Okay, so a few months ago I put UnderQuest on the back burner to focus on a couple of other projects (Tin Realm and the Gnome Pack). At the time I was not exactly happy with what UnderQuest was becoming. Not that is was shaping up into a bad game, but rather it was drifting further and further from my vision. Sometimes you have to take a project and just set it aside for a bit, focus on something else for a while, and then come back with fresh eyes. So where does this leave UnderQuest?
My biggest issue was the more I worked on UnderQuest the more it felt like I was making things more complicated than they needed to be and I also was quickly loosing interest in the art direction. The black, white, and red palette was fairly restrictive on what was going to be a larger game. I think it would great for a smaller tin series game, but in a larger game it seemed to be too much. I also felt like I was trying to make something much different from Iron Helm, but as I was designing UnderQuest, I sort of felt pulled to the roots of Iron Helm. So what direction am I going?
I truly love Iron Helm and I love the community that has grown around it. I love creating content for Iron Helm as well. All of this made me realize that I should truly focus UnderQuest into being a real spiritual successor to Iron Helm. Iron Helm is great, but it definitely has a few holes in the design and I want to address those all with Iron Helm 2.0 (AKA UnderQuest). Here are a few of the things I want to fix or make better.
The Rulebook – It is no secret that the rulebook for Iron Helm is far from perfect. Some of that was due to the size limitation of the medium booklet I used. I could only have 20 pages and I needed more. I also immediately negated to include some important rules. It was not a terrible effort, but I want the booklet for UnderQuest to feel complete and I want it easy to navigate.
Morality – The morality tracker in Iron Helm was simply there and not used very often, at least not in the base game. I attempted to address this with the Howling Abyss Dungeon Booster pack. That set of dungeon cards did a good job of fixing the issue, but I want a cleaner and more meaningful system in place from day one. Morality will be handled via favor points, much like I used in Tin Helm. You will gain them by defeating certain enemies or by making good moral choices during play. You will be able to use these favor points in many ways including, reading runestones (learning new skills), to reroll dice, and certain dungeon cards and encounters will be effected by your current level on the favor tracker. I simply want it much more integral to the design.
Exploration – UnderQuest will use the exploration system used in Iron Helm, rather than the one I was attempting to use before, that was more similar to the one used in Tin Helm. There will of course be some twists. I am working on a cool system to making enemies more difficult if drawn as the second card that does not rely on simply adding x-number of health or damage output to the foe. I am excited to share this in the future.
Plot Cards/Encounters – The plot card system used in Iron Helm will be replaced with an encounter system. Encounters will work a lot like plot cards did in Iron Helm, but in UnderQuest encounters could be all sorts of things including, a simple story with a choice to be made, an encounter requiring a skill check, a trap, an enemy, or even finding a character to join you on your adventure! These cards will have a timer mechanic built into them that will trigger the end game much like the plot cards from Iron Helm.
Quests/Campaigns – So one of the biggest hitches in the development of UnderQuest before was the idea of a campaign mode. I have come up with a simple solution. If you want to play UnderQuest as a one-off rogue-like experience, then you will simply use the Encounter deck while playing. If you want a campaign vibe, you will be able to use a new Quest deck. These cards will work much like the Encounter cards except they will be numbered in order on their backs. In this way a narrative story can unfold. You may find special items or weapons, have to fight unique foes, or any number of surprises. My issue with this when working on UnderQuest before was trying to figure out how to both make random encounters and have there be a quest/campaign system. The new idea is to allow the player to decide what they want. Do you want to play with the randomness of the Encounter deck or do you want to use a more campaign/story-focused deck like the Quest deck. There would of course be a simple quest deck in the base game and then I could release new ones over time for players who like to play that way. For those that prefer a more rogue-like experience, I will introduce new decks to add to the existing Encounter deck.
Art Direction – I want UnderQuest to hearken back to old-school nostalgic artwork from the late 70s DnD era, sort like Iron Helm attempted to do. I also want to push an almost medieval engraving feeling with my linework. Something like the work of Albrecht Durer. Lastly, I want the art to have an almost tarot-like feel to it. Something mysterious with strange symbols and odd flavors. Above you can see the development of the card backs. As you can see I am using full-color and trying to make the game feel almost from another time and place.
OGL – UnderQuest will have a limited open game license which will allow folks to create new enemies, quests, encounters, and more for the UnderQuest system. Iron Helm has a strong following from some very talented and creative folks and I want UnderQuest to take that to the next level. I am excited to see what people come up with.
Well, that is about all I have for now. UnderQuest is indeed still being worked on and now I have much more focused vision for it. The aim is a spiritual successor to Iron Helm that addresses some of the issues with Iron Helm, while adding a fresh new layer to it. Stay tuned…
Grey Gnome Games 