My Solo RPG Journey: NoteQuest. Overview and Character Creation
This is an import from my old site. Apologies for the spam. This is my Overview/Review and Character Creation for NoteQuest!
Welcome to another entry o imaginary readers! I know I said I was going to take a break but I got inspired, what can I say!
Today, we are going to be going over something very lightweight: NoteQuest. What is NoteQuest? Well if you really wanna find out, the basic game is 100% free right here. Seriously, you could go grab this game and play it for yourself. If you want the more “Advanced” version, NoteQuest Expanded, you can spend a whole $2 to purchase it here.
Oh, you’re still here? I guess I can break this down hehe!
This is a basic dungeon crawler styled game. You will roll dice to build out a dungeon that your character will delve in, hunting and in search of the fabled Boss Room. It's dead simple in its base free form. It primarily uses d6’s and some graph paper for drawing out your dungeon. Think 4 Against Darkness, but only a single hero, and more thematic dungeons, and you got the basic idea.
And when I say simple I mean simple. The basic loop is to enter a dungeon, and create it by rolling dice room by room and corridor by corridor. You start by rolling a d6 3 times normally to create your dungeon's name (for instance you could end up rolling “The Temple” “...Of the Broken…” “Horrors” or a name), and then you use that name to dictate what KIND of dungeon rooms you get. In that example, I would be checking The Temple dungeon type charts for encounters and monsters.
Once you are in a dungeon you mainly are exploring by opening doors, which can be trapped, locked, or unlocked. How do you determine this? Via the good ol D6. And to build the dungeon, each time you open a door you roll to find out what kind of Dungeon Segment you find connecting your last room to the next one. It could be a room or a corridor. Rooms will have both Contents, and Monsters.
It's very simple, straightforward, and basic. You finish your dungeon by making it down to level 3, and fighting the Boss of the dungeon. Simple as eh?
It might sound complicated but I promise once we go into actually building out the dungeon in the next entry, you will understand it.
The final big mechanic is the Torch mechanic. These act sort of like a currency and timer. You can hold up to 10 torches at a time. You use 1 torch to enter the dungeon, and from that point forward, each torch can be spent for specific actions. Unlocking a door costs 1 torch, for example. There are a few other actions you can take like Moving Silently and opening chests, but we can go over those once we hit gameplay.
There are some other smaller actions like revisiting a city to resupply before going back into your dungeon (you may need more torches!), but again, we can get into those as needed.
Oh I almost forgot about combat. You roll your damage, deal it to one of the enemies you face, and then all the enemies hit you. There are no hit rolls, and because of this things can get very lethal very quickly. It's really all about managing resources.
The final thing we need to go over is character creation and when I say this game is simple I really mean it.
You are supposed to roll randomly for both Race and Class. Your Race and Class dictate starting HP, equipment, and if you start with spells and thats…basically it. There are 11 basic races, and 11 classes.
As a quick note, while I won’t be using them, the Expanded World rules add in a ton more depth. They add more dungeon types, hex crawl rules, city rules, war rules, advanced classes (your class advancement system), more races including FORBIDDEN RACES, and much much more. The base game is only around 24 pages long, but with Expanded it reaches nearly 70 pages.
So let's make our character. This will be very fast because, well, I have a particular character in mind to build. And as a note, I am going to be choosing the race and class for reasons. I have a specific narrative idea in mind.
We are going to start with their race. I am going to choose the closest to what I have in mind: Lightbugster. For class, I am going to go with Schoolar.
This gives this character 16 starting HP, 10 Torches, no Coins, 3 uses of the Light Spell (basically an extra torch), and 3 Random Basic Spells. To determine those I roll 3d6. He also starts with a dagger that does 1d6-1.
Those spells are going to be: Lightning (5), Fireball (6), and Teleport (3). All spells are 1 use. So I have 3x Light, 1 Lightning, 1 Fireball, 1 Teleport.
Their name?
Wick, the Beetle Merchant.
And their mission?
Find any sign of Tella or Tella’s remains.
That's right, we are going to play as Wick in a dungeon adventure next time, as he searches for any sign or the remains of Tella after their death at the hands of Putrex! See my Ruthless Heavens Boundless Fate entries for more info as to who these all are.
It had been over 2 weeks since any word from Tella. While the spider assaults on the temple had stopped, Tella had simply vanished. Neon had not visited the town, and Wick was beginning to get worried. ‘I wonder where Tella-friend is!’ he thought to himself. He decided he would try to follow Tella’s path to find his friend.
Using his contacts, as well as some help from Shiv and Bullock, he got access to a few mystical spell scrolls to use in case of emergency, some flares for light, and a pack to carry his supplies. He also grabbed a small knife, as he had very little experience with weapons. Sadly, Shiv and Bullock needed to stay in town to manage it, so Wick was alone.
He got into his ship and headed out towards the mountains, following the path Tella had taken. It was easy to follow, the destruction from the spiders still evident on the ground.
A few hours later, he arrived near the mountains. He quickly noticed the cave system, and landed his ship near it on a shelf. After a few moments he got near the dark entrance and saw blood.
Taking out a single flare, he entered the gloom of the dark caves.
Join me next time when Wick explores “The Tomb of the Broken Hero.” More than likely Wick is going to die as like most of these sort of Solo RPGs, NoteQuest is HIGHLY lethal. But who knows! His little 1d6-1 dagger might do ok!
Till next time.