I've played through the Mists of Mirkwood scenario twice now, solo, and have referred to the rule book each time. My understanding was that the player(s) may choose to quest.

If I felt that my willpower strength wasn't going to be enough to beat the combined threat level of the cards in the staging area I simply didn't quest (leaving aside saving characters for impending danger from enemies), and simply ignored the rest of that phase.

I've since been watching WatchItPlayed's YouTube channel and he says that even if the player(s) chooses not to have the characters quest, the threat level of the cards in the staging area still needs to be added up and should still have an impact upon the player(s)'s threat tracker. So, if I have elected not to have any characters quest in a particular round, and the combined threat level of the cards in the staging area is 5, then I should still increase my threat tracker by five (because there is no willpower strength by which to reduce the threat level)... Is this right?

Sorry, I've just had this question answered for me... looks like I've been playing the game wrong/misunderstood the rules... and it's going to get a lot harder!

Don't worry, this is a pretty common new player mistake. They really should add something to the FAQ about it.

You still may quest but prepared to eat a truckload of threat.

I guess most players of this game did this wrong at the beginning or at least were not sure if they do it right (including me)