About how many hours should I expect this to be? In average, how many sessions and how long do they last? Total play time in hours? Just want to know what we're about to get into.

Thanks in advance!

Time is dependent on how fast you play, of course. Also, in my experience, the first campaign you play takes a little longer, as you're still getting the hang of the set-up, strategy, and advancement procedures. If you can average about 1 hour for each regular dungeon level, and the supporting "weeks" (map-based turns) that lead up to it, I think a campaign would last about 50-60 hours for a first-time. If you're playing with a group of 5 living people, then that might add a bit, due to the deliberating in which larger groups tend to indulge. I'm used to ~5-hour sessions, so it takes my group about 10-12 sessions.

This can be cut short, however, by an overlord victory. Because of the way the game is designed, if the overlord wins, he will probably do so around 60% of the way through that 50-hour estimate. The only way for the heroes to win, on the other hand, is to play the campaign out in its entirety.

Kain_Dragoon said:

It can vary a fair bit. And I think SoB, in fairly limited experience so far, is a bit slower than RtL.

I second most of what Phelanward said.
60-100 hrs, though it can finish much earlier if the OL wins.
I'd aim at 3-4 hour evening sessions, or 8-12 hours if you can manage that on weekends etc. The game is specifically built to break up into smaller sessions though.

However, I'd like to add some extra advice in...

1. This is an Advanced Campaign . It is not for powder puff players. It is not for casual players. If you take the attitude of 'learn as we go' (as almost everyone does) you will get burned, and badly (as almost everyone does!) You can still have fun paying this game with a casual attitude, but most people get frustrated when the game is 'too hard' because they didn't treat it with respect.

2. I strongly recommend your players;
a) play, or have played, at least 2 'vanilla' dungeons from the original game and 2 from each expansion you have, before starting an Advanced Campaign. You will enjoy it a lot more if your players are already at the stage where the nuts and bolts of dungeoneering tactics are automatic almost. There are plenty of other things that they need to be thinking about when playing an Advanced Campaign. Mostly the heroes lose if they get caught up in their dungeon game and aren't thinking about their overall game.
b) spend at least an hour each putting in some research time on the game. Know the basic upgrades for both sides and what their affects are (like how much tougher and more dangerous silver monsters are for example, and so how critical that first monster upgrade is). Perhaps do some internet research on tactics, strategies, what options are better than other options, party composition, etc etc. After spending that hour each (independently), meet and discuss what they have learned and what they think about it. They will be aiming to spend 60+ hours on this game. An hour or two extra at the start isn't much effort and will replay them handsomely.
c) accept that they will probably still lose their first game. The game has a steep learning curve. The game flow is controlled by the heroes, not the OL, which means that the heroes are the ones who are likely to screw up, and their screwups will usually cost them the game - when well played, it is a very tight game, so when one side screws up badly, that is usually enough for the other to win easily.

3. Note that the ending is almost always rather anticlimactic. Someone gets overwhelmed badly and feels like they could do little about it. This game isn't really about the ending, it's about the journey, though few people seem to understand that (and to be fair, it is really 'sold' as a big, climactic, stop the evil guy from destroying the world type thing, it just doesn't work that way most of the time.)

I've recently started the Advanced Campaign(there's only two of us playing, I control all the heroes) vs. The Demon Prince OL, and I gotta say, playing rather sloppily with the heroes ends up with them being at a huge disadvantage. Once the OL upgraded his Eldritch to Silver, dungesons have becom e a whole lot dangerous and some nigh impassable, so I have to flee several. Eldritch are the most common monsters in dungeons; silver skeletons and sorcerers are annoying , not to mention demons(yikes).

Unfortunately in my experience about 2 or 3 sessions, then the players get bored and want to play a different game. I have yet to make it out of Copper and I've played I think 5 different campaigns now

-shnar

I would recommend using a tracking tool to help you in your playing. This is especially true if you haven't played a lot of descent before. It helps with some of the more fiddly bits of the game so you can spend time learning the actual game.

http://www.descentcampaigntracker.com

Thanks for all the feedback!!

We're definitely "seasoned" players. I pulled nerd rank and made sure that we played through all of the expansions before we attempted RtL or SoB so that we could incorporate as many play mechanics as possible.

We have 3 more quests left in ToI and then onward to RtL. I'm sure I'll have more questions once we start......

Thanks again guys!

phelanward said:

On the contrary, I believe that playing with one or more dead people will significantly increase game length.