Quests

Quests are the driving force of the game. They are the reason the characters are on an adventure. They are the purpose of the journey and the internal motivations of the characters.

When you begin play, your character should have 1-3 personal Quests that they are trying to accomplish.

At any time, characters will have at least one quest in progress. When the character has completed all of their quests and desires nothing more, the campaign has finished and the adventure is over. Quests in Vennt are always one of three types:

**Question**

This type of quest begins with a natural intrigue. The question can be about the character themselves, such as “Why was I born with this symbol on my hand?”, or “Who were my parents?” The question can be about the world, such as “How does necromancy magic work?” or “Who built the Tributaries?” Any question that can be answered best by adventuring is a valid question for a quest.

**Desire**

This type of quest begins with a desire of any kind. For example, a social desire could be “I want to meet the Empress.” A moral desire could be “I want to avenge my brother.” This type of quest includes the desires to conquer one’s flaws, improve skills, gain wealth, right wrongs, and fulfill wishes.

**Situational**

This type of quest is often an interim quest given by other people or the demands of the world. For example, the character could be trapped in a Tributary and must “Escape to the surface.” Or, in trying to complete another quest, a non-player character asks them to “Find the lost goat.” These are the most common short-term or moment-to-moment quests, while the first two types of quests drive the overarching narrative of the story.

**Completing a Quest**

**When a quest is completed, the GM awards XP to every player**. To decide how much XP to give, the GM should consider the difficulty of the quest, how creatively the challenges were overcome, how well the players were true to their characters, and how long the quest took. More information on this is given in the Gamemastering sections.

### Once the Course of Heroism is unlocked...

**Completing a personally significant quest is always a Critical Moment.** Unlike other Critical Moments, what happens to the player's Tides doesn’t depend on the last action that happened. Instead, the player may choose to Develop, Enforce, or Weaken one Tide of their choice. That is, the changed Tide depends on how the character feels about this change to their narrative. For example, now that their Question was answered, do they have a different life perspective? With their Desire being fulfilled, have their motivations changed? Did their loyalties change in the process of the quest and are now being recognized? This is a time for the player to give a short monologue describing how their character’s feelings have changed the most since the last Critical Moment, and what changes they can expect to see in the future with this quest behind them.

## **Using Quests**

Quests should be the driving force of every Story, every Act, and every Scene. During the planning stages of a new Story (Building the Plot), the players and GM should discuss how each character’s Quests can progress during the adventure. Why is each character going on this journey? What do they hope to find? What challenges might they find there?

Every Encounter should be an opportunity to make progress on a Quest, and every Quest should be an opportunity to develop your character.

In addition to making sure your Encounters have **Story Beats**, you should ensure that the **Quest** as a whole progresses the narrative of your campaign.

### Once the Course of Heroism is unlocked...

An average Quest will have 1-3 **Watershed Moments** and at least one player will have a Critical Moment.