Journey Adventure Quest - DnD Board Game to Inspire Campaigns
Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N4UZQypmuo&ab_channel=EternityTTRPG
Transcription
What if you combined the card drafting of a deckbuilder, the equipment-sets of a loot quest, and the hidden personal goals of a role-playing adventure—wrapped up in a compact competitive board game? That’s “Journey Adventure Quest” – or JAQ, for short.
This is a game my wife and I picked up at GenCon, and I’ve really enjoyed. In our first playthrough at the convention, it felt like there was a lot to wrap my head around. But we just played the game again for the first time since GenCon, and it made perfect sense – after a thorough read through the rulebook.
In today’s video, I’ll break down what I like about Journey Adventure Quest, whether you as a D&D fan may like it, and some basic info on how the game is played in case you want to pick it up.
JAQ is a competitive (or semi-cooperative / even solo) tabletop/ card game about fantasy heroes growing in power, fighting monsters, building gear and spell combinations, and completing quests.
I’ll get into the game in more detail shortly, but for the bulk of this video I actually want to just share what I like best about the game – which are some very specific things.
Whenever you get a new piece of equipment for your hero, you can “stack” it on gear of the same type. The way that you do this is to actually leave the card top and left side uncovered, which actually empowers your equipment.
This style of gameplay reminds me a lot of early gaming experiences I had with D&D and other RPGs where you finally get your first +1 Longsword. Sort of, before the days of World of Warcraft style play, where you’re just getting the newer, badder glowing sword that adds 1,000 more DPS than you had before.
I like that in Journey Adventure Quest, every upgrade adds to the stats of the equipment you had before, and also gives you a unique name.
This style of equipment upgrade works for all the gear you’d normally have in a D&D campaign, or other RPG – chest armor, helmet, gloves, belt, weapon, and even your spells!
And there’s no limit to how much you can “stack” on one equipment piece. We’ve had some games where one of us had like 8 weapons on top of each other, and was just the most insane gear you could imagine.
This stacking and naming effect makes the equipment begin to feel legendary, and incredibly powerful, even though you’ve had the basis for it from the very beginning of the game.
This “feel” of equipment upgrading actually isn’t all that important to the gameplay at all, to be honest haha. You’d probably think from me going on about it that it is, but to me the feel is valuable enough for why I like it so much, and it’s a great idea for even your next D&D campaign – emulating something like this.
Similar to stacking equipment, you actually do the same thing with monsters. Basically, to defeat it you need both strength, and knowledge for how to bring it down. Your goal (in my cases) is to gather enough strength and knowledge through your gear to overcome the monster.
But, when the monster levels up, you do the same thing with stacking the cards so they still show the top and left-hand side.
The final thing I want to point out that I really like about the game is that your character actually can’t “die.” Instead of taking “damage” that get removed from your total HP – like you’d see in most games or RPGs – you instead take 1 “blood” marker for each damage you’ve taken. At the end of the game, all of your “blood” markers reduce your overall score, so you can still basically “lose” the game (kind of) from taking too much damage.
But it’s really fun – and pretty funny also – that the game has these awesome equipment and monster mechanics, but you actually have no risk of character death. For a low-key, fantasy-adventure, fun/ party kind of game, I really like the low stakes nature of the game.
In one game, I think my wife had like 18-blood on her character – which is a ton, by the way. She basically had 0 armor all game, didn’t even try to reduce the damage she was taking – and ended up still winning because she completed all of her character’s quests, in other ways. Super fun.
So, here’s roughly how the game is played, overall.
Heroes get an initial hand of 7 cards to draft equipment, spells, or other items. Equipment has a cost to it (either in coins, or blood), and you basically just choose what you want for your character.
After every two rounds of drafting cards for your hero to power them up, you face monsters. Everyone who can defeat the monster – by overcoming their knowledge and HP – gets rewards, like you can see here.
And then, each monster also comes with specific loot drops, which only one player may acquire, based on specific requirements for each loot card.
After a monster is defeated, players returning to drafting more equipment and cards to boost their heroes. There are three total “rounds” of fighting monsters.
While all of this is happening, there are personal secret adventures: each hero has some hidden goals that often require high-level spells, powerful equipment of a certain type, or certain “colors” that go into their equipment – these are known as guilds. I think of them basically just as being elemental types.
Finally, there are quests, which are basically adventures that everyone’s on, to either compete for end-game prizing, or to at least hit certain thresholds where bonuses are given.
At game end, the hero with the most points – which you get from a combination of equipment / monster fights / secret adventure completions/ quest/comparisons and) – actually wins the game.
To summarize it, the game utilizes a very fun drafting mechanic for gear where you’re building combos, guild-sets, spells and equipment that synergize.
You have progressive escalation of your very cool equipment, and monsters you battle.
Players have hidden goals that add a roleplay-like flavor, and gives each player a sort of personal story they’re pursuing.
And then you have multiple paths to victory: through direct confrontation/quests, through your hero’s power, through completing your secret adventures, and more.
All of this a adds replayability, strategic variation, and a sense that you’re sort of roleplaying a character through this board, card game.
Many D&D fans enjoy storytelling, character growth, equipment/spells, quests, sometimes hidden motivations, and fighting monster.
I would say that journey adventure quest delivers on all of these.
What JAQ might not deliver (for D&D fans) would be: Narrative depth, Roleplay flexibility, and stuff like Dungeon exploration and world building.
So, it isn’t a replacement, obviously, but if you like D&D and want a light version of a D&D-feeling game, I think you’d have a lot of fun playing JAQ for an hour or two on some afternoon you have free.
So there you have Journey Adventure Quest — a game that blends drafting, hero building, secret goals, and monster combat into something strategic, replayable – and most importantly, fun.
For many D&D fans, especially those who love loot, spells, and character growth, this is worth a look. If you’ve played the game (or get a chance to), let me know your impressions. Thanks for watching—don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit that bell so you see when we cover more hybrid adventure/ strategy games amidst our journey into D&D!
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Author - Jacob Tegtman
Dear reader, I hope you enjoyed this article. Tabletop gaming has been a passion of mine since I was 6 years old. I've played just about every game from Dungeons and Dragons to video games like Final Fantasy. These games have inspired me, made me laugh, made me cry, and brought me endless hours of enjoyment.
I started Eternity TTRPG - and the indie tabletop game that goes along with it (Eternity Shop) - to share my love of gaming with others. I believe that in our technology-driven age, tabletop games help bring a sense of magic and community back into our world.
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