The Fantasy Civ Solo: Quests Expansion is out now! You can purchase it from DriveThru or itch using the buttons below.
This blog post is a repost from my Patreon! I write frequent design diaries for my Patreon subscribers, as well as post exclusive games, early access videos and more. You can check out my Patreon here!
With Fantasy Civ Solo: Quests Expansion right around the corner (releases August 11th!), I wanted to dive into the blueprint of a quest a bit – and explain my thoughts, challenges, hopes and dreams!
Also, if you are Courageous Knight Level or above, I’ll be publishing the game to my Patreon Feed shortly so you can try it out a few weeks before release!
The Design Intent behind a Quest
Each quest has a location the player needs to reach, or another condition the player needs to fulfill. Each quest also has a timer of some kind, and a reward if the player is able to reach the quest location or fulfill the condition before the time runs out.
The design intent behind Quests, is to give the player a medium term goal to work towards. When playing Fantasy Civ Solo, the player has a long term goal (Aspiration) to accomplish, and the constant short term goal of survival. However, I have observed that some players find themselves aimless, unsure of where to explore or how much to explore.
I’m hoping that quests can bridge this gap between the short term goal of survival, and the long term goal of winning the game through the Aspiration.
The Challenge with Quests
So far, Quests seem to be fun and exciting – but there is a bit of player overhead needed when a new quest is rolled. And the biggest challenge with this is identifying the Quest Hex.
Many (most?) quests need a Quest Hex – somewhere the player’s Units can reach to accomplish the quest. This should be random, and at least 3 or more hexes away from the player’s starting city. This adds tension to the race, and encourages the player to expand – it is a 4x game after all.
Finding the Quest Hex is simple, but I’ve found it difficult to describe. Right now, I ask the player to roll 1d6 to determine the direction from a starting hex, and then 1d4 to determine distance in that direction. It seems simple to me, but I do think it’s easy to get caught up with. I’ve already added an extra page to the rules so that I can give a step by step example – but I’m also trialing some last minute adjustments to see if I can make an easier system for identifying a Quest Hex.
Hopes and Dreams for Quests
Ideally, people have a lot of fun with the Quests Expansion, and find the addition of the events and quests a welcome addition, adding to the robust content, decisions and joy of playing Fantasy Civ Solo.
Quests were a part of the original design of the game, and I have a lot more ideas. If Quests are enjoyed as much as I hope they are, I would love to add more to this expansion post-release, and possibly tie the quests mechanic into other expansion that I release in the future.
Try it Out!
The Quests Expansion is almost done! In a little bit I’ll be posting the current version to my Patreon feed. Courageous Knight members and above can try it out right now, weeks before anyone else! Please note that it is not complete, but there is enough to play with at the moment.
Thank you so much for reading, and for being a fan of games!
-James
Join The Community
Thank you for checking out my design diary!
You can join our community newsletter here, which will allow you to receive updates on news around all my games.
You can also follow me on itch.io or follow me on DriveThruRPG, or join my Patreon!
Thank you for being a fan of games! I’m looking forward to gaming with you!
