I've only been playing for a week with the base rules + world builder so maybe I'm missing something or misinterpreting it.
My adventurer has completed the 5 training quest and his first WB quest and proceeded to scout around his home city.
He stumble upon the Den of the Goblinoids Side Quest and two rooms in, stumbled upon a green dragon.
So... first house rule: when spending a life, automatically fail the quest and respawn in the hex.
After recovering from that ordeal, my adventurer continued scouting and was attacked by a blue dragon...
So... addendum to the first house rule: when spending a life, also exit combat and remove the monster from the combat track.
Now my adventurer has 2 life left and is quivering from fear, unwilling to explore or do anything that would provoke an unmodified roll on the encounter table.
Not to belabor this but I thought of this after I posted above…
As Martin said, you can always pass on a side quest.
Again, getting into the real “role-playing“ of this great Solo RPG…
Using my imagination, I am a novice traveling sorcerer with a few adventures under my belt when I meet someone who tells me of a “side quest…”
Is it a small HOLLOW with an “easy” monster with no chance of running into anything too nasty for just a little coin that you can get in and out of quickly?
Or is it the DEN of a tougher creature that you’ll be well paid for but has a 10% chance of running into some unbeatable buggers?
OR is it the LAIR of something tough that’ll pay you handsomely and have bards signing your praises to increase your Reputation… but a 40% chance of crossing paths with the big baddies…
You can always say no thanks.