The Valley of the Dead King
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| Tiles A, B, C, D |
One of the nice things about a 'Hexcrawl game' or 'overland adventure' is exploring the geography of the land that is laid out if front of you.
In Hexplore It: Valley of the Dead King ('VODK') the valley lies at your feet, and you can go anywhere. On setup you have 4 main, large quadrant tiles (A, B, C, D) that you can lay out in a standard pattern, or (as noted in the rulebook) 'in any orientation you like'. In the image above I've placed them in a non-standard way. As you play, you'll traverse the map overland from city-to-city or quest-to-quest, encountering enemies and circumstances to deal with along the way. Changing even how those 4 tiles start the game really alters each playthrough. You must consider the lay of the land as you ponder which quests to take on, based in part on their location and accessibility.
Expanding the map
Although the map above appears small, in the usual game, you add a new tile (or two) if you reach the edge of the existing world. However, that can be a slow process as you make your way across the map, and once you reach the edge you don't know what tile will be revealed. That sounds cool (true exploration!) but at the same time you may end up not revealing a tile with a quest that you are desperately seeking (although by using a 'luck stone' you can change three of the quests currently on offer in the Quest deck/ row, allowing you to replace quests that aren't on the current map. You can see 5 quests at the bottom of the image below.)
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| At bottom: Quest deck and 5 quests laid out from left to right. |
Adding tiles with Quests
I don't personally find adding tiles only when you reach the edge fun, even if it makes sense. In a game where levelling up by completing quests and movement efficiently is key, drawing a tile that doesn't have what you are looking for can really raise the challenge (or frustration)!
Instead, if a quest involves being sent outside of the current map, I randomly add that tile to a point on the map instantly. After all, if the quest giver can tell me about the quest then surely they can point me in roughly the right direction?
In the image below, at least 4 quests came out that involved additional hextiles (shown with arrows.) The skulls are cities that have already fallen to the Dead King. As I placed each, I felt a sense of excitement as my knowledge of the valley's geography grew, and I could see what each tile offered in addition to the quest. Shrines! Ruins! Each holding the promise of aid or adventure.
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| 4 tiles (indicated by arrows) have been added to the adventure. |
Alternative setup options
As well as setting the map randomly, the publisher has created an alternative setup guide in the guise of a travel document. Written by a mysterious native of the region, Accalon's Guide to the Valley contains 19 alternative map configurations within its four pages. Rather cleverly, it also offers a special reward to the heroes should they locate an item belonging to the writer in game and deliver it to a particular tile.
Although the physical version of the Guide to the Valley was only part of the 1st edition and cannot be found in the 2nd, it is still available to download from the publisher's website.
As well as this guide, because you can setup the map in any way you want, you could of course lay the whole thing out from the get-go! After all, the valley has been populated for a long time and its geography could be well known. Although this takes more tablespace it looks cool!
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| Map tiles image from www.hexploreit.com |
So, if you an overland 'hexcrawl' sounds interesting to you, it might be worth checking out the Hexplore It system. There are four volumes in the series at the moment, with more to come no doubt!
For my other thoughts on the Valley of the Dead King, checkout these posts:
Cheers!
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