So, I have been seriously geeking out over the Lost Realm and Treason of Sauruman. I love the player cards and really love the quests. I especially love when the quests are innovative in terms of how progress is placed and so forth. I love the pursuit mechanic in the first ToS and the Defense keyword in the Helm's Deep scenario. With side quests adding a new dimension to the game my mind is working overtime considering all the possibilities.

I wanted to start this thread to throw out suggestions for different keywords or mechanics like "Defense." that could be added to quests in the future. I have a few ideas I will share and you can tell me what you think.

Escape. In quests with the Escape keyword the goal is to lower threat (as when escaping from Tharbad). When progress would be placed on the quest card you lower your threat by that amount instead. When threat is 0, advance to the next stage.

Search. With this keyword a search mechanic automatically triggers when the players quest successfully. You have to look at the top three encounter cards, reveal one and put the others at the bottom. (it happens enough, might as well have a keyword)

Explore. With this keyword progress that would be placed on the quest card is first placed on a location (or locations) in the staging area instead.

Parlay. With this keyword questing is normal but during combat you attack using willpower to persuade enemies, adding them to victory display instead of destroying them (as in DF)

Capture. Questing is normal, but during combat you attack using defense instead of attack to capture enemies alive. A defeated enemy is not discarded but instead flipped facedown and added as a restricted "prisoner" attachment to one of your heroes with only text being traits and "when this attachment would be discarded, flip it faceup and add it to the staging area." (as in Voice of Isengard)

Duel. Questing normal, but during combat players cannot declare attacks. Instead, when a character is assigned as a blocker the attack value of enemy and character are compared and the difference determines the amount of damage which is then placed on whichever has lower attack.

Melee. Progress is not placed on the quest by questing successfully. Instead, whenever you kill an enemy resource tokens are placed on the quest. Once a specified number has been reach the players advance to the next stage (again, it happens enough there should just be a keyword.)

I would also love to hear from you if you just have better words to suggest for the keywords. I would love to see some different combinations of keywords like "Defense. Battle." or "Escape. Siege." etc. Thanks, in advance, for any reply :-)

Interesting concepts.

I personally like the Escape one best because it is simple, and very different from other quest types.

A few more ideas:

Muster. Only heroes may commit to the quest. For each progress that would be assigned to this quest, instead add a resource to the resource pool of a hero in play.

Survive. Characters use their remaining HP instead of their willpower when questing.

Resist. After questing successfully, for each progress normally placed on the quest, instead increase each player's threat limit by that same amount.