Notequest: Another look

After playing many dungeons with Four Against Darkness (4AD) over the last few months, I decided to try something a little different. I noticed in my downloaded files section, Notequest, which I had intended to try a lot more. So here we are again. My initial thoughts on the core rules can be seen here, about a year and a half ago.

 

The first thing I remembered about Notequest is that when you loot a chest, you roll 2d6 with the higher number being the amount of coins you get and the lower number the treasure you get. If equal, you get the same amount but on a double 1, you set off a trap! One bit I didn't like was it seemed like I was rolling up too many treasures. So, with that in mind, I decided to cut the treasures in half, rolling 1d3 instead of 1d6. Especially on bosses, where you get 2d6 treasures. Now, I know this is to get your character built up but I just didn't want to spend a bunch of time rolling on the loot table...but that's just me. You do have a limit of 10 items in your pack, so there is some strategy there in what to keep and so forth.

This time I'm combining the core rules with the hex-crawl rules for some overland fun. You start in a city in a plains hex. My city was called Corrock. Next, you generate the six surrounding hexes, rolling for each to see if it had a "location," which could be a dungeon, city, etc. depending on what type of hex it is. I ended up rolling up another city (Brightpond, another human city) on the sixth hex. You can see the start of the map below.

The Continent of Greviel.
As you can see, I've expanded it out a bit

I didn't initially roll up any dungeon locations but, as a city action you can "ask about a nearby dungeon," which randomly generates a dungeon in an adjacent hex to adventure in. Now, this is something I might add to the 4AD hex-crawl found in the Tales of the Adventurer's Guild as it doesn't seem too "dungeony" enough. This generated The Abandoned Palace of the Queen. The only key word you need is "Palace," the rest is just cool fluff.

Anyway, next I rolled up a brand-spankin-new character, Orryn the Gnome Cook. Coincidentally, my wife and I have been watching Delicious in Dungeon...Anyhow, I immediately traveled southeast to where the dungeon was generated next to Corrock. Each time you travel a hex without a location, you roll for an encounter. If you roll 7 or above, nothing happens. If you roll under that, well, it is probably not good. One strategy is to collect some loot and coin off monsters above ground before entering a dungeon, but I went in anyway.

Upon entering the dungeon, there were 2 doors and a staircase down to a wooden door. I decided to explore the upper levels of the palace, trying not to set off any traps on the way. Luck was with Orryn, I did not set off any traps and, as a result, I could peek into the rooms and evaluate the situation before entering. I did have three spells; Light, Cold Ray, and Lightning Bolt. I was able to kill two Orcs and avoid many Living Armor. I just couldn't stop rolling nine! A pack of four goblins almost ended Orryn's spelunking career but he managed to rest up at Corrock's Inn and return to the dungeon. Once you return to the dungeon, you have to roll new monsters for each room you explored (not contents). Thankfully, I didn't have to backtrack much.

 

The Abandoned Palace of the Queen

While I didn't kill the boss, I did make it back to town with some loot, even after I reduced it by half. Orryn nabbed some healing potions, scrolls, and a Jester's Hat as well as 20 gold coins. Just surviving the first dungeon was a miracle with 16 health points. One needs to be real sneaky on your first few dungeons, peeking and sneaking is how you survive. Choose when to fight, if you think you can win. If you're low on health but have plenty of torches, use that torch to disarm a possible trap on that next door!

Wrapping things up, I'm really liking the hex generation so far. I haven't rolled up a glacier yet, which you can just plain fall through the ice and die, but look forward to it?