Hello Descent community,

This is my first community post, so nice to meet you all.

A friend asked me if I would build a skirmish variant so we could play Descent like we play Star Wars: Imperial Assault. So I did. We intend to have fun with it, but I thought I'd let everyone else have at it to.

I hope it brings you some hours of enjoyment. http://d2eskirmish.com

varusSMK

Very cool!

I want to investigate this and test play, but I don't want to have to rely on the website if I enjoy the variant. Basically, ideas that end up being very good, and that I find interest in, sometimes end up disappearing, due to the author's lack of interest in maintaining it. Especially years down the road.

So, while I can download your rules, and I can download the 4 existing skirmish maps, I cannot download your points cost list.

Do you have PDFs of this stuff that I can download?

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Very cool! 

Thanks Infinity - I appreciate it.

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Do you have PDFs of this stuff that I can download?

@any2cards - I don't have them isolated in a document. They were all generated in spreadsheets leveraging custom formulas. That said, I could try to create a quick sheet with the factions, units, and costs. Alternatively, if anyone in the community would like to create such a sheet, I would gladly post it to the website. All the costs and such are listed in the build tool. Any community created material will receive full credit to the creator. In the meantime I will add this to the feature request queue.

Truth be told, my long term plan is to CCBY/GRU most or all of the work. I put a lot of time into data entry, and other fan developers shouldn't have to do that again.

Thanks for your willingness to playtest. My play group is having a good time with it.

varusSMK

1 hour ago, varusSMK said:

Thanks Infinity - I appreciate it.

@any2cards - I don't have them isolated in a document. They were all generated in spreadsheets leveraging custom formulas. That said, I could try to create a quick sheet with the factions, units, and costs. Alternatively, if anyone in the community would like to create such a sheet, I would gladly post it to the website. All the costs and such are listed in the build tool. Any community created material will receive full credit to the creator. In the meantime I will add this to the feature request queue.

Truth be told, my long term plan is to CCBY/GRU most or all of the work. I put a lot of time into data entry, and other fan developers shouldn't have to do that again.

Thanks for your willingness to playtest. My play group is having a good time with it.

varusSMK

I will generate a spreadsheet myself. Thanks.

I have created a base spreadsheet to cover all of the points. I do have several questions:

Items of Haven's Hand: Phoenix Pendant: This item has a cost of "-". What does this mean?

Plot Cards of Rothfeld Resistance: The Fallen Elite: Armor of Darkness: No cost is identified. What should it be?

I am still working on the spreadsheet, generating links to pictures, etc. When I am done, I will post it here.

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I am still working on the spreadsheet, generating links to pictures, etc. When I am done, I will post it here.

That's righteous - thank you for doing this! I'm very grateful. If you would like it shared on the website (which probably makes sense?), please let me know how you would like it shared. The build tool is quick and slick, but there may be players who prefer to lay things out on a table and work with pencil and paper versus a web app. As you previously pointed out, having the system in static format also helps to future proof it as a foundation others can build from (should the website ever be unavailable).

-varusSMK

@varusSMK : I am nearing the end of the creation of my spreadsheet, and I want to point several things out to you. Since I don't know the intention of your variant, some of what I point out may be intentional. Let me know.

1) Items of Haven's Hand: Phoenix Pendant: This has a cost of "-". What does this mean? What is the cost?

2) Items: Only Act I items are included. No Act II items are listed. Is this intentional?

3) Items: Act I Jinn's Lamp is the only item not used. Is this intentional?

4) Overlord Rewards - Three items missing: Down and Out, Endless Supply, Fire Gems. Is this intentional?

5) Plot Cards of Rothfeld Resistance: The Fallen Elite: Armor of Darkness: No cost is identified. What should it be?

6) Plot Cards: The following Plot Cards are missing or unused. Is this intentional?:

Burning Ambition: Demon's Bargain, Summon Gargan Mirklace
Cursed By Power: Summon Merick, The Grasping Grave
Dark Illusions: Intricate Schemes, Summon Ariad, The Ritual Continues
Dragon's Greed: Mine All Mine, Summon Valyndra, Terrifying Presence
Endless Thirst: Bad Dreams, Summon Eliza
Eternal Agony: Summon Zarihell, Time on the Rack
First Legion: Camaraderie, Defensive Position, Fealty, Loyalty Rewarded, Retribution, Rise to the Challenge, Strength in Numbers, Summon Ardus Ix'Erebus, Swarming Tide, Threatening Masses
Goblin Uprising: Scavenge, Summon Splig
Hybrid Loyalty: Cut a Deal, Hazard Pay, Show of Force, Summon Belthir
Inner Corruption: Deceitful Scribe, False Informant, Merchant's Guild, Summon Rylan Olliven
Raging Infection: Affliction Aura, Envenom, Fetid Stench, Infected, Mass Mutation, Plague Release, Summon Bol'Goreth, Virulent Cloud, Weakened Spirit, Weakness Within
Seeds of Betrayal: False Friends, Summon Zacareth, Trouble on the Road, Two Pronged Gambit
Silent Protector: Power in Mourning, Summon Serena
Skulduggery: Cursed Treasure, Summon Raythen
Tangled Web: Embrace Darkness, Summon Queen Ariad
The Fallen Elite: Summon Alric, Veteran Council
Twisted Soul: Possessive Nature, Summon Skarn, Unknown Origin
Unseen Legions: Infestation, Summon Verminous
Unstable Forces: Soul Ensnare, Summon Tristayne Olliven
Vital Essence: Invest in the Flesh, Summon Kyndrithul

Thanks for all the feedback @any2cards!

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1) Items of Haven's Hand: Phoenix Pendant: This has a cost of "-". What does this mean? What is the cost?

That is an oversight. Phoenix Pendant should cost 1. It is effectively an Orkell the Swift item, having no other meaningful purpose in this format (so far as I can see. I will update this this weekend.)

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2) Items: Only Act I items are included. No Act II items are listed. Is this intentional?

Correct. There are no Act II items, monsters, or agents available. That said, I can make them all available with the flip of a switch, but I am concerned about getting initial balances right first. Ramping things up will necessitate re-balancing.

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3) Items: Act I Jinn's Lamp is the only item not used. Is this intentional?

Yes, it is part of the banned list. If you search it using the card search tool, you will see it listed as banned with the rationale.

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4) Overlord Rewards - Three items missing: Down and Out, Endless Supply, Fire Gems. Is this intentional?

All banned, as listed in the card search tool.

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5) Plot Cards of Rothfeld Resistance: The Fallen Elite: Armor of Darkness: No cost is identified. What should it be? 

That is a bug. Should be cost 0. My initial inspection is not revealing a cause. I will patch it up in this weekend's update.

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6) Plot Cards: The following Plot Cards are missing or unused. Is this intentional?:

Yes, there are more plot cards banned than any other. Many plot cards simply do not translate well to a skirmish format, so I struck them out to avoid confusion. However, you can search them up in the card search tool and peek at them.

These questions are suggesting the need for a published banned list. That will make it easier for people to take a quick look at what is banned. I am adding this to my TODO list and will consider where to publish it. Options are 1) the guidebook, 2) a separate document for download, 3) somewhere else? I'm open to suggestions.

P.S. Can't thank you enough for this!

- varusSMK

@varusSMK : Sometime tomorrow, I am going to send you a PM with a link to a DropBox that has the spreadsheet I created in it. I will also provide you some comments. After that, how you distribute it is up to you. You can post it here, make it available on your website, etc. I probably won't finish it until sometime around 12 noon PST.

@varusSMK : I was reviewing my spreadsheet compared to your website, and found the following errors on your website (some were already mentioned above, but are now all in one place):

1) Kein's Order: Hero Classes: Marshall: "am the Law" should be "I am the Law"
2) Haven's Hand: Items: Phoenix Pendant: Cost is "-" and should be "1"
3) Rothfeld Resistance: Plot Cards: The Fallen Elite: Armor of Darkness: Cost is " " and should be "0"

I am sending you a PM now.

Hi @any2cards ,

Thank you for all of this. I have been adding your suggestions to the change log for this weekend, and I have received your DM.

Right now Sunday is looking like the day for updates and release. As soon as the patches are made and the misspellings corrected, I will announce the update in this thread.

Thank you again for investing the time!

- varusSMK

Update Release v1.1.0

Special thanks to @any2cards for his hard work developing an excel spreadsheet containing all the factions, their units, and associated deployment costs. This will allow everyone the ability to build their forces offline. As any2cards pointed out, this is an important contribution to posterity, so if for any reason the website becomes unavailable, people will still have the meat and potatoes needed to skirmish.

The spreadsheet is available via the rules page on d2eskirmish.com .

Follow this link for a detailed listing of all the bug fixes and improvements in v1.1.0 .

- varusSMK

10 hours ago, varusSMK said:

The spreadsheet is available via the rules page on d2eskirmish.com .

For those that choose to download the spreadsheet, be aware that it is 98 MB in size; depending on your internet connection speeds, it may take a while to download.

When you download the spreadsheet, it will open on protected mode, as you downloaded it from the Internet. In order for the card images to be displayed when you mouse over the card names, you will need to enable editing of the spreadsheet.

@varusSMK : you may want to note this on your site.

@varusSMK : I was reviewing the rationale for some of the banned cards, and noticed that the dates for all of the banned cards was: 99/99/9999.

Was this intentional?

@any2cards I did add file sizes alongside the downloads, so hopefully that helps to tip folks off to the file size.

Also, you have once again discovered a missing assignment on my part. I had meant to go back and update the banned timestamp, but ultimately overlooked it. Consider it added to the next update. It looks like that will be in two weeks when I provide a couple more missions. I'm also working with a videographer friend to record some live play sessions. We've been reviewing some of the better live play videos of Imperial Assault on Youtube. We're pretty sure we can pull something off at decent quality. Exciting stuff! 😎

Are there only 4 missions?
Because I seem to only be getting the same 4 missions...

Hi Ssorgatem,

Correct, there are only 4 missions currently, and all are playable with the D2e Base Game. There is a mission guide located on the rules page that lists them all in one place.

Spoiler - some new missions will be released next weekend. Stay tuned!

varusSMK

Two new skirmish missions have been added to Descent Skirmish.

A complete list of updates can be viewed in the news section of the website.

I continue to make updates and additions to the site, to keep the feedback coming. If you have played a skirmish game feel free to share your story or send me a note about it! It will be helpful to know that everything is living up to Imperial Assault expectations (or not).

- varusSMK

This is pretty awesome, I'll have to look into this. Many thanks!