I'm pretty new to the role-playing board games, but I've gotten into descent over the past little while.

I want to get my girlfriend to play some board games with me, but I think descent would be too much all at once to learn, so I'm looking for a similar themed game that takes only an hour or two to complete.(as a stepping stone of sorts towards descent)

As I said, I don't have much experience in these kinds of games, so I don't really know how to research them by myself :S

Thanks for any input.

If you want something simple - buy Dungeon Run

Dungeon Quest is another short, light-hearted game with a similar theme. It seems to do well with the ladies, as well. As an added bonus, the current edition is set in the Terrinoth world, the same as Descent, and the game even comes with Descent hero cards for the six new figures included in DQ. One word of advice, though: DQ is notoriously difficult to beat. It's highly random and there are several instant death effects. Don't play the game to win, just play it to see how far you can get. Be prepared to laugh at your own misfortune (and make sure you set your girlfriend's expectations appropriately.) The game is a ton of fun if you approach it from the right perspective. My wife and I routinely have to stop playing for a few minutes because we're laughing so hard. =P