I'm in no way a veteran Descent player, but after last night's session I started thinking about a bit more "story" approach to the game. Now it is all about monster bash to get the treasure with a couple of little tricks thrown in for good measure.

In Mansions of Madness the investigators are trying to find clues or what the hell is going on. I could see a similar kind of system working nicely for Descent. The core game is there, now what you just need to add is a story and puzzles around the map and send in the heroes. Like in MoM there is a timed event deck, which makes things happen (flood gates open, monster patrol walks in, the dragon awakens etc.) after certain amount of turns. The clue cards found could help the heroes get better treasures (keys to the vault), some insight on what is going on in the story or maybe a knowledge of a big bosses weakness (the dragon has a soft spot under her wing).

It would be easy expansion to create for FFG:

- A book/leaflet of new adventures (maybe 5 or 6) containing the info how to combine this expansion with vanilla box and other expansions

- A deck of timed events

- A deck of clue cards

I could imagine this kind of expansion would be relatively inexpensive to create and publish, if FFG would use the lessons learned from Mansions of Madness, and it would add a whole new layer of gameplay to Descent. I bet that many Descent owners would jump to the possibility to get something like this. As inexpensive expansion ($25 or so) it wouldn't matter if the stories wouldn't have that much replay value.

I know I'd be thrilled to have something like this.

What do you think?

Not a bad suggestion.

One, possibly undoable, tweak that popped into my head is that maybe FFG could make a "random story deck" to increse the playability or something.

As you may tell I haven't really thought it through, it's just from the top of my head.

What stops you from simply writing clues and/or events into an ordinary Descent quest, without adding a bunch of new rules and cards? Descent already includes quest-dependent story elements and special mechanics, it sounds like you're basically just asking for a larger quantity.

If there are players looking for a Mansions of Madness type of experience, why would they play expanded Descent instead of playing actual Mansions of Madness? Mansions of Madness is clearly already borrowing extensively from Descent, it's not as if this is a whole new direction for the concept.

Lots of people have suggested quest-focused expansion products for Descent, but the one that FFG has attempted so far didn't go over so well. Maybe they could do better next time, but so far they don't seem to be chomping at the bit for another chance. If FFG doesn't want to make a Quest Compendium 2, what would attract them to your idea?

Mordjinn said:

I think it's a cool idea with lots of promise. Rather than waiting on FFG to maybe pick up the idea and run with it, though, I'd be more interested in seeing what fans could do with the idea by making some homebrew content. In this day and age, making homebrew card decks is not difficult, and of course there are already several homebrew quests floating around out there, so the software and tools required to make those are easy enough to find.

I would encourage you to elaborate on this idea, and I'd be interested to see what you come up with.

Steve-O said:

Haa, a challenge

Lets see what I can cook up. Need to study the game a bit first.

Are there any articles/threads on Descent quest design? Or does someone have good pointers do's and don'ts of quest design? What makes a map a hard one except the absence of glyphs? Any pointers to help out would be highly appreciated.

Mordjinn said:

Not that I'm aware of. You could check out the Homebrew subforum to see what other people have done with homebrew quests, there may be some tidbits about what works and what doesn't. There's no formal "Quest Design 101" that I know of, though.

One of the critiques I've heard of the Quest Compendium was that the guest designers got "carried away" with making fancy quest-specific situations and didn't really define how these quests effects interacted with various game elements. Generally credited to the idea that most of them are RPG writers who may not have known the ins and outs of Descent's mechanics. So as far as tips from me go, it would be this: whatever new story-based game effects you want to mix in, make sure you think about how they work with various OL cards and hero skills/abilities.

What makes a quest hard aside from absence of glyphs? Long tunnels - particularly twisty ones - between major areas. Requiring the heroes to double back frequently and re-cross previously revealed areas to complete their goals. Having lots of doors in areas where the heroes need to stop and do things (or areas they pass through several times.) All of those things provide the OL more opportunity to spawn new monsters, and to force the heroes to fight back through groups of enemies that would normally be left in the dust in a quest with no backtracking. As you've learned in your own experiences trying to speed up game play, more spawning makes the game longer, and these types of features in a quest amplify the effect of spawning.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do those things, it's just something to keep in mind. If you want the heroes to be going back and forth through the same areas, maybe make those areas a bit smaller and easier to cover with LoS.