I've got a couple new players, and one experienced player, that I plan on gaming with tomorrow. I've been agonizing through the quest books, trying to decide what would be interesting for the experienced player, and what wouldn't totally crush the new players, and it's been some seriously slow progress. What quest would you suggest that would be a suitable middle ground? I own vanilla Descent and the Well of Darkness expansion.

Thanks in advance!

Great question. Please let us know how your session tomorrow goes.

My advice is to do the first quest in vanilla Descent. Yeah... I know, boring for the experienced person. But maybe you can spice it up somehow? Throw in a twist? Use Tretchery. Make it really hard on the experienced player (Crushing BLow him to death)

Or just make the experienced player the team leader... maybe he gets to play 2 heroes and the other players get to play 1.

Good luck

One of the very first quests that I played was the crumbling mine (or whatever it is called) where the tiles are removed each turn, putting pressure on the heroes. I think that was 'very' funny and captured the feel of the game nicely. Also, it's a fast paced quest, which I think is good for starters. You don't need to cover spawn points so heavily, since they disappear behind you. I'm fairly certain it is a WoD quest.

At first I also thought about the Haunted Mine but alas new players tend to adopt a "kill and loot everything" mindset which doesn't really fit too well with that scenario.

I took a mixture of experienced and new players through "The Spiral of Death" and that was good fun for all concerned.

I find that "The Chase" bonus secenario is excellent for teaching folks the game.

I agree with Slev about "The Chase" being a very good starter quest. If not that try one of the first two quests in the base game. Have you thought about letting the experienced player be the Overlord? If he has played he should basically know how to OL, this would give you the opportunity to teach/help the new players more closely.

Well, the "kill everything and loot all" mentality is bound to kill you in Descent. Be sure to point out that a) monsters do NOT give XP and b) grabbing every bit of loot actually decreases your chance to win.

As for the Quest, many of the basic quests are cool, like 1, or the one with the dragon but no princess. WoD 1 is great, likewise AoD 1 or 3.

Xandria said:

I had almost forgot that this isn't immediately obvious to new people. Good thing you wrote that, I had forgotten myself.

Anyways, I think The Chase does sound interesting and exciting, and like a good way to introduce the game. I mean, it's got a silly plotline, it features the players chasing down a badass Sorcerer, and features the coolest monsters in the game- excepting, of course, the Dragon. Maybe I can stick one in there somewhere? Anyways, the experienced player should help the newer guys deal with some of the more deadly enemies, and help avoid their doom and death.

Ideally, like somebody pointed out, I would like to have the experienced player be the OL, but he's not as outgoing, loud, and excitable as I am. He's more of a shy type guy, and doesn't like to be the center of attention, which is why I try to avoid making him the center of attention, or in this case, the center of a game. I think the game loses something if you have a shy Overlord. He should be cursing his enemies and making their lives living hells in any way possible, and goading the heroes into having fun while doing it.

If I lose the paper, though, I might go for The Spiral, or whatever its real name is. When I was looking through the book, it really popped out at me. It's got an interesting mechanic, and it really shows off the excitement and vibrancy in Descent. Oh, decisions, decisions.

Thanks to everybody who helped out!

The Chase also helps keep the newbies moving, rather than trying to "clear the dungeon". They need to catch the priest before it's too late.

I always swap the Ogre for the Troll and the cultist becomes a Dark Priest. This helps give a flavour of the expansions, plus some of the more fun abilities.