So, at my local hobby store earlier this week playing a game of Munchkin with some friends. As we are playing, two younger guys come into the store and sort of browse the sales area. They even came by to check out the game of Munchkin we were playing.

Anyways, after they look through all the Warhammer stuff, All the Magic Stuff and check out our game, they discovered the Wall of board games. The Store displays their games on peg board with hooks, so you can be dazzled by all the art...haha, or something like that. After standing there, and looking at it for awhile, they picked up the copy of Descent: JitD and were most interested in that. Naturally, I was observing them as I always get excited when someone wants to play Descent.

After some debate, they decided to buy the game. The person running the store even convinced these guys to buy some sleeves for their new game.

The point of me saying all this. This just proves that Descent, without knowing or seeing the game will always sell off to new and curious people. As it stands now, The owner of the hobby store cannot keep a copy of the main game in-stock for more then 2 weeks.

And, as a side note....Twilight Imperium, Tide of Iron, Talisman, and a few other big FFG games were on that wall that day.

Ah, Talisman! The memories. In origin it was a GamesWorkshop title. I still have the 2nd edition( first or second, not sure.). FFG simply reprinted it, as far as I'm aware with better artwork. Well, they also released a couple of expansions for it, which is cool. Maybe I'll pick up the reprint and its add-ons sometime.

And yes, Descent is great of course, even if the rules at times defy common sense.

A couple? They've released 2 board expansions and 3 small expansions, and it looks like they won't be stopping any time soon. Yes, it plays a lot like the original, but at the very least, we've got nicely upgraded components and continuing support for a great game

Back on topic, this was how I felt about Doom: The Boardgame. I saw it in the shop, chuckled to myself wondering why anyone would buy a boardgame version of a computer game, then looked at the back. Woa, modular/puzzle-like pieces? Marines vs. alien-like forces? This looks a lot like Space Hulk! I had to buy it and haven't regretted it since. Was my 2nd FFG game (LotR was my first, being the Tolkien nut that I am) and never thought I'd own so many boardgames, especially during the great boardgame drought of 1995.

-shnar

Pretty much exactly how I picked up Descent. I was browsing a hobby/game store on a random stop, saw the box art, read the back, and decided I had to have it. I didn't actually get it until a few months later, mind you (I didn't have much cash with me at the time), but nonetheless I did get it, just by seeing the box. Haven't regretted it one bit .

I was tempted by the box art, but I didn't actually buy it until I played someone else's copy and realized it was Doom with a fantasy theme. I absolutely loved Doom, so I jumped at the chance to play a larger and revised edition of the game mechanic. I still do love it. Ended up buying Sea of Blood even though I've had my fill of AC games with RtL (for the moment anyway.) I think I've come to the conclusion that if I want large overland adventure, I'd rather play Runebound.

hmm looked at Doom it looks very much like Descent, but with aliens in stead of monsters, how does the game play compare?

Doom is Descent's "father". Kevin Wilson created Doom, then created Descent tweaking the game and using FFG's Terrinoth property in a fantasy setting (would be interesting to see Terrinoth in a Sci Fi setting). Off the top of my head, here's a few differences:

- Doom caps out at 3 marines
- Doom doesn't have Power Dice (so no surges and surge-abilities)
- Doom doesn't use Fatigue (so no extra movement/power dice bonuses)
- Doom armor is different, rather than subtracting from the damage rolled, a wound is scored on the armor multiple (i.e. if you have 3 armor, you get a wound for every 3 damage rolled)
- Doom has a handful of weapons (so no treasures or money)
- Doom doesn't use Conquest Tokens (the Invader (OL) wins after a set number of Frags, usually 6)
- Doom's marines are all "worth" the same (i.e. 1 Frag instead of 2-4 CTs)
- Doom has a unique but similar set of dice
- Doom uses Ammo for all their weapons (one of the icons on the die is an ammo, and if you roll it, you discard an ammo chit)
- Doom doesn't have a "Town" (when you're Fragged, on the next turn you simply respawn 8-16 spaces away from the frag spot)
- Doom doesn't have Threat (Invader can simply play 1 spawn card per turn, all other cards are "free")
- Doom has the BFG!

Other then that, most of the game plays the same. Marines have special Marine Cards (i.e. skills) that give them bonuses. On their turn, they declare an action Advance/Sprint/Unload/Ready (Sprint = Run, Unload = Battle), every marine gets 4MPs (8 if they sprint), doors cost 2MPs to open, you count range when you attack, etc. On the Invader's turn, he draws 2 cards, plays 1 spawn card, then activates all invaders on the board. The LOS rules are the same, both for attacking and for spawning.

Mechanics aside, even though the game plays very the same, the two have a completely different feel. Descent is a dungeon crawl "adventure", Doom is a horror-survivor game. The marines feel like the odds are stacked against them, and every little resource is precious. Aim is used a *lot* to help keep from spending too much ammo. Covering LOS is much more important, since the OL can simply spawn every turn. And every victory feels like a hard-earned win.

Oh, I should add Doom also has CTF/Deathmatch rules if you're tired of playing against just the Invader

-shnar

Mordak said:

Both games are highly tactical in combat. Doom is much more tense for the marine players, though. Ammunition for weapons can run out and health packs are fewer (also, they can't be carried around unless you invoke some house rules - they have to be picked up off the ground for healing.) There is no equivalent of town so there is no respite for the marines. It was originally designed to emulate the suspense and "holy crap we're all gonna die!" factors of the Doom video games, and I think it succeeded quite well.

Perhaps the most interesting difference, in my opinion, is that Doom gets more difficult with more marines, since the number of monsters scales with the number of players, but the amount of ammo and other power ups doesn't. Also, since Doom is so closely connected to it's video game roots, the video gamey aspects of the rules don't seem so out place as their remnants do in Descent.

Eh, I've always pictured Descent as a boardgame version of Diablo. When I introduce new players to the game, I compare it to Diablo, and they get it. "Spawning monsters", "death respawns in town", "town portals", etc. In fact, I'm kind of surprised someone hasn't modded Descent into Diablo yet...

-shnar

I first found out about Descent by watch Tom Vasel's

A dungeon themed-fantasy boardgame of tactical battles, with nearly 200 minis (including all the promos & the metals), hundreds of cards, tons of tiles and tokens...

Swords, mages, elves, dwarves, dragons, krakens....

No doubt: Descent is the King of its gender. You can find more only in a RPG. Not in another dungeon-themed boardgame. Not at now, at least...

Thanks, think I will pick up Doom, give it a go.

Diablo is a great video game, would be nice to see a board game version.

Seriously....

boardgamegeek.com/thread/550949/diablo

Too many games not enough money!!!

Thanks for the link

That's not a real Diablo game btw... It's merely a mod by some fan. (Was meant to be a joke)

Just to chime in here. Descent is my second game from Fantasy Flight (Warhammer Invasion was the first). The only reason why I got it was due to the campaigns. (In my group of people I am the one who buys everything and I do lots of research on each game.) I plan on buying 2 more games systems from Fantasy Flight.

Manchine said:

Any two in particular you're eyeballing, or have you just decided "4 FFG games is enough!"?

Steve-O said:

You know I was looking for the paper I wrote them down on. I know Dust was one of them and I think the other one was Runewars.

I bought Runewars. Be careful, the box is only so big because it's a base game. The number of actual parts in the game just can't compete with Descent. The game is a fantasy version of Risk, but with a lot of stuff thrown in that makes the turns quite long. Many parts of the game are a lot more time-consuming than I find interesting. Just my two cents.

Returning on topic, that was just the way I found Descent: I walked into the shop, saw that big blue box and looked at the back of it. The moment I saw it, I thought "Well, well, HeroQuest has grown up." And then I bought it. I played a lot of HQ back in the early nineties, I have the full European set, and I like what Descent did with the idea. The game is much more flexible, there is more equipment, less punishment on death, more heroes to choose from, more game effects, tiles... what more could you wish?

My group bought... well - I should correct that... I bought Descent for my group because we were looking for something that would be a D&D replacement - that would be "dungeony" and that would be more focused on combat.

We enjoy RPGs and had fun with D&D - but wanted something different. It was at a con that I noticed Descent - a guy with most of the expansions and such. And was just blown away with the possibilities of the game - not the complexities of the game - but just simply how much it was exactly what we were looking for.

My wallet took a big hit over the next few months getting the base and EVERY EXPANSION I could get my hands on.

The deal was also sealed when we found out there wasn't a DM - but rather an Overlord that was actively playing and trying to kill them - rather than guide/lead through a story.

We also love gathering for board game play - most of us have played through hours of online games together - and having the face-to-face time and being physically in the same room just cannot quite be replaced by online gaming.

Nice to see my topic has taken off

My story starts on a Saturday evening. At my local hobby/game store we have a thing called "board games club" It is held the first Saturday of every month and starts at six PM. The idea is that the store...or club, has a series of games that people can play and learn about. It is also a great way to demo a game without actually making the investment into something you don't know about.

Anyways, on that Saturday, some younger guys came into the store with a game called Descent. I was not playing anything at the time and was interested in learning about it. However, they were more interested in playing other stuff, they said that Descent caused many arguments due to rules issues and whatnot. However, I was not swayed. I found some people to play with, and a person to play the role of the Overlord and we sat down and went to it.

We played the first quest, and I do believe we spent almost 3 hours in the first room, just because of reading rules and discussing tactics and other things. But, once I realized that it had the DOOM engine, I picked it up fairly quickly. And yes, I own DOOM, picked that up just because it looked so different from other board games I played before. That was 2 years previous to this though.

After several hours of playing, and a few players coming and going, we were able to finish the quest and packed it up. We were the last ones to leave and I am pretty sure it was a silly hour....2am or something.

I had mentioned this game to my other friends who were also into games like this. Once I said it was Hero Quest with the DOOM engine, but better, they were all stoked. A week or so after that night, I got my one buddy to play with me and the same Overlord from that night and played a different Quest. Much smoother and faster the second time through.

After that, I decided I needed to have my own copy. And the rest is History.

Descent, the greatest game...its why I get excited when people are buying into it and playing for the first time. I know the feeling.

I haven't got it yet; I recently bought World of Warcraft: The boardgame. I got the advice on BGG because I already own Doom:TBG

But I'm still very curious about it.