Search Deck Expansion (60+ new unique cards)

By DemocracyInKind, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Hi Everyone,

I posted this on boardgamegeek, but I wanted to share it here. Here is a link to the BGG forum topic: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2225768/search-deck-expansion-60-new-unique-cards

I have been a lurker on these forums for ages, skimming for custom content, so I finally wanted to upload my own contribution to this amazing community as a thank you for prolonging the life of one of my absolute favorite games.

I wanted to expand on the number of search cards available in the game. I understand the limited number in the original set were made with balance in mind, but I always felt the more variety in this deck could scratch that dungeon diving loot itch. (especially since my wife and I usually only have the time to play one off quests instead of a full campaign)

So I made roughly 67 new unique (81 total) search cards for Descent second edition to be used during both one offs and campaigns. The card ideas came from imperial assault, other posts on this forum and bgg, and good old fashion insomnia. My goal for this project was to:

1) Increase variety during quests (especially one offs)
2) Integrate some expansion mechanics into the rest of the game
3) Provide some "soft solutions" to some nitpicks I have always had with the game. For example, I hoped the TrueStrike Potion would alleviate occasionally annoyance from the miss mechanic.

I know the ratio of Items/Potions and gold value cards is not that of the original. Frankly, I couldn't think of enough 25 gold Potion cards. (Any suggestions?) So that leads us to: How do I play with these cards?

Its up to you! It wouldn't make sense to me to strictly tell you how these cards should be used in a post dedicated to mixing, matching, creating, and experimenting with Descent's mechanics. You could:

1) Selectively swap cards from the original Search Deck
2) Create your own new Search Deck
3) Or be like me, throw balance completely out the window, and play with everything!

I really hope you enjoy. Please let me know any ideas you have for more search cards, or suggestions to the existing ones. (I may not get around to making them, soon. This project took some time. But I would love to build up ideas for the eventual next iteration.)

The cutsheets below should fit on normal US letter and A4 paper. The individual cards can be found on my bgg profile's gallery: https://boardgamegeek.com/images/user/988433/democracyinkind

Enjoy!

PDF for US Letter: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/182865/search-deck-expansion-v1

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P.S. Zoetic Gloves was the odd card left off the print sheets, so here it is standing proudly on its own:

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I love it.

How awesome, thank you!

Shouldn't de search cards be un sepia ?

On 6/27/2019 at 5:00 AM, rugal said:

Shouldn't de search cards be un sepia ?

Technically, I think the original Search Deck art is desaturated monochrome. So the most prominent color after desaturation of the image is the only color displayed. (The Power Potion is only Green, The Stamina Potion is only Orange, Fire Flask only has the red of the lava.) I actually applied a similar technique to the art in these cards, but obviously not to the same extent. It honestly just didn't look as good being completely monochromatic. (Probably, because the art I found was never made with this in mind) So I opted to apply a desaturation and chroma filter, but to ultimately allow multiple colors within the images.

It was going to be near impossible to find art for that many cards that would mesh perfectly with the original Search Card art, so I choose art that would mesh well with each other while in the same theme as the originals.

I hope you enjoy!