UnderQuest Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Character Creation
• Exploration
  • Turn Sequence
  • Finishing the Level
  • Questing in UnderQuest
• Stat Checks
• Inventory
• Experience & Skills
• Crafting Potions
  • Example 1
  • Example 2
• Treasures & Trappings
• Trinkets
• Encounters
• Rewards
• Companions
• Curses & Scourges
• Morality
• Incantations
• Combat
• Abominations
• Ending the Game
• Lonely Troll Inn

Components

• Dungeon Deck — 18 Cards
• Tracker Cards — 7 Cards
• Level Trackers — 6 Cards
• Abominations — 10 Cards
• Bosses — 3 Cards
• Encounters — 24 Cards
• Enemies — 18 Cards
• Familiars — 6 Cards
• Incantations — 12 Cards
• Ingredients — 15 Cards
• Quest Deck — 18 Cards
• Race/Class Deck — 6 Cards
• Rewards — 12 Cards
• Scourges — 7 Cards
• Skills — 18 Cards
• Trappings — 14 Cards
• Treasure — 23 Cards
• Trinkets — 16 Cards
• Tracking Cubes — 14 (red, red, black, gold, white, purple, green, orange, purple, and more)
• Dice — 3 Dice
• Rations — 12 Tokens
• Experience — 16 Tokens
• Health — 23 Tokens
• Poison — 11 Tokens
• Gold — 11 Tokens
• Grit — 12 Tokens
• Curse — 5 Tokens
• Combat Quest Token — 8 Tokens
• Nature Quest Token — 8 Tokens
• Mystic Quest Token — 8 Tokens
• Wealth Quest Token — 8 Tokens

Also included in the box is this rulebook and additional bags to help assist in organization and storage. NOTE: All cards will come from the manufacturer out of order and will need to be organized into their separate decks before play.

Game Setup

1. Shuffle the following decks and place them face-down in a row where they will be easily accessible (Rewards, Treasure, Ingredients, Trinkets, Encounters, Enemies, Abominations, & Scourges). These decks will be drawn from more often than other decks. Leave space for a discard pile for each of these decks.

2. The following decks do not require being shuffled and can be placed off to the side face down (Bosses, Trappings, Familiars, Incantations, & Skills). Typically these decks are looked through during play and particular cards are taken when required.

3. Place the 5 level cards in numeric order (1-5), with level 1 on top, in a place you can easily reach. On the bottom of this deck place the card that reads "Time was your real enemy! You have failed your Quest". If you do not defeat the dungeon boss by the end of the 5th level of the dungeon, you lose the game.

Now locate the quest cards. There are six phases to your quest. On the backs of these cards you will see these phases indicated. Shuffle each of these phases separately and pick one card at random from each phase without looking at it. Now stack these six cards in numeric order (1-6), with phase 1 on top. Flip the top card, revealing the first phase of your quest.

4. You may track your Character's stats using either the provided tokens, or with tracker cards and cubes. Both options are available, but in the illustration on the previous page, we opted for tracker cards and cubes. In either case, place these items within reach. Once you have created your character, you will know your starting stats.

You should place the two larger dice somewhere easy to grab and the smaller die off to the side (used to track the morale of potential companions). Additionally you may stack the Quest Tokens off to the side, where they can be grabbed when needed.

5. Leave plenty of space for your Race, Class, Familiar and additional equipment cards (Trappings, Ingredients, Trinkets, Treasure, and more).

6. Shuffle the Dungeon Deck and place it face down. Leave room to the left for a discard pile and leave room for two cards to the right for dungeon exploration. Additionally, leave space above the Dungeon Deck to build a tableau of dungeon cards that have been resolved during play.

Character Creation

In order to go on an epic adventure, one must first create an epic adventurer! Locate the race/class deck. The side with the portrait is the race side and the back is the class. Look through the races and pick one. Once you have done this, flip the remaining cards and pick a class. Lastly, look through the familiars deck and pick one. The combination of these three cards creates your unique adventurer.

A. This is the name of each card. In the example, we have a Cerdorin Bastion with a Moon Rabbit familiar.

B. The heart icon indicates your starting health. Add the values shown on each card together. The sum is your starting health. In our example, we would start with 17 (10+5+2=17). Set your starting health to this value. Your stats may never exceed their starting value, unless a skill or item allow for it.

NOTE: You may track your stats using either tracker cards with cubes, or by using the provided tokens.

C. The purple star icon is used to indicate your starting grit. Add the values shown on each card together. The sum is your starting grit. In our example, we would start with 8 (5+2+1=8) grit. Set your starting grit to this value.

D. The grey hexagon icon tells us your encumbrance. This is the total weight of items you may carry.

E. Here you will find the special ability for your race. Each race has their own unique ability.

F. Every race starts with a trappings card. Locate this card in the trappings deck and place it near your character cards.

G. All characters have three stats. These include Agility, Brawn, and Mind. They are used for many things in the game, including stat checks and bonus combat damage. Your race card tells you your stats and your familiar will give one of your stats an extra point of value. In our example, we have 3 Agility, 2 Brawn, and 1 Mind.

H. The yellow circle icon indicates your starting gold. This may be spent before your adventure on trappings cards or may be saved to be used during gameplay.

I. The brown square icon tells you the starting number of rations that you have. One ration is consumed in between each dungeon level. You may also eat a ration at any time to gain 1 health and 1 grit.

J. This section of the class card indicates how much bonus damage you will deal based on how much grit you spend before rolling your attack dice. This will be covered in detail in the combat section of this rulebook.

K. Every character starts with a skill. Locate the skill card shown on the class card from the skills deck and place it near your character cards. Skills are powerful abilities that make your character unique. You will be able to learn new skills during the game by spending experience points that you have gained in various ways.

L. Skill proficiency tells you what type of skills are easier for you to learn. All skill cards are either an Agility, Brawn, or Mind skill. You may spend 6 experience points to learn a skill that you are proficient at. Our example character is proficient at brawn-based skills. You may learn skills that you are not proficient at, but they will cost you 10 experience points.

M. The grey skull icon tells you your starting position on the morality tracker. Set the cube to the indicated position.

N. Every familiar has a special ability that triggers when either you move up, or down, the morality tracker. Some familiars are good and some are evil, and they will reward you for following their moral desires.

O. Lastly, your familiar gives you a bonus item when you choose them. Take the item shown. In our example, the moon rabbit gives us a random ingredient.

Exploration

With your character created, you are now ready to begin your epic adventure! UnderQuest is played in rounds called "levels", which represent areas of the dungeon you are exploring. Each level is made up of nine turns. The end of the level is triggered when you resolve the ninth turn.

Turn Sequence

1. Draw two cards from the dungeon deck, keeping them face-down.

2. Reveal one of the two dungeon cards by flipping it face-up and reading it.

3. Choose to a) resolve the revealed card and discard the other without looking at it, or b) discard the revealed card face-down, forming a discard pile, then reveal and resolve the second dungeon card.

There are two basic types of dungeon cards in UnderQuest. The first type is straightforward. It presents you with a narrative, and you must either choose an option or perform an action (Altar, Archangel, Campsite, Exalted Foe, False Idol, and Merchant).

The second type of dungeon card will have you resolve an action based on whether you picked the card as the first card revealed or as the second. If you resolve this type of dungeon card as the first card you revealed you resolve only the upper portion marked with a "1". If you discard the first dungeon card and reveal one of these cards as the second card, you must resolve the lower portion marked with a "2". (Ambush, Clearing, Labyrinth, Mushroom Cave, Skirmish, and Treasure Chest).

Each turn one dungeon card will be resolved and one will be discarded face-down into a discard pile. The first dungeon card that you resolve at the beginning of the level will be placed face-up to create a tableau. Each subsequent dungeon card you resolve must be added to the tableau, by placing it on either the left or right side of the cards currently in the tableau. Every dungeon card has half of a quest token icon on each side. Whenever you place a card to the tableau and the quest icon matches, you gain that particular quest token. If they do not match, you simply gain no quest token.

In the example, we have just completed the fifth turn of the level. Now we must place the resolved dungeon card to either the left side of the tableau or the right side. If we place it on the left side, we will match both parts of a Mystic quest icon (potion) and will gain a Mystic quest token. If we place it to the right side, we will match both parts of a Nature quest icon (tree) and will gain a Nature quest token. As you can see in the example, the icons do not have to match in order for you place a card to a tableau (Between the Clearing and the Skirmish and between the False Idol and the Ambush do not match).

Gaining quest tokens is how you will resolve the quest deck. The current active quest card will indicate which quest tokens are needed to be spent in order to resolve that particular card. You may also discard a quest token at anytime to gain 2 experience.

Finishing the Level

The end of the level is triggered once you have resolved the last set of cards in the dungeon deck (Nine total turns). You must then do the following in order.

1. Shuffle the dungeon deck and place it face-down to set up the next level of the dungeon.

2. Feed your character by discarding one ration (Gain 1 health and 1 grit). If you do not have a ration spend, you must lower your health by 3. This could spell defeat, so make sure you have rations at all times. You must also feed your companion (not familiar), if you have one. They require one ration and if you cannot feed them, they will automatically leave (discard their card).

3. For every two poison you currently have, you gain an additional one poison. If at any point your poison level is equal to, or greater than, your health level you instantly die.

4. Discard the top level tracker card to reveal the next level tracker card. These should be in numeric order. If you have not defeated the final boss by the end of the fifth level, you automatically lose the game.

Questing in UnderQuest

The quest deck tells the story of your adventure. Each phase is represented by a single card in the quest deck. There are 6 phases to your adventure. The quest deck is constructed by selecting a random card for each phase, without looking at them, and then stacking them in numerical order with phase one on top. Reveal the top card face-up to begin your adventure.

At the beginning of the game, your quest deck should look like a single pile. When a new quest card is revealed (This includes the beginning of the game), you read the top portion of the card above the quest tokens. This will tell you what your mission is for the particular card.

In order to resolve the quest card, you will need to spend/discard quest tokens that match the ones shown on the active quest card. Doing this allows you to read and resolve the bottom portion of the card. Once resolved, the card is discarded and the next card in the deck should be revealed.

You will continue this process throughout gameplay until you resolve the final quest card, defeat the boss enemy, and win the game, or die trying.

1. The upper portion of the quest card is read when it is revealed. It will paint the picture of what your character is trying to do next on their adventure.

2. This section shows you what quest tokens are required in order to unlock the lower portion of the card. NOTE: The blue text in the upper portion tells us we can substitute 2 ingredients in place of a Mystic quest token.

3. The lower portion of the card gives you the conclusion to this leg of your quest, and sets up the next. Often you will find someone or something here.

Stat Checks

During your adventure you will often be asked to perform a stat check in order to overcome an obstacle. These will be referred to as Agility Check, Brawn Check, and Mind Check.

To perform a stat check you will roll one 6-sided die (d6) and add the value of the stat in question. If the sum of the roll and the stat being tested is 7 or above, you succeed. You will always be attempting to reach 7 or higher.

Example: Your character runs into the frost trap encounter card. It requires you to perform an Agility Check. If you succeed, you gain some loot. If you fail, you still gain the loot, but also take 3 ice damage. You have an agility stat value of 2, but you also have the Nimble Skill, which adds 1 to all Agility Checks, giving you a total of 3. You roll d6 and get the result of 4. 3+4=7, so you have succeeded!

Inventory

You may never carry more weight than your encumbrance trait allows. If you gain an item that puts you over your limit you may discard another item to make room for the new item, or simply refuse the new item, in which case it is discarded. NOTE: If you reveal a consumable item, and you are already at maximum encumbrance, you may immediately use the consumable item, without having to discard to make room for it.

Every item in the game has a location that it is equipped to.

PH: Primary Hand. You may only have one item in your primary hand at any given time.

OH: Off Hand. You may only have one item in your off hand at any given time.

2H: Two-handed. Items of this type take up the slot of both your primary hand and off hand.

HD: Head. You may only have one item equipped to your head at any given time.

BD: Body. You may only have one item equipped to your body at any given time.

AS: Accessory. You may have as many accessories equipped as you like.

NOTE: You do not need to have an item equipped in order to carry it. You can carry any number of non-equipped items as long as you do not exceed your encumbrance.

Every two ingredients/trinkets you carry counts for 1 encumbrance. Example: If you have 3 ingredients and 1 trinket, they will count as 2 encumbrance.

You may switch out equipped items in between turns, but not during the process of resolving a card or during combat. The one exception to this is if you are in combat and your primary weapon is destroyed/breaks. You may immediately equip a new weapon from you inventory or move a weapon from your off hand to your primary hand.

Experience & Skills

You will gain experience on your adventure by defeating enemies and by resolving certain quest and encounter cards. You may spend experience in two different ways.

1. You may spend 1 experience to re-roll your die/dice. This could be an attack roll in combat, a stat check, a roll for initiative in combat, crafting a potion, or any other time the game asks you to roll a die/dice.

2. You may also spend experience to learn new skills to advance your character. The cost of learning a new skill is based on your skill proficiency. All skill cards tell you what stat they rely on in the bottom right corner. If this stat matches your skill proficiency, they are easier for you to learn, and only cost 6 experience. If the stat does not match your skill proficiency, they are tougher for you to learn, and cost 10 experience.

You may learn a new skill in between turns by spending the required experience.

1. Skill name.

2. Skill description.

3. Prerequisite. Some skills cannot be learned until you have learned another skill first. For example, you may not learn the Counterstrike skill until you have first learned the Nimble skill.

4. The stat type listed here tells you what stat type the skill relies on. If the indicated stat matches your skill proficiency, it only costs 6 experience to learn. If it does not match, it will cost you 10 experience to learn.

Crafting Potions

You will gain ingredient cards throughout your adventure. On their own ingredients have no power, but they may be combined to create powerful potions! Let's examine an ingredient card.

1. Ingredient name.

2. Crafting difficulty. The more powerful the ingredient, the more difficult it is to craft a potion with.

3. Crafting effects. These icons indicate the possible effects you may gain by crafting a potion with a particular ingredient.

4. Risk/Reward. There is a risk associated with each ingredient that you may suffer if you fail at crafting a potion with it. There is also a reward that you may gain if you happen to craft an exquisite variant of a potion with it.

Once you have two ingredients, you may attempt to craft a potion with them. Place both cards side by side so that the red arrows line up with each other. You are looking for icons to match in a row across both cards. Each icon offers you a particular effect. Let's look at those now.

• Health: Each heart icon will heal your character for 1 health.
• Grit: Each star icon will restore 1 grit to your character.
• Poison: Each drop icon will remove 1 poison from your character.
• Bless: Each cross icon will remove 1 curse from your character.
• Ration: Each mushroom icon will gain your character 1 ration.

If none of the icons match up across both cards, you may shift one of the cards up or down in an attempt to get a row of matching icons. Every space you shift the card, increases the difficulty to craft the potion by 1 point. If by chance multiple rows have matching icons, you must choose which row of icons you want to use. You cannot gain the effects of icons from more than one row.

Let's look at a few of examples of potion crafting in order to give you a better understanding.

Example 1

We are trying to craft a potion with a Dusk Beetle and some Fresh Blood. The first thing we do is place the cards side by side. The only row of icons that match up is the top row of hearts. For this example, we are not going to shift either of the cards, and we are going to attempt to make a healing potion with the heart icons. If successful, we will restore health equal to the number of heart icons, which is 4.

Now we must determine the crafting difficulty of the potion. We must add up all the white star icons in the top left corner of both cards. The sum in this case is 5. Since we didn't have to shift either card, we do not have to add any value to the crafting difficulty.

Crafting a potion is simple. Just roll d6 and add your mind stat to the result. If the sum is equal to, or greater than, the crafting difficulty (5 or higher in this example), you successfully make the potion and immediately gain 4 health. If the sum is less than the crafting difficulty, you fail at crafting the potion. In both cases, both cards are to be discarded.

If you ever roll a 6 when attempting to craft a potion, you automatically succeed, and you create an exquisite version of the potion. You gain the regular effect, but also may choose one of the rewards shown on one of the cards used.

If you ever roll a 1 when attempting to craft a potion, you automatically fail. You also must suffer the risk. Randomly select one of the cards used and then suffer the risk indicated on that card.

Example 2

In this example we have a Serpent's Eye and a Human Bone. We are not able to craft a potion with these two ingredients without shifting one of the cards. For this scenario we will shift one of the cards one space to create a potion that could potentially restore 3 grit. Each time we shift a card one space, we increase the crafting difficulty by one. Each ingredient has a crafting difficulty of 2, which makes the total crafting difficulty of this potion a 5 (2+2+1=5).

Note 1: Remember that every 2 ingredients that you have in your inventory count as 1 encumbrance.

Note 2: You may only craft a potion in between turns during the game and not while resolving a dungeon card. This means that you may NOT craft a potion while engaged in combat for example.

Treasures & Trappings

You will be equiping your character with trappings and treasures throughout the course of your adventure. These items may include weapons, armor, or powerful accessories. Let's take a look at an example card.

1. Item name.

2. The cost of the item. You may purchase using any combination of gold and trinkets.

3. Item weight in encumbrance.

4. Inventory location.

5. Special ability.

6. Red text indicates a potential weakness.

7. Item type.

8. Weapons will indicate what stat they rely on. You will be able to add the corresponding stat's value to a successful attack in combat.

(DAGGERS) Daggers may be thrown during combat, potentially dealing a lot of damage. Once thrown, daggers are lost until combat ends. You may automatically equip a new weapon to your primary hand from your inventory, just as if your dagger was destroyed or broken. After combat, you may retrieve your dagger.

(MIMICS) Mimics are nasty foes that can be found in the treasure deck, and when revealed, must be dealt with like a standard enemy. Mimics do not add the dungeon level to their health.

(TRAPS) Traps are another hazard found in the treasure deck. They will require you to pass a stat check, or suffer a consequence. Once resolved, you may draw the next card from the treasure deck.

Trinkets

You will find trinkets during your adventure and they act as a form of currency. You may spend them at the merchant, to bribe enemies, or to purchase trappings in between adventures at the Lonely Troll Inn. Most also have a special ability. Let's take a look at an example card.

1. Item name.

2. The number of white circle icons equals the value of the trinket in gold. These Loose Pearls are worth 2 gold.

3. All trinkets have some sort of special use and these are written in text below the item's image. Some trinkets interact with cards in the Encounter deck or have a particular use during your adventure.

(MARBLES) Marbles introduce a set-collection mechanic. The more marbles you have, the more the set is worth. The core game of UnderQuest has 2 marbles in the Trinkets deck, but more will be added in future expansions.

(WANDS) In order to create a powerful wand, you must locate the Wand Shaft trinket card and either the Amethyst or Raw Amber trinket card. You will then have to discard both cards and then search the Rewards deck and take the appropriate card.

Wand Shaft + Amethyst = Ice Wand Wand Shaft + Raw Amber = Fire Wand

(FORGOTTEN NOTE) The Forgotten Note is a burden to find. It has zero value, but you cannot discard it without spending 2 grit. It will just take up valuable inventory space until you decide to spend the grit to discard it.

Encounters

Whenever to resolve a Clearing dungeon card, you will be asked to draw and resolve an Encounter card. Encounters are random narratives that will often offer you a choice to make or challenge you in other ways. They are also a good way to gain Quest Tokens. Let's take a look at two example cards.

1. Encounter title.

2. Description of scene.

3. This section offers you a choice to make. Sometimes you will be challenged to make a stat check, or to decide whether you want to resolve the card at all, or in this case, a moral decision.

Do you want to free the Pigman and move up on the morality tracker and gain the Pigman Reward card, or do you take the darker path and eat the Pigman. Eating him will reward you with a lot of benefits, but will move you down the morality tracker.

In this example you "may" decide to attempt to swap an item from your inventory for the box on the pedestal. Whenever the word "may" is used in the text, you are given the chance to not resolve the card and simply discard it.

If you decide to attempt to swap an item from your inventory with the box, you must successfully pass an Agility check. If you fail, you lose the box and the item from your inventory. If you pass, you still lose the item from your inventory, but you gain a bunch of useful items, including a Mystic Quest Token.

Once resolved, Encounter cards are to be discarded.

Rewards

The Rewards deck consists of many types of cards including some power items and helpful companions. You will never draw from this deck like other decks, but rather you will be told, during the course of the game, to take a particular card from the deck. When you are asked to do so, simply look through the Rewards deck for the requested card and take it.

Many of these cards are items like a powerful sword or a magical cloak. They are to be treated just like a trappings or treasure card. The rewards deck also has companion cards in it, which we will look at next.

Companions

You can find a companion either from the Quest deck or from the Encounters deck during your adventure. These characters will join you on your adventure. However, you will have to feed them 1 ration at the end of each level and make sure their morale never drops to zero. In exchange, they will provide a host of benefits for you. It should be noted, that you may only have one companion at a time. If you already have a companion, and you find a new one, you may refuse to take the new one, or you can swap out companions.

1. Companion's name.

2. Bonus damage that you add to all your successful hits during combat.

3. Bonus defense that you may subtract from damage taken during combat.

4. Bonus encumbrance that allows you to carry more items in your inventory.

5. Unique special ability that you gain while the companion is with you.

6. Every companion has a level of morale, which is tracked using the smaller six-sided die. When you gain a companion, simply place the die on top of the die icon, with the shown value facing up. Each companion loses morale in different ways. Borko, for example, will lose 1 morale each time you resolve the False Idol dungeon card. When this happens, you lower the morale by 1, using the die to track this. If a companions morale ever reaching zero, they will abandon you and the card should be discarded. However, you may raise their morale back up, but never beyond their starting morale, by spending particular items. The required item is shown below the die icon. In the case of Borko, you can spend 1 trinket to raise his morale up 1 space.

Curses & Scourges

Throughout your adventure you will battle enemies and resolve encounters that will cause you to gain a Curse Token. Curses by themselves are not a concern, but if you ever gain 5 Curse Tokens, you must discard them and draw a random Scourge Card.

There are a few ways to remove Curse Tokens during your adventure including the Altar dungeon card, certain items, casting the Faith incantation, or crafting a potion.

However, once you have gained a scourge, it is very difficult to get rid of it. Scourges are nasty burdens that will change how you play the game. Some will lower your ability to carry items, some will make you foolishly charge into battle, while others will punish you based on the moral choices you make during your adventure.

It is always a good idea to keep an eye on the number of Curses Tokens you have and try to avoid gaining a potentially deadly Scourge!

Morality

The choices you make during your adventure will have an impact on your morality, and this will effect many aspects of your journey. When you make morally good choices, you will move up on the morality tracker, while your more shameful decisions, will have you lowering your place on the tracker.

Your placement on the morality tracker itself doesn't directly effect anything, but it will effect you when you draw certain cards during your adventure.

Typically making poor moral decisions will gain you an instant reward, while making positive choices will reward you later on down the road.

During play you will draw certain cards that will effect you based on your placement on the Morality Tracker. The Archangel dungeon card for example, will heal you if you have positive morality and will damage you if you have negative morality. Many Encounter cards will act in the same way. There are even items that require you to have a certain moral alignment. So be careful with the choices you make, because they may come back to haunt you.

Incantations

UnderQuest is full of magical creatures, items, and locations, so it is not surprising that you can actually learn how to harness these powers for your own purpose. This is done through the power of learning incantations. In order to learn first level incantations you must first learn the skill of Wizardry.

Learning the Wizardry skill will allow you to learn two level one incantations. The first will be drawn at random from the available level one incantations, while you can then look through the rest of the level one incantations and choose a second one to learn.

Once you have learned the Wizardry skill, you will later be able to spend experience to learn new forms of incantations. These incantations will fall into one of the three schools of magic, including Fire Magic, Ice Magic, and Holy Magic. It is a prerequisite that you must first have the Wizardry skill in order to advance to more powerful magic.

1. Incantation name.

2. Incantation level. This value also tells you the cost to cast the incantation. In order to cast this incantation, you must spend grit equal to this value.

3. This icon indicates what school of magic this incantation falls into.

Skull = Holy Flame = Fire Snowflake = Ice

4. This section describes the effect of the incantation. In many cases you will be given a choice. You can pick one of the two options in these scenarios.

Incantations are one-use cards. Once you have cast an incantation, they are to be flipped over to show they are no longer available. You may regain access to these incantations in a few ways. (1) If you beat the game, you regain all your incantations. (2) Some cards in the game will allow you to reactivate a single incantation. The Encounters card Sortab, is a good example. (3) Lastly, once you have learned the Wizardry skill, you open up a fourth option at the Campsite Dungeon card. You may spend 1 ration at the Campsite to reactivate 1 spent incantation. This is in lieu of any other campsite actions.

Combat

At some point during your adventure you will run into enemies. The only way to deal with these foul creatures is to engage in combat or to bribe them. When you are pulled into combat, the first thing you will have to do is draw an enemy card. Let's examine an enemy card now.

1. Enemy name.

2. Health. This is the base health of the enemy. If the enemy was revealed by a dungeon card, you will be asked to add the current dungeon level to their health. The deeper you go in the dungeon, the tougher your foes will become.

3. Damage. This is the base damage the enemy will deal to you if they successfully hit on their turn.

4. Defense. The value here indicates how much damage the enemy will subtract from your successful hits. Defense does not subtract from Fire, Ice, or Holy damage. This type of magic damage cannot be blocked unless specified as a special ability.

5. Treasure type. Each enemy will have a treasure type that will tell you what treasure you will claim if you defeat the enemy. Refer to the current Level Tracker card to see what loot the foe may be carrying. The deeper you are in the dungeon, the better the loot you will find.

6. Weakness. Each enemy has a weakness (Fire, Ice, or Holy). If you inflict damage to a foe that matches their weakness, that type of damage will deal double-damage. EXAMPLE: If you hit the orc above with 3 fire damage, it will deal 6 damage (double-damage). If you hit the orc above with 3 Ice damage, it just deals 3 damage.

7. Special Ability. Each enemy has a special ability that will impact how the combat is resolved. EXAMPLE: The orc above will deal 3 extra damage, if they successfully hit, on their next attack everytime you miss on your turn. The blue text tells us that they can be bribed for 2 trinkets. You gain no treasure or experience when you avoid a combat.

8. Experience. You will gain experience equal to the number of star icons shown here, if you defeat the enemy.

9. Initiative. This tells us the initiative of the enemy. In order to determine who takes the first turn in combat, you will have to check initiative. To do this, you will roll d6 and add your Agility stat. If the sum is equal to, or higher than, the enemy's initiative, you get to take your turn in combat first. If the sum is lower, the enemy gets to go first.

Combat is resolved in turns. The enemy and you will take turns attacking each other until one of you runs out of health and dies. If you die, the game ends immediately. Let's take a look at the combat sequence.

1. Determine Initiative. The first thing that must be done is to figure out who will attack first. Determine initiative as described above.

2. Determine Enemy Health. If resolving the Skirmish, Ambush, or Exalted Foe dungeon cards, you will have to add the current dungeon level to the health of the enemy. Some Abomination cards will also add bonus health to your enemy. Track the enemy's health during combat using the Enemy Health Tracker.

3. Enemy Special Abilities. Read the special abilities on the enemy card. Often they will require a stat check before combat begins. It is also a good idea to know what abilities the enemy has before combat begins, so that you may make better decisions during combat.

4. Attacking the Enemy. On your turn you will either attempt to attack the enemy, cast an incantation, or use an item from your inventory to deal damage (Black Powder, etc). You may consume any number or items as a free action and still attack (Bitter Remedy, etc). You may NOT craft a potion from ingredients during combat.

Let's focus on attacking the enemy. Before you roll any dice, you must first determine how much grit you want to spend on your attack. Spending grit equates to the amount of effort you want to put into your attack, which will allow you to deal bonus damage. You may elect to not spend any grit, but you will forgo the bonus damage.

On your Class card you will see three attack icons. Each shows a different damage bonus. Above each of these icons are a number of grit icons. Before rolling your attack dice, you may spend grit to deal bonus damage if you successfully hit. EXAMPLE: In the example image above, if you spend 2 grit, you will deal 5 bonus damage if you successfully hit. If you miss, you lose the bonus damage and the grit spent. If you decide not to spend any grit, you simply skip this step.

5. Attempting to Hit. Now you must attempt to hit the enemy. To do this, simply roll 2d6 (roll 2 six-sided dice). If you roll doubles, you miss and deal zero damage. Any grit you may have spent is lost and it becomes the enemy's turn to attack. If the dice roll results in two different values, you will subtract one die result from the other. This difference equates to how well you hit and how much base damage you have dealt. EXAMPLE: You roll 2d6 and get the results of a 2 and a 5 (5-2=3). You deal 3 base damage.

6. Attack Modifiers. You will add damage to your base damage as indicated below.

(A) Add any bonus damage from the grit you spent before you rolled your attack dice.

(B) Look at the bottom right corner of the weapon card you have equipped. Every weapon relies on a stat (Agility, Brawn, or Mind). You add your corresponding stat value to your attack. EXAMPLE: If you attack with the Iron Sword (Brawn) you get to add the value of your Brawn stat to your damage. So if you have 3 Brawn, you add 3 damage to your attack. You do not have to spend any grit before rolling attack dice to get this bonus.

(C) Some weapons will offer a damage bonus themselves. The Iron Sword deals 2 bonus damage to all successful hits. Some will add magic damage (Fire, Ice, or Holy).

(D) Some items you carry may add damage to your attacks and some special abilities on your race card will do the same.

Example Player Attack. Before rolling your attack dice, you decide to spend 2 grit on your attack, which will add 5 bonus damage if you successfully hit. You roll your attack dice and get the results of a 4 and a 2. That is a successful hit with a base damage of 2 (4-2=2). Now you add your bonus damage from the grit you spent. (5+2=7). Next you look at your weapon and see that it is a brawn weapon and you have a brawn stat of 2 (7+2=9). Lastly, the weapon you are using deals 1 damage to all successful hits (9+1=10). You do not have any special abilities or other cards that modify your damage, so the total damage you deal is 10.

7. Enemy Defense. Once you have determined the sum of your attack damage, you must check to see if the enemy has any defense. If they do, you have to subtract the shown value from your damage. The result is your final damage and should be subtracted from the enemy's health. If this equates to the enemy having zero health (You cannot have negative health) then you have defeated your foe. You will gain the experience shown on the enemy card and any treasure that they may be carrying. If the enemy still has health left after your attack, they get to attack you.

8. Enemy Attack. On the enemy's turn they will attack. Their attack works much like your own. Roll 2d6. If they roll doubles, they miss, and it becomes your turn again. Any other result will indicate a successful hit. In this case you will subtract the values of both dice from each other to determine base damage. EXAMPLE: The enemy rolls 2d6 with the results of a 3 and a 6 (6-3=3). This tells us the base damage of their attack is 3. Now look at the enemy card and see if they deal bonus damage. For this example we are fighting an Ork and they deal 2 bonus damage. We add this to their base damage for a result of 5. Some enemies add extra damage or other effects on successful hits (poison, curses, etc). Subtract the value of any relevant armor, skills, companions, or items from their attack. You now subtract the final damage from your health. If the attack results in you having no health remaining, you die and the game ends.

9. Magic Damage. There are three types of magical damage including: Fire, Ice, and Holy. You cannot defend against this sort of damage when you suffer it, unless you have a skill, ability, or item that specifically defends against it. EXAMPLE: The Fur Cloak Trappings card allows you to subtract 2 from all Ice damage. Standard armor like a the Iron Helm and Leather Armor only defend against standard damage. EXAMPLE: If an enemy deals 3 Fire damage and you have Scale Armor, you still suffer 3 damage to your health.

When you attack an enemy with magic damage, it ignores their defense as well. If the magic type you are using matches the enemy's weakness, it will deal double damage.

10. Bare-handed Attacks. If you are not equipped with a weapon you may not spend grit before your attack roll for bonus damage. You simply roll 2d6 to attack. If you roll doubles, you miss and it your turn passes and the enemy starts their turn. Any other outcome will result in damage. Simply subtract the dice results for your damage. EXAMPLE: You attack bare-handed and roll your attack dice. The results are a 1 and a 3. You deal 2 damage (3-1=2). You do not add any bonus damage to this attack. There is one bonus for attacking bare-handed and that is that these attacks ignore the enemy's defense. So the 2 damage from the example above is removed from the enemy's health no matter what sort of defense value they have.

11. Ending Combat. You and your enemy will take turns in this manner until one of you runs out of health. If the enemy runs out of health, they are defeated and you gain the experience shown on their card, as well as any treasure. Check the enemy's treasure type and then refer to the Dungeon Level Tracker. You will be given a choice between two treasures.

If you run out of health, or your poison level reaches the value of your health, you die and the game ends immediately.

Abominations

In some cases you will face a more powerful enemy that will require you to add one, and sometimes two, abominations to the enemy you are in combat with. Abominations modify the enemy and make them much more difficult to deal with. Let's take a look at an Abomination card.

1. Prefix title.

2. Prefix power. This section describes the special ability that is added to the enemy. These abilities are additional to any special abilities the enemy has on their card. The blue text is a weakness that the enemy gains. In the example above a stout enemy will gain d6 extra starting health, but their initiative in lowered by 2, making it more likely that you will get to attack first.

3. Bonus loot. The yellow text at the bottom indicates bonus loot that you gain if you defeat the enemy.

4. Suffix title.

5. Suffix power. This section tells you what additional powers the enemy gains from the suffix. These are typically quite powerful abilities and you will not find a weakness associated with the suffix.

6. Bonus loot. The yellow text at the bottom indicates bonus loot that you gain if you defeat the enemy.

When you draw a Skirmish or Ambush card as the second card while adventuring, you will be asked to add the prefix side of an abomination card to the enemy. To do this, simply tuck the suffix side under the enemy card.

Above we have added an abomination card to this skeleton. You will have to add d6 health to its starting health and subtract 2 from its initiative. If defeated, you will gain a bonus ration.

If you are resolving the Exalted Foe dungeon card, you will be asked to add both a prefix and a suffix card to the enemy. The first abomination card you draw will be used as the prefix and you will draw a second abomination card, and that will serve as the suffix.

Now the skeleton we are battling is also immune to all holy damage and they get to add 2 damage to all successful attacks. This relatively easy enemy, has become a very deadly foe.

Ending the Game

The game ends in a victory only if you reach the final boss on the final quest card and you defeat them. If you defeat the final boss you will gain 4 experience and may choose from one of the following for your reward.

1 Treasure, 2 Gold, and 2 Ingredients

(Or)

You may raise one of your character stats by 1 point (Agility, Brawn, or Mind). No base stat may ever exceed 4.

Your adventure ends in defeat at any point during the game when one of the following things occur.

1. Your health reaches zero.

2. Your poison level is equal to, or greater than, your health level.

3. You die instantly while resolving an encounter card (All Seeing Eye, etc.)

4. You do not beat the final boss before the end of the fifth level of the dungeon.

Lonely Troll Inn

If you win the game, you may continue your adventure with the same character. You will return to the Lonely Troll Inn to rest and recover in between adventures. Your Health and Grit are restored to their starting values and all poison is removed.

You may pay Scarla the cleric to remove curses at the cost of 1 gold each and a scourge may be removed at the cost of 3 gold.

You may sell any Treasure or Trappings card, or any 2 Ingredients, for 1 gold to the merchant Kaln. Kaln also will sell you any Trappings card and he also stocks rations at the cost of 1 gold/trinket each.

Once you are ready to head out on another adventure you simply setup a new game and play it the same way as before, but with one small change. Whenever you shuffle the Dungeon Deck at the begining of a dungeon level, you will remove 2 cards at random, without looking at them. Each level will now only have 8 turns, making the game more difficult.

Future expansion packs will be available as well that will allow for more variety and difficulty, as well as unique quests.