After many past discussions about balancing Descent/ problems with balance and OP situations in Descent I'm now toying with the idea of making life even more difficult for my fan-designer self by attempting a 'Balance of Power' dynamic in my project where some parts do see either the heroes/enemies having the dis/advantage quite intentionally. Or perhaps more accurately making it seem so.

Whilst this sounds (and is) really difficult to make work I have a few ideas for how I might manage to make it work- and if so it would only be certain parts of the adventure which could be skipped if players didn't like the kind of play style it entailed. (It's likely what I'm working on will have a few unique adventures in other ways mechanics/gameplay-wise so I'm basically working on this kind of pick and mix of what people like anyway- thus it's not a case of playing something that doesn't suit the style of play you like, you can have the variety or just play what interests your group)

It was inspired by reading about the 'war of ten brothers' in the Battlelore Command backstory (lore from long before the events of the campaign you're playing) where the Riverwatch Riders won a battle even though outnumbered ten to one.

Of course the key to this is threefold- one although the balance of power can be very UNbalanced, in such parts it just puts the onus even more on the disadvantaged side to play smartly - whereby with a lot of wisdom and a little bit of luck the tide can turn in their favour (there will be some way of attempting to deal with the predicament they find themselves in even if it may not be easy or by any means guaranteed) and two a thread where it is part of the adventure design overall that sometimes one side or the other might lose yet will have gained some useful outcome along the way that will aid them beyond this encounter/situation even if they didn't quite manage to turn the tables, to adapt a popular saying 'losing the battle but still fighting/winning the war maybe', something the game sometimes does a bit anyway already. Finally making it so that if either side is losing it doesn't put them out of the game completely where losing becomes the only possible outcome, their actions are pointless and playing is not much fun. A few fun things like karma and retribution could add interestingly to the mixes I have in mind.

It's probably the hardest thing to try game design wise as it still has to tick all the boxes of being fun for both sides, both sides having some sort of a fair chance etc, so it could fail epically at playtesting but if I can make it work in the kind of ways I think I can it could actually turn out really interesting, especially with the unfolding story of the adventures the heroes are journeying through, with that more real dynamic that as any heroic attempt to defeat evil progresses, the successes of that attempt wax and wane- if you think of the movies and stories you enjoy they'd be a bit dull if one side won everything too easily and nothing ever went wrong for either of the sides- the 'tugs of war' and failures and successes, setbacks and recoveries make them exciting- tricky to do in a game that still works but I'd like to try, especially as I like the idea of evil gradually growing in power over the course of the adventures until it has eventually very much got the upper hand seeming unstoppable but for some heroic challengers fighting back against the odds. Although again a difference maybe to a story as the overlord has to also be able to potentially ultimately win game-wise, keeping that possibility that the heroes do after all get their dreams mercilessly crushed- it's a game of two sides after all mwahahaha. To keep the interest you of course want it to be something of a rollercoaster for both sides as things go for and against their respective likelihoods of success or failure.

I've always thought Descent often naturally plays out in this tug-of-war way anyway, where the balance of power shifts, either intentionally by design or by accident due to the great many variables mathematically of combinations in a game and I actually like some aspects of this, it feels that more of adventure knowing sometimes you can lose badly (or be cleverly thwarted in your plans if you're the overlord).

So wish me luck, this could mean a lot of head-scratchy headaches but I already have some things in mind (no spoilers!)- if it doesn't work there's always the backstory option for adding in those ups and downs: between that last adventure and this one,.....

Hope I can make it work as some of my most fun game experiences (computer and board) have been the 'I' ve so totally lost, but wait- ah, hang on, if ..... it might just work,... yay- turned it around' ones, but it's also been fun sometimes badly losing but at least being able to try not to- I want to capture that sort of surviving against the odds in adverse circumstances that seem impossible where even losing sometimes is fun aspect.

I'm thinking the creative process itself of this endeavor might be rather like that!