Many of the regulars at GCS already know how I feel about this game, but for those of you that don't, read on. (Those of you who do may still be entertained by my gushing, however).

Simply put: This game is freakin' amazing! For the fan of the fantasy dungeon-crawl board game, it is everything Heroquest and Talisman should have been - fun, interactive, and full of more crunchy bits (figures, dice, cards, map tiles, etc.) than you can shake a Crown of Command at.

Overview
Two to five players can play Descent - one player takes the role of the Overlord, and the rest are heroes bent on thwarting the Overlord's dastardly plans. Each of the hero players assumes the role of one of twenty different fantasy characters, spanning a large range of abilities and powers. At the beginning of the game, each hero also gets three skill cards plus a handful of equipments cards (weapons, armor, etc.) to further broaden options for monster-bashing.

The Overlord is not without his weapons, however, with an army of beastmen, giant spiders, sorcerers, ogres, and more with which to smash the heroes into paste. He'll also catch the heroes off guard with cards from the Overlord deck - springing traps on them, spawning extra monsters, and even making them attack one another!

Game play is straight-forward - the heroes each take one turn (in any order), then the Overlord player sends his minions forth. To triumph, the heroes must meet the victory requirements of the quest (of the nine available) they're attempting. As they progress, the heroes collect conquest tokens. If they die, however, they lose conquest tokens before they come back into the game. If they ever run out, the Overlord player has won!

At the heart of Descent is its interesting turn and combat structure. For the heroes, each turn consists of one of four actions: Advance (move and attack), Run (move 2x speed), Battle (attack twice), or Ready (move or attack plus use an order token). Ther order tokens give the heroes more versatility with their actions, allowing them to guard against attacks, dodge, recover spent fatigue, or aim their next attack.

To make an attack, a hero rolls the power (black) dice indicated for the appropriate skill (melee, range, or magic), plus the dice indicated for his weapon of choice. The numerals on the colored dice indicate range - while melee attacks ignore range, the target of ranged and magic attacks must be within a number of squares equal to the total range rolled or the attack fails. Once the attack connects, the hero figures damage by adding up the total heart icons shown on the dice. The targets armor rating is subtracted from the total, and the difference is the amount of damage the poor beastie suffers. The icons on the power (black) dice can help augment an attack: the Power Enhancement (1/heart) icon allows the player to add one range or damage to his attack. In addition, all of the attack dice have Power Surge (lightning bolt) icons on some of the faces. Heroes spend these to activate special skills and abilities of weapons and other items.

Once the heroes have done their damage, it's the Overlord player's turn. She draws two Overlord cards, collects a Threat Token for each player (which she uses to power her Overlord cards), spawns her monsters, then sends in the troops! Each of the Overlord's minions acts once during the Overlord player's turn, each one moving up to its speed and attacking once. To attack, the player rolls the dice on the monster's stat card, and calculates range and damage as above. In addition, for every two Power Surges the Overlord player rolls, she collects an additional Threat Token.

As the game continues, the heroes explore more and more of the dungeon, finding magical treasure, springing traps, and fighting tougher and tougher monsters, all the while gaining conquest tokens and gold. If they're unlucky with their treasure pulls, the heroes can upgrade equipment at the shop in town. Nothing like a good sword for monster-bashing goodness!

Analysis
Strengths: Descent has many strengths, including its value. It includes 80 (!) expertly-sculpted plastic figures along with scads of tokens, skill and item cards, durable heavy cardstock map tiles, and more. The artwork on the hero sheets, cards, and tiles is excellent and evocative.

The game is also fast-paced and very interactive, and, due to the high number of skills, characters, and items, has very high replay value, with each game providing new challenges for Hero and Overlord players alike.

Weaknesses: Descent's major weakness is set-up time, which can take 15-20 minutes with new players. Once players have become accustomed to the game, however, this time can be cut down to 10 minutes or less.

Conclusions
Even though I already spoiled my feelings about Descent at the start of the article, I'll say it again: This game is freakin' awesome! Descent is excellent as a break for your weekly role-playing game group, or to spend an afternoon smashing stuff. In July '06, the Well of Darkness expansion hits GCS, adding more skills, more monsters, and, most importantly, campaign rules! Also, look for a Descent campaign to start at GCS in August.

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Ed is the owner and general manager of Games and Comics and Stuff, LLC. He likes cows, kitties, and monkeys, and is a commie pinko vegetarian. Oh yeah, and he can measure the time he's been playing hobby games in decades.