Reviewed by: Card game designed by Don Eskridge Artwork by Luis Francisco & Weberson Santiago Published by Indie Boards & Cards Released in 2021 4-10 players Playing time: 30 minutes Quest is a social deduction card game set at the court of King Arthur. Players are divided into two teams: the loyal servants of Arthur and the evil minions of his foe Mordred. The good guys try to get three victorious ‘quests’ to win the game, and the bad guys try to prevent that. A quest is successful when all participating players play a ‘success’ card. When there is at least one ‘fail’-card, the quest fails. Players constantly try convince, bluff and deceit the others that they are, truly, of good will. Key – ★★★½ Quest is a spiritual successor of the games The Resistance and Avalon from creator Don Eskridge. The Resistance and Avalon are essentially the same game with a different flavor – Resistance is vaguely cyberpunkish in theme while Avalon is Arthurian legend – and a few tweaks. Quest improves (slightly) upon its forebears, but in its core it is very much the same game. I had played The Resistance before and remembered it as a fun, simple social deduction game. It was a bit slow, because every round players had to vote on the team that would play the success/fail cards. Quest runs a bit more smoothly, because the round leader decides on the teams without voting. I think it is a good adjustment for the flow of the game, although I did like the team-voting as something original and extra tactical. Some other changes in comparison to the earlier games: you can play with minimum 4 instead of 5 players (yay!); with a magic token the round leader can force a character to play a success card, although Morgana herself (one player) can ignore the token (nice double twist potential); the round leader chooses the next leader instead of passing it on clockwise (yay!); players can only be round leader once; and finally: the Final Quest. If the Evil team manages to win 3 quests before the Good team does, the Good team has a chance to name all Evil characters and still win the game. It is a crazy, all-or-nothing rule that I normally don’t endorse, but in this game it works brilliantly. Tensions rise, everyone tries one last time to present their theory and the fate of the world, the game and – perhaps most of all – your friendship hangs in the balance. I liked the game. It is basic, but it works. It does not need much more. It is no magical sword in a mysterious stone. But it is good. See also: Tagged: