This is the second of a 10-part series I’m doing on my favorite game systems.

My 9th favorite game system is a game most people have not (yet) heard of — QuestWorlds.

QuestWorlds is a rules-light, easy-play game that resolves conflicts quickly. Characters are described narratively, and the focus is imagination, not a detailed simulation. You can get the free SRD version of the rules online from chaosium.itch.io/questworlds.

To quote Wikipedia:

HeroQuest is a role-playing game written by Robin D. Laws first published as Hero Wars by Issaries, Inc. in 2000. It has its roots in Greg Stafford’s fantasy world of Glorantha, but was designed as a generic system, suitable for, but not tied to any particular genre.

The game’s mechanics are focused on quick resolution; Contests are resolved by comparing the results of two twenty-sided dice, each tied to a character ability chosen by players and/or narrator. After the die roll, the participants work together to interpret the outcome in story terms.

QuestWorlds has an elegant, simple core mechanic that is used consistently and (once you master how the game works) makes it a breeze to run games and create stat blocks on the fly. The Cypher System is similar in its approach I think.

The new QuestWorlds has not yet been released so until the core rules with examples are released, it is a bit difficult to use. I’ve run a game with it and I think it is very promising! I will definitely be playing more of this game and it has the potential to challenge Fate at some point as my narrative game of choice.

I’ve created a QuestWorlds rules summary which you can download here or on our downloads page.

You can download the rules-only text for free from Itch.io or get the very latest version from GitHub.