Advert: We were loaned a prototype of this game via the UK Board Game Review Circle. Components and rules subject to change.

The Goblin Queen is up to no good, the magical artefact is missing, and the world of Labrynthia is under threat! It’s time to grab your party, rally up, and take charge of your own Questiny!

👥 1 to 4 players
⌛ 1 to 2 hours
🧠 12+ years

Gameplay overview:

Questiny is a co-operative fantasy adventure game where you and your fellow players move across the board, navigating moving labyrinths, triggering perilous traps and battling fearsome foes. Your ultimate goal: retrieve the stolen magical artefact from the Goblin Queen and thwart her plans to rule the land!

The magical artefact is being kept in a Dark Tower at the other end of the board – but first you need the key, which is held by one of the patrolling enemies. On your turn, roll and move across the board, triggering whatever space you end on. This could mean reading a hero event card, which can be good or bad and often include skill checks. But you could also be collecting gold, moving the labyrinth, buying potions, triggering traps/treasure or swinging the axes.

After all players have moved, it’s the enemies turn. Some enemies move towards the nearest player, others towards a specific player who had the misfortune of being chosen as their ‘prey’. And, like players, enemies trigger the space they end movement on (so you always hope they land on a trap!). At the end of the round, the shadow moon dial is rotated one phase – if this is a dark moon phase, additional character and enemy abilities are triggered for the next round. The shadow moon dial can also trigger new enemies to spawn on the board!

If you land on a space with a baddie (or they land on your space), it’s time to battle! The instigating character chooses the stat they wish to use: magic, strength, cunning or dexterity. Each stat is assigned a dice, ranging from a D4 to a D12, and each character has different strengths/weaknesses. The attacker rolls first, then the defender, and whoever has the highest result (taking into account any additional modifiers) wins! The losing character loses a health point and retreats 6 steps in the direction they came from – if this means landing on another opponent’s space, another battle commences!

When an enemy runs out of health, they are defeated and removed from the board (for now!) – huzzah! If they’re holding the key to the dark tower, the player takes it, which means players can move onto the next phase of their quest – getting to the dark tower and grabbing the artefact! But if you lose all your health, you’re captured by the enemy, and your allies have to defeat the enemy in battle to rescue you. If there’s ever a third capture (or all players are captured), it’s game over and the players lose!

When a player reaches the Dark Tower – key in hand! – the tower opens and they can grab the magical artifact. Unfortunately, a boss enemy was also waiting for you in the tower, and they are BADASS. The sensible thing to do is grab the artefact and run! If a player is ever defeated in battle whilst holding the artefact, the enemy grabs it and players have to battle them again to get it back. This also counts towards your 3 captures, so it’s best to avoid it if you can!

So, to fulfill your Questiny, all you gotta do is defeat the baddies, steal the key, get to the tower, grab the artefact, outrun the baddies and get home again. All in a day’s work for a hero like you!

There is an option to play a shorter version of the game: instead of running home, you have to grab the artefact AND kill the Big Boss Baddie to win.

Our first impressions:

• When I saw Questiny on Instagram MANY months ago, it was the moving elements of the labyrinth and axes that hooked me in and had me saying “I MUST play this game!” And it didn’t disappoint! It’s what I’d call an ‘experience’ game – from the theme and art to the interactive elements, you and your fellow players are in for a good time, especially if you can throw yourselves into the part.

• Rotating the labyrinth and swinging the axes – especially if you time it to mess with an enemy – is super satisfying. Enemies triggering spaces also adds to the thematic gameplay – the glee we had when they triggered a trap instead of us!

• There’s lots of narrative touches: the characters all have fleshed out backstory (I LOVE that you can play as a badass unicorn!), and there’s (sometimes humorous!) flavour text on the hero/enemy event cards, which all build the immersive adventure. 

• It’s light and easy to play, so it can work for families with older kids (although note a couple of the cards might not be to some parents’ tastes, e.g. one giving a middle finger – just take those out if they bother you!).

The characters with their fleshed out backstories (I LOVE that you can be a badass unicorn!) and thematic flavour text on the cards all add to the immersive adventure.

• In terms of difficulty, we found our 3- and 4-player games a little too easy for us, but the 2-player games felt the right balance of fun with challenge. Scaling up the enemy presence on the board at higher player counts would probably even out the difficulty.

• I think some playtesters have said they aren’t a fan of the roll & move mechanic. You don’t see it as often in ‘modern’ board gaming, but we like it and think it adds to the nostalgic call back to older games. You still have the choice to end your movement early, which reduces the potential frustration in my opinion (it still gives you some choice / strategy).

• I also just want to acknowledge how much thought and effort has gone into this game. From the thorough rule book, to the instructional videos on the website, to the diagrams on the game box telling you how to put things away. It’s clear so much heart has gone into the game, and all that passion has paid off in the gaming experience and quality of the prototype. Leon has gone above and beyond to make sure you have the best Questiny experience, and it really shows.

Final thoughts:

Questiny’s light but immersive experience makes for a great game night headliner that feels both familiar and novel.

Inspired by old skool games like Ghost Castle and Labyrinth, Questiny successfully evokes a wonderful feeling of nostalgic fantasy in its table presence and gameplay. It’s light but immersive experience makes Questiny a great game night headliner that feels both familiar and novel. We had so much fun throwing ourselves into the adventure, and we can’t wait to see the final version.

Questiny is going through some final tweaks, so make sure to sign up to get notified when it launches on Kickstarter.