Descent and D&D

[diaglo]

all your base are belong to us

 

[Rykion]

Merric did you say a new Talisman set? Who is making it and When WHEN WHEN?????????




now that I've calmed down do you have any links to info?

Not Merric, but I can answer. It's being done by Black Industries, the people behind the new WHFRP. Their press release says October 2007. http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=BI&content=newslist&newsitem=212

Edit: With regards to Descent, you also don't carry anything over between games do you? That is another major difference between it and D&D.

 

[Mark CMG]

As long as we're in the neighborhood, has anyone here been playing BattleLore?

 

[Stormborn]

We played our first game of Descent this weekend and I doubt we will do so again. It was LOOOOOONG and while parts were interesting or fun its overall was not an experiance that we want to repeat. It reminded me very much of the computer game Diablo in both good and bad ways. We immediately started thinking of ways to make it more enjoyable with homebrewed rules and variations, and will certainly use the stuff it came with, but I doubt we will ever play it as is again. The Overlord seems to be overwhelming to the point that it would be impossible for the heroes to win.

Battlelore, OTOH, is a great game. I have played twice and even though I lost it was enjoyable and my defeat was a very narrow thing that came down to a few turns and the luck of the dice/cards. Much more balanced, much faster even for beginners, much more fun. The only down side is its just for 2 players

Somewhere between these two is Arkham Horror, a good game that does better simulate RPGs but one that needs some house rules to keep it from being overwhelming.

 

[bento]

The group I regularly play with bought this when there wasn't a prepared D&D game. So far I've been the Overlord twice and I won't do it again.

The OL is a chump position because any experienced D&D player will quickly figure how to mini-max their character to make them neigh-impossible to kill after the first couple of encounters. The second time I OLed I tried everything I could to kill any of the characters and never got close. The dice are NOT in the favor of the monsters, and I mean the dice they are given to roll (blue, green, white, etc.), not my luck.

The only funny experience was the player to my right who couldn't for the life of him get a hit. Egging him on was my only fun during the night.

As for carrying over items from one game to the next, there are rules for playing Descent as a series of adventures using the same characters.

As for the length of the game, I noticed the adversarial nature of the game (much like Munchkin the card game) extended the length of the game. Players rushed to be "second" in the room while those first were locked up in combat. These seconds would quickly run to any treasure to loot it. This created an antagonistic atmosphere around the game between killers and looters.

I'd much rather play DDM the next time we can't get our regular RPG going.

 

[Chiaroscuro23]

As for the length of the game, I noticed the adversarial nature of the game (much like Munchkin the card game) extended the length of the game. Players rushed to be "second" in the room while those first were locked up in combat. These seconds would quickly run to any treasure to loot it. This created an antagonistic atmosphere around the game between killers and looters.

Everyone gets treasure when a chest is opened, regardless of who opened it. In fact, I find that having a high-movement character get to the chest ASAP is the best strategy for the PCs.

 

[Remathilis]

Awww... I thought you'd had found this gem of RPG lore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_to_Undermountain

 

[thompgc]

Bento - what quest were you playing?
Quest 1 from the main set is considerably easier then the other quests.
Don't know if there are any easy quests in the Well of Darkness expansion - the first one with the collapsing dungeon isn't easy.

I've run the game several times and always been the overlord. I think I've won just over 50% of the time.

It is a fun game but setting up the dungeons can take a little while.

There are some rules in the games for keeping the same PCs from one quest to the next, but you don't keep your gear. Instead you start with extra money depending upon how many quests you complete (and the overlord starts with extra threat tokens).

I believe the rulebooks are available as PDFs on the Fantasy Flight website.

 

[mearls]

I'm definitely looking forward to the new version of Talisman. Hopefully, the rules improvements will make the game better. I've always had a soft spot for it, but I have this weird talent where the player sitting to my left always draws really cool treasures, while I always seem to draw monsters that eat my character...

The only issue we had with Runebound was a few unbalanced treasures. We played the 1st edition of the game, so I'm not sure what has changed.

Battlelore is very cool. I've been too busy to play it much, but it's been great so far. Very fun and involving.

 

[T. Foster]

We played this once, about a year ago, as a break from our regular D&D campaign. It took forever to play (4+ hours for a single 6-room or so dungeon), was way too complicated for my tastes, and I spent the whole time wishing we were playing D&D in this style (which is actually not far from my prefered style of D&D -- though I prefer more problem-solving and less combat) instead. I think if you stripped out 90% of the rules and sped things up considerably this could be a very fun game (but that game would be D&D - or at least TSR's old "Dungeon!" boardgame...).