My gaming group has played the Descent base game several times and we are interested in starting a weekly campaign. I own the base and two expansions and was planning on buying Sea of Blood for the campaign rules based on positive reviews posted on Board Game Geek and elsewhere. However, I noticed that several postings on this forum are very critical of SoB. Is it really that bad? Should I get Road to Legend instead?

I'm honestly surprised at the harsh treatment that SoB seems to get on this forum given the positive comments on the Geek. Is this just nitpicking by dedicated fans (who presumably are the ones posting on FFG's forums) or is SoB really broken?

Well, they both have their issues when played by experienced, efficient players. When played by casual players, RtL seems to have less problems. SoB is plagued with really silly errors (like more pieces on a map than supplied in the game) and unfortunate stalemates (like monster swimmers that just stay away from the heroes who can never catch up with them). I really like what they were going for with SoB but the execution has problems.

Fortunately there are relatively simple house-rules that can be applied to fix both games. I recommend reading some of the recent posts about them and consider implementing some of them. The Advanced Campaign really is fun and it's unfortunate that it's got so many issues...

-shnar

agreeing with the poster abothe me, but still i would suggest to get RtL, its a nice start to learn the mechanics of the advanced campain and having not so many additional rules like SoB. If you are a fan of Seafights and Island exploring and so on you should go for SoB of course but you should find some Houserules here in the Forums to fix the tons of issues of balance in SoB.

regards Morthai

In my experience, I found RtL to be more refined. There is less confusion with things and it just seems to flow better then SoB. That being said, it still has its flaws. A few things to consider adding to the RtL AC that were introduced in SoB.

-Divine Favor, makes the run-away gap no longer a problem.

-Adding the Avatar health bonus that was introduced in SoB, so the final boss isn't such a pushover

A few other things to consider, the dungeon maps in SoB are much harder than those of the ones found in RtL, and you should use the same scaling rules that were in SoB.

I have played a RtL campaign using all of these changes, and the game was much better in my experience.

Having played only one campaign so far with SoB, I just found that doing anything on the ship was pointless...island levels, sea encounters, sloppy ship rules, and the omission of legendary areas.

Just some food for thought.

The one SoB rule we've incorporated into our RtL game is the 5 cities razed to win with a slight twist. We play that the Avatar cannot siege Tamalir until 4 other cities have been razed, so Tamalir is the 5th city, but is still the city that needs to be razed to win the game. This way, the Obelisk of Travel and stores and everything still work.

-shnar

Thanks for the feedback so far. Personally, I'm leaning towards SoB because I like the ship combat/pirate theme. The encounters at sea - particularly ship to ship - are what attracts me most to SoB. It seems like a good diversion from the typical dungeon crawl (not that there's anything wrong with a good crawl). How much house ruling is needed to make sea encounters efficient and fun? I don't mind minor tweaks but I don't like the idea of a complete rewrite.

Road to Legend as it makes Descent even more epic!

Sea of Blood seems really tacked on...especially the sea-map and ship to ship combat etc.

I'd have to agree with Frog.

If you pick one, pick Road to Legend. It is more straightforward to Sea of Blood. The ship combat etc. are a nice idea, but in the end they add more complexity than fun for me.

I have all Descent expansions, and Sea of Blood is the first one I wasn't really happy with, at least as a first impression - mostly because it is not a "add-on-top" expansion like all others but an either/or with Road to Legend.

At second glance, a few little twists (most of which have already been mentioned above) make Sea of Blood a worthwile expansion, especially if you have played RtL to the death, which I haven't.

I particularly like the Divine Intervention rule, the moveable Homeport and the new skill cards.

Marximus, if you are still having trouble deciding, I have my combined RtL and SoB up for sale/trade over on the BGG trade forums. Check them out and send me a BGG mail with an offer if you are interested. Please be sure to read my description first, though, so you know what you'd be getting...