Trashdome - Middle Earth Quest VS Descent: JitD

Vote: MEQ

It's strictly a vote against Descent, which normally I don't do, but I really really do not like Descent.

For quite some time, I was under the impression that it was a really good game system, and most of the scenarios just happened to be poorly balanced and run about one tedious hour longer than necessary. While I still say those are two pretty big flaws with the game, what really brought me to hate it is how damn game-y it is.

First, you've got the treasure chest/good weapon relay race, where one hero opens a door, burns through his fatigue dancing around all the monsters and hitting the chest. Now, everyone outside the room suddenly has a badass weapon. It might take a few movement points to make sure everyone ends up holding the weapon they're good with, but you'll still have all your tough guys loaded up to clear the room pretty quickly.

Or how about the old Overlord conquest token assembly line. This is where there are seven or eight monsters on the board, and every single one of them saunters up to the guy with the crappiest armor, hits him (maybe with a double strike for good measure), then casually steps back to make room for every other goddamn creature in the dungeon to take his turn beating up this one guy while completely ignoring everyone else. You get some good spawn cards early in the game, and you can win a lot of scenarios within the first few turns this way.

Shit like that is just dumb, and causes the game to become all about who can exploit loopholes in the rules better, rather than who's got the better tactics and luck.

Exploiting loop-holes isn't tactics?

There's a difference between coming up with smart, creative plays (which the game does allow on rare occasions), and doing things that make no sense within the context of the theme

I haven't played Descent, but I'm going to vote for MEQ purely on the basis that I tend to favour games that don't require half a lifetime's commitment in order to play through properly.

Both of these games have annoying game-y elements that just bug me whenever I play them.

Vote: Diablo II

Both are good games. For me, Descent's complexity is really close to the tipping point where I would want to play a RPG on the PC.

MEQ

I think MEQ is the better designed game, Descent is so clunky!

Still, I'm voting for Descent because we play it a lot, and table time sure beats a perfectly designed game.

House rules FTW!

Wow - better get my vote in for Descent in hopes of a come from behind victory.

Vote: Descent

Descent: Journeys In The Dark = 9
The Expanding Man
Sagrilarus
Ken B.
metalface13
Turek
longclaw
kookoobah
Ska_baron
Space Ghost

Middle Earth Quest = 11
Grudunza
moss_icon
sydo
Browncoat
Walterman
SanIlDefanso
Mr MOTO
dysjunct
mjl1783
MattDP
MrZir

Diablo II = 2
Aarontu
Mad Dog