Hello, all.

Long time gamer but first time Descent player. (And first time poster!)

Two questions that came up in our game this evening that I thought I'd throw out there for the boards.

(1) Is it possible to Restock in Tamalir before announcing that one is fleeing the dungeon?

Situation: We're a starting player playing Dungeon 12 (Throne Room). We've killed the weaker boss in the room but the giant with 8 armor is just too much for us. It's the third board and we were going to go back to Tamalir anyway, so we bail and start heading out through glyphs. Does each of those movements out through a glyph for the fleeing heroes allow us to Restock in Tamalir just as we would if we did not intend to flee? Put another way, could we all Restock in Tamalir (and thus all be in Tamalir simultaneously but not quite have ended the level yet), Restock for a turn (or even two ... the OL was not close to through the Overlord deck yet), and then declare that we've fled the dungeon?

(2) Regarding the rule from the FAQs regarding "cycling through" the deck twice in a dungeon level and forcing the heroes to flee: Is "cycling through" defined as "reshuffling?"

The reason I ask is that if the OL has, say, 2 cards left in his deck at the end of a level, does it make strategic sense to wait a turn in the current level, let the OL draw two more cards, and then proceed through the portal? (We had this situation arise when it would have been reasonably safe to wait an extra turn because we'd basically cleared the first level of the dungeon, though it took us nearly a full OL deck to do so because the OL got Evil Genius out early, and yes, we're beginning players.)

Thanks all! Hope I don't embarrass myself with too many stupid questions, but there's a lot to digest in this game, at least for a beginner.

Gramarye said:

Yes, absolutely. You only flee when you are all in Tamalir and announce that you are fleeing the dungeon. Since mechanically you can't all use the glyph at once, it is clear that 'all in Tamalir' is a condition (requirement) and announcing the flee is the action that triggers the actual flee and end of dungeon.
Therefore each hero may restock any number of turns until one of them announces the party is fleeing the dungeon while all 4 heroes are in Tamalir.

Gramarye said:

Yes. There isn't really any other option that it could be. FFG are not very good a technical consistancy sometimes.

Gramarye said:

Yes it does, assuming you think you will be slow enough on the next level - usually only rumour or legendary levels should be anywhere near that slow (OTOH you just had that experience, so...)

Given that several people have had the tactical naievity to complain that it was unfair or too hard if you were unlucky enough to be nearly through the deck at the end of one level, I wouldn't worry about stupid beginner questions.

And yes, there is a lot to digest - even for veterans, let alone beginners. That's part of what makes it a great game even after several hundred hours of playing.

Gramarye said:

For what it's worth, this rule was added to close a loophole the heroes could use to abuse the game by staying in a single dungeon forever and waiting for the final fight to arrive via deck cycles (thereby denying the OL the ability to buy upgrades, plot cards, etc, since the game effectively gets stuck in "dungeon mode" for a "single week.")

Assuming your group of friends are not inclined to do silly things like that, you can basically ignore this rule if you want to. In our group we never enforce it, for example, because everyone agrees that old loophole is poor sportsmanship anyway.

Corbon said:

Why shouldn't you be able to all use the glyph in the same turn? RtL requires you to start your turn on top of or adjacent to a glyph in order to teleport out.

Grubsnik said:

Corbon wants to say that each hero can use the glyph on his turn, so heroes cannot use the glyph at the same time .

gran_orco said:

Indeed. All in the same round , yes. All at the same time (or even in the same turn ), no.