Lando Griffin
United States
Minnesota
-
I'm wondering what's the official role of the overlord in this game? I was under the impression that it's a GM type role, whose purpose is to provide a fun experience for the players without intentionally trying to kill the players. Our overlord (game owner) would play the role super aggressively and constantly spawn as many monsters as possible. The guy would essentially be playing to win.
Anyway, we repeatedly tried to complete the first quest with 4 heros and gave up after 4-5 attempts because it was just impossible to kill the amount of monsters that had been spawned on the board. A few times our last surviving hero was battling the last surviving monster in the last room, and the overlord would mercilessly spawn a ton of monsters to kill the player.
Does it sound like we were playing this wrong?
-
Hugh G. Rection
United States
La Mesa
California
-
Vondur wrote: The guy would essentially be playing to win.
The overlord is an adversary, not your guide. His goal is to kill you. Repeatedly.
p.s. 
-
Bob Hisle
United States
West Saint Paul
Minnesota
-
Are you certain the proper spawning rules were followed? OL isn't allowed to spawn within LOS of any hero.
To answer your question, the OL is very much in it to win it. They are not just a facilitator. It's a game for them, too.
Check the spawning rules....
If, in fact, the spawning rules were followed properly, then I have a house rule(and so do some others, it seems) that says you can only play 1 spawn card per revealed area, unless you pay 15 threat to "refresh" the ability to spawn. We did this not out of difficulty for the heroes, but to cut games down to less than a week(haha).
Hope any of this helps.
-
-
Descent is a competitive strategic game. The overlord's job is to be ruthless. The first scenario should definitely be winnable for 4 heroes even if the overlord is doing everything in his power to stop you.
Though it's always possible you've made a rules error. Some things to double-check include:
- Monsters cannot spawn within the heroes' line-of-sight
- Monsters cannot spawn in an area of the map that hasn't been revealed
- Monsters cannot open a door to an unrevealed area
- The overlord can only play 1 spawn card per turn
- Every card the overlord plays must be paid for with threat tokens
- Hero death isn't permanent; you immediately respawn in town with full health, at the cost of conquest tokens, and can use any activated glyph of transport to re-enter the dungeon on your next turn
- Heroes don't need to kill every monster to win, just the boss
-
Lando Griffin
United States
Minnesota
-
Ok, in my defense I hadn't really read the rules lol. I guess I was thinking back to my old D&D, and Hero Quest days where the GM was basically in it to create a fun experience.
From what I recall he was spawning monsters in the same room with us though and I'm pretty sure he would throw down a handful of monster cards, particularly after we got into the boss room.
We kind of gave up on that game due to the difficulty, although after reading some of your responses I think it might be time to revisit Descent. 
-
Kris Vanhoyland
Belgium
Genk
Limburg
@RetakeME3 - We deserve a better ending!
-
Vondur wrote: Our overlord (game owner) would play the role super aggressively and constantly spawn as many monsters as possible. The guy would essentially be playing to win.
That's how I play it too, and most of my group prefers it that way. The other overlord we often play with, does it differently. He never plays a trap card, but he spawns every turn he can. He almost always lets us win in the end, but his spawns slow the game down to a real crawl.
For me personally, the role of the Overlord is competitive in nature, and his job is to crush the heroes mercilessly. Make them work for that victory!
-
Andrew loses (again)
Malta
-
An overlord cannot show mercy or compassion. His lot in life is to force a victory by targetting the heroes' weakest link and exploiting their mistakes.
This in turn breeds stronger heroes.
-
Tor Sverre Lund
Norway
Trondheim
Sør-Trøndelag
-
Two very important points:
1) The Overlord is NOT a GM. It's him versus the rest of ya.
2) The Heroes are NOT there to kill every monster. They are there to fulfill their objective as quickly as possible. The more time you waste trying to kill absolutely every little monster, the less chance you're gonna have winning. Time is always on the OL's side.
-
Steve Wardell
United States
Carmel
Indiana
I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed.
-
Vondur wrote: Anyway, we repeatedly tried to complete the first quest with 4 heros and gave up after 4-5 attempts because it was just impossible to kill the amount of monsters that had been spawned on the board.
It definitely sounds like you are doing something wrong if you're having trouble beating the first quest. It's basically an intro and is heavily skewed in favor of the heroes.
-
Mark McG
Australia
Penshurst
NSW
-
Vondur wrote: Ok, in my defense I hadn't really read the rules lol.
well, can I recommend that as a start.. because you won't win against a competitive OL if you don't keep him/her in check. The rules effect the OL as much (if not more) than the Heroes.
and delay is part of the OL strategy. Using up the OL Deck counts for 3CP.
-
-
Vondur wrote: Ok, in my defense I hadn't really read the rules lol. I guess I was thinking back to my old D&D, and Hero Quest days where the GM was basically in it to create a fun experience.
Sounds like you were doing at least a couple things wrong there that gave the Overlord a serious edge.
It's true the Overlord player is designed to be played competitively, to give the heroes an honest-to-goodness fight for victory, however, it's also true that the Overlord is just another player. He has no right to bend or break the rules as written just to suit him whim, the way a GM-style player often does.
It's definitely in your best interests to make sure everyone reads the rules, especially if the Overlord is playing to win. It's also probably a good idea to rotate who plays OL so that everyone can get a feel for the game from both sides of the fence. It helps a lot to figure the game out if you do that.
-
Jordan Alexander
United Kingdom
Accrington
Lancashire
-
Vondur wrote: Ok, in my defense I hadn't really read the rules lol. I guess I was thinking back to my old D&D, and Hero Quest days where the GM was basically in it to create a fun experience.
From what I recall he was spawning monsters in the same room with us though and I'm pretty sure he would throw down a handful of monster cards, particularly after we got into the boss room.
Yeah, like people are saying, the OL is not a DM.
Sounds like you, or more accurately your OL got a few rules wrong though.
The Overlord can only play ONE spawn card on his turn, meaning pretty much a maximum of 3 monsters can be spawned of one type.
Also, the Overlord can only spawn in places the heroes do not have line of sight, and for the purpose of spawning, other monsters DO NOT block line of sight, so the overlord cannot spawn monsters behind other monsters.
Going of that, if you are in the end room, it should be almost impossible for the OL to actually spawn monsters in the same room as you.
The heroes should always keep in mind the line of sight rules, and should attempt to finish their turn covering as much ground as possible (in relation to line of sight), in order to prevent the OL spawning too close to you.
Last note, also remember the OL has a hand limit of 8, and also, like already mentioned, the heroes task is not to defeat every single monster, but to complete the task given to them, in the case of quest one, to defeat Narthak.
Good luck.
-
Marco Reubzaet
Netherlands
Landgraaf
-
To further stress the importance of reading, re-reading and understanding the rules, I would like to add that even with a couple of games under my belt, my newbie Descent group, after my very thorough explanation (1 hour's worth - and I had made my own reference sheets for them too), totally creamed me. I had no chance whatsoever. The same happened in the second quest.
I did make sure to honestly discuss strategies and decisions with them in their first quest and still remind them of certain things they almost overlooked in their second one, but now the third one is coming up and now they will face me in relentless mode and the REAL game is about to start!
-
Ben Coleman
United Kingdom
London
-
Just finished my first ever game...
I played the Overlord and we did the first quest, the heroes won very convincingly, I sort of held back a little in the last few turns in order to finish the game before everyone had to leave. However they had masses & masses of conquest tokens (over 15 I think), a few more spawns and traps wouldn't have made any difference.
The monsters were very fragile, even the two Manticores in the final area went down with a single attack each.
Is this normal? 98% of monsters went 'pop' with just a single attack, if an attack didn't miss then it was almost academic adding up the damage, as it was always enough to go through the armour and deal enough wounds to kill.
I'm certain we played the rules to the letter but I wasn't sure this was normal for the first quest, or the game in general?
-
Duchess of Erat
Netherlands
Enschede
-
The first quest is supposed to be easy for the heroes, it gets harder later on.
This may help (EDIT: spoilers for the quests inside)
-
Mark McG
Australia
Penshurst
NSW
-
JoyrexJ9 wrote: Just finished my first ever game...
The monsters were very fragile, even the two Manticores in the final area went down with a single attack each.
Is this normal? 98% of monsters went 'pop' with just a single attack, if an attack didn't miss then it was almost academic adding up the damage, as it was always enough to go through the armour and deal enough wounds to kill.
I'm certain we played the rules to the letter but I wasn't sure this was normal for the first quest, or the game in general?
Yes, pretty common. I think it may depend on player experience (in general, not just Descent), but you average wargamer will decimate these dungeons. The OL usually has 2 opportunities to win, at the very start before the heroes accummulate CP and treasure, and someplace in the middle where waves of monsters have worn down the heroes resources.
Almost all the basic monsters are one hit wonders, and it isn't uncommon for a party to totally clear a room in their turns before the OL even gets a chance to use them. Some of the setups are incredibly lame.
-
|
|
Posted Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:05 pm
