DESCENT JOURNEYS IN THE DARK COOPERATIVE RULES

COOPERATIVE DESCENT

SETUP

Each hero chooses a character card randomly and equips normally. Start on a cross-road tile, attach one dead end with a portal on it and place your heroes adjacent to it. Then remove all 2x2 pieces 2x1 pieces from the game.

OBJECTIVE

If any hero is killed the game is over and the heroes have lost!
If the heroes make it to Gold Level, draw the Quest Objective, successfully beat the final boss and then all leave safely through the Red Rune door they have won the game!

GAMEPLAY

Each round consists of a Heroes phase and then a monsters phase. During the monsters phase, all monsters are activated and may move and have one round of Combat. Monsters with the highest number of movement points will move first, Masters move before minions.

1. All Ranged or Magic attack monsters will move to within 1 space and attack then move away as far as possible.
2. All Melee monsters will move adjacent to the hero and attack then move away as far as possible.
3. Ogres, Giants and Nagas will move adjacent to the hero and attack and stay there until he or they are dead.
4. If all heroes are in town, monsters will move to surround the Town Portal closest to them

NB. Large monsters can smash 1x1 blocking obstacles with 1 attack.

EXPLORING

At each exit to every area is a door that cannot be closed once opened – it costs 2MP to open (stop placing them if you run out of doors, but it still costs 2MP to discover the next area). Whenever a character opens a door to an unexplored area draw one map card from the Map deck and place the indicated tile however fits best.

Then each hero draws 1 Encounter card from the Dungeon Encounter deck equivalent to his highest treasure (everyone starts on green, reshuffle the relevant discard pile if there are none left) places that card in front of him. Resolve these Dungeon Encounters - and place monsters as instructed - in clockwise order starting with the hero who uncovered the new area. If there are no relevant monsters available to place discard the card and redraw instead. Monsters or card effects target only the hero with that card until he or the monsters are dead. Monsters move on to the next nearest hero if they cannot reach their target hero on any turn.

If after opening a door the hero still has movement or combat actions available he may continue his turn as normal unless any Encounter cards say otherwise.

SURGES

Unless otherwise specified for the monster, every 2 surges rolled by a monster adds 1 damage to the total against the hero.

REWARDS

If there are no active monsters on the board immediately resolve the REWARD of each Dungeon card (reward applies only to the hero who possesses the card) and then discard it.

THE POWER DIE

If there have been no monsters on the board and no Encounter cards have been drawn after one full heroes phase roll 1 power die: immediately draw and resolve an encounter card on the roll of a Blank.

If all heroes are in town at the same time roll 1 power die: immediately draw and resolve an encounter card on the roll of a Surge.

LONE HEROES & VILLAGERS

Lone heroes and villagers cannot trade, carry items, or reveal new areas. Lone heroes always start with full Fatigue and may use Fatigue for extra power dice/movement, etc but have way to replenish Fatigue when it is gone (unless otherwise stated, e.g. character ability).
To claim the reward for returning a Villager or Lone Hero to town, the hero in control of them must move himself to town and then that character to town in the same turn. Lone heroes and villagers will only ever be targeted by monsters if no heroes are reachable in any turn.

HINT - Lone heroes are very useful for combat as they give you an extra attack each turn, so be careful about 'cashing them in' straight away!

RAGING AND AIMING MONSTERS

Monsters Raging or Aimed “on their first turn” means their first successful attack. Similarly any monsters’ Dodge applies to the first turn in which they are attacked.

UNUSED SKILLS

It may be best to remove the following skill cards from the game before starting: Divine Retribution; Boggs the Rat; and Mata and Kata if playing solo.

CONQUEST TOKENS OPTION

The heroes only lose when they run out of Conquest Tokens. Killed heroes respawn in Town as detailed in the basic game. The heroes begin the game with 5 Conquest Tokens. The heroes gain 3 Conquest Tokens the first time a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Treasure is Rewarded to the team.