It's all in the title. Just about to buy 1st edition last weekend but saw this product in the meantime... wondering when the 2nd edition is gonna be released?

That is the question of the hour for people who don't already own first edition. The projected release date is "early 2012" but we don't know exactly what month that will be.

There will be a conversion kit to translate all the heroes and monsters from first edition into second edition rules (the heroes and monsters provided in the second edition box have been explicitly declared to be "all new" so there won't be any repeats.) So buying first edition isn't entirely a waste of time even if you think you might want to upgrade to second edition later.

Buying Road to Legend might be a waste, though, since it doesn't contain any new heroes or monsters. You'd have plenty of materials to play with for homebrew content, but it's unlikely that anything from that expansion or Sea of Blood will be officially converted. On the other hand, the second edition base game has it's own "campaign game" built in, which sounds more and more like Road to Legend with every new detail I learn. I'm sure it won't be exactly the same, but I do expect it to provide a long-term continuous adventure mode like RtL did in first edition.

I can't answer your question for you, but I can tell you what I would do in the same position: I would look into buying the first edition base game and the three "vanilla" expansions (Well of Darkness, Altar of Despair and Tomb of Ice) for the hero and monster figures mainly, but only if I could find them at a reasonable price. (Sadly, there seems to be some price-gouging going on out there after the sudden cut off of first edition printings.) I'd probably skip Road to Legend and Sea of Blood since they wouldn't convert very well (and also because RtL, at least, seems to be getting ridiculously expensive already.) Mind you, I say that as a person who actually already owns them all, has played them all and knows exactly what I'd be giving up, so my opinion is perhaps a bit biased.

If you don't mind waiting some more month, then I'd suggest to wait for the second editions' release, to take a look on the new edition and to decide then which one you prefer.

If you need the game right now, then buy it. After all, it's a great game no matter how good or how bad the second edition will be. And as Steve-O said, it's definitely no waste of money even if you go for the second edition as well.

Thank you for your guys' advice. I think I've got the idea now.

IMHO I’d just wait for the second edition. Descent is an involved game, and the core box set isn’t cheap. Unless you’re a younger kid (still in school) or somebody with lots of time on your hands and surrounded by others with a lot of time on their hands you’ll be lucky to see the game hit the table once a week. If that’s the case, you might get a dozen plays out of it before 2nd ed comes out (probably less), which is about $5 a play. Not a terrible value in the grand scheme of things…but when a replacement is right around the corner it seems kind of silly.

Reasons I can see to buy 1st edition:
-You can start playing right away
-More miniatures (monsters & Heroes)
-More tiles and adventures (if you buy the conversion kit)

Reasons to wait:
-Most likely better rules that will make setup and play faster and more enjoyable (which will probably lead to more play time in the long run)
-You’ll probably “upgrade” anyway (because it’s fun to play an “active” game)
-You’ll save half of your money for other stuff

IMHO the only real reason to buy Descent 1st edition now is if you want all the miniatures before they start selling on eBay for a million dollars (you know, before FFG decides to release them in other expansions for 2nd edition…and you know they will) or if you are really pumped to play today and can’t wait a few months.