Talewick Quests
English

The whole rules system, in one short read

How to Play

A simple, original rules system light enough for a first-time guide to learn in five minutes. No experience or other rulebook needed.

Suits any age · monster encounters are narrated, not graphic. A hero at 0 Heart Points is worn out rather than hurt, and every adventure can be finished by talking or sneaking instead of fighting.

New to the game?The Cheese That Rolled AwayEach scene teaches one rule as you play. No reading first.Start your first quest

How to Run D&D for Kids: A First Game in 45 Minutes

See a turn played

One scene from The Goblin Camp Raid (the rope bridge), played at a table at home: what the guide says, what the players say, and the rule at work in each moment, including a roll that misses.

  1. At a lamplit table, the guide (a man with round glasses, a short beard and a mustard cardigan) reads from a printout with a hushed face, one hand raised. Three players lean in: a woman with curly hair in a lilac hoodie, a woman with grey-streaked red braids and glasses, her hand at her mouth, and a man in a green striped top.
    Guide

    The path stops at the edge of a ravine. That is a deep, rocky crack in the ground. A rope bridge swings across it. Creak... creak... Halfway over, two skinny goblins sit with their feet dangling, holding fishing rods. "It’s YOUR turn to watch the camp," says one. "No, it’s YOUR turn," says the other. Their tummies rumble. They have not seen you. Not yet.

    Players

    Shhh! They haven't seen us yet!

    Read the scene's read-aloud box as written. It sets the scene, so you don't have to make anything up.

  2. The guide looks round the table, asking a question. The man in the striped top shoots his hand up, the older woman with red braids points at him, smiling, and the young woman in the lilac hoodie is thinking.
    Guide

    The bridge wobbles. Who goes first?

    Players

    I'll go first! Yeah, let him, he's the sneakiest.

    Ask the whole table before anyone rolls. The players decide who goes first.

  3. The guide holds up a scene card with three small pictures on it. The man in the striped top leans over and taps one of them while the two women look on.
    Guide

    Sneak past. Can you cross without one creak?

    Make friends. What would make a goblin smile?

    Charge! Can you scare them off?

    Players

    Sneak past! I'm super quiet, watch.

    The players choose. Every scene has more than one way through, and fighting is never the only one.

  4. The man in the striped top shakes a big green d20 in his cupped hands, eyes squeezed shut. The two women hold their breath, and the guide watches, smiling.
    Guide

    Sneaking? That's a Clever roll, how hard 10. Roll the d20 and add your hero's Clever. Ten or more and you're across without a creak.

    Players

    Come on, come on, big number!

    A check: roll the d20 and add the trait that fits (Clever for sneaking). Meet or beat how hard, here 10, and the hero makes it.

  5. The green d20 has landed on the table. The players groan and laugh, the older woman with red braids has both hands on her head, and the guide grins as he leans in to tell what happens next.
    Guide

    CREAK. Pob looks up, squeaks, and drops his rod into the ravine. They are more scared of you than you are of them. Now they will talk, or run off to camp if nobody speaks before you count to three.

    Players

    Nooo, a creak! Oops. Sorry, Pob!

    A miss never ends the story. It changes what happens next: now the goblins know the heroes are there.

  6. The guide points back to the scene card. The man in the striped top smiles and holds out a sandwich, as if offering it to a goblin, and the two women laugh quietly.
    Guide

    Make friends. What would make a goblin smile?

    Players

    I give them my sandwich, their stomachs are rumbling! And sorry about your fishing rod, Pob!

    After a miss, the players can try another way. Making friends is a Kind roll, also how hard 10.

  7. The players cheer after a good roll: the man in the striped top has both arms up, the older woman with red braids high-fives the guide, and the young woman claps. Dice are scattered across the table and the popcorn bowl wobbles.
    Guide

    "You won’t tell Grubnak we were fishing?" Snig whispers. They let you pass, and they promise to say something nice about you back at camp.

    Players

    Yesss! We won't tell Grubnak. You have our word!

    The Kind roll made it, so the heroes cross. The kind way is never harder than the fight.

  8. The guide turns to the young woman in the lilac hoodie, who describes something with both hands while the others watch. The guide writes her idea on the printout.
    Guide

    What does your hero spot down in the ravine?

    Players

    A shiny key, stuck on a rock! And a frog is sitting on it.

    Anyone can add to the story. Whatever a player invents is really there, and it can help.

1. Set up your heroes

Each player makes a hero in under a minute. Give your hero one point each in three traits — Brave (fighting and daring), Clever (sneaking, puzzles, and tricks), and Kind (talking, calming, and caring for others) — then put one bonus point into whichever trait fits your hero best. So most heroes end up with one trait at +2 and the other two at +1.

Every hero starts with 8 Heart Points and a Guard of 10 + Brave. That's it — pick a name, describe what your hero looks like, and you're ready to play.

Every hero needs somewhere to be written down — print the character sheet, or grab one of six ready-made heroes.

2. Making a check

Whenever a hero tries something risky or uncertain (sneaking past a guard, talking a monster down, spotting a clue, balancing across a ledge), roll a d20 and add the trait that fits best. If the total meets or beats the number for how hard the moment is, the hero made it. The adventure notes call that number the Difficulty Number, or DN. Every adventure's guide notes suggest which trait fits each moment and how hard it is, but the guide can always call something new on the spot.

  • How hard 8: easy. Most heroes make it most of the time.
  • How hard 10: normal. A real chance of falling short, especially with a low trait.
  • How hard 12: tricky. Worth a good plan or a lucky roll.

Failing a check is never the end of the story — it just means things get a little harder, or take a different path.

3. Fighting (when it comes to that)

To attack, roll a d20 and add Brave. If the total meets or beats the target's Guard, it's a hit — the target loses Heart Points equal to the attack's listed damage (shown on each monster's stat block, like "1d6 Heart Points"). Monsters attack back the same way, against the hero's own Guard.

If a hero's Heart Points reach 0, they're not defeated forever — they're just worn out and sit out for the rest of that scene, cheering the others on. They're back to full Heart Points at the start of the next scene. Every adventure on this site is written so a fight is never the only way through — there's almost always a way to talk, sneak, or think your way past instead.

4. Picking a session length

Every adventure page has five session-length buttons, from a 15-minute Quick Quest up to a 90-minute-plus Epic Session. Longer lengths add extra scenes — a puzzle, a twist, a bonus side-quest — on the way to the same big final scene, so you can always fit the story to however much time you actually have that day.

5. Two ways to run it: around a table, or online

Everything here is built to work on paper first. Print the adventure (every adventure page has a printable guide sheet and a PDF), sit everyone around a table, and play with real dice. No screens needed at all.

When your players aren’t in the same room, run the same adventure at our free live online table instead. You direct from your screen, stepping the party through the adventure scene by scene, and everyone sees the same scene art, the same map pin, shared dice rolls, their own character sheet, and a party chat.

Nobody needs an account. Players join with the six-letter code or the invite link you send them, and the game master starts a table on their own device in one step; the games stay saved on that device between sessions.

Adding an email so your games follow you to another device is optional, and that sign-in is still in testing. Nothing else needs it: hosting, joining and the print-and-play route above all work without one.

Tips for a first-time guide

  • Read the "Read aloud" box for each scene out loud, word for word if you like — it's written to set the scene without you having to improvise.
  • The guide notes under each scene tell you what to do next and roughly how hard each roll should be. Treat them as a help, not a strict script.
  • It's okay to say yes to a clever idea a player has that isn't written down anywhere — that's most of the fun.
  • Keep the free digital dice roller open in another tab if nobody has physical dice handy.

Print the guide's screen

The whole rules system on three big pages you can read from your chair, and a painting from our worlds on the back of each for the players. Print all six pages, glue each painting to the back of its rules page (card makes it sturdy), tape the three side by side and stand it up.

Guide's screen, US Letter Guide's screen, A4