HEXplore It: The Valley of the Dead King

Volume 1 Box Display

Jonathan Mariucci

*Our community needs more information on this page! Can you help out? Click here to add more.*

## What is Valley of the Dead King? (VotDK)

**HEXplore It: Valley of the Dead King** (abbreviated as VotDK) is Volume 1 of the HEXplore It series of games designed by Kat Kimoundri, Nathan Loos, and Jonathan Mariucci. In VotDK players work together to explore a modular map in a high fantasy world in order to gain enough power to challenge the titular "Dead King" - a necromancer who has his eyes set on laying waste to the entire land with his undead horde.

### A Hero Building Game

All of the Volumes of HEXplore It boast the tagline "A hero building game for 1 to 7 players". Each player will create one or more heroes to explore the world. Each hero is a combination of a Role, Race, and - with expansions - an optional Trait. And because each HEXplore It game exists within the same universe, the Roles, Races, and Traits from one game may be played within another, creating the potential for thousands of heroic combinations!

### A Cooperative Game

The core gameplay of VotDK involves the players working cooperatively as a group of heroes exploring the world and attempting to become powerful enough to take on the Dead King. To do this the players must complete heroic Quests, challenge deadly Bosses, and gather resources within Shrines and Ruins to help them along their way.

But if the heroes dally they will begin to find their safe havens disappearing, turned into Fallen Cities by the Dead King himself. With each City that falls, the Dead King becomes an even deadlier foe.

### A Single-Player Game

A single-player may take on the mantle of one or multiple heroes in their effort to thwart the Dead King, either playing the game exactly like the cooperative version or opting for special single-hero rules.

### A Single-Player versus All Game

With the expansion, Return to the Valley of the Dead King, one player may take on the role of the Dead King himself in an attempt to directly thwart the attempts of the heroes to vanquish him!

## Game Rules

In short, after initial Setup and Character Creation, VotDK is broken into repeating Game Turns each with five distinct Phases -

1. Movement Phase - Heroes move across the game world as a group.
2. Skill Phase - Heroes roll to determine the success of the movement.
3. Circumstance Phase - Choose a random situation that the group will face.
4. Event Phase - A special Phase if the heroes are on a unique hex.
5. The Dead King Phase - The Dead King selects or moves towards his target.

*For more detailed information visit the VotDK Game Play page.*

## External Resources

The VotDK Core Rule Book (Second Edition) is available to view online at the official HEXplore It website.

*The VotDK First Edition Rule Book is also available to view online at the official HEXplore It website.*

"*Accalon's Guide to the Valley"* is a guide for initial map layout suggestions available to view online at the official HEXplore It website.

"Heroes of HEXplore It" is a digital art and storybook created for backers of the original Kickstarter and is available to view online at the official HEXplore It website.

## Expansion

In 2019 an expansion to VotDK was released titled "Return to the Valley of the Dead King". It featured improved rules and items to purchase, new bosses, a new gameplay style, and a "Dead King versus All" mode improvement from the first edition.

## Editions

The first edition of VotDK was released in 2018 after a successful 2017 Kickstarter project.

The second edition of VotDK was released in 2019 following the successful 2018 Kickstarter for HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon.

A 2nd Edition Change Log was made available on the official HEXplore It website to document some of the changes between the editions. Primary changes included improved map art and verbiage, an updated Battle Mat, and adjustments to various Roles, Races, Bosses, and Opponents.