PLAYING WITHOUT A ZORGAN PLAYER

Chose which player goes first and then play normally, with the following
extra rules:
WHEN A HERO OPENS A DOOR TO A ROOM, that player does the
following:
1. Take and read all the cards inside the new room, and place the listed
Designed by Giuseppe Rotondo - Axian Spice monsters and furniture wherever they want inside the room. If the room
Layout by Luca Basile
Axian Spice, AxianQuest and their logos are © Giuseppe Rotondo, 2023. All rights reserved. Some artwork © Dean Spencer, 2015; © Lorc -
is too small, place the furniture piece(s) into another room with face-down
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2023; used with permission. All rights reserved.
cards, and/or place the monsters in the starting room (their choice).
Abbreviations used in this document and on the cards 2. Place into the newly explored room a closed door leading to an
adjacent room with face-down cards, or to an adjacent corridor, if any. If
Mv: Move, or movement 1d6, 2d6, etc: One die, two dice, etc.
AD: Dice rolled to Attack +: Extra/additional all rooms with cards are already reachable, placing doors is optional.
DD: Dice used to Defend -: Minus/less
3. Resolve any Trap card found. Follow the instructions on the card.
BP: Body or bodily Points Zorgan: The player controlling the monsters
MP: Mind or mental Points 4. Place the revealed cards into a discard pile at the side of the board. You
Examples: “+2 AD” means “gain 2 extra dice to attack”. “-1 DD” means “roll 1 less die to defend”. may want to keep at hand the Clue Cards, so that you’ll know how many
clues you’ve found so far.
SETTING UP A QUEST 5. Resume play normally.
Follow these easy steps to play a simple dungeon quest. WHEN A HERO OPENS A DOOR TO A CORRIDOR, that player does the
1 Separate the Cards following:
Separate the Quest cards, Side Quest cards, Evil Mastermind cards, 1. Chooses to place 1 or 2 closed doors anywhere along the corridor,
and Dungeon cards. leading to rooms with face-down cards. They don’t need to be in the
2 Determine the Quest and Side Quest hero’s line of sight. If all rooms with cards are already reachable, placing
doors is optional.
Draw one Quest card, and one Side Quest card and read them. Note that
For each door placed, place a block tile in the corridor wherever they
side quests are often based on legends and rumors and may sometimes
want. They cannot block the path from the hero to the door(s). They don't
prove false!
need to be in the hero’s line of sight.
3 Create the Dungeon Deck and Set the Board
2. Roll a die for each closed door they've just placed. If the result is a
CREATE THE DUNGEON DECK: Separate the four Clue cards from the
skull, place a wandering monster (see Wandering Monsters below) in
rest of the Dungeon cards, shuffle the remaining Dungeon cards and form
the corridor, as close as possible to the door. It doesn't need to be in the
the Dungeon deck with the number of cards listed in the table below,
hero’s line of sight.
based on the number of heroes playing the quest. Shuffle the deck.
3. Resume play normally.
SET THE BOARD: The oldest player does the following: Sometimes you’ll find doors or blocks appearing where there were none a moment ago. It’s ok: the dungeon is a
dangerous, magical place.
1. Roll a die. If the result is a skull, place 1 card per hero, face-down, on
the central room, from the Dungeon deck. SEARCHING FOR SECRET DOORS: A hero who searches for secret
doors always and only finds one if there is no other way to reach
2. Roll a die for each of the two smaller rooms. If the result is a skull,
unexplored rooms, or to return to the starting room. The hero who searched
place 1 card, face down, on each room, from the Dungeon deck.
places the secret door where he wants. Opening a secret door works the
3. Place all the remaining cards from the Dungeon deck, face-down, on same as a regular door.
the rooms they prefer, except the large central room and the two smaller Secret doors work as a “debug” system for the dungeon, in case the heroes get stuck with no way to proceed.
rooms. The number of cards placed per room depends on the number of
SEARCHING FOR TRAPS: It is not allowed, as traps work differently.
heroes, as listed in the table below.
TRAP CARDS: Traps are resolved as described on Trap cards.
4. Choose a room with no cards as the starting room, and place the
heroes and stairs in it. ● Disarming Traps: The hero who has opened the door and found a trap
can attempt to disarm it as explained on the card.
5. Place 2 closed doors in the starting room, each leading to an adjacent
room with face-down cards, or to an adjacent corridor. ● Known Traps: If, thanks to Clues or other means, the presence of a trap
Rooms that don’t receive dungeon cards are not used and are not part of the dungeon: they are solid stone.
is already known, a hero standing next to the door may attempt to disarm
it before opening the door, following the instructions on the card. If the
attempt fails, the trap activates as described on the card and the door
Number Cards opens, otherwise the trap is removed and discarded.
of heroes
Dungeon Deck per room
MONSTERS: Monsters play after the oldest player, who moves them one
1 8 Dungeon Cards +1d6 more +4 Clue Cards 2 by one, in the order he prefers, and must act as follows.
● Monsters with Melee Attacks: Move to approach and (if possible) attack
2 11 Dungeon Cards +1d6 more +4 Clue Cards 3 the nearest hero with a free adjacent square. If 2 or more heroes qualify,
the youngest player chooses their target. Monsters with the ability to
3 12 Dungeon Cards +1d6 more +4 Clue Cards 2 move through heroes and/or walls go for the most distant hero instead.
● Monsters with Ranged Attacks: If they can, they attack the nearest
4 13 Dungeon Cards +1d6 more +4 Clue Cards 3 hero, and then move as far away as they can. Otherwise, they move as
far as they can while maintaining line of sight to one hero, and then
5 14 Dungeon Cards +1d6 more +4 Clue Cards 2 attack. If 2 or more heroes are equally distant, the youngest player
chooses their target.
6* 15 Dungeon Cards +1d6 more +4 Clue Cards 3 ● Monsters with Spells: Use a random spell until they’ve used all spells.
When using a spell, they act like monsters with ranged attacks. When all
*: the 6 heroes line is provided for reference only, and to be used with increased difficulty rules (see
next page). Playing with 6 heroes is possible but the game may slow down significantly.
their spells are used, or if they cannot use the spell (due to line of sight,
for example), they behave like monsters with melee attacks.
TIP FOR SOLO/GMLESS PLAY WANDERING MONSTERS: When a wandering monster appears, draw
When playing without a Zorgan player, if there are no monsters on the from the discard pile until you find a monster card. The monster listed in
board, instead of rolling your movement dice, simply assume each die has the card name is the wandering monster. If there are no monsters in the
rolled a 4. This will ensure smoother, faster play. discard pile, the heroes are lucky and no monster appears for the moment!
 PLAYING A FULL CAMPAIGN
The Evil Mastermind’s Plan
You can easily set up a campaign with the following instructions. These
rules (especially Fame and Increased Difficulty, below) assume that you 1st die 2nd die: 1 or 2 2nd die: 3 or 4 2nd die: 5 or 6
start with new heroes with only their starting equipment!
Petrify the elven Raise an army of
The Evil Mastermind and His Plan! 1
queen! monsters!
Kill the tree of life!
Draw a random Evil Mastermind card to determine the identity of the main
bad guy in the campaign, and note it in the Campaign Chart on the right, Sacrifice the Summon a
then roll 2 dice and cross-check the results on the Evil Mastermind’s Plan Spread a dreadful
2 princess of the demon lord from
plague of madness!
table, on the right. These are story elements with no effect on the game, kingdom! the abyss!
but will help you shape a backstory for the campaign.
Assassinate the Steal the king’s Flood the dwarves’
Number of Quests 3
king’s heir! soul! mines!
Roll a die, divide the result by 2 (round up), and add 6: this is the number of
quests the heroes will have to complete. Circle that number on the Curse the
Cause a Transform the
Campaign Chart, thus marking the final quest of the campaign. As the kingdom with a
4 devastating population of the
heroes successfully complete each quest, mark off the corresponding plague of
earthquake! realm into goblins!
number, until the heroes complete the final quest. poisonous toads!
● What if the heroes fail a quest? There is no second try! In order to
Destroy the mind Cause a rain of Awake a dread
advance they must face a new, randomly determined, quest. 5
of the dwarf king! fire on the realm! dragon!
Fame and Campaign Rewards
If the heroes complete all the quests, the evil mastermind’s plans are foiled Cause a Pulverize the Raise an army of
6
devastating flood! king’s castle! undead!
for now and the heroes have triumphed. Time to celebrate!
First of all, each hero must note on their character sheet, next to their
name, a new statistic: Fame. Every time a hero completes a campaign,
they receive 1 Fame point (see Increasing Difficulty below). Then, the
Campaign Chart
oldest player rolls a die and checks the result on the Campaign Reward
table. The same result applies to all heroes.
Evil Mastermind _____________________________________
Hunt Down the Evil Mastermind!
After the final quest, the heroes can choose to hunt down the Evil
Mastermind. If they do, play one more quest using the Mysterious His Evil Plan _____________________________________
Overlord Quest card. When found, the Mysterious Overlord monster is
replaced by the Evil Mastermind. Use the statistics and all the special rules
from the Evil Mastermind card.
Slaying the Evil Mastermind: The hero who delivers the killing blow
Quests 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
receives the title of “Slayer”, and +1 Fame point. All heroes also receive a
new reward from the Campaign Reward table.
Failure: There is no second try! If the heroes fail, they cannot try again. d6 Campaign Reward—-----
Is the Evil Mastermind really dead? Evil Masterminds often find a way to
cheat death and return with new evil plans. This means you keep him Each hero can choose one item of their choice from Equipment
1-3
available and, if he returns in future campaigns, he gains +1 BP. This is deck, for free.
cumulative in case he returns a second time, or even a third, etc.
Each hero receives 300 coins, and also rolls a die: If the result is
Increased Difficulty 4
6, permanently increase their maximum MP by 1.
Experienced heroes face harder tasks! Before each quest, calculate the
average Fame: sum up the number of Fame points owned by the heroes, Each hero receives 300 coins, and also rolls a die: If the result is
5
and divide it by the number of heroes (rounding up). Then check the table 6, permanently increase their maximum BP by 1.
below. All effects are cumulative! If the average Fame is 3, for example, all
monsters gain +1 DD and also +1 AD. Each hero can choose to either learn one skill of their choice from
the AXIANQUEST Heroic Skills deck for free, or to receive one
6
Retirement random artifact from the AXIANQUEST Artifacts deck for free
Upon achieving the 7th Fame point, the hero retires with full honors and (reroll if not available).
can no longer play. They receive the title of Lord/Lady, and their artifacts
and treasure are removed from play, to be displayed in their glorious halls.
Average
The only exception: if the next quest is to hunt down the current Fame Increased Difficulty (Cumulative Effects)
campaign’s Evil Mastermind, their evil must be stopped and the hero is
allowed to play one last quest. 1 or less No effect

Expand your adventures with the full AXIANQUEST line: 2 All monsters gain +1 DD
Artifacts Decks
3 All monsters gain +1 AD
Heroic Skills
Furniture Deck 4 All traps that make an attack gain +1 AD
Dungeon Events
5 All monsters gain +1 BP

Consider the number of heroes increased by 1 when

6 creating the dungeon deck, setting the board, and reading
the number of monsters on Dungeon cards.

When the heroes find the Evil Mastermind, he is

7 or more accompanied by another, randomly drawn, Evil
Mastermind, and both must be defeated.