Today, we at FFG are pleased to release the second-to-last FAQ for Descent: Journeys in the Dark (pdf, 1.2 MB). We intend to post the game’s final FAQ two weeks from today.

That makes the next two weeks vitally important for anyone who has additional rules questions regarding this game. This thread has been created to collect these questions; please post them here.

Then check back in two weeks for the final FAQ, which will officially turn a page in the ongoing story of Descent: Journeys in the Dark .

That's fantastic! Can't wait to read through it!

Thanks!

-SoylentGreen

Suggestion for clarification, on pg 27 in the Sea of Blood errata, it says,

"Fleeing Encounters
Players and lieutenants may only flee off of the opposite
side of the map they appeared on. They can no longer move
off the “sides” of the map, only the edge opposite from their
starting edge. Lieutenants who flee from an encounter are
now moved to their starting space on the map."

The last word "map" is ambiguous, since we were talking about the encounter map earlier in the paragraph, and now (I think) we're talking about the Overland map. Suggestion, change "moved to their starting space on the map" to "moved to their starting space on the Overland map".

-shnar

Pg 29:

"Q: May the hero party purchase more than one figurehead
during a Sea of Blood campaign?
A: No, they cannot. Once they have made their decision
for one figurehead, they will have to use it for the rest of
the campaign."

Why is this? Later on, it says if the Heroes purchase cannons and they don't have room, they have to discard cannons to make room. I would have thought the same thing for Figureheads, if the Heroes decide at some point to change the Figurehead they currently have, they could still do so, discarding (not selling) the current Figurehead and replacing it with the one they just bought.

-shnar

Pg 20 on necromancy:

"Q: Which upgrades continue to work on monsters that
are now under a hero's control as a result of using the
Necromancy skill.
A: Nothing counts. The newly animated monster does
not get any benefits from the overlord's powers, special
abilities, or upgrades of any kind. It is a monster of its
type of the current campaign level (i.e., Copper, Silver,
Gold). A necromancy-controlled Gold Beastman has the
exact stats on the “Gold Beastman” card and nothing else,
regardless of what upgrades the overlord has purchased."

The words "special abilities" makes it seem like the animated monster doesn't gain any special abilities of that monster . Is that the intent? If so, 2 questions later talks about using Dark Prayer's ability to increase range/damage, so there's a conflict. If that is not the intent, then a little clarification (probably just add change "special abilities" to "overlord's special abilities").

-shnar

One last comment, no rulings on how to use the Tentacles?

Otherwise, I have to thank FFG for doing this! This is excellent support, especially for a "dying" product. I've always loved FFG's support and this just makes me even more happy. Keep up the good work!

-shnar

I checked FAQ update.
I have a question that Divine Favor of Sea of Blood.

P27
Reversed Divine Favor said following:
"So, for every full 25 conquest tokens the
heroes’ conquest total is below the overlord’s total, the
heroes gain 1 additional conquest each time they earn
conquest."

Each time is included in Special rule of Dungeon?
For example, No.9 "The Prison" Dungeon (Road to Legend' Dungeon)
"The hero receive one conquest token for each villager who leaves the level"

In the case, the heroes have 25 conquest,and the overlord has 57 (a difference of 32).

If four villagers leaves the level, Heros earn 5 conquest instead of 4 conquest or 8 conquest instead of 4 conquest?

-goldkight

I agree, we need some better rulings on Tentacles.

Otherwise, I am happy to see this project finally happening.

3rding the request for the rules for tentacles. Thank you FFG !

If the OL plays a crushing blow after a successful attack and after that a hero plays the blocked feat card (the attack becomes a miss), how you should treat this?

Should the OL give the chance to the hero player to play a feat card and put later into play his treachery card? What happens if the ol plays his card first? The FAQ says that the active side has priority on this case. Could you explain how to play in this and other similar situations?

+1 to the request for rulings regarding tentacles.

My group have pored over the existing rulings and come up with a number of issues that could do with some clarification.

The rulings stipulate that tentacles can never move more than 3 spaces away from the controlling figure. Given that the controlling figure will activate before the tentacles it is possible that the figure could be moved to be more than 3 spaces away from a tentacle. What should happen here?

Does the tentacle get moved with the figure so that it says within range of the controlling figure?

Does the tentacle get destroyed/removed because it is too far from the controlling figure?

Does the tentacle stay where it is and on its activation move so that it ends the turn within the required 3 spaces?

The tentacles will always have at least as much movement as the controlling figure and possibly more, so getting the tentacle back in range shouldn't be an issue.

If a tentacle is grappling a hero and due to the movement of the controlling figure is out of range, does it have to move itself back in range thereby releasing the hero from the Grapple effect. Furthermore, if the tentacle needs to move just 1 space to be in range of the controlling figure, is it forced to take the movement option and forego vthe opportunity to constrict the Grappled hero.

I might be missing something, but clarification of these issues would help a great deal.

Thanks for the effort that must have gone into compiling this final FAQ and bring on Descent v 2.0.

My apologies if this question has been asked before, or appears in the forums, but I've searched many times to try and find an answer.

I know the rules for the interaction of the overlord's Dodge card and a hero's Aimed attack (with the two canceling each other out), but how does the timing work with adding power dice (with fatigue or such)?

Must all power dice be added before the re-roll for Aim? We have played that a power die could be added AFTER the re-roll, but these added dice could no longer be re-rolled, since the re-roll has already been done. Then how does Dodge interact? It seemed to me that the intent of a dodge was to force a re-roll, or in the case of Dodge v Aim, have the result that was rolled to stand.

Is the correct order to 1) roll dice, 2) add more dice if desired, 3) then use the re-roll from Aim (at which point the OL would step in and play Dodge)? At this point, no more power dice could be added?

Thanks.

We've just finished our Sea of Blood campaign with my gaming group. We unfortunately also finished with two pages of house rules in order to make the game more balanced and playable. Here are a few suggestions I have, based on our (long) gaming experience:

There a 3 treasure cards which appear to be very problematic in a campaign environment:

Pack of Holding (copper treasure) : In a campaign environment this card is totally broken. The heroes finished the game with the WHOLE deck of gold treasures in their pack. This rendered Crushing Blow totally useless and insured the heroes a constant stock of all potions available.

Suggestion: Limit the pack to 10 items in campaign environment or even better just ban it.

Amulet of Healing (Silver treasure) : This caused a problem during the final battle: Is the hero healed of his original max health or is he healed of his max health for the final battle (around 90 at that point) ? Useless to say that a 90 point health recovery during the final battle means Game Over for the Overlord even before the final battle starts.

Elven Cloak (Gold Treasure): Just too powerful. This basically divides the damage received by half. Couple this with an invisibility potion and Dodge and you have unkillable hero (which incidentally causes a certain amount of issues during the final battle also).

General suggestion: These cards should be banned during campaign play. Also I would suggest that any items destroyed during the campaign are put in the graveyard and do not go back to the treasure deck. The heroes have more than enough treasures to find/purchase during the campaign without needing to have a chance to retrieve detroyed items (I've seen that Staff of the Grave a few too many times).

Incidentally, one Crushing Blow card should be added to the basic Overlord deck in order to allow the Overlord to pursue other strategies than just going for the Event Treachery Deck at any cost (wishful thinking).

A comment on the FAQ : There are 3 trails on the Strategic Map in Sea of Blood which do not have an encounter shield on them. Smart heroes will immediately purchase Dead Man's Compass and Elven Sails in order to practically never need to roll for encounters by using the secret trails. In a span of 40 gameplay weeks, the encounter deck was not used once (with one or two unlucky rolls from the Overlord) ! This was very unfortunate and anti-climatic.

Suggestion: add an appropriate color shield on trails where they are lacking.

As a final note, we've opted for some years now to allow the Overlord to convert two surges for 1 extra damage during attack rolls (in addition to the choice of using the two surges to gain one threat). I would strongly suggest to make this rule official as for us it has become an absolutely obvious option and helps a lot in balancing the game.

Finally our deepest thanks to FFG for making such enthralling and enjoyable games and also for taking the time to publich a final FAQ DEscent V1 !

Patmox said:

If you destroy pack of holding with a crushing blow, a hero should lose all items in it because he could not relocate/equip them. Items in the ground are lost forever, so your request does not have sense to me.

Anyway, there is no time for more changes in the game, so I think that we should take advantage of this week for important questions regarding the game, do not you think?

gran_orco said:

You have to:

1) Have purchased an event treachery in order to add Crushing Blow to your deck

2) Draw it

3) Be in a position to use it efficiently.

In the meantime the heroes are accumulating treasure. And if ever you manage to destroy the sack the items go back to their respective treasure decks and are not lost forever as the heroes can just draw them again (which happened several times in our case). This is why I also suggested that destroyed items are effectively lost forever. Thus, I would be in agreement with you that if the latter was implemented, there would be less necessity to ban or fix some items.

The thing I am getting to is that some items work well in a one dungeon environment but not in a campaign setting.

I must also admit one thing though, we house-ruled the game so that the Overlord couldn't exactly choose what treachery card he wanted (semi-random draw), so Crushing Blow had less chance to appear. I still believe though, that there is some kind of problem when the balance of a game just rests on one card drawn at random (Crushing Blow in this case).

We also just finished up a Sea of Blood campaign after two years (monthly play). It was a blast, and we will start a Road to Legend campaign in the fall. A disagree with Patmox about the changes that need to be made. The bag of holding (and everything in it) was destroyed by the overlord, as well as the Elven Cloak later on.

Here's my 2 cents after reading the document and the thread here:

---------------------

Page 6:

"In addition, during a Road to Legend campaign, heroes may freely exchange their equipment at any time while they are on the overland map or at the beginning of any quest."

On page 7 the FAQ clarifies what you can do with Acrobat on a space that is occupied by another figure. This is much appreciated, but the FAQ is oddly silent about whether you can open a chest in this situation. It calls out that you can open a door, but omits anything about chests. I would love to see that covered (particularly since one of our heroes just picked up the Acrobat skill in RTL).

We also finished a Sea of Blood campaign, with some house rules to make it playable. We heroes prevailed, but were quite lucky: the OL missed his first 8 raze rolls, and during gold age, as cities were under pressure (3 razed and the last 2 sieged), we got a rumor with a golden hourglass that stops time for the OL for 3 weeks.

Two house rules we played with, which seemed necessary, was that Lieutenants who fled were stunned : they could do nothing the following week. Also, whenever we succeeded in crossing the map with the revenge, it was considered a breakthrough , with identical results as a Lieutenant flight. It is not that difficult to achieve (once we succeded with only 1 survivor though), but usually it gave the OL free conquest for the price of a liberated city (weekly conquest + 0-3 kills). Once the third Lieutenant appeared, even these house rules became useless, because freeing one city while 2 other ones are under siege brings you nowhere. From then on we concentrated on entering dungeons to make the campaign progress.

However, these two house rules brought us closer to the end of the game, which, with the help of the golden hourglass, pulled us through.

Therefore I suggest adding the bolded part to the text on page 27:

Fleeing Encounters
Players and lieutenants may only flee off of the opposite side of the map they appeared on. They can no longer move off the “sides” of the map, only the edge opposite from their starting edge. Lieutenants who flee from an encounter are now moved to their starting space on the map, and cannot be issued orders the following week .

We also had a good tentacles rules. If I remember well, the head moved first with the tentacles following it; when the head had ended its movement, tentacles were placed as they were placed when the head started. Then the tentacles could move individually, but never more than 3 spaces away from the head. Tentacles could attack the revenge (1 silver die per tentacle during silver and 1 gold die during gold, 2 surges gave 1 threat), so there was no problem if the heroes stayed out of reach of the tentacles, as the Kraken could always take on the ship.

We also had the home rule that Dallak couldn't be used as a port, which I see has made it into the FAQ.

The new reverse Divine Favour rule seems excellent.

Thank you for having worked (and for still working) on this final FAQ.

This question is due to the limitation of fatigue tokens (which I personally strongly dislike) and a resulting problem in the Sea of Blood Expension:

Q: What happens if all fatigue tokens are in play and a station is manned?

A a) If all fatigue tokens are used, no further station may be manned.

A b) Like with monsters or obstacle markers, the overlord may choose to remove a fatigue token from a station used before. This station may be used again this during round.

A c) Simply use any other token to mark this station as used.

A d) Fatigue tokens aren't limited at all.

I fear the answer will be c), but where is the point in limiting the heroes to 24 fatigue? A party with four 5 fatigue heroes starting with tiger tattoo and skilled already needs 23. So in a RtL-Campain, already the first fatigue secret master training would only bring the one remaining fatigue token in play.

Reginleif said:

Did you encounter this problem in actual play or is it a purely theoretical question?

The reason I ask is that it doesn't make much sense to upgrade fatigue in Sea of Blood, since 1) all the most powerful skills, namely the Marks, use life to function, whereas in RtL the most powerful skills used fatigue, and b) heroes get only one fatigue for a secret training upgrade, not two as in RtL.

As a matter of fact, I always felt that both campaigns would be more balanced if Sea of Blood secret training gave two fatigue and Road to Legend one. In RtL, our OL would always complain that we had too much fatigue - am I right when I assume that you play more often as a hero than as a OL?

The fatigue limit is necessary in RtL; in Sea of Blood, it is not as needed but since the limit should never be reached, I guess no one felt the necessity to change that RtL campaign rule for Sea of Blood.

For hero teams who would still like to upgrade 1 fatigue rather than 4 life, there is a simple trick to man stations anyway: simply have the hero who wants to man a station spend 1 fatigue for a movement point before manning.

Ispher said:

Ispher said: As a matter of fact, I always felt that both campaigns would be more balanced if Sea of Blood secret training gave two fatigue and Road to Legend one. In RtL, our OL would always complain that we had too much fatigue - am I right when I assume that you play more often as a hero than as a OL?

No, in both my campaigns I'm playing the OL, the Spider Queen and the Mistress of Serpents . I love beasts.

I don't see the necessity of the limit. It won't stop the heroes building one archer with +6 (8/9) fatigue and rapid fire. In that case it will only slow down the melee guys, who normally are too slow anyway and would make them even more useless. At least these are my quick thoughts about that.

I have the feeling that the 24 tokens in JitD were simply what you could have needed +2 as a buffer and not mend to be a limitation for a advanced campaign, so it's a quite random limit.

EDIT: Post looked quite messed up… and still does

Great! They are finally doing this…

I also just finished a Sea of Blood campaign - my thoughts.

- For Lt encounters, changing the fleeing rules is a good start but it does not do enough. It is far too easy in the early campaign for the LT to run around the extremes of the of the map and stall. This just isn't fun. These house rules force the Overlord player to engage and give the players some chance in the overland map:

1) If the heroes flee an encounter they keep any quest item the have.

2) If the heroes flee a LT that is besieging a city, all siege tokens are removed. (A blockade run) However the Lt. does not change positions and may restart the siege next campaign week. If the Lt. flees then he is relocated to his starting space.

- The most effective way to deal with an opposing ship is to board it and steer it into some rocks. By silver level, it is not necessary to by cannons anymore in ship encounters. Just take out any minions by the captains wheel of the enemy ship and crash it into the rocks. This makes the Ghost Ship nearly worthless at a Lt. Suggested house rules:

1) Each time a ship hits an obstacle, it takes one red die of damage (per rock hit). If an X is rolled the ship immediately sinks.

- Nagas are too cheap to reinforce for the OL in the encounters. (I think the cost is 4)

1) Raise the cost to reinforce Nagas to 7.

- The overlord has a decent chance in the final battle but the odds are still too stacked against him - especially since he cannot build a big conquest lead due to Divine Favor.

1) Eliminate divine favor. OR

2) When the overlord is revealed discard all threat tokens. The overlord accumulates threat normally and can use threat for extra movement and die upgrades like a LT. When a hero dies the OL gets one less threat.

- Undying rules. A string of surges for undying rolls in the early game can be devastating to the heroes, plus it isn't that fun to play with.

1) Optional rule: One undying roll is allowed that succeeds on a power enhancement. After the monster dies a second time it stays dead.

- Another +1 for new rules for the Kraken/Void. I'm not sure what the easiest fix is - perhaps increasing the allowable distance between the Kraken/void and the tentacles.

- Finally, just to chime in on the issues of Pack of Holding, Amulet of Healing , and Elven Cloak. I agree that the Amulet of Healing should not raise a hero to his full wounds in the final battle. Other than that I see no problem (as the OL) with the any of these cards. I played crushing blow on the Pack in early silver and did the same to the Elven cloak right before the final battle. All three of these treasure cards are powerful - but none of them are even close to the most powerful card in the game - the silver web weapon.

Andy

Andy

I've been asked if I have any questions or things to contribute, and I do, but due to my daughter being born this week, I am unable to allocate the time to organise this properly and write it all out until sunday at least (if I am lucky).

In the mean time, the really glaring empty hole for now is tentacles. The existing tentacel rules are simply unplayable, as they leave many major problems to resolve.

Elevation:
What does a large figure that is occupying both elevated and nonelevated spaces count as?
What if not all of its spaces have LOS to or from a target or attacker? Can it count as elevated if its elevated spaces cannot trace LOS to a target, or if an attacker is tracing LOS to one of its nonelevated spaces?
Does an AoE attack (Blast, Breath etc) suffer elevated penalties for attacking an elevated figure on an unelevated space? Attacks attack spaces not figures…
If an AoE attack attacks both elevated and unelevated figures, do the unelevated figures get the benefit of elevation (similar to Ironskin vs Sorcery), since the attack gets modifiers?

Villagers:
Can Acrobats, Leapers and Fly-ers move through Villagers?
Is a stunned villager treated like a stunned normal monster?

Cannons:
Can a cannon with a fatigue token on it be fired?

Tentacles:
Do the Kraken’s Tentacles have Swim, Ironskin or Regen5?
Tentacles and their owners move separately (or at least have their own movements and activations) and at different speeds. But they have to stay close together. How does this work?
Since Tentacles are figures, how do they affect LOS, movement and abilities such as Swarm, Brawler etc? (especially LOS and movement).
Can tentacles man ship stations? (Is this how the Kraken sinks ships, since it can’t damage them directly)?

shnar said:

No conflict. The special abilities referred to are clearly the OL's special abilities, not the monster's special abilities. Its [OL's] [powers, special abilities, or upgrade].

I think this one falls into the category of a few we asked in the FAQ proposal but were ignored, which is basically "we aren't responsible for you deliberately misinterpreting stuff. There is a clear result that works, and one that has issues, so its obviously use the one that works!".

goldkight said:

If it says each time, then its each time. It doesn't need further explanation. Each time a villager leaves the level the heroes will earn (1+Divine Favour) CT, so in your example, the answer will be 8, not 5.
Note that the villagers leave the level individually…

davey79 said:

This is clearly and explicitly answered on pg 13
Q: Can extra power dice be added (with fatigue or threat in an outdoor encounter) to an attack after an Aim reroll?
A: No. Once the dice have been rerolled with Aim, no more power dice may be added. This is a general rule pertaining to all rerolls, even single die rerolls.

Patmox said:

I totally disagree.

Patmox said:

A good question.

Patmox said:

I totally disagree.

Patmox said:

Absolutely not!

Patmox said:

Already asked (with explanation why) and explicitly turned down.
Pg30
Q: Should there be a threat shield (for encounters) on the trail between the Bright Sea and Midnight Cove locations, between the Narrows of Gracor and Cerridor Sea, or on the routes to and from the Maelstrom?
A: No. Those trails are safe and encounter free.

Patmox said:

Absolutely not (except perhaps for the final battle)!

Grogman said:

Its 'oddly silent' because the base rules are quite explicit that you cannot open a chest while sharing the space with another figure.
DJitD pg18
A hero cannot open a chest if the chest is in the same space as another figure

Reginleif said:

Good question, answer should be c).

You may personally not like the fatigue token restriction but it is of critical importance, especially in RtL. By the time heroes get to late silver they can do far too much in a turn already. Allowing them to have 6-8 fatigue each just gets things ridiculous. One or two heroes can clear an entire level on their first turn with a vitality potion. Limiting the fatigue tokens to just 24 forces choices on the hero players, limits their ridiculous top-end overpowering but still allows them to overpower in one or two areas at the cost of being restricted elsewhere.