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Quest Giver - a trick-taking card game about becoming the most reputable quest giver!

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MayuPolo
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Joined: 11/12/2012

Hello folks!

Was hoping to get some feedback on this game I have been working on for a few days (just finished sleeping the last of the prototype cards).

The theme and basic premise: Each player takes on the role of a Quest Giver NPC that you would find in any role playing game. Players try to offer the best quest to heroes and in exchange gain reputation if the hero manages to succeed on the quest they choose. However if they hero fails the quest, the player loses reputation. The first player to reach X reputation wins.

Decks and card types:
There are 4 types of quests (suits). Kill Quests (skulls), Fetch Quests (envelopes), Escort Quests (shields) and Exploration Quests (maps). Each suit has 14 cards representing the different levels (difficulty) of the quests. Levels from 2 to 10 with levels 4 to 8 being twice in each suit.

In addition to the Quest Deck (containing all the quests) there is a Hero Deck. This deck contains all the different heroes that will be looking for quests to do in order to be heroic and stuff. :)

Hero cards are simple; they have a level (between 1 and 9) and a preferred quest type (which basically is the trump suit). In addition there are some heroes (about a third as much as regular heroes) that don't have a preferred quest type but instead have a quest type they will actually not take.

The final deck contains "modifier cards" (still looking for a good name for these). These cards have special abilities that allow players to make things easier for themselves or mess with the other players. They serve as a catch-up mechanic but could also be strategically pursued. Basically each trick, the player with the lowest card played gets to draw one of these cards from the deck that corresponds to the quest type they played. For example, if I had the lowest quest played and it was a kill quest (skulls) I could draw a card from the skulls modifier card deck.

Game set up:
Shuffle each of the decks. Place the 4 modifier card decks somewhere where everyone can reach them. Deal X (needs play testing but I will start with 7) cards to each player from the Quest Deck. Reveal the top two cards from the hero deck and place them in a row next to the Hero Deck. The Hero card furthest away from the deck is the "active hero". The second revealed hero will become the active hero during the next round. This means players will need to plan ahead a bit. Decide who will be the dealer. At the start of each round the player to the left of the last dealer become the dealer for that round.

A round consists of each player, starting with the dealer and then going clockwise, playing one quest card in order to try and in the trick. Modifier cards can be played at any time even when it is not your turn. However modifier cards that affect quest difficulty need to be played before an attempt to complete the quest (see below) is made.

The player who played the highest level quest in the trump suit wins the trick. If no trump quests were played the player who played the highest level quest wins. However this does not mean that the quest was completed successfully, it just gives the winning player the chance to try and complete it and gain some reputation. In order to successfully complete a quest a player has to roll a D10 and the result needs to be greater than the difference between the winning quest level and the hero level.

Example: the active hero is level 5. The quest that ended up winning the trick is level 8. That means the player would have to roll 4 or more on a D10 to successfully complete it. If they do they gain reputation equal to the difference between the quest level and the hero level + the level of the hero, in this case 8. If they fail they lose reputation equal to the difference between quest level and hero level minus 1, in this case 2 since 8-5-1 = 2.

This is where modifier cards can be used to your advantage or tho mess with other players. Some will make reduce or increase the level of a quest. Others will make a player reroll the D10 (use it on yourself if you failed or use it on an opponent if they succeeded, or use it on an opponent if they failed to make a potential ally). You can use a modifier card that increases the level of a quest before the winner of a trick is determined to make your quest the winner or you could use that same card after someone else won a trick to make it harder for that player to succeed on the quest and potentially make them lose reputation. Or you could increase the level of your own quest after winning a trick making it riskier but giving you more reputation of you succeed.

After the player that won the trick either succeeded or failed in the quest a new round starts. Reveal a new hero card from the top of the hero deck an place it in between the deck and the hero that wasn't active let round. The hero that was not active last round now becomes the active hero.

Some additional rules:
Heroes will never go on a quest that is equal to or lower level than they are. If no one plays a quest that is higher level than the hero then no player wins that trick and the game continues.

At the start of a new round players draw back up to their hand size from the quest deck. If there are no more cards in the deck and no player has won play continues until players have no cards left to play. The player with the highest reputation wins.

If an active hero is one of the heroes that has no preferred quest and instead has a quest type they will not go on then players can still play that quest type but they can never win with a quest of that type.

Feedback request:
- Do you see any big mechanical flaws or broken rules?
- Does this sound like something that could be fun?
- Right now players are not required to follow suit and can basic ally play whatever card they want. Would you change that?
- Any other comments or questions are much appreciated.

Thanks!

Edit: did a slight change to the way scoring works.

radioactivemouse
radioactivemouse's picture
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Joined: 07/08/2013
One look...

One look at the premise of this game and I was hooked. Definitely something different but something very familiar. I'll have to look at this later, but I like it so far.

JohnPace
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Joined: 09/20/2015
Looks good

I did not have a chance to look it all over yet but this game has me very interested, the concept of being the quest giver is neat and I like it. I will try to look over it in more detail tonight and see if I can answer some of your feedback request.

chris_mancini
chris_mancini's picture
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Joined: 05/01/2015
How about "Buffs" instead of

How about "Buffs" instead of "Modifiers" if they pertain to the character themselves, or "Crit" cards if they're general bonuses?

MayuPolo
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Thanks for the thoughts so

Thanks for the thoughts so far. I am putting this on the back burner for a bit due to some RL issues but am still looking forward to your feedback!

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