Fantasy Flight Games

Our Best Solo Board Games

Published 27 March 2020 | Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Our Best Solo Board Games

Find Your Next Tabletop Game to Enjoy While Social Distancing

No matter where you live in the world, chances are good that you’ve been engaging in some social isolation. And for tabletop gamers like us, that level of separation can make it hard to engage with the hobby we love the most. Fortunately, even if you’re alone in your apartment, there are dozens of games that you can play on your own, offering hours and hours of entertainment!

You can find amazing solo games from almost any tabletop games studio, but in this article, we’ll just run down seven titles from Fantasy Flight Games—each one packed with enough replayability to get you through a quarantine on its own.

If you’re interested in getting one of these games for yourself and your family, local tabletop game retailers near you may be offering curbside delivery—otherwise, all of these games are also available through online channels! So without further ado, let’s get into the list!

1. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Step back to a 1920s steeped in Lovecraftian horror with Arkham Horror: The Card Game! This Living Card Game invites you to become an intrepid investigator, peering past the veil of human understanding into dark cults, unspeakable rituals, and an unfolding adventure.

Before your first game, you’ll build a deck, using cards that represent your investigator’s allies, weapons, tools, and skills that they can call upon during a game. Once you’ve built a deck, you’re ready to leap into a story of creeping terror from beyond our dimension, unfolding across multiple scenarios, with choices that you’ve made early on reverberating throughout the entire campaign.

The Core Set is the perfect place to start, and from there, you simply choose the deluxe expansion that suits your interest—whether that’s the ethereal dreamlands of The Dream-Eaters, the slow descent into madness of The Path to Carcosa, or another tale. If you want to see us play the first scenario of The Circle Undone, you can find the video here, or you can catch some tips for building an investigator deck in this video.

Player count: 1-2 (3-4 with two Core Sets)

Price: The Core Set is $39.95.

2. Descent: Journeys in the Dark

The definitive dungeon crawl experience, Descent: Journeys in the Dark opens the fantasy realm of Terrinoth for you to explore as a daring hero. You’ll delve into ancient dungeons, pass through primeval forests, and do battle against countless monsters and other forces of evil across dozens of scenarios and epic campaigns. As you advance through any campaign, your victories and defeats in each scenario change the evolving story, granting experience, powerful weapons, and the chance to learn new skills.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark also boasts two distinct ways to play. If you’re playing solo, or if you’d prefer a fully cooperative game, you can download the free Road to Legend app, which controls the monsters arrayed against you and the unfolding scenario. Or, if you have at least one person isolating with you, you can play the game competitively, with one player commanding the heroes and one player leading the dreadful monsters.

Building off of the Core Set campaign, Descent boasts a wealth of expansions, each offering new scenarios, heroes, monsters, hero classes, items, and more. If you’re just looking to add more monsters and heroes to your game, a full assortment of Hero and Monster Collections can supplement your collection. Best of all, both regular expansions and Hero and Monster Collections can be seamlessly integrated into your games, whether you’re playing solo with Road to Legend or with other players.

Player count: 1-5

Price: The Core Set is $79.95.

3. Eldritch Horror

Few board games can match the sheer wealth of content poured into Eldritch Horror. Like Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Eldritch Horror takes place in the same universe—an alternate history 1920s that’s assailed by the monstrosities and Ancient Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos. This game, however, takes you to the global scale, and each of the game’s eight expansions pack in more content, bringing new scenarios, investigators, items, spells, conditions, monsters, and much, much more.

You may travel to Antarctica in the Mountains of Madness expansion or the tombs of Egypt with Under the Pyramids, but even if you just stick with the Core Set, you’re still embarking on a global adventure that will take you to abandoned old bookshops, ill-fated islands, and bustling cities as you fight to stop a horrifying Ancient One from consuming our reality. As a way to adventure around the globe without leaving your home, there’s no game quite like Eldritch Horror.

Player count: 1-8

Price: The Core Set is $59.95.

4. Star Wars: Rebellion

It’s true that Star Wars™: Rebellion requires two players—so you’ll only want to get this game if you’re social isolating with someone else—but the replayability is too high to leave this game off the list. No other board game offers the entire classic Star Wars trilogy in a single experience.

This asymmetrical board game pits the scrappy Rebel Alliance against the overwhelming might of the Galactic Empire. The Rebels must stoke the fire of rebellion and gather enough support to overthrow the Empire, while the Imperials are tasked with finding and destroying the hidden Rebel base. Over the course of the game, you’ll have countless chances to recreate iconic moments from the films. You can stage a daring attack to destroy the Death Star, imprison Rebel heroes in carbonite, and play out your battles among the stars. If you want to come as close as you can to experiencing Star Wars without watching the movies, then Star Wars: Rebellion is a perfect fit.

Player count: 2

Price: $99.95

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

If you’re looking for another cooperative card game to fill your time away from others, look no farther than The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game! This Living Card Game pulls you into the world of Middle-earth. You’ll play as some of the trilogy’s most memorable heroes and embark on new quests in every game, taking on the forces of the Dark Lord Sauron and traversing across the open wastes, old ruins, and towering mountains of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic world.

The Core Set is the perfect starting point for this game, but from that point, you can take on dozens of adventures. Deluxe expansions and Adventure Packs each introduce new cards that you can add to your deck, as well as new scenarios for you to test your mettle. If you’re looking for a single game with enough content to get you through quarantine on its own, The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game has enough expansions to keep you entertained for months.

Player count: 1-2 (3-4 with two Core Sets)

Price: The Core Set is $39.95.

6. Mansions of Madness

Where Eldritch Horror takes your investigations to a global level, Mansions of Madness focuses in on the horrors lurking in the gambrel manors and slumping townhomes of Arkham. Whether you’re walking the gloomy streets of Innsmouth or attending a glittering masked ball, your investigator is about to come face to face with shambling deep ones, hooded cultists, and extradimensional entities intent on destroying our world.

Using a free companion app to run the scenario and control the monsters, Mansions of Madness frees you to investigate the strange happenings unfolding in each new scenario. You’ll find four such scenarios available in the Core Set, and each of the multiple expansions available for Mansions of Madness unlocks new scenarios, as well as introducing new investigators, monsters, and more.

Player count: 1-5

Price: The Core Set is $99.95.

7. Star Wars: Legion

It’s true, you may find it difficult to get a full game of Star Wars™: Legion played in your home—but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place on this list! Every Star Wars: Legion expansion is packed with highly detailed, finely sculpted miniatures spanning the entire Star Wars saga, ranging from Count Dooku, to Han Solo, to a strike team of Phase I Clone Troopers or an honor detail of Imperial Royal Guards. These miniatures come unassembled and unpainted, which means that bringing them to life with paint can be the perfect way to spend some time at home.

Even if you aren’t familiar with miniatures painting yourself, our paint sets specifically created for Star Wars: Legion make an easy way to start your collection. And for painting tips and tricks for every level of painter, you can find an assortment of our painting tutorials with painter extraordinaire John Shaffer on YouTube.

Player count: 1 for painting, 2 for gameplay

Price: The Core Set is $99.95 and contains components required to play, but if you’re just interested in painting, you can pick up a paint set and a unit expansion for about $59.95.

Enjoy Your Gaming!

Hopefully these suggestions for tabletop games you can play on your own has helped you figure out some ways to stay entertained as you’re staying healthy! As we mentioned above, many local retailers may still be offering a curbside delivery service, otherwise all of these games are available through online channels.

Happy gaming!

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14 Years

Published 26 July 2019 | Star Wars: Outer Rim

14 Years

A Retrospective Journal from Corey Konieczka

I started working at FFG on July 1, 2005. Before then, I had designed games as a fun hobby, so being able to do it as a career was (and still is) an unbelievable privilege. At the time, FFG had twenty or so people, and we had no idea that the company (and the hobby games industry) was about to grow in leaps and bounds.

It doesn't seem that long ago until I do math and realize that I’ve been doing this for fourteen years. While I still have much to learn, I have experienced much through my years at FFG, and I thought it might be fun to examine my career through the lens of the games I've worked on.

World of Warcraft: The Board Game – 2005

I started my career at FFG designing bosses and equipment for World of Warcraft: The Board Game. I remember spending an afternoon solo-testing boss fights that went roughly like this: roll a handful of D8s on my desk with a clatter. Record data. Scoop and repeat.

Warrior Knights – 2006

We had the rights to republish Derek Carver's Warrior Knights, and my boss wanted more than just a new coat of paint. Bruno Faiduitti and Pierre Cléquin took a stab at a redesign, and I was asked to take it even further.

When testing the game, I vividly remembered one piece of advice from Christian T. Petersen: "Your game is too short." This really caught me off guard. The game was already three hours long, and I'd been doing everything I could to shorten it. I didn't heed this advice, and when the game was released, the fan feedback was: "The game ends just when it's getting exciting." Luckily, I got to fix this in an expansion, but this greatly shaped how I evaluate feedback from others.

This was also the first time I worked with Andrew Navaro on a project. The gorgeous graphic design and cardbacks were made by the man who would one day become the head of FFG studio!

Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire – 2006

I'm not going to talk about expansions in this article, but I have to make an exception for this one. The third edition of Twilight Imperium was the game that introduced me to Fantasy Flight Games.

Before working at FFG, my friend Gary and I created a small homebrew expansion for the game. Months later, when I applied to work at FFG, I included a copy of it with my resume. Luckily, they liked my additions, and I was hired. A year later I was given the opportunity to work on a Twilight Imperium expansion, and some of my fan content ended up in it!

While working on Shattered Empire, I vividly remember writing hilarious backstories for the new planets. I soon found out that Twilight Imperium is a serious universe, and I had to start over. In hindsight, this was pretty obvious.

Tide of Iron – 2007

My name probably shouldn't be on the box of this game. I designed a few scenarios and helped out, but I didn't design any of the core mechanics. Fun game though!

StarCraft: The Board Game – 2007

I was introduced to the StarCraft videogame at a LAN party in high school. I was hooked immediately, and I sank way too much time into that game and its awesome map editor.

Needless to say, I was over the moon when I was given the opportunity to design the board game. Christian proposed zooming out the scale of the game to show multiple planets, as well as the idea of using A Game of Thrones: The Board Game-style order tokens (but stacking them). With those mandates I dove into my first "from scratch" game design.

Looking back on it, I still like most of the individual mechanics, but holy cow, is it complicated. A 48-page rulebook? Was I crazy?

World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game – 2007

The goal was to create a simpler World of Warcraft game that could be enjoyed by both casual gamers and hobby gamers. In the end, I learned that trying to appeal to everyone meant that it appealed to no one. Except one guy. And he really liked it.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game – 2008

I spent the next six months working on game expansions, and then came the opportunity of a lifetime: we had secured the rights to do a Battlestar Galactica board game.

After my first playtest of the game, I knew that we had something special. Instead of needing to strong arm people into playtesting my game, I had people approaching me to ask when my next playtest was. To top things off, some of these people had never even seen the show!

I think what made the game successful was not in how it recreated the events of the show, but how it made people feel. The game exudes an intoxicating mix of deception and mistrust, which was rare among board games. When you secretly look at your loyalty card and see that you're a Cylon, your heart rate immediately picks up. As much as you want to smile, groan, or shout, you have to pretend that your card is blank. It's exhilarating.

Middle-earth Quest – 2009

I was tasked with creating an asymmetric game that had one player taking on the role of Sauron and the other players embodying heroes of Middle-earth. It was a unique design challenge in that I was really designing two different games: Sauron was playing a strategy game, while the heroes were playing an adventure game. I love a challenge.

My most vivid memory for this game was spending a week at Christian's house rewriting the rulebook in his home office. I learned more about rulebooks in that week that I had in my first four years at FFG.

Space Hulk: Death Angel – 2010

The moment that sticks with me about this game was when the late Harald Bilz (in charge of our partner Heidelberg at the time), played my game and said: "It is good, but not great." He then listed the issues with the main card mechanic and how it did a poor job of capturing the theme. He was right. The original mechanic was shelved and would later find its way into the Gears of War boardgame.

I really appreciated the frank feedback, and I think it was instrumental in making this game a great success.

Runewars – 2010

Back in 1998, FFG made a fantasy take on Twilight Imperium known as Battlemist. I was tasked with making a spiritual successor that lived in our Terrinoth universe (used both in Runebound and Descent: Journeys in the Dark).

While the premise of the game was the same, the mechanics were designed from scratch. This was definitely one of my heavier designs and included everything from huge strategic battles to heroes sent on personal quests. In hindsight, it was probably trying to do too much, but perhaps that was part of the charm?

Mansions of Madness First Edition – 2011

My most vivid memory of this game was a discussion with Tim Uren that went something like this: "If we tell players to not, under any circumstance, go into the freezer, do you think they'll listen?" "Hard to say. Let's make players lose the game if they ignore the warning."

The answer is that when you tell players not to do something, it jumps to the top of their wish list. Many people died because of my curiosity, and I learned a lesson.

Rune Age – 2011

This one has a special place in my heart. It was my attempt to add direct player interaction to a deckbuilding game. While it wasn't a huge hit, it still has some dedicated fans and I'm proud of the game.

Gears of War – 2011

I had dipped my toe in the "co-op" design pool with Death Angel, but this was my first deep dive into a fully cooperative board game. I'm most proud of the AI system I designed to control the Locust enemies, and this design later became an inspiration for AI in apps like Road to Legend for Descent: Journeys in the Dark.

My favorite memory was visiting the Epic Games studio to play my prototype with the Gears of War dev team. It was great to show them my game and meet everyone, including the great Lee Perry, who would later help design a little game called Fortnite.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition – 2012

The planned amount of content in this game was staggering, with more hours of scripted playtime than I'd ever been a part of. Luckily, we had a big team (including myself, Adam Sadler, and Daniel Lovat Clark). The plan was to draw on Kevin Wilson's first edition, but to include a campaign from the start. I learned how to split up design tasks among big teams and gained a new appreciation for this style of game.

Eldritch Horror – 2013

I was tasked with building a world-spanning Lovecraftian adventure that borrowed heavily from Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson's amazing Arkham Horror Second Edition.

Nikki Valens came in halfway through the design process and asked some hard questions about this game. She was a key proponent in streamlining the mechanics to what it is today. Before that point, there were probably twice as many token types (including money tokens).

Star Wars™: Imperial Assault – 2014

A Star Wars version of Descent: Journeys in the Dark? Sign me up!

The biggest challenge with this game is that we wanted to have two distinct games in the same box: a traditional dungeon-crawling campaign and a two-player head-to-head skirmish mode. I spent most of my time working on the skirmish game, and I got to geek out and design abilities for this little-known character called Darth Vader.

Star Wars™: Rebellion – 2016

Christian was a fan of the old Rebellion video game, and he thought it would be the perfect inspiration for a board game. Although I had only played that game once growing up, I loved the idea of the game.

I focused my design on what I enjoy most about two-player games: bluffing and mindgames. It's a game about outthinking your opponent and living out Star Wars fantasies in a unique way. If you've ever wanted to blow up a planet, this game is for you.

Star Wars™: Destiny – 2016

In my youth, the Decipher Star Wars CCG was one of my favorite games, so to have an opportunity to work on a new Star Wars collectible card game was a dream come true.

Lukas Litzsinger was the lead designer on this, and it was a pleasure to work with him on this one. From the start, we knew that we wanted to use unique printed dice, and that presented a huge challenge. CCGs with dice have a notorious history, so our first goal was to find a way to integrate them in a fun and novel way. I am super proud of the end result, and I think we created a unique CCG that is engaging, fun, and accessible.

Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition – 2017

This project was weird in that I played the role of guide and overseer, while the actual development work was done by the talented Dane Beltrami. I helped identify the best parts of third edition that we wanted to keep, and I also provided ideas to try and improve an already great game system. My favorite contribution was the new trade system and how it provided even more opportunities to form and break alliances.

I could talk for hours about the development of Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition, and if you want a glimpse into this, be sure to check out the wonderful mini-documentary that Shut Up & Sit Down created.

Discover: Lands Unknown – 2018

I first pitched this game idea in 2014 as my homage to exploration and survival video games. It later was combined with Christian and Eric Lang's brilliant idea of creating a board game in which no two copies in the world are the same (the full history of which is cataloged here).

I feel like this game was a little lighter than many people expected, but I'm really proud of how it turned out, and I think it deserves a second look (especially if you haven't seen the fully cooperative rules).

Star Wars™: Outer Rim – 2019

This game is inspired by space exploration videogames from the mid ‘90s, like Wing Commander: Privateer.

My goal was to create a game that wasn't about delivering colored cubes from one space to another, and instead lean into the flavor of the universe. My fondest game memories always revolve around the people and the stories, and I think we've provided all the tools scoundrels need to tell emergent stories in the Star Wars universe.

....................................................................................................................................................................

Looking back on fourteen years makes me realize how malleable memory can be. Did we have the concept meeting for Battlestar Galactica on a plane ride to visit Blizzard? I think so, but I'm not sure. Human memory doesn't work like a computer, it flows and rewrites itself to make sense of the world. Memory is built from impressions, feelings, and snippets of conversation—our mind fills in the gaps, but I'm never quite sure which bridges are fabricated.

I do know one thing for certain though: this long list of games are not my accomplishments; they are the accomplishments of hundreds of people. They only exist because of other designers, producers, artists, graphic designers, editors, licensors, playtesters, and more.

I was born in the right place and in the right century, and I have had the pleasure of working with wonderful people to craft fascinating games. The future beckons, and my journey continues.

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Available Now – June 20

Published 20 June 2019 | A Game of Thrones: The Card Game

Available Now – June 20

New FFG Products Are On Sale Now

Take a look at the latest products from Fantasy Flight Games, now available at your local retailer or online through our webstore!

Pit of Snakes

Pit of Snakes is the third Chapter Pack in the King's Landing cycle for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game.

The King’s Landing cycle takes a new approach to the Game of Thrones LCG. Rather than following the plot of A Song of Ice and Fire, this cycle is centered around the capital of the seven kingdoms, allowing you to explore the world of Westeros more freely than ever before. Every Chapter Pack in this cycle features three copies each of twenty unique cards to strengthen your decks and help you embrace the deadly intrigues of A Song of Ice and Fire with the continued cultivation of the shadow keyword, first reintroduced in the Dance of Shadows cycle.

Pit of Snakes takes you to the heart of King's Landing, where wise Maesters, noble Lords, and cunning Ladies spin their intrigues in pursuit of power. Featuring new versions of key characters and a variety of cards to help you build a deck around The Seven trait, this Chapter Pack provides you with the tools you need to take your battles in Westeros to the next level. But be wary—the more power you gain, the more of a target you become.

Pick up your copy of Pit of Snakes (GT48) at your local retailer today or online through our website here!

For the Empire

Take to the battlefield with For the Empire, the first Dynasty Pack in the Inheritance cycle for Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game!

The Inheritance cycle marks a drastic change in the status quo of Rokugan as the Great Clans continue to battle amongst themselves. With the Emerald Empire becoming more dangerous than ever, iconic samurai must disguise themselves in their travels, only revealing their true identities when they are needed most. Furthermore, Bushi and Courtiers alike are now more valued than ever, fighting for their clans as Rokugan shifts around them.

For the Empire includes one copy of three new cards, and three copies of nineteen new cards for Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game. This Dynasty Pack focuses on the brave Bushi who fight for their clans on battlefields strewn with blood and dirt. Furthermore, look for the introduction of the new disguised mechanic, which sees hidden iconic samurai take on the identities of unassuming non-unique characters, only to reveal their true skill and ability at the most opportune moment. All of this and more awaits you in For the Empire!

Pick up your copy of For The Empire (L5C19) at your local retailer today or online through our website here!

Lost Legends

The heroes of Terrinoth take on many shapes and sizes. From stoic warriors leading the charge to powerful mages harnessing the power of rune shards to conjure powerful magics to defeat their foes. Your adventures in Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition have seen you step into the shoes of countless heroes, and now your options are even greater.

Now you can discover ancient knowledge lost for centuries with the Lost Legends expansion!

Lost Legends includes new class options for players venturing into the dark, including two new standard classes and eight new hybrid classes. This expansion opens up hundreds of new hero and class combinations for you to discover as you continue your adventures in Terrinoth!

Pick up your copy of Lost Legends (uDJ45) at your local retailer today or online through our website here!

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The copyrightable portions of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition is © 2015 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Licensed by George R.R. Martin. The names, descriptions, and depictions applied to this game are derived from works copyrighted by George R.R. Martin, and may not be used or reused without his permission. A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Second Edition, its expansion titles, Living Card Game, LCG, the LCG logo and Fantasy Flight Supply are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved to their respective owners.

FFG Live in April

Published 29 March 2019 | KeyForge

FFG Live in April

Join Us for New Livestreams All Month

Hang out with the FFG team all April as we continue FFG Live!

Be sure to tune in to FFG Live on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:00 P.M. Central Time on YouTube and Twitch as we bring you behind the curtain to hang out with the creators of your favorite FFG titles. Last month, we took a look at the highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth with developers Grace Holdinghaus and Nathan Hajek, explored the upcoming Age of Ascension set for KeyForge, experienced the stategic warfare of Star Wars™: Legion with unreleased minis, and more!

This month, we aim to keep the momentum going, bringing you new, exciting content and welcoming you into the world of FFG. If you missed any of our previous casts, you can check out all our past broadcasts on our YouTube page as we prepare to bring a new series of action-packed livestreams throughout April.

To start the month off, on April 2 we'll meet with Brooks Flugaur-Leavitt and Michael Gernes to discuss battle plans surrounding the ultimate show of Imperial force, the Super Star Destroyer Expansion Pack for Star Wars™: Armada. Then, on April 4 and April 8, Matt Newman will face off against his own creation as he takes on The Circle Undone deluxe expansion for Arkham Horror: The Card Game with Brooke and Evan. Will they be able to survive the Mythos, or will three more souls be lost to the dark forces that creep in the mists shrouding Arkham?

On April 11 and 16, we'll take a break from FFG Live to bring you all the excitement from Star Wars Celebration in Chicago! On Saturday from 11:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. we will be presenting our panel on the Twin Suns stage (recorded for later viewing), and then on Sunday from 5:30 P.M. – 6:30 P.M., Sorastro and John Shaffer will be leading a learn to paint panel for Star Wars: Legion. Be sure to keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages for all the details leading up to the event!

When FFG Live returns on April 18, we're staging an epic KeyForge tournament where champions from eight different departments face off to determine who is truly the greatest department in the FFG Studio. Each of our champions will be playing with their best Call of the Archons decks in a single elimination bracket until only one stands as the true studio champion. With the honor of their coworkers on the line, this is sure to be an event you won’t want to miss!

Once the dust has settled, Danny Schaefer will be previewing the power sealed in the Fury of the Storm deluxe expansion for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, with the help of Evan and Ryan on April 23. As the three Baratheon brothers prepare to go to war, they must embrace any source of power to maintain their hold on the realm. Then, on April 25, we leave Westeros behind and travel to Terrinoth with Jim Cartwright as we showcase the Lost Legends expansion in a Road to Legend campaign for Descent: Journeys in the Dark.

To finish out the month, on April 30, Brooks Flugaur-Leavitt returns with Gavin Duffy to discuss X-Wing™ Wave IV as they take their ships to the stars. Brooks will be leading the Republic to highlight the sleek precision of the Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighter, while Gavin will be running Resistance with the Resistence Transport. Only one can lead their side to victory—who will you support?

Join us on YouTube and Twitch for FFG Live, every Tuesday and Thursday at 1:00 P.M. Central Time. Be sure to subscribe to our channels and turn on notifications so you never miss a new video or livestream! We’ll see you there!

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Lost Legends

Published 11 February 2019 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Lost Legends

Announcing a New Expansion for Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Order your own copy of Lost Legends at your local retailer or online through our website today!

The heroes of Terrinoth take on many shapes and sizes. From stoic warriors leading the charge to powerful mages harnessing the power of rune shards to conjure powerful magics and defeat their foes. Your adventures in Descent: Journeys in the Dark have seen you embody a myriad of different classes, and now even more choices await!

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Lost Legends, a new expansion pack for Descent: Journeys in the Dark, created through Fantasy Flight Games's in-house manufacturing!

Lost Legends includes new class options for players venturing into the dark, including two new standard classes and eight new hybrid classes, opening up hundreds of new hero and class combinations for you to discover as you continue your adventures in Terrinoth!

The Essence of Life and Death

Lost Legends adds ancient techniques, long forgotten in the realm of Terrinoth, to your hero's toolset. This includes the enigmatic new Healer class, the Soul Reaper.

The Soul Reaper is an expert at taking the essence of death and transforming it into a powerful ally. At the very beginning of your journey into the mysteries of this class, when any monster is defeated, you may place one damage token on Essence Harvest, representing the very lifeforce of that monster. The Soul Reaper can then use this essence as a powerful currency in your fight against the darkness.

For example, Stream of Life allows you to discard up to four essence from Essence Harvest to help a nearby hero recover that much health, transforming this life essence into a healing salve. As a part of the Healer archetype, many of the Soul Reaper’s class cards focus on trading essence for health.

But in order to gain this essence, a trade must be enacted, and the Soul Reaper must assist in slaying the monsters that fuel their magic. The Harvester Scythe is the starting weapon of the Soul Reaper, and it allows you to recover your own health whenever you defeat a monster with this weapon. Stocking up on health and essence is a powerful combination, and it will behoove your heroes to let the Soul Reaper get the finishing blow on monsters that stand in your path.

Through hard-earned experience, you can even learn to harness the power of essence to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Spirit Link not only provides a boost of essence at the start of an encounter, it also gives you the opportunity to save an ally from being knocked out, potentially restoring the majority of their health. With a Spirit Link on the field, your team of heroes can turn certain defeat into a mighty victory through the power of essence.

As you grow in your role as a Soul Reaper, you may even find yourself mastering the Font of Vitality, dramatically increasing your healing efficiency. As a passive ability, Font of Vitality gives a small boost to both Stream of Life and Spirit Link, but it also allows you to refill your essence whenever a hero within three spaces rests!

Mastering the power of essence can be a difficult task, but gaining the power of a Soul Reaper means holding the power of life and death in your hands. But this is just one of the two standard classes introduced in Lost Legends, this expansion also introduces the powerful Elementalist class of the Mage archetype, allowing you to bend the very elements to your will.

The Best of Both Worlds

Alongside these two new standard classes, Lost Legends also contains eight new hybrid classes, bringing the grand total of hybrid classes up to twelve and covering every possible combination of archetypes!

Originally introduced in The Chains That Rust expansion, hybrid classes allow a hero belonging to one archetype to choose a second class, belonging to a different archetype, for use during an adventure. When a player chooses a hybrid class during Hero Setup, the basic skill card will tell you to choose one additional standard class deck belonging to a different archetype. You begin with the basic skills and starting equipment from that second class deck, and may spend your experience on either class deck, allowing you to create powerful combinations unseen in Terrinoth for ages!

For example, the Trickster hybrid class belongs to the Scout archetype, but it also allows you to choose a standard class from the Mage archetype, creating a crafty magic user who uses wits and trickery to outmaneuver their foes.

For example, Now You See Me is a two-experience class card that can get you out of a tight spot. When you are targeted by an attack, a hero within five spaces may choose to switch spaces with you, getting you out of trouble while strategically moving your pieces around the board!

Focusing your efforts on your Trickster spells could even lead to the secrets of Arcane Fusion , an expensive ability that allows you to fuse the abilities and traits of one weapon to another. It will take careful planning throughout your adventure, but forming one super weapon could prove to be overwhelming to any monster who stands in your way.

Of course, there aren’t the only tools you’ll have at your disposal. You’ll also have the powerful tools of the Mage class you choose. From the deceptive Conjurer to the conniving Necromancer, pairing the Trickster hybrid class with these tools can spell doom for the terrors of Terrinoth. And since that's just one of the hybrid classes included in Lost Legends, just imagine what secrets and synergies exist within the other combinations!

Legacy of the Lost

For ages, these ancient techniques have remained lost to the heroes of Terrinoth. Now, this fountain of knowledge has been rediscovered. Will you use it to venture into the dark and become a hero in the realm of Terrinoth?

Discover new ways to explore Terrinoth with the Lost Legends expansion (uDJ45) for Descent: Journeys in the Dark, available now for pre-order from your local retailer or our website!

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The copyrightable portions of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, its expansions and miniatures are © 2005-2012 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Descent: Journeys in the Dark, its expansion titles and Fantasy Flight Supply are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc.

Stoking the Fire

Published 28 December 2018 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Stoking the Fire

Jim Cartwright on Developing the Embers of Dread Campaign

Earlier this month, we released Embers of Dread, a brand-new campaign in the Road to Legend companion app for Descent: Journeys in the Dark! Over the course of this campaign, you’ll journey deep into the Ashen Hills, chasing a mad cult that seeks to free a terrible Dragonlord from his ancient prison. But just what goes into developing a multi-scenario, app-driven campaign for a game like Descent?

Today, we sit down with Jim Cartwright to look at how he tackled developing the Embers of Dread campaign!

Jim Cartwright on the Development of Embers of Dread

I was overjoyed to get the opportunity to work on Descent: I love fantasy, I love grid-based tactical skirmish games, I love telling stories. It was truly a dream-come-true project.

I spent the first couple weeks familiarizing myself with the game’s mechanics, to a depth that I never had as a player. Playing for enjoyment and playing to understand a mechanical function are two very different things. When I play Descent for fun, I am looking for solutions to the puzzles of the game. But as a developer, I look for how those puzzles are built and what makes them interesting. During this time, I also examined the technical side of the app. I wanted to get a sense of how things worked and how I might be able to push the boundaries.

I also dove into the history of Terrinoth itself. I read through everything I could find, from previous Descent campaigns to the Realms of Terrinoth book for Genesys. Most importantly, I talked with anyone at the studio who had worked on a Terrinoth line. I asked questions about their design insights, their thoughts on the world’s history, and what excited them most about the setting.

This initial stage helped me discover what I wanted to bring to Descent, from both a mechanical and story perspective. But I had a few things to consider first.

The Three Questions

Before diving into development, I had three very important questions that I wanted to address:

What hasn’t been done before that I want to add?
What has been done, but is something I want to expand?
And lastly, how much could I do with the time and budget given to me?

My answer to the first two questions came easily enough as I played through the previous Road to Legend campaigns. I had spent the previous year working on Mansions of Madness, and I love the puzzles and exploration found in that game. I didn’t really see anything in previous Road to Legend campaigns that took on puzzles in a way that captured that analytical feeling from Mansions of Madness. I wanted to find a way to bring that aspect into Descent. In addition, exploration in Road to Legend is mostly linear. While there are branching paths on the board that keep your direct path obscured, the map exploration is fairly easy to anticipate. I wanted to create quests that made map exploration feel less predictable.

In answer to the second question, I decided to expand on the deep narrative design that Nathan Hajek explored in the Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption DLC campaign. The way he tied player choices to rewards and consequences in that campaign was absolutely brilliant, and I knew that I wanted to do as much of that as possible.

That last question was certainly one of the hardest to answer. Understanding a project’s scope and working within it is probably one of the most important skills for a designer. Having never worked on the line before, I had no real sense of how long some of my ideas would take to implement, especially the new puzzles and exploration concepts. And as a newer developer, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I used my experience from developing on Mansions of Madness, as well as the experience of previous Descent developers, to predict what I could get done in the time that I had, and then I set out to work.

Create, Test, Fail

In design, failing is inevitable and expected. As much as we want our initial ideas to be perfect, more often than not they need to be taken apart, reworked, or just burned to the ground before a final form can emerge. It is only through the iterative process of creating, testing, and failing that we truly discover something interesting. The faster we do that, the quicker we get to the designs that work.

Luckily, I failed right away. I realized quickly that my initial designs for puzzles and exploration were not going to work. After putting together my first map, I sat through an initial playtest that felt like a slog and was not very fun. My internal testers liked the concept of exploration, but it didn’t work within the more complicated tactical structure of Descent. At its core, Descent is an efficiency puzzle. Each piece of that puzzle that is obscured with hidden information adds more uncertainty and ambiguity to the solution. In trying to create a sense of exploration, I added more unpredictability to the puzzle, which made it very difficult for players to make informed choices. Create, test, fail.

It also turns out that writing an incredibly deep, branching narrative takes a lot of time. Every choice needs to be fleshed out and brought back to a central point so the story can continue—and those choices also need to mean something further along in the campaign. I played around with several structures, but after testing a few basic concepts for a branching narrative, I discovered that I wouldn’t have time to fully realize it and had to take a different approach to storytelling. Create, test, fail.

After weeks of burning down most of my ideas through iteration, solutions began to slowly present themselves from the ashes. I found ways to obscure exploration that still worked within the puzzle. (If you are looking for an example, the Fort Rodric quest is my personal favorite.) I also found different ways to bring puzzles to the game that don’t take away from the tactical gameplay. And lastly, with a lot of help from Dan Clark, I was able to incorporate many of my story ideas into the final product. Create, test, succeed!

Letting Go

A fellow developer once reminded me, “A design is never truly complete. Only abandoned.” If we tried to implement every idea we had into a project, it would never release. There is always one more thing we want to add or try to improve. It wasn’t until I was in the final weeks of development that I truly understood the truth of that statement.

In fact, as the project came to a close, I had a whirlwind of ideas that suddenly sprang to my mind at all hours of the day and night. There were many times I would be at home and think, “What if I added A…” or “Maybe if I changed B…” But at a certain point, I would no longer be building and improving, just tinkering and changing for the sake of change. And in those late stages, there’s no time to test new concepts, which presents a risk to the whole project. At a certain point, it’s better to finish one project and carry your ideas on to the next one.

The development of Embers of Dread taught me a lot about game development. For example, my failures are just as important as my successes. And while not all of my initial ideas for innovation and expansion came to fruition in the way that I thought, they did inform my process and direction. In the end, the journey was just as important as the destination.

It has truly been an honor to expand on Descent and I hope everyone enjoys playing Embers of Dread as much as I enjoyed bringing it to life!

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Embers of Dread

Published 6 December 2018 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Embers of Dread

A New Campaign for Road to Legend Is Available Now

A darkness is rising as powerful forces seek to undo the fragile peace holding Terrinoth together. Dormant since the Dragon Wars, the strange obelisks scattered across the Ashen Hills have recently come alive with magical energies. Scouts from nearby Fort Rodric report mysterious robed figures disturbing the ancient structures. Meanwhile, a contingent of Dragonkin are massing within the Mountains of Despair. Rumors swirl that a leader has united them around a common cause, and whispers from the mountain peaks carry a name long forgotten: Margath…

Discover the dark secret of the Ashen Hills with Embers of Dread, a new free DLC campaign in the Road to Legend companion app for Descent: Journeys in the Dark! Embers of Dread is the perfect way to fill a holiday break while you're at home with your family or friends, and best of all, it's available now on the App Store, Google Play, Amazon and Steam!

Embers of Dread sees you become embroiled in the conspiracy of a mad cult that plots to release an ancient Dragonlord from his eternal prison. With six new quests and a storyline that takes you to the militant city of Riverwatch, your group of adventurers is sure to keep themselves busy. This threat puts all of Terrinoth in danger, and your heroes will have to use their strength, wits, and quick decision making to survive.

Important note: Embers of Dread is a free expansion for Road to Legend, but it does require the Descent: Journeys in the Dark Core Set, Lair of the Wyrm, and Labyrinth of Ruin expansions.

The Creeping Dread

While investigating strange obelisks in the Ashen Hills, your heroes quickly find themselves entangled in a plot that threatens to change the face of Terrinoth forever! You soon find yourself face to face with the Dread, a cult convinced the return of the Dragonlord Margath will usher in a new age for the worthy of Terrinoth.

But what does this shadowy organization hope to achieve? Who is leading this cult, and are they the true designer of these dark machinations?

Answers to these questions and more await if you are brave enough to venture forth in Embers of Dread. The Embers of Dread campaign features plenty of action, but you'll also find more puzzle-centric missions that will put your wits to the test with riddles, puzzles, and more. Investigating the Ashen Hills may kick off your adventure, but it will take more than a flash of steel to discover the true villains pulling the strings behind this conspiracy. Your enemies will want to see you silenced, including the dragon-hybrid Belthir, working with the cult to bring Margath back to the realm of Terrinoth!

Risk and Reward

Embers of Dread also introduces your characters to a brand-new location, the morally nebulous city of Riverwatch. As a martial city, various mercenary guilds have come to call Riverwatch their home, and your heroes will have the opportunity to align with these groups over the course of Embers of Dread. An alliance with these guilds can see your heroes gain extra gold at the cost of sacrificing their fame. While preserving your fame is of vital importance, the gold received can be a tremendous boon to your heroes—what will you choose?

This additional gold can go a long way in the city of Riverwatch. At the nexus of three rivers, Riverwatch is an ideal port of trade in the land of Terrinoth. With some careful negotiations, your heroes can even expand the number of items available for purchase between adventures, giving you many more options for customizing your character as you fight back against the doom quickly approaching Terrinoth.

Riverwatch is not a city for the faint of heart, but if you’re willing to embrace the cutthroat nature of the town, plentiful rewards await!

The Approaching Doom

Embers of Dread is available now, and the holidays are the perfect time to solidify your heroes as legends. But do you have what it takes to unravel the mystery surrounding the strange activity in the Ashen Hills? Or will Terrinoth be cleansed and purged through dragon fire?

Only your heroes have the strength and wits to survive the new Embers of Dread campaign for Road to Legend, available now through the App Store, Google Play, Amazon and Steam!

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Change of Heart?

Published 5 October 2018 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Change of Heart?

Developer Michael Gernes on Character Evolution

Is evil born, or is it made? Can one who was once a villain see the error of their ways and become a force for good?

These are some of the questions that developers have sought to answer concerning the divisive ruler of Carthridge, Baron Zachareth. While he was once a powerful opponent the players struggled to defeat, he now fights alongside the Daqan Lords, defending Terrinoth from the evil that grows in the Mistlands. While those in the Land of Steel are still wary of the Baron, few can argue with his effectiveness as both a leader and a warrior. How is such change possible?

Today, developer Michael Gernes gives us insight into the process of translating characters between games by examining how Baron Zachareth evolved from his first appearance in Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition to his latest incarnation in Runewars Miniatures Game!

Michael Gernes on Bringing Baron Zachareth to Runewars Miniatures Game

My favorite part of my work with Runewars Miniatures Game has been the chance to pull back the curtain on Terrinoth and the greater world of Mennara, especially regarding its storied history and competing power groups. We've been excited to add Baron Zachareth to the game since its earliest days, and he's a great example of the opportunity we've had as a team to build on the foundation of our previous games.

Baron Zachareth was originally introduced as a key villain in Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition. His depiction as both a charismatic and influential Daqan noble and a secret wielder of dark powers caught the attention of Runewars designer Andrew Fischer and myself. While the events in Descent represent one possible destiny for Zachareth, they're also a great window into a mirror aspect of Daqan culture.

The Daqan Lords are a proud civilization that celebrates virtues like courage, heroism, and pride. These values have helped them stand against the great Darknesses, but they have caused the Daqan to stumble due to the negative side of those traits: unchecked ambition and hubris. Terrinoth is also a feudal society, so although the barons sit in council together as peers, their ties to the greater kingdom are often weaker than their regional interests.

A character like Zachareth captures these contradictions: his noble allies view him as a masterful leader who cares about Terrinoth's security, but Zachareth's interests (and those of his barony) clearly come first. This distinguishes him from more selfless, quintessentially Daqan characters like Kari Wraithstalker and Lord Hawthorne. While they are noble defenders of the realm, Zachareth is a schemer.

Zachareth's history with arcane power and dark artifacts further sets him apart from other Daqan heroes. It also helps to personify two of the signature magical traditions of Terrinoth: the runelore of the Greyhaven mages and the dark wizardry of Nerekhall. The influence of magic is an essential part of the Daqan Lords’ history and military power, as exemplified in Runewars Miniatures Game by the Rune Golems that march in the Daqan hosts. Zachareth’s imposing runic mount, Backbreaker, only reinforces these ties to Terrinoth’s magic.

We wanted to represent each of these themes through Baron Zachareth’s game mechanics, especially his divided loyalties. Like all heroes, Zachareth is a powerful unit on the battlefield, but his strengths should feel unique, especially from the other Daqan heroes. Early on we decided that Zachareth’s central mechanic would be his condition cards: Savior of Carthridge and Betrayer of Carthridge. This gave us a great way to put the decision into players’ hands over which path to walk. As an additional thematic benefit, this underscores Zachareth’s plotting nature by keeping opponents uncertain about his intentions!

We wanted to make Baron Zachareth’s cards represent his choice between using his powers to support his allies or drawing their strength for his own ends. We also worked to make him feel like a character whose magical studies gave him an affinity for commanding Rune Golems. The concept of vitality, our first new boon token, came out of this. Inspiration tokens help units store morale, but I wanted a way to directly boost a unit’s resiliency. This would be helpful for any unit, but it works best with units that have high defense and low wound values. Vitality tokens became one of the defining new mechanics for Zachareth, representing both his studies into rune shards and the animating forces of life. Zachareth’s Runic Augmentation ability felt like a natural combination of theme and mechanic.

We even wanted Zachareth’s dial to feel like the moves of a cunning warrior-mage. For this reason, he has march and shift options in both blue and green stances and can combine his ranged attack with several green movement modifiers. Zachareth can also always call on his white skill modifier. There is a tradeoff for this versatility, however: Zachareth only has one melee action, at initiative four. Todd Michlitsch created this dial layout early on and I think it excellently captured the baron’s character.

As with other heroes our team has designed, the goal for Zachareth’s upgrades was to give players lots of choices to customize his abilities. We also wanted to use these upgrades to reinforce and explore different aspects of his character. Unique upgrades lent themselves to this especially well, and I felt Zachareth’s unique upgrades should reflect his reliance on magic and secrecy.

I wanted Greyhaven Runelore to reflect the idea of Zachareth empowering himself and Backbreaker with runecraft to fight better in melees. Giving them an armor-penetrating ability and inflicting panic through Impact fit their appearance and set Zachareth’s fighting style apart from other heroes. Then Nerekhall Training was a natural counterpoint that emphasized Zachareth’s ranged attack and the dark nature of his magical bolts. The ability to inflict banes is rare for Daqan units, but it felt right on theme for Zachareth.

The effect on Lord of Subterfuge came out of a desire for Zachareth to have a utility card that represented his cloak-and-dagger style of command, enabling him to gaze into the intentions of his enemies and adjust an ally’s plans. Runewars Miniatures Game rewards players for predicting their opponent’s moves, and having the chance to access this information and react accordingly makes a player more unpredictable. However, Zachareth has to take on additional risks by coming fairly close to enemy units in order to use this ability.

Champion cards are the other crucial half of a hero’s upgrade design. The option to have heroes lead elite units is both visually and thematically important in Runewars Miniatures Game. For the sake of balance and components, this often means focusing on one ability for the hero to share with their unit. We wanted Zachareth’s champion cards to be useful for both ranged and melee-focused units. It’s a new capability for Daqan heroes, and Zachareth is a leader with no problem directing a ruthless hail by elite crossbowmen. When he joins a unit, his dice effect offers wider versatility, especially with increasing the chance to trigger surge abilities.

Finally, we felt that Zachareth’s artifact card should be a nod to the prize he coveted in Descent: Journeys in the Dark Seond Edition, which brought us to the Shard of the Shadow Rune. This card represents the portion of the Shadow Rune that Zachareth owns, tempting him to darker deeds. We wanted this to be the first Daqan artifact to represent the ambiguous sides of Terrinoth's past and present, rewarding acts of destruction with greater power.

In the end, Baron Zachareth has become a favorite character of mine when playing Daqan armies. Sometimes, it’s just fun to be the anti-hero!

We hope you enjoy playing with Baron Zachareth as much as we did in bringing him to Runewars Miniatures Game!

Savior or Betrayer

Thanks, Michael!

Do you believe that Baron Zachareth is capable of redemption, or will temptation draw him back down the path of darkness? There are no clear answers, but whether his intentions are noble or dishonorable, you can be sure that he will lead the Daqan forces with a tact unmatched in Mennara. Recruit Baron Zachareth to your cause and witness the warlock’s full power!

You can add Baron Zachareth to your Daqan army in Runewars Miniatures Game with the Baron Zachareth Hero Expansion (RWM32) here! Or, if you wish to see his origins in the Terrinoth universe, you can pick up your own copy of Descent: Journeys in the Dark (DJ01) here!

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Trials of Frostgate

Published 28 September 2017 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Trials of Frostgate

A New Adventure Is Now Available for Road to Legend

In the city of Frostgate, the Northern Tribes gather each winter for feasting, celebration, and their most sacred rituals. Amongst these rituals, the Trials of Frostgate stand proudest—tests of courage, skill, and strength of arms, where the proudest and bravest warriors earn tattoos of their totemic animals. Four trials await you—and only the boldest heroes can withstand them all.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce that a new adventure is now available for purchase through the Road to Legend app! Trials of Frostgate challenges you and your fellow heroes to four distinct trials, and each trial is guaranteed to test your strength and your resolve in a different way. Unlike a campaign, which progresses through a story with every new adventure, each challenge in Trials of Frostgate can be attempted multiple times as you attempt to best your scores from previous encounters!

The Strength of the North

As part of the Road to Legend companion app, Trials of Frostgate invites you to experience the danger, excitement, and heroism of Descent: Journeys in the Dark as a completely cooperative experience. The companion app takes over command of the monsters that you battle, leaving you and each of your friends free to become the heroes of Terrinoth.

Within that basic premise, however, Trials of Frostgate takes a dramatically different approach from previous content. In the past, you’ve pitted yourself against Splig, the self-proclaimed King of All Goblins. You’ve followed Merrick Farrow’s trail of destruction in Kindred Fire and experienced the darkness of Nerekhall in Seeds of Corruption. You may even have ventured into the ethereal realm of The Delve, fighting your way through realms unlike anything you’d seen before.

In Trials of Frostgate, you face a new sort of challenge: four trials, each of which tests your skills in a different way, and each of which can be attempted multiple times as you try to best your previous scores and earn your totemic tattoos.

You may endeavor to face the Trial of the Bear, pitting your might against endless hordes of enemies. Or, you may attempt the Trial of the Hawk, forcing you to show speed and cunning as you banish baleful spirits before they call down more perils. The Trial of the Lion sends you into pitched combat with the most powerful and dangerous of your enemies, while the Trial of the Wolf bids you escort the spirits of your ancestors to the afterlife, protecting them from any danger along the way.

Only the greatest of heroes can prevail against even a single one of these trials. If you were to triumph against them all, you would truly become known as the Champion of Frostgate.

Are You a Champion?

The Trials of Frostgate are now open, and their challenge awaits. Test your might against the four trials, and return again and again, until you know that none can stand before you.

Download the Trials of Frostgate adventure in the Road to Legend app today!

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Corruption Begins

Published 16 January 2017 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Corruption Begins

Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption Is Now Available for Road to Legend

Nerekhall has never embraced the light. Far from merely toying with powers better left untouched, the entire city was nearly destroyed after the demonic outbreak unleashed by Gargan Mirklace. Now, the city council insists that the shadow has passed—but in the darkness beneath the city, new plots are hatching, and even heroes may be manipulated into destroying Nerekhall from within.

A new chapter is beginning in your adventures with Descent: Journeys in the Dark—Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption, the newest campaign for the Road to Legend companion app, is now available for free download!

While previous adventures have challenged you to surpass the greatest dangers of Terrinoth’s wilds, Seeds of Corruption brings you into one of the Free Cities. Far from being a bastion of safety, the veneer of order simply pushes evil schemes deeper beneath the surface. With seven brand-new story quests and a labyrinthine storyline that bridges Nerekhall and Greyhaven, you and your fellow adventurers will experience a new brand of danger in this campaign.

Important note: In addition to the Descent: Journeys in the Dark Core Set, Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption requires the Shadow of Nerekhall expansion to play.

Enter the Shadows

More than any of your other adventures in Terrinoth to date, Seeds of Corruption invites you to actively determine your fate by the choices that you make, and even the conversations that you have with the people you meet. As the campaign begins, you’re locked in the sewers below Nerekhall, trapped after a job gone wrong. You’re locked in the darkness, stripped of your equipment, and you need to find a way to escape. But you’re not alone—there are others locked there in the dark with you. Will you choose to free both of your strange companions? One of them? Neither? No matter what you choose, the ramifications will stretch throughout the rest of the campaign.

Similarly, you’ll soon find yourself pulled between the machinations of two rival powers. Verminous, the Rat-Thing King, is the one who trapped you in the sewers—but it seems that he’s not interested in hurting you. In fact, he may have a job for you. Choosing to aid him or reject his offer is up to you, but every step you take away from Verminous is a step closer to the shadowy powers arrayed against him. There are no neutral sides in Seeds of Corruption. Every step you take entangles you deeper in the schemes that entwine the cities of Nerekhall and Greyhaven. Still, you may be well rewarded for earning the favor of one side or the other—priceless artifacts and powerful abilities are yours for the taking if you serve well.

Even as you move between the cities of Terrinoth and advance through the campaign, the stain of Nerekhall may seem to follow you. You will be offered power—and on the surface, the price of that power might seem cheap. But there are ties that bind which run beneath the surface, and the price of drawing power from the shadow may be more than you can bear. Yet without that power, do you even stand a chance of defeating the darkness that surrounds you? You must make your choices carefully, and remember that in Nerekhall, every debt is called due, sooner or later.

A City Besieged by Darkness

It’s time to return to Terrinoth, with a stunning new campaign that challenges your heroes in completely new ways and brings you into the shadowy alleys and orderly facades of Nerekhall. Take up your arms and prepare for battle—no matter what you fight for, your resolve will be tested in Seeds of Corruption.

Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption, the newest campaign for the Road to Legend companion app, is available for free download today!

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Seeds of Corruption

Published 20 December 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Seeds of Corruption

Announcing a New Campaign for Road to Legend

To even the most educated minds, the dangers of forbidden magic have not always outweighed the allure. In the darkest corners of Nerekhall, many doomed scholars could not resist the urge to push the boundaries of mystic knowledge. The majority of these attempts ended in death and brutal failure… at least before the demonic uprising unleashed by Gargan Mirklace.
–Autorius of Greyhaven, Revised Chronicles, Vol. 4

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption, a new campaign in the Road to Legend companion app for Descent: Journeys in the Dark!

Your adventures in the realm of Terrinoth have sent you into the wildest places—through the ruins of dead civilizations, under the boughs of primeval forests, and into the cavernous underworld. It can be easy to let your guard down when you’re back in the Free Cities, but that would undoubtedly be a mistake. The cities are no less dangerous than the wilds, and your adventures will soon take you deep into a city with a reputation for delving into the darkest arcane secrets.

Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption is a free campaign, coming soon to the Road to Legend companion app and inviting you to return to the dark deeds and intrigues perpetrated within the walls of Nerekhall. With seven brand-new story quests and a twisting storyline that bridges the cities of Greyhaven and Nerekhall, every group of adventurers will find more to enjoy in this new campaign.

Important note: In addition to the Descent: Journeys in the Dark Core Set, Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption requires the Shadow of Nerekhall expansion to play.

Alone in the Dark

From the very beginning of the Seeds of Corruption campaign, you and your fellow heroes are on your heels. When a simple job of artifact recovery goes badly wrong, you awaken to find yourself in chains, imprisoned with several others in the sewers deep beneath Nerekhall. Your equipment has been taken from you, and there’s no obvious way out. Perhaps some stroke of fate may free you, but you’ll still need to fight your way out with your bare hands until you can find your weapons and rearm yourselves.

Even once you’ve escaped, you’ll learn that the designs of your captor—Verminous, the Rat-Thing King—may be more labyrinthine than you ever imagined. In fact, Verminous may reward you handsomely for serving him. Of course, the choice to believe him or reject his offers rests entirely with you. Still, there’s no escaping from the web of intrigues that entwines Nerekhall as the shadow of the past draws closer. Retreating from Verminous may only lead you deeper into the plots of other powers, and deciding who to trust and who to fear may quickly become complicated.

The Shadow Has Not Passed

As you embark on your adventures, Seeds of Corruption brings you deeper into Terrinoth by giving your choices greater influence over the story of your quests. From the moment you awaken in the depths of Nerekhall’s sewers, you’ll be allowed to choose how you will interact with the people and creatures you encounter. You may agree to help a trapped relic hunter or a beleaguered merchant, or you may shun these attachments and the demands they place upon you. The choices that you make may play into which characters help you later, or who is consumed by the changelings found within this region.

Just as the choices of your conversations may determine your allies and enemies, your decisions work on a larger scale as you choose which quests to accept. Whether you support Verminous or the powers arrayed against him has potent consequences for the future of the campaign. Currying favor with one side may grant you strange abilities or priceless artifacts—but this only serves to incite the ire of your foes. In Seeds of Corruption, choosing your side can be just as important as your ability to swing a sword or incant a spell.

And of course, there’s always the temptation to play with powers better left untouched. Nerekhall has long been known as a home of dark sorcery, and though the city presents a clean face to the rest of Terrinoth, there are still those who lurk within who toy with forbidden powers. In your adventures, you’ll certainly have the chance to profit from these dark arcana—but everything has a price, even if it doesn’t seem like it. In Nerekhall, every debt is called due, sooner or later.

Piercing the Darkness

Your adventures in Terrinoth are about to take a darker turn, as you struggle to uncover evil plots and save the cities of Greyhaven and Nerekhall. Prepare for a free new Road to Legend campaign—Nerekhall: Seeds of Corruption is coming soon!

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Can You Escape?

Published 17 October 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Can You Escape?

The Delve Is Now Available for Road to Legend

You’ve been drawn into a strange realm. Disconnected scenes swirl around you—one moment you stand on igneous rocks surrounded by molten lava, and in the next instant, you’re sitting in a jungle beneath the shade of towering tropical trees. These disjointed, disorienting spaces are not peaceful, however. Monsters snatch at you from the underbrush, or burst from the rock, or strike with lethal force from the shadows. If you will ever escape from this wayward dimension, you must satisfy the demands of the capricious Caretaker.

With the Road to Legend companion app for Descent: Journeys in the Dark, you’ve already entered the darkest parts of Terrinoth, playing Descent as a fully cooperative game. Two distinct campaigns have given you the freedom to play out epic stories. Now, with The Delve, you access a randomized delve mode, giving your games of Road to Legend almost unlimited replayability. The Delve is now available for in-app purchase through the Road to Legend app!

Infinite Worlds

At the beginning of a game using The Delve, you and your fellow heroes have been drawn into another world—or rather, a collection of tiny worlds. This strange place is ruled by a person known only as the Caretaker. The Caretaker will give you a series of tasks, and if you can carry them out, you’ll be rewarded with new equipment, experience, and eventual escape. The dangers you encounter along the way, however, will not be easily surmounted.

Every time you venture into The Delve, you’ll face a series of six randomized stages. You’ll begin with two standard stages, each challenging you to complete a task, such as searching for magical objects, lighting torches, or slaying monsters. After you’ve completed these two stages, you’ll come face-to-face with a terrible villain in a boss fight stage. If you’re triumphant, the cycle repeats once more: two standard stages followed by a boss fight. Heroes fortunate enough to defeat the second boss will be freed from this strange dimension and rewarded with victory!

Functionally, The Delve works very similarly to the analog cooperative adventures previously released for Descent: Forgotten Souls, Nature’s Ire, and Dark Elements. Like those adventures, each game can be fully completed in roughly two hours and challenges you to complete a number of unique, random stages. Also like previous cooperative adventures, The Delve gives you and your fellow heroes a chance to gain more loot and unlock new abilities after every stage. Based on your performance, the Caretaker will offer you the chance to gain new weapons or purchase cards from your Class deck. This respite is short-lived, though, and you’ll soon find yourself back in another stage of The Delve, fighting for your life.

The fact that Road to Legend scales and unlocks more content based on the breadth of your Descent collection has been present since the app’s release, and The Delve is no different. All you need to play is a Descent Core Set, which opens up fifteen standard stages and five boss fights for you to enjoy in The Delve. Of course, there’s plenty of room to expand! Every Descent expansion that includes map tiles offers new stages for The Delve, and every Hero and Monster Collection increases the variety of monsters you may face within the labyrinthine worlds that compose this pocket dimension.

Unlimited Adventure

When you enter the worlds of Terrinoth through The Delve, you never know what you’ll find. There are new dangers and terrifying monsters around every corner, and you only have your own strength and the strengths of your fellow heroes to lean on. Enter The Delve through your Road to Legend app today!

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Delving Deep

Published 30 September 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Delving Deep

Announcing The Delve for Road to Legend

Piercing silver light and a thrumming vibration awaken you. Rising from cold, cracked stone, you take stock of your surroundings. Instead of walls, the broken platform upon which you stand gives way to an expanse of darkness. A portal, the source of the silver light, shimmers at the edge of the platform. A voice echoes in the darkness. “You must be very brave or very foolish to have entered here. I am the Caretaker. This is my domain.”

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce a new addition to the Road to Legend app for Descent: Journeys in the Dark—The Delve!

Your adventures have taken you across the realm of Terrinoth in two distinct campaigns. First, you opposed the bumbling schemes of Splig in The End of All Goblins mini-campaign. Then, you fought the explosive depredations of Merick Farrow through the wild places of Terrinoth in the full-length Kindred Fire campaign. You’ll soon be able to face your greatest challenge yet, however—a randomized delve mode is coming to Road to Legend.

Unlike the two campaigns that have been previously released for Road to Legend, The Delve challenges you in an entirely new way. Over the course of a single session, you and your fellow heroes will advance through an ever-changing pocket dimension, carrying out the goals given to you by the Caretaker—the ruler of this strange domain. If you can accomplish your objectives, the Caretaker will reward you with experience, loot, and your eventual freedom. But if you fail, the terrifying dark creatures trapped in this world will tear you to pieces.

Countless Variations

Like the analog cooperative adventures previously released for Descent (Forgotten Souls, Nature’s Ire, and Dark Elements), each game of The Delve takes place over a single session of roughly two hours and pits you against a series of stages, each offering a different task. At the beginning of the adventure, you and your fellow heroes have been drawn into a world-between-worlds, containing a multitude of terrifying creatures and ruled over by a being of unimaginable power known as the Caretaker. If you carry out her demands, the Caretaker will reward you with new abilities and items, but if you fail, the consequences will be most dire.

Each delve consists of six stages—four normal stages and two boss fights, one in the middle of the game and one at the end. Each stage sets up a new series of tiles, giving you a distinct objective, unique rules, and monsters that will oppose your goals. You’ll also find a portal on every stage, though this may be closed when you first encounter it. Once you’ve completed your objective, all of the heroes can escape through this portal at the end of a round, progressing to a new stage and getting closer to escape.

Before you begin the next stage, however, you’ll have the chance to grow in power and upgrade your heroes. Based on your performance in the stage you just passed—how many rounds it took to complete your objective and how many monsters were slain—you’ll receive XP that you can immediately spend to purchase new abilities from your Class deck. You’ll also be able to draw a number of Item cards and gain a few, giving you access to dangerous new weapons and equipment.

In every game of The Delve, these carefully designed stages are randomly paired, ensuring that the world-between-worlds is different every time you return. What’s more, like all of Road to Legend, this pocket dimension expands with the size of your Descent collection. Even with just the Core Set, you’ll find fifteen regular stages and five unique boss fights, but every expansion that includes new map tiles adds three to seven more stages that you may randomly encounter during a game! In addition, the monsters that you face in The Delve are selected from your entire collection, which means that every Hero and Monster Collection can significantly change the enemies you face.

Enter the Portal

You’ve already experienced two campaigns. Now, prepare to enter a world of infinite permutations and unlimited replayability with The Delve for Road to Legend. The Delve will be available for in-app purchase soon!

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Side Jobs

Published 12 September 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Side Jobs

New Side Quests for Road to Legend

When you take enter the world of Terrinoth as a hero, you’re signing up a life of adventure. You may be in constant danger, and you’ll only rarely know the comfort of a bed. Yet it’s easy to forget such simple comforts when every wooded copse or mountain trail may host enchanted treasure, or an unexpected ally, or a monster to be slain. Even when you travel without a particular quest, you’ll have dozens of encounters along your journeys. These may be singular events, such as finding a wounded goblin begging for help or a traveling merchant eager to share his wares. Or, these seemingly-small encounters may become something much bigger.

The Road to Legend companion app for Descent: Journeys in the Dark has given you the chance to experience Descent as a fully cooperative game, battling against monsters and sinister events controlled by the app as you play through the epic story of a campaign. With the Rise of All Goblins mini-campaign, the full-length Kindred Fire campaign, and side quests corresponding to each of the game’s major expansions, you’ve already had dozens of adventures that span the entire realm of Terrinoth.

Now, you’ll gain access to nine entirely new side quests that can change the shape of your campaigns in Road to Legend forever!

New Dangers, New Adventures

With the most recent update to the Road to Legend app, nine new side quests have been added to the game—one corresponding to each of the Descent Hero and Monster Collections. These Hero and Monster Collections introduced heroes and monsters from the game’s first edition into the second edition of the game, greatly expanding the options available to you in every quest. Even though you’ve already been able to use the heroes and monsters from these expansions in your games of Road to Legend, the value of these Hero and Monster Collections grows even more, since with this newest update, each expansion in your collection also unlocks a brand-new side quest for your campaigns.

Each of these side quests may appear in any campaign, giving you opportunities for adventure apart from the main story, while giving you the means to earn some gold and XP on the side. Additionally, each of these side quests also showcases the monsters from the corresponding Hero and Monster Collection—you may battle your way past the defenses of Icespire to stop the escape of a demon lord, or you may find yourself fighting alongside deep elves to rescue their hellhound from waves of kobolds. No matter where your adventures take you, these new side quests give you nine new options to pursue in any campaign.

Finally, two of these side quests also feature alternate maps! The Shadow of Nerekhall expansion unlocks a new map for the Tooth and Blade side quest from Bonds of the Wild, while the Labyrinth of Ruin expansion opens a new map for the Choose Your Poison adventure from Stewards of the Secret. Although you don’t need anything more than the Core Set and the featured Hero and Monster Collection to play these quests, the option to unlock alternate maps only makes these new side quests more different and dangerous than ever.

On the Road to Legend

Your adventures have already taken you into the realm of Terrinoth—and now you’re about to go even further into the wild. Look for the newest update to Road to Legend with nine new side quests, and fill out your assortment of Hero and Monster Collections at your local retailer today!

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The Digital Side of Board Gaming

Published 26 August 2016 | Mansions of Madness

The Digital Side of Board Gaming

Keith Hurley on Apps and Board Games

Tabletop games and video games have long held special places in the hearts of gamers, but for most of their lifespans, these two formats were inherently separate. In recent years, however, Fantasy Flight Games has led the tabletop industry in bridging the divide between tabletop and video, creating app versions of tabletop games and app-enhanced board games.

To get a closer look at this new style of gaming, we sat down with Keith Hurley, Fantasy Flight Games’s VP of Media and Interactive, to talk about the electronic side of board gaming.

FFG: How did Fantasy Flight Games first start making apps?

Keith Hurley: Christian Petersen, our CEO, first approached me about apps when Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition was in development. This was in 2009, so FFG didn’t have an in-house software development team yet. Chris had put together a design document for a dice rolling utility, specifically for use with the WFRP 3rd Edition system. It called for a 3D mobile dice roller that could provide quick results with large pools of dice.

We knew a little bit about the Unity game engine, which is the platform we now use to develop all of our apps, but no one had any real working experience with Unity at the time. All we knew for sure was that it was an increasingly popular development engine that had a lot of cross-platform flexibility.

Eventually Chris got in contact with a software developer, Francesco Moggia, who was living and working in Italy. Francesco had an extensive programming background and was familiar with Unity, so he began development remotely while I worked internally with our designers to put the project together. We ultimately launched the app in 2010 and followed that with the Arkham Horror Toolkit, Hey, That’s My Fish!, Elder Sign: Omens, Star Wars™: Dice, XCOM: The Board Game, BattleLore: Command, and now our Road to Legend and Mansions of Madness companion apps.

FFG: What’s the best part about creating an app?

KH: My favorite part of app development is probably Sprint Review, where we show the work that we’ve accomplished over a given period of time. This usually involves showing our working app up on a big screen in front of the whole team of developers and designers. It’s often a great high-five moment for everyone, where we get to see how a concept has gone from inception to a fully interactive product.

Anything that needs additional work is critiqued and planned for the next review, so it’s a continuing cycle of feedback and improvement until we get it to a point where everyone is satisfied. It’s really rewarding to see how all of the different elements of app development evolve into a finished product.

FFG: On a similar note, what’s the hardest part about creating an app?

KH: Testing! Testing multi-platform apps gets harder every year as more devices and more operating systems come and go. We have a pretty small team of developers and external testers and it’s incredibly difficult for us to test every possible combination of device and operating system. The fragmentation in the Android market alone is a significant challenge—last I checked there were over 24,000 unique Android devices!—so we focus our efforts on the ones that have the largest market share.

Also, as our apps grow more complex, as with Road to Legend and Mansions of Madness, the volume of narrative content that needs to be tested becomes an increasingly large ocean of variables that need review. This testing is not only for game balance and fun, but technical testing as well to ensure that events and activations are firing correctly. Road to Legend, as an example, has about forty-five products in its Collection Manager, all with unique digital content, and they each need to be tested alone and in conjunction with each other.

FFG: What are some of the advantages of using an app to enhance a board game?

KH: One great advantage is that a companion app gives us the opportunity to use all kinds of audio and visual content to support our narratives. In both Mansions of Madness and Road to Legend, for example, all the music, sound effects, narrations, and cutscenes work to develop an atmosphere for the players. When you launch a scenario in either app, we try hard to set the stage, whether you’re investigating a rash of disappearances in a sleepy coastal town or tracking down a mage in the depths of some long-forgotten dungeon.

Additionally, apps allow our content developers to rapidly produce more content using the tools that we’ve developed. When we have a vision for a new scenario, a physical component is no longer a requirement for expansion material. In Road to Legend, for example, we can easily push out new side quests with a simple app update.

FFG: How is designing an app version of an existing game, like BattleLore, different from designing an app that works with a board game, such as Mansions of Madness?

KH: BattleLore: Command was a unique challenge in that we had to take an already established game and re-envision it for mobile devices. This meant having to take a dice system and reinterpret ways it could work during combat, in addition to coming up with alternatives for lore powers or unit abilities that didn’t easily fit in a digital format. The tabletop version of BattleLore has a lot of opportunities for players to interrupt each other during gameplay, and we really wanted to streamline the combat for our mobile version. This meant changing a lot of the abilities and some core mechanics in the digital version of the game.

A game like Mansions of Madness, on the other hand, had no interpretation work because everything was designed with an app in mind from day one.

FFG: How do you decide what to draw from the original game when creating an app version, such as Elder Sign: Omens or BattleLore: Command?

KH: A lot of it really just has to do with ease of implementation. Elder Sign had two major challenges for us when we were designing the digital version: 1) how to use the Ally Deck, and 2) how to resolve the Ancient One battle. Ultimately we made the decision to cut those elements from the digital game as our prototype was already very fun and challenging without those elements.

BattleLore: Command had many challenges with the combat system, in that the original game is a two-player, head-to-head combat game where each player can interrupt the other player’s turn at many points during gameplay. That element alone was something we knew we wanted to streamline for the digital version, and that decision ultimately had a domino effect on many other elements. Things like lore powers, unit abilities, and even the combat system needed to change in order to streamline the experience.

FFG: Can we expect to see more app versions of games and games that harness apps in the future?

KH: Yes! We have several exciting plans for future apps that we’re eager to develop. That said, companion app gaming is really just one tool in FFG’s toolbox. We’ll never completely replace traditional tabletop gaming, nor do we want to. It is however, a really exciting time for software developers, and our ability to create powerful, thematic content through apps is something where we’ve only begun to scratch the surface.

Thanks, Keith!

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Branching Out

Published 20 July 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Branching Out

Preview the Hybrid Class Cards of The Chains That Rust

You’ve been trapped in the Mistlands for months now—bound by foul sorcery and imprisoned by cruel monsters, even as a plan to destroy all of Terrinoth festers and grows around you. Yet despite the unchanging, ceaseless motion of life as a prisoner, a turning point is coming. You must escape before you lose all strength, but the struggle to survive may push you into places you never thought you would go.

In the announcement of The Chains That Rust expansion for Descent: Journeys in the Dark, we took a brief look at the new hybrid classes introduced in this expansion. These classes essentially allow a hero to bridge two archetypes and unlock powerful new abilities. For instance, your hero may belong to the scout archetype, but when you take the Monk class, you can choose any healer Class deck and use its Class cards as your own.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at the other new hybrid classes that you can explore within The Chains That Rust!

Battlemage

All mages are powerful spellcasters, more than capable of dealing massive amounts of damage with their powerful runic spells. Still, some find they have a talent for the more physical arts of war and work to develop their martial skills while augmenting those skills with magic. Now, with the Battlemage hybrid class introduced in The Chains That Rust, your mages have a way to follow this path as well.

Like all other hybrid classes, this class begins by giving you access to a second Class deck. In this case, Arcane Veteran allows your mage to take a Class deck from the warrior archetype and learn all but the most advanced skills from this class. Though there are plenty of exciting combinations to explore just by combining mage heroes with warrior Class decks, the Battlemage hybrid class also includes its own cards to make your hero a worthy opponent on the field of battle.

The first lesson a Battlemage learns is how to forge his runestones into Planar Weapons. With this Class card, each of your Rune weapons becomes a Melee weapon and loses one hand icon, allowing you to hold two at once, if you so choose. What’s more, you can exhaust this card before you attack with a Rune weapon to add one surge to your results, helping to trigger your weapon’s explosive special abilities.

You’ll also learn how to weave rune magic into your armor itself. Runic Weave increases your health for each Rune you have equipped, making you much more difficult to bring down. What’s more, when you would exhaust a Cloak or Shield, you can exhaust Runic Weave instead, giving you increased defense in any situation. Finally, some Battlemages have advanced to a point of near invincibility as they absorb life energy from the very foes they slay. Death Siphon allows you to recover one damage or one fatigue every time an adjacent monster is defeated, but more importantly, it allows you to cheat death. You can exhaust Death Siphon before you would be knocked out to immediately perform an attack. If you defeat your target, you recover one damage, giving you a foothold to continue the battle!

Steelcaster

Just as some mages grow fond of more brutal, hand-to-hand combat, many warriors can see the benefits of mixing their tactical might with the power of sorcery. The Chains That Rust also includes the Steelcaster hybrid class, starting with Runeguard, a Class card that allows your warrior to take a Class deck from the mage archetype.

Steelcasters are experts at protecting themselves and their compatriots, willing to take massive amounts of damage to protect the other heroes in their party. Of course, most of the Heavy Armor in the game prevents you from equipping Rune weapons. It’s fortunate, therefore, that one of the cheapest Class cards for Steelcasters is Rune Grafting. This Class card offers a massive variety of effects. First, it improves your knowledge, shoring up one of the warrior archetype’s traditionally weaker traits. Secondly, it causes your armor to lose all text that would prevent you from equipping Runes. And finally, it rewards you for attacking with Runes while wearing Heavy Armor by giving you another surge ability to let you recover both health and fatigue!

You can further increase your defensive power with Iron Blooded. This Class card slightly reduces your speed, but more than makes up for it with bonuses to your health and stamina. It also allows you to add shields whenever you roll blanks on defense, and it even lets you discard a Condition card that you receive, keeping you free from ailments. Finally, you can extend your protection to your fellow heroes with Shield Mage. Not only does this allow you to wield a shield without sacrificing your hands, it allows a friendly hero within three spaces to benefit from your shield, gaining its defense dice and special abilities for the entire attack! No matter where you adventure in Terrinoth, your fellow heroes will always be glad to have a Steelcaster by their side.

In the diagram above, Pathfinder Durik is a warrior using the Steelcaster class. Triggering Shield Mage, he’s able to help protect Ulma Grimstone from the flesh moulder’s attack.

Transcend Your Boundaries

For the first time in Descent: Journeys in the Dark, The Chains That Rust gives you the ability to take your hero beyond its archetype and experience the classes of other archetypes. There’s still plenty to discover within this expansion, including the Watchman hybrid class, so come join us at Gen Con Indy 2016 on August 4th-7th to get your advance copies!

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The Undead Rise

Published 6 July 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

The Undead Rise

Preview the Monsters of The Chains That Rust

Few from Terrinoth have ever traveled as far into the Mistlands as you. Few have seen the monstrosities you have witnessed. Perhaps it is the swirling mists that worm their way into the minds of necromancers and drive them to create beasts of foul magic. Or perhaps the presence of so many undead has twisted the meaning of life itself. Either way, it is not merely your chains that hold you imprisoned here—a cell is no stronger than its jailers…

You and your fellow heroes must escape from the Mistlands in The Chains That Rust, an upcoming expansion for Descent: Journeys in the Dark! Here, you’ll find dozens of new threats, including Tainted cards with new penalties for being knocked out, terrifying new monsters under the command of the overlord player, and a deadly class of Overlord cards. Still, not all is dangerous—the heroes themselves gain the ability to step outside their normal classes with the brand-new addition of hybrid classes.

In our last preview, we looked at the overlord player’s new servant: the Scourge. Today, however, we turn our attention to a few of the other monsters that join your forces in The Chains That Rust!

Spirits of the Mist

The Mistlands are haunted by all manner of otherworldly creatures, not all of which are the products of the necromancer’s art. Some are shaped by forces beyond the knowledge of any necromancer—but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous.

Within the Mistlands, spirits that have forgotten themselves commonly pull together into powerful collectives of hunger, pain, and fear. Called “the dispossessed” by those unfortunate enough to encounter them, these spirits often fixate on a single living creature. They flicker through the swamps of the Mistlands—always just at the edge of vision. When their target’s fear is at its peak, the dispossessed strike, countless spectral hands dragging their victim down to death. And then, another spirit begins its eternal wandering, gradually forgetting itself, and the cycle begins again.

As monsters in the service of the overlord player, the dispossessed excel at hunting individual heroes. Not only do these monsters feature high health and good defense dice, making them hard to kill, they can also spend surges to deal more damage, or in the master’s case, to terrify their target. Their only true weakness is their speed—the dispossessed can only move two spaces per turn, making it relatively easy for the heroes to simply outrun these ghastly spirits.

Fortunately, the dispossessed are tenacious, and with two of their abilities, you’ll find it quite easy to keep up with the hero you’ve chosen to haunt to his doom. First, you must spend an action as the dispossessed to trigger Fearbrand—this ability allows you to choose any hero in your line of sight and place its hero token on your figure’s base. Then, at the start of your turn, you can trigger Ethereal Hold to discard a hero token from the dispossessed and immediately place them anywhere within three spaces of the corresponding hero. From there, it’s easy to launch an attack and even trigger Fearbrand again, allowing you to haunt a single hero until his eventual demise.

One hero flees deeper into the chamber, but the dispossessed triggers Ethereal Hold—discarding the hero token to appear next to its target and attack!

The Worship of Death

All mortal men and women are bound by one inescapable truth: someday, they will die. Not everyone is willing to accept this inevitability, and necromancy is a seductive promise in the unending quest for immortality. Many such tormented souls choose to flee to the Mistlands in search of arcane secrets, and the most gifted among these become known as marrow priests.

Marrow priests do not fear death—indeed, they embrace it. They revel in the impermanence of their lives, and of all living things, making each death an act of devotion. Considered mad by most, they work dangerous magic with artifacts of deathly power, sapping the vitality of the living to speed them on their way to oblivion. Ironically, their devotion to death makes the marrow priests quite hardy and difficult to kill, so it is fortunate that these foul necromancers are few in number.

Marrow priests are ever eager to serve your dark designs as the overlord player—provided that they can reap their share of death. These monsters are fast and dangerous, but their true value can be found in their unique special abilities. During an attack, for instance, a marrow priest may spend a surge to trigger Mortal Binding, forcing his target to test knowledge. If the hero fails, you can place his hero token on your Monster card, preventing it from recovering damage by any means! As soon as a marrow priest is defeated or a hero is knocked out, however, all hero tokens are discarded from the Monster card.

With this potent ability, your marrow priests may dive in to strike and trigger Mortal Binding, and then spend the rest of the quest staying just outside the heroes’ reach. If you can keep them from healing, it’ll become much easier to knock the heroes out and force them to suffer the consequences of new Tainted cards like Perfect Peace or Vile Shadow . Of course, the heroes may catch on and target your marrow priests—but the Shadow Step ability is the perfect defense. Each time a hero attacks one of your marrow priests, the hero may spend a surge: if he doesn’t, your marrow priest gains five movement points immediately after the attack! Shadow Step can prove essential to keeping your marrow priests out of he heroes’ reach.

Call Upon the Dead

The dead are everywhere within the Mistlands, and with The Chains That Rust, you have the tools you need to take control and crush the heroes. Journey deep into Waiqar’s domain, and take command of your monsters when you pre-order your copy of The Chains That Rust at your local retailer today.

Join us next time for a preview of the new hybrid hero classes introduced in this expansion!

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The Scourge

Published 21 June 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

The Scourge

Preview the New Overlord Class in The Chains That Rust

In the Mistlands, the dead rest uneasy. Some say the swirling mists that cover this entire land are truly the spirits of the dead, wandering through the living world in search of warmth. Others say the mists are the exhalations of undead warriors, trapped beneath the ground until they can escape. Even if the mists are only mundane, the heroes will fight countless enemies as they try to escape the Mistlands, and some will rise from death to charge into battle again and again.

In The Chains That Rust, the newest expansion for Descent: Journeys in the Dark, both the heroes and the overlord players find new tricks and tactics. As the heroes experiment with crossing the boundaries between archetypes, the overlord gains access to terrifying undead monsters and a deadly new Overlord class. In today’s preview, we’ll start our exploration of the overlord player’s new powers by exploring the new servant and Overlord cards introduced in this expansion!

The Binding of Spirits

When you play as the overlord player, the heroes are already trapped within your domain at the beginning of The Chains That Rust. With the monstrous lieutenants first introduced in the Mists of Bilehall expansion and an assortment of new monsters, you’ll be able to plague the heroes at every turn—and you’ll also be able to take advantage of an entirely new overlord servant: the Scourge.

The Scourge only enters play when you purchase the first card in the new Soulbinder class: Ties That Bind. Rather than being shuffled into a deck with your other Overlord cards, Ties that Bind remains in play in front of you in every quest you play. Whenever one of your other monsters is destroyed, you can exhaust Ties that Bind to capture the spirit of the fallen monster as the Scourge, a vengeful, ethereal creature bent on slaying those who destroyed its mortal form.

As your servant, you can use the Scourge to devastating effect against a party of heroes. It offers powerful melee attacks, and whenever an adjacent hero suffers fatigue, you can force another hero to suffer fatigue as well—steadily whittling away your opponents’ options and forcing the heroes to play by your rules. Of course, the Scourge can be dispatched relatively easily if a few heroes concentrate their attacks on it, but because you can resurrect the Scourge whenever another monster dies, the heroes may decide that their best plan is to ignore the Scourge and simply allow you to plague their footsteps throughout the quest.

Perhaps the most important weakness of the Scourge is its speed. Because it can only move a single space on each activation, it’s entirely possible that the heroes may simply outpace the Scourge, leaving it behind and out of range. Fortunately, several Overlord cards in the Soulbinder class help address this weakness, starting with Restless Spirit. This Overlord card simply increases the Scourge’s speed by two, allowing you to move much more quickly and potentially keep pace with the heroes throughout the quest. Alternatively, you may follow a hero of your choice with Haunted Steps. While this card is in play, you can move the Scourge a single space whenever an adjacent hero moves away, allowing you to dog the steps of your chosen target until you finally overwhelm him.

You’ll find another way for the Scourge to catch up with the heroes by playing Dark Silhouette. You can play this card when a hero attacks a monster within three spaces of your servant. Instead of the attack resolving as normal, the monster and the servant switch places, keeping your monsters safe from harm and placing your servant right next to a hapless hero. Of course, there’s always the risk that the Scourge will be defeated by the attack, but in that case, you can play Possessive to immediately deal damage to the attacking hero. What’s more, if the hero is still standing, you can now perform an attack with that hero as if he were one of your monsters, helping you turn the heroes against each other and tear them apart from within.

Once you’ve advanced far enough within the Soulbinder class, you don’t even need to be adjacent to a hero to catch them in your spectral grasp. Unblinking allows you to force each hero in your servant’s line of sight to suffer fatigue or damage. If they choose to do neither, you draw more Overlord cards, giving you even more options for undermining the heroes’ efforts. Finally, you may ensnare the heroes in a deadly Danse Macabre. With this card, you can trace a path of spaces away from your servant. Each hero caught in that path suffers fatigue up to his stamina—and then, you can move your servant and each of those heroes up to three spaces! By fatiguing the heroes and moving them away from their goal, you can easily lead them into a trap of your own devising and defeat them, granting you the ultimate victory!

In the diagram above, the overlord player plays Danse Macabre and ensnares two heroes, forcing them to suffer fatigue up to their stamina. Next, the overlord player will be able to move both heroes and the Scourge, luring the heroes into greater danger.

Your Soul Is in Danger

Danger is everywhere in the Mistlands. It creeps up from the ground with rising mists, bringing corruption and the foul stench of death. It falls from the sky without warning, stooping to squash a hero like an insignificant insect. As the overlord player, this is your domain, and in The Chains That Rust, you gain the tools you need to crush the heroes.

Join us in our next preview for a closer look at the new monsters in this expansion, and pre-order your copy of The Chains That Rust at your local retailer today!

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Stand Against the Darkness

Published 16 June 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Stand Against the Darkness

Shards of Everdark Is Now Available for Descent: Journeys in the Dark

“At end of ages, Karnon remain: ever strong, ever alone.”
–Karnon

The corruption of the Everdark has arrived in Terrinoth, turning even the greatest and noblest heroes against each other. This foul onslaught must be turned back and defeated, for the good of the entire realm. Now, you can fight these battles as a hero yourself or command the power of the Everdark with the Shards of Everdark Hero and Monster Collection, now available at your local United States retailer and online through our webstore!

Like the other Hero and Monster Collections previously released for Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Shards of Everdark reintroduces monsters and heroes from the game’s first edition, complete with entirely new artwork and figure sculpts. Shards of Everdark differs from most other expansions, however, by including a single brand-new monster group: the dark minotaurs. Alongside the terrifying dark minotaurs, you’ll find four heroes and two other monster groups—the ice wyrms and the shades. Finally, two completely new quests invite you to make your stand against the forces of the Everdark and decide the fate of Terrinoth.

Shards of Everdark includes four heroes, two ice wyrms, two dark minotaurs, and five shades.

The Orrukasi

In the oldest chronicles and most ancient tales, one can find allusions to a mysterious race of woolly and secretive creatures known as the Orrukasi. Though their might is unparalleled, it is their genuine love for battle that makes them coveted allies. Some see them as harbingers of doom, others as noble guardians—regardless of what people think, one thing is known: wherever an Orrukasi appears, trouble is never far behind. Karnon’s arrival in Terrinoth serves as a welcome warning that darkness is near.

Karnon is just one of the heroes who triumphantly joins the second edition of Descent in Shards of Everdark, and as one of the Orrukasi, any group of heroes would be glad to have him fighting at their side. The Orrukasi are known for their prowess in battle and their keen sense for danger, so it’s obvious that the growing threat of the Everdark has brought Karnon to Terrinoth.

As his hero ability, Karnon boasts a simple, yet incredibly useful ability that reflects his love of battle: each time a monster adjacent to him is defeated, Karnon recovers one fatigue. The unlimited nature of this hero ability is part of what makes it so powerful. By charging into a pack of monsters, Karnon can use his Class cards without fear, easily suffering fatigue because you can be confident that he’ll regain it all when his enemies fall before his mighty blows.

Karnon’s heroic feat can be equally powerful in the right hands. This heroic feat reads, “Use when you perform an attack with a Melee weapon that targets a minor monster, after dice are rolled. You may change the result of each attack die and power die to a different result of your choice.” Essentially, this heroic feat allows you to get the best possible result from your attack, most likely obliterating any minion monster that dares to stand in your path and clearing the way for the rest of the heroes. What’s more, destroying a monster will also allow Karnon to recover fatigue, giving him yet another opportunity to trigger the abilities on his Class cards.

Destroy the Everdark

The deadly power of the Everdark cannot be allowed to remain—if Terrinoth is going to survive, you must fight to destroy this evil. Take up arms with Karnon and the other brave heroes from Shards of Everdark, and test your might against the dark minotaurs and other servants of the Everdark! You can pick up your copy of Shards of Everdark at your local retailer today.

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Fire to Ash

Published 10 June 2016 | Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Fire to Ash

Kindred Fire Is Now Available for Road to Legend

“The dark flame burns within…”
–Merick Farrow

Your path has led throughout the land of Terrinoth, from the icy peaks of high mountains, through fetid swamps and fens, and into abandoned manor houses and the city streets of Nerekhall. You’ve taken your stand against the servants of darkness, protected the innocent from danger, and uncovered treasure beyond the wildest imagination. But you have never experienced a campaign for Descent: Journeys in the Dark like this one—Kindred Fire, the first full-length campaign for the Road to Legend app, is now available for free download!

Upon release, the Road to Legend companion app included the Rise of All Goblins mini-campaign, giving you and your fellow heroes a thrilling introduction to the Road to Legend experience. Now, Kindred Fire offers you the chance to play a full campaign that spans the realm of Terrinoth. What’s more, because the initial release of Road to Legend inspired such an amazingly positive reaction, the Kindred Fire campaign is available for free. (Please note: you will be able to buy future campaigns through in-app purchase.)

A Campaign That Spans the Realm

At its core, the Road to Legend experience remains the same: a companion app for Descent: Journeys in the Dark that allows you to experience the game in a fully cooperative format. Rather than one player taking control of the monsters and traps that await the hero players, up to four players have the chance to play side-by-side as heroes of Terrinoth, while the app controls the monsters that lie in wait.

There are some differences, of course, between the Road to Legend digital experience and the core Descent gameplay. Heroes and monsters now have interlaced activations, ensuring that the action in every quest stays fast and involved. Being knocked out carries much more weight, since it decreases your morale with potentially devastating consequences. And you’ll be able to experience the thrill of discovery as the app slowly reveals the map for each quest as you open doors and move deeper into the dungeon. (For more information on the Road to Legend app, you can visit the announcement and the preview article.)

With the introduction of Kindred Fire, the first full-length campaign for Road to Legend, you’ll immediately find yourself in the thick of danger as you and your fellow heroes come across a village utterly consumed by flame and reduced to ash. Everyone within the village has been burnt to death—only a single pair of footsteps leads out of the village and into the wild. Though all signs seem to point to Merick Farrow as the culprit, you’ll quickly find that the truth is far more complex as your heroes get caught in the middle of a titanic struggle between the great powers of darkness in Terrinoth. If you and Terrinoth are going to survive, you’ll need to investigate the truth.

From this opening scene, the world of Terrinoth truly unfolds through the lens of the Road to Legend app. As we discussed in our preview article of Kindred Fire, you’ll find story quests and side quests alike, each one drawing you deeper into a world of adventure and danger. Where the Rise of All Goblins mini-campaign offered you the first chance to see what Road to Legend has to offer, Kindred Fire is a full-length campaign that spans two acts and concludes with a ground-shaking finale to truly put you and your companions to the ultimate test.

Though Kindred Fire doesn’t introduce any changes to the Road to Legend app, its very nature as a longer campaign means that you must play differently. For instance, you have a limited number of weeks between story missions, and you must choose carefully how to spend those weeks. Constantly traveling between side quests may give you the most opportunities to gain XP and gold, but you must balance that against the need to spend a week returning to the relative safety of the city of Tamalir.

Returning to Tamalir is the only reliable way to reset your party’s morale—as we discussed above, your party has a morale value that carries over from quest to quest. Your morale is decreased by one whenever a hero is knocked out, and if a hero is knocked out while your morale is at zero, you immediately lose the current quest! Obviously, returning to the safety of the city is crucial to keeping your party in good spirits, and what’s more, the city is the only place you can spend your hard-earned gold to pick up powerful new weapons, armor, and items.

You’ll also notice that your successes or failures on your quests can have consequences that stretch beyond just that encounter. You may successfully complete a quest, but fail to kill a powerful monster. Then, your failure can come back to haunt you when you face that monster again in a later quest, in addition to the quest’s standard monsters. Terrinoth is a living world, and the overall structure of the Kindred Fire campaign shifts and adapts based on your actions.

And of course, Kindred Fire continues to build on the Road to Legend collection manager by offering new surprises and tactics based on the physical Descent expansions in your collection. Through the collection manager, you can play as any hero you own and encounter any of your monsters on the field of battle. In addition, each of the six currently released Descent expansions have a corresponding bonus quest designed to highlight that expansion’s themes, tiles, and monsters. Whether you’re gaining access to new quests and heroes, new monsters to ambush your party, or new lieutenants to invade your games, the amount of content in Kindred Fire and Road to Legend itself increases alongside your collection of physical Descent products.

For instance, Merick Farrow features prominently in the Kindred Fire campaign. With the Merick Farrow Lieutenant Pack, you can replace the token from the Core Set with a beautifully sculpted figure, and you also unlock a new peril that can cause Merick Farrow to invade your quest, even if he wouldn’t normally appear in it!

Kindle a Flame

The world of Terrinoth has opened before you—filled with new dangers, terrifying monsters, and epic quests. Start playing the free Kindred Fire campaign today, and enter an entirely new game format for Descent: Journeys in the Dark!

You can download Road to Legend for free on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and Steam.

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Fantasy Flight Games

Our Best Solo Board Games

Our Best Solo Board Games

1. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

2. Descent: Journeys in the Dark

3. Eldritch Horror

4. Star Wars: Rebellion

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

6. Mansions of Madness

7. Star Wars: Legion

Enjoy Your Gaming!

14 Years

14 Years

World of Warcraft: The Board Game – 2005

Warrior Knights – 2006

Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire ­– 2006

Tide of Iron – 2007

StarCraft: The Board Game – 2007

World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game – 2007

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game – 2008

Middle-earth Quest – 2009

Space Hulk: Death Angel – 2010

Runewars – 2010

Mansions of Madness First Edition – 2011

Rune Age – 2011

Gears of War – 2011

Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition – 2012

Eldritch Horror – 2013

Star Wars™: Imperial Assault – 2014

Star Wars™: Rebellion – 2016

Star Wars™: Destiny – 2016

Twilight Imperium Fourth Edition – 2017

Discover: Lands Unknown – 2018

Star Wars™: Outer Rim – 2019

Available Now – June 20

Available Now – June 20

Pit of Snakes

For the Empire

Lost Legends

FFG Live in April

FFG Live in April

Lost Legends

Lost Legends

The Essence of Life and Death

The Best of Both Worlds

Legacy of the Lost

Stoking the Fire

Stoking the Fire

Jim Cartwright on the Development of Embers of Dread

The Three Questions

Create, Test, Fail

Letting Go

Embers of Dread

Embers of Dread

The Creeping Dread

Risk and Reward

The Approaching Doom

Change of Heart?

Change of Heart?

Michael Gernes on Bringing Baron Zachareth to Runewars Miniatures Game

Savior or Betrayer

Trials of Frostgate

Trials of Frostgate

The Strength of the North

Are You a Champion?

Corruption Begins

Corruption Begins

Enter the Shadows

A City Besieged by Darkness

Seeds of Corruption

Seeds of Corruption

Alone in the Dark

The Shadow Has Not Passed

Piercing the Darkness

Can You Escape?

Can You Escape?

Infinite Worlds

Unlimited Adventure

Delving Deep

Delving Deep

Twilight Imperium: Shattered Empire – 2006