First off, this game is GREAT.
We started playing the base Vanilla game and , soon after, the WOD & AOD expansions, but we were dissatisfied with character progression.
So we collectively bought the remaining RTL & TOI so we could start the RTL campaign.

We've played many types of board games (strategy, dungeon crawler, historic battle, etc.) for years together and, to a lesser degree, RPGs.
But we've just started our first RTL campaign and we're hitting some snags.

(The following quotes are a dramatised version from my perspective as Overlord, just so you get the idea. For all you know, I could be making it up...)

INTRO
The 4 Heroes are fresh out of Tamalir in the 1st week, have just aced a 100% successful Encounter (The Hammer Brothers) and they've just fled their 1st Dungeon (Eternal Prisoner) at the 1st level with all the loot but 2 Hero deaths (which I understand to be a pretty smart tactic for early Copper Heroes...I really don't know. I've only ever played the Overlord, but I've read it several times on forums like this).
So far, Heroes have 9 Conquest & Overlord also has 9.

Hero 1
"I dunno.......it's not you. You're being a great Overlord......but I'm getting bored waiting to have my turn. I have nothing to do."

(Context: Hero 1 has Restless Leg Syndrome. I think he either loves this game and just can't wait to kick a**, or maybe I'm just taking way too long to play my turn. Is 5 minutes for the Overlord acceptable? Is 10 minutes ridiculous? I've no idea. But I just played a Kobold spawn and now I'm managing 15-20+ figures you dipstick!!!! How many figures and special abilities you gotta manage during your turn, huh ?!?!?! )

Hero 2
"WHAT ?!?!?!?!!........But when I asked you last week you said I COULD activate a Glyph AND move to town in the same turn ? Remember ? YOU SAID I COULD!!!"

(Context: Hero 2 had just activated a Glyph by moving on to it. He then tried to move his figure to town. I said "No dude, you can't do that." That settled, all seemed well for the rest of the Hero turn. When it came to my turn, I killed him with a Razorwing straight off.)

Hero 3
"No. We'd rather play the campaign game and learn it ourselves. You're the enemy. Don't give us advice".

(Context: Because I've won a majority of our Vanilla games I sorta feel sorry for the Heroes. But don't get me wrong. I play hard and I kill them at every opportunity. I don't see the point in being a "soft" Overlord, and letting a Hero run down that corridor when I have 2 Spiked Pits I can easily play.....which I've actually done. ; )
After the Heroes had finished their 1st turn, I suggested that they could've "Glyph'ed" straight to Market and check out the Copper treasures on offer, before exploring the Dungeon. (I can't find any rules to suggest why you can't "Glyph" straight to Town on the 1st level of a new Dungeon).
I've been looking up tactics and strategies on the web for both Heroes and Overlord because we're so new to the campaign style and it's such a long game. I've been dropping hints or sometimes saying "I wouldn't do that if I were you........" and reminding them of rules they missed. I can tell that Hero #3 finds it annoying so I won't do it again.........but he gets very annoyed anyway when his Hero dies over & over again. I'm probably not giving him credit where it's due.

Hero 4
"NO WAY! Laurel of Bloodwood can trace LOS from an adjacent square! Therefore, she counts the range from that square!!!"

(Context: He was well within range and he hadn't even rolled his attack dice yet and we still had a domestic dispute. My argument was that Laurel can trace LOS from an adjacent square but she still needs to roll the necessary range dice from HER square. The point is that we were starting to argue about something at the end of a dungeon, and it didn't even matter for that particular roll (she was only 3 squares away from the intended target). He said "STUFF IT. We'll work it out later. I just wanna get this done!". I think I'm just going to go with his viewpoint. One of the reasons he might've picked that character out of his starting 3 was his interpretation of that ability. I don't see any benefit in "knee-capping" his character for the rest of the campaign and it's not my job to make those decisions anyway, is it?). To my mind, his version of that ability gives Laurel +1 Range as well, but maybe he's right?

Towards the end of the level, during my turn, Hero #1 asked me one of his many questions about the rules (all the rule books are within easy reach plus we all have reference sheets).
I snapped and said "I'M HAVING MY TURN. YOU'VE GOT TIME TO KILL? LOOK IT UP YOURSELF."

Have any Heroes and Overlords had similar experiences?
What did you do?
How do you keep the game flowing, and most importantly, FUN, when it's essentially 4 players vs. 1 player?
Please share anecdotes, suggestions, brutal criticisms, etc., because we're struggling a bit.

How do we manage a dynamic like that when 1 player is expected to act like the "Game Master" but is really just Player #5?

You are not their DM or their nursemaid. Play your game and let them play theirs.

Yeah, I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. Hard to find the balance when discussing rules clarifications.

Gawd, just re-read what I wrote....I sound like a control freak.

TIP: Don't post to message boards when you're either A) Drunk B) Angry C) Just woken up D) All of the above

Any board game where one player knows the rules better than the others will end up running the board game until the others get more comfortable. While its your turn I would definitely encourage the heros to look up rules

When I first played descent we rotated the overlord mantle whenever the heros lost so all players learned the game well. When we got RTL we did the same thing though a campaign last a fair bit longer.

In our play group there is never really any down time as all player participate. During the overlords turn we talk strategy and trash talk the overlord. we watch the overlords moves and activate guards. If your players are disinterested in what the overlord is doing then its probably not a game for them to play.

Road to legends takes a certain amount of commitment from all players if they are unwilling then play the normal game.

Kojiro said:

I don't think 5-10 minutes for an OL turn is unreasonable, especially if you have such a large number of monsters to manage. You could always try attacking his character with most of the monsters so he has a reason to pay attention. =P

Kojiro said:

I was all set to say your Hero 2 player was right, and then I remembered you're playing AC. =P

Sounds like everything you did was legal. Perhaps in the future if you're making judgement calls that you intend to look up later you should be sure to clarify that you don't know the real answer and will look it up later, but for now we'll do it this way. That helps to mitigate "you said I could last week!" arguements, in my experience.

Kojiro said:

If they want to dig their own grave, let them. =P

Kojiro said:

My gut instinct would be to run it the way your hero player did. ie; to count range from the adjacent space. I'm not 100% sure that's correct, but it makes sense to me. I know there are certainly instances where one extra point of Range can make or break an attack, but I think the vast majority of situations are not like that. As long as you're consistent about the ruling I don't think it make s a huge difference one way or the other.

Kojiro said:

Similar experiences? I read your post and thought "yup, that's how Descent is played." Although the bit at end about you snapping at Hero 1 struck me as a bit harsh. Perhaps there was an air of hostility throughout this post that didn't translate across the internet? In general this sounds like how an average game goes, just don't let yourself get so worked up about them treating you like The Enemy (technically, you are. =P)

As far as keeping things fun when the OL is tyring to win, the basic point is to learn how to shrug off the animosity between you and the heroes. Be able to laugh at your own pathetic minions being killed in large droves, and try to find ways to encourage the heroes to laugh at their own failures as well. The easier you can all handle defeat, the better the overall experience will be.

Rotating OLs does wonders for this, by the way. Letting everyone sit in the big chair gives everyone an understanding of the OL's motivations, abilities and limitations. Once those are understood, not only can everyone more easily deal with the competition (because they understand what the OL is "up to") but it also helps diffuse accusations of unbalanced rules AND it improves overal tactical gameplay on both sides.

I would recommend rotating OLs on vanilla quests, but rotating OLs in AC works too, if you have the kind of time to play that many ACs in sequence.

Thanks guys! Rotating the OL is a good idea.
We might try a few Vanilla games with the others as Overlord before we continue the Advanced campaign.

The Heroes have been leaning on me more and more for the rules which I guess is starting to become a problem.
We're all trying to un-learn some of the Vanilla elements.

The reason I was getting stressed during that particular game was that Hero #1 was gently complaining that he's waiting too long for his turn.
Yet he has no problem interrupting my turn several times with rules questions, and he's got the reference sheets & rules in front of him.

The other main reason what that I'd explained that a Hero can buy from the Market on the same turn that he "Glyphs" to town.
Hero 2 must've taken that to mean "activating" a Glyph, thus "activate Glyph and move to town on the same turn".
It caused a minor argument and made me look like I was the "Rules Moderator/Arbitrator", which I'm not.

When telling Hero 2, I should've been clearer, and I should've started with "I think..." and added "...but you should double-check it to be sure."
Again, the rule books are within easy reach for all.

I think I'll go with Hero #4's interpretation of Laurel, as counting both Range & LOS from that adjacent square.

It won't make much difference in the long run like you said, and everyone's happy.

You've given me some ideas, so I think our next game will be less bloody.

Much appreciated guys.

What your player 4 is doing is wrong line of sight is traced from your Hero not an adjacent square. There is a skill that lets heros do that though.

Crack Shot:
When making a Ranged or Magic attack, you may trace line of sight from any empty space that is adjacent to you.

As far as counting range goes its LEEEM = 4 range from L(Laurel) to the M(Monster) with 3 E(Empty) squares

When I first started playing RTL there were times we played rules like in Vanilla descent by mistake but corrected them when we found the right way to play. Its not a big deal and certainly nothing to complain about. If I remember correctly are first game was messed pretty bad up so we started a new game.

Keep the rulebook beside you. When they ask you a rules question during your turn hand them the rulebook and shrug your shoulders.

apbevan said:

I had inferred that Laurel had this skill based on the context of the post. There didn't seem to be any debate about her ability to trace LoS from an adjacent space, only whether or not range was also calculated from that space.

I'm pretty sure it was clarified somewhere sometime that range is still counted from the hero, sinceit doesn't say otherwise.

Given that it's such a poor skill otherwise, I think it's more than fair to have it as a house rule though.

I should've clarified Hero #4's complaint.

Hero 4, playing Laurel of Bloodwood, DOES have Crackshot as her initial Skill.
It's not her "native" ability.

Crackshot is:

"When making a Ranged or Magic attack, you may trace line of sight from any empty space that is adjacent to you."

Personally, I still think LOS and Range are two separate things.
Ie. Using Crackshot, a Hero can shoot around corners but they still have to make the Range with dice, etc.

Otherwise, the Crackshot Skill should read "trace LOS from an empty adjacent square AND +1 Range".

In any case, we're playing the "trace LOS & Range together" as a House Rule and I'm going along with it.

As some of you mentioned, it's not going to "break" the whole campaign.

I really appreciate all your comments.
This is a great forum.

We're up to Week 10 and Heroes are doing extremely well: Heroes=38 Conquest / Overlord=42 Conquest.
Fewer arguments and we're settling in.
I'm not dismayed that the Heroes have kept pace with the Overlord in terms of Conquest.
Their Feat cards are a pain in the A** !

But about to go Silver with Eldritch...

Kojiro said:

You are correct.
But Crackshot is such a rubbish skill that it is a common houserule to give it the extra range boost anyway.

The best thing you can do is just try to keep it light and fun for the players. I sometimes nerf my turns slightly to give them a chance to heal in the nick of time. I am quite ruthless when they have an excess of conquest counters.

I play this one with my family and tend to be the rules interpreter for the bunch--maybe things would be different if I was playing with a collection of gamer peers. It's very hard to keep the pace of the game fast enough to keep the attention of my 10-year-old daughter. She no longer elects to play with us, even though she loved older titles like HeroQuest. Maybe it's the lack of character progression, but I suspect it's because I'm such a mean Overlord player.

So, while I haven't had exactly the same experiences as you've had, I side with playing your role. As Overlord, it's important to distinguish between your role as player nemesis and, if asked, a referee for the rules. Thank goodness there's so many rulings for rules in FAQs, forums, etc. but that does nothing to help the pace of the game at the moment of the dispute.

Cheers guys.
Appreciate your comments.
Way to alienate your 10 yr old! lol

Things are a bit smoother now.
(Although, I can tell they're about to attack one of my LTs and I just KNOW they haven't read the encounter rules for that.)

I know I can expect...

"What? He can BATTLE?"
"Huh? What do you mean that Shade is SOARING? I'm right next to it."

He he

I'll keep it slow & explain what I'm doing, try to keep it together and if I lose, I'll just laugh it off.
(Gonna laugh even harder if they lose.)