SETUP
7 3
INTRODUCTION
The sun rises upon the heroes town. A rooster crows loudly, but even this sound is dull
and boring for you. You pull up your pants, grab your shirt and run towards the woods
eager to see what exciting adventure lies before you this time! Glory and treasures
await you, and these quests are always easy-peasy! Well, maybe apart from that time
when you faced that angry female dragon, or the unfortunate encounter with the wolf-
people. Oh! There was also that misunderstanding with Sandlings last week. Fine, fine,
maybe it’s not an easy-peasy job, but it’s the one that you love and that you live for! So
let’s move on, it’s time to face another QUEST!
A4 Quest is a fantasy adventure game that will introduce you to an amazing world
full of heroes, like Knights and Mages, that fight terrible monsters every day, and
complete quests to gain glory and fame. Just make sure your hero comes back alive!
Each adventure has its own goal, and you will have to face the challenges and tasks
to complete it successfully.
The rules below describe how to play the game in solo mode, and also how to set up
a single adventure in this mode.
The rules for a 2-player mode, and information on how to set up a single
adventure in that mode, are described at the end of this rule book.
COMPONENTS
6 red action dice
1 blue adventure die
13 cardboard stat markers
5 adventure sheets
5 adventure details sheets
4 hero sheets
1 companions sheet
4 cardboard hero standees
3 plastic stands
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6
10
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1 Place the adventure sheet for the adventure you are about to play in the
middle of the play area — this is the board that your hero travels through
during the game. If this is your first game we recommend playing the first
adventure, called Into the Abyss, to learn the base game mechanics.
2 Place the adventure details sheet for the current adventure somewhere
close by — here you will find the different action tables, extra rules for the
current adventure, its main goal, and other helpful information.
3 Choose and take a hero sheet — if this is your first game, we recommend
playing as Horfire Graybeard.
4 Place the blue die to the left side of the adventure sheet — this die is the
adventure die, and it will be used for various things during the game
5 Roll four red dice — these are your action dice. You may then re-roll up to two of
them (high values are better), but you must keep the result of that re-roll. Place the dice
in the prepared dice area on your hero sheet without changing the results. Put the two
remaining action dice back in the box — these are only used in 2-player mode.
6 Place the 6 stat markers on your hero sheet in the appropriate spaces
according to the starting values (these have a different colour outline around
the value). These mark your starting values for Attack, Defense, Health Points
(HP), Experience Points (XP), Crystals and Food.
7 Place your hero figure next to the adventure sheet, just to the left of the
first location (the one with the campfire [icon] symbol). This is where your
character will start this adventure.
8 Choose and pick one of the options visible on your hero sheet right under the
XP track. This represents your hero’s starting equipment. Increase one of your
hero’s stats by one or two depending on the option selected.
For example: Horfire Greybeard could gain either one Defense ,
one Attack or two Food .
9 Additionally, you may choose one companion that will be helping you during
this adventure. Take the selected companion token and place it on your hero
sheet in the indicated space.
10 Check the adventure details sheet to see if there are any additional setup
instructions and carry them out if necessary.
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 When you level up, choose one of the rewards depicted inside the XP frame
BASIC INFORMATION AND RULES below the crystal tracker. For example, Horfire Greybeard could gain either one
Food , two Health Points , or one Defense and one Attack .
Golden rule - All additional rules presented on the adventure details sheet
take precedence over any rules presented in this rule book.

HERO SHEET
During the game, the markers on the hero sheet track your heroes statistics
and things that you are carrying (like food and crystals). Whenever you are
instructed to gain or lose something, you need to adjust the marker accord-
ingly, moving it to the right if you gain something and moving it to the left if
CRYSTALS
you lose something.

IMPORTANT! If your Health Points (HP) tracker is ever moved to the 0
space, the game ends immediately, and the adventure is lost!
There are upper limits to your statistics and to the things that you can carry.
This is shown by the total number of spaces on the sheet.
For example: Your hero starts with 5 Health Points but can have a maximum
of 10. The only exception from that rule is XP as explained below.
During the adventure, your hero might find some enchanted crystals. Once
per round, at any time, one crystal may be spent (move the marker one space
to the left) to gain one of the rewards depicted inside the crystal frame below
the food tracker.
For example: Horfire Greybeard has 2 crystals. You could use one of
them to gain either two Health Points , prepare 3 dice (page XX)
, or temporarily increase the value of your Attack or
Defense by 2 until the end of the current round ( / ).

You cannot lose something that you don’t have. For example, if a game effect
causes you to lose 2 food and you only have 1 food, you lose that food but then COMPANIONS SHEET AND TOKENS
ignore the loss of the second food.
Each companion has a support ability that may help a hero to whom they are
Most heroes also have unique abilities (shown in the top right of their hero assigned. The companions sheet works as a reference card for players to check
sheet). These abilities can be used at any time during the game unless speci- which ability is available to them.
fied otherwise. However, each ability may only be used once per round.

EXPERIENCE POINTS (XP) AND LEVELING UP YOUR HERO

Your character will receive experience points from different sources, but mostly from
defeating enemies. Whenever your character has 3 XP and receives any more, the
first point gained is used to move the marker from 3 back to 0, and your character
has leveled up. Any additional XP is then recorded, as usual, starting from 0.

For example: If you are on 3 XP and gain 2 XP, you will level up, and the
marker will be on 1 XP afterward.

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ADVENTURE SHEET
Every adventure sheet is divided into eight sections. Each section is comprised
of one to three different locations, which your hero may visit during the game.
To complete the adventure, you must travel through each location in order
from the top left corner all the way to the location in the bottom right corner.
To succeed, you must also complete the main goal described on the adventure
details sheet.
When moving, you do so by moving your figure from one location to the next
one from left to right. If you are already at the rightmost location on a row, the
next time you move, you place it on the leftmost location of the next row.
Each location on the adventure sheet might have:
1 3 Action phase
1 Enemy icon in the top left
2 2 Action icon - each location might
have more than one local action
3 available
3 Tricky passage icon in the top right
2 of the game, simply move the figure from off the sheet to the first location in
ACTIVATING A DIE
In many situations, like performing an action, you must activate a die. You
can only activate a die from your prepared dice area, and once activated, it is
moved to the used dice area. Sometimes, a game effect will also cause you to
activate a die for no benefit. This means you simply move one of your prepared
dice to the used dice area.
If you are required to activate a die and the prepared dice area is empty, you must
exert your hero. You get all of your used dice back when you rest (see page XX).
Exerting hero
At any time in the game, you may exert your character to prepare one
die or to re-roll a die in the prepared dice area. This is not an action and
can be done as many times as you want during the game. Every time
you exert your character, you lose 1 HP. This is most often done when you
need to activate a die, and you have none in your prepared dice area.
PREPARING DICE
When you prepare one or more dice, take them from the used dice area, roll
them, and then place them, without changing the results, into the prepared
dice area.
If you are preparing more dice than you have in the used dice area then you
may, if you like, also take additional dice from the prepared dice area and re-
roll them along with the dice you took from the used dice area. All dice must
be rolled simultaneously, and the total number of dice rolled may not exceed
the number of dice you are preparing.
HOW TO PLAY
The game is played over a series of rounds, and each round is divided into 3 phases,
carried out in the following order:
1 Movement phase
2 Ambush phase
This process repeats until you complete the adventure successfully or your hero dies.
1) MOVEMENT PHASE
In this phase, you must move your figure to the next location. In the first round
the top left corner of the adventure sheet. In later rounds, you move your hero
to the next location to the right.
Most times the movement is free. But if the location that you started in has a
tricky passage icon x , you must activate a die with a value at least equal
to the number presented on the icon to move.
Remember, the movement is not optional. If you do not have a
prepared die of the appropriate value, you must exert your character
until you have a suitable die to be able to move. There is a possibility
that you will be forced to exert more than once!
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 Example: You are in a location which has an icon showing a tricky passage
with value of 2. During the movement phase, the prepared dice area is empty.
This means that you must exert yourself, losing 1 HP to prepare a die from
your used dice area. Unluckily for you, the result of your roll is 1 which is still
not enough to move out of your current location. You have no choice but to
exert your hero once again. You lose another HP, and prepare another dice,
this time rolling a 3, which is enough to move. Note that you could have
chosen to re-roll the die with value 1 in the prepared dice area, but it is always
better to prepare a die instead if there are any dice in the used dice area. You
activate the dice of value 3 to move to next location. You lost 2 HP, but you still
have a die of value 1 that you might get to use soon.
2) AMBUSH PHASE
If the location you just moved into does not have an enemy icon , skip
this phase and proceed to the action phase. Otherwise, you have encountered
an enemy and must fight it in combat! If there is more than one enemy icon,
resolve combat for each enemy from top to bottom.
COMBAT
This usually takes place in the ambush phase when you enter a new location,
but other effects might also cause you to fight an enemy. Those effects will
have the same icon shown above.
Combat is divided into 4 stages:
I Analyze your enemy
II Prepare to fight
III Fight
IV Results
I ANALYZE YOUR ENEMY
First, you must roll the adventure die to learn the power of your enemy.
Modify the roll according to any modifier listed underneath the enemy icon.
Look up the final result on the enemy table on the adventure details
sheet; this is the basic statistics of your enemy. If there are no Attack and
Defense values on the table next to the number you are looking up, your
enemy instantly runs away and the combat is over.
Note: If the modified value of your roll is lower than the lowest result
on the table, just use the lowest result. Similarly, if the modified value of
your roll is higher than the highest result on the table, use the highest
result. This is true for every table in the game!
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In some cases, the enemy is predefined with a number
on the icon. In these cases the number is shown with a
black background, and without a + or - in front of it. In
X these cases skip rolling the adventure die and look up
the enemy in the table using the value shown.
Some enemies have an additional ability printed next to their Attack and
Defense. If you are fighting such an enemy, you must resolve this ability
immediately before proceeding to the next stage. If the ability requires you
to activate a die and you don’t have one, you must exert your hero so that
you have the die you need.
II PREPARE TO FIGHT
During this stage, you must choose a prepared action die to activate. Before
you choose which dice to use, compare your Attack and Defense with the
stats of the enemy that you are facing. The value on the dice you choose is
temporarily added to both your Attack and Defense for this combat (don’t
move the markers on your hero sheet).
Place your chosen die in front of you, only move it to the used dice area after
the combat is over.
Remember, if you do not have an active die, you must exert
yourself first.
III FIGHT
Remember the basic stats of your enemy as determined in stage I and
then re-roll the adventure die. The result of that roll is added to both your
enemy’s Attack and Defense!
IV RESULTS
Now it is time to check how the combat went. This stage is comprised of
two steps:
1 The enemy strikes first! Compare the enemy’s Attack against your
hero’s Defense. If the Attack is greater than your Defense, your hero
loses a number of HP equal to the difference. If you are reduced to 0
HP or lower, your hero has died, and you immediately lose the game.
2 If you survived, it’s time for a counter-attack! Compare your charac-
ter’s Attack with the enemy’s Defense. If your Attack is equal to or
higher, the enemy is defeated, and you gain your reward: Gain XP as
shown on the enemy table for the enemy you fought, along with any
other award listed in the table at the end of that line. If your Attack
is lower than the enemy’s Defense, it escapes, and you don’t receive
anything!
 Example of Combat:
Stage I: Your hero is in a location with an enemy icon that has +2 modi-
fier. You first roll the adventure die, and you get a value of 3, adding the
+2 gives you a final value of 5 which you look upon the enemy table on the
adventure details sheet. The enemy you will be facing has a base Attack of
2, and a base Defense of 2 also.
Stage II: You check your hero stats which are: 4 Attack and 2 Defense. You have
two dice left in the prepared dice area, values 2 and 3. You choose the one of
value 3. This temporarily increases your Attack to 7 and your Defense to 5.
Stage III: You re-roll the adventure die and roll a 5! That means both the
Attack and Defense of that enemy are increased by 5, giving it an Attack
and Defense of 7!
Stage IV: The result of the combat is determined. First, you compare the
enemy’s Attack of 7 to your hero’s Defense of 5. This means you are wounded
and lose 2 HP. Thankfully, you had 3 HP remaining and are not dead, yet.
Now it’s time for your counter-attack. Your Attack is 7, and the enemy’s
Defense is also 7. That is just enough, and the enemy is defeated. As a
reward, you gain 1 XP, as per the table.
3) ACTION PHASE
During this phase, you must either perform an available action or rest. To
rest, you must spend one food (move the marker one space to the left on your
character card). If you do not have any food, you cannot rest and must choose
to perform an action instead.
Food is essential. Without it, you cannot rest, and resting is how you
get your action dice back. If you run out of food, you will constantly be
forced to exert your hero, losing HP each time you do.
ACTIONS
Each location depicts one or more action icons, and these are the actions avail-
able to you when you are at that location. If you choose to perform an action
and there is more than one icon, you can decide which action to perform,
but remember, you can only do one of them. Most actions will require you to
activate a die.
Description of all of the actions available in the game along with their icons
can be found below.
Exception: If there’s a Boss encounter icon on the location,
then instead of performing any actions or resting, you must resolve the
encounter. Each boss encounter is explained appropriately on the current
adventure details sheet, but they all involve performing Boss Fights
described under the available actions listed below.
REST
There is no icon associated with resting, and it is an available choice on every
location. After you have spent your food to rest, perform the following steps:
1 Choose any number of your prepared dice that you want to roll and pick
them up.
2 Pick up all of the dice from the used dice area.
3 Roll all of the dice you have picked up and place them in the prepared
dice area.
ALL ACTIONS AVAILABLE IN GAME
HUNT — Activate an action die of any value, apply any modifier shown
next to the Hunt icon, and then look up the final value on the hunt table
on the current adventure details sheet. Receive everything depicted on
the table next to the value.
QUEST — Activate an action die of any value, then roll the adventure
die. Apply any modifier shown next to the Quest icon and look up the
final value on the quest table on the current adventure details sheet to
see what you found. The value shown on the action die you activated
does not matter.
SEARCH — Activate an action die of any value and apply any modifier
shown next to the Search icon. Look up the final value on the search
table of the current adventure details sheet and choose one of the
rewards that have the same value listed to the left.
SHORTCUT — This action doesn’t require any action die to be
activated, and is available only in the Solo game! Move your hero 2
locations forward without any extra costs and lose 1 HP.
CAMP — This action doesn’t require any action die to be activated!
Rest without spending any food.
STUDY — Activate an action die of any value and lose 1 XP to increase
your Attack and Defense values by 1.
RIDDLE — Activate 2 action dice of any values to gain 1 XP or 1 Crystal.
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 SPRING — This action doesn’t require any action die to be activated! Gain 1 XP.
Re-roll any number of dice in the prepared dice area.

HIDDEN TREASURE — Activate 2 action dice with a total value higher Gain 1 Crystal.
than 6 to increase your Attack or Defense by 1, or gain 1 Crystal.
Increase your Defense by 1.
TRAP — Activate an action die of any value. No other effect.
Increase your Attack by 1.

During movement phase, if you start in a location with this icon, you
BOSS FIGHT x must activate an action die with value X or higher.
Boss Fights are resolved in a similar way to combat with other enemies with a few
little adjustments.
Resolve combat with modifier X for the roll in 1st combat stage.
First of all, in every Boss Fight, the stats for its Attack and Defense are predefined, +X
meaning you can better prepare yourself for the fight.
Secondly, defeating a Boss during an encounter is not so easy as it also has health Resolve combat with the enemy of value X from the combat table.
points. So now your Attack must exceed its Defense, and the amount it exceeds it x
by determines how many health points the boss will lose. To defeat a boss you must
reduce it to 0 health points within a predetermined number of combats. Re-roll a single die in the prepared dice area.
Additionally, there are only 3 stages in every Boss Fight:
1 Analyze your enemy - Check the Attack and Defense values of the Boss Prepare 1 die
next to the number of the Boss Fight you’re about to begin. Keep in mind its
remaining Health Points as well. Prepare 1 die and set it to any value.
2 Prepare to fight - Activate an action die and add its value to your Attack and
Defense for this Boss Fight (don’t move the markers on your hero sheet). Activate an action die of your choice.
3 Fight and Results - Compare your totals with Boss stats for this fight. Lose 1
Health Point for each point the Attack of the Boss exceeds your Defense. Then, This action is not locked out in a 2-player mode (see page XX).
if your Attack is higher than the Defense of the Boss, the Boss loses 1 Health
Point for each point of difference. Move your hero figure 1 location forward without any extra cost
The adventure details sheet will also have special rules for each boss fight. (Available only in the Solo game).

Note: Activating a die that won’t give you any benefits, like for example during
OTHER ICONS DESCRIPTION search action that wouldn’t give any reward can sometimes be a good strategy.

The first location that your hero will enter.

WINNING AND LOSING
Boss encounter - lookup the rules for it on the current adventure
details sheet. You win the game if your hero reaches the final location, survives, and you fulfill the
main goal described on the adventure details sheet. If you win, CONGRATULATIONS!
Gain 1 Food. You lose an adventure if your hero dies (is reduced to 0 Health Points) at any time, or
if you finish the adventure without fulfilling the main goal described on the adven-
Gain 1 HP. ture details sheet. In that case, you can try again and restart the current adventure
with the same or a different hero, or choose another adventure.

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2-PLAYER MODE
There are a number of changes to the usual rules when playing the game with 2
players:
Take a hero sheet, 6 more stat markers, and a second figure for the extra hero.
Take 2 extra action dice. Choose a single prepared dice area on a single hero
sheet as a common area from where both players will be activating dice.
Players mark their own progression on their individual hero sheets.
Each player plays one hero, which is setup in the same way as the solo game,
and both figures start just off the adventure sheet as usual.
One player is chosen to be the starting player. That player will start by playing
one full round. The next player will then play two full rounds. From then on,
each player plays two full rounds each time it is their turn. Therefore, at vari-
ous times, the heroes will be one location apart on the adventure sheet.
Each action in a given location can be used only once, meaning if one player
uses an action, it is locked for the next player that would want to use it unless
the action has this symbol . because Jake already used it. Instead, she performs the hunt action, activating the
A player may pass in their action phase instead of taking another action or
resting. To pass, a player still needs to activate an action die without any effect.
Some situations may force players to pass.
Enemy icons need to be resolved by both players when they enter the location;
it doesn’t matter if one player already defeated an enemy on that space.
The active player can only rest when both figures are on the same location.
This means that a player may only rest when taking the first of their 2 rounds,
except for the very first round of the game.
Boss encounters works differently in 2-player mode (see the last page).
Example of 2 player game in the first adventure ‘Into the Abyss’:
Jake is the starting player, and he begins his round. He moves his figure onto the
first location and performs the quest action, using one of 6 dice from the common
prepared dice area.
Now it’s Agnes turn to perform her two rounds. She starts by moving her figure to
the same location as Jake’s hero. She wanted to use the quest action but cannot
second die from the common prepared dice area. During her second round, starting
in the location with the tricky passage icon that has value 2 printed on it Agnes ac-
tivates a die of value 3 to move to next location. Here, she chooses the search action
using another action dice; 2 remain in the common prepared dice area.
It’s now time for Jake’s two rounds. During his first round, he moves to the
location where Agnes is, but to do so, he activates another die from the common
prepared dice area because of the tricky passage. Now with a single dice left in
the prepared dice area he decides to rest by using food from his own reserves, the
last die in the common prepared dice area has a value of 5, so he decides to leave
it there and just pick all dice from the used dice area and roll them.
For his second round, he moves to a location with an enemy icon, but during the
analyze your enemy combat stage he rolls 2 which means the combat is over right
away since the enemy has no stats. Now he decides to perform the quest action
in this location.
The game then continues with Agnes playing two rounds, followed by Jake’s two
rounds, and so on.
WINNING AND LOSING
The winning conditions are similar to the solo game: both players must reach
the last location and must fulfill the main goal of the adventure as shown on
the current adventure details sheet.
The game is lost if they didn’t manage to fulfill the goal or one of the heroes dies.
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 BOSS ENCOUNTER IN 2-PLAYER MODE i BOSS ENCOUNTER I IN THE DREADFUL NIGHT ADVENTURE
When one of the heroes enters a location with a Boss Encounter [icon], the
other player’s hero should be moved to that location immediately, without any When one of the heroes enters the location with boss encounter I, that player must
extra costs (ignore tricky passage if necessary). decide to either resolve that Boss encounter or spend the food to avoid it.
They will face the Boss together, in a single Boss Encounter. The Boss Encounter If the encounter is avoided, the game continues as usual, and when the second
has the same rules presented on the current adventure details sheet, and is hero enters that location they also avoid the encounter without having to pay any
similar similar to the Solo game with some small tweaks: additional food.
Before resolving any Boss Fights, the players have to decide which hero will If the decision was made to resolve that Boss encounter, then use the Boss encounter
take on the role of a Defender and which one will be an Attacker, keep in mind rules presented above. After the encounter, both heroes will be in the same location.
those roles cannot be changed until the end of the entire Boss Encounter. The player who first moved into the location will play one full round. The next player
The hero designated the Defender uses their Defense value to block any At- will then play two full rounds, and the game continues as before with each player
tacks from the Boss and loses Health Points if necessary in the normal way. So playing two rounds each time it is their turn.
keep in mind that the Defender should not only have a high Defense value, but
also enough Health Points left to take any hits and not die too easily! CREDITS
The hero designated the Attacker uses their Attack value to deal damage to
the Boss. Game designers: Michał Jagodziński, Paweł Niziołek, Jarosław Wajs
Since they both fight together, only a single die must be activated in each Boss Illustrations: Jarosław Wajs
Fight, and its value is temporarily added to both the Defenders Defense value
Graphic designer: Paweł Niziołek
and the Attackers Attack value for this fight.
Rulebook: Matt Dembek
BOSS FIGHT STAGES
1 Analyze your enemy - Check the Attack and Defense values of the Boss
next to the number of the Boss Fight you’re about to begin. Keep in mind its
remaining Health Points as well.
2 Prepare to fight - Activate an action die and add its value to the Attackers
Attack and the Defenders Defense for this Boss Fight (don’t move the mark-
ers on your hero sheets).
3 Fight and Results - Compare your totals with Boss stats for this fight. The
Defender loses 1 Health Point for each point the Attack of the Boss exceeds
their Defense. Then, if the Attackers Attack is higher than the Defense of the
Boss, the Boss loses 1 Health Point for each point of difference.