Some questions came up in the PBF. Would be great if you could have a look.

On 12/2/2018 at 3:49 PM, rugal said:

Sorry Guys, it tooks me longer than I think, but here it is, my custom expansion for Descent Second Edition.

I hope you will enjoy it.

It includes 2 new heroes, 2 new hero classes (Druid and Arcanist), 1 lieutenant (who can evolve), 2 monsters, 1 Overlord class, 1 Search Deck II, 4 New relics, 6 new rumors quests with cards, and 21 pages rules and 6 Quests (!)

If you find any typo or wish to contact me for anything, please do

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m7ty59ttbvvjw5k/AAAUkOtjE_ZceWy01EVZwwsLa?dl=0

I found a typo on shapeshift 2ond from bottom line "an" instead of "a"

On 4/17/2019 at 1:49 PM, rugal said:

You should see the rules section with the Quests inside.

Do you ?

Now I do, just being dumb. I was looking for folder marked "Quests" or something like that.

Hello
I wanted to include several of your relics as a part of my Items Expansion. I will put your nickname in the credits.
If you agree, then I would need PDF files of your items.
Thanks in advance.

If you have a 3d printer (or know someone who does) and back at the "with strech goals level" I've found a Kickstarter with a Baba Yaga and Baba Yaga's hut in it's stretch goals

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aetherstudios/aether-studios-swamp-of-sorrows

Not sure if would work on gameboard (I've not checked the sizes as not got much time right now) but could be cool to have on the table to bring it to life, certainly considering for my ever-growing minis collection!

the house ? maybe not. But the other files looks like great and since it's 3d print, you can choose the correct size for the game

On 5/18/2019 at 12:24 AM, rugal said:

the house ? maybe not. But the other files looks like great and since it's 3d print, you can choose the correct size for the game

I was wondering if there was something clever you could do with the hut where it walks round the board but has its tile to the side of the board so the hut can be entered/exited- I'll let you think about that as you work on Dark Forest

please tell me you ideas

21 minutes ago, rugal said:

please tell me you ideas

Inspired by Baba Yaga the character and the hut, relating it to the ideas of your adventure and any improvements that emerge from the playtests and feedback, the way I'd try to use it:

Ideas Resources:-

Baba Yaga info from folklore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga

The 3d mini for the hut and Baba Yaga here as inspiration/ player game kit options as previously mentioned (you have to scroll down, it's about fourth and sixth in the stretch goals):

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aetherstudios/aether-studios-swamp-of-sorrows

The hut on two legs : Also gives some possibility to fix some gameplay issues that may arise including as a potential means of exploring ways of resolving Sadgit's points here

On 4/10/2019 at 4:46 PM, Sadgit said:

A couple of questions on quest 1:

1. When the hut kills a hero, the OL places the hero token in the closest space. To do this the OL needs to count spaces. I assume that he cannot count spaces through the black borders of the hut? Can he place the token on the hut?

2. Another problem is that the OL can place the hut in a way that a black border completely blocks access to 1 of the 2 neighboring tiles. Heroes on the other side cannot access the hut. Is that intended? It would mean that to successfully enter the hut, heroes must be on both neighboring tiles at the start of the OL turn. At least 1 hero on the side that is not blocked off must survive the OL turn to have any chance of winning. It this intended, especially e.g. in games with two or three heroes?

1 - No, he cannot place it on the hut. I should change the wording maybe ?

2 - Yes, but at least 1 border can be left. Playing descent in 2 heroes is unbalanced in the first place

Also on these points as you'd both discussed them I actually like the idea of splitting up the players- it just needs figuring out how to make it work should they get split up, one way they split could be different heroes being inside/outside hut, especially if hut is walking at the time, different heroes could even be in and under the hut at the same point in the game if walking under the hut is an option.

Possibly the hut has two or even three 'statuses' - walking (raised up on legs and on the move) or sitting (at rest and at ground level) or (third option) standing (raised up on legs but not on the move)- if walking or standing then it can be freely passed under by other characters (is not blocking apart from its rather chickenlike footprint), if sitting it is blocking route although can be entered/exited - maybe if standing it needs a skill check to enter, walking a harder skill check, some really nice potential for using this walking/sitting idea (a fun 'lose' condition could be getting fatally squished by the hut if underneath it when it sits down- though there's a survival mode too- "luckily the soft mud and hollow ground below allows you to avoid being crushed to death under the sitting hut....")

Of course the really awesome thing is the hut can be both a monster and a varying bit of the terrain (something that can walk over you or that you can walk under as well as a building you can enter) - this has lots of possibility to play with The fact it utilises a moving game tile is also a great twist on the 'moving room' element in a game. Thus part of the game design/development could be a monster card for Baba Yaga's Hut itself - this could also be a way of giving the hero players more strategy choices (asking as game designer how could these work versus what the overlord is doing), for example enter the hut to steal* the cauldron from inside or destroying the hut to bring it crashing down, then stealing* it (* also known as repurposing it or liberating it because the heroes are good right?!), I'm approaching my game designs by thinking what characters might do and how other characters might respond based on the elements in the game.

Perhaps there are dynamics to the strategy and benefits/disadvantages to the various characters in the game (on both sides heroes and overlord) of being inside/outside/away from/underneath the hut, how can each character in the game interact with it or use it to their potential advantage?, maybe the heroes could even use a walking hut as a means of escape for example or the overlord use it as an ambush by putting monsters in it ready to attack heroes after the cauldron, thus each side has various strategic choices like these, and the chance to respond to what the opponent is doing. Whilst balance is always important you don't always have to rule out the possibility of bad player choices in game design- one or two things inexperienced or less wised-up players may do that are perhaps bad choices can make the possibilities of gameplay greater. With Descent it's the tug-of-war of what might the hero players/overlord player do and how might the opposing player(s) respond. Does either side have the chance of victory up until the later stages of the game? How/when do they begin to be on the losing side?

Playing with these ideas could be challenging- it may take some time to come up with a way that works gameplay and balance wise, but if you can pull it off it could be a really unique and enjoyable aspect to this adventure, kudos @rugal for the Baba Yaga idea as the hut is just such a unique aspect it brings something quite special to the game so be patient with the fact it may not immediately work in-game, you can get it to something that does. Don't feel you've failed (or attacked should any playtest feedback be negative, it's a game idea in development so it isn't going to be perfect YET ) en route to the working game- someone wise once told me they built and engineered amazing bridges that do work by designing plenty of bridges that failed first, in game design there are plenty of fails before the win... I genuinely think if you wrestle with this til you get a working game it will be as good as any of the official Descent adventures- the hut, Baba Yaga and cauldron reward concepts alone being awesome. It's nicely partnered with things like the lycans and tree too- works well for the 'dark forest' theme.

Love the good/evil reward idea too- a bit like the dawnblade/duskblade, depending if heroes or overlord have it at game end- the cauldron that can heal the heroes or restore Baba Yaga's youth, again why I love this adventure idea so much.

I appreciate I've slowed my progress down somewhat as I've put a bit too much Descent/Terrinoth/Genesys project food on my plate to digest and cook things up with at once- I'm still working on it all but it's quite a juggling act and a slow burn with doing it at the same time as overlapping projects but I will find ways to catch up and eventually complete parts- it became a slow burn as a lot of opportunities to expand and improve what I'm working on cropped up at the same time, better's great but it also means more work and the overlapping goes with the territory, a few ideas became a lot of ideas. I will playtest and maybe help with your projects when I can, this one being near the top of my list as I'm so excited for it, especially now there's the chance of the hut mini to match! I'm still looking at the Margath campaign and the writing feedback, so bear with me- things are moving forward, just slowly in between other life things and work (I'm also having to focus on some work at my flat so temporarily have slightly less leisure time than normal), Rome (Mennara) wasn't built in a day as they say! A lot of the delay is wanting to get some future timesaving things done for both Genesys and Descent so putting some time into this now that saves me time in future as I found I kept repeating certain things a lot such as finding particular bits of info, choosing what to use for each adventure, or with Genesys finding the things not in the index repeatedly then having to find them again (so I'm working on my own full index), these will be useful for other player-creators so I'll be sharing these resources too, but doing them's added the work of doing them- worth it for how much time it will save in future, but with the downside of the extra work now, once it's done it's there to make life easier!

On which note stick with The Dark Forest- it's going to be awesome once complete and work on it as and when, I know time is precious and there's never much of it spare, so don't worry if progress seems slow- it tends to be for these things and it's worth it in the end, I feel that pressure sometimes to get stuff perfect and finished right now but it's a spare time hobby and takes time, so don't worry about things that don't quite work yet or everything needing to gel together- it will get there!

Our creations will be worth the effort and time to get them over the finish line!

When I do have social time (as I say currently temporarily reduced re work at flat and a period in frenzied game creation mode more than game play mode) I go to various games groups- not all into games like Descent but there are those genre of players among them, so I'm sure I'll be able to get some volunteers to playtest the ideas at some point. So I may see what I can come up with as options as well as testing whatever is the current version at the time.

Thanks to those who've playtested thus far- may be worth people putting the call out on places like bgg for more playtesters (understanding of the fact it's a work in progress in the design stages and of the fact English is a second language to Rugal should any rules need clarifying etc).

Thinking about 3d printing it makes me wonder if 3d printing takes off more it could be another way companies like FFG could offer players more outside the realms of what they can physically make (as with other digital files you can offer more expansions terrain/buildings/figures-wise without the risk of having to make everything in the range, shouldn't be the only way a product line is delivered- as with the app I'd still want original, pre-made, physical kit for games I don't have to print/ make/ run on a computer but FFG could do some epic things that may not be cost effective as boxed product such as Uthuk/Latari etc scenery and buildings). I think there are 3d printing services now too, so possibly no need to even have to have your own printer, just a thought. Could be good for those fringe items only the most dedicated players would want.

Whao !

This post will take me ages to read it in full and understand it all. I'm not so used to english anymore, and I'm a bit lost.

On 5/21/2019 at 7:52 PM, rugal said:

Whao !

This post will take me ages to read it in full and understand it all. I'm not so used to english anymore, and I'm a bit lost.

The latest Descent lieutenant: Watercolour Dragon's overactive brain, some of his posts do indeed drag on.

There's usually some wisdom in there but it can take a bit of digging.

⛰️