Hello everyone. I am a new Descent player (got the game a week and a half ago) and have done three games as the Overlord, and so far I am enjoying the game a whole lot.

However, I have a question regarding movement. Can a figure (Hero or one-space monster) legally move as indicated by the yellow arrow in the example below?

At first I thought this move would be illegal because 'logically', the wall would make it impossible. However in Quest #7 (vanilla Descent), area 5, such a move is mandatory in order to grab the various treasures in the room.

Eventually, me and my players agreed to make this move legal, but I wanted to make sure it is. The rulebook in vanilla Descent makes no specific mention of this situation, so I figured I'd ask here.

Thank you in advance

The movement example on page 9 of the rulebook clearly indicates that the move is legal. You can even move diagonally in between obstacles.

Yup, I knew you could do such a thing when the obstacle is a pit or rubble for example (as indicated on page 9, indeed), but I wondered if it applied to walls as well, although I had somewhat assumed it did since there was no specific mention in the rulebook (and since you sort of have to do so in Quest #7 like I mentioned earlier).

Thanks for the answer, though

Fenrick Marlowe said:

That move is legal, and would still be legal even if there were a monster/rubble token/whatever standing in the other space that touches the wall at the very corner. Note, as per the example on page 10, that you can also draw Line of Sight diagonally between two blocking obstacles as long as its directly diagonal.

Totally legal and make for a lot of dungeon configuration to be goofy, with obstacle that doesnt block or stop anyone.

I think some people could have been entitled in contesting it before it was confirmed in an example on the ground that you are not allowed to move/shoot if you leave the board. And some of thoses corner aren't actually depicted on board.

Strangely I am yet undecided if the game was better or worse for this move...

Ivan Kerensky said:

They still block you from moving/shooting straight through. If you want to design a dungeon that doesn't allow a figure to cut through a corner, just make sure you have an obstacle that touches the wall edge-on. Not hard. Besides, this is hardly the "goofiest" thing Descent's rules have ever done.

Ivan Kerensky said:

If anyone in a game I was playing ever tried to claim that you couldn't cut the corner "because your figure is leaving the board" I would counter with "okay, you can never pick up your figure to move it because it's leaving the board." Have fun trying to move all those figures by sliding them around without disrupting other figures/obstacles in the process. Also, I hope you never need to jump a pit because I don't see how you could ever manage that without the figure "leaving the board."

Movement is from one space to an adjacent space. Adjacency is defined as squares that touch orthogonally or diagonally. When the rules say a figure can't leave the board they mean you can't step OFF the board into an empty portion of the table. Honestly, sometimes I wonder about how people can get such ridiculous ideas.

Dont forget the map is using square and not hexagones. Wich mean that it is as much costly as moving around an obstacle using diags than if the obstacle wasn't there in the first place.

I agree you could have put the obstacle around the corner to actually hinder move, but did you notice how many dungeon maps have obstacle put diagonnaly of the corner ? or pit traps in front of treasure or potion or other thing that doesn't slow a thing because you can move between the pit and the corner diagonally.

Make me wonder really hard with the basic set if the rules weren't changed during playtest and dungeon maping not reworked.

About square adjacency, there is several squares that due to the cutting doesnt touch each other diagonnaly. That's added to my initial gut feel that diagons around corner was perhaps disallowed.