The Descent FAQ

By Kartigan13, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I love FFG. Really I do. But sometimes they do make me laugh, and the Descent FAQ has to be one of the best examples. I'm glad that I still don't have an answer to how the heck tentacles really work, but that I do know:

Q: When the Undying ability is triggered by a monster
being killed, which player rolls the power die to see if the
monster dies permanently, the Overlord or the Hero who
made the killing blow?

A: The Overlord.

My gaming group was really dying to know just who got to roll that die. I'm sure this will save of 15 minutes of debate the next time we play, lengua.gif .

Also, did anyone else notice they answered the same question twice, but with slightly different information? On page 7 of the FAQ they answer the question about spending surgespower dice on Dark Charm two times......who the heck edits these things?!? The thing is PLENTY long enough without adding the same information twice!!! What I wouldn't give for them to just hand the FAQ over to some of the more educated people on these forums and let them re-write it accurately (even if they gave everything to Kevin Wilson for approval before it became "official"). At least that would clean the stupid thing up and get a lot more pertinent information.

Lol, oh well, silly Fantasy Flight Games, I do love you but you make me crazy sometimes! *sigh* Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll make a 2nd edition of Descent and show it the same care and attention they do to their latest Terrinoth product with Runewars.

There's actually an intricate story behind the FAQ answer you quoted.

There's an "Other" item in the Tomb of Ice expansion called the Beastman Fetish, which allows you to reroll a single die once during your turn. Once upon a time, there was a thread asking whether this can be used to reroll the die used to determine whether an Undying monster revives. One person in the thread suggested that you might not be able to reroll it because the overlord makes the roll, and there could be an implicit constraint that you can't "reroll" a die that you didn't roll in the first place. In response, someone who had been letting the heroes make the roll checked the ability text and observed that it doesn't actually specify who makes the roll.

So as the latest FAQ was gearing up, I suggested the question:

"Can the Beastman Fetish be used to reroll a die that was originally rolled by another player during your turn, such as another hero using the Tunic to reduce collateral damage? If not, which player makes the roll for Undying?"

When Thundercles was editing the question list, he cut off the last part (about the Undying roll) because he didn't see how it was relevant, or something to that effect. I replied and explained to him why I included it. After my explanation, he agreed it was a reasonable question, so he added it back in...but he added it back in as a separate question, rather than as a sub-question of the Beastman Fetish, as I originally had it. And since they pertain to different expansions (Undying is a JitD ability, Beastman Fetish is a ToI item), they got sorted to completely different places in a gigantic list of questions. Thus, when FFG received them, they had no way of knowing they were intended to be related.

So now they're both in the FAQ, even though the question about Undying turns out to be irrelevant since the answer to the first part of the question was "yes."

And as for who edits these things....well sadly that would be me for the last two of them.

Don't blame me though. There is a massive list of things like that and the Dark Charm duplication that have repeatedly pointed out to FFG as being either unnecessary or able to be combined to make them easier to read and they have yet to happen.

Big Remy said:

And as for who edits these things....well sadly that would be me for the last two of them.

Don't blame me though. There is a massive list of things like that and the Dark Charm duplication that have repeatedly pointed out to FFG as being either unnecessary or able to be combined to make them easier to read and they have yet to happen.

That makes you an editorial consultant, not an editor...

Feel better. cool.gif

Corbon said:

Big Remy said:

And as for who edits these things....well sadly that would be me for the last two of them.

Don't blame me though. There is a massive list of things like that and the Dark Charm duplication that have repeatedly pointed out to FFG as being either unnecessary or able to be combined to make them easier to read and they have yet to happen.

That makes you an editorial consultant, not an editor...

Feel better. cool.gif

+1 QFT

And that story does explain that answer Antistone, lol what a crazy set of circumstances to lead to something like that.