I care, is it OK with you all if I'm excited to see more?

I care, is it OK with you all if I'm excited to see more?

I care, is it OK with you all if I'm excited to see more?

I care, is it OK with you all if I'm excited to see more?

I actually heard about Descent for the fist time two months ago.  Since  corona, my family and I got into boardgaming.  I saw a copy of Descent at the local gameshop and at home I immediately searched the internet.  A couple of weeks later I learned about Legends oft the Dark.  In my opinion, with my fresh point of view, I must say this game looks overwhelmingly awesome to me.  What really shocked me though, was the amount of negativity about it on all kinds of forums.  To me, it all sounds a little bit like the way my mom reacted when I was 16 years old and started playing my metal and punk tapes really loud.  I get that, when you like a game realy much, you want the publisher to keep creating content.  But for new potential buyers, like me, it is only normal that new games are going to be developed.  I really hope the best for this NEW game (whitch is not the 3rd edition to your beloved Descent 2nd).  FFG is a company.  Companies have to make money in order to stay a company.  With money the make new things.  With money they improve and support older products as well.  So I guess it would be a great idea to positively stimulate new products that create new revenue, and maybe lead to improvement and support for older products.  For me, ...  I've already preordered my copy.  I paid 140 euro.  That's about 165 dollars.  Most big kickstarter games are more expensive.  So what's the fuzz?

I think the art looks really good. The figures are also really nicely sculpted, and I'm excited to paint them. I don't mind the app, it likely replaces about 50 decks of cards and about 100 different tokens. The price point looks accurate and I'm ok with it. Also the UNDO button in the app is worth at least $40-$50.

I think the art looks really good. The figures are also really nicely sculpted, and I'm excited to paint them. I don't mind the app, it likely replaces about 50 decks of cards and about 100 different tokens. The price point looks accurate and I'm ok with it. Also the UNDO button in the app is worth at least $40-$50.

Okay, finally finished then 1.5hrs high level overview and gotta say that I'm also kinda loving what I am hearing and seeing. 
A few points:
The Elephant in the Room, the Removal of the Overlord Player:
I totally agree that removing the Overlord was a good choice if you are goaling for a fully co-op game, which they were with this. The reason is that the game can then be designed from the ground up with the focus of how the player characters abilities, items, et al., can interact with the computer controller opponents. When you don't focus on one style, you end up with certain abilities that simply do not work or are holy crap too powerful when playing against either an Overlord player or an AI Overlord.  A good example of this would be the Appendix I in the Road to Legend rules; several hero abilities simply do not work, and a third of the Marshall deck does absolutely nothing because these abilities did not translate into an co-operative game. Monster stats and abilities no longer have to be balanced around preventing them from being overpowered with what a thinking Overlord can do with them with planned out tactics, secretive deck of powers, and more, while also keeping them from being so weak when a more simplistic AI is attempting to just rush the players. It opens up the design space for the developers to do more when you only have to worry about one game mode.
I also like that they emphasized over and over again that this is not Descent: Journeys 3rd Ed. and that that game, at its core, is a competitive game. While I would have a hard time seeing them launch a 3rd Ed. so soon after launching Legends, I think they are leaving themselves space to revisit that, or at the least return to further work on 2nd Ed.
 
Tiles/3d Terrain Pieces
I really love that they went 3d with the game. I have been playing a lot of Rangers of Shadowdeep and following a lot of co-op and competitive skirmish type of games (Skyrim, Frostgrave, Fallout WW, Brutality etc.) and missed the interesting terrain when I would go back and play Descent. The cardstock is a bit of a letdown compared to some of the plastic scatter terrain I've seen for tables, barrels, chests, etc. but it looks serviceable and honestly a bunch of terrain can add a big price tag depending on how much there is. The multiple levels is rather interesting to me, I didn't predict them doing that and its a very nice looking table presence, and I'm interested in how it affects gameplay.
I'll agree with the artwork of the boards be a bit bland. I can understand that keeping it simpler in design allows for a much wider opportunities of positioning, and instead of having points of interest on the tiles themselves, they are using the before mentioned terrain pieces for that. I think its a forgivable sin.
 
Character abilities and progression
Getting rid of the classes is a bit of an odd call, but it seems that they may be going for larger decks of abilities and therefore each hero will have severable viable "trees/builds" that you can work towards, similar to many vRPGs out there, instead of picking a hero and class combination, so, it should work. Crafting sounds interesting and I like the idea of sidegrades instead of upgrades for equipment. I'm also intrigued with the flip mechanics and getting away from the attrition of Fatigue. Now fatigue just results in you flipping and changing what ability/weapon/etc. you have available for the next few moments.
The way you can also personalize you hero by the choices they make and NPC interactions during the campaign is a really sweet touch. The campaign adjusting based on what heroes are in play is really cool, although, I hope they are going to roll newer heroes into the Act 1 stuff as Act 2 and 3 come out.
 
Price:
Ouch. I mean, I'll get it. I've dropped $125 on smaller board games before wile on Kickstarter, and when I bought into Everdell I dropped $250 for the CE + expansions, so its not a blocker for me. I am interested in what Act 2 and 3 are going to look like. Unless they are also going to be having around 6 more heroes, 40'ish new monsters, equivalent terrain, etc., they will likely be smaller boxes and less costly. It also sounds like they have a beginning and end planned out already for the game, so there will not be a lot of other content to purchase and we can just focus on getting those sets.
Also, it sounds like these game Acts are going to be the official progression of the Terrinoth storyline for a bit, so I'm really interested to see what they have planned.  

So, with all the negativity, I feel the need to praise what I’ve seen so far, and how excited I am.  A note that I have no connection to Descent. I thought 2e was too bloated when they let you use 1e stuff which was too hard to find, and it looked pretty generic compared to everything else  I own a ton of Imperial Assault, and I think the Descent/IA system was clunky and uninspired. This new game fixes so much  
I am so excited to see the game really going hard on the app, and taking it to a level that it needs to be to shine. One of my biggest issues with MoM2e is how same-y some of the characters can feel. Now, with this game, we get unique interactions with terrain and NPCs? That sounds amazing. 
The flipping mechanics sound incredibly cool. Getting to juggle abilities is a really cool decision space that doesn’t just deprive you of abilities, but instead forces a temporary change in tactics. Amazing. 
The Diablo-like abilities able to be crafted into gear is simply amazing, and the possibilities here are way beyond what you could do without the app (calculating 10% chance abilities? No thanks.)
The cardboard terrain and elevations  is simply stunning. Steampark got me started with the stuff, Tang Garden made me an addict, and now this game here has really nailed it. 
I love the new art style, as it actually feels different than every other dungeon crawler out there. There’s so much “standard epic fantasy” art out there. Give me something fresher and more indie, please!

Yeah, definitely looking forward to this. My only reservation is that it may be a bit to similar to Journeys in Middle Earth, but I'm optimistic.
Artwork: I'm indifferent. As someone who remembers how much hate 2nd edition received for its artwork when it first came, people hating this artwork is to be expected. For the record, I was never a fan of the previous editions art either so this is a moot point personally. No overlord. As someone who is a forever GM, I like this. There are other dungeon crawler games out there and I've always personally preferred the pure coop ones. If you want a GM, Genesys and it's Terrinoth expansion can do a far better job than an overlord player in a restrictive boardgame. App-driven- yup, this is a thing these days and its fine. Should all board games have apps? **** no! But app-driven games are now a legitimate sub-genre of the hobby. For people concerned about app life span: If the game is popular enough, someone will find a way to keep the app working. I mean, I can still  play my Star Wars VHS board game if I want as the video it requires is on the Internet. I don't however, because games have moved on and it's a very dated design. This game will either be successful, and will get future editions which update its design (or people will find ways of supporting the app as we have precedent for), or this game will fail and will simply take up space on peoples' shelves until they get rid of it: another thing well within the realms of normality.  
I can understand why some fans of 2e may  be disappointed because this is different. I feel your pain, Arkham Horror 3rd edition was a big letdown for me compared to previous games (such as Eldritch Horror), but back then, like now, all it was, was a duff boardgame in a time of many wonderful boardgames that scratch similar itches. The sky is not falling! Let's see what happens

The art style is amazing, its difrent but amazing in my opinion. Card layouts, app etc all look very coherently.  
I played LOTR:JiME couple of times and had a blast, app gives some immersion and its just evolution of boardgames. Not for every game but in game like that, dungeoncrawlers? It fits IMO.
Minis are very nice, tiles probably will look better in real life. 
 
For me its a good succesor and step forward. Wish i had more time to play games

I think the art looks really good. The figures are also really nicely sculpted, and I'm excited to paint them. I don't mind the app, it likely replaces about 50 decks of cards and about 100 different tokens. The price point looks accurate and I'm ok with it. Also the UNDO button in the app is worth at least $40-$50.

I think the art looks really good. The figures are also really nicely sculpted, and I'm excited to paint them. I don't mind the app, it likely replaces about 50 decks of cards and about 100 different tokens. The price point looks accurate and I'm ok with it. Also the UNDO button in the app is worth at least $40-$50.

Ahaha, I find it cool on the table on my end. It's like Heroquest++. 3d elements are super cool.

The game seems like it’ll look really rad on the tabletop. Between Gloomhaven, Frosthaven, and 7th Continent I dunno that I’ll have practical or literal room for this... but the sculpts look great and FFGs app stuff has only gotten better. 

I love this idea but it would probably require being online or filling your device storage. If you had the option to opt in would be best, i think. 

You are an inspiration. Thank you. 

Is that reasonable?

This is a Descent forum. Descent 2nd edition was created using a great 1 vs all system campaign mode. I love it still today, it's my #1 since amazing products like Gloomhaven lack a gamemode: you don't get to face opossing intelligence.
So, for 3rd Edition, I'd love an improvement on that. Not some skirmish

They reduce the amount of pieces, cards, etc. getting dented or broken when shifting around during shipping. If you have a box big enough for a decent game board, smaller components (sealed deck of cards, minis, bag of dice) would slide and fall a much further distance causing more damage to each other in a box that big. By using the inserts, you can keep the pieces separated and reduce the amount of travel they have, reducing the range of shifting to their smaller sections. 

-Anakin is 15 points less than Obi-wan, but all his command cards have Permanent.
-Clone Medic and Engineer are armed, but only can heal one point. Have new keywords.
-Clone support all have Phase 1 and 2 options.
-Maul has 3 poses.
-Maul attacks with 8 dice!! "Juyo Mastery" Same cost as Anakin.
-Maul's second 1 pip command card replaces a 3 pip.
-Sith Probe Droid has new Observation token.
-Separatists Command Droids
- Viper Droid gets Observation tokens and is not a non-combatant.
-55 points for both faction's generic commander
-Specialist sets release January 2021 -Maul and Anakin release November 2020.
-Next 4 units released will be Imperial and Rebel. 2 "Highly requested characters" Darth Maul news
-jo yo mastery "in rage channeled into saber skill/combat
-"Maul is a sneaky boy" -double bladed lightsaber rolls 8 dice and is 1 attack not 2 like grievous
-"Maul has versatile play, a sense of flowing in combat"
-maul cost 160 points is also a high risk reward character like anakin
-yes Maul has 2 1 pips and 1 of them replaces a 3pip when I build your list so I can easily take them both
-probe droids are a detachment to Maul and and use new observation tokens "they let a unit hang back but still be able to influence the battle"

I think that if players are finding the game too difficult OR too easy they should read through the rules again. This game is still new; missed or misinterpreted rules can really change the difficulty.

I think that if players are finding the game too difficult OR too easy they should read through the rules again. This game is still new; missed or misinterpreted rules can really change the difficulty.

One thing I appreciate about FFG's solo rules is that they are rather simple. There are only a few tables, and the rules lay them out in the chronological order you need to use them.
I've looked at other solo play rules before, and each time, I've bounced off the giant walls of texts, and endless cross-referenced tables that inevitably require a whole lot more book-keeping. That's not to say they're bad, because, well, they aren't. In my younger days when I had more time for such things, I would have been all over them. But these days, I'm getting older, and have less patience for such things.
That's not to say the FFG system is perfect. It isn't, and even after going through the Open Alpha, it won't be. But I appreciate that it's simple, and useable solely with materials from the regular game. It's definitely better than trying to pretend I don't know what I set the dials on both sides to. Can I guess what the Solo ships are likely to do? Sure, but I can do that against computer-players as well. That doesn't mean it doesn't still help refine my own ability to make sure I know where I'm sending my own ships.
Mostly, I think this is a tool oriented at people who aren't high-level competitive players. You know, the majority of their customer base. I realize that might be annoying to those who are high-level competitive players, but as has been pointed out a few times, there are already options out there for those who do want more complexity and performance for their solo play. There's really no reason these things can't exist in parallel. Think of them as different difficulty levels. Me, I'm old enough and just plain don't care what others think about my gaming abilities these days, that I'm perfectly happy to play in easy mode.
 

I think that if players are finding the game too difficult OR too easy they should read through the rules again. This game is still new; missed or misinterpreted rules can really change the difficulty.

I've been on several forum where they would lock or delete your posts if you started talking about Balrog wings lol.  Apparently the argument can get heated and becomes circular.
Anyway, it does look like balrogs do not literally have wings, but if they get depicted with wings it doesn't bother me.  They seem to have an ability, or trait, of wrapping themselves in shadow, or spreading shadow out from themselves.  You might even say they have wings made out of shadow, in a sense.  On a model, or miniature, I could see that they would want to find a way to model this tendency in their miniature by attaching some wings to it.  Usually they seem to be bat wings, not sure if that's the best approach.  Reading the book, you might think wings kind of like Mothman would be more appropriate.
Speaking of the Silmarillion, and this is highly subjective:  There's really no way to be sure that no balrogs had wings, since there were many of them.
In the upcoming Shadowed Paths release for this game, does it come with a balrog?  If you scroll down near the bottom, is that a balrog?
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/1/28/shadowed-paths/
More on topic, Sarastros' painting looks great as always.  I especially like the heroes.