Hello, this is my first post. I have a fairly intense misunderstanding of the function of the game week in the RTL expansion.

1. When the party enters a dungeon, does the game week take place? My assumption is no. If so then...

2. Does the "game week" resume when the party warps to town in the middle of exploring the dungeon?

The other thing that confuses me about the game week is the time spent in town. Due to the limited number of things a character can do in one game week while in a town, it usually takes several game weeks to complete the Town action. Does this sound accurate? The book also states that a number of cards be drawn for the merchant for the game week to represent the cards available to the players for that week. So my question is...

3. If the characters do spend 2-4 "game weeks" in town, is the merchant deck constantly being cycled?

It just seems odd. What would prevent the players from passing time just to wait for the item they want to pop up?

The Minje said:

1. A game week consists of everything in Steps 1-4 on RtL pg10. This does include the Party Action (step 4), which, if it is a move action, might include entering a dungeon and/or having an encounter. The entire 'party is in a dungeon' part is merely a small part of that game week.

2. The game week never 'stopped' when the party entered the dungeon, so it can't be said to 'resume'. When party members take Restock actions in town mid-dungeon they are still in the same game week that they have been in since the last time 'Time Passes' (step 1) happened.

It is possible that you can spend multiple weeks in town just doing Party Train Actions. But it is hardly usual. One hero can do all the 'shopping' necessary for the whole party at the market, one hero can do all the 'potion buying' necessary for the whole party at the Alchemist and only severely damaged heroes need bother with healing at the temple most of the time - they can easily glyph strait to town and heal using restock actions instead, at much less opportunity cost.
I believe the longest I've ever seen a party stay in one town was 4 weeks although 2 were actually move weeks just without going anywhere (to break a Tamalir seige).
Week X-1: Move (arrive) and Visit action (town/alchemist/temple).
Week X : Train (2 heroes train, 1 visits Market and 1 visits Alchemist). Purchase Tamalir upgrade
Week X+1: Train (other 2 heroes train, 1 visits market and 1 visits Alchemist). Purchase Tamalir Upgrade.
Week X+2: Move (nowhere), fight 2x Lt battles, Visit (1x market, 1x Alchemist, 2x temple)
Week X+3: Move (nowhere, fight 1x Lt battle, Visit (1x market, 1x Alchemist, 2x temple)
Week X+4: Move away.
Until late in the game (in RtL) Rumours are not particularly well advised, in our opinion, so we rarely visit the Tavern (very different in SoB). They usually result in the OL receiving much more CT than usual for a week, often out of proportion to the gain by the heroes. Keeping the OL on a minimal CT budget for the first half of the game is very important.

3. Yes, if the players spend multiple weeks in a town, each week the market will have new items (assuming a hero chooses to visit it). But since the last week's items are shuffled back in it isn't quite would you would normally term 'cycling' the deck.

Nothing actively prevents the players passing time waiting for the item they want to pop up. But it might not pop up for a very long time.
More importantly, every week the OL gathers CT (resources) and any Lts in play can be active seiging, fulfilling plot requirements of moving to a better location. Generally speaking standing still for little gain is probably poor play on the part of the heroes. But the most important part of this game is knowing when, where, why and for how long the heroes can afford to take the time necessary to train, heal, equip etc. They have to do it - heroes who never train will get butchered by upgraded monsters, but the strategic game is about managing that hidden resource, time , effectively in conjunction with the other resources (and location).

Thankyou soo much. it makes so much more sense now. However this clarification does spark a new question or two, and possibly an ignorant one at that. Being that the game week does not resume in this way...

1. Does the overlord get to continue to draw threat, draw cards and spawn creatures during those turns that the party is away recuperating in town?

My guess is yes...but I just have to be sure.

The Minje said:

Yes. The dungeon portion of the game plays almost exactly like it used to in vanilla Descent, with a couple of exceptions (notably regarding how glyphs work.)