Update and discuss http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3308

Having read through the update, I'm super excited for the game even more then I was already and that was already at 200%, lol.

FFG! Shut up and take my money already!

This preview made me drool like that time with my first girlfriend when she finally said "I'm ready" when we were camping in the backyard…

Its is nice to see my home made Descent: Cataclysm campaign be outdated by this great idea for a campaign in 2nd Edition.

I Like even more the idea of being able to create your own campaign sheet, print it out, and play with your own maps and scenarios for infinite possibilities.

Because I am sure there will be a blanket template of campaign sheets, a scenario creator, and possibly a character creator available by someone very soon if FFG hasn't already have it planned for sharing!

After rereading this weeks preview I have two questions:

1. If the Overlord wins all of act 1's quests but loses the interlude, how are the heroes supposed to pick an act 2 quest when the preview states that any quests won by the Overlord are shutoff from play?
2. If the Overlord continues to win and wins the interlude as well, does the game end or is he allowed to pick from quests that he won from?

So much to try and understand and so much information to still be revealed.

Coldmoonrising said:

Actually, the preview doesn't explain in detail how it is determined which Act II quests are available to each side.

20 quests is not my idea of epic content.

With that said however, perhaps Print on Demand will have new content coming out more frequently than 1st edition expansions did.

Coldmoonrising: As Bleached Lizard said, the process is not entirely clear, but I believe this is how it works: each Act I scenario is tied to two Act II scenarios. Based on who wins the Act I scenario, only one of these two is available. However, as far as I can tell, both players are free to pick whichever scenario they want, as long as it's available. It's not the case that the Overlord winning shuts down both related scenarios, just one of them. I would assume that the scenario made available by the heroes winning is more beneficial to them, whereas the scenario made available by the Overlord winning is more beneficial to him/her. It's unclear how this would interact with the fact that scenarios are supposed to be available to be played by themselves and be balanced; presumably, your performance in an Act I scenario translates into advantages in the corresponding Act II scenario. This might be fairly complex, like the Splig/crops mechanic shown in A Fat Goblin, or it must just be "If you're playing this scenario as part of a campaign, [the winner of the Act I scenario] gains X bonus".

Bleached Lizard said:

Bleached Lizard said:

Ignore me. There were a couple of images I couldn't view before that I can see now, and they make it clear how the quest unlocking works.

20 different quests is quite a lot of combinations. If my calculations for combinations is right (which it probably isn't since I'm sure I didn't come up with the right set up of numbers) I came out with ≈134 different ways the first campaign could be played.

I'm also positive someone can correct my math of combinations without replacement, lol.

Ah yes, those png's that were missing explain a great deal now. That clears up quite a bit thankfully.

Did i understand correct?

On act 2 you have 7 possible choice (4 act2 quest that are under thous act1 quest that havent played and 3 quest that are on side which won)

Lupin89 said:

No, still 5. Unplayed Act I quests are considered to be won by the overlord for the purposes on determining available quests in Act II.

I like the art of the map, but I'm not sure about the feeling to travel around on this map. Because everything the map is good for, is to determine how many travel-Event-Cards has to be drawn, if you start a specific quest.

Sevej said:

So we have 3 quest on act 2 that we can choose from 3 avaliable quest to be chosen

(10 Act2 quest total minus 4 act2 quest that cant be choose cause of you thous have been won by the overlord(as you said before) minus 3 act 2 quest that cant be choose cause both side cant win at same time i presume (''For example, if the overlord won Masquerade ball in act 1 Blood of Heroes is blocked from the game '') = 3 quest and you choose 3 from them = all of avaliable quest)

Now i understand if correctly

sry my bad you right 5 is right number cause didn't get ''his options will be limited'' part working thought that it was all of thos act 2 quest that wasn't choose to play were automaticly blocked

****, which designer came up with this campaign system? Very clever. Talk about thinking outside the box! Also, I love how the quests are themed scenarios with goals like an RPG. It looks like the OL and heros both will have more interesting jobs in terms of trying to work toward/against something. This game is shaping up to be awesome.

Coldmoonrising said:

Warning: Math!

By my estimation there are 5P3=20 ways to do act 1, times 2 interludes, times act 2, times 2 for endings. Act 2 is a little complicated as there are 10 scenarios, of which 3 are chosen, but only 5 are actually available so it's not just 10P3. Since there are 5 scenarios with 2 options each, call it 5P3*2^3=160 possibilities for act 2.

So total ways to play out the campaign are 20*2*160*2=12800 ways, but most of them would be barely distinguishable(differening from another only by 1 scenario). A more useful way to look at it is that it will take at least 4 full campaigns to even see all the scenarios, as you see only 3 of the ten act 2 scenarios every campaign.

Well, I think this preview all but confirms that the $110 I spend on Road to Legend and Sea of Blood are useless. I was really hoping that there would be a way to use some of the materials from the two campaign modules.

Maybe some homebrew conversions?

Philipopotamus said:

Actually, that's why I'm a little disappointed in this map versus what was provided in the Road to Legend expansion to the 1st edition. Nice big map with the addition of strategic gameplay as the Overlord could lay siege to cities forcing the party of heroes to decide between going on a dungeon raid or lifting a siege. I'm definitely going to have to find a way to combine 2nd edition gameplay with 1st edition campaign. *ponders*

So, now that we've got some more information, anyone care to speculate on the quests? If A Fat Goblin, the lieutenants are going to be tied to particular quests, and the heroes' objective for the Act I quest is to kill them (which means that the Act II quest for overlord victory will probably include them and the one for hero victory will not). Belthir will almost certainly appear in Death on the Wing. Zachareth is a little harder to figure out, but since his description portrays him as an "undercover" villain (and a member of high society), my money's on The Masquerade Ball, although it could be either of the remaining two as well. Based on the placement of the two finale quests, the one for the heroes winning more quests in Act II is Gryvorn Unleashed. That's rather odd; when it was first mentioned that you played one finale or the other, I assumed that the overlord winning more quests would allow him to complete some ritual and unleash Gryvorn (whoever that may be), whereas the heroes winning more would mean they would merely have to contend with the guy attempting the ritual (the Overlord himself?). But it appears that it's the other way around. So Gryvorn must be a sort of back-up plan. Based on the standard fantasy tropes, I would assume Gryvorn is a dragon, although he/she/it might be a demon as well.

Stop….

please….. for the love of…

stop….

this is unbearable….

….

….

Whoa. I must say that the campaign system is spot on for our group. Not too deep and not too shallow. Spot on. It is ingenious system and I sure hope the quests will live up to the expectations.

My big big HUGE wish is that there is also some narrative between the quests to give hero players an idea of what to expect as a reward. And even sweeter if there's some "if you saved sir Galahad on the interlude, then you he helps you like this and this in the following quest".

I'm soooooo glad my game store is participating in the preview weekend. Can't wait to see this one in action and get to test it out.

Coldmoonrising said:

I could care less about combinations. A quest is a quest in any order. 20 total quests is 20 quests.

While the core set only had 10 quests IIRC, at least those 10 quests were "vast". Not simple, small areas.

I never played first edition but do you guys think it will be easy to implement or creat our own quests/campaign after we played the base campaign of the core set?

My guess and hope are yes, but i'll have to see!

Reminds me of Warhammer Quest when I was younger. I bought it with my brother and we played the hell out of it, already starting with the advanced rules and campaign play. We had a blast and he even create a huge campaign that spun over 30-40 objectives and quests.

This same brother is trilled to play the Overlord and i'm effing psyched that he wants to play that role. I love the Hero side and it'll remind us the good ol' days!

FFG, bring this baby out, PUSH-PUSH-PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!