I was wondering what happens when you do use side quests (as active quest) and the main quest has addional effects like Forced or Defense. Also, I think there are quests which say that the first revealed treachery gains surge and such...

Are you keeping effects from the main quest "active", while side quest are active, or do you ignore them completly? Any house rules here? e.g. keeping the "Defense keyword" active.

In the first rule book of the pack which introduced the side quests I did not find anything that answers this clearly (at least to me). Is there somewhere a official rule to this? I found the two topics .../234467-side-quests-nightmare-conflict-at-the-carrock/ and .../234111-side-quests-in-helms-deep/ which are very similar to my questions, but are specific to two missions. Also, what is kind of bugging me, when adding a side quest to e.g. Helms Deep you more or less destroy the thematic point of the mission and the urge of questing "the right way" (that is why I ask for house rules).

all effects on all quest cards are always active, regardless which one is the active quest.

Yep, encounter side quests, if you have many in play, can become quite annoying...

While the text on quest cards are always active, the "Defense" keyword only kicks in when that is the current quest. "Battle" and "Siege" keywords also say "when characters are commited to that quest," so if you choose a side quest without those keywords to be the current quest, other quests with Battle/Siege/Defense keywords do not apply during the quest phase.

Edit: changed wording.

What about the sailing keyword?

What about the sailing keyword?

I think it's not active unless the Sailing quest is the main quest.

What about the sailing keyword?

I think it's not active unless the Sailing quest is the main quest.

I don't think this is right unless I misunderstand what you're saying. The main quest is the main quest regardless of whether or not you choose a side quest to be the current quest. The main quest will always be the top card of the quest deck.

The rules on sailing say: At the beginning of each quest phase (before committing characters to the quest), if the main quest has the Sailing keyword, the first player must perform a Sailing test.

What about the sailing keyword?

I think it's not active unless the Sailing quest is the main quest.

I don't think this is right unless I misunderstand what you're saying. The main quest is the main quest regardless of whether or not you choose a side quest to be the current quest. The main quest will always be the top card of the quest deck.

The rules on sailing say: At the beginning of each quest phase (before committing characters to the quest), if the main quest has the Sailing keyword, the first player must perform a Sailing test.

No, I misunderstood what I was saying