Since not all of you have account in Boardgamegeek. I am sharing with you a post from someone else
Subject: Minor "info" "leaks" about the future of Descent from ex FFG employee

Above you see a link to the original post and here is the body of the post (if you are bored to push the link 😎 )

Body:
cross post with reddit from user ilazul:

So, on the r/boardgames thread about the FFG layoffs the other day, one of the let go FFG employees starting posting about current products and projects.

They posted this nugget:

Also when asked:

What's the new "Descent" thing they're releasing? I've basically figured that it's got to either be Descent: Digital Edition (video game treatment of 2E) or Descent: Deluxe Edition (a big box of all the best 2E product, but more streamlined).

They answered:

The poster was acknowledged by others as a FFG employee so it seems pretty reliable. Still only counts as just a rumor though. Just wanted to share!
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Just a couple more facts to help with speculation. We already knew that no new D2E physical content was coming out. Whether you consider a streamline "ultimate" edition "new" or not, it's ruled out anyways.

We know it's a GH competitor which D2e already could be. But from this, we could maybe expect a much larger campaign with maybe even 4xp-6xp skills. Also this (more or less) confirms there will be co-op, but I think that was a given.

It's also not just a digital descent.

Overall, this adds to the total hype that Andrew Navarro had in his AMA. Many people keep suggesting small or lateral movements (like a digital 2e, or revised edition) but this reinforces that this new project is beyond the scope of that.

I'm still in the Descent: Journeys in Terrinoth camp. I think openness of where you can go and when will be greatly expanded on from RtL with more "over world" features added than normal tactical combat features. I don't want them to change anything about the actual play-by-play of Descent besides incorporating IA changes.

Looks like more wild speculation on the internet. Descent got me into the hobby and the death of IA took me out. The way things are going now it looks like everything has to be coop centric or a traditional mini game and I have no interest in either one. 2e/IA were basically the perfect hybrid. Nothing FFG has put out recently has thrilled me much and unless its a true 3e that doesn't go soft with coop. The LotR games are fine for short plays but I only care about the tactical stuff. Every coop game gets solved if you play it as long as you would play a game against a human. I guess that's why I just play multiplayer RTS games online now.

Oh I love reading this! The fire in my soul for Descent is strong, and I'm waiting anxiously for the next chapter, or even more Monster/Hero packs; anything!

Thanks for the post!

Gotta compete with Gloomhaven... It just got real! I seriously can't wait to see what's coming. I just ordered the last expansions I was missing for Descent 2nd ed and seeing there still is support makes me really happy.

Campaign with characters getting in and off the party, retirement and events with retired characters? My brain is boiling with excitement... that would be so awesome!

I'd be beyond happy if its Descent 2e version of road to legend, I realise the big campaigns are like marmite but for me its what 2e is missing, a more freeform campaign style I just hope they keep it hybrid.

I'd love more Road to Legends stuff, especially if they remastered the existing physical stuff as RtL quests to make them entirely co-op if you want to go that route. Let it take advantage of owning the lieutenant packs too by selecting a Plot and Agent for the runs. Then just keep it up with new content.

As for the physical game, **** just keep making stuff. The game is really good as-is and by simply coming out with new campaigns they can really shake things up. The Tainted cards and ability to all get KOd make the Mist/Chains very different. Maybe have a hardcore one put out with actual character death being an option. And bring back Varikas the Dead!

On 1/28/2020 at 3:42 PM, Nagash1959 said:

I'd love more Road to Legends stuff, especially if they remastered the existing physical stuff as RtL quests to make them entirely co-op if you want to go that route. Let it take advantage of owning the lieutenant packs too by selecting a Plot and Agent for the runs. Then just keep it up with new content.

As for the physical game, **** just keep making stuff. The game is really good as-is and by simply coming out with new campaigns they can really shake things up. The Tainted cards and ability to all get KOd make the Mist/Chains very different. Maybe have a hardcore one put out with actual character death being an option. And bring back Varikas the Dead!

I really love the Tainted Cards, I feel they bring that 1e feeling to descent 2e, and make the options of styles of play and what OL cards are relevant far more diverse. The I'm thinking about moving them over to other campaigns with the 1xp bonus for heroes as a balancer... I really wish they'd made them portable in there core concept as a optional addition.

Hmm this other source is also not very positive about the future.

http://www.d20radio.com/main/fantasy-flight-games-long-term-plan-will-discontinue-rpg-development/

Future? Future of/for what????

Skulmaster i read the post but it doesnt talk for Descent so i think you are in wrong section.
It clearly talks about the genesys system and the roleplaying productions FFG has created.

As we know though people working in FFG have a hard time. I hope for them the best, they need support now.
I just wish in the future, their communication with the customers part to change. They have to talk with their customers! Listen to their customers!

11 hours ago, jopan said:

Skulmaster i read the post but it doesnt talk for Descent so i think you are in wrong section.
It clearly talks about the genesys system and the roleplaying productions FFG has created.

As we know though people working in FFG have a hard time. I hope for them the best, they need support now.
I just wish in the future, their communication with the customers part to change. They have to talk with their customers! Listen to their customers!

Alternatively, he might be trying to make the point that FFG scuttling all their other terrinoth products over an extremely short period of time is a bad sign...

2 hours ago, Bucho said:

Alternatively, he might be trying to make the point that FFG scuttling all their other terrinoth products over an extremely short period of time is a bad sign...

It depends- FFG seems in a major state of flux with the post-Asmodee changes and all the 'are areas of the business being dropped or moved over to Asmodee' questions (such as with FFG's digital bit going but Asmodee recruiting for theirs). There's also the lay offs- will the product plans get dropped along with the staff (which is a huge shame in itself with all they've given us Terrinoth-wise, my sympathies are with 'team Terrinoth', hopefully there will still be opportunities for them in the future)

But the three main causes for optimism:

1. Descent and Terrinoth have been really big sellers, even if some products fared less well than others - still gutted at the 'Unbreakable Bonds' shaped hole in my Runebound collection (I managed to get the others) - and even if Star Wars has eclipsed them. It's tougher to launch new games and more so sell extra content these days (more games on sale, growth of industry, good but means more competition, although the growing market should also be seen as an opportunity) but the market's still there and plenty of companies still sell quite large ranges of key titles/products. Andrew did hint at a less-expansions focused future generally for FFG though.

2. We have been promised something big for some time, whilst the fact all the existing Terrinoth lines seem either in limbo or are officially discontinued (I'm convinced there were a few things axed we would have seen in D2e hence the eight 'missing' heroes, four of which were new) could be a negative- Terrinoth is no more, it could equally be because there's a big future Terrinoth 'whatever-it-is' that they want to clear the way for and not be competing with themselves on. Andrew suggested it's not Descent 3e per se but implies they've gone very deep into the lore (how much and what if anything we get may of course depend how well it sells and if it's still planned post-changes).

Linked to this the retirement of the Terrinoth lines as they are/were may just be as it could be quite annoying if someone buys into them anew, only for the new 'thing' to arrive and overshadow them. There's also my old theory- what if one game had different ways of playing it? Could there be some sort of crossover of the retired games either one base game that has different ways it can be played or some way different types of game overlap?

3. Shadar on the Lost Legends art, still convinced Shadar was to feature in a dropped D2e expansion (element themed maybe) that is now cancelled- but a) maybe that idea got carried over to the new one and b) they didn't change this cover art which seems a bit odd- maybe a bit of a teaser? Or of course could just be laziness (Shadar's expansion's dropped but we'll leave the 'Lost Legends' art the same) I'm still optimistic we may yet see those 'missing' characters somewhere....

As always though none of us know, something could be planned yesterday, canned today or abandoned yesterday and back on today. We just have to hope Asmodee are smart enough to see the value of Mennara and not leave it to fall into ruins because the only good ruins are the ones with adventures happening in them and a story as to why they're ruins or what is to be discovered there

I feel it would be a mistake to drop the RPG development- which unfortunately seems to be Asmodee's thinking (sadly it seems this won't be reconsidered) - at the very least not dropping Genesys- Genesys has got quite a few people into Terrinoth and its lore- drop it and you're very much damaging an entry point to the product world (I know I'm not the only one to have purchased Terrinoth product partly to use with Genesys RPG). However dropping development may not mean dropping product. Again fingers crossed, as axing Genesys would be a bad call.

On 2/22/2020 at 10:05 PM, Watercolour Dragon said:

still gutted at the 'Unbreakable Bonds' shaped hole in my Runebound collection (I managed to get the others)

Of course Runebound 3rd failed, it's mostly an empty box.

Asking top dollar for less than the minimum amount of content of lack luster quality just isn't going to work in today's market, there's way to much competition. It's the same problem with their RPG there are already two big names in the fantasy RPG market, companies that are almost entirely devoted to pumping out content for.

So FFG figured it would take a half assed attempt to dive into a saturated market, of course it didn't work.

True Bucho, FFG's stuff does sometimes seem a tad expensive on release (then in such cases often ends up heavily discounted suggesting this may be harming sales), and they do have a thing of loads of hype pre and around release then 'forgetting about' stuff - lackluster ongoing marketing (as I've said games show stands with no Terrinoth games etc) and an absence of the follow ups you'd expect (like putting out an RPG system but no series of adventures for it) which can leave a feeling of things being lacking from the off and staying that way. Plus that familiar feeling of ongoing incompleteness. Surely this line should have...., oh, you're retiring that line so I guess it never will. Maybe it was fuzzy logic and a bit cheeky that the Descent core box lieutenant minis were extras and not in the core box. For expansions maybe this makes sense (not sure - pros and cons as not every player values minis as much). But for the core box, perhaps not.

Having said that I'm happy to pay good money if the product justifies it- which for a lot of FFG products has been the case, it's still my fave games company even with Asmodee sometimes seeming on a mission to change this, although there have been inconsistencies (Descent being a great example- the minis ranged from epically awesome down to what went wrong with this one, how can the same line have pieces with the quality of the best, such as the Skarn mini, down to the worst, such as melty where's the detail and even where's the face Merick?)

Although it's worth mentioning that a key point of Genesys, the RPG system in question, is that part of its USP is it being more of a toolkit than a weighty complex system, so some aspects of it being quite streamlined and limited contents wise is actually a good thing- you can get into it quite quickly but it's still a robust system you can do a lot- and have a lot of fun- with. Plus they made it sort-of open with the foundry, so it should continue to grow IF they continue to have faith in it *coughs* IF. It's strong performance on DriveThru suggests they very much should.

FFG do sometimes seem to be poised for an epic goal but then decide to lose focus and leave the ball motionless on the pitch. Although it does seem the fans are on the pitch- well if the team's not gonna play (with) your fave games....

I guess it could be the manager shouting at them to change tactics almost at times seeming to think they can win the game without actually playing it, losing motivation and rarely giving their key players appearances in front of their fans (please Asmodee don't mess things up....)

My biggest wish for future FFG releases is that they aim for more quality consistency and the higher end of the quality bar that the current amount of competition makes somewhat essential. Just one product that looks 'cheap' or lacking is going to be harmful with so much competition. Thankfully I think FFG have learnt from this- mini quality has improved a lot for example, but they're still failing somewhat on some of these aspects, such as playing the long game with their games, they still seem to give up on new products too easily, leaving the feeling they should have had more long-term faith in them. There's a lot competing for people's money- talking to friends I think games sales are maybe a slow burn rather than everyone buys them the day they are released, more that they have a wishlist and buy as and when they can, not sure FFG factors this into things and the fact growing a new title takes patience and time. Especially as it may not fully take off until it's grown (this is probably especially true of an RPG- it probably will be small in fanbase to start, only after some time if/when there's lots of content for it and it's established will it be bigger in its following. Those big RPG names are big partly because they've had the time to grow big- 45 years in the case of the most obvious example, ten in one of the others) Yet I fear from recent news Asmodee will again take the short-sighted approach (I fear from recent news that Genesys could be the next FFG project Asmodee have 'given up' on, really hoping I'm wrong but...) Why they seem to often not see the value in great product lines is beyond me. Maybe there's a cost to becoming such a big company- perhaps you end up with too many products to focus on all of them and give each the tlc it needs. Genesys is a great system so I'm really hoping Asmodee will pick up the RPG gap it's leaving in FFG regarding the recent news. Similarly I share many people's concerns that Asmodee may play it too safe with the likes of Star Wars, Marvel and similar 'big bucks' titles, at the expense of some of the other lines. Such 'blockbuster blinkers' could see other brilliant games fall out of their vision and begin to get neglected and eventually potentially be no more.

Hopefully it turns out to be the more positive option- as I've said before there's the flip-side that a big company can, if it does things right, use potential efficiencies and the advantages of its size to make the best games across all its titles and build on their legacy rather than destroy it.

So it can go two ways- either Asmodee appreciate, respect and build on the legacy of the many titles now under their wing, or they make the mistake of concentrating on just a few big-seller titles and basically rip the soul out of the many companies they've taken over, if they play smart the market's big enough and healthy enough for them to do the former.

Sorry for any typos I've missed, still in the post-work burnt-out zone.

It’s worth noting that the Farrow sculpts are from the first edition line. That’s why those sculpts in particular are of lesser quality.

There’s still some outliers. Serena’s lieutenant sculpt... what happened?

I really want to see what this potential continuation of Descent is. Second edition is quite good and I will get years out of it, but I would love to see more Descent stuff.

I got in to Descent in the latter part of 2016, after all the expansions and H&Ms were out. Lost Legends was the only physical Descent product I was “here” for the announcement and release.

Unfortunately, Lost Legends wasn’t exactly the peak of Descent. I’d love to be here for the release of something truly exciting for Descent.

Whatever they do, I'd highly appreciate if the second edition content is reusable in some form. Something like the first to second edition conversion kit would be great.

It's fine if they want to re-release all miniatures to sell them all over again - after all, it seems FFG has stepped up their mini game compared to the Descent 2nd Ed. considerably, but that's not going to happen overnight and being able to use the collection of second edition minis has its charm.

On 2/27/2020 at 8:24 PM, BurnyBurns said:

Whatever they do, I'd highly appreciate if the second edition content is reusable in some form. Something like the first to second edition conversion kit would be great.

It's fine if they want to re-release all miniatures to sell them all over again - after all, it seems FFG has stepped up their mini game compared to the Descent 2nd Ed. considerably, but that's not going to happen overnight and being able to use the collection of second edition minis has its charm.

I can see them doing something that doesn't make D2e obsolete as so many people have big collections of it, may just be being able to use old figures if you wish to. But I also think the new thing will be that, a brand new thing (fingers crossed one that lives up to the high benchmark it needs to aim for), so it could mostly be too new to be backwards compatible. We don't know for sure even that D2e will be retired for it (I think if I'm correct), it may be a totally new thing that exists alongside D2e (if so D2e may just get some cosmetic/ playability tweaks and improvements eventually, no new expansions doesn't mean this being out of the question- a reprint could be an opportunity to improve the quality of a set if it's staying), I think it most likely that the new thing will retire D2e eventually, but this 'something that exists alongside D2e' is also an option until we know what it is as I don't think there's any official line that D2e is axed, just no longer getting expansions.

Remember also FFG sometimes do make new stuff incompatible- you can't join 2e tiles to 1e tiles for example (although I still have plans for my 1e tiles- there are ways round this with entry points etc!), but the 2e tiles were better artwork wise and more detailed/varied so the 1e tiles are useful more for generic locations. Incompatibility where rules are affected can sometimes be a good thing as it can be better than trying to force a newer system to work with an older one. But you can allow the reusing of certain parts to be an option. Even if you don't it doesn't have to frustrate fans too much- if they like something from an older version there's usually some way they can migrate it over and fix the problems/ fill in any gaps of so doing. It's actually quite awesome just how much this is happening with the Terrinoth games fanbase- almost every entity is finding its way to the Genesys RPG (even ones from way back in the days of games like Diskwars!) and 'missing' armies are being worked on for Runewars Miniatures now FFG aren't adding to it. I think I'll be an honorary citizen of Mennara for life as new stuff from fans is growing faster than new stuff from FFG/Asmodee.

Some people undervalue the world of Mennara - I've seen comments about it being uninspiring etc- but if you dig it's just as rich in content and possibility as any other fantasy world and bigger than some people realize- it goes back a long way with the games too. It has many possibilities for the games that can play out with it and the stories it can tell and just delving into the lore is a lot of fun in itself. Really enjoyed playing it out, especially in the RPG sessions I've taken part in- I think it has a very healthy future, and it's still growing thanks to the fanbase.

On 2/27/2020 at 2:52 PM, Watercolour Dragon said:

Just one product that looks 'cheap' or lacking is going to be harmful with so much competition. Thankfully I think FFG have learnt from this- mini quality has improved a lot for example

Except for Mansions of Madness, also war gamers were not whelmed by the soft plastic of Runewars, Runebound was still using the tiny minis descent started with plus sticker dice (what is this the 80's?). And that's just the games I'm still keeping track of, I've largely given up on FFG. I think they get the problem exists but are too into penny pinching to really fix it.

Quote

but they're still failing somewhat on some of these aspects, such as playing the long game with their games, they still seem to give up on new products too easily, leaving the feeling they should have had more long-term faith in them.

I think their plan of releasing half a game to convince people to buy a bunch of expansions stopped working out. It's not just that scheme doesn't compete well. People have picked up on it so the moment they aren't producing content for a line everyone freaks out that it's over and stops buying into the game.

I think they got super over saturated trying to keep up with the demand for expansions with the diminishing return that yields and trying to produce new lines. The end result being that they've been botching everything lately. Have they pruned back enough to be functional now, who knows.

But getting a rep for being the company that cancels everything I expect to be quite harmful moving forward.

On 3/4/2020 at 4:26 PM, Bucho said:

But getting a rep for being the company that cancels everything I expect to be quite harmful moving forward.

This article has plenty of good points about how big can go well or woeful: https://www.mechanics-and-meeples.com/2016/02/08/asmodee-the-other-creature-that-ate-the-gaming-world

Having so many titles can mean the smaller fish become invisible beneath a sea of bigger fish, even if small is actually quite meaty as the bigger fish are actually more the ginormous fish.

Interesting article 🙂

There are a few aspects that are really relevant:

- the boardgames world is really small with respect to everything else (for Hasbro is 25% of their business)

- the boardgames world is split in 3: USA, Europe, the Rest of the World. The dynamics are really different in the 3 parts

- Kickstarter may be a key changer of the boardgames world. Why should I buy from Hasbro/Asmodee if I can get a quality products from Kickstarter?

As a personal opinion, Asmodee has already destroyed a lot of good companies (FFG as an example) and it is not clear how long they will survive with such an approach. I definitely may be wrong, but I don't see great products (in my perspective) delivered by them.

I do think that boardgame world changed a few years ago. I used to be very excited from many new games and now there are very few to none to do such to me.

This sheds some more light on the logic that will likely play into the situation, only downside is the interviewer is a SW fanboy (we need a Terrinoth fan interviewer hehe) so we find out loads re SW lines but nowt re most other lines. But still gives some clues. Also rather backs up the possibility that we could see one 'really big project' for Terrinoth but maybe less/none of the 'smaller' ones. Plus the fact IA still sells without expansions might highlight a similar thing for the likes of Descent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6Pu7RmbCCQ

RPG is moving to Edge (dedicated RPG division) https://edge-studio.net/

https://www.reddit.com/r/genesysrpg/comments/fgzscc/edge_studio_now_has_an_english_website_featuring/

FFG to be split into FFG board and card games

and

FFG Miniatures

Hi, I realize I'm very late to the party but I had a thought and when I looked in this thread I saw no one had mentioned it so I wanted to add my speculation.

I think it would be pretty cool if the next big move for Descent was to go the "Journey's in Middle Earth" format. I could see that working out very well with minimal adjustment to the Descent system. The big question (in my mind at least) is would you keep Descent's dice combat or move to Journey's skill check card draw? I think a middle-ground combination of the two could have potential to be very interesting.

That's all I got. Hopefully we hear something this year. Either way this is also my reminder to myself to dig out Descent and get it back to the table. It has been too long!

I hate those game using apps when you spend more time looking on your phone than playing with your friends, being almost a slave to the game, placing and removing stuff as the app orders you, without knowing why sometimes and rolling dice the rest of the time, when not reading usless story?

I don't see the point of those games far from what I'm looking for. But games tend to where I don't like so maybe it's time to me to go search for a new hobby 😭

@rugal , did you see AltarQuest? There is the opportunity to get it in another Kickstarter project, if you missed it 🙂 Maybe it is what you are looking for 😉