Quest Points

There are 3 things I consider to be core to the Dungeoneer experience: Peril, Glory, and Quests. As long as we can maintain these in the RPG in their purest form, then we will have succeeded.

Assigning quests in the RPG isn't a matter of dealing out quest cards randomly. Players must earn quests through roleplaying. They must talk to the tavern owner and discover that his daughter is missing in order to trigger the Maiden in Distress quest. Then players will have to follow clues to find out where she was taken to and how to get there. Then they must deal with all the obstacles in the way, and finally with the difficult head-strong maiden herself (or however the Dungeonlord chooses to roleplay her).

Maintaining the quest reward system, but expanding it into adventuring party game play was a challenge. If each hero had individual quests and was the only one to benefit upon its completion it is unfair to the whole party, because everyone helps in some manner or other complete each quest. Yet because the typical reward of a quest is "gain 1 level", and if the whole party got that with each quest, the game quickly becomes broken.

We wanted to avoid a solution that would complicate the game, or require some complex formula such as "each hero gets 1/4 of a level" or something like that. A formula of sorts was unavoidable, but we needed one that was simple, intuitive, and worked with the spirit of the game. So the QP (quest points) system was born.

Quest Points:

• Each completed quest is worth 1 QP (epic quests are worth 2 QP, and legendary quests are worth 3 QP each).
  
• The entire party gets the QP for each completed quest, regardless of who does the finishing move that actually completes the quest.
• To gain a level requires a number of quest points equal to that level. For example to go from 1st to 2nd level requires 2 QP. To go from 5th level to 6th level requires 6 QP.

This ends up feeling very much like an abbreviated XP (Experience Point) system from classic fantasy RPG's. But instead of the XP primarily coming from killing stuff and taking its loot, the reward comes from accomplishing many other meaningful things in the game world.

This reward system assumes that each player worked together to get to the place where the quest could be completed. Everyone participates and is rewarded.