Today we will be discussing the all-new quest system that will be used in UnderQuest. Unlike Iron Helm, in which you simply worked your way through the dungeon deck until you revealed enough eye icons to trigger the boss fight, UnderQuest tackles this task from a more narrative-driven angle. Let’s dive into how exactly this works.
UnderQuest uses a Quest Token system. Quest Tokens are gained in a few ways during play. (1) You can gain one by connecting two dungeon cards together in your dungeon tableau that complete an icon. When you do this, you gain the matching Quest Token. (2) You can also gain a quest token during a random encounter. These Quest Tokens are then spent to progress through the quest deck. Let’s talk about the quest deck.
The quest deck is actually made up of 6 smaller decks. Each of these smaller decks represents a phase of your adventure and are numbered 1-6 on their backside. During game setup you randomly select one card from each of these decks, without looking at them, and then stack them in order with the card from the 6th phase on the bottom. You will then reveal the top card and you are ready to start your adventure.
Each card has an upper narrative portion that sets up the scene. In the middle you will find the three Quest Tokens you must locate and then spend to unlock the lower portion of the card. The lower portion concludes the phase of the adventure and sometimes offers special loot, healing, or perhaps a companion to join your mission.
The core game will come with 3 cards in each of the 6 phases for a total of 18 cards. having a random card pulled for each phase creates a new story every time. In fact, with just 18 cards you manage to have over 700 possible pathways through your quest’s story. This creates a very high replay level for the game. I also plan on releasing Quest Packs in the future, that will add 1 card from each phase. So if we go from 3 cards in each of the 6 decks to 4 cards we increase the possible story paths from 729 combinations, to 4096!!! The plan is to add many of these decks over time, which should translate into almost an endless numbers of unique adventures.
I am pretty excited about this system as it will allow there to be a story that drives the game, and when you combine this with the random encounter deck and other mechanics in the game like the alchemy system, you should have a unique adventure every time you open up the box. I am excited to share more about UnderQuest as it develops. Thanks for stopping by and hanging out!
Grey Gnome Games 