I have recently been very interested in board games, and my daughter and I are having quite a bit of fun. I picked up Arkham Horror, along with the Dunwich expansion, and we have been learning it together. She will be 11 in Dec, and is pretty smart for her age, and I recently started to read about the game Descent. Arkham horror is extremely complex, but we are getting through it, as it makes it easier that it is a co-op game.

Since this is a game of the players competing against each other, I'm wondering if it would be too complex to play against each other. From what I have read, it looks like the Overlord player would be a little more involved, so I suppose I would take that role, and let her play the role of the hero. I would appreciate any feedback on this idea...

I have a friend who uses a modified version of the game with his eight year old son.

An intelligent eleven year old should be able to grasp it. However, I would suggest letting her play the overlord while you play the heroes.

While the OL does have a fair amount of involvement, the complexity of the actions that the overlord can take is miniscule in comparison to those that the heroes can take.

The OL has a hand of cards that they can play within certain limits and in general the OL creatures can each move and attack. Each hero has a plethora of possible actions and conditions under which they can use their randomly drawn skills and abilities. The OL role is definitely the easier introduction if you are both learning the game IMO.

I agree, it's simpler to play as the overlord. There are often multiple monsters, but they all just move and attack, which is pretty straightforward. The overlord cards complicate things a bit, but they're really not too hard to learn.

For the first quest or two, you could just play with no hidden information - quest book and overlord cards are visible to everyone. (The first couple quests are really just for learning, anyway.) Once your daughter gets the hang of things, she can keep the qeust book & cards hidden and play the overlord part without assistance.

The heroes, on the other hand, are fairly complicated.

Each turn, they can choose from 4 different actions, 3 of which just give different numbers of movement points and/or attacks that can be used throughout the turn. The 4th action gives some movement OR one attack, and additionally lets the hero place an order. If the hero goes with that last option, he then has 4 unique orders to choose from - aim / dodge / guard / rest - all of which further alter the things he can do during his turn.

Every hero also has a unique special ability which modifies the base rules of the game in some way. Some of the abilities provide passive bonuses, while others can be activated to perform unique actions. The hero player has to remember to use this ability during the game, or he will be at a disadvantage.

Heroes also have 3 skills (usually), all of which modify the game in different ways. Some are very simple (+1 maximum fatigue), but others are more involved (telekinesis).

And heroes have weapons, armor, potions, and other items to keep track of.

And they have fatigue, which can be used for extra movement or to boost the power of attacks.

The biggest issue with the hero side, though, is that the game really doesn't scale well to smaller parties, so you really should play with 4 heroes. (3 heroes is also okay if you're playing without any expansions, but generally 4 heroes is best.) And if you're controlling multiple heroes, it can be really hard to keep track of each hero's equipment & abilities, especially when you're new to the game.

EDIT - There's a lot involved in Descent, but it's certainly not too hard for an 11-year-old to learn. My brother and I have included my 2nd grader in our games a couple times over the past year, and while the strategy seems to go over his head, he understands the mechanics fairly well. And he LOVES the game, even if he doesn't always know what he's doing.

If you want an adventure type game - have you checked out Runebound? Its in the same universe as Descent - and while it isn't dungeon delving - it is running across a map, completing quests, and trying to vanquish evil...

It is MUCH less time intensive and quite casually fun - but still has loot and monsters - 2-3 hours a game - where as some dungeons can really take 4-6 hours. (I know Descent time to play is really debatable... but it on average is much longer than Runebound takes to play...)

Both games are great - don't get me wrong Descent is great - but maybe start adventuring with Runebound - it's simpler - then when you think Descent would be easier for her - get into that.

That's my 2 cents.

I'd recommend Talisman; it's got simple roll&move mechanics,a colorful eye-catching board, relaxed pacing and it's just an all around fun package.

Also, if you're interested in strategy turn-planning games, I highly recommend Roborally- setup in two minutes,very easy to learn, with almost no downtime between turns and while a competitive game, it's unusually friendly and often intentionally hilarious(when your pre-planned move gets ruined by an opponent or due to poor programming on your side). Short games can be played in half an hour, and there are plenty of different track layouts in the rulebook for you to try out.

RoboRally is one of my favorite games ever & I'm thrilled it's finally being printed again, but it can be a bit dull with only 2 players. The fun-ness (and definitely the hilarity) of the game comes from unanticipated interactions between the robots (someone pushes your robot to a different square and then the rest of your program works in an unintended way), and that doesn't happen much with only 2 players.

I think an 11 year old could handle Descent well enough, especially if she's already got a firm grasp on Arkham Horror. I suspect she could handle either OL or hero roles well enough, although you may want to go easy from a competitive standpoint. Descent can be highly competitive if both sides play to win. The OL in particular needs to hit hard and fast near the beginning of a quest, since generally speaking once the heroes get access to gold weapons, it's all over but the dying.

In a group of adults who can handle a loss I'd firmly recommend both sides going whole hog, but for a younger child it might be wiser to throw the game a little bit. I'm not saying to let her win all the time, but maybe give a pass to some of the nastier tactics in interest of keeping things fun. She'll probably make a few mistakes herself that will keep things about even. (I'm not trying to insult her intelligence or anything, but effective Descent tactics definitely have a learning curve attached to them.)

You may also want to brush over some of the sillier rules issues with house rules. There are some truly confusing things about Descent, even for us grown ups. In general I find it wise to waive away logic concerns in the interest of maintaining game balance, but if you're already going a little easy it won't hurt matters to bend the rules a bit more than normal. I'm thinking a young child who's still getting a grasp of real world physics might be thrown for a loop with some of the nonsense Descent does. (Read a few of the other rules questions threads around here if you want to see what I'm talking about. There've been some good ones lately.)

Thanks so much for all the feedback. Reading about Robo Rally has peaked my interest for another idea to try. I had been interested in Castle Ravenloft, but it sounds like it has received quite a bit of negative feedback. Thanks again for the ideas, it is greatly appreciated.