The dust has settled and the valiant attendees of Realms of Terrinoth 2011 have made the journey back to their home realms. Champions return with trophies of their conquests, as the defeated tend to their wounds and dream of success at next year’s gathering. But whether they were the conquerers, the conquered, or merely bystanders to the battles, attendees shared a weekend of gaming and fellowship that they won’t soon forget.

Friday night welcomed guests with numerous learn-to-play sessions, the first forays into the Descent Delve of Doom, a meet-and-greet with Runebound developer John Goodenough and Descent designer Kevin Wilson, and finally the unveiling of the newest Terrinoth-based game: Rune Age!

The Descent, Runewars, and DungeonQuest tournaments officially kicked off on Saturday, when players competed for conquest points, dragon runes, and treasure, all vying for the title of champion. While Rune Age designer Corey Konieczka gave a few fortunate players the chance to play his latest Terrinoth creation, the tournaments raged on.

The Extreme Dungeon Makeover

In a clash of creative powers, several teams of clever Overlords faced off in the Descent Extreme Dungeon Makeover on Friday night. Each team had 75 minutes to design a completely original Descent dungeon using a bag of randomized components and their imagination.

It was a tough job to judge the entries, because each dungeon was unique, challenging, and inspired. First place went to the creators of Rumble in the Deep, a maze-like dungeon ruled by a massive golem and his subordinate sea of kobolds. Congratulations to Spencer, Chris, David, and Matt!

Several Extreme Dungeon Makeover competitors

The Delve of Doom

The infamous hero-swallowing dungeon returned for 2011, redesigned and ready for a new batch of challengers. Though many heroic players braved the Descent Delve of Doom’s halls, none survived. The people of Terrinoth may not remember all those who fell, but one saga will be told in Free Cities for years to come.

Joe, Cindy, Dave, and Ron, the team of dungeon-delving veterans that also won the weekend’s Descent: Journeys in the Dark tournament, ventured the deepest into the Delve of Doom before succumbing to its hoards of dark minions.

Descent Tournament

Taking place over three rounds, the Descent Tournament tasked teams with claiming as many Conquest Points as possible. Each round consisted of a small encounter-sized map with a single boss monster and a handful of minions. Teams could win Conquest Points by defeating the named monster, but is it better to fight, or to run through the level and bank whatever points you can?

Dave V., Ron N., Cindy Z., and Joe H. – The winners
of the Descent Tournament

Scores were close after the first two rounds, but in the third round, the team of Joe, Cindy, Dave and Ron chose a winning strategy: forget about the Master Demon and run like the wind. Though two other teams reached the same conclusion, theirs was fastest, banking almost all of their starting Conquest Points!

Runewars Tournament

The Runewars tournament raged on for most of Saturday, putting ambitious war leaders in charge of leading their empires to greatness. The fighting was fierce, but in the end, a select few generals stood apart.

Congratulations to Chris S., who claimed an impressive number of dragon runes in all three rounds, ultimately claiming victory.

DungeonQuest Tournament

Dragonfire Dungeon claimed many lives this past weekend, and dozens of would-be heroes met untimely deaths by Razorwings, Vampires, Bottomless Pits, and a number of other hazards. In the end, however, the luck of the Dragonlords was with Chris S. (who was also the winner of the Runewars tournament).

Champion Chris S., posing with both his
Runewars and DungeonQuest trophies

The DungeonQuest tournament was played over three rounds, and competitors added their total loot scores from all three rounds to determine their overall scores. Many competitors were totally shut out, gaining no loot in any of their three rounds. Chris, on the other hand, had the uncanny good fortune to find the mythical Gigantic Dungeon in not one, but two of his games! These finds, along with a few other choice treasures, resulted in a total score of 8,600 – an accomplishment that proved insurmountable to Chris’ opponents.

The Close of Another Chapter

All of this, along with some impressive entries into our Terrinoth Painting competition (congratulations Mike Desmond!), added up to a weekend of excitement and adventure.

2011 was a great year for Realms of Terrinoth, uniting old foes and forging new alliances. Congratulations to this year’s champions, and thank you to all who attended and helped make this event the best Realms of Terrinoth yet. To the rest of you, we hope to see you next year!