by Telnets
First and foremost, this is only MY experience.. It has no reflection on the game itself, or anyone else's enjoyment/hate for it..So me and my friends are in our late 20's early 30's and have gotten into boardgames quite a bit in the last year. Everything from King of Tokyo, X-wing, to Zombicide. One night there was mention of playing DnD, which most of us never played in our childhood, but were familiar with. So I took a gamble and picked up Descent as our first "introduction to DnD".
Don't get me wrong, I'm aware of what DnD used to be.. Just because I didn't play it, doesn't mean I didn't know about it from friends who did.. These are my thoughts on Descent, with my first play through last night.
1) If your hosting the game, KNOW the game.. It's fine to look up a few rules, but you will essentially be teaching other players how to play. I watched a few videos, got the idea of how it will play out, and read over the rule book the night before.. While we got through it fine, I think I would have benefited more by playing a round with someone prior to our first game. Didn't take long to pick up, but it certainly slowed the game a bit.
2) Invite the right players! 2 of the 3 players were people who were eager to try an adventure game like this.. 1 was not. He does not have a lot of patients, wants things to happen quickly and every rule that seemed "odd" he got further frustrated with (like large monster movements). He questioned why things are the way they are EVERY MOVE!.. By the end of the night he just buried himself in the rule book looking for something to do and when it came to his turn he just let people tell him what he should do because he wasn't listening. Its fine the game is not for him, but I don't think I regularly will be inviting him often since his frustration took a tool on the rest of the group.
3) Try to emphasis the game is not about killing the OL, but instead about the objective/adventure. I think they immediately thought of me as an opponent, which I mean -- I am, but their goal was not to kill me to win, it was to complete an objective. They focused a lot on killing my monsters and had a lot of opportunity to go after their own goal but choose not to. I tried to suggest moves that would further their cause while I waited for them to complete their turn.. so I think its safe to say, this also ties into having the right group..
4) As OL you really have to pace the game and be aware of whats going on. I heard a lot about the intro maps favoring the Heroes, so I took tips from others and played aggressively at the start. I could see very quickly that I could stomp all over them. By 1/2 way through I was holding onto OL cards that could kill people and just wouldnt use them, or say I couldn't do anything when i could. I even decided not to attack low health guys in range and made "dumb moves" like target the healthiest player just because i know it wouldn't kill him to give the other a chance to leave the area or come kill me.
5) At the end of the night, we unanimously agreed that the role of OL should be rotated between players every game night, at least for the first couple games. Reason: We feel if the Heroes understand how the OL works and what they have available to him, we think it will help the heroes make better decisions later in the game.
Conclusion:
The game was fun! 2/3 of the players enjoyed it and said they would love to keep playing. Some rules are a little strange, but just like Zombicide was with some of its rules, we just got used to them. I suspect the finicky rules in this game will be the same. They will just become part of the game.
I cant see this game being on the table every game night we have, but i certainly see me and a select group of buddies having specific "DnD nights" once a month or so with it. I think this game will shine the more its played, and the more a group plays together. So Ill replace the one player who didnt like it, with someone who does, and will be looking forward to the next adventure!