Nerdook’s Solo/Co-op Variant v2.
1
A Fan-Made Variant for Descent 2.0 (Version 2.1.2)
Game Overview
Nerdook’s Solo/Co-op variant is a fan-made variant for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition.
Designed for one to four players, the role of the evil Overlord is automated by a deck of cards while all players take on
the roles of heroes. During each game, the heroes battle monsters and search for treasure and equipment as they seek to
take down the Lieutenants of the Overlord!
Object of the Game
Before each game, the players select their Hero, and draw a Lieutenant card to find out which Lieutenant they will be
going up against for that quest. Each quest presents the players with a randomly generated dungeon, culminating in a
final battle against the Lieutenant as the guardian of each dungeon. The heroes must win before the Overlord can gain
enough Threat to complete his plans. This variant is designed to be played as a campaign with three quests linked
together to form an epic story. During a campaign, players earn upgrades and increase in power over the course of
several play sessions.
Component List
This variant is designed to be fully compatible with any combination of the base set of Descent: Journeys in the
Dark Second Edition and its many expansions. In addition to the normal components, the variant requires the
following:
• 18 custom AI Overlord cards
• 27 custom Overlord Event cards
• 24 custom Dungeon cards
• 9 custom Lieutenant cards
These custom cards are meant to be printed out and sleeved into existing Descent cards, replacing the Overlord cards,
Travel cards, and Rumor cards for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition.
Component Overview
AI Overlord Cards Dungeon Cards
At the end of each player’s turn, an AI When the players explore the
Overlord card is drawn and resolved. dungeon, the next tile to be placed is
AI Overlord cards can trigger various resolved by drawing a Dungeon card.
results, including activating monsters The number in the lower right
or drawing an Overlord Event card. represents the number of the tile to be
Each AI Overlord card also has a placed, while the card details the setup
monster trait symbol in the lower for the new tile.
right corner, to select the monsters used in each Quest.
Overlord Event Cards Lieutenant Cards
Some AI Overlord cards will instruct Lieutenant cards are drawn at the
the player to draw an Overlord Event beginning of each quest. These are
card, which represents the random used to decide the Lieutenant for each
misfortunes or events that occur to the quest and the Threat level required for
heroes during the quest. the Overlord to win.
The copyrightable portions of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, its expansions and miniatures are © 2005-2013 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.
© 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are ™ or ® of Fantasy Flight Publishing,
Inc.
Game Setup
Setting up this variant involves different preparing the hero players and Overlord card decks. Certain quests may also
have quest specific setup instructions listed on the Lieutenant card. Before playing, set up the game as follow:
1. Hero Selection: Each player selects a Hero and Class as per the normal rules for Descent: Journeys in the
Dark Second Edition, with a minimum of two heroes and a maximum of four. If there are more heroes than
players, players may control multiple heroes of their choice.
2. Choose Skills: Each hero starts with 2 experience points (XP) to be spent as they wish. They may spend the
initial 2 XP on a single 2 XP Skill card if they wish to do so. They do not need to spend all their XP, and may
retain their XP to be spent in a later quest.
3. Place Heroes: At the beginning of each quest, place each hero figure on the Entrance tile. Players may decide
the turn order for the Heroes: once decided, the turn order will NOT change for the rest of the quest. Players
must activate the heroes, in turn, based on this turn order.
4. Choose a Quest: Shuffle the Lieutenant cards, and draw a card. This will be the Lieutenant used for the
quest.
5. Choose Monster Groups: The Overlord starts each quest with three Monster Groups. Unless the
Lieutenant card specifies which Monster Groups to use, pick three Monster Groups by shuffling all the
Monster cards and AI Overlord cards, then draw three AI Overlord cards. For each card drawn, pick a random
Monster card that matches the monster trait on the lower right of the AI Overlord card. Once three Monster
Groups have been selected (A, B and C), arrange them in ascending order based on the Health rating of the
Master figure of each group. In case of ties, arrange them in ascending order based on the Speed value. If two
Groups are still tied, players may decide on the order of those two Monster Groups. Monster Group A will
have the lowest Health value, while Monster Group C will have the highest. Monster Group A MUST be
Small (1x1 base) figures: if no group with Small figures are selected, discard the group with the lowest
Health and choose again.
6. Place the first room: Shuffle all Dungeon cards, and draw a card. Place the tile with the number
corresponding to the number on the lower right corner of the Dungeon card, and follow the instructions to
set up that tile. When placing a tile, always orient it so that the space with the number is furthest from the
connecting edge, then place a Search token on the numbered space for that tile. For the first tile, place a
Master figure from Monster Group A on the furthest open edge.
Turn Order
Most of the variant follows the same basic rules for the base game of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second
Edition: during each hero’s turn, he refreshes any exhausted cards, equips items, then performs up to 2 actions.
However, the following changes are applied in this variant:
1. Explore step: Once per turn, if a hero is standing on the open edge of the tile, he may spend one movement
point to perform the Explore step. An open edge is defined as the spaces adjacent to an unconnected
connector for a tile, including those that are diagonally adjacent to the connector. Note that the Explore step
does NOT require an action, just the expenditure of a movement point without moving the hero: this
includes movement points gained from skills or spending additional Fatigue. If a hero performs the Explore
step, draw a new Dungeon card and connect the corresponding tile to the current open edge. The new tile is
oriented so that its numbered space is as far away from the connecting edge as possible. Then, place a Search
token on the numbered space for the new tile, unless the Dungeon card specifies otherwise. Each tile may only
be explored ONCE, even if it has multiple open edges. If the new tile does not fit, place a dead end connector
tile on each open edge. Figures may move between the spaces of both dead end connectors as if they were
adjacent, but they are not considered adjacent for any other purposes, including line of sight and skill
resolutions.
2. AI Overlord step: After each hero’s turn has ended, before the start of the next hero’s turn, draw an AI
Overlord card and resolve it. This will be covered in more detail on the next page.
The copyrightable portions of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, its expansions and miniatures are © 2005-2013 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.
© 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are ™ or ® of Fantasy Flight Publishing,
Inc.
The AI Overlord In Detail
Threat Tokens
The goal of each quest is to defeat the Lieutenant before the Overlord can amass enough Threat tokens to carry out his
plans. For this variant, Threat and Fortune tokens refer to the tokens that come with any Lieutenant Pack expansion for
Descent, though players are free to substitute their own tokens if they do not own any of the Lieutenant Packs.
The main method for the AI Overlord to collect Threat tokens is the Reshuffle card in the AI Overlord deck.
Whenever this card is drawn, the current number of discarded AI Overlord cards are counted:
1. If there are 3 cards or less in the discard pile, the Reshuffle card is reshuffled into the AI Overlord deck, but
the discard pile is NOT reshuffled. Then, the curent player draws another AI Overlord card.
2. If there are between 4 and 9 cards in the discard pile, the AI Overlord gains one Threat token.
3. If there are between 10 or more cards in the discard pile, the AI Overlord gains two Threat tokens.
4. If the AI Overlord now has a number of Threat tokens equal to or higher than the number in the lower right
corner of the current Lieutenant card, the AI Overlord has won. The Overlord’s dark plans are complete, and
the heroes lose the current quest!
Monster Activation Cards
Many of the AI Overlord cards are Monster Activation cards. When these cards are drawn, refer to the list of actions
given on the card. All figures in that Monster Group are activated, starting from a master figure of the player’s choice,
with the minion figures activated last. Lieutenants are only activated after all the figures in the Monster Group.
When activating a figure, the figure attempts to perform each action in the list, starting from the top, until two valid
actions have been performed. Any normal restrictions, such as monsters without Ravage only being able to attack once
per activation. Stunned figures only have one action. Poisoned figures take damage (or test their ∂) when they are
activated, before they perform any actions. If the list ends before two valid actions are performed, start again from the
top. If the entire list is completed without a single valid action, the figure’s activation ends.
Engaging a Target
When a figure engages a target, it moves as close as possible to the target until it is within range. If it is already within
range, this action is skipped. Figures with a ranged attack will move until they are 4 spaces away from the target. Figures
with a melee attack will move until they are adjacent to the target, unless they have Reach, in which case they will move
until they are 2 spaces away. When moving, figures always use the shortest available path, avoiding water and hazard
spaces as much as possible. If there are multiple shortest paths, the current player may choose which path the figure
takes. If a monster has any ability that allows it to move or enter a space, such as Burrow, it will use that ability, if
possible, during the engage action instead of a move action.
Disengaging
If a monster figure has already used up all its possible attack actions, and has no valid ability to trigger, then it will use its
remaining action to move to the nearest space that is not adjacent to an enemy figure, and is closest to the Entrance tile.
Triggering an Ability
When a figure triggers an ability, this refers to abilities on its monster card marked with a ∞ symbol. An ability is
chosen based on the AI Overlord card: if abilities are chosen from the top, then pick the first valid ability from the top
of the list on the back of the monster card. When using abilities that move heroes, such as Throw, the hero is moved to
the space closest to the Entrance tile, of the player’s choice.
Target Selection
If there are multiple targets can be chosen by a monster figure, the figure will always choose the target with the
LOWEST remaining Health. If there’s a tie, then the figure with the MOST ∏ tokens on its card is selected. If there’s
still a tie, then the players may choose a target for the monster figure.
The copyrightable portions of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, its expansions and miniatures are © 2005-2013 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.
© 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are ™ or ® of Fantasy Flight Publishing,
Inc.
Spending Surges
During a figure’s attack, it will always spend surges in the following manner:
1. Monster figures will spend surges for Conditions first, if the attack would deal at least 1 ≥ and the target does
not already have that Condition.
2. If the attack would have been a miss due to lack of range, then the figure will spend surges on extra Range.
3. If the target rolls ≤ equal to or more than the Pierce value that the figure can spend a surge on, then the figure
will spend surges on Pierce.
4. Otherwise, the figure will spend its surges on dealing additional ≥.
Respawning, Figure Limits and Lieutenant Statistics
When playing this variant, all Monster Groups use figure limits for a 4-player game, regardless of the number of players.
If a figure from a Monster Group is respawned, always place Minion figures first. If all the Minion figures are already on
the map, then place a Master figure from that Monster Group.
The statistics for a Lieutenant depends on the number of quests already won by the heroes: if no quests have been won,
use the statistics for 2-players. If one quest has been won, use the statistics for 3-players. If two quests have been won, use
the statistics for 4-players.
Overlord Event Cards
Whenever a Reckoning card is drawn, draw the top card of the Overlord Event card and resolve its effects. This card is
then discarded into a separate discard pile for Overlord Event cards. If there are no Overlord Event cards remaining,
reshuffle the discard pile. The discard pile is also reshuffled at the end of every quest.
Discarding Overlord Cards
Skills or items that can discard a card from the Overlord hand, such as the Wildlander’s Danger Sense, only apply to
Overlord Event cards. When an Overlord Event card is drawn, abilities that can discard cards from the Overlord’s hand
allows the current hero to discard the Overlord Event card and ignore its effects.
Similarly, any card or ability that allows the Overlord to draw an Overlord card will cause an Overlord Event card to be
drawn and resolved.
Fortune Tokens
During each quest, the heroes will gain Fortune tokens for various achievements. For each minion figure defeated, the
heroes will gain a Fortune token. Fortune tokens are shared in a party pool, and the heroes may not have more than
TEN Fortune tokens at any one time.
There are several ways to spend Fortune tokens:
1. A hero may spend three Fortune tokens to immediately open a Town Portal on an adjacent space. This does
NOT require an action. Place a blue objective token to represent the Town Portal. Heroes may then spend an
action to enter the Town Portal to shop and heal: see the Town Portal section for more details.
2. When shopping in a Town Portal or between quests, each Fortune token is worth 25 gold. Heroes may spend
Fortune tokens to gain additional gold in order to purchase better equipment.
3. When using a Town Portal, a hero may spend 1 Fortune token to remove all ∏ suffered. Additionally, heroes
may spend any number of Fortune tokens to regain 5 ≥ for each token spent.
4. At the end of a hero’s turn, he may spend 5 Fortune tokens to skip the AI Overlord phase. No AI Overlord
card is drawn for that turn, and the next hero immediately begins his turn.
5. A hero may discard 3 Fortune tokens at any time to immediately cancel the effect of a “Until the next event is
drawn” Overlord Event card. That card is then discarded.
The copyrightable portions of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, its expansions and miniatures are © 2005-2013 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.
© 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are ™ or ® of Fantasy Flight Publishing,
Inc.
Town Portals
A Town Portal can be placed on the map either through the Brief Respite card, or by spending three Fortune tokens.
Additionally, the Mapstone item can be used ONCE per quest to place a Town Portal on an adjacent square. Town
Portals are represented by a blue objective token, and they do NOT block movement or line of sight. A hero on a space
adjacent to a Town Portal may spend an action to use it.
When using a Town Portal, draw four Shop Item cards: one Act I card, followed by three cards based on the current Act
of each Monster Group in play. Players may buy any or all of these Shop Item cards for their printed cost. Heroes may
sell any items, even those belonging to a hero that did not use the Town Portal, for half the printed cost, rounded down
to the nearest 25 gold. Search cards may be traded in for their printed value, while Relics can be sold for 50 gold each.
Items that are purchased can be immediately equipped by any hero in play. After a Town Portal has been used, it is
removed from the map: remove the blue objective token to indicate the Town Portal is now closed.
Dungeon Exploration
The Lieutenant appears on the map (as the Act II version) once five rooms have been added to the dungeon. Note that
some larger tiles are counted as two rooms, and may reduce the number of tiles required before the Lieutenant appears.
Once the fifth room is placed, immediately place the Lieutenant on the furthest open edge from the connected edge.
The first two rooms placed will use the Wilderness side (A side) of the tile. If at least two rooms have been explored, and
the heroes perform an Explore step, the current player places a Wilderness to Dungeon transition connector, and a
Locked Door is placed on the border between the two sides of this connecting tile. This is the Dungeon Door. The open
edge behind the Dungeon Door is NOT considered an open edge for respawning purposes, as long as the Dungeon
Door remains closed: if no other open edges are available, additional monsters will respawn on the Entrance tile.
In order to open the Dungeon Door, the heroes have to perform a specific action:
1. If the players do not have any expansion sets that add Secret Rooms, a hero must spend an action while
adjacent to the Dungeon Door and successfully test the same attribute as the current Lieutenant’s highest
attribute. For example, if the current Lieutenant’s highest attribute is ∂, then the hero must spend an action
and successfully test ∂. If the hero fails, he may spend another action to test ∂ again. If the hero succeeds, the
Dungeon Door is opened.
2. If the players have an expansion that adds Secret Rooms, a hero must spend an action while adjacent to the
Dungeon Door to draw a Secret Room card. The hero must then resolve the Secret Room successfully to open
the Dungeon Door: see the Secret Room section on the following pages. This is in addition to any rewards
normall granted on a Secret Room card. If the Secret Room card instructs the player to place a Secret Room
tile, then the player may immediately place his hero on the entrance of the Secret Room tile. If the required
Secret Room tile is already in play, draw another Secret Room card.
Other heroes may enter the same Secret Room to help resolve the card, BUT heroes may NOT leave the
Dungeon Door’s Secret Room tile until it is resolved.
Once the Dungeon Door is open, the heroes may perform an Explore step as normal on the Dungeon side open edge
(side B) of the connector tile. Note that the connector tile does NOT count as a room. The Dungeon Door is
immediately removed when the Secret Room card is resolved: no action is required to remove it.
The copyrightable portions of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, its expansions and miniatures are © 2005-2013 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.
© 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are ™ or ® of Fantasy Flight Publishing,
Inc.
Secret Rooms
Secret Rooms in this variant are handled differently from the base game. If a player draws the Secret Room search card,
and it requires a Secret Room tile to be placed, place the tile as normal. However, if a Monster challenge token is drawn,
then spawn a figure from Group A if possible (minions spawn before masters): if not, then a figure from the next highest
Monster Group is placed. If no figures are available, the player automatically passes the Challenge.
In order to resolve a Secret Room card, the player has to discard all Challenge tokens in the room and clear it of all
enemies: all heroes on the Secret Room tile are then removed and placed back on the entrance of the Secret Room, or
the nearest empty space. If an AI Overlord card requires a figure to be spawned while hero is in a Secret Room, ignore
that part of the card. If a hero in the Secret Room draws the Reckoning AI Overlord card, do not draw an Overlord
Event card. Instead, remove the Challenge token closest to that hero.
Passing an attribute test Challenge token grants the hero an additional Fortune token.
Overlord Grows in Power
At the end of each quest, the Overlord grows stronger. After every quest (win or lose), the Overlord begins the next
quest with an additional Monster Group starting in Act II, starting from the strongest Monster Group. For example, in
the second quest played, Monster Group C starts out in Act II: in the third quest, Monster Groups B and C start in Act
II. However, the heroes also start each quest with an advantage, because they can carry forward all Relics and equipment
into the next quest.
Looting the Dungeon
Whenever a master figure is defeated, the heroes draw a random Shop Item card, based on the Act of the defeated
Monster. Defeating an Act I master figure grants a random Act I Shop Item, while defeating an Act II master figure
grants a random Act II Shop Item. This can be beneficial, but remember that minion figures always spawn first: if the
heroes manage to defeat a master figure, the dungeon will already be crawling with its minions!
Shadows of Nerekhall
If you have the Shadows of Nerekhall large expansion, some elements of it are incorporated into the game differently, in
the form of the Gates to the Black Realm mini variant. You will need to add 9 Black Realm cards to the game: unlike the
normal Dungeon cards, these refer only to tiles from the Shadows of Nerekhall expansion.
Gates to the Black Realm
Shuffle all Corrupt Citizen cards into a separate deck, and remove the Act I and Act II Changelings from the normal
monster deck. ONCE per quest, whenever a tile from Side A has more than one open edge after it is placed, place a Gate
to the Black Realm (outdoor to Black Realm connector) on the NEAREST open edge to the connected edge. Then,
draw a Black Realm card and connect the tile indicated to the Gate connector. Do not place a Search token on this tile,
unless otherwise indicated by the Black Realm card.
Place a number of figures equal to the number of Heroes from the Changeling monster group on the new Black Realm
tile on the furthest open edge, placing the master Changeling first. To determine whether to use Act I or Act II
Changelings, look at the current Act for Monster Groups A, B and C, and the Changeling is Act II if at least two of the
Monster Groups are Act II. Draw a Corrupt Citizen card and apply its effects to the master Changeling. Black Realm
tiles may NOT be explored, but monsters may respawn from the open edges as normal. Changelings are never
respawned. Whenever any Monster Group is activated, the Changelings copy their activation as well, similar to
Lieutenants.
When all the Changelings on the map have been defeated, the Heroes may keep the Black Realm card and an Influence
token of their choice. They may retain the card and token even between Quests. A hero may discard an Influence token
at any time to claim the corresponding reward on a Black Realm card: the token and card are both discarded.
The copyrightable portions of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, its expansions and miniatures are © 2005-2013 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.
© 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are ™ or ® of Fantasy Flight Publishing,
Inc.
One versus Many
Another modification to the variant is to have a human player play as the Overlord, as in the original game:
1) Players still draw an AI Overlord card after each hero’s turn, but whenever a Monster Group or Lieutenant is
activated, the Overlord decides the actions for that group, ignoring the text on the activation card. The
Overlord player may activate the Monster Group figures or Lieutenant in any order he wishes.
2) The Overlord has a hand of Overlord event cards with a maximum hand size equal to the number of heroes.
Whenever a Reckoning card is drawn, the Overlord player may choose which event to trigger.
Victory and Defeat
If the heroes successfully defeat the Lieutenant, they immediately win the quest.
In addition to any rewards listed on the Lieutenant card, each hero gains XP depending on the number of victories they
have. The first Lieutenant defeated grants the heroes 2 XP, while the second Lieutenant grants 3 XP. If the heroes
defeat three Lieutenants, they successfully seal the Overlord in a jar and bring peace to the land: the heroes win the
game!
The heroes may perform one extra Shopping step between quests: draw three Shop Item cards based on the current Act
of each Monster Group at the end of the quest. Players may buy any or all of these Shop Item cards for their printed
cost. Heroes may sell any items, even those belonging to a hero that did not use the Town Portal, for half the printed
cost, rounded down to the nearest 25 gold. Search cards may be traded in for their printed value, while Relics can be sold
for 50 gold each.
Then, return all remaining Search cards to the deck, and reshuffle the Search deck, AI Overlord cards, Overlord Event
cards, Dungeon cards and Secret Room cards. The heroes may spend any XP they have, if they wish, before the next
quest begins: draw another Lieutenant card to discover the next threat to Terrinoth!
During each campaign, the heroes are allowed ONE defeat. The first time they lose a quest, the heroes gain only 1 XP
and perform the extra Shopping step as detailed above. In the next quest, the Overlord will have one stronger Monster
Group than before. The second time they lose a quest, the heroes lose the game: the Overlord has grown too powerful to
be stopped, and Terrinoth is doomed!
The copyrightable portions of Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, its expansions and miniatures are © 2005-2013 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.
© 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are ™ or ® of Fantasy Flight Publishing,
Inc.
