Descent: Journeys in The Dark - Gameplay

Gameplay

There are two sides, the "hero side" and the "Overlord". The heroes are attempting to complete a quest (usually kill a boss monster at the end of a set of rooms). The Overlord attempts to stop the heroes by playing traps or spawning monsters who can then be used to attack the heroes.

Each quest features a different map (a configuration of tiles). The arrangement of tiles and placement of various traps, special events, and treasures gives Descent a great deal of flexibility in comparison to many other board games. However, the players must spend somewhat more time to set up the game before it can be played.

The heroes are able to use a number of items which enhance their abilities such as magic swords, enchanted armor, healing potions, and much more. They also have a number of abilities which make them stronger and more effective than the majority of the monsters which the Overlord can summon. As the heroes find more treasure, they grow more powerful and this allows them to tackle more difficult quests. Even so, heroes are expected to die during their quest, but can be restored to life indefinitely. They merely concede some victory points in the process.

Heroes are represented as a set of cards and tokens. A primary character card identifies the character, provides initial statistics, and indicates special abilities. An additional set of three or more cards indicate special skills. A campaign game makes heroes start well below this level (one special skill instead of three) and end well above. Further cards indicate equipment carried and equipped. Tokens indicate health, stamina, potions, and statistic enhancements. Specialized tokens indicate which heroes have taken actions, indicate special preparations a character has taken, and indicate negative status effects like being poisoned.

The game features many different dice, while they are all six-sided, they contain a number of symbols (sometimes three on a single face). The different dice have different purposes (one die generally produces damage, another die generally produces range). The most powerful weapons in the game can result in the heroes rolling ten dice for a single attack, though normally heroes only roll three to five.

Game play is listed as between four to five hours to play a single quest. A total of nine quests were defined in the original game. Many more quests have been created and officially posted on the FFG website: The Official Fan-Created Quest List.