Descent: The Well of Darkness

2006 · Fantasy

Descent: The Well of Darkness

Explorers delve into a sealed chasm to stop an ancient evil, journeying through tunnels, trapped temples, and volcanic chambers. Players control heroic characters or the Overlord antagonist; heroes equip new skills, relics and a new potion type while the Overlord fields new monsters, traps and events. The expansion adds six heroes, kobolds, ferrox, golems, new treasures and scenario props. Gameplay introduces environmental hazards (scything blades, rolling boulders, lava) and gives the Overlord a deck-customization option to tailor spawn, trap and event cards for each scenario.

Players
2–5 best 5
Playing time
120–240 min
Age
12+
Complexity
3.4 / 5
8.3 on LudoyaFightingMiniaturesRole PlayingTeam-Based GameVariable Player Powers

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Full stats in Ludoya
20
In collections
1
Pre-ordered

8.3/10

from 6 Ludoya reviews

  • Tom8.5

    Same as the other expansion, but with more monsters, heroes, and options for the Overlord. I love this game.

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Rules questions

Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.

How and when do boulders move, and what happens if they hit a figure or an obstacle?

At the start of the overlord's turn, before doing anything else, the overlord moves each boulder by rolling one red and one yellow die and moving the boulder the summed range along its arrow; any figure in a space a boulder moves onto is instantly killed (ignoring wounds, armor, and Undying), except figures safe in pits that the boulder merely rolls across; boulders remove rubble, are destroyed by walls or closed doors, and a boulder that collides with another is destroyed (p.5).

Does a Breath attack go around rubble and corners, or is it blocked by walls and closed doors?

Breath attacks billow around obstacles (so they can curve around corridors and pass through rubble) but are blocked by walls and closed doors; a target is affected only if a small flying figure could trace a legal movement path from the breath's start square to the target while staying inside the breath template (p.7).

What do Bleed and Daze tokens do mechanically?

Bleed: when an attack causes bleeding, place bleed tokens and at the start of that figure's next turn roll the white die once per bleed token, suffering wounds equal to the total (ignoring armor) and then discard all bleed tokens; Daze: when an attack causes daze, place daze tokens and at the start of that figure's turns roll a power die per daze to remove tokens on surges, and each time the figure attacks it loses one yellow/green/black die for each daze token remaining (pp.5–6).

How does treachery customization and unspent treachery work for the overlord deck?

Before the game the overlord may spend event/trap/monster treachery to swap base cards for treachery-cost cards (paying the proper treachery type for each); any leftover treachery converts into extra starting overlord cards at a rate of 1 extra card per 2 points of leftover treachery (any type), up to a maximum of 8 starting cards total (p.4).

How does the Bolt template work and what blocks a Bolt attack?

Place the bolt template flat against one side of the attacker (two squares wide at the base); Bolt affects all figures under the template and ignores rolled range (only missing on a miss), it flows around obstacles like Breath but cannot pass through staircases, walls, or closed doors, and if multiple figures dodge only one re-roll may be made (p.6).

How does the Swarm ability calculate its bonus dice—do non-swarm monsters count?

When attacking with Swarm, you gain +1 power die for every other friendly figure adjacent to the target (up to the normal maximum of 5 power dice), and you count all friendly figures adjacent to the target even if those other figures do not themselves have the Swarm ability (p.6).

Opens Ludoya's rules assistant, which reads this game's rulebook.

Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.