me and my two brothers really enjoyed vanilla descent it was pretty fun the only real gripe they had was how long it took and how my players couldn't keep all there equipment they found if they played a diffrent quest so i read online about RtL and its campaign aspect i instantly got hyped on the idea of keeping all your equipment you find and upgrading to more powerful dice and what not so i recently bought WoD & AoD & RtL

wow was the result bad i mean there are ALOT of rules to remember and keep in effect i even printed out helpful little reference notes to speed the game up but sadly my brothers got flustered and gave up trying to play after there first dungeon

(it took quite a bit to set up everything and then explain a whole new set of rules to them and then on there turn they got to an actual dungeon to explore and i had to fiddle with the RtL book to look up the dungeon and create it but i couldn't find the pieces fast enough on account of me placing all the pieces from every expansion together)

so does anyone have any tips on making a smooth transaction from just vanilla descent to RtL and how to speed up play?

I use a card table, other then the table we are playing on to hold all the pieces and monsters. Being organized goes along way to keeping the game smooth. RTL is great, and the rules get easier with a couple of sessions.

I Organize everything by sandwich plastic baggies its tediouse to open and close all those baggies and store them in the box but its better then having nothing at all

aslo thanks for the tip about the card tables what do you use to organize the dungeon pieces?

I made a series of card board trays to keep the map pieces in, one for each type of tile (2 x2, 2 x 6, 4 x 4, etc etc). I also made trays for each monster type.

My time in setting up a dungeon went from like 5-8min down to 2-3min easily.

I used to rubberband together common tiles, but that still got tedious. Now, I've actually created special inserts for each dungeon piece from foam core board. This allows me to easily find, setup, teardown dungeons and keep things very organized. Similar thing for the monsters. Rather than bagging everything, I used eggfoam and cutout locations for ALL monsters except the Demon and Dragon (just too **** big) and got them to fit in 3 expansion boxes (WoD, AoD, ToI boxes). I set all of these up on the side (either on the counter if playing in my dining room, or the end of our massive table if playing at the office) and so it's easy to pick/choose what I need for dungeons.

(one of these days I swear I'm going to take pics and post them online)

-shnar

Some advice:

1. As the overlord you need to set up early. Unbox all the heroes things at their tables, set up the home map, etc.

2. Get some tackle trays. I got a couple of Plano 3700's www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E3C3OE and one 3630: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E3C3OE .

• I put all the player bits in one of the smaller trays (money, skills, burn tokens, etc.) that the players can hold on to.
• I put all the map building bits (traps, pits, rubble, treasure) in another
• In the deep one (the 3630) i put all the 2 - width dungeon tiles

This only leaves the larger tiles as loose, and alot easier to find quickly and set up a new dungeon. (Particularly for RTL where you need to set up 2-3 dungeons / game session)

It also makes hunting for specific tokens ALOT faster (who wants to wait a minute to find a freaking burn token when the heroes use a special skill?

3. Separate your cards (right now i'm using baggies, but I'll figure something else out soon)

The first game is the worst because you need to explain all the RTL rules, but it gets better with time.

4. I'm told that getting an extra set of dice is a big boon. Unfortunately, it looks like no-one is selling them now, but hopefully that will change at some point.

CaptainFrisk said:

I'm trying to make an updated set for SoB, but there is actually a set of printable tuck boxes on BGG that are top notch at keeping the cards in order.

zombierage said:

Well, if one of your main gripes was how long it took to play, then moving to RtL (a campaign system DESIGNED to take more than one game session to complete) might not have been your best move. Unless you are referring exclusively to how long it takes to set stuff up, but even then there's no denying RtL takes longer than vanilla. I particularly dislike outdoor encounters because you can't just use any L-joint while setting up a particular map, you have to use the one with the water in the corner.

As far as organizing bits, it sounds like other posters have already given a lot of good suggestions. Keeping things organized is definitely a must with this game and it will help speed up play. If you're able to leave the game set up between play sessions, I would also recommend drawing a dungeon card and setting up that map (tiles only - no bits) at the end of one session, to be used as the first level of the next dungeon the heroes enter. Try to use tiles from the base game as much as possible in case the heroes get an outdoor encounter before the dungeon. In our games, the heroes didn't have very many so they didn't cause a problem, but we may have just been lucky.

Much like you, I was excited for Road to Legend mainly because of the idea of keeping hero progress throughout the game, and it served that purpose well. Having had my fun with RtL, though, I think the next time I play we're going to go back to vanilla for a bit. I suspect things will go much faster now that we've learned how to move at RtL speeds

PS: This is a nitpick, and I apologize for being anal, but "transaction" generally refers to an exchange between two people (like buying something). I believe "transition" is the word you were looking for, moving from one game to another. =)

I like the Plano 1364 case - you can sort out the little bits really well. I use a pair, one with the monsters in the top compartment and one with the map pieces. I also, with the consent of the players, drew a few dungeons ahead of time and bagged up all of those pieces so when we get to a new dungeon or level I can randomly grab a bag and away we go.

http://www.amazon.com/Plano-1364-StowAways-Graphite-Sandstone/dp/B000HE9U46/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_img_b

Hope it helps.

@CaptainFrisk

you had some great ideas im going to definitely buy that tackle box and organize things in there it seem so much more easy to find things and i wish i could find a set of extra dice but ive yet to find a seller :/ also my cards are organize at the moment there just in plastic sandwich baggies haha

@Steve-O

i was referring how long each quest took in RtL there broken up in sections so i can stop play and pick up where we last left off i know the whole campaign is gonna take 100+hours or so but its fine as long as we can play when we want

ps. im sorry for the incorrect spelling of "transition" it was pretty late when i posted it :/

thanks everyone for some great tips hopefully i can cut prep time and get to playing