Q1. Do heroes have to reveal what they draw from the search deck or can they just hide them face down from the overlord?

Health Potions etc. Do they need to be equipped?

Q2.

The Tap Symbol (╔ similar to this little symbol but with an arrow)

Does it mean you tap the card and can only use it once per hero turn? Or does it simply mean ' use one action for this ability '.

Cards sometimes specify 'Exhaust this card' but other times does not.

Can the overlord perform two ╔ (tap) actions per turn?

That is all

arrow : only says "need one action to do this"

Yes, overlord can do 2 arrow action per turn. For monster, if the wording "make an attack" is written, you can do it only once per turn.

Q1 : all information is public in Descent.

Potions, which are items, must be equipped to be used.

Equipping is done at the start of the turn, before actions are made.

See p. 11 (and p. 7 in the HeroTurn Summary).

Q2 : the "tap" symbol has nothing to do with exhausting a card.

It only indicates that the use of a card or of a skill takes one of the two allowed actions of a figure.

If the card can only be used once, you will have the specific mention "exhaust this card".

Hope that helped.

Partially Ninja'd by rugal.

Q1 : all information is public in Descent.

Is this explicitly stated anywhere?

I have been overlording a treasure hunter who when looking at the top 3 cards of the deck has not been sharing this information - should he be ?

Q1 : all information is public in Descent.

Is this explicitly stated anywhere?

I have been overlording a treasure hunter who when looking at the top 3 cards of the deck has not been sharing this information - should he be ?

Yes and no.

It's stated in the quest guide that all information in the quest guide is public information, which is probably the most frequently queried area regarding what's public and what's not.

The rules for Search cards say they are kept face up in the hero's play area, and turned face down once used. So that addresses the OP's question more directly - if the hero keeps his search cards face down he's effectively counting them as "used." Therefore he should keep them face up (and "face up" generally means anybody can look at them) until he uses them.

However, there is some secret information, too. For example, the Overlord's hand of cards is secret, until he discards or uses one of course. That's the only example of hidden information I can think of though.

Whether or not the Treasure Hunter (or any other class) needs to reveal the cards he's drawing as part of a skill is more vague. I'd be inclined to say play it however you want. Personally, as Overlord, I couldn't care less what the top 3 search cards are, so if the TH wants to keep that to himself, that's fine.

Certainly he would have to reveal any cards he kept for himself, but cards that go back on the deck? I don't think there's any specific rule about those.

in the zachareth plot deck "seeds of betrayal" the card "meticulous planning" states:

ehaust this card after a hero draws (and chooses to keep) a search card to force that hero to place that search card on the bottom of the deck and draw a new one.

there wouldnt be much sense in this card if the overlord does not know what search card the hero has drawn would it?

i must say i kind of dont like the playstyle of people trying to "hide" information from the other party. most of the time i do get the role of an OL and i more play WITH the heroes than AGAINST. Ofc. i try to win and stuff, but i do point out when the heroes tend to gorget skills they wanted to use. this results in a more cooperative way of playing and nobody tries to outsmart another.

I asked that question because i am using zachareth as an agent. It would be nice to know what those three cards the player is looking at so i know wether to save my threat token or not. Like say there is both the treasure chest and the secret room card; i only have 1 threat token to stop 1 of those cards. It is in my best interest to know whats comming up so i can spend my threat token accordingly. I know he needs to share what he has picked up but knowing what what the cards he is looking as is vague at best in the rules.

It also allows the player to play the overlord in this manner, if he knows that both these cards are comming up and he wants the treasure chest but he knows the overlord wont let him have it. He can play the secret room card first knowing the overlord will want to stop him from getting it, the overlord stops this with the zach plot card only to let the player nab the treasure chest.

I have been playing it so i do not get to see the cards comming up, but the rules are scetchy on this. I should email ffg about this.

Health Potions etc. Do they need to be equipped?

Potions, which are items, must be equipped to be used.

FFG has ruled differently: http://boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Descent_Second_Edition_Unofficial_FAQ#toc50

Q: Must potions be equipped before they can be used?

A: Potions do not need to be equipped before they are used. A hero can trade for a potion during a move action (during his turn) and then immediately use it.

I seem to remember the rules themselves being kind of vague, and I believe there was a pretty big discussion on it before. (Granted, that could've just been between myself and a friend over IM).

I think it really comes down to p. 11 which says (emphasis mine):

Each hero can carry any number of Shop Item, Class, and Search cards he chooses. However, the number of these cards that a hero may equip is limited. Hero players indicate which items are not equipped by flipping them facedown or placing them under their Hero sheet. Any Shop Item or Class cards (such as starting equipment) can only be used while a hero has that card equipped.

Basically, it mentions carrying Search cards, but not specifically equipping them, and even if you "could" equip search cards, they aren't Shop or Class cards, so are not restricted to only being used while equipped.

Q2.

The Tap Symbol (╔ similar to this little symbol but with an arrow)

Does it mean you tap the card and can only use it once per hero turn? Or does it simply mean ' use one action for this ability '.

Cards sometimes specify 'Exhaust this card' but other times does not.

"Tap" is a Magic: The Gathering term, try to forget its meaning while playing Descent, even though its symbol looks similar.

The Arrow symbol in Descent means: "Spend an action to do the following"

"Exhaust" means "Turn this card sideways to do the following, after which, you can't do so again until you refresh this card" (Refreshing usually happens at the beginning of your turn, unless the card specifically says otherwise).

Some cards will require an Action (have the arrow), but are not exhausted, so can be used for both actions a figure has (unless it is a monster and the action specifies performing an attack: monsters could only use either this or a regular attack once per turn).

Some cards do not require an Action (no arrow), but are exhausted, so can be done in addition to the two actions a figure has, but only once until the beginning of their next turn.

Some cards require an Action (have the arrow), AND are exhausted, which means it can only be used for one of the figure's two actions that turn.

For example, the Overlord's hand of cards is secret, until he discards or uses one of course. That's the only example of hidden information I can think of though.

There also can be a special item, hidden under an apparently usual search token, that the OL knows about.

About equipping potions, I should have looked at the FAQ and the Wiki.

I just answered after what the rules seemed to say...

BTW, what if FFG posted a sticky post with the title "READ THIS before asking a question" and which would contain links to the FAQ and "FFG sez" wiki.

It would help not having recurrent questions coming up.

For example, the Overlord's hand of cards is secret, until he discards or uses one of course. That's the only example of hidden information I can think of though.

There also can be a special item, hidden under an apparently usual search token, that the OL knows about.

Next expansion should have some other hidden stuff, like showed in the preview