Hi!

So i am thinking of starting a Descent campaign and my question is which of these two expansions would be the better one to buy.

I've read multiple threads in different forums and it looks like both campaigns aren't very well balanced.

So what are your opinions?

kthxbye

RtL is better balanced than SoB. My vote would be for SoB rules with RtL encounters, but I have gotten a chance to try that out yet.

krunsh said:

RtL is nicely balanced assuming you have all the non-campaign expansions, with maybe 1-2 problem areas, but it is difficult. It is an Advanced Campaign. If your group isn't quite playing at a good enough level then it may feel the game is horribly imbalanced. It jhas been out for 2 years before the last FAQ change so had the chance to get problems fixed.

SoB is just a balance disaster. The OL has to deliberately not play well for the heroes to have any chance at all.
SoB was out only a few months before the most recent FAQ change. Given how long it takes to play, that basically means no one had played it before the FAQ, so almost none of it's problems had been addressed. The next FAQ will address many of it's mechanical problems, but who knows what will happen balance wise.

But SoB dungeon levels have much better design, mostly.

The short answer is to buy Road to Legend, in my opinion.

thank you for your replys - waiting for more opinions ^^

I would also vote for Road to Legend between the two, but if you have a real hankering for the high seas then get Sea of Blood and either wait on FAQ answers or fix it yourself.

Though truthfully my personal inclination right now is to return to vanilla Descent for a while, having gotten my Advanced Campaign jollies down pat.

My short opinion is: Do not buy Sea of Blood it is a horridly unbalanced piece of crap. If you want to play a campaign game, get RtL it is very tightly balanced and comes down to a fun contest between both sides. Also note that Sea of Blood not only has numerous balance issues it has an incredible number of gaping rules holes or questions that have no answer and basically require you to make stuff up to play it, although I'm hopeful that the next FAQ will address these.

Long answer is basically see Corbon's post. You need the non-campaign expansions to play RtL well and since it is an Advanced Campaign your group is going to need to be very experienced and play very well (that means carefully planning a strategy and making smart tactical choices to further it, even researching a strategy to find out how to best proceed before begining the 50 hour game) in order for the game to be balanced.

I don't own SoB so can't really give you an opinion on it, though it seems that everyone agrees, except under very rare circumstances, that it's badly unbalanced.

On the other hand, RtL is better to introduce yourself to the "Advanced" expansions, far more balanced, lots of FaQ currently covered, and so far it's been more fun for both "Heroes" and "OL" in games than any of the "Vanilla" quests, where either as OL you kill everyone before they can get halfway thru a dungeon or you've pretty much lost. Also since you can stop playing at each "level" of the dungeon, or end of a week, it makes it easier to keep to shorter games (though there will be many more gaming sessions if you play it one level at a time).

Owning all of Descent otherwise so far, I do plan on getting SoB, but if you're going for a first time purchase, go for Road to Legend. Unless as Steve-O pointed out, you're looking for a "high seas" adventure. I have to say, the ships and cannons alone nearly made me go for SoB first. Sadly RtL makes very little use of props already purchased in any "Vanilla" expansion except for "monsters". So don't expect to get alot of use out of most of what you already own. But some things still appear here and there in dungeons.

thx again for the responses.

shortly off topic: what is a vanilla expansion?

afterwards back2topic

"Vanilla" refers to original game play based on the original Descent: Journeys in the Dark board game and it's one level, with areas, style of play. Move through the dungeon, gather treasure, kill monsters, beat the boss, win the game (barring the OL winning). This also covers any expansion sets for the original "style" of play, including "Alter of Despair", "Well of Darkness", and "Tomb of Ice". Not sure if this includes the Dungeon book expansion, but more than likely.

"Advanced" refers to "campaign" style play, and includes Road to Legend and Sea of Blood to date.

All references to either games usually have "Advanced" or "Vanilla" included to help differentiate between the two games and questions for either, as both have similiar, yet sometimes different rules.

Krunsh if you are interested in getting a used game I am looking to sell both RTL and SOB with all expansions and sea map board. I am also including the carrying case and plastic storage boxes I use to hold all the pieces. PM me for more details and I can send you pics of everything.

Jaes said:

Hi, sorry but don't know how to PM. I would be very interested in buying all of the expansions but not SoB, please PM me or write me an email, thanks!

I would rather buy a new rtl, thank you.

back 2 topic

Shatteredragon said:

The Quest Compendium was definitely vanilla.

OK, I'm going to ride on the back of the OP's general question.

I own RtL and I have a lot of issues with it. The players get there hands on skills like Spiritwalker, TK, Bear Tattoo, and a number of others and basically break every combat they're in. So, the OL decides to forget about every aspect of the campaign other than forming a lieutenant train to siege Tamalir. Things get tedious quickly.

I don't own SoB, but looking through the rules, I see that the more broken skills are yanked out and there is no city-sieging. My two main beefs (both as a plyaer and OL) are addressed. So, what balance issues upset SoB enough that I want to go back to the siege-train?

steveg700 said:

Quick note concerning the skills mentioned from RTL

If you read the FAQ you'll notice that Spiritwalker has been nerfed to 5 spaces rather than the 10 spaces in the original ability and that the skills Telekinesis and Bear Tattoo have been removed from RTL in order to add some balance to the game.

steveg700 said:

As Dragon76 indicated, your balance concerns with RtL have already been addressed in general. The Lt seige train still exists, but it is beatable. And if the heroes beat it, they will generally win the campaign.

SoB issues are many and varied, but the really big one is that the OL can win every campaign with ease on the map, basically regardless of what the heroes do.
The Lts can't be effectively chased away (fleeing is only one trail), and are almost impossible to kill unless the OL cooperates (the encounters are on an enormous map, with every outer space exitable and nearly all of the terrain is so expensive to move through for the heroes that they basically have to stay on board their ship rather than go out and chase down the Lts).
There is no central map location that requires defending (like Tamalir) - instead the OL wins by razing any 5 cities. Since the heroes cann't move quickly around the map, the OL splits his Lts up to siege in different areas. The heroes can try and chase one away, but that leaves any others free to raze - and chasing the one away is a failure anyway - it will be back at the same city the very next turn!

So basically the whole campaign is predestined to be won by the OL and the heroes can't stop it no matter what they do. At least in RtL they know what they have to do and have a reasonable chance of achieving it.

Oh, and there are skills in SoB worse (or better, depending on your POV) than anything in RtL (Saj's Mark, Koll's Mark, Runner, Mage Cloak) - but they still won't allow the heroes to stop the OL on the Map.

Thanks for the tuition, guys. Hadn't played Descent in ahy form in a couple of years, and it's good to know there's been progress with fixing the campaign.

Too bad that the Tamalir siege-train is pretty much integral to the game.