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Quest Table Companion

Two characters
Core rules · d20
20Triumph. Automatic success, damage doubled.
11–19Success. You do it cleanly.
6–10Tough choice. You succeed — pick which setback you take.
2–5Failure. You miss and face a setback.
1Catastrophe. Automatic failure, possibly severe.

Stannis Coldwater

Human · Ranger

27 years old, 6′2″. Raised by mercenaries, sellsword by trade, now riding with the Wardens.

Hit points10/10
At death’s door. If you’re hit again, roll the die — a result equal to or under the damage taken kills the character.
Adventure points10/10

Abilities — six of six

0TrackHunter · first

Find tracks and you instantly know what kind of creature left them. If it’s an animal, the Guide tells you a fact about it.

For 1 AP, pick up an animal’s trail with no tracks nearby, so long as it’s native to the area.

1FarshotHunter · second

Sharpen your senses past their normal limit and make a ranged attack on a target you can see, even when it’s out of range.

0DeadeyeHunter · third

Whenever you roll a 20 with a ranged weapon, name a limb. That limb is disabled until a healer restores it.

For 3 AP, take aim instead and score an automatic triumph on a nearby target, disabling the limb.

0StalkHunter · fourth

You and the party follow tracked prey without being noticed, as long as everyone stays quiet.

For 2 AP, ambush the creature when you find it — even if it was about to ambush you. The party takes the first round and you get an extra turn.

4NemesisHunter · fifth

Mark one creature you’ve met before as your nemesis — one at a time, and you can drop the mark whenever you like.

You feel it whenever they’re present, even hidden. They can’t ambush you, Farshot against them is free, and you can strike them through concealment or invisibility.

1RemedySurvivalist · first

Scavenge the area for a short while and come back with a single dose of plant-based remedy. It cures temporary illness and eliminates poison.

Carried — 7 of 12 slots

  1. Rifle · 2 damage
  2. Vial of combat potion ×2
  3. Hunting dagger · 2 damage
  4. Bedroll and weathered travel cloak
  5. Flint and steel
  6. Waterskin and dried rations
  7. Wardens’ iron token
  8. open slot
  9. open slot
  10. open slot
  11. open slot
  12. open slot

Worn clothing and near-weightless items — a letter, a pen — don’t count. A kit counts as one item.

Ask the GuideThe combat potion is backstory, not a rule. Unless your Guide has agreed a house rule, drinking one does nothing mechanically.

Natural Breeze

Wood elf · Naturalist

Called Breezy. 29 years old, 3′6″, of the Evermore Canopy kingdom. Believes in compassion, keeps a no-kill policy, dreams of reclaiming her family’s title.

Hit points10/10
At death’s door. If she’s hit again, roll the die — a result equal to or under the damage taken kills the character.
Adventure points10/10

Abilities — five of six

0Command NatureEcologist · first

Whisper a rhyming couplet to the plants nearby. They move or grow slightly and harmlessly — trees rustle, leaves fall, blooms open, vines stretch, seeds sprout. What you’re moving has to be within range.

For 1 AP, if you can explain how, the effect deals 2 damage to a nearby target: vines grow thorns, a branch swings down.

2Animal FormShapeshifter · first

Take the shape of a wild animal no smaller than a mouse and no larger than a horse, adopting its senses and movement. Everything you carry becomes part of the form.

In animal form you have 6 HP and basic attacks hit for 2. No spells, no items, no speech. Return to normal whenever you like and you regain the hit points you had before. Falling to 0 while transformed snaps you back instantly.

0ThornSummoner · first
Roll the die

Open your palm and shoot a poisonous thorn in a straight line at a nearby creature or object. It hits for 2 HP.

On a 20:the poison amplifies. An organic target’s skin swells; it can’t see beyond its reach, and it can’t speak or cast spells until the end of its next turn.

1Wild FontSummoner · second

Touch a container of food, water, or oil. For the next minute it summons a surplus of its contents and spills the excess generously — a pitcher overflows across the floor, a grain sack bursts into a pile.

2Evening StarSummoner · third

Summon a wisp of light high in the sky directly above you — outdoors only. For an hour it lights a huge area as if by daylight and tracks your movement, staying overhead.

One slot openEvery character starts with six abilities. Freeze (Elementalist, first) suits the no-kill policy: 0 AP to chill a target for 1 damage or snuff a small fire, 2 AP to encase a commoner or minion in ice so it can’t move or act — and the ice shatters harmlessly the moment it takes damage. Wild Aspect (Spiritcaller, first) is the alternative for eagle sight or granting the party night vision.

Carried — 4 of 12 slots

  1. Staff
  2. Dagger · 2 damage
  3. Friend flute
  4. Pouch of seeds
  5. open slot
  6. open slot
  7. open slot
  8. open slot
  9. open slot
  10. open slot
  11. open slot
  12. open slot

The loop

The Guide describes a scene. You say what your character does. The Guide decides what happens and describes the scene again. That’s the game.

Most common beginner mistakeYou are never limited to your six abilities. You can attempt anything — talk, investigate, improvise, climb the thing, set it on fire. Abilities are a way to seize extra control of a scene, not a list of your only legal moves.

Turns and rounds

Outside action scenes, play is just conversation. Once things get tense the Guide switches to turns. On your turn you move and do one thing. When everyone in the party has gone, that’s a round — then the Guide takes a round for every creature they control. The Guide sets the order based on the story.

Distance

No measuring. Four bands:

In reach
Touch or hit it from where you stand.
Nearby
Move to it this turn.
In range
Hit it with a ranged attack this turn.
Too far
Close the distance first.

Rolling

Roll the d20 when you try something risky, when the Guide asks, and always for a basic attack — using your body or a weapon without an ability. The five outcomes are in the ladder at the top of this page.

Read this twiceA tough choice is a success. You get what you wanted; it just costs you something, and the Guide offers you the pick of two setbacks. It is easy to hear “setback” and think you failed.

Abilities that roll their own dice

Some abilities carry a Roll the die badge. Those print their own result bands — usually 20, then 11–19, 6–10, 2–5, and 1 — and the Guide uses those instead of the standard five outcomes. Any time you roll, failure is possible; the low bands often hurt you rather than the target.

An ability without the badge simply does what it says.

Creature types

When the Guide names what you’re facing, that’s mechanical information. The same effect gets less reliable as you go down this list:

  • Commoners — ordinary folk. Control effects generally just land.
  • Minions— stronger than average: guards, a villain’s followers. Often affected, but with an escape clause such as being freed when hit.
  • Bosses — unique and important, and resistant to some abilities. What works on a minion may need a Guide roll or may not apply.
  • Spirits — no physical body, frequently invisible.
  • Animals — sentient but not people.

Damage and healing

Everyone has 10 HP maximum. Fists deal 1. Common weapons — swords, bows, and a reskinned rifle — deal 2. Regrouping with no enemies nearby brings you back to half your maximum, and no further. A full night’s rest somewhere safe restores everything.

You can’t be seriously hurt until you reach 0. At 0 you’re at death’s door until you regroup, rest, or get healed. Hit again there, roll the die: equal to or under the damage you just took and the character dies. Losing a character isn’t the end of your night — roll up a new one and rejoin when the story allows.

Adventure points

Start with 10. Spend them to activate abilities. They do not come back mid-session — once spent, they’re gone until next time. You earn 5 at the end of every session, plus whatever the Guide awards for good play, and you choose one new ability to bring next session.

Some abilities list several costs — a small version and a big one. A cost of 0 means you can use that feature free. A cost of X means you choose how much to pour in.

Money, or the lack of it

There is none. Basic goods — food, a modest room, common clothes, small tools — are simply yours in most places; the Guide decides what counts as basic in an unfriendly town. For anything valuable you trade: an item, a favour, a promise, your labour. If a negotiation stalls, ask the Guide to let the die settle it.

The table’s ground rules

  • No extreme content — torture, sexual violence — unless the whole group agreed beforehand.
  • Player characters cannot attack, steal from, restrain, or otherwise force each other. Hard rule.
  • Ask before playing an adversarial situation toward another player.
  • Don’t be evil. The party are allies and objectives should be compatible, unless everyone agreed otherwise up front.
  • Stuck between two plans? Flip a coin and move on.

Nobody wins or loses Quest. If the session stops being fun, say so out loud — that’s the fix.