Transitioning to 3rd Edition

By Radioactivepanda, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

A lot of the tiles are sadly underused.

The LotW tilesare not particularly unique, but I think they nicely complete the base set tile art. (It also increases the lava spaces by 166%)

Tile 44 is beautiful, and would make a great centerpiece to a large single encounter quest.

Tile 49b (the diagonal-ish one) has a nice waterfall into some pit spaces.

I love 84b, with the glade in a dungeon open to the sky.

Tile 94b is a very intense tile. I remember gasping when I saw it.

Actually, Chains That Rust has my favorite drab outdoor aesthetic and an unmatched castle tileset.

Edited by Lightningclaw
Clarity
21 hours ago, Lightningclaw said:

I agree with the delve. The main reason I rarely play it is I don’t want to spend all that time between stages putting away stuff and getting it out.

Standard play with a quest mixing expansions would not increase setup time significantly (or at all) depending on your personal storage method.

I do get that the delve with it's short stages and inability to look ahead is kind of worst case scenario.

On 2/12/2019 at 6:07 AM, ChanceRiley said:

D2E Will not be going anywhere until the original mechanics of the game no longer represent a better experience in comparison to its peers. Such an event would be loathe to come, but I would be profoundly excited to see a game blow descent out of the water enough to make ffg reevaluate their library.

Which peers are we talking about?

I love Descent but the core mechanics have been outclassed by IA (even if the SW theme isn’t to your taste) in several notable aspects (particularly knock downs, overlord reinforcements, LOS and missed shot rules)

Thats before you even widen your appraisal beyond FFG.

Descent 2E will always have a special place for me (and remain on my shelf) but some of the core rules do creak a bit.

30 minutes ago, Suhawk75 said:

Which peers are we talking about?

I love Descent but the core mechanics have been outclassed by IA (even if the SW theme isn’t to your taste) in several notable aspects (particularly knock downs, overlord reinforcements, LOS and missed shot rules)

Thats before you even widen your appraisal beyond FFG.

Descent 2E will always have a special place for me (and remain on my shelf) but some of the core rules do creak a bit.

I consider the rules of IA vastly superior to those of Descent. I've had to contact customer service for rule clarifications serveral with Descent, never with IA.

My main concern with a 3rd Edition is the removal of the Overlord. I can see it coming. While I too enjoy playing RtL, it takes away a lot of the competiveness. Me and my friends are currently playing through Gloomhaven. It's good, but I think we all agree that the absence of an Overlord dulls down the gameplay quite a bit.

I was wringing my hands trying to decide between buying IA and Descent. I looked up so many discussions about the two.

I decided to go for Descent because the theme appealed to me more (I have an aversion to merchandise, even for franchises I enjoy) and I’m happy I did.

I have many gripes/disappointments with the cane and a handful of house rules, but Descent is as close as I think I’ll ever get to my ideal, perfect game.

58 minutes ago, Sidious78 said:

I consider the rules of IA vastly superior to those of Descent. I've had to contact customer service for rule clarifications serveral with Descent, never with IA.

My main concern with a 3rd Edition is the removal of the Overlord. I can see it coming. While I too enjoy playing RtL, it takes away a lot of the competiveness. Me and my friends are currently playing through Gloomhaven. It's good, but I think we all agree that the absence of an Overlord dulls down the gameplay quite a bit.

I still don’t think they’ll remove the overlord. They’re still supporting events for pvp IA, and that game is almost as stalled as Descent. Skirmish keeps it going, and it seems far more likely they’ll just modify it to add that aspect.

Personally most overlords I’ve played with enjoy their role too much for my taste.

1 hour ago, Sidious78 said:

Me and my friends are currently playing through Gloomhaven. It's good, but I think we all agree that the absence of an Overlord dulls down the gameplay quite a bit.

I was going to discuss Gloomhaven compared to Descent but there are so many differences between the two (despite some very obvious comparisons) I wasn’t convinced the comparison was valid.

Comparing GH, strictly to Descent RTL, I think the former is a much better co-op experience. The difficulty level is more granular (and adaptable) and the core mechanics (hand management and exhaustion) are more engaging to me compared to the “Ameritrash” gameplay of D2E (I don’t mean that in an offensive way btw - D2E RTL just doesn’t have the heavy puzzle element that GH does)

RTL is a beer and chill game which I really enjoyed playing with my gf but GH has us both addicted

4 hours ago, Suhawk75 said:

Which peers are we talking about?

I love Descent but the core mechanics have been outclassed by IA (even if the SW theme isn’t to your taste) in several notable aspects (particularly knock downs, overlord reinforcements, LOS and missed shot rules)

Thats before you even widen your appraisal beyond FFG.

Descent 2E will always have a special place for me (and remain on my shelf) but some of the core rules do creak a bit.

I guess it's a matter of taste but I'm not so hot on a lot of the changes for Imperial Assault.

The new line of sight rule is definitely better to my mind, but the others?

I really don't like the wound mechanic. It may be more thematic than the knocked out/revive merry-go-round of Descent but I don't like the fact that I feel punished for being 'flipped'. I lose stats, speed and one of my core abilities, which automatically makes the game less enjoyable for me. No thanks. Plus the heroic feats in Descent are cool (well some of them at least... when I remember to use them!).

Unlike many others I've never had a problem with the miss roll on the attack die in Descent either. Sure it sucks to miss, but no more than being dodged in IA, and there are ways to mitigate it in the game: abilities, Overlord cards, fortune tokens and at least one item.

And the IA reinforcement rules? Well, they could probably work for Descent but I really don't like the reality that almost every mission in IA seems to end up with about 500 imperial figures on the board. Sure, sometimes it's fine to feel like you're facing impossible odds but on every single mission? True, it doesn't often prevent you from winning the scenario as the Rebel players but it can get a bit, well, tiring.

But the one thing I really, really don't like in IA is the fact that you don't know how a mission is going to progress when you first step into it. I guess some people clamoured for a bit of a return to the dungeon delving aspect of Descent 1st Edition but for me it only detracts from the enjoyment for me as a Rebel player, purely because it feels like it gives the Imperial player an unfair advantage. A gradual revelation may be more thematic but I do prefer the quest structure in Decent where both sides know the exact parameters for winning and losing right from the start.

None of this is to knock your perspective I hasten to add. Your views are perfectly valid and shared with a lot of others I'm sure. I'm guess I'm just trying to say that there are other perspectives out there... and that change isn't always necessarily better.

A few months ago I was excited to see what Descent 3rd Edition would bring to the table. I came into Descent on the back of the app and only played co-op for a good few months. Now I've had the chance to play the 'traditional' Overlord v Heroes way and I have to say I'm having a blast! I like the storytelling aspect of the app but Descent 2 as it was originally designed just seems way more fun. So, count me in for not wanting the one v many aspect to go away when they do eventually get around to releasing Descent 3.

That’s the most polite disagreement I’ve ever had on the internet 👍🏻 😁 🤯