Royaldoy said:

It's not the size, it's what you do with it that counts.

Royaldoy: And remember, the quests (well, most of them) have two separate encounters, which are more or less separate quests, seeing as they have completely different maps and objectives.

RedcrossReborn said:

I'm reasonably certain that SOMEBODY will make homebrew conversions for basically everything in 1e that doesn't get officially ported to 2e.

That said, you really should've known the 1e AC expansions wouldn't have any official carry over. FFG made it quite clear that the conversion kit only applied to figures, and there are no figures in the AC boxes (except Nara, technically.) As for the base game, did you really expect the base box for 2e to be in any way dependent on anything from 1e? Sort of defeats the purpose of calling it "second edition" no? =P

SolennelBern said:

I expect it will be fairly easy to make homebrew quests and campaigns. The new rules for monster placement seem to have more of an emphasis on the maximum number of monsters you can put on the board for the number of heroes playing (rather than the 1e method of trying to keep the same number of monsters and just scale their health and armor values.) This means that all you really need to do is keep in mind how many heroes you expect to play each quest and not exceed the corresponding number of monsters for a starting compliment (this is assuming that there are still X monsters on the map to start with, which may not actually be the case.) The swingiest part of quest design will be quest-specific special rules, which is to be expected, really.

Now, trying to build a campaign in the same format as the official one (with an Act I, Act II and interludes et al) might be a fair bit of work. Making enough maps to fill out the sheet would be a lot of work. However, I don't see any reason why homebrew campaigns need to follow the same format if you don't want to do it that way. You could make a more linear storyline where one quest leads naturally into the next, or you could come up with some other branching mechanism that suits your needs. The character advancement mechanics we've seen seem to be relatively self-contained (although I don't believe they've yet explained how heroes earn XP - or perhaps I've forgotten), and they should be adaptable to any means for linking quests toegether that you might like.

All in all, I'm fairly impressed with what I've seen of 2e. It's smooth and the different aspects of the game are decoupled from one another, which is good for homebrew projects. Take what you like, leave what you don't. The only thing I've not 100% sure about right now is the new line of sight rules, but that's easy enough to house rule if I decide I don't like it.

Don't foget about the rumor cards, outdoor encounter cards and the dungen cards( the one's with the cave picture, their are 74 of those quest) from RtL and SoB. Very easy to make some side quests if you want to to countinue to questing. I'm only worry is if you do contiue with questing How much higher can your hero and OL go up in levels/ skills. One thing a OL can do is use the generic OL upgrade cards for the LT. u just need to find a way to pay for it Xp/ or what not.

I'm also preety sure that they are working a some parts of their 1st expation on this. You know the stuff they left out of the starter box because it would make to game to pricey. just saying

One last thing. I've been buy from FFG for over 10 years now and I've learned that once you start seeing the treads of a game come up, you see the game in store with in a week after the rules are posted. So my guess is the game is already on the boat and almost here.

PBnJ said:

Well the obvious limiting factor to how high you can level your heroes would be "once you've bought all the cards in your class deck." Whether the game would still be balanced approaching that limit is unclear. (I expect you'd need to make at least a couple more power boosts akin to the Act I -> Act II boost in the base campaign. Hopefully that process will be fairly linear and easy enough to extend beyond the official rules.

PBnJ said:

I'm sure there will be something in expansions to "continue the adventure" beyond the top of the base campaign power level. If the power curve is linear (both for heroes and monsters) that would be ideal, especially considering FFG's tendency to want each expansion to be independent of others - if the power level rise sin a linear fashion, expansions could be played in any order, or starting fresh. All that would be required is for the rules to allow you to begin "in the middle," with a certain amount of XP. One of the previews already released has even suggested such a mechanic does exist!

PBnJ said:

In general that is true, however, FFG appears to be advertising a "Descent 2e Preview Event" kit that store owners can buy which would be made available in the first week of July. You can't very well hold a "preview event" after the game is already released, so this suggests that 2e won't be out until mid to late July.

I'm surprised they started the previews so early, that being the case. Maybe there are a lot of previews to keep us occupied though! =D

Walk said:

I suppose that offers a bit of solace.

@Bleach: Tell that to my wife. lol

Steve-O said:

From BGG on the second encounter of A Fat Goblin:

Photoshop magic reveals:

MONSTERS
Splig, Goblin archers, Cave spiders, 1 open group

SETUP
Place Splig and the goblin archers on the Torture Chamber. Place the cave spiders on the Spider Den. Place the open group on the Cave.

Place search tokens based on the number of heroes.

Take 3 red objective tokens and 1 blue objective token…

SPECIAL RULES
As an action, a goblin archer may pick up an adjacent prisoner, keeping it facedown. As an action, while on the Torture Chamber, a goblin archer may place a prisoner he is carrying in an empty adjacent space.

Once per turn, as an action, Splig may interrogate a prisoner in the Torture Chamber. To interrogate the prisoner, Splig must test ? while adjacent to the objective token. If hepasses, the prisoner is succesfully interrogated and the overlord flips the token over.

If the token is red, the prisoner is not Frederick and the token is discarded. If the token is blue, Splig has found Frederick. Place the blue objective token under Splig's token to mark that he is carrying him. Splig may now move off the map through the entrance.

REINFORCEMENTS
None

REWARDS
Win or lose, each player receives 1 XP.

If the heroes win, they also receive 25 gold coins per hero.

If the overlord wins, he receives 1 additional XP.

Interesting that he has to move off through the entrance. This means he will have to face the heroes eventually. Unless there is two ways out. Then the heroes might have to split up. Thanks.

NIIIIICE

One speculative question…. how many spiders will be in monster group? 3+1? Iam just painting all monsers from descent and iam somehow lazy to paint them all.

Ok, big set of questions

What are Cave Spiders? New monsters? We have Bane Spiders and Cave spiders now? hmm….

Iam also dissapointed, there is no splig figure on the picture

Jafix said:

We don't know yet. The group limits are on the back of the monster cards, and the only card that has had its back revealed is the one for Goblin Archers.

Royaldoy said:

I'm wondering if an advanced campaign box wil come out in the future, tbh. The way you travel around the map doesn't feel as 'adventurous' as it did in RtL/SoB. I'm wondering if that's something they'll bring in later.

Oh, and I think you mean couldn't care less

/pedantic

Sausageman said:

I doubt there'll be an "Advanced Campaign"; this already *is* the advanced campaign!

And for some reason, Americans tend to say "I could care less" even though it doesn't make any sense. But then those Americans are a very silly people.

Hehe. I am a native New Zealander living in America. Does that count for anything? My ability to form sentences at all, astounds me to this day, so I couldn't care less if I could care less about any amount of combinations.

Back on subject though.

When you sat down to play a first edition quest from the core set, it felt like you were sitting down to a few hours of fun. If you had a quick Overlord victory, you simply went at it again adjusting tactics as you needed. I get the sense from these that they are much smaller in scope (even though there is 20) and that they play lightning fast comparatively. Of course this is specualtion on my part but I can't be the only one sensing this.

Despite the scope (or lack of) of 2nd edition, I will be playing it. I just hope it has the lasting effect that 2nd edition had straight out of the box. If I feel like I have played all there is to play of 2nd edition after a couple of months, I'm gonna be bummed to say the least.

A pessimistic take I'm sure but I think a warranted one.

*crosses fingers*

Sausageman said:

I doubt there will be anything called "Advanced Campaign." I could see them releasing a larger overworld map, if there were enough people complaining about how small and insufficient the one they're providing is. I could see them expanding the campaign experience in a lot of ways, really. But nothing so bug as to require an adjective like "Advanced."

The reason the AC in 1e was called "Advanced Campaign" was primarily because there was already a "campaign mode" in the 1e base box, which most (if not all) fans considered to be woefully inadequate for a number of reasons. Road to Legend rebuilt the entire game experience in an effort to give fans what they wanted, and they needed to brand that game mode with something that properly reflected the complexity involved as well as something which clearly differentiated it form the "basic" campaign mode that already existed (just in case anyone cared.)

The 2e campaign mode appears to take the best of 1e AC (IMHO) while allowing more room for narrative growth (how well that will work out remains to be seen.) But bottom line, they've got an adequate campaign experience here that hasn't been tacked on at the last minute. I'm sure they'll find ways to expand the campaign play as 2e evolves and grows - both based on fan feedback and on their own plans for the game - but I don't really see them rebuilding the entire game play experience to same degree as RTL did for 1e. So, I don't think they'll need to throw around terminology like "Advanced Campaign."

Bleached Lizard said:

A lot of people (American or otherwise, if my forum experiences are any indication) have a tendency to say "I don't care" when what they really mean is "I dislike / hate this thing / situation." Disliking something is still an emotion, so if you dislike something you still care about it, negatively. But English is a very imprecise language, and the people who speak it have a tendency to use it less and less accurately with every passing generation, so whatcha gonna do?

Steve-O said:

I think a larger overworld map (and more involved movement) was basically what I meant. It's one of the parts I kinda liked from RtL, it FELT like you were going on an adventure - especially with the unique dungeons and rumours out there too. It's a bit of a shame that they've dumped those actually.

I'm still super psyched by this update, and literally cannot wait to get my hands on it.

Though I did play the Mage Knight board game over the weekend and I REALLY liked that, so the benchmark has been set…

I never played 1st edition, but one of the things I dislike about the campaign is that when moving around the map you always start from the tavern. IMO it would be a lot cooler if you had to get from the quest you just finished and to the next quest (maybe via a tavern to rest or shop) instead.

That would be easy enough to accomplish. Just use the travel system to either go directly to another quest or back to the town. I think the reason they didn't do this is that in the vast majority of cases and given the opportunity, the heroes would opt to heal and shop before going on another quest. Since there are no OL turns on the campaign map similar to RtL, the heroes have no reason not to go back to town to heal and shop as they are not being pressured by opposing Lieutenants. That being the case, it makes some sense to just move them back to town to heal and shop before the next quest.

Sausageman said:

You never know if FFG has something more complex down the road in a future expansion to give you the adventure you are looking for. It does kinda feel less of an grand adventure, and more of running around in the neighborhood fighting crime.

Also, what do you think about the pros and cons of Mage Knight??? My group is looking into maybe getting it for the collection. I just want to know the good and the bad about he game before I cast my vote.

Unclechawie said:

I don't think it's as easy as that, since the travel cards can give different advantages to the OL depending on the terrain and the party might even not have enough travel cards if they should travel from quest to quest.

IronRavenstorm said:

The major cons of the game are really the complexity level (there is a LOT going on) and the downtime in a four player game. I don't intend to play it as a four play all that often in the future if I can help it. And as for the complexity, that's alleviated somewhat by the walkthrough - and I definitely noticed turns gathering pace the more we got to grips with things.

The pros however were numerous IMO Lots of character customisation (like, LOTS), loads of scope, and it really felt you were on an adventure. Hiring henchmen, learning skills from the local monastery (or ransacking it and burning it down), dungeon delving, exploring ruins, wizards keeps, you name it. I'm really looking forward to playing more of it.

It's extremely different to Descent though, more akin to, I guess, Runebound if anything.

Sausageman said:

What do you mean? In 2e, EVERY dungeon is unique and located on the map, there's no randomly generated dungeon as in RtL.

Sausageman said:

Agree with the above poster (not the one quoted above - the actual post above mine). ALL the dungeons in 2E are unique, so I don't know what Sausageman is talking about. What they've actually dumped are the random, thematically nonsensical dungeons of 1E, which my gaming group disliked precisely because they were so random, made you feel like you weren't on any kind of real adventure and didn't tell any kind of story.

SolennelBern said:

I love roasting marsh-mellows on an open camp fire. I assume "I'm ready" implies a s'more eating contest!? Mmmmmm, s'mores…

SolennelBern said:

My assumption is yes, as Mansions of Madness and Descent 1e both have very easy scenario creation if you can dedicate the time for it. The same goes for 2e, from what I have seen. The heroes and overlord both share character/deck creation, the tiles can create a variety of maps, generic and colored special counters are included (i.e. the tokens used for prisoners mentioned within post), accessible monsters, and lastly your own creative imagination to decide what the quest theme and text will be for the Overlord's eyes and also what is to be publicly shared.