Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2ed)
2-5
14+
60+
Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition is a board game in which one player takes on the role of the treacherous overlord, and up to four other players take on the roles of courageous heroes. Featuring double-sided modular board pieces, countless hero and skill combinations, and an immersive story-driven campaign, Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition transports heroes to a vibrant fantasy realm where they must stand together against an ancient evil.
This updated version of the classic board game of dungeon-delving adventure features a host of enhancements, including new heroes and monsters, streamlined rules, a class-based hero system, campaign play, and much more.
images © Fantasy Flight Games
User Reviews (6)
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I can’t speak for the First Edition but Descent Second Edition is a lot of fun.
While it can be played with 2-5 players, I think that 4 – 5 is ideal. One player plays the “bad guys” and is the Overlord and the other players are the “good guys” or heroes. Once you play the introductary quest the other scenarios are designed to be played in sets of 2.
You can make your own quests, but there are a bunch that are ready to go and look to be very well balanced. Each Quest has specific victory conditions for the Overlord and the Adventurers. Both players and the Overlord can “level up” and get new items, spells, abilities or cards(for the Overlord).
Once the group decides what quest they are playing and choose the Overlord player then you set up the board according to the Quest Guide. Each Quest shows you which tiles to place and what goes on them. The Overlord gets a deck of cards that can be used during the game for special effects or abilities. Some are made to slow down or hinder the party’s movement, cause them damage, and some help give the monsters some extra cool things to do.
The number of monsters varies based upon the number of players and is indicated on the back of the monster cards. Most of the Quests give the Overlord the option to pick one extra set of monsters that they want… in addition to the other monsters that are part of the scenario. The back of the cards for the monsters show what traits they have and the Quest indicates what traits are best for the Quest. This helps add depth to the game and allows you to replay Quests and still have a totally different experience each time.
The players choose which character they want to adventure with – there are plenty to choose from. Each character has special abilities and items that they can choose from. The characters have basic abilities to start out with and can advance into new ones as the game progresses from Quest to Quest (if the optional Campaign Rules are being used – which I highly recommend). Choose a character that you think is cool, but there is a limit on how characters can be from each archetype.
Once the players are ready the Overlord will reveal the Quest, lay out the board and place the monsters as indicated. The players place their adventurers on the board as indicated and the journey begins.
Players go first and can each typically do two actions: Move, attack, use a skill, rest, search, revived a hero, stand up, open/close a door, and special.
They can go in any order and must work together in order to accomplish the objective.
Once they have all finished, the Overlord gets to activate their monster groups: move, attack, open/close a door and special.
The Overlord also gets to play cards – sometimes on their turn and sometimes on the Adventurers’ turn.
Combat, ability checks and actions are al performed by rolling the dice that come with the game. The dice are really cool and compliment the game very well. Each one is designed with a certain purpose: the red, blue, and yellow are used as attack dice and the gray and black are used for defense. Each of the attack die have either a number, some hearts or a lightning bolt. These are used to attack, initiate special abilities or determine range. If hit, the grey or black dice are used to lower the amount of damage taken.
I don’t think that I can do this game the justice that it deserves… you will have to play it for yourself. We only got through the intro. game and a couple of Quests and I can’t wait to play it again soon. I was the Overlord BTW… -Good Gaming
There are a number of games out there that use the mechanic of pitting a group of players against a single player who becomes the adversary. Betrayal at House on the Hill, Last Night on Earth, and Mansions of Madness come to mind. But to my knowledge, Descent is one of the first roleplaying/adventure games to use this mechanic without putting the antagonist in the role of simply dictating what happens. Let me explain: A dungeonmaster or gamemaster usually tends to be the ‘storyteller’ for the rest of the group, and usually has very little to gain by running players through a campaign. Descent changes this, in a very creative and dynamic way.
Let me explain a bit about Descent. It is, at its heart, a roleplaying game, but it also is a board game. The board itself is modular, and the board pieces can be used to construct dungeons or overland hazards of varying complexities. Which is good, because these pieces will be usd in varying ways depending on the scenarios you play. The game provides all these board pieces, along with monster figurines, cards for each monster to describe their various statistics, a campaign book to put the players through their paces, equipment cards, player cards, and even overlord cards (the overloard is what the antagonist of the game is called). Basically, everything you need is available, and that brings me to how the game is played.
Each player who plays Descent chooses a character in which to begin their adventure. Therr are typical classes, such as a fighter, thief, cleric, wizard, and so forth, but these classes have two paths to take which describe their eventual power set. For instance, the fighter can choose to be either a Berserker or a Knight, and once that choice is made, it cannot be unmade. Each character gets starting equipment based on their choice, and a starting power they can use related to their class. Characters themselves have several key attributes: Health, Fatigue, Speed, Armor, Willpower, Strength, Agility, and Perception. Health is represented by heart tokens, of which each character receives a starting amount. Fatigue is represented by fatigue tokens (usually four of them) which a character can use to gain extra movement or activate special powers. Speed indicates how much movement you have in terms of squares on the board. Armor indicates which armor die you roll in response to attacks. The other four traits are purely used to handle specific tests that the Overlord pits the players against with the use of his or her Overlord cards.
Speaking of the Overloard, his role is significantly different than most adversary roles. The Overlord effectively functions as another character in the game. The Overlord gains experience along with the hero characters, and can level up as well. The Overlord can also select classes to advance on, the same as the heroes. While the Overlord doesn’t actually fight the characters, he or she does interact with them by playing Overlord cards to trip up the heroes, or by controlling monsters to combat or delay them. What isthe most interesting, however, is that with every adventure, the Overlord has his own agenda to keep. It’s not about killing the heroes (the heroes can’t actually die), but rather about completing some nefarious purpose…if the Overlord succeeds, he or she can become even MORE powerful as the campaign goes on.
Descent is played in turns; the heroes’ turn, and the Overlord’s turn. During the heroes’ turn, each hero activates and can do any two actions a turn: Move, Attack, Rest, Search, Stand Up (if they lost all Health the prior turn and are down), Revive a hero, use a special power, or perform a heroic feat (each character has them, and can only do so once per game). The Overlord, in contrast, can use Overlord cards at any time they are appropriate, but can only move monsters or perform scenario actions on his or her turn. Monsters typically can only move or attack.
Everything in the game short of moving is tested using special dice. The dice have special symbols on them that are related to each die roll, and different dice are used for attack and defense. Damage is determined by how many hearts are rolled, and defense is determined by the number of shields rolled. Tests for an attribute are also determined by shields rolled, but the lower the number of shields on that roll, the better; players are trying to roll under a certain number to determine success. The dice also have lightning bolts at times; these are surges, and surges can be spent to allow additional effects or increase the potency of certain attacks.
All in all, Descent is a very interesting take on a classic fantasy roleplaying genre, and it lends a certain edge to the game. Heroes have a general idea of what the Overlord is planning, but are never totally clued in, and many confrontations against the Overlord can easily swing in his or her favor if the heroes aren’t hasty or careful. A lot of the scenarios are well-balanced and fun to play, so I recommend giving this a shot. It’s different enough that it might grow on you, wheher you play a hero or overlord.
This game is a favorite of mine. I’ve been playing the campaign mode and my group and I have been having a lot of fun. Descent gives you the characters to choose from and throws you into the action. It gives you the scenarios to face and there is no need for a player to have to create an elaborate story for all the players to explore.
The game forces you to have one character of every basic class (healer, fighter, mage, thief/scout). Unfortunately for me I agreed to be the healer, but even that is fun. I am already debating what class I want to be for the next campaign. Heroes each have a heroic feat which is a one time use ability per mission that triggers an appropriately impressive effect (an extra attack for the dwarf berserker, a big group heal from my healer, a vanish from our rogue).
There is a tension between killing enemies, exploring for loot, and finishing the objective. Maybe this is just for my character who for some reason just wants us to get $$$. After every mission there is a chance to buy items that will give you better dice to attack, better armor etc… The money is pooled so there can be some debate as to what the group should spend the cash on.
The Overlord (GM) has complained that he has been losing scenarios to the players, but some of our wins have been very close. It seems advisable to have the most strategic player be the GM if possible to solve any balance issues.
There are dice to be rolled when you attack – and if you roll an X on the blue die your attack misses (odds 1 in 6). Die faces can have surges that can trigger special attacks, one or more hearts (damage), and a range value which only matters for ranged attacks.
I highly recommend this game and would strongly recommend playing the campaign mode which allows you to buy better abilities and flesh out your character to one you enjoy playing.
This game is simply fantastic. It’s a slaying the monster, rescuing the princess, getting out in just the nick of time GREAT game. I can’t rave enough about it.
For those of you who have NOT played the first edition
Jump in and go, customize your character with a quick class pick and if at the end of the first session you’ll want to start the built in campaign. Quick and can be broken down into 45min-60min session if need be, although most of the time my group ends up playing for about 2-3 hours simply because we continue mission after mission.
For those of you who HAVE played the first edition
Remember how fun that was? But.. /sigh it took so long! Not anymore! All the fun of the old 2-4 hour session you used to have packed into 45min sessions. Remember how you wish you could take your hero onto a campaign with a good story but nothing was built into the base game.. BAM! Big ‘ole 8-9 mission campaign, right there. Oh and get the conversion kit, and now there’s about a billion heroes to pick from along with all the monsters.
For EVERYONE
Get it, get now. There is only one campaign (9/10 not 10/10), yes, but I have played the first mission, the intro mission, about 10 times now (as both hero and overlord) and it’s fun, exciting and I can’t get enough, neither can anyone I play with.
I’ll admit the first Descent was good, but not my favorite game. The second edition makes it so much more simple and quick. The quests are more than just hack and slash and the campaign gives it a lot of replay ability.
All the components look much better too. The miniatures are sharper and the player cards have better drawings. I am a little sad that pretty much all of the first edition components are useless now though. I guess that just comes with having new editions.
I don’t like spending a lot of time on one game. After an hour I start to get bored so the 30-45 minutes sessions in the campaign are great for me. I’ve heard people say that if you are a heavy into roleplaying games that this may not satisfy your need in that area though.
Descent is a wonderful game for people that like to play D&D that don’t want to spend a few hours creating characters with new players. I’ve found that the more players you get to play the more interesting gets as the difficulty for every player scales. It can be just as fun with two or three people though, especially for experienced players that have played the same characters over and over for new levels. The inclusion of several dungeons greatly increases the replay value of this game. I would recommend this game to anyone that likes adventure based board games.