The story of QuestWorlds began in the year 2000 with the launch of Hero Wars. In 2003 a revised version was published called HeroQuest. This was updated in 2009. In 2015 another revised version came out, HeroQuest Glorantha. In the same year Humakt e.V. published a German version of the HeroQuest rule book. This was revised in 2017.
Chaosium is going to publish the revised core rules under the name QuestWorlds soon. Simultaneously Humakt e.V. will publish QuestWorlds quick start rules in German for free. We will also launch a series of QuestWorlds adventures in both English and German.
Generic and universal
There are roleplaying systems that were created for specific roleplaying worlds. Then there are systems that have a generic core and provide various tools you can use to implement the rules in a specific world. Last but not least there are roleplaying systems that are universal, i.e. they can be used in any roleyplaying world. QuestWorlds falls into the latter category. Due to its evolution QuestWorlds’s predecessor HeroQuest had close ties to the gaming world Glorantha. However, the two are not specifically linked at all. QuestWorlds achieves its universality not by making it fit into a world but by using rules that can be applied in any world.
QuestWorlds’ main feature is that it does not ask “What would be most realistic in this world?” instead it asks “How would your favourite movie or book handle this scene?”. QuestWorlds approaches a scene by using the same methods a screenplay writer or an author would use. And these methods – or tools – can be used in any world.
Narrative
QuestWorlds is a narrative roleplaying system. What does that mean? Roleplaying games evolved from military stretegy games. Therefore many roleplaying systems try to be as realistic as possible. They have calculations for distances, hit locations, combat phases and damage results. They often roll dice or use similar methods to determine the outcome of actions. QuestWorlds on the other hand uses narration as its main tool. It focusses on telling entertaining stories together with others. In this regard it is more similar to the tradition of prose writing than strategy games.
In many situations, QuestWorlds forgoes the tradition of dice-rolling in favour of entertaining and suspenseful descriptions. Rolling dice is rather regarded as interfering with the story flow. However, it is sometimes necessary to bring a scene to its decision. Therefore QuestWorlds uses the same rules regardless if the obstacle is a speech in parliament, sword fighting or an entire battle. But the rules are not important – the story is. It can even happen that you play a full session without rolling any dice and still everybody enjoys the game.
QuestWorlds ORC License Statement
This product is licensed under the ORC License held in the Library of Congress at TX
9-307-067 and available online at various locations including www.chaosium.com/orclicense, www.azoralaw.com/orclicense, www.gencon.com/orclicense and others. All warranties are disclaimed as set forth therein. This product is the original work of Moon Design Publications. If you use our ORC Content, please also credit us as follows:
QuestWorlds © copyright 2019–2023 Moon Design Publications LLC
Along with our logo
Reserved Material elements in this product include but may not be limited to all artwork, illustrations, and graphic design, and trade dress, and all trademarks, including Call of Cthulhu, Chaosium, Future-World, Magic World, Pendragon, RuneQuest, Superworld, and Worlds of Wonder, and all other elements designated as Reserved Material under the ORC license.
QuestWorlds SRD with annotations for individual contributions can be found at GitHub:
https://github.com/ChaosiumInc/QuestWorlds/