Hi all,

I have vanilla descent for a few years now and I also have the Well of Darkness expansion for about a year.

I'd like to buy a new expansion, but I'm not sure which one I should buy... I also play D&D, so I'm not looking for campaign play..

We noticed that with the Well of Darkness expansion everything got a lot tougher on the heroes. Does Altar of Despair tune the toughness a bit down, or would the Tomb of Ice be a better choice?

If you want to give the heroes the advantage, get Tomb of Ice. It introduces feat cards, a way for the heroes to give them a bit more of an edge. Altar of Despair has some pretty powerful monsters (Deep Elves, Dark Priests, Trolls) so that one will probably make it even harder for the heroes.

I would get em both!

Ok - not what you were asking. Take a look at the Well of Darkness book - I can't remember if it is Well of Darkness or Altar of Despair that has one of my favorite quests - the first quest in one of these is a cave that caves in - one piece per turn - through the whole level. It was one of the most fun ones my group played (and replayed - as I crushed em the first time! Kobold spawns were GREAT to get in their way and slow them down... almost too cheap! Plus they went too slow the first time and learned their lesson.)

Otherwise - if that one is in Well of Darkness and you already have it - get Tomb of Ice. I like, for the heroes, that they get feats. They might tick you off now and again as they can stop some well laid plans - but it is a good one to really even out the playing field... At least that is how I have felt with it.

I'd vote Tomb of Ice, personally. I really like that expansion. It has some of the most creative things I've seen for Descent (the heroes are unique, monsters with stomachs to be swallowed in, indoor-to-outdoor tiles, and the largest room tile in the game (10x10)). Feats are nice too if your heroes feel the game is tough on them.

-shnar

SoylentGreen said:

That's the first quest in Well of Darkness, called Buried Alive. My heroes played that this weekend, they barely won, getting out with the duke when only the last room was still on the board.

First quest in Altar of Despair is The Thing in the Pit.

shnar said:

Oooo yes... I forgot about those last three... Tomb of Ice!!!!

I only have one non-campaign expansion-Altar of Despair, and it's really good; great new creatures and a really cool treachery deck among other things.

I'd still recommend you give the advanced campaign expansion Road to Legend a try(not sure if you can rent board games before you decide to buy, I know you can where I live-in Israel). Anyhow, the dungeons in Road to Legend are a lot smaller than the ones in the vanilla expansions, each with its own special rules. While the total playing time of the whole campaign is 60+ hours, it can be divided into one-two hours sessions, and after each you can save your progress by putting all the cards into the specifically provided tuck-boxes.

zealot12 said:

I think 4 hours a session is more realistic... if you intend to do one dungeon per play session... each level (and each encounter) was designed to be played in about 1 hour per level... And that timing is when you actually have the rules down and working well... (not having to constantly look up things.)

The campaign is fun - don't get me wrong - but we are so far into it we don't ever play vanilla anymore - and I think some of the best experiences I have had with Descent has been in vanilla play.

SoylentGreen said:

Why do you have to do 1 dungeon per play session? You can save after any given level, and as you say they are designed to be played in about an hour. So in a 1-2 hour session you could easily do a level or possibly two if they are a little quicker.

I agree that the campaign is also fun, but I do still enjoy vanilla Descent a great deal. Like your group though, once mine starts a campaign, if we play Descent that's all they want to do. Once we finish this one, we'll be sure to play a few vanilla games before starting another campaign.

And to the OP, I'd also recommend Tomb of Ice if you're looking to give the heroes a boost. The feat cards really help level the playing field with the addition of Treachery, and there are a lot of unique things in Tomb of Ice. The quests are also of at least a little bit more moderated difficulty than the other two vanilla expansions (at least in my limited experience).

Altar of Despair is fun, but will only make it harder on the heroes since it includes some insanely bad treachery cards and really ugly monsters (Dark Priests are ridiculously awful). That combined with the ridiculously hard quests mean that this expansion is only for heroes who are looking for a significant ramp up in difficulty. Plus one of the cooler features of Altar of Despair is also one of the least utilized unfortunately, that of the Prolonged Action orders. They allow heroes to do all the "other" stuff that is typical in dungeon crawling games, like picking locks, deciphering a codex and breaking down doors. They only used in AoD quests though, unless you like to make up your own.

Kartigan said:

While it is true you can end halfway inbetween a dungeon - WHO WANTS TO DO THAT!!!

I have never been able to end in the middle of a dungeon with my group (except once... but it was important) They just want to get through it... Hence why I feel it is always a 3-4 hour session.

Kartigan said:

Good point. Plus it seems like some of the ToI quests (only played 2) are shorter than your average Descent Quest, which makes for less than 4 hour game sessions (a boon for some parties).

-shnar

I'm looking at the same question right now. I'm reading the rule books to the various expansions on the fantasy flight web site. Under the support section on the descent products. They don't have the quests, but they have the rules themselves which is giving me a feel for things. What I'm going to start out doing is borrowing a friends and using that first. If you know someone with more sets I'd do the borrowing route first off.

I've made up my mind. I'm going to skip Altar of Despair and go for Tomb of Ice.

Thank you al!

Siebeltje said:

Good choice! BUT - next time you have money burning a hole in your pocket - make sure to get Altar!!! It's still worth the money - just a lot feel Ice is better... me included.