Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Descent: Journeys in the Dark setup involves one player taking on the role of the overlord while the others choose distinct fantasy heroes. Players select a specific quest from the campaign book, assemble the modular board tiles, and place appropriate monster miniatures, door tokens, treasure chests, and quest-specific markers according to the scenario layout. Each hero receives their character sheet, starting equipment, and stamina tokens, while the overlord collects a hand of threat and overlord cards.

The core objective is asymmetric: the cooperative hero players must fulfill the victory conditions of the active quest, such as rescuing prisoners, defeating a boss, or escaping a dungeon before time runs out. Conversely, the overlord attempts to exhaust the heroes' resources, defeat their characters, or stall them until the quest timer expires, creating a tense battle of attrition and tactics.

Play proceeds in rounds divided into a hero phase and an overlord phase. During the hero phase, each hero takes a turn to perform actions including moving, attacking, interacting with objects, or resting to recover fatigue. Once all heroes have acted, the overlord phase begins, allowing the overlord to spawn reinforcements, activate monster groups to attack or maneuver, and play cunning overlord cards to disrupt hero plans.

Scoring and progression are tracked through campaign experience points and gold rewards earned after each quest. Winning or losing individual scenarios affects the overarching campaign narrative, granting players access to stronger equipment, upgraded abilities, or more powerful overlord cards for subsequent sessions.

A scenario ends instantly when either the heroes accomplish their primary quest objective or the overlord satisfies the specific defeat conditions, such as reducing all hero figures to zero fatigue and knocking them unconscious or running down a countdown tracker.