by cnalexander
I’ve been playing Descent 2nd edition but was curious about Descent 1st edition. But I found it hard to find a clear description of exactly how the games differ. Now that I have Descent 1, I thought I’d publish a point-by-point comparison myself.Descent 1 doesn’t really feel like an older edition of Descent 2, it is more like a different game with some common rules. The differences between the two can’t be completely captured in a point-by-point comparison, but the comparison is still interesting to make.
Descent 2 is a campaign game with rules for one-shot quests. Descent 1 is a game of single session quests, with an expansion that turns it into a strategic campaign game. The Descent 1 campaign expansion practically feels like a different game from Descent 1 base game, and isn’t the same kind of campaign game as Descent 2. In order to avoid a multi-way comparison and focus on versions of Descent 1 and Descent 2 that were as comparable as possible, I decided to concentrate on the comparison between the Descent 1 base game and a Descent 2 one-shot quest.
I debate whether to comment about the changes, I decided to avoid commentary except for a few notes in cases where I felt comments would give a better feel for what the changes actually were.
The area of greatest similarity is in the tactical system, where 2nd edition is pretty clearly identifiable as a modified and simplified version of 1st edition.
1.Both editions use the same system of rolling special colored dice, based on the weapon, which show misses, range, wounds, and surges. But the dice from each game have different colors and different values on their faces, they are not interchangeable.
2.In both editions, each weapon tells you to roll one “base” die which can potentially show a miss, plus one or more “supplemental” dice. But 1st edition has three different types of base die (red, white, or blue, corresponding to melee, magic, and ranged attacks). 2nd edition has only one type of base die (blue).
3.1st edition power dice (described later) have “power enhancement” faces which effectively let you sacrifice some of your damage for range – in effect, attacks at extreme range sometimes hit for reduced damage. 2nd edition does not have this feature on any of its dice (although both editions sometimes let you choose between extra range and extra damage when spending surges).
4.In 1st edition, surge powers can be spent any number of times per attack (if you can spend a surge for +2 damage, you can spend 4 surges for +8 damage). In 2nd edition a surge power can only be used once per attack.
2nd edition seems to be a bit more playful in how weapons spend surges, making subtle distinctions between weapons and forcing you to make tradeoffs when spending surges. 1st edition tends to be a bit more direct about using surges as a way to mathematically control the overall power of the weapon.
5.In 2nd edition characters have a built-in power to spend one surge to heal a fatigue.
6.In 1st edition the Overlord can spends surges to gain additional threat tokens, and this is usually their only use. In 2nd edition the Overlord spends surges in the same way the heroes do, to power up the monster’s attack.
7.In 1st edition the armor value is a fixed number subtracted from any damage taken. The 2nd edition equivalent, defense dice, is a randomly rolled number subtracted from the damage taken.
8.Both games give heroes two actions per turn that may be used to move, attack, or take special actions (though they use different terminology). But in 1st edition you must declare at the start of your turn how many move, attack, and “orders” you will perform. In 2nd edition there is no need to pre-declare.
9.1st edition has three special combat actions that don’t exist in 2nd edition – Aim, Dodge, and Guard.
10.In 1st edition monsters must take exactly one move action and one attack action during their activation. In 2nd edition monsters have the option of taking two move actions, though they still cannot take two attack actions.
11.Both editions have equivalent fatigue systems and allow heroes to spend fatigue for extra movement. In 1st edition fatigue can also be used to add extra power dice to your attack. 2nd edition does not allow this, instead your skills are far more likely to require fatigue than they were in 1st edition.
12.In 1st edition resting requires you to remain undamaged during the next Overlord turn – you must find a safe place to rest if you want to recover your fatigue. In 2nd edition resting is automatically successful, it can be and often is done in the middle of combat.
The use of fatigue feels different in 1st edition and 2nd edition. In 1st edition fatigue is like an extra boost to your character, and the feel is “if you spend all your fatigue you will run out until you replenish it”. In 2nd edition fatigue is necessary to make your character skills function, and the feel is “if you spend all your fatigue you must lose an action before you can continue spending fatigue”.
13.In 1st edition large monsters move in a fairly “natural” way and have trouble navigating tight spaces. In 2nd edition, when a large monster moves it shrinks to the size of a small monster, moves, then grows to full size again, so large monsters can get through narrow openings as long as they can find a place to expand.
14.In 1st edition there are many minor actions that require a certain number of movement points to complete (such as trading items or opening a door). There is no such concept in 2nd edition, minor actions cost either nothing (trading items) or a full action (opening a door).
15.1st edition measures LOS from center of attacking square to center of target square. 2nd edition uses the far more lenient rule of checking whether any corner of the attackers square can see any corner of the target square.
16.In 2nd edition an attack can only be targeted on a space containing a monster, so area attacks like blast are more limited than in 1st edition – they cannot be targeted between two monsters to hit them both.
17.Both editions have similar rules for how many items you can equip. 1st edition also has a limit of three unequipped items; any items past the limit must be dropped. 2nd edition has no limit on unequipped items.
18.1st edition has a limit of three equipped potions. 2nd edition has no limit on carrying search items (the equivalent of potions).
This change corresponds to the different ways that potions are obtained in the two versions. In 1st edition, if you didn’t have a potion limit, you could buy and carry a huge number of potions. In 2nd edition you can only obtain search items during quests and can’t carry them over from one quest to the next, so they are already self-limited.
19.In 1st edition you can re-equip your items in the middle of the turn by spending movement points, and any items traded to others can be equipped as soon as they are received. In 2nd edition you can only equip at the start of your turn.
20.1st edition has an “off-hand” rule to give you a bonus for carrying a one-handed weapon in each hand. 2nd edition gives no bonus for carrying two weapons.
21.In 1st edition most conditions are successfully inflicted as long as any damage is rolled on the attack. In 2nd edition most conditions are only inflicted if the target actually takes wounds. In addition, 2nd edition monsters must usually spend a surge in order to inflict a condition, 1st edition monsters need not do so.
22.In 1st edition conditions are generally cumulative – you can be stunned for multiple rounds. In 2nd edition conditions are non-cumulative, once you are stunned you cannot be stunned further until you recover.
23.In 1st edition the stunned condition causes a minion monster to lose 2 actions, a master monster to lose 1 action, and has no effect on a named monster. In 2nd edition all monsters lose 1 action, just like heroes.
24.The rules for other conditions are different (and generally harsher) in 1st edition than they are in 2nd edition.
The powers of the heroes and Overlord between the two editions are a bit more different, the changes more drastic. The characters, character skills, and Overlord cards are in no way compatible between the editions. Still, the two systems can be put in parallel and compared:
25.In 1st edition characters draw skills randomly from three decks of skill cards, with each character specifying how many cards to draw from each pile. In 2nd edition each character has an archetype and must choose a class corresponding to that archetype, and then uses experience points to purchase any skills of their choice from the skill deck for that class.
26.In first edition each character has separate traits for how effective they are when using melee, ranged, and magic (spell) attacks. 2nd edition has no such traits. Instead, most classes have skills that can only be used with a specific attack type (such as 2-handed weapons, or bows, or magic, or runes, or blades). But outside of their specialty, if any, characters are equally good with all attack types.
27.In 1st edition your trait allows you to roll additional “power dice” as part of your attack. 2nd edition has no equivalent of these power dice (although it reuses the term “power dice” in a different context).
28.In 2nd edition characters have 4 attributes used only for making skill checks. In 1st edition skill checks aren’t really part of the core rules, but there are expansion rules (not at all similar to those of 1st edition) for making skill checks using your combat traits.
29.In 2nd edition each character has a heroic feat that can be used once per encounter. In 1st edition feats were not introduced until an expansion and are represented by a hand of cards. You gain a new feat every time you activate a glyph (similar to the 2nd edition rule of recharging at the start of a new encounter), but instead of one feat specific to characters, you have a hand of feat cards and start with 3 random feat cards based on your aptitudes.
30.In 1st edition the Overlord uses spawn cards to summon reinforcements, and reinforcements have a cost in threat tokens based on how powerful they are. In 2nd edition reinforcements are technically controlled by scenario rules, if allowed the Overlord will typically get one monster per turn at no cost.
31.In 2nd edition reinforcements are usually only available to replace monsters that started on the map but were killed. In 1st edition reinforcements are new monsters which spawn whether or not you kill the monsters on the map, although they are limited by the total number of monster figures available.
In 2nd edition killing a monster which can get reinforcements is a lot like killing a hero in 1st edition – it slows them down but they just come right back. In 1st edition you kill monsters and they stay dead, you just have to worry about the new monsters that keep popping up.
32.In 1st edition reinforcements are placed in any explored area not in LOS of a hero. Heroes can be strategically placed to restrict the Overlord’s placement of reinforcements. In 2nd edition reinforcements appear at locations specified by the scenario, and the heroes can’t prevent this (if they squat on the starting location the monster will merely appear in the closest spot nearby).
33.In 1st edition the Overlord gets two cards and some number of threat tokens per turn, must pay threat tokens to activate cards, and may discard cards in return for extra threat tokens. 2nd edition is much simpler, the Overlord gains one card per turn and the cards are played for free, there are no threat tokens.
2nd edition Overlord cards tend to be weaker, equivalent to the cheap 1st edition cards rather than the expensive 1st edition cards.
34.In both editions the Overlord has event cards and trap cards. 1st edition also has spawn cards (as mentioned above) and power cards (expensive cards which make the Overlord more powerful for the remainder of the quest).
35.In first edition the Overlord has a hand limit of 8 cards. There is no hand limit in 2nd edition (although the Overlord might have as few as 15 cards in the entire deck, which is the effective hand limit).
The biggest changes are in quest construction, rewards, and victory conditions, where the two games are so different, a point-by-point comparison can only illustrate some of the differences between the games:
36.In both editions the victory condition of the heroes is specified by the scenario. In 1st edition the Overlord’s victory condition is to drain the heroes of all their conquest tokens, which is done by killing heroes as many times as possible. The heroes can forestall this by gaining conquest tokens through progress in the adventure. 2nd edition has no conquest tokens, the Overlord’s victory condition is specified by scenario just like that of the heroes.
37.In 1st edition, when your hero is killed, you lose half your coins, return to town (which may be inconvenient, but not always), and are restored to full health and vigor. In 2nd edition heroes are “knocked down” instead of being killed – the overlord draws a card, the hero falls down and has to be revived or lose actions getting up, and the hero only comes back with whatever health and fatigue were restored by the action that revived the hero (typically very little).
This matches the different victory conditions of the two games. In 1st edition there isn’t that much tactical benefit to killing a hero, it is just the victory goal of the Overlord to do so. In 2nd edition killing heroes is only to slow them down, so the tactical effect is more severe.
38.1st edition comes with a large number of generic “build your own dungeon” tiles that are used to create the quest maps. 2nd edition comes with a collection of unique tiles which are individually numbered to identify them in quest maps.
39.In 1st edition, the default way that base game quests are laid out is the area system. A quest has one map split into multiple areas, the players have no idea what is in a given area until they open the door to that area. In 2nd edition the default way a quest is laid out is the encounter system. A quest consists of encounters (usually 2), when an encounter is finished, the map is disassembled and an entirely new map is set up for the next encounter. Both games, however, have different layouts possible in expansions.
40.In 1st edition characters find three basic types of treasure – coins, potions, and chests. Coins and potions are easily picked up, while chests take effort to open, might be trapped, and can contain several different types of things. 2nd edition combines all of these into one type of treasure, the search token. The search token takes effort to open and might be trapped, like a chest, but it usually contains a search item, which is the equivalent of a potion plus a number of coins.
41.In 1st edition, if a chest contains equipment (as it usually does), every character in the party instantly gains an item and may equip it. In the uncommon event that a 2nd edition search token contains equipment, it is a single item that must be equipped normally.
42.1st edition gives a 50 coin bounty for killing a master monster.
43.A major element of 1st edition is Glyphs of Transport. These are scattered throughout the quest, the characters activate them to represent progress through the adventure, and they can be used to transfer to and from town quickly in the middle of an adventure. 2nd edition has no equivalent to this, town is visited only between quests during a campaign.
44.1st edition characters can visit towns in the middle of an adventure via Glyph of Transport and use coins to purchase a wide variety of training and equipment option. In 2nd edition coins can only be spent between quests, making them useless unless you are playing in campaign mode (the preferred mode for 2nd edition).
In 1st edition, finding treasure chests and powering up is key to completing the mission. In 2nd edition, searching is often a detriment to completing the mission; you have to balance the benefits of finding gold that will help you on future missions, against the need to complete the current mission.
45.In a 1st edition quest, characters start by purchasing weak items from the shop deck, then gain powerful items randomly during the quest. In a one-shot 2nd edition quest, characters start with weak items according to their class, then (if playing in “Advanced” or “Expert” mode) spend gold to purchase powerful items from the shop deck. The 2nd edition shop deck is the equivalent of the 1st edition treasure decks, while the 1st edition shop deck is really the equivalent of 2nd edition class cards.
46.The specific elements of 2nd edition – characters, monsters, potions, items – often have the same names as those in 1st edition but may or may not work the same way. In some cases the element is a direct translation from its 1st edition equivalent, but in many cases the 2nd edition elements were designed from scratch and merely “inspired by” the 1st edition elements. That is one of the aspects that make it clear that these are two different games; the cards that come with the two editions really look very different from one another.
Although I’ve been comparing one-shot quests, a Descent 1 single quest could be considered equivalent in some ways to a Descent 2 mini-campaign, since you “level up” during the quest. Here are some contrasts in how leveling up works between the games.
47.In 1st edition coins cannot be traded between heroes, in 2nd edition the party can choose to pool their coins when making purchases.
48.In 1st edition both equipment/potions and skills/training are purchased with gold. In 2nd edition equipment can be purchased with gold and skills can be purchased with experience points; potions and training (improved numeric ratings) cannot be purchased, except insofar as some skills improve your numeric ratings.
49.A 2nd edition character chooses exactly what skill to purchase (from skills specific to that class) and chooses what powerful items to purchase from a random selection made available. 1st edition characters can choose when purchasing training and potions, but purchasing treasures (powerful items) and skills are random.
Finally, while this isn’t rule, a note about quest design. Both editions use the concept that time is on the Overlord’s side, the heroes are under pressure to complete the objective before the Overlord wins. But this is more explicit in 2nd edition, where most of the quests are races where the heroes either have a hard time limit, or must do something faster than the Overlord does something else. In 1st edition hurrying along is often simply a prudent course of action, not specifically required by the scenario rules.