Background on me.

I've played a few dungeon crawlers in the past (heroquest, warhammer quest, advanced heroquest etc.), so I'm not new to the concept of the game. Some games handle it differently.

Doors:

The rules say figures can open doors. Here's my question can monsters open doors in Descent? I thought I read something about named monsters being able to open doors, but not rune locked ones? If that's true, can monsters (or is it just named) open any door but rune locked ones?

Well of Darkness:

The expansion rules say to replace new set cards for the old base cards, but they look like the same cards to me. Did they reprint Descent Base Set and Rule book to reflect the changes mentioned in WOD?

I ran new players with WOD and the base set for the first time last weekend and things went really well! They won, but we all had fun.

Now I have purchased Tomb of Ice and Road to Legend .

Before you gasp, I'm aware of what's involved with Road to Legend and it's why I bought it. Like I said I'm a gamer.

My players seem to grasp the game VERY quickly. I was actually surprised at how fast they took to the game.

Now how many quests should I run them through before trying to tackle Road to Legend with them. My concern is that they like this game a lot now, but I'm afraid if I run the regular quests too much they will be burned out before hitting the insane campaign. Also, I do not own the Altar of Despair . I see that the monster rules are included in Road to Legend . Is it necessary for me to pick that one up? I picked up Tomb of Ice because of the feats and such added for the players. Also, the monster swallowing thing is just too **** cool. Not to mention I really like how they handle stealth.

I'm just asking for advice on which quests do you think would best prepare them for the campaign and how many would you run before going headlong into it. These guys are mature and smart, but also have jobs like myself. We will be planning on getting together to play for about one day for 10 hours every other week or so. I'm guessing this will run through the winter. It would be nice to start a campaign to keep them hooked and wanting for more. I feel the campaign setting has a better chance of that, rather than one off quests that take 4-5 hours without no long term investment/reward.

Doors: All figures can open normal doors, but you can not open a door to an unrevealed area. In all my plays I have never seen a door used by a monster or even a door closed. There are some maps that have multiple ways into a room. I can see a use for monsters opening these doors, but in rare cases.

A couple things about the campaign. None of the expansions are required. When you start a dungeon level, you get to from 3 sets of monsters to spawn. The first set will mostly be from base set, the second set from Altar of Despair, the third from Well of Darkness. These aren't set in stone, but that is mostly the way it is. You technically don't even need the figures from the expansion as Road to Legend has the cards you need. You could simply substitute other figures in their place.

My group just finished a campaign. It took about 3 months and we were meeting for about 6 hour sessions, once a week. We missed maybe 3 weeks in that time frame.

DavidG55311 said:

Thanks David for the reply! I had a situation where the players closed a red rune door to keep the spawning monsters from coming in after them. Basically I was wondering if heroes could walk through a door and shut it behind them to keep monsters from following.

Rune locked doors I believe can be opened and closed by named monsters, but since the location is unrevealed until the heroes get there, hardly ever a reason to do that.

DavidG55311 said:
Doors: All figures can open normal doors, but you can not open a door to an unrevealed area. In all my plays I have never seen a door used by a monster or even a door closed. There are some maps that have multiple ways into a room. I can see a use for monsters opening these doors, but in rare cases.

In my experience, monsters usually don't need to open doors, because it's foolish for the heroes to close (regular) doors behind them. It just blocks line-of-sight, making it easy for the overlord to spawn right on the other side of the door. (With rune-locked doors, though, closing off part of the dungeon is often a good strategy, as only named monsters can open them.)

Closing doors, on the other hand, can often be fun as the overlord. The heroes have to waste MP re-opening them, and the overlord can play a new door trap every time the door is opened.

mahkra said:

the overlord can play a new door trap every time the door is opened.

Though if he does, there's a good chance the heroes are going to breathe a sigh of relief, as most door and chest traps are a waste of threat.

I myself have just recently started up a group with which I'm intending to tackle the RtL campaign. So far I've played 2-3 maps with them, and I intend to play at least 3 - 4 more. Three of us have already done some campaigns, though never finished one. Two others however are new to boardgames (besides basic stuff like Risk, Monopoly and Hero Quest) and I'm easing them gently into the fray. I started them off on the very first quest from the base game, Into the Dark.

Another one we tried is the official quest, "The Chase", which you can download from the FFG Descent support page. They lost this one horribly after the first hero who entered the second area got one-shot when a Dark Priest spawned around the corner from him, decimating him with a 10 or 11 damage roll, which is pretty much the maximum a master dark priest can roll I think.

We've also played the first Well of Darkness quest, Buried Alive, which I think is a great quest for the heroes to learn about moving through a dungeon fast rather then dawdling in every area, losing conquest due to OL deck reshuffles.

The quest I'll be playing with them this weekend is Last Wishes, Q5 from the base game. The first area in that quest should teach them a lot about spawn prevention. After that, I'm not sure what quest I'll start them on, although the Siege on Tamalir quest from the Compendium is something I might wanna throw at them.

Check out this great thread for some tactical insight on some of the official quests.

Heroes can open and close regular doors, and can open and close rune-locked doors only if the party has found the correct rune key.

Normal and master monsters can open and close regular doors, but not rune-locked doors, and cannot open any door leading to an unrevealed area.

Named monsters can open and close regular or rune-locked doors, whether the heroes have the appropriate key or not, but still cannot open any door lreading to an unrevealed area.

DescentNYC said:

Yes, precisely.

Thanks all for some great replies and answers to my questions. I think I have a pretty good handle on the game so far, but I'm sure a few other things will come up in the future.

Get Altar of Despair!!

For RtL, I would rather play with just AoD than WoD and ToI. I think most people would agree that AoD gives you both the coolest monsters, and the most dynamic heroes in the game.

DavidG55311 said:

Monsters in my game occasionally close doors to block off LoS and spawn new things. Of course, the monster has to close the door at the end of my turn for a spawn on the next turn, since I can't spawn after activating an existing figure. I'm not saying it happens every quest, but there are definitely times when it proves useful.

DescentNYC said:

First, this is the sort of game that takes a lot to burn out from, if you get into it. And moving from 'vanilla' quests to Advanced Campaigns is a good way to reinvigorate burnout anyway.

I would recommend you play at least the first 5 DJitD quests and at least 1 or 2 from each expansion you will use. Preferably more. Here are a few reasons why.
- Advanced Campaigns are Advanced Campaigns. You need more than a passing competence level as the heroes (because the hero decisions drive the campaign engine, so they are the ones making all the major choices, so if anyone screws up it will be them, and there is something of an exponential curve in balance so if they screw up early they can get really screwed.)
- The heroes need to be playing at an almost automatic level in dungeons, because they need to be constantly focusing on the out-side-the-dungeon picture. It is not just 'how do we get through this dungeon level' it is 'what do we need from this dungeon in terms of cash and CT, what can we afford to concede to the OL, what is our next purchase (upgrade) target and how are we planning to get it on the map, what is the OLs likely next purchase and what affect will it have on us, what s our long term plan, what is the OLs long term plan and how are we going to frustrate it...' Most, if not all of those things impact on your choices inside the dungeon if you are playing well, so you need to have the 'normal' dungeon play down at an almost instinctive or automatic level...
- It helps a lot to have a good understanding of the values of various heroes and skills, as well as the distribution of treasures in the treasure deck. Sometimes these things make a big and important difference to your choices during the game. These sorts of understanding can come with analysis, but usually come more with experience.

Having played a half dozen or more vanilla quests, I would highly recommend that you agree to do at least an hour or two research on the game each, and then pool your notes and discuss. You are heading into a 60+ hr boardgame, so you don't really want to learn as you play too much - the heroes will get screwed. You wouldn't play a 60hr+ hex and counter WWII game without some time investment first, would you?

Corbon said:

I'd also recommend that everyone takes a turn as the overlord for at least one quest. You'll understand the game a LOT better after you've had some exposure to both sides of it.

Corbon said:

+1, in addition let some of your other players take the role of an OL for a couple of times, that was the part that helped me as a hero-player the most.

Edo..

Edit:

mahkra beat me to it

Corbon said:

Thanks for the advice! I wouldn't play a WWII game lol! But that's just me. I will definitely look into playing a few more dungeons with them. I think I will show them RtL and discuss it with them next play session. Having one of them be the Overlord is a great idea also. I'm not sure if all of them would want to do it though. Regardless, thanks for the advice and I'll look into it. I know my players and they are more of the theme variety. I told them about the monster in Tomb of Ice that can swallow heroes and they all got excited. I know, they're a sadistic bunch.

It will remain competitive, but the experience would not be great if I steam roll over them also A few more games to get the rules down and if there interested in RtL, we'll give it a shot. If they aren't, well I have an expansion I can't use at the moment lol!

But I have MANY regular quests to run them on.