Wanna live underground — Let's Play Descent Second Edition!

Right now this is a placeholder thread for a Descent Second Edition Let's Play with me, Stiv, Nich, sraymonds and Dani (I think that's the account she's using). Soon there will be more stuff, and next week I plan to start the game! We'll start with the intro quest, see how it goes, and then decide if we want to tackle the Shadow Rune campaign. Conversion kit content (first edition heroes and monsters) is in play, Lair of the Wyrm is not.

For now, here's who's playing as who so far:

Sarcasmorator: The Overlord



sraymonds: Laurel of Bloodwood, the Thief






Mogri: Shiver, the Necromancer

Dani Büge pointzeroeight: Okaluk and Rakash, the Disciple






Stiv: Tahlia, the Knight





NOTE: If anyone decides they really hate their chosen hero/class, there will be a one-time chance immediately after the intro quest, First Blood, to take a mulligan and select a new hero and/or class from those that remain.

Alternates
If someone drops out, I'll check in the following order for someone to take their spot.
1.
2.

PLAYER AND READER RESOURCES
The rules!
The rules! (condensed)
The FAQ!
The unofficial but probably correct answers from FFG personnel thread!
Lots of information on heroes, monsters, skills, conditions, etc.!

I don't think I'll have time to write up a comprehensive rules summary for this one, so the above will have to suffice for people who haven't played the game. Everything you need to know is covered. I've gone through the rules and all the links above thoroughly, so if you have any rules questions let me know!

HOUSE RULES
As an Overlord using the conversion kit, I have access to some stupidly powerful/annoying monsters. In the interest of not swarming every damn quest with shadow dragons, kobolds, golems and giants — and simply for variety's sake — I will limit myself to a maximum of one (1) open-group use of each monster type per campaign act. I surely won't use anywhere near all of the available monsters in either act, just know that if you see a monster type in one quest, you won't see them again for a while unless a quest specifically calls for it.

CARD DRAWING
Most cards are known to all players — only OL cards, the search deck and shop items (in between quests) are randomly drawn.

TURN PROCEDURE
Some of this will need to be hammered out as we play. But my plan is to only post a new map at the end of each Hero Turn (after all four heroes have gone) and again at the end of each Overlord Turn. Players choose which order to go in, so there shouldn't be much trouble there, but I'll need to be able to retroactively play cards that are triggered during movement and other hero turn actions.

DICE ROLLING
A chart of die faces is below. Consider 1 to be on the far left, and 6 to be on the far right. If you're rolling a d6, count from the left for your result. Alternately, you can download VASSAL and the Descent Second Edition module and roll dice with that. Either way is fine with me, just report your results when there's a roll. We're working on the honor system here.

I'd be happy to take a spot here.

QUEST: First Blood

An ettin named Mauler is trying to infiltrate the city of Ahrynn with his goblin archers. Stop them!

Hero objective: Defeat Mauler. The minion (white) ettin is Mauler. Mauler has 8 extra wounds (2 per hero), for a total of 13.
Overlord objective: Move five goblin archers off the map through the exit.

Monsters:



Reinforcements: 1 goblin archer on the Wild Garden (the easternmost tile, with all the plants) at the end of each Overlord turn.

SEARCH DECK
1. Health Potion.....
2. Stamina Potion...
3. Treasure Chest — Drawn by Okaluk and Rakash
4. Fire Flask.........
5. Stamina Potion....
6. Nothing.............
7. Warding Talisman..
8. Health Potion......
9. Curse Doll...........
10. Stamina Potion...
11. Power Potion — Drawn by Laurel
12. Health Potion......

When you search, generate a random number between 1 and 12, and highlight that number to determine what you get. Don't search until after I've had a chance to play a card responding to your movement.

Round 1 — Hero turn



All right, we're set to go! I have drawn four random Overlord cards into my hand. Heroes may go in any order (though each hero's turn must be complete before the next begins). Let me know if you want a different starting position before we begin; otherwise, start at any time!

I'd suggest announcing actions like so, or similar:

Shiver action 1: Movement action, 4 points: Start K-10, move to J-10, move to I-9, move to H-8, move to H-7. (I haven't done so here, but you can interrupt your movement action with a different action, then carry on with movement. Useful for opening doors, searching, etc.)

I need to know which specific spaces you move through, because I have cards that can interrupt your movement and the only way that really works in a PBF game like this is retroactively. After I've had a chance to play a card or pass, continue:

Shiver action 2: Attack master ettin at H-4 with Reaper's Scythe (1 blue, 1 yellow).

Attack roll result: Blue: 2; yellow: 4. Two range, three wounds, 2 surges.

Then I'd roll ettin defense: Two gray, result: 1, 3. 1 shield.

Range check: 2, not in range of H-7.

Spend surges: 1 surge spent on Reaper's Scythe ability: 1 range added.

Deal damage: Three wounds minus 1 shield: 2 wounds dealt to master ettin, 6 wounds remaining.

Suffer 1 point to move Shiver to G-8. (Fatigue movement can be taken outside the normal two actions of a hero's turn.)

Shiver's turn over on G-8. Status: 0 wounds, 1 fatigue.

The above is just an example. The main thing is that to keep track of things — I need to know everything you do during your turn to be able to respond as OL, and to update the map correctly.

Ok, well, I'll go ahead and take the first move.

Laurel action 1: Movement action, 4 points: Start J-11, move to I-11, move to H-10, move to G-10, move to F-9.

Laurel action 2: Search

Is this right?

That's right! If I was going to play a Tripwire or something we'd have to cancel the search action until it were resolved, though. But I'm not!

Instead, you find a note:

Roses are red
Treasure is cool
There's a Poison Dart
Comin' right at you fool

Once that's resolved you can draw a Search card.

3 OL cards in hand.

Which attribute do I test?

Ok, I'll test my Awareness 4.

For the gray, I rolled 5 and for the black, a 1. A total of 2 shields! Laurel slaps the dart away and goes back to searching.

I roll an 11 and grab a Power Potion.

Maybe I'm misreading Poison Dart, but doesn't the Overlord choose which stat you use?

Oh snap, you're right.

TEST YOUR MIGHT

Keep the Power Potion draw, though — its position is marked now.

I got 4 shields.

At least I got a power potion.

And you got poisoned! Don't forget the poison.

The gift that keeps giving.

You wounds.

May I be on the Alternate list too?

Yes you may.

You can reroll with Lucky Charm, right?

That's true!

I should have looked at my cards before making my turn. Yeah, thanks, I can do that.

I'm going to exhaust Lucky Charm to reroll that test.

I got 4 shields and still got poisoned.

:sad trombone:

Who's next?

Shiver action 1a: Move three spaces to H8. (J10 > I9 > H8)

Shiver action 2: Raise Dead in H7.

Shiver action 1b: Move one space to I9.

Are you going to move your familiar, or is it staying put?

Also, please post your hero status when your turn is done (sraymonds should have 1 wound and 1 fatigue, and poison; Mogri should have 1 fatigue).

Reanimate moves to I7 and swings at the red archer (5 2 4). 2 damage, I think?

If blue rolled 5 and red rolled 2, that's 3 wounds. But what's the gray 4?

Either way, the master goblin archer rolls a 3, for 1 shield.

Did Mogri roll the goblin's defense too?

It was the defense roll, but since you got the same effective result, no difference. (Funny that you should ask, since you used the same convention.)

The color coding idea seemed good to me even when I wasn't sure that's what you were doing for defense, so I went with it. The master archer takes 2 wounds (3 minus the shield). 2/4

In general, let's have everyone roll their own dice. Don't want anyone calling foul on a bad roll someone else makes for them.

Alright, I'm up.

O and R:

movement:
(If I am reading my card right I get 4 movements total) Starting from 11I>10I>9I>


action: none

You actually get 6 — 2 from your movement action, 4 from your ability. You could move up to 8 if both your actions were movement actions, and up to 11 if you burned your fatigue for extra movement. Also, you can interrupt your movement to take another action, such as healing sraymonds with your Prayer of Healing.

What the ability effectively does is allow you to move about as much as anyone else in your party without using up an action like they have to, leaving your actions free for attacking, etc. My advice would be to not waste your remaining action. Just sayin', in case you want to revise your turn.

good to know! I will keep that in mind.