by IanHancock
tldr With all the talk of RTL vs OL being "competitive" products, in my experience it seems that RTL is a gateway drug of sorts to traditional Descent.So I like many others have been looking forward to the Road to Legend app and the new options that it gives for getting Descent onto the table. To be honest, this was the biggest "pro" for me, irrespective of how much I liked playing descent with an Overlord player, the argument was mute simply because of the people that I was playing with; it just didn't get out often enough to make it a "fair" competition.
So much so in fact, that I started taking my Overlord responsibilities in much the same way as I took my DM responsibilities in our RPG; my job was less about beating the player than it was about facilitating an environment where people were able to enjoy themselves and feel that they achieved something. Sure, it didn't scratch my competitive itch but if I can get fulfilment out of being an RPG GamesMaster surely I can dive on the grenade in a game like Descent and "let the wookie win" right?
Anyways, after playing through the Kindred Fire campaign with 3 family members who haven't ever played Descent before and they loved it (so did I by the by). Interestingly, the first thing they said afterwards was that they would love to play with an Overlord player and it got me thinking about my previous forays into introducing Descent to new people and how difficult it was to juggle the role of Overlord as well as teaching game mechanics. After doing the RTL campaign, these guys know how hero actions work; they know that monster groups can activate in different orders and can behave in unexpected ways (ie OL cards) and they've experienced the whole getting KO'd thing so they don't get all despondent when it happens (I've had a few hero players spit the dummy when they get targeted repeatedly for the KO/OL card).
Long story short, these guys are ready for a "real" game of Descent now. I don't know I'd ever be able to get them as prepared as they are now by "throwing them into the deep end" as I would by simply playing through the RTL campaign, even if it was only the introductory one.