Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The only way to gain xp is to activate glyphs and defeat dungeon level bosses (or encounter bosses in a road encounter) right? am i missing something?

Right now my group is on their second dungeon floor and they have 8 xp and i have ~30. will this balance out more once the get more equipment (assuming i don't crushing blow the **** out of them) it seems right now that the heroes are really behind the 8 ball (which is par the course in descent until tthey get a lot of treasure, really).

Also: if i buy two points of event treachery can i slow burn them even more dy dropping cursed glyphs?

When building the OL deck, should i add any of the colored cards that DONT have a treachery cost? on one hand i thought yes, on the other hand in the encounter section it mentions that it's half a trechery for each one. i erred on the side of making it easier for the heroes since they have enough problems.

Finally: when calculating xp for campaign levels i would count my heroes xp as 8, not as 32 (8 for each hero that they earn) correct?

thanks so much!

Melonball said:

First off- get used to the difference between CONQUEST and XP. Conquest is what drives the campain and is what the Party (all 4 heroes) and the OL get from week to week, and also determines when the campaign moves up to Silver, Gold and the Final Confrontation.

XP is gained by each player (OL and each hero) on a 1 for 1 basis. If the OL gains 5 conquest he also gains 5 xp. If the Party gains 5 conquest EACH hero gains 5xp. The CONQUEST gained remains at 5 in this example.

Your campaign level = OL Conquest + Party Conquest or 38

I don't know why they didn't bother putting an "XP Total" box on the record sheets for RTL but they are easily written in.

In terms of gaining Conquest (and thus XP) for the Heroes, they get them for moving to an unexplored dungeon location, for activating glyphs, killing bosses, and sometimes for opening a chest.

As for the 8-30 split on the 2nd dungeon level, I'd say it's definitely a bit behind the curve for the heroes. They must have died quite a bit on the first level, and they've put themselves in the dread 25XP range for the OL to upgrade a monster type to Silver at the beginning of the next week. It sounds like they need to work on their dungeon strategy and tactics- keep spawn points to a minimum etc (read Kevin's advice for Heroes on the FF page)

Also- make sure you as the OL are following the spawn rules correctly and using the reinforcement marker between spawns.

OL deck- if you haven't purchases any treachery yet (which seems to be the case), all the cards without a treachery cost should be used. Once you purchase treachery, you can replace a card with a treachery card of the appropriate type and cost. Remember that you can only purchase one upgrade a turn as the OL

For encounters only- if you have purchased treachery you can add treachery of the appropriate type and cost to your hand OR select two non-treachery cards of the appropriate type for each treacher point. So 2 event treachery could get you : 1 event treachery card that cost 2, 2 event treachery cards that cost 1 each, 1 event treachery card that cost 1 and 2 event (green) cards that don't have a treachery cost, or 4 event (green) cards that have no treachery cost.

Does that make sense?

It does, thank you. So just to clarify:

I should add the generic kolbolds, danger, ferrox etc. just not the super jerk versions that cost treachery?

What is the xp they get for exploring an unexpored dungeon? (and do they get that for rumors and lenendary areas as well?)

as for an explaination on their high death rate: i've been obeying the spawn marker thing and they've been using bogs and sight lines pretty well, but master beast men are a helluva drug.

Heh... i love me the master beasmen!

Page 10 of the rules: "If the heroes end their movement in a dungeon area, they receive one conquest token if they’ve never been to that area
before." They don't have to explore the Dungeon, they just get 1 conquest for moving there the FIRST time. Mark it off as visited on the record sheet. They get this for Legendary and Rumors (Rumors are just on a Dungeon Location afterall)

I've played 2 campaigns now and in both the heroes got ahead on XP. Whilst this seems to be against the grain, my players are good and use very good tactics.

So, in week 1, the OL gets 1 XP. The heroes travel to a dungeon and arrive (+1 XP). Then they do the first level, activate a glyph (+3 XP), kill the level leader (+2 XP) and then flee back to Tamalir without taking any losses. So at the end of week 1, the OL has 1, the heroes have 6. They spend their coins on treasure and do the same in week 2, possibly even doing 2 levels of a dungeon. The OL might get a kill in, but by now the heroes are ahead 17-5.

How do my players do this? Well, that puzzled me for a while, since all the other reports I have read seem to keep saying how the heroes keep dropping like flies, getting killed multiple times per level in Copper. In my campaign, my heroes get a little wounded. But, we are playing it correct, I'm following the rules.

Quite simply in both campaigns they have 1 melee, 1 ranged and 2 magic characters.

The dungeon level begins, I set up my monsters out of line of sight initially (if I didnt, the heroes would just kill them on turn 1). Each turn, they move and guard. So, in my turn, I try to do something, and their guard orders trigger and my monsters get killed. They do this with clever use of items, spending fatigue to get extra dice. Having the Blessing skill in both campaigns has helped. Essentially, most of my monsters are killed in 1 shot.

If you want a better detail of events, check out my campaign diary (session 3 to be posted soon, but that went pretty much the same way). http://people.exeter.ac.uk/pg234/runestone/boardgames/descent/descent.htm

So basically they accept the fact that they won't finish the dungeon all the way, and bail out and buy treasure early on?

makes sense.

My heroes load out is pretty solid...

1: Runemaster Throne with Bogs to cut sight lines

2: Corbin with sword/board, chainmail, ring of protection and Knight for 3 battle actions

3. Nara the Fang with Mighty and a Walking Stick (she one shotted a golem)

4. (The scrub of the team) Archer Chick (telias maybe) with master archer...they bought her a bow instead of a crossbow despite my advice...she keeps getting tore up

When they attack a monster they usually 1 shot them, (aside from masters), but im usually a big chicken who uses hit and run tactics to draw things out as long as possible to generate more threat. It doesn't help that im a spider queen, and used my 15 upgrade points at jump to buy the "store two trap cards" so dark charm and mimic didnt make their lives any easier.

Melonball said:

RTL quickly becomes a choice of Risk/Reward. The Heroes are no longer just trying to "Complete" a dungeon- they are trying to build themselves up over time and take down the Avatar. Sometimes this means backing away from a situation that will generate more conquest for the OL than for the Heroes. Sometimes the Heroes deem it worthwile to send the runner in to grab a quick treasure only to be killed during the OL turn. RTL is all about adaptability in the face of changing circumstances and making the most of a situation. The balance will always be shifting- sometimes slowly, sometimes quite rapidly- and being able to deal with things (both as the OL AND the Heroes) is the key to this game.

It gets said everytime a new poster arrives with a new campaign where the Heroes are losing, but always bears repeating.

Retreating from dungeons early and frequently is THE way for the Heroes to play, in the early game. Descent, and RtL, is NOT some kind of single-player computer-game dungeon slog that rewards being thorough. You don't have to gain MUCH from a dungeon, what's important is that you gain MORE than your opponent. The Overlord is weakest on the first floor, because he only starts the dungeon with 3 cards and no threat, therefore most of the time the Heroes should restrict themselves to doing only first floors.