Vengeful Apparition

With Vengeful Apparition, we wanted to take the “little or lot” damage idea, and ramp it up a level.  While Lingering Apparition had a qualifier where the player would take more damage if a warrior was not present, this new, tougher version of the card deals more damage if any of the player’s adventurers have died during the game.  Add to that the fact that only clerics can capture it and it’s a much meaner card.

Arcane Lightning

Lightning Spire was one of my favorite cards from the first set, as it gave players the ability to determine whether or not they wanted death by attrition, or death by lightning.  One way that I felt we could empower a version of those cards was to take that choice away, ensuring that both mana and health was lost in the process.  Arcane Lightning is also just a more expensive card, meaning it plays into more strategies overall.

Destruction

Corruption can usually be pointed at as one of the meanest cards in the game.  Losing your real estate is never a fun feeling, but when you’re bringing out a booster pack called “Torture Chambers” you know things can always get worse.  Enter Destruction, which not only takes the closest owned chamber away from the player, but also damages them if the chamber is close by.

Rolling Fireball

Arguably one of the more damaging cards in the original set, Rolling Boulder was already a painful card to land on, if you rolled poorly.  That meant that by default, Rolling Fireball would become a heck of a lot worse.  And how do we ensure that?  By making sure only one class can claim it, by making it cost more, and by making the player trigger another effect when they reach the next chamber.  It doesn’t get much worse than that!

Well folks, that is it until we officially announce the release date for the Kickstarter.  I hope that you enjoyed your time with these new chambers, and that you’re eager to add them to your table!

If you’re looking to stay updated, you can subscribe to the Black Furnace Games mailing list here.

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Mana Sap

A more deadly version of Mana Burn, Mana Sap not only takes away enough of your mana to make a trip around the dungeon keep you in the negative, it also penalizes players who don’t keep a steady stream of mana incoming.  Taking damage because you don’t have enough mana might seem cruel, but that’s the nature of these cards!

Archlich’s Lair

A nasty upgrade to the original Lich’s Lair, the Archlich’s Lair costs more, does damage to every single adventurer class that’s available, and can only be claimed by clerics (as opposed to clerics and mages from earlier).  This really is a tough one to survive for long bouts in the dungeon.

Phantom Chains

In the original set, Spectral Hand damaged an adventurer and sent them back a bit, but it was rather benevolent beyond that.  Phantom Chains, the scary bigger brother, makes you trigger the effects of the room you land in, and it costs more to boot!

Demon Door

More damage, a higher cost, and a definitive instruction not to collect mana if you pass the entrance—Demon Door is plenty mean when compared to Shadow Door.

That will wrap us up for today, but we’ll be back in a short while with our final preview of the torture chambers until we go live with the Kickstarter.  More details on that soon as well!

By the way, if you’re looking to stay updated, you can subscribe to the Black Furnace Games mailing list here.

The post Quantum Quest Torture Chambers – Sneak Peek 1 appeared first on Tellest.

First off, let’s start by saying that sometimes, when you’re working with people from all over the world, you can run into issues where there are miscommunications.  We had some issues with that regarding our first set of backgrounds:

If you’ll notice, a lot of these are pretty tall compared to the last one.  The plains were the only one from this set that we could really use, because the adventurers wouldn’t scale properly to these for the sake of the cards.  They’d work out great for a different genre of a game.  A point and click adventure game would look wonderful, for instance.

In any case, we had to go on tweaking things to make them work out in a similar style to the original Quantum Quest.

Here’s another, closer look at the plains.

Next up, we have a revamped beach.

After that, let’s check out the desert.

How about a castle interior?  That’s a longer one, so that we had more options to show for our adventurers.

After that, we have a crystal cave.

And my personal favorite from the bunch, the mines.

So, each of our adventurers gets one of those snazzy backgrounds to choose from going forward, in addition to the ones that we have from the first set.  We already have ideas for the second expansion, if we are lucky enough to produce it.

For now, that wraps us up with all the things we wanted to show off about Quantum Quest’s first expansion.  Keep your eye peeled here as we learn more about the game, and begin preparing for a launch sometime in the next year or so!

The post Quantum Quest Expansion Backgrounds appeared first on Tellest.

Blinding Cloud

With Blinding Cloud, you take a bit of damage, but you also end up stumbling around into another room in the dungeon.  For now, we’re planning on making it a bit of a Mr. Magoo kind of setup where you at least survive that small journey.  We’ll see if that changes!

Blissful Ignorance

Every now and again, an adventuring party will find a respite in the dungeon.  But just because they’re able to make a nice fire to warm their weary bones at, that doesn’t mean you’re safe from the things that lurk in the shadows.  You might find that though your health is being rejuvenated, your soul is not.

Fiery Illumination

Sometimes knowledge comes with a price.  In this case, you’re given the opportunity to see surrounding chambers, but you take a bit of damage for your efforts.  Of course, those that follow you gain the painful insight without the experience of learning firsthand.

Hydrafly Nest

Not much worse than the dungeon’s rats, these hydraflies are a nuisance regardless.  They slow your progress, and a weak adventurer can still perish to this swarm.

Mana Spark

You might be tempted to use spells and abilities as you progress through the dungeon, but it’s almost as if certain chambers are aware of the powers the adventurers have, and are willing to punish them.  Be on your guard in this chamber in particular!

This chamber’s art reminded us of Chain Lightning from the first set, so we asked Sergei to do the flashing outer body effect he did for that one.

Mind Control Dart

It’s never fun to see a friend lose their mind.  In this case, an adventurer could go nuts and chase after their party, doing damage along the way and leading them to new dangers.  This is definitely a chamber you either want to snatch up or avoid entirely!

Mysterious Merchant

What’re you buying?  Maybe the more apt question to ask is what you’re selling.  The merchant doesn’t partake in charity, so if you’re venturing to his secret alcove in the dungeon, you’re parting with either health or wealth!

Necromantic Storm

Here we have another chamber that gets meaner the longer you play.  Necromantic Storm punishes you for each of the adventurers you’ve lost along the way, so make sure you protect everyone!

Unholy Shadow

Unholy Shadow is a nice room.  No, really!  Remember Corruption?  Well, Unholy Shadow gives you the choice to lose one of your rooms.  Yeah.  You can either decide to lose one of your rooms, or one of your adventurers.  That’s nice.

Vicious Bear Trap

Finally, we have Vicious Bear Trap.  It’s a nasty, middle-of-the-road card that deals a decent amount of damage and slows down your progress.

We ended up asking Sergei to make the art a little meaner.  He was happy to oblige!

That wraps us up!  We’ve still got one more post to show off regarding this expansion, so keep your eyes peeled in three more weeks.  Thanks for joining us for all these posts!

The post Quantum Quest Expansion – Chamber Set Four appeared first on Tellest.

Hidden Catapult

The hidden dungeon is filled with traps, and some of them are a little bit funnier than the rest.  Hidden Catapult is a fun little trap that doesn’t do too much damage, but can still mess up your plans if you don’t have a proper party member available.

We did change this a little bit due to not wanting a lot of black space in our cards.

Mana Inferno

An inferno is a lot worse than a spark!  We feature one of our box-art characters in this chamber, where the more mana you have, the more damage you take.

Enraging Aura

Sometimes you just can’t help but get a little angry.  In this chamber, it hurts a lot more if you have an adventurer trained in combat—unless, that is, you can pay the price to own it.

Mana Stream

Since the expansion to Quantum Quest is almost like playing on hard mode, we wanted to make things harder for the players to move forward.  Mana Stream is like Mana Pool lite.

But that’s not all…

Receding Mana Pool

If you’re really unlucky, you’ll only happen upon the receding mana pool.  This chamber only helps out those who desperately need mana!

Potion Cache

Luckily, that’s not the only blessing you can happen upon.  Hidden potion caches let you restore a mana or a health when you happen upon them.

Spectral Swords

These weapons have a mind of their own, and they’ll do a number on your adventurers unless you have a worthy mage in your party to help even the odds.

Undead Pygmies

The cleric’s answer to the Spectral Swords room.  The Undead Pygmies need to be turned, otherwise they deal pretty massive damage to the party!

Unstable Ooze

This is one of my favorites.  I hope that we don’t have to change it too much, but it does rely on a token mechanic to work it properly.  Every time an adventurer dies in this room, the ooze grows stronger.  It doesn’t do a lot at the beginning, but if it has a lot of opportunity it can become the most powerful chamber in the dungeon!

Vengeful Titan

If you thought the dragon in the original set was deadly, take a look at this massive monster!  The Vengeful Titan packs a vicious punch, enough to kill just about any adventurer in just two hits.

Sergei ended up giving us a second version that we ended up liking a lot more.

Weakened Magic Portal

After struggling through all the dangers of these new chambers, you could probably use some help.  Unfortunately, the magic portals in this deadlier wing of the dungeon need a little more help to operate effectively, so you’ll be spending a couple more mana to summon help!

So, that’s it for this set of chambers, but we have one final set to show you in a few weeks.  Make sure to stop back!

The post Quantum Quest Expansion – Chamber Set Three appeared first on Tellest.

Abyssal Shade

The living dungeon has its fair share of the undead, so it’s nice to have a cleric around.  This shade not only deals more damage if one isn’t present, it also makes you lose your turn.  This card can be a game changer in the beginning of the game for sure!

We ended up using a new background for the card rather than the old dungeon.  Gotta refresh things a little bit here and there!

Arcane Imp

The Arcane Imp is the monstrous personification of kicking someone when they’re down.  If it isn’t bad enough that you’re taking damage, this room also saps a mana from you if one of your adventurers dies!

We did the same thing with this room as we did with Abyssal Shade, and switched up the background.

Brand of Silence

This one is a slightly complex card that may need to be changed a little bit by the time the game is production ready.  We like the idea of an adventurer who can’t capture chambers until certain parameters are met, but it’s going to be hard to determine how that’s represented.  Do we “bow” the card?  Token?  We’re still playing with this idea.

With this card, we decided to zoom out, because we don’t want to lose the already-established look of the adventurers if we have them in the cards.

Cursed Fountain

Since this set is all about putting together meaner chambers, it seemed like a good idea to have a chamber that paid homage to a beneficial card from the first set that completely turns it on its head.  Enter Cursed Fountain, which is just not a nice card to have.  The good news is that you can purchase this chamber, unlike the Healing Fountain from the first set!

Demon Mercenary

We’ve just arrived at my absolute favorite card from the entire set.  First of all, props to Sergei for designing such an awesome piece of art.  The Demon Mercenary is a total trip, and he definitely changes the pace of the game.  You can buy this chamber for a nasty cost, but the mercenary doesn’t work for free, and he certainly doesn’t have any loyalty.  Players can purchase this chamber even if it’s owned by another player!

A New Entrance

The entrance is one of the most important rooms to the dungeon, and we want to make sure that it always has a fresh look no matter what version of the game you’re playing.  Since this expansion kind of has a crystal cavern kind of feel, we had a snowy outside entrance.

Gelatinous Cube

Another favorite among our group, the Gelatinous Cube is an adventurer’s bane.  Nothing good can come from this monstrous blob, but at least you can decide if you want to take more damage in order to escape it.

We wanted it to look more jelly-like than icy, so we switched this one up a bit.

Gorgon’s Gaze

This is another awesome piece of artwork, with a slightly more complex hook.  It shouldn’t be too hard to remember that you need a high roll to save yourself from being petrified.  If you don’t escape the kaltauri, it deals damage to multiple adventurers, making your lost turn hurt extra bad.

Ironsilk Spider

This is another one that might have to change before the final game releases.  I like the idea of it though: the spider traps its victim, and if anyone else would happen to move past the chamber while someone is trapped, they end up being trapped as well!  It might be too complicated in the end, but we’ll certainly test it while we can.

Mirror Maze

Do you remember watching Scooby Doo where the gang would run from one side of a hallway to the other?  Or what about when they were walking by a mirror and it definitely wasn’t them on the other side?  This card is a nice little homage to those cartoon moments.  Mirror Maze is a powerful card in the start of the game, but as adventurers start to die off, it loses a little bit of its oomph and slows down.

Snare Trap

This is just a simple trap chamber, and it’s one that we’ve tweaked in order to make the end game a little more speedy.  In the first set, losing your turn at the end of the game was almost something you were hoping for, because it meant a moment of respite.  But Snare Trap only procs a loss of your turn if you have an almost-full party.  No more saving grace!

That wraps us up for our second set of chambers from this expansion set.  Keep your eyes open for our next set, as we have some more awesome cards coming up!

The post Quantum Quest Expansion – Chamber Set Two appeared first on Tellest.

A few weeks ago, we wrapped up the sprite artwork for the adventurers who are going to feature into the expansion for Quantum Quest.  The adventurers are a big part of the game, but I think it’s the new chambers that are really going to spice up the game, so I’m excited to show these off.  Below, you’ll see our first set of new chambers, and I’ll give you a little description of how they work.

Kin Maelar Portal

This room is going to be a nice tie-in to a book that’s going to be releasing around the same time the game is (give or take a few months).  The Kin Maelar are the villains in the upcoming book The Maelstrom (a sequel to The Fall).  They’re essentially storm demons, and with that comes a bit more damage.  They’re hard to tame, but if you can manage, they’ll do extra damage for you.

Phaseshift

Quantum Quest was first conceived when I was listening to a Monopoly advertisement while I was driving around, so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that there are some similarities.  The most prevalent, I think, is the entrance/go mechanic.  For this set, we decided to lean all in as a meta joke.  Phaseshift sends players back to the entrance, with a penalty incurred.  Depending on its placement in the dungeon, it can really stink to land there!

We made a small change to the art in the development process.  Our dwarf seemed a little too content with what was happening.

Frostwave

Frostwave is a high-cost chamber that the owner can really take advantage of.  They can determine whether they want to limit movement, or stop it altogether.  Their enemies take more damage if you just slow them down.  And when it’s haunted?  This room can make a huge mess of the other parties.

The Crusher

This expansion is all about more vicious cards, and The Crusher is one.  It targets the weakest party members, and can instant kill someone with two or less hit points.

There were a few things that we needed to change for the final artwork of this chamber, including a change in the skull, more signs of the trap having worked before, and for the character’s boot to be more opaque.

The Living Chamber

Quantum Quest is all about the Living Dungeon, so what better way to express that than with The Living Chamber?  The Living Chamber does damage to the healthiest adventurer, but it’s biggest gimmick is that every time someone lands on it, it switches spaces with the chamber in front of it.  In that way, the dungeon layout is always changing.

Time Crash

You ever get that feeling you’re going nowhere?  Time Crash makes sure that’s 100% true.  It sends you back to where you started your turn, and you take damage to boot!

Vampiric Essence

This one is the one that I could see changing the most from beta to full release.  It’s a little complex at the moment, requiring players to put tokens on it whenever a non-owner lands on it.  When the owner does land on it, they can discard those tokens to heal their adventurers.  It might just be an instant heal rather than a token effort.

Bonus: Under Construction

This isn’t a real card, but we did use it when we were putting together our Kickstarter!

That wraps us up for set one.  Swing back in a few weeks, and we’ll show off even more of our new chambers!

The post Quantum Quest Expansion – Chamber Set One appeared first on Tellest.

Today’s set focuses on Tellest’s trolls.  We’ve got a nice quartet here, including the final member of the banner art quartet.  Let’s jump into it.

This a pretty nice bunch of adventurers.  They’re all pretty healthy, though we don’t have a strong warrior of the bunch.  They’ll make due, though.  These two thieves, a cleric and a mage should have what it takes to make their way through the chaotic dungeon.  Let’s see what they bring to the table.

Suja Mak is our final banner character.  She’s a troll bandit from Daltain that claims to be the best at what she does, and so far, none have dared to challenge her on that fact.  We posted an extra close look at her, as done by June Jennsen, a while back.  Check her out for a better concept of her.

Up next we have Razin Teft.  While he’s not exactly fight for the sake of good, he does at least care a little more about rejuvenation and life than a typical troll does (and a mage at that).  He’s pretty tough for a caster, so he’s good to have in your party if you’re looking for a challenging mage room to add to your dungeon chamber portfolio.

The trolls of Tellest like to claim that they’re related to dragons, so Atun Malak, a troll scoundrel, takes every opportunity to get that point across.  He’s deadly with his daggers, which he refers to as his fangs.

Ulla Windrock is a kind of special case.  Adopted and raised by dwarves, he has a special care for life that’s aided him as a healer.  Because of his affinity for the diminutive race that cared for him, he feels invigorated by their presence, making monsters a little more easy to take down.

And there you have it.  Our final set of adventurers is there for your perusal.  Any of these worthy heroes or scoundrels would make for a welcome addition to a party that faces the dangers of the dungeon.  And we have a lot of them.

The expansion’s chambers are going to end up taking over these tri-weekly posts, so keep your eyes peeled for them soon.  Thanks for following along with these!

The post Sprite Art – Blue Box Trolls appeared first on Tellest.

In a couple of ways, these look like a pairs of the same kobolds.  Sword and robes are a motif in this set, it seems.  But there’s more than meets the eye to these characters.  Let’s learn more about our kobold adventurers.

Carmela Luja takes great pride in her position as a knight of the king of Andamar.  She keeps her armor nicely polished, but she’s not afraid to get it dirty.

Vyers Rodan is a thief who knows he’s adorable.  While it doesn’t quite work in his advantage with his own people, a lot of the human, non-anthro races drop their guard when they see him.  He uses that opportunity to jab them with a knife or a sharpened stick.

Tibald Yaruff is a known fencer.  More a swashbuckler than anything, he’ll work for people for the right price.  He’s always willing to prove his worth and test his mettle.

Rounding out the bunch, we have Paifa Doran.  More than any other person in this group, she cares about the people she travels with.  If anything should endanger them, she’ll make sure they have a way to get to safety, even if it’s without her by their side.

So those are our four kobolds set to adventure into the Living Dungeon.  What kind of breeds would you like to see in the future?  Me personally, I want to see a kobold that looks like a Saint Bernard.  That’s neither here nor there I suppose.  Keep an eye here, because next time we bring you QQ adventurers, we’re looking at an awesome quartet of Lagano.  See you soon!

The post Sprite Art – Blue Box Kobolds appeared first on Tellest.

As you can see, we’ve got a pretty decent set of gnolls this time around, though we have far fewer than with the original game.  Every race gets their time to shine, and it was time for the gnolls to have fewer representatives here.  But who are our gnolls, and what do we know about them?  Read on to find out.

Artak Saltpaw is a gnoll pirate.  He’s also kind of a mascot for the ship that he helps crew, The Howling Glory.  Not many people expect to see Artak out on the sea, but he’s definitely earned his sea legs, and can hold his own upon ship or island.

Fango Pace is a pyromancer from Saveon—specifically the country of Iradel.  Iradel is known for its deserts and wastelands, as well as a beautiful oasis city, but Fango rarely gets to see them, as he hunts down vampiric versions of his brethren, using his magic to light the way.

Eita Urtark is a pugilist from the gnoll city of Cynos.  They’re known for their combat training, but Eita, in particular, is known for being pretty chaotic with her encounters.  Once she draws first blood, she discards her weapons, and goes to work with her bare hands, claws and all.

That’s it for our gnoll reinforcements.  Stay tuned for the next set in just a few weeks!

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