I admit I was a bit skeptical at first after all this game costs $80! Which is quite a chunk of change to lay out for what is in essence Heroquest with different rules. But after trying it’s sister game Doom (based on the popular video game) and hearing that this was a big refinement to the rules I thought what the hell. Opening it up I can say that the cost is somewhat understandable. 20 characters vs the 3 marines in Doom alone means a lot more options for play add that each character has one unique ability and that unlike Doom (where you draw 3 cards to give your marine character and special abilities) this game includes 3 decks (1 for combat, one for stealth and one for magic) which are determined by the character you pick as to how many draws from each deck you get. This alone opens up the play options considerably; add to that some 60 monster miniatures most of which are large critters, (I.E. take up more than one space on the board.) and these minis may be soft plastic but they are very well detailed and paint up rather nicely (I’d put my Descent dragons up against the “huge” class dragons in the D&D minis box any day!). On top of that there are a ton of hard card dungeon tiles and tokens for everything from rubble to animal companions and treasure. Not to mention the iconic dice which are pretty much the heart of this game.

The game starts with the overlord player ( a DM like role) picking a scenario (normally starting with 1 and working through the book if players want to go in sequence.) each scenario had a page of info (including passages to read to the players) and a map with set up for the game. Players can move double move and attack, attack twice or use special actions to move or attack and get special bonus. In an attack player roll dice shown by color on their weapon of choice and get a bonus amount of black dice depending on the type of attack and their character’s skills. Mage characters for example might grant 3 bonus black dice for a magic attack, while Warrior types may grant a similar bonus for melee while some characters may just give a balanced one bonus black die for any attack or in odd combination. Unlike Doom however you don’t just start with a pistol and fists but rather you buy gear at the start of the game and use it normally unless you find artifacts or treasure (unfortunately you won’t find a BFG 9000 just sitting in a hallway in this game!). Game balance is maintained by the amount of players through changing monster’s stats dependant on the amount of players. Thus the average skeleton fought in a 2-player game is distinctly less powerful than a skeleton fought in a 5-player game. There are also 2 classes of monsters, the standard (represented by white miniatures) and the master class (represented by red miniatures). This also varies the monster’s stats to give a good mix.

Combat for the most part is an easy rolling of dice using the colors shown on the weapon card you are using and adding black dice for the appropriate skill. For example a warrior with a melee of 3 and an axe rolls 1 red, 1 green and 3 black, where a Wizard with no melee skill would just roll the red and the green. If any dice in the attack show a big “X” than the attack fails otherwise count the heart icons as wounds and the numbers on the dice as range of the attack. So yes in the above example it’s possible for the Warrior to get a little range on his attack. The black dice have a unique icon that can be charged as damage or range at your whim which makes for interesting play balance. Also there is a third icon on the dice. A little lightening bolt known as a power surge. Power surges do all sorts of things determined by your equipment or class cards. Which can be pretty useful. Also armor works by being an amount of hits you need to do before taking damage, which makes some potential hits relatively useless. Special abilities on both sides also are used to side step the rules (much the way feats work in D&D 3e) which adds another layer to the mix. All in all this game can get rather complex but no more than your average D&D game and it’s a lot easier to pull out for a one night game rather than making characters and waiting around for players to select feats and just the right equipment.

One other thing that makes play interesting is the conquest and trouble token system the game is one by the overlord player if he can deplete the player’s supply of conquest tokens (character death is the easiest way to do this) and the players win if they end the quest with one or more. Dead characters start back in town fully healed with 1/2 gold and have to catch up to the party. Every turn the overlord gets he gets trouble tokens equal to the amount of players he has and draws one overlord card (which spawn new monsters, create traps or even improve the dungeon’s threat level as a whole). If I haven’t beaten this point home there are a lot of options in this game.

If you like the idea of a dungeon crawl in a box, and are more interested in stats and tactics than character concept and motivations. Descent is a great choice. It’s a bit of sticker shock, but it pretty much contains everything you need to get going (though I strongly recommend a small tackle box for all of the counters, to organize them!) With 20 characters and endless scaling options it’s going to be hard to play the same game more than once. Not to mention there are a ton of homebrew modules on the web. So what are you waiting for, glory and treasure await, unless you are afraid of the dark…

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