Long before Descent was released, i use to play advanced heroquest.

Descent is of course way better than the other one but there was this tiny rule that i liked.

Namely when heroes opened a door, they had to roll a die to determine if the heroes are surprised or not.

This created occasionally amusing situations and was for the overlord an advantage (at times) to have an edge over the heroes.

Where in Descent, the overlord allways has the last turn, and in most cases this means that the current room is cleansed by then.

That's a nice house rule. I like the idea when I'm playing OL, however, I must say that if I was a Hero, the rule sounds positively terrible. I guess I'll have to institiute this only when I am OL.

I think you will get mixed responses on that rule. As Royaldoy has already mentioned that OL will love your suggestion where Heroes will not. As there are folks from either camp that feel that the game is either heavily pro-OL or heavily pro-Heroes. I think this is a neat idea and something groups will have to decide on whether they want to use it or not.

I think suggestion would work well in Vanilla Descent, all depends on what you set the dice roll at. For example, if the Heroes roll a blank then the OL gets to activate all monsters in the new area. Having it set at a blank wouldn't be too bad.

Isn't there a card in the OL deck that lets you activate some monsters at the start of the Hero's turn? I vaguely remember something about that. Maybe it treachery.

Big Remy said:

Ambush, an event treachery card. I think it allows the Overlord to activate 3 monsters either during a player's turn or at the start. Exact wording escapes me at the moment, because I've not played with it in my OL deck much.

I believe that is the Treachery Event card: Ambush. One of my personal favourites.

CanadianPittbull said:

Echo, echo, echo... But seriously, I love any card that disrupts the standard play state and leaves the heroes scratching their heads when a Master Dragon or Masticore suddenly gets the opportunity to blast face (add Rage for extra maniac laughter)

I remember that rule. I agree the hero's clean out rooms like its no ones business, especially after they start getting magic items.

I think it's a good new rule and I will try it out next time.

When you play descent without expansions the game is favoured for the heroes and this rule makes it a bit harder on them.

Maybe this way the OL has more chance of winning.

it seems so far that Descent is pro-heroes, so when I get the chance to annoye the heroes I will.

The only problem is that they are a stubborn bunch of greedy motherf*ckers, and they'll never accept this house rule.

I still have the dark relics I can throw at them. Ever put iron boots on a dwarf with very little movement value so that he cannot open doors? :-)

I once posted a variant of which part was the idea of "initiative" whenever the heroes revealed a new area or dungeon level; the heroes rolled a number of power dice equal to their total combined Ranged traits. The OL rolled a number of power dice equal to the number of monsters in the new level/area. Whoever rolled the most number of blanks (with heroes winning ties) started their turn immediately and the game continued from there.

This sounds like a very cool rule. I like it.
But if people are concerned about balance why not state that if the Heroes are suprised when opening a door the OL gets to imeadiately activate up to 3 monsters; instead of all.
This way it could be combined with something Ambush for a total of up to 6 monster being activated. 6 might seem like a lot but the OL has certainly earned it. By 1) having the Heroe who opened the door role a blank and 2) by having the Ambush card and threat to pay for it.

And you could say that Heroe's cannot get surpised when opening Rune locked doors. In case having (typically) much higher level monsters acting first being something that might be too devastating. The flavor could state something like they have a hightened anticipation of trouble behind Rune locked doors.

This rule could also apply to previously open doors too. Should a Heroe open a door that was previously opened (and now closed), roll power die. If blank OL may imeadiately spawn up to 3 (single square sized) monsters in the previously closed area ignoring line of site. Why not? I would certainly be 'surprised'

I do like the condition of rolling a blank to determine if Heroes were surprised.

Great Post!

Why on earth would heroes, who are currently exploring monster-infested dungeons with the intent to kill monsters, be surprised by the presence of monsters behind a door?

edit:

Landrec: OK guys, we've finally made it to the bakery. I'm about to open the door, so be wary of traps.

Nanok: OMG! Donuts!!! <due to shock he completely forgets he was about to go in and grab some donuts>

James McMurray said:

Ha! Yes you do make a good point James. But here's how I was thinking about it. Even though the Heroes are no doubt ready for action they could still be suprised or caught off guard by things like the quantity of Monsters or their proximity or their type. As far as the flavor goes it wouldn't take much hesitation to allow a monster to strike first while the Heroes were very briefly awe struck.

And the mechanics of the rule is very cool. Adds some variety and extra consideration for opening doors.