Descent lacks campaigns and FFG is likely not going to grant us some. I've created 2 of them (the second one is on playtesting).

But the shadow rune is already here and only need a few work to be balanced and fun to play. The way it is, even ffg replaced by the heirs of blood.

I need some help on this one. Who wants to help and how ? Since english is not my native language I would need some help in this one some, help to balance quests and later some to test it.

What do you think of this idea ?

While I commend your interest in doing so, and while I do agree this campaign needs a serious overall, I am simply not sure it would be worth the effort.

Given your creative talents, your time may simply be better served creating a completely brand new campaign, rather than trying to fix the abomination known as The Shadow Rune. After all, it was only slightly better than D1e's Sea of Blood. 🤣

Quests are already here and it will need not so much work I think. Am I wrong ?

(By the way thanks for you compliments 😉 )

Just my 2 cents:

I think one of the largest problems of the shadow rune is the ability to choose each act 1 and act 2 quest at any point during the respective acts. Since the heroes are at a disadvantage at the beginning of each act but scale a lot faster than the overlord during the course of the act, none of the act 1 and act 2 quests are balanced as either quest #2, #3 and #4 or #6, #7 and #8.

A big part of rebalancing the shadow rune in my view would encompass to add a tree structure similar to heirs of blood. Once this is done, you can balance the quests a lot better, since you can factor in the possible experience level of the heroes and the overlord.

Labyrinth of ruins and nerekhall do have the same system (and it has its limits too).

Both only have a partly free structure though, either act 1 (Nerekhall) or act 2 (Labyrinth). The more recent releases Heirs of Blood and Mists + Chains have tree based campaigns.

My two cents also :

Up to where are you ready to go to balance the quests ?
Just modify the values (like more health / defense for the villagers) ? Quest rules and perhaps mechanics ? the maps ?

I will take an example Castle Daerion by default nearly any heroes group will win .. now if the OL uses Brodwalkers ... as they can start adjacent to heroes only the heroes with the good powers will have some chances to win and yet they must be not too unlucky with the dices !
So clearly in the first case something must be done on the values/rules side but on the second it's the Map that must be changed...

Ence my conclusion that will join Any2Cards one : if it's to modify everything in the quests .. isn't it easier to do something new where you don't have barriers / limitations to follow?

... and last question to finish : what's the border in modifications between "it's the same quest with slight modifications" and "it's something totally different we don't even recognise what existed initially" ? ....

I'm almost sure maps can be kept but rules must be modified. The example you gave with castle daerion is the placement of the monsters that could be placed somewhere else.

My three cents:

I agree with any2cads, working on someting new sounds better

On 3/27/2019 at 2:17 PM, DerDelphi said:

I think one of the largest problems of the shadow rune is the ability to choose each act 1 and act 2 quest at any point during the respective acts. Since the heroes are at a disadvantage at the beginning of each act but scale a lot faster than the overlord during the course of the act, none of the act 1 and act 2 quests are balanced as either quest #2, #3 and #4 or #6, #7 and #8.

I agree, and what you say can also be applied to other campaigns. It is not possible for a quest to be balanced equally for both campaign mode and one-shot mode.

4 hours ago, leewroy said:

My three cents:

I agree with any2cads, working on someting new sounds better

Since story and quest are here, why would it be "better" ?

If it just need rebalancing the campaign by creating a tree selecting quest, changing some monsters place and a bit of rules, it is easier than remaking it all, and story talking, I must admit that it's the part I dislike the most.

19 hours ago, rugal said:

Since story and quest are here, why would it be "better" ?

If it just need rebalancing the campaign by creating a tree selecting quest, changing some monsters place and a bit of rules, it is easier than remaking it all, and story talking, I must admit that it's the part I dislike the most.

In my humble opinion it's better play something new than replay a whole campaign with some rules changes, that's why.

3 minutes ago, leewroy said:

In my humble opinion it's better play something new than replay a whole campaign with some rules changes, that's why.

Some players have the new version of the game and do not have this campaign (it's the case of many of my friends) so, for them, it new stuff

14 hours ago, rugal said:

Some players have the new version of the game and do not have this campaign (it's the case of many of my friends) so, for them, it new stuff

Rugal, go with whatever you enjoy the most 🙂 In any case it will be a great job and we will enjoy it quite a lot 🙂

17 hours ago, rugal said:

Some players have the new version of the game and do not have this campaign (it's the case of many of my friends) so, for them, it new stuff

Well, good point. Wish you luck

8 hours ago, tibia said:

Rugal, go with whatever you enjoy the most 🙂 In any case it will be a great job and we will enjoy it quite a lot 🙂

Thanks ! I'm on it. Will take some time.

I don't have this campaign- it had been changed to Heirs of Blood in my core box- I've not been able to find the complete campaign either, I'd be curious to see it as it seems to have a bit of overlap to Heirs of Blood, if only to satisfy the lore hungry part of my brain

I think reworking it's a good idea as apart from anything else it's a good way of building your 'improving stuff' skills which is handy for any game design process as it often takes several changes to arrive at a working finished game.

And it's fun taking a creative seed from one idea and seeing where it takes you.

On 3/27/2019 at 7:17 AM, DerDelphi said:

Just my 2 cents:

I think one of the largest problems of the shadow rune is the ability to choose each act 1 and act 2 quest at any point during the respective acts. Since the heroes are at a disadvantage at the beginning of each act but scale a lot faster than the overlord during the course of the act, none of the act 1 and act 2 quests are balanced as either quest #2, #3 and #4 or #6, #7 and #8.

A big part of rebalancing the shadow rune in my view would encompass to add a tree structure similar to heirs of blood. Once this is done, you can balance the quests a lot better, since you can factor in the possible experience level of the heroes and the overlord.

But during one-off quests with Descent 2nd edition (as in just playing one quest with your friends and not a whole campaign), you can choose any quest as well (and play with epic play either at basic level, advanced level, or expert level). For this reason, I'm pretty sure the quests are all balanced to be of equal difficulty, so Descent 2nd edition faces the same problem.