Challenge Systemĭescent was the first major overlord-driven co-op of the euro-influenced wave of games that followed the release of Lord of the Rings (2000). The game is then played out as tactical combat, with the heroes trying to fight their way to the end of the scenario while the overlord tries to slay them.
Each of these quests is codified in a scenario that tells the overlord how to lay out rooms and monsters. In Descent: Journeys in the Dark, players take on the roles of heroes who are venturing forth on dangerous quests. This article originally appeared in Meeples Together.ĭescent - Journeys in the Dark 1e by Kevin Wilson It describes one of the foundational games in the modern overlord category, and also outline how overlords and challenge systems work together. Instead, we offer up this case study, our first to discuss an overlord game. The overlord category of co-ops gets a decent amount of attention in Meeples Together, but we probably could have written a whole chapter on how overlords interact with the challenge machinery of a co-op game.
