NoteQuest: Expanded World First Impressions Part 1: Core Rules

 

NoteQuest: Expanded World by Green Little Thing has been in my cart off and on for a year or two now but I never pulled the trigger on buying it. Today, I finally did! Let me give you a bit of an overview before I do a play through.

Note: The NoteQuest: Expanded World includes the core NoteQuest rules, so all you need is to plop down a couple bucks and you're set! This overview will be covering said core rules.

 

A hapless halfling...Artwork from the book

Overview

NoteQuest: Expanded World (from now on, NQ) is a simple dungeon-crawler and hex-crawler, when above ground, using a small handful of six-sided dice (d6). First, you roll a number of d6 to randomly determine race, class, and any spells you might have. Your race/class (each have 11 in the base game) determines your starting equipment, hit points (hp), and any special abilities you might have. Then, you move on to creating a dungeon. Again, roll a few d6 and you find out which type of dungeon (6 different types in the core rules) and the name of the dungeon. Then, in you go. Welcome to your first dungeon!

Character Creation

My first adventurer is a Halfling Blacksmith...Strange combination but I like it! He has a total of 18 hp and can spend 1 torch to repair a piece of armor. He also starts with a hammer (1d6). Torches are used with certain actions. Such as entering a dungeon, picking a lock, opening a chest, etc. You're limited to and start off with 10 torches, so use them wisely. Armor adds extra hp to your player character (PC). You can carry 10 items in your pack, as well as wielded/worn items.

 Building the Dungeon 

Now, let's find out what sort of dungeon we have...*sound of rolling d6's* The Prison of the Cold Rest. Sounds like a Soviet era prison from Stranger Things! Anyway, I flip over to the Prison dungeon section where I take a staircase down and encounter my first door. It's easy to memorize the door type, roll a d6. If it's 1 Trap!, 2-3 Locked, or 4-6 is unlocked. My first door is not locked.

And so I open the door, since this is a staircase, I roll on the "open from a staircase" column. It opens up into a...corridor with two other doors. Once you enter the dungeon, you burn a torch, I'm now down to 9. I try the first door...Unlocked...I enter the room, and roll for contents and monsters in the room. A shelf with 1d6 treasures and there are no monsters. Whew! The treasures are a spear (1d6+1 damage), scroll of teleport, and a Bracelet of the Goblin Hero (-2 hp). The bracelet, as I understand it, crumbles as bracelets have 2 hp and with the -2 modifier, that means the hp would be 0.

And that's how you build a dungeon. Exploring each room until you either have explored all doors or descended two staircases. In the case of exploring all doors, the last door you open will be the final boss. If you descend two staircases, you encounter the boss in a large room.

Art from the rule book!

Combat

Combat is also simple. First, if you bashed down a door or set off a trap, the monsters get the drop on you and you get attacked first. They will also attack first on a failed sneak. If none of those conditions apply, you get to attack first. For a PC to attack, you roll the appropriate number of d6's and add on any modifiers then deduct that from the monster's hp. For the monsters attack, you look at how much damage it does and deduct that from your hp. You can also deduct it from your armor hp but once it reaches 0 hp, it is destroyed. There are also special abilities for monsters. Once your PC has 0 hp, you're done for. Your backpack and belongings fall to the ground for your next character. So be sure to mark where you died!

Outside the Dungeon

After you complete a dungeon, you can return to town. You can rest, fix armor, buy torches, and sell items. Pretty limited but I think in the Expanded World, you will have a lot more options! Once you visit town, you can return to a dungeon but you have to roll on the monster table for each empty room you go through. You can also choose to enter a new dungeon.

More great artwork from the rule book!

First Dungeon Outcome and My Thoughts

My first dungeon consisted of one corridor and four rooms. Two rooms contained no monsters, one containing the loot above and the other containing coffins and a possible secret passage, which there wasn't. I came up against 2 living armors that I defeated but in the final room was a boss room. In it there were two hell hounds and they creamed me, after being dinged down to just 6 hp from the living armors. After the fact, I reread the teleport scroll I had and it said I could have used it in combat! So, the halfling needlessly died but, that's the chaos of battle, I suppose (and being a newb to the rules didn't help!).

It is definitely a brutal dungeon crawl from what I'm used to with Four Against Darkness. I really like the randomness. Tables, tables, and more tables. If you don't like random tables, then this one is probably not for you! That said, I love random tables. Randomness makes a solo game work. I really like the random race/class system, probably my favorite bit.

Sneaking is king, in the early game, at least! If you're successful, you can steal treasure and coins right from under the monsters noses. It's a great way to get loot.

I can tell that better weapons and armor are definitely going to help you survive. Next time I'll take more caution, as you never know when you will enter a boss room.

Well, that's it for now. I'm ready to roll up another character and start delving!

Edit: Rolled up a few more characters, including a halfling locksmith, a human cook, and a Lightbugster (I'm thinking a firefly huminoid?) gravedigger. So far, the Lightbugster is the only one to survive a boss encounter. He scored big with a couple of healing potions that kept him alive.