 |
 The box for the game's First Edition | |
| Manufacturers | Fantasy Flight Games |
|---|---|
| Designers | Jesper Ejsing, John Goodenough, Frank Walls |
| Players | 2-5 |
| Setup time | < 30 minutes |
| Playing time | 2 to 4 hours |
| Chance | some |
Descent: Journeys in the Dark is a two to five player high fantasy dungeon crawl published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005. Descent was designed and produced by Kevin Wilson.[1] The game is based on an improved version of the mechanics of FFG's licensed Doom: The Boardgame. In Descent, players take the roles of adventurers who delve into underground complexes in search of treasure (the so-called "dungeon crawl"). One player takes the role of the Overlord, who controls the enemies and plays cards to hinder the hero players. Descent differs from other games in the genre in that the Overlord player's goal is to win by exhausting the other players of victory points, rather than merely to facilitate play. The Overlord's resources are limited by the rules of the game, which require them to hoard and expend "threat" points, which are generated in response to the hero players' actions, in order to hamper the other players and to bring out additional monsters to defeat them. This mechanism is very much reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings when playing with the Sauron optional expansion.
Descent is one of a number of fantasy board games published by FFG, others include Runebound and licensed Warcraft III, World of Warcraft and several The Lord of the Rings games. Descent shares the same characters with Runebound and its expansion set as well as Runewars and the card game Rune Age.[2] The first expansion, Descent: Well of Darkness, was released on October 26, 2006. A second expansion Descent: Altar of Despair was released February 2007 and a third expansion, Descent: Road to Legend which includes campaign rules, was released in March 2008. A fourth expansion, Descent: Tomb of Ice is also available, providing additional features. Finally, the Sea of Blood expansion creates another campaign world.[3]
In October 2006, Board Games Online announced that they were working on an online PC version of Descent: Journeys in the Dark for their BattlePawn 3D boardgame engine. Descent was to be BattlePawn's launch title, but development on this product was terminated on 13 June 2008 following creative differences with Fantasy Flight Games.[4]
In 2012, FFG released a redesigned second edition of the game. The redesign was primarily designed to reduce the time required for each game session. It is not compatible with the first edition; however, a conversion kit is available to bring monsters and heroes of the first edition to the second.[5]
In November 2019, Aconyte Books, a publishing company launched by Asmodee Entertainment,[6] announced that they will release a set of novels based on some of Asmodee Entertainment games, including Descent: Journeys in the dark.[7] The novel, Descent–Journeys in the Dark: The Doom of Fallowhearth, was released in 2020.[8]
- ^ "Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2005)". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2015-01-02.
- ^ "The Realms of Terrinoth". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 2015-01-02.
- ^ "Descent: Journeys in the Dark Product page". Fantasy Flight Games. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17.
- ^ "Descent – Journeys in the Dark". Battlepawn. 2006-10-17. Archived from the original on 2008-01-08.
- ^ "Your Legend Awaits". Fantasy Flight Games. 2012-07-18.
- ^ "Press Release: Asmodee Announces the Creation of New Fiction Imprint, Aconyte". Aconyte Books. 2019-04-25. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
- ^ "Incoming – Here Are Our First Titles!". Aconyte Books. 2019-11-26. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
- ^ "Doom of Fallowhearth, The by Robbie MacNiven – Aconyte Books". Retrieved 2024-09-28.