standpoint, since there are a) just too many heroes to create a quest for each one, and B) giving them equipment as a reward could be useless for them (depending on their chosen class).

If such a thing would be done, however, I think the quests should be based around hero classes and not the heroes themselves. It would also require a physical expansion to do this right, so it's pretty unlikely. But let's just assume for the sake of the argument that such a thing would be possible, here is how I'd do it:

The first question would be, how to integrate such a thing into a campaign. The powerlevel of the heroes already grows a lot faster than the overlords' during each act. Adding up to 4 sidequests could lead to massive balancing problems (unless these grant no XP, Gold and Threat) and they would drag the campaign on for considerable ammount. There also has to be a downside for the heroes if they fail the quests, otherwise it would be a real disadvantage for the overlord as it would always be advisable to play them.

What I would imagine is one big 1 encounter quest which the heroes can choose to play directly after the interlude (so there would be a fixed point in time in each campaign). The quest itself would present each hero with two separate winning conditions. These could either depend on their class (which would be a bit more complex) or their archetype (which would make it a bit simpler but also more generic).

I'd center the quest around the heroes having to reach a teacher and a relic before the overlord can defeat/steal the respective objectives. Each successfully saved teacher would grant each hero a special class skill that can only be unlocked through the quest (think overlord reward cards), and would be an improvement for their starting skills. If the overlord manages to defeat a teacher, the hero would suffer a similar passive, negative effect for his base class ability. On the other hand, if the hero manages to save the relic from the overlord, he would receive a class specific relic, which would be equal to a good act 1 shop item (think improved starting equipment). If the overlord however manages to capture the relic, he will receive a monster- or universal relic for use in the rest of the campaign.

This would present the heroes with interesting choices. They might try to get both rewards, but this will also increase the chance to fail both objectives. The heroes could even decide to team up to increase the chance of one hero gaining both rewards at the cost of losing the rewards for the other hero.

Here are some (unbalanced) ideas for the rewards:

- Knight: Saving the relic would yield a good shield, while the overlord would receive a defensive monster relic. Saving the teacher would earn a passive skill, which improves the range of "Oath of Honor" by one. If the teacher is defeated, "Oath of Honor" might lose the included attack action.

- Necromancer: Saving the relic would yield a trinket that improves the Health and defense of reanimates, while the overlord would receive a universal relic that could heal one monster with the cursed trait once per round for 1 damage. Saving the teacher would unlock a skill that allows to raise a second reanimate. If the teacher is defeated, the skill "Raise dead" would require 2 stamina to use.

What would be needed is a quest booklet with varying setups. As an added bonus, expansion specific classes could also use expansion specific maptiles, if each class gets it's own map variation instead of each archetype. The expansion would also contain 2 special class skills for each class (one positive, one negative) as well as one relic per class (hero/overlord version). Additional some class tokens might be needed (for example a second reanimate token, additional image tokens...)

As a bonus, these quests could be integrated into "Road to Legend" as additional sidequests, which would grant the opportunity to unlock the class specific rewards.

But now, since I'm back in the real world, I'm absolutely sure that such a thing will not happen

there are about 72 heroes in d2e

http://descent2e.wikia.com/wiki/Hero

which ones would you make quests for?

3 hours ago, ATM2100 said:

there are about 72 heroes in d2e

http://descent2e.wikia.com/wiki/Hero

which ones would you make quests for?

Slightly OT: My i suggest Heroes for the list of existing Heroes
With the lists by archetype here ( Healers , Mages , Warriors , Scouts )

Yeah, that would be a ton of new quests to add.

Plus, each quest would likely yield its own reward.

It's a good idea, but I'm not sure it's practical.

I love this idea!!

I would say 2 quest per hero, but rewards will have less value. So to make it interesting you could make the quest interactive, so the hero/group can choose from different actions (within the quest itself), that will alter the outcome: choose the right path to chase bandits, and with some attributes you can get hits on what way to go, if you choose wrong the quest will get to a dead end and therefor fails or get harder to complete (in the next quest).

Maybe make some sort of group quest: preselected group of hero's (in with you can choose classes) with each hero has its own goal.
You can go as far as: which quest first? Choose wisely because there may be a time event, for example: Chasing the bandits that killed the hero loved one, but the longer you wait or choose to do a other quest first, the harder this quest will get to complete, so if you choose to do this quest first it will be a small map, do it later, the map will be considerably larger. To keep the balance this will happen with all the goals of the hero's. But what quest will give the best rewards for other (harder) quest? So the team needs to consult with each other very carefully.
This way rewards will have more value and the quest have more variation.

There is so much you can do with this concept!! I love it!!!

Hopefully FFG will come up with some sort of game aspect in RtL, the app is perfect for these kind of addons. Would pay for them instandly

I like the idea of class based quests that could enhance class skills. Looking more into Imperial Assault, I think I like Descent's idea of class based characters as opposed to each hero having their own "class."

On 3/31/2018 at 10:18 PM, eternaldreamon said:

I like the idea of class based quests that could enhance class skills. Looking more into Imperial Assault, I think I like Descent's idea of class based characters as opposed to each hero having their own "class."

That's cool, and probably would be a lot more likely.

This is also closer to how IA works too. Each hero has a class and that class deck could get a reward. (it made more sense in my head).

Step one i think should be come up with a reward card for a class.

I.e, Treasure Hunter: Deplete this card to draw the top card of the search deck.

I am not married on that reward, but I think it is a good place to start.

Good Job Tryfal.

Maybe have a "Class Reward" skill, similar to how the Overlord gets reward cards from different quests. It would just be a unique skill that you can't buy with XP.

If you through a proper map together and come up with a card, ill try to convince my group to play it, as playtesters.

Maybe later. I actually just got my copy of Descent and have been trying to play it. Up until now it was just theory. I'll try to get through the campaign first before I even think about adding anything extra.

I agree with the sentiment, I also thought that a class deck reward card map should include features of the box it came out of, Ie, Berserker only core, treasure hunter core + LoR (Labrinth of Ruin) and such. It could probably have something to do with the class itself. Theif, for example, might need the team to steal something from either the archbishop over there or that rich mansion over yonder. (If necessary some other expansions could be used.)

I've created a thread here that talks about a google form/survey I've made to gather ideas on the subject. With the results, I'm going to use the D2e Quest Vault to create the side quests and post them in the same thread. Please check it out!

-Agnati