Version 10.

DESCENT VERSION 2.5 OPTIONAL RULES

(ADAPTATION TO STAR WARS: IMPERIAL ASSAULT STANDARDS)

The full four-hero variant

These rules adapt Descent 2nd Edition rules to closer match the changes made to the
core rules in Star Wars: Imperial Assault (SW:IA). These rules are optional and can
be selectively utilized.

CONTENTS

Turn order (alternating activations, non cooperative campaigns) ................................................................................1

Playing non-cooperative campaign with fewer than 4 hero players .............................................................................3

Overlord reinforcements (type and order) ....................................................................................................................3

Movement (pass through figures, stamina moves, and Large Figures) .........................................................................4

Line of sight (two corner determination) ......................................................................................................................4

Morale (ending a quest early due to excessive hero defeats) .......................................................................................5

Rumor cards (forced play and possible automatic Overlord Victory) ...........................................................................6

Overlord strategy change (changing plot Deck in Act II) ...............................................................................................7

Hidden information (some quest information is hidden) ..............................................................................................8

Quick Reference ............................................................................................................................................................9

TURN ORDER (ALTERNATING ACTIVATIONS, NON COOPERATIVE CAMPAIGNS)

The following alternative turn order rule is for non-cooperative campaigns only. For
cooperative campaigns, play follows the standard format of a hero phase (where all
heroes complete their two activations) and an overlord phase (where the non-player
overlord moves all monster groups).

In non-cooperative campaigns, at the start of the turn the hero players activate one hero
(their choice). When that hero completes his two actions, exhaust his Activation Card
and then activate one ally, if there is one. The overlord player then decides to either
activate one monster group and exhausts the appropriate monster card once its two
activations are finished, or he passes. The hero players then activate their next hero
and this sequence continues until all the heroes and monsters have been activated (the
overlord player will activate all remaining monsters in sequence after all hero players
have no more activations).

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In detail, the turn order occurs in the following sequence:

1. Refresh all OVERLORD cards and each HERO's Reference Card

HERO Class and Item cards and any ALLY cards are refreshed at the start of that hero's and ally's
activation
2. First HERO activation and one ALLY activation
3. Optional first OVERLORD monster group activation or pass
4. Second HERO activation and one ALLY activation
5. Optional second OVERLORD monster group activation or pass
6. Third HERO activation and one ALLY activation
7. Optional third OVERLORD monster group activation or pass
8. Fourth HERO activation and all remaining ALLY activations
9. "Start of turn" type reinforcements are placed
10. OVERLORD plays any "start of turn" type cards
11. OVERLORD activates all remaining monster groups (mandatory)
12. OVERLORD plays any "end of turn" type cards (such as the Blood Rage card or
plots cards that specify that they are exhausted at the end of the turn)
13. "End of turn" type reinforcements are placed
14. OVERLORD removes all cards from the table that have a 1 turn duration
15. OVERLORD draws new overlord card(s)

If there are less monster groups than there are heroes, simply activate the available
monster groups at the desired and appropriate time in the turn order and skip the steps
dealing with monster group activations when there are no more available to activate.

NOTE: In the above list, lieutenants are considered a monster group (i.e. the overlord
chooses to activate either a monster group or a lieutenant during his activations).

NOTE: Consider the optional overlord activations as an early reactionary or preemptive

type movement where the overlord can choose to react immediately to hero actions, or
to get the initiative on the heroes in a certain situation. This opens the tactical situation
up to a wide range of possibilities and dilemmas where, for example, the overlord can
act quickly but at a less effective capacity before he can play his "start of turn" overlord
cards and he may end up activating a monster group before his "start of turn"
reinforcements are placed (thereby preventing him from moving those reinforcements
this turn since the monster group they belong to has already been activated).

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PLAYING NON-COOPERATIVE CAMPAIGN WITH FEWER THAN 4 HERO PLAYERS

At the start of a non-cooperative campaign, always use 4 hero characters and divide
those figures up amongst the available hero players (one or two players may have more
than one hero). The number of monsters, stats and attributes, search tokens, rewards
(and anything else that varies based on number of hero players) used is at the four hero
quantity.

If you have already started a campaign with two or less hero characters, add additional
hero characters until you have 4 total. When you do this, choose one of the original
heroes (it does not matter which one) and add up all of that character's purchased skill
card upgrade XP costs, then add any unspent XP that hero currently has. This total is
the XP total that each new character added to the campaign will have, and that XP may
be spent immediately on skill cards for the newly added heroes. Also add 200 gold per
new character added if it is Act II, or 100 gold per new character if it is still Act I, then
conduct a special shopping phase to spend that money on any additional shop cards for
the group (you are advised to spend that money on equipment for the new characters
though). If you are in Act II, then the special shopping phase should consist of revealing
all Act I shop cards (like you normally do when transitioning from Act I to Act II), and a
standard reveal of the normal amount of Act II shop cards. This allows the new
characters to purchase things that they may have bought in Act I, or just purchase a
more expensive Act II item. It is also acceptable to buy an item for an original character,
and then give the original characters items to the new character(s).

Ensuring that there are four total hero characters in the campaign helps to maximize
balance and excitement, and also helps to create a more diverse group of heroes.

OVERLORD REINFORCEMENTS (TYPE AND ORDER)

This optional rule is only used for non-cooperative campaigns.

When placing reinforcements, a monster group must place minion (white) monsters
instead of master (red) monsters if both are available. However, the overlord may spend
up to one Threat Token to have a monster group deploy a red monster instead of
deploying an available white one. Group limits must be respected as well as any special
restrictions based on the encounter.

If the encounter states that reinforcements arrive at the start of the turn then they are
placed at the start of the overlord player's mandatory activation phase (after the final
hero has activated). See the TURN ORDER section above for details.

If the encounter states that reinforcements arrive at the end of the turn then they are
placed after all monster groups have activated and after the overlord has played any
"end of turn" type cards. See the TURN ORDER section above for details.

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MOVEMENT (PASS THROUGH FIGURES, STAMINA MOVES, AND LARGE FIGURES)

This optional rule uses the Imperial Assault movement rules to allow for passthrough
figure pass through.

A hero can spend no more than two stamina per Move activation in order to move
further than the hero's speed value allows.

Figures can move through friendly figures at no additional movement cost, and can
move through an enemy occupied space at a cost of one additional movement point.
Heroes that have special abilities that allow them to move through enemy figures at no
cost are unchanged by this rule.

Special abilities that allow you to move through enemy figures (such as Scamper)
simply mean that you can move through enemy figures at no additional cost in
movement points.

Figures can never end their movement in a space containing another figure.

The standard rules regarding Large Figures apply, with the addition that Large Figures
cannot move diagonally, and oblong shaped Large Figures must spend 1 Movement
Point if they want to change facing at the end of their move.

LINE OF SIGHT (TWO CORNER DETERMINATION)

This optional rule converts the Descent 2nd Edition simplified Line of Sight rules to a
slightly more detailed Line of Sight rules from Imperial Assault, which allows for the
ability to hide and fire around corners.

To determine line of sight, the player draws two imaginary, nonintersecting lines from
one corner of the attacking figure’s space to two adjacent corners of the target’s space.
If either of these lines overlap, pass through a wall, a third figure, or blocking terrain,
then the figure does not have line of sight to the target.

 Line of sight can be traced from or to any corner on the map. Each line can be
traced along the corners and edges of spaces containing figures, doors, walls,
and blocked spaces.

 Walls only block line of sight along an entire edge of a space. If a wall does not
cover an entire edge, then line of sight may be traced to, from, and through that
edge.

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 Line of sight cannot be traced through a corner where any combination of walls
and blocking terrain intersect. It can be traced through the combination of one
figure and a diagonally positioned wall, blocking terrain, or other figure.

 Figures have line of sight to adjacent figures (unless blocked by a wall).

 It is possible for a figure to have line of sight to another figure that does not have
line of sight back to itself. This most often happens when a figure is behind a wall
or figure. Thematically, this represents a figure leaning out of cover to make an
attack and then ducking back behind cover.

 A figure does not block line of sight to itself. The target figure also does not block
line of sight.

 Adjacent figures always have line of sight to each other (unless blocked by a
wall).

MORALE (ENDING A QUEST EARLY DUE TO EXCESSIVE HERO DEFEATS)

This optional rule is only used for non-cooperative campaigns, and must be used in
conjunction with the "Playing non-cooperative campaign with fewer than 4 hero players"
rule above (the campaign must have four heroes).

In order to prevent the hero players from being careless and to replicate the IA aspect
where the hero side is defeated after all heroes are wounded, a simple morale level is
introduced to track how many times the heroes are defeated during a particular
encounter. If the heroes suffer too many defeats during an encounter then that
encounter ends prematurely in an overlord victory.

In the standard threat token rules, when the overlord defeats a hero, he can choose to
gain a threat token and a hero token from that defeated hero. In the standard threat
token rules this hero token is only used to track which hero he has defeated for the first
time in the quest, because he cannot gain another threat token if that same hero is
defeated again. Adding to this rule...

 The moment the overlord player has accumulated a hero token for each hero,
their morale is considered to be broken and they withdraw.
 If the heroes withdraw, the quest immediately ends and is resolved as an
overlord victory. Then proceed with the campaign as normal.

Identical to the standard rules for the gaining of threat tokens, the overlord keeps the
hero tokens he gained until the quest is completed (they carry over to the next

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encounter in a multi-encounter quest). After the quest is completed the overlord returns
all hero tokens.

RUMOR CARDS (FORCED PLAY AND POSSIBLE AUTOMATIC OVERLORD VICTORY)

This optional rule is only used for non-cooperative campaigns.

In order to keep rumor cards from being rarely utilized, the following changes are made
with the intent of making them more important and a more active and interesting part of
the campaign itself:

 During the Campaign Phase, if the HEROES just won a quest listed on the
Campaign Log, then the overlord player MUST select a valid Rumor Quest card
in his hand and put it into play as an available quest. The overlord player is
required to do this, and the hero players should remind the overlord player to
play a Rumor Quest card if a valid one is available. A Rumor Quest card is a
rumor card which features travel icons across the top of the card and has the
key words "While in play, this card is treated as an available quest."
 If the overlord player is forced to play a rumor card then that card does
count towards the one-rumor-card-per-Campaign-turn limit (he can only
play the forced card that Campaign Phase).
 If the overlord player just won a quest then he is not required to play any
of his Rumor Quest cards.
 The overlord player is never required to play non-Rumor Quest type rumor
cards.
 When a Quest card (Rumor Quest or Advanced Quest card) is in play, if the
HEROES (not the overlord) choose to play a quest other than the available
Quest cards, then before proceeding to the chosen Quest the overlord player
rolls a blue attack die for each available Quest card that the heroes did not
choose to play.
 On a SURGE result, place a stamina token on that Quest card.
 If any Quest card receives a second stamina token then that Quest card is
automatically resolved as an overlord victory (if necessary, see the
appropriate quest guide and immediately resolve only the overlord's
portion of the REWARDS section accordingly).
 The overlord may spend 1 Threat Token to reroll, for a maximum of 1
threat reroll per Quest card (the heroes do not gain fortune tokens from
this).
 After the overlord rolls for each non-selected Quest card, proceed
normally with the chosen Quest. Repeat this process as applicable after
each Quest.

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 If a Quest card has text stating what to do if the card is still in play at a
certain point in the campaign (such as when transitioning from Act I to Act
II), then resolve this as normal and discard the stamina token on the card.
Thematically this represents the agents of evil moving against the heroes behind
the scenes, encouraging the heroes to act, or to press their luck and ignore the
side quest.

Essentially the intent here is to force the Rumor Quest cards to be revealed if the
overlord is doing badly in the main quest (rather than the overlord player most
likely never playing them at all), but the overlord now has a good chance to
benefit by default if the heroes then choose to ignore the side quest, while the
heroes benefit from playing it to at least prevent the possibility of an automatic
overlord victory in those side quests.

OVERLORD STRATEGY CHANGE (CHANGING PLOT DECK IN ACT II)

This optional rule is only used for non-cooperative campaigns.

To allow the overlord to adjust strategy or to recover from a bad plot deck choice, the
overlord can swap plot decks during the transition to Act II. This is done as follows:

 When transitioning to Act II and when the overlord is swapping out the Act I
monster cards with their Act II versions, the overlord may change to a different
plot deck.
 The overlord first "sells" all purchased plot cards to collect their Purchase Cost
(the small number on the right side of the card) in Threat Tokens, then he returns
all cards associated with that plot deck back to the box.
 The overlord then chooses a new plot deck to use for Act II and can spend
Threat Tokens to purchase plot cards from this new deck. The campaign then
continues normally.

The purpose of this rule is to lessen the unforgiving constraints on the overlord when
choosing a plot deck at the start of a campaign. It also maintains a level of flexibility
similar in Imperial Assault where the overlord equivalent chooses multiple plot deck
equivalents allowing him to adopt a more dynamic strategy. In Descent, the overlord
chooses the plot deck once and this occasionally turns out to be a poor choice later in
the campaign once the overlord sees the hero party in action. So, the ability to swap
plot decks affords the overlord player the ability to adjust his strategy, recover from a
serious mistake in deck choice, salvage the campaign, and can also make the
campaign more varied with some less used plot decks seeing action (at least it

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encourages the Overlord to experiment in Act I). As the overlord, keep in mind that if
you were successful with the plot deck chosen in Act I, then switching decks for Act II is
an unnecessary risk.

HIDDEN INFORMATION (SOME QUEST INFORMATION IS HIDDEN)

This optional rule is only used for non-cooperative campaigns.

In order to keep quests interesting and less scientifically "gamey", certain Quest
information should be kept secret. Feel free to add or subtract to this list as desired.

The following Quest information should be kept secret from both the HEROES and
OVERLORD:

 When choosing the next Quest, none of the Quest's information can be observed
at all. You simply choose the quest from the names listed in the Campaign Log or
from reading a Rumor Quest Card, while looking over the Quest Map. This
greatly speeds up play, at least for most gaming groups, and keeps the situation
surprising and less about meticulously studying each quest trying find the one
that looks the most lop sided.
 Relic cards which have not yet been rewarded. This maintains a fun element of
discovery: I wonder what the Dawnblade does exactly? It sounds cool! Let's go
get it and find out!

The following Quest information should be kept secret from only the HEROES:

 When playing a Quest, all information in the REINFORCEMENTS section. This

reduces the tendency of "gaming the reinforcements" and maintains an element
of surprise where the Heroes must discover whether or not the monsters or
Lieutenant returns, and where, rather than setting up for an ambush in some
cases.
 When playing a Quest, all information in the REWARDS section (including the
HERO/OVERLORD REWARD section on the back of Rumor Quest Cards),
except for the name of a specific relic. The overlord MUST tell the heroes the
name of the relic that each side will gain.
 In the SHADOW OF NEREKHALL campaign, all information pertaining to
INFLUENCE.

Generally speaking, the overlord player should read all the quest information to the hero
players, except for the items listed above. NOTE: It is deliberate that the hidden
information creates an element of surprise, causing a more uncertain situation, mostly
for the heroes (that is the intent).
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QUICK REFERENCE

TURN ORDER/SEQUENCE

1. Refresh all OVERLORD cards and each HERO's Reference Card

HERO Class and Item cards and ALLY cards are refreshed at the start of that hero's and ally's activation
2. First HERO activation and one ALLY activation
3. Optional first OVERLORD monster group activation or pass
4. Second HERO activation and one ALLY activation
5. Optional second OVERLORD monster group activation or pass
6. Third HERO activation and one ALLY activation
7. Optional third OVERLORD monster group activation or pass
8. Fourth HERO activation and all remaining ALLY activations
9. "Start of turn" type reinforcements are placed
10. OVERLORD plays any "start of turn" type cards
11. OVERLORD activates all remaining monster groups (mandatory)
12. OVERLORD plays any "end of turn" type cards (such as the Blood Rage card or plots cards that
specify that they are exhausted at the end of the turn)
13. "End of turn" type reinforcements are placed
14. OVERLORD removes all cards from the table that have a 1 turn duration
15. OVERLORD draws new overlord card(s)

OVERLORD REINFORCEMENTS

 A monster group must deploy WHITE monsters before it can deploy RED ones (however, can
bring in RED monsters from that group if that group has no available WHITE monsters to deploy)
 Can spend 1 Threat Token to have a monster group deploy a RED monster instead of an
available WHITE one

MOVEMENT

 Heroes can spend a maximum of 2 stamina per move activation for extra MPs
 Figures can move through friendly figures as no additional cost of MPs
 Figures can move through enemy figures at a cost of 1 additional MP per enemy occupied space,
unless they have a trait that allows for unrestricted movement (like Scamper)
 Large Figures cannot move diagonally, and oblong figures must spent 1 MP to change facing

RUMOR CARDS

 If the heroes just won a Quest listed on the Campaign Log, the overlord must play a Rumor Quest
card if he has one in his hand
 If the HEROES choose to play a Quest other than an available Rumor Quest or Advanced Quest
card, then the overlord rolls a BLUE attack die for each available Quest card the heroes did not
choose to play...
 SURGE result: place 1 stamina token on that Quest card
 If any Quest card receives a 2nd stamina token, immediately resolve that Quest as an
overlord victory (resolve only the overlord's portion of the REWARDS section)
 Overlord can spend 1 Threat Token to reroll a Quest card once, for a maximum of 1
threat reroll per Quest card
 Proceed normally with the next chosen Quest
 Resolve Act I cards as normal when transitioning to Act II, if text on card says to do so