Help balancing a mega campaign

By Bjorn Rockfist, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I am starting a mega campaign that will have everything from the JitD2, LotW, and LoR. I am starting with LoR's campaign which I then plan on letting the players keep their characters to use in the SR campaign w/LotW added to it. How can I make Act 1 of the SR campaign where it won't be a cake walk to a group with better gear and new abilities they gained in the LoR campaign?

I plan on starting with the Basic II deck, and will be using all monster groups to be part of my open groups. I just really like the idea of a long campaign that lets my players keep their characters for the whole thing. I just feel it maybe difficult to do so.

This is something my group was thinking of as well. I don't think it can be done for the simple fact that monsters would then need an "act III" and "Act IV" stats. The two campaigns come together so nicely together.

Another idea might be to have the heroes "lock" so much EXP of skills, but let them keep the bone crunching items? Monsters would still need a boost.

Good question though... Sorry I'm not much of a help.

I am starting a mega campaign that will have everything from the JitD2, LotW, and LoR. I am starting with LoR's campaign which I then plan on letting the players keep their characters to use in the SR campaign w/LotW added to it. How can I make Act 1 of the SR campaign where it won't be a cake walk to a group with better gear and new abilities they gained in the LoR campaign?

I plan on starting with the Basic II deck, and will be using all monster groups to be part of my open groups. I just really like the idea of a long campaign that lets my players keep their characters for the whole thing. I just feel it maybe difficult to do so.

This is just an idea never tried it. Roll a 6 sided die to determine who wins or looses act1 quests. Then setup your ally based on that. Then just start playing act 2 quests. Atleast monsters will be close to heros play level. Could probably tweak this to your liking. Guess side quests you could do the same and just play the act 2 quest.

At the very least, you would need to devise "Act III" stats for the monsters to use throughout SR. I would start by calculating the difference between Act I and Act II stats for each monster and adding the same again to each Act II statline. You may need to tweak further.

HOPEFULLY the fact that all the gear and skills top out at "Act II" power levels will keep things relatively even as you proceed through SR. If not, you might consider an "Act IV" statline built on top of the Act III statline for SR Act II.

The heroes will quickly get all of the skills they have for their chosen class, at which point you might consider allowing them to "multi-class" into a second class of the same archetype or something.

I haven't heard of anyone actually doing this yet, so you'll basically have to feel it out yourself, in terms of how you want to do it. I'd be interested to hear how things turn out, though.

Me too! Please tell us how it goes. I know I would like to do something like that in the future.

Eventually the heros cash wouldn't make any diffrance they would simply just swap out gear that is better and all other cash wouldn't get spent. (Skills) Not all hero skills are that great anyway most heros spend exp. on the best anyway having few extra i don't believe would be game breaking in a game like this. When all heros are all geared up though they won't bother going for any search tokens, so no extra actions will be spent there. It would be a beat quest fast game for the heroes so some scaling of some kind would be needed.

I'd try to keep it simple though since Descent is ment to be simple quick to learn,but slower to master. All hero gear in act 2 is for act 2, and all act 1 gear is ment for act 1( except for a stamina ring ect.). Heros can't get any better then act 2 level because there isn't any other act. Act 2 monsters are the same as well they don't get any better then act 2. You would need to not just scale monsters but hero gear as well if you played a act 3,or 4.

Act 2 class heroes are to strong for act 1. After playing through a act 1 campaign you wouldn't be able to play act 1 anymore. What I would do if I tried this would just randomly figure out what wins in the next act 1 campaign then precede with act 2 only from there. That's more or less what I'd try to do to keep it simple but keep flow of game going.

Lots of ideas. Love to see more ideas. Never thought about doing this before would be fun if I had the time.

I have figured out a easy way to do this....at least for me. Overview is I will be using all heros, shop items, travel cards, conditions, and OL cards from all the sets. I am going to start with a LoR campaign. Once it is over players will be allowed to either pick a new hero or re-class the one they have, example Grisban the Thirsty who used the Berserker ability cards will loose all his known ability and start the next campaign with a different set of "warrior" class ability cards such as Knight or Beastmaster. The OL will be able to choose either the Basic or Basic II deck to start the next campaign with, but looses all his purchased cards from the previous campaign. I will then do LotW as a mini-campaign using the PDF FFG offers. Again players will have the choice to pick a new hero or re-class the one they have. I will then do a SR campaign. Another chance for players to rework heros. Then follow it up with a Trollfens mini-campaign.

I am thinking about giving players 200 gold and 2 XP, the XP will be for each player and the gold as a group, if they actually win a sub-campaign. They would be able to spend those on their characters for the next sub-campaign. If the OL wins he get 4 XP to spend on the OL deck to start the next sub-campaign.

I think this is a simple yet fun way to string it all together and give both the players and OL flexibility between sub-campaigns in how they start the next. Plus it re-levels everything fairly well.

i actually did right that. plus a double Version of all sets ! 2 boards 1,20m x 1,20m full. Monsters additionally from descent 1 Basic game and vault of ice. ( i dont have the 2 others , no trolls !) should load some photos of it at boardgamegeek.

i placed the landscape in the middle and the dungeons to tight and left to it, so characters had to cross the landscape mutltiple times.

ist just great. i love designing my own games.

Balancing, well what a laugh. my heroes never have trouble to kill any Monster Group. better to change the whole dice and combat System than trying to Balance that.