The rulebook is now available here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/dungeonquest/support/dq-rulebook.pdf

YAY! I'll be reading this on the flight to Indy. Hopefully I'll have a copy of it to play there as well!

Things that caught my interest while reading through the rulebook (comparing this version with GW version):

The game uses Treasure Cards instead of tokens for items from the treasure chamber, I was hoping for this.

Runes instead of Magic Rings, same mechanics but Runes fit the Terrinoth background better.

Combat mechanism very different, heroes and monsters draw a hand of combat cards, each hero and monster type also has their own set of power cards, representing special abilities they can use in combat. Will need to give the combat rules another read-through.

Basic monster types: Skeleton, Sorcerer, Demon, Troll and Golem. No Orcs which is hardly surprising as Orcs in Terrinoth are a ‘player race’ though was expecting to see them replaced by Beastmen instead.

Monsters remain on the board if not killed, and attack any Hero who moves into the same room. So even though you managed to escape from that Demon, it is still barring the way to the Treasure Chamber (or barring another Hero’s way to the Exit).

Heroes cannot leave the dungeon unless they have at least one Loot card. More incentive for Heroes to search rooms, Crypts and Corpses in spite of the dangers of doing so. Some Loot cards do not have a gold value, presumably these will be items which you can use in the Dungeon, interesting.

Heroes can now search Rotating Rooms, so a Hero trapped by a Rotating Room at least has some hope of getting out. Of course they can only search the room twice, so if that fails…

The sun track appears slightly longer than in GW version, the game does not automatically end at the final space on the track. Instead, the last few spaces have a range of numbers on them (1, 1-2, 1-3, and so on), when the sun token moves onto one of these spaces, the First Player must roll higher than the numbers given or the game ends immediately. Even if the sun token reaches the end of the track, the game can continue if the first player keeps rolling high enough. Adds an element of uncertainty to the end of the game, (no more “The game ends in X turns, but I need Y turns to reach the exit, I’m ok / dead (delete as appropriate).”) Any Hero who fails to escape before the doors close is killed of course, but not a quick death by dragonfire, Kalladra is hungry…

Optional Rules: People have been asking about rules for solo play or Hero versus Hero combat and the optional rules have them, along with other options to make things easier or harder for the Heroes.

The rulebook also gives a brief background for each Hero, stating why they are entering the Dungeon, a nice touch.

Challara and Brightblaze: A sorceress from an ancient and noble family and her familiar. Seeks to regain the heirlooms stolen from her ancestors by Kalladra long ago.

Brother Gherinn: A priest of Kellos with a dark past. Seeks to atone for the crimes he committed before joining the priesthood.

Lindel: An elf who has travelled the land for many years and witnessed the sorrow caused by Dragonfire Dungeon. Seeks to put an end to the treasure luring people to their deaths.

Tatianna: An archer from a tribe who’s wilderness home is being encroached upon by the outside world. Seeks gold enough to obtain the magic and steel her sisters will need to survive.

Hugo the Glorious: One of the Knights of Kellos. Seeks personal fame and glory.

Krutzbeck: A dwarven warrior. Seeks a good fight (“the hitting, that’s the important bit.”)

On 1st read through the combat rules seem much more complicated then the original GW version (which is good by me but worried that they might be abit too much for friends and family).

I will look forward to hearing how well the solo rules work for this one.

keltheos said:

Exactly my plan as well. This and the space hulk card game are likely to be my first purchase on Thursday!

Mind Robber said:

agree 100%. I like the new system but it's not so easy to people that don't play often boardgames or card games. better if played with 2-4 experienced players, whenas in the first GW version the combat was the simplest thing to do. anyway great addiction!

skunkstrype said:

sincerily I'd prefer the old style tokens, to choose randomly into a little bag

skunkstrype said:

I like this variations, they make game more realistic. two search in the rotating rooms? mh, not sure I like it...

skunkstrype said:

mah, only after few games will be possible to review this change.

Same worries here, I'm afraid the combat system is too complicated. I'd rather have the option of using the old system, it wouldn't have been that hard to implement : 3 cards for the heroes, 3 cards for the monster and the resolution table.

Well, I will try it anyway, perhaps it fares better in play than just flat-reading the rules in the booklet.

I don't remember Determination points from the old game, nor the 1d6-dispersion sideways in the Catacombs.

Overall, I'm hungry for this game, the release date can't be too soon !

Pascalahad said:

a lot of people hate the old combat system. I liked it, but it was the central point to renovate to make the game's restyling. I'm interested in these new mechanics, but only after few games we'll be able to know if it works well or not.

Determination point is somenthig new, never seen in the old version. The dispersion sideways on the catacombs was a little different (there was a grid on the booklet, you needed to roll a d10, and the direction and number of spaces were determined by the result. this was about the side movement. the front movement was about the number of catacombs cards you had, like the new sistem).

I'm hungry too...