Descent (2nd Edition) vs. DnD Adventure Boardgames?

[MythicalMino]

Which are better, and why?

I am looking into buying either the DnD games (Wrath of Ashardalon, Castle Ravenloft, and Legend of Drizzt) or the Descent 2nd Edition games. Really want a good dungeon delver for me and my boys...

[hentzau]

I think the decision boils down to do you want a co-op experience (D&D Games) or do you want an adverserial experience (Descent), because in Descent someone has to be a bad guy.

(I personally like the D&D games better. I don't enjoy a dungeon crawl where the goal of the DM/Overlord is to crush the opponents. That's why I had a hard time running Descent, I wasn't blood thirsty enough.)

[Smoove_B]

There is a co-op expansion that's coming out for Descent, but how it will work remains to be seen. I think Hentzau pretty much nailed it. We've played about half a dozen of the adventures for Descent 2 and it typically requires that my buddy (running the Overlord) does advance preparation in terms of understanding what he should be doing, general strategy and setup. It never felt like something we could decide to play that night - it always required advance prep on his part. Maybe we're odd and that's not normal, but that's how it seemed to work best. And yes, running the Overlord spot definitely requires practice in knowing what cards to play at what time.

There was someone on BGG running stats at some point as the theory was the game wasn't balanced very fair. I believe that for two characters versus the Overlord, it was heavily weighted towards the players, then with three characters it was heavily weighted towards the Overlord. My buddy also did himself a great disservice (in my opinion) by purchasing all the conversion packs for the original game. I was left with the distinct impression that the conversion was done as a way to lure 1st edition players to the new edition, but that the monsters and characters didn't really fit in with the campaign in terms of powers and difficulty.

I'm sort of rambling here but I think overall (so far) we enjoyed the D&D games a bit more. None of them have hit our table in over a year but at least in terms of ease of play and randomness we had numerous memorable adventures. Descent 2 might be a closer approximation of a D&D PnP session but I don't know if it's worth the effort. Yes, it's fun but you really need to spend time learning the system.

[baelthazar]

Hent and Smoove have offered some really good analysis here.

For my $0.02, I think it is highly dependent upon your gaming group. Descent: 2nd Edition takes a bit longer, and is a highly adversarial experience. My friends were unprepared for Descent 2nd, even though they had played Descent 1st, because it is almost frenetic in pace and is a desperate struggle between the players and the Overlord. It is not too much of a stretch to see a players "knocked out" on the very first turn (they can be revived, but it costs actions and time), if the Overlord puts enough pressure on the players. The scenarios for Descent 2nd are more compact and story-oriented, and the module for turning them into a campaign is done very well.

D&D, however, is decidedly more beer and pretzels and much easier to jump into and play. My wife will even play the D&D games, but there is very little chance she would go for Descent 2nd. It isn't that Descent is harder to play, it is just more "hardcore." The D&D games flow well, there is no dedicated "evil" turn, and everyone feels that they are pulling their weight (you absolutely have to have good teamwork to do well). Like any other co-op game, the D&D games have this constant "oh crap, what now" effect, every turn brings new enemies, traps, events, or other bad things to overcome. There really isn't the same sort of campaign set up for the D&D games, so having a persistent story between sessions is difficult.

If I were you, I would pick up the D&D games, skipping - perhaps - Castle Ravenloft and going straight to Wrath of Ashardalon or Legend of Drizzt. WoA refined and "patched" CR and just feels smoother, despite my preference for CR's monsters. LoD refines the game even more, although it adds some additionally complexity and a set of specific characters that are highly specialized and may need experienced gamers to fully grasp (e.g. there is a Halfling that does very little damage, but is excellent at crowd control and a Barbarian who gets better as he gets damaged, so you need to manage his health well). If you aren't a Drizzt fan, then you might still like LoD, but if you HATE Drizzt and those books, then you will hate LoD, since you play out some of the books' scenarios. It does offer rules for a PVP (Traitor) game and some interesting cavern mechanics.

Lastly (whew), if you really want a good story adversarial game, I would get Mansions of Madness and the Call of the Wild Expansion. We have far more fun with MoM than we do with Descent, and that is outside of having a more attractive (to us) Lovecraftian theme. It is just the better game.

[Boudreaux]

I'll add a somewhat dissenting opinion. The D&D adventure games are certainly much easier to jump into, but they end up feeling a lot more generic. There are scenarios, and even a longer "campaign" version in Wrath of Ashardalon (maybe LoD too), but they tend to all feel the same. There is not much of a sense of character development or progression, as you always start out at "level 1" in each scenario. Most games are pure dungeon crawl, just trying to survive until the end.

Descent, on the other hand, has much more interesting maps and scenarios. The campaign mode goes through an entire storyline and allows for a decent amount of character leveling and progression. The individual adventures usually have a goal of some sort beyond just "kill everything evil", and I found it much more interesting to keep playing game after game. There is the adversarial aspect, but I haven't found the Overlord to be too difficult to play. I've mostly played this as the Overlord with my kids, and in those cases I don't want to be too cutthroat, I'm really more interested in providing them a challenge. If you take the approach of playing the part of a DM instead of a competitive player in the game, it's pretty fun. On the flip side, I suppose the replayability could be a bit less if you only use the included scenarios. Seems like it would be pretty easy to make your own, though.

[Blackhawk]

Given that you're playing with your kids, you might also take a look at Mice & Mystics.

[hentzau]

Given that you're playing with your kids, you might also take a look at Mice & Mystics.

I was going to mention this game as well. It's a fun premise for an co-op dungeon crawly type game (that's actually a lot harder than it looks.)

[LordMortis]

I have the 2nd Descent, not sure if that's Descent 2 or Descent 2nd Edition. I know they are on the third something now which might be Descent 2 the second edition.

For the version I have, the way to play was clearly the campaign, which was about $200 investment at Internet prices, considerably more retail.

Playing as the Overlord is a tough call. You want the game to all the way to the end. But you don't want the players to walk all over you to get there. When that magic happens the game is a lot of fun for everybody over the course of a few months.

However, if you choose too powerful of an overlord and card combo, the game is no fun for anyone. If you don't choose a powerful overlord and card combo, the players will quickly find their own card combos to just walk through everything you've got. I don't imagine with no challenge there's much fun beyond the idea implementing getting better loot.

I can't speak for the current version of Descent. I was none too happy with either buying everything all over for V.3 nor even having to buy the conversion kits to make my set continue to work.

[MythicalMino]

I ended up buying the D&D games...going to play some solo games first, to make sure I have the rules down, then probably a game with my boys this weekend.

[baelthazar]

I ended up buying the D&D games...going to play some solo games first, to make sure I have the rules down, then probably a game with my boys this weekend.

Ah, solo play, that was one thing I had not thought about on the Pro-D&D game side. I have played many of my D&D games solo and greatly enjoyed them.

[Blackhawk]

A hint on all of the D&D games: Keep moving. If you stop and catch your breath, the encounters will destroy the party.

If the encounters still come off as a little harsh, we came up with a house rule: Get a marker (we used a glass bead.) Every time you are supposed to draw an encounter card, put the bead on your character card instead. If the bead is on your card when you are supposed to draw, remove it and draw as normal.

This halves the number of encounters, and we still struggle to win some of the scenarios (probably a 70% win rate.)