Some More Descent

Nothing much to report here, except some more Descent last week. We didn't have a large mid-week crowd, Andy and Chrispy were both absent, but luckily Chri3 showed up with his little brother in tow. I say "little", he was twelve, but that still meant I had to watch my language. My brother-in-law Jake showed up to. Jake's kind of zany, he is full of raw geek potential, but he has never gamed a day in his life. He brings both an unbridled enthusiasm and a completely random, out-of-left-field unpredictability to the table. It's never dull.

So we cranked out some Descent. You know what? This really is a great game. It's got simple mechanics that are easy to pick up and run with, yet can get complex enough to give you options and feel like you're actually using your brain. The components of the main box are just amazing, and you get so many figures, cards, tokens, board pieces, and the like that's it's jaw dropping. And the replay value is outstanding, and that's not including the expansion sets or the boxed sets designed just for extended campaigning.

You could play this game weekly, literally for a year straight, and never get tired or bored with it. With my group we bounce around too much to make it a regular thing, but it would be nice nonetheless. For dungeon-crawl, RPG-lite action, it's pretty got it all.

For some closeup pics of a couple of painted character models, check out the Adepticus Prime blog, there's some great shots there.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I've been sitting on top of Descent for some time, and just recently, Chri3 and I broke it out for a test drive. Over the holidays I picked up the expansion, Well of Darkness, thinking long term for a loose series of linked games, err, a campaign of sorts.

I had been reading up on the rules since I got the expansion, and although Chri3 had never played it, and I played it once years ago, the game went off without any major bumps or hitches. I could attempt the overview/review it, but there's many who have already done that, and with a more thorough job at that. Check out the Boardgame Geek page.

I will tell you it was fun, without a doubt, and I can see that once you get a single game under your belt, maybe two, you've got a good, fantasy romp with little prep and hours of adventure. My thinking, and why I picked up the expansion, was to run a campaign on the side with the group and go from there. It also works as a good pick up game, but not a filler game, 'cause a night of dungeoneering is just that, pretty much all night.

From what we saw and played, it looks promising indeed. Player mortality is a real threat, and there are tons of tactical options that become more in-depth (and fun) the more players you add. Using a campaign set, like Sea of Blood or Road to Legend, you can introduce all kinds of new mechanics into the game, such as overarching villains, half-sized dungeons, and most importantly in a campaign, a unifying narrative.



EDIT: Just today I picked up the Road to Legend campaign box at my FLGS on clearance for -50% off, thanks for the tip Chri3...