Choosing and Planning a Quest

Setting the Level of a Quest

Set a number between X and Y TO BE DETERMINED IN PLAYTEST? to be the level of your quest. This is the total value of “boons” you will have to accumulate in order to achieve the object of your quest, and will influence how long your game runs for. After extensive playtesting, suggest typical number per hour.

Choosing a Quest Object

Possible quest objects include:

Maguffin (i.e. it doesn’t really matter what, just a thingy) - Well at the World’s End
Someone imprisoned, a “damsel in distress” typically, but it could be, e.g., Richard the Lionheart (and you are his faithful troubadour…)
True Love (Twwoo wuuuv…)
Knowledge of one’s origins (e.g. Amadis of Gaul)
Forgiveness, redemption, atonement or penance for one’s past actions - quest as pilgrimage
Alternatively, the gaining (rather than regaining) of spiritual merit
The safety of one’s home and kin (e.g. Lord of the Rings)
One’s birthright as a ruler/proof of one’s worthiness to rule (e.g. Jason)
A ransom for something you value (again Jason; similar to safety of home and kin)
Revenge - not a noble motivation, usually, more a Northern European heroic-age thing.

The gaining of a Maguffin is sometimes part of one of the other objects, e.g. Jason’s Golden Fleece.

Chart(s) of ideas for objects, including boon objects, TO DO

Playing Out the Quest Initiation Scene

Each player gets to play out a scene in which his or her character decides to quest/is forced to quest for the quest object. If other players’ characters are present in the scene, they are played by those players. The main player can invite other players to play supporting roles, or play the supporting roles himself or herself, or a mixture.

Either immediately before, immediately after or as part of this scene, play out a scene of leaving home. Consider:

Do you leave openly, or in secret?
What do you take, and what are you given to take? Things you are given are boons; determine a maximum value per character.
What obligations are placed on you? There should be one obligation for each gift, of equivalent value to the gift.

Boons

A boon is anything that will help you in your quest. There are three major types of boon:

1. An item which is a weapon or armour (in the Solar System definition: that is, something which helps you by increasing the effectiveness of either your attempted actions or your resistance to others’ attempted actions against you), or a talisman (which enables you to use a Secret, including magical or spiritual Secrets, which would usually be unavailable to you).

2. A helper character who accompanies you.

3. Information which tells you where to go or what to do to fulfil your quest.

A Boon is won in three ways:

By beating an encounter character in some contest or “trial” involving Bringing Down the Pain. This works like Obligations in reverse (that is, the other character has an Obligation to your character).
In exchange for helping an encounter character (including by accepting an Obligation). The degree of help (size of the obligation) converts one for one into boon points. If the obligation was not an explicit one, determine the boon points either by treating it as if it had been an explicit obligation, or by how many pool points or bonus dice you contributed to helping the encounter character plus your success level in any ability check which directly contributed to helping the encounter character.
By convincing the encounter character that your quest serves a purpose he or she would value - that is, by playing to his or her Key. The amount of XP the encounter character would get from fulfilment of your quest converts one for one into boon points.

A possible fourth way of getting Boons would be to succeed in a Pray ability check and spend an advance.

If you want to get a better boon than you have earned by your trial, you can offer to take on an obligation equal to the difference between the boon you earned and the one you want. If the Tenan accepts (either in or out of character) you receive both the boon and the obligation. You must discharge the obligation before using the boon. (????)

You can represent the target value for your quest by a pool of tokens, such as poker chips, small glass or plastic counters or stones. As you obtain boons, the players whose characters have won the boons draw tokens from the pool (one token for each boon point) and keep them in front of them, also making a note of what they are on a small card or the like (the back of an old business card is good). They can then “spend” them to overcome obstacles on the way to achieving the quest, placing the tokens in a different location (while narrating how the specific boon helped in overcoming the obstacle). Hold some back to spend in the triumphant climax when you actually obtain the quest object.

When all the tokens have moved from the “target” to the “spent” location, narrate the successful completion of the quest.

The game is not over, however, until you have discharged all your obligations. This may well include the obligation of returning home, at which point you get to play out a homecoming scene. This may include a trial which you meet with the resources you have accumulated on your quest.

Weapons, Armour and Talismans

Note that some forms of information can be weapons or armour. For example, in The Hobbit Bard the Bowman is told by a thrush where the vulnerable spot of the dragon Smaug is; this is, effectively, information acting as a weapon. In the tale of Perseus, the knowledge that the Medusa’s reflection in his shield would not harm him is information acting as armour.

A spell could also be a weapon or armour.

Treat boon points like XP momentarily and convert them into “boon advances” using the standard advance level (usually 5 points to 1 advance). You can now spend these boon advances on a weapon, armour or talisman which will assist you in your quest.

See the List of Weapons and Armour for further suggestions.

For talismans, see the List of Secrets under the Secret of Imbuement.

Helper Characters

A helper character will help a limited number of times and then depart. Think of the helper character having an Obligation of Assistance to you, equal in value to the boon.

An encounter character may themselves volunteer to be a helper character as a boon, or if they have retainers they may dispatch one to be a helper character.

Information

Some suggestions for information boons:

A rumour of the quest object
Directions
A map
The name of someone else who can help
A password to give to a guardian
A warning to do or not do something
A Secret - bought as if with XP.

A value 1 boon might be a rumour about the general direction in which to search; a value 7 boon might be a map to the exact spot where your quest object is, with detailed directions and warnings of what you will encounter along the way.

These are notes for a work in progress. Don’t expect everything to be consistent or make sense.