Weekly Trash - Descent: Journeys in the Dark

metalface13 wrote:
The game of choice amongst my buddies. It's got it all: Loads of characters, tons of monsters, cool miniatures, traps, terrain, variable powers, customizable Overlord deck, tons of items, treasure, squad-based gameplay, 3 expansions and even campaign play.

Descent is awesome.

The key expansions to get are the Well of Darkness for the addition of the Overlord treachery rules. Altar of Despair has treachery too, but it has fewer store items and adds some stuff that isn't included in Road to Legend.

If you want to add campaigns, making the game more of an RPG lite, get the Road to Legend expansion as it radically changes the game.

The base game by itself is pretty good, but I feel it's too easy for the heroes. The Well of Darkness expansion balances things some (also balances the treasure decks) and gives the Overlord more options which equals more fun.

Must have for any Ameritrasher.


Weekly Trash is a series of discussion threads in the F:AT forums. Each week a comment from the recommendations database is highlighted here. Don't be shy about posting further comments, questions, answers, funny stories, pictures, "this game sucks", or anything else related to the game.

I just got into board games in the last 6 months or so and I really can't wait to own this game. It's tough to justify dropping $70 on another big box FFG game having just bought TI3, but I can't see myself holding out past the end of the year.

I love Runebound and this looks like it eats Runebound for breakfast.

I just got this in a trade and it is looking pretty awesome. haven't broken it out yet, but I shuld be able too once the wife finishes her upcoming business trip. Sweet!

The innards look awesome. I envy folks that paint this thing up--it must be super-dynamite when it's prettified.

I foresee myself getting WoD and RtL--any recs on storage? This thing is huge. If you recommend a Plano thingie, tell me which one. Thanks!

I just really love Descent. I love Dungeon crawls with min maxed characters and this game just hits the nail on the head. I play the OL most of the time and I enjoy plotting the demise of the heroes. If I could get someone to OL for me, I'd love to take the heroes as well.

Road to Legend and the other expansions make this game great. Giving the OL an Avatar was great and the dungeon, encounters and outdoor map decks make things simple and do a good job of providing narrative despite being a random.

Well of Darkness and AoD give the game a much needed fleshing out with more creatures and the tweaking of the OL Deck. I couldn't see playing without them now.

Descent is a very fun game. I think as a dungeon crawler and fantasy hack and slash it is great. It is the dungeon crawler I would be most likely to purchase. The one thing that I find to be a little on the flimsy side is the sense of narrative. This is what I would try and add if I was the overlord. I don't know if the Road to Legend expansion adds this. In the games I've played it has fealt a little too gamey. There is too much min/maxing and jumping back to town for my tastes, not enough puzzles, dialogue and atmosphere. Other games, like Arkham Horror, get you that much more engaged with their theme.

It seems like it's tough to strike a balance between RPG and competitive boardgame. I love the fact that the Overlord is a competing player rather than just a moderator. But like you said sometimes it feels too gamey from the lack of narrative. I'd say that there's more skill involved in a game of Descent than in something like Arkham Horror (although I've only played each of them once, so my experience is slim), but there seems to be more strength of theme in AH. Another interesting thing is how Descent has little to no actual 'leveling up'; you get new stuff, but your core attributes don't get better (except maybe in Road to Legend, which I don't know about).

Anyway, great game with awesome production value, and still very Ameritrash!

Descent is pure awesome. With Road to Legend the Descent system now has everything I want from an adventure game. Dungeon crawling, over the top combat, campaings and character development.

If I had to offer a critique it would be that the spells available to casters are too limited. I would like it if they had more utility spells such as healing, divination, travel, etc. to choose from. As it is, they play too much like rangers in a bathrobe.

My biggest compliment of Descent would be the adversarial structure of the game, ie the Overlord. The fact that you're not playing against a dumb AI is a huge improvement over classics like Warhammer Quest. There is an intellegnt player on the other side of the table that is actively trying to kill you. If you're one of those folks that had a creampuff DM during your D&D days, then this game is not for you. There is a real possibility that you can and might lose. Your toon will get slaugheterd multiple times while the OL cackles with glee. But guess what? If you do manage to pull out a win. It will actually mean something.

Dungeon crawling has never been so much fun.

-Will

Storage for Descent with all the expansions is pretty much impossible. I've got all my stuff divided between the main box and the road to legend box. I employ big ziplock bags for the monsters, baggies for the floor pieces, and multiple plano boxes for all the tokens.

I think Descent has plenty enough narrative. You just need to read the bits in the scenario in a spooky Overlord voice.

Wish I had a group to really play this with, I'd buy it in a second. Road to Legend looks like such a huge improvement.

My group started playing the Well of Darkness adventures. I like that they are more creative and interesting then the base game ones, but I have to say that based on the first 3 adventures they are far too hard if you have a good overlord.

Decent hits the table often in my group but I am always the overlord ( I dont know how this happened because I was never the DM'y type back in the day with DnD) I have never played as a player but thats okay especialy since you can tweek the overlord deck...traps traps and more traps...Muhahahaha.

I bought the game some months ago but haven't played even a practice game yet. Looks awesome though! I better tie a string around my finger to remind me to get this on the table.

BillN

I actually think traps are one of those gamey elements; they basically appear when the overlord decides they should. It works for the game, but it doesn't make sense (normally traps have to be set up BEFORE someone springs them). That and the spells being basically just "Magical Firearms".

Damn, did I just criticize Descent again? That's what comes of hanging around all these ATers (I just joined). Back at BGG I'd be fiercely defending this game against all the "You only like it for the bits" and "It's way too long to be playable" crap. Actually , now that I think about it I only really criticize games I like. If the game is no good I don't waste time talking about it.

Anway, the Overlord deck and Threat system are both really clever (adding an element of urgency that was sorely lacking in Heroscape, a game I played a lot when I was young). The colored dice system is brilliant, especially how you add extra black dice for things you're good at. Once again it's a much more thematic system than Heroscape's "Only the barbarian can use the good weapons, and the Wizard's not allowed to wear armor". In descent you CAN be a wizard and go using a broadsword, but you won't be very effective (much more like real life).

gstormer wrote:

In descent you CAN be a wizard and go using a broadsword, but you won't be very effective (much more like real life).

I know what you mean, but it makes me smile whenever someone says this.

Oh crap, maybe I should check my posts more carefully:unsure: ! That's the real problem with slang; once you get used to it you start seeing innuendos in totally innocent statements!