Tavern quests: odds, pay and who to send

How tavern quest odds work

The quest screen boils your party down to one number, readiness, and 100 is what the job needs. It is the party's average Current Ability divided by 46 + 84 × danger, then raised or lowered by the pros and cons tags. A danger 0.20 job needs an average of about 63; a danger 0.50 job about 88.

On the day, readiness is multiplied by a random 0.52 to 1.44 (the low end rises for a very strong party) and rounded: 118 or more is a triumph, 88 the job is done, 58 it is ill-fated, and anything lower is lost. Bad luck on the road knocks a triumph down to done and a done job down to ill-fated (6% at danger 0.20), whatever the readiness. A lost roll is usually softened back to ill-fated.

A worked example: a Sellsword posted at danger 0.30 needs an average of 71. Two heroes averaging 60, one of them a tank, read about 88. That party triumphs 10% of the time, gets the job done 35%, comes home ill-fated 51% and loses someone 4%. Raise the average to 90 and triumph climbs to 60%, with no chance of losing anyone. Try your own party below.

Quest gold and renown

A posting's fee is set when it appears and tied to your own payroll: the average wage of your five best-paid heroes, times the heroes it takes, the weeks on the road, the type's pay weight and a little extra for danger. What you collect depends on the outcome:

On top of that: Hard Bargainer anywhere in the party adds 10%, the Old Wayfarer guildmaster adds 25% to both gold and renown, a town that is warm to you pays 10% more and one that owes you 20%. A region held by a rival house pays 20% less. Under the Bane oath a bounty pays no gold and turns a tenth of the fee into renown instead.

Renown comes only from a triumph or a done job, and longer roads are worth more. A 14-day Expedition triumph is worth 11 before modifiers and a 6-day Bounty triumph 11, because bounties pay renown half again on a triumph. A done job pays 40% of the triumph figure. Then your division scales it: the Mythic Circle keeps all of it, each division down keeps 16% less, and the Backwater keeps only 20%. Outgrow your division and it shrinks again: in the third division it starts falling past 410 renown and keeps only 10% by 600.

What a quest does to your heroes

Every hero who comes home gains a little Current Ability, most on a long, dangerous triumph, and a point of experience. They also pay for the road:

• Condition falls by about 6 a week, 60% more after an ill-fated or lost job. Hardy takes a quarter off.
• Fatigue rises by about 5 a week. Hardy takes a quarter off and Road-Hardened halves it.
• Stress rises by 14 after a bad outcome and drops by 4 otherwise.
• Morale rises by 10 on a triumph (double for Coin-Minded) and falls by 8 after a bad outcome (double for Sore Loser, half for Thick-Skinned). A Homebody loses 5 more on any road of 14 days or longer.
• Potential: a triumph on a road of 14 days or more at danger 0.15 or higher has a 55% chance to raise it.

Gear Hunts and Expeditions roll for gear, twice on roads of 10 days or more: certain on a triumph, 45% on a done job. With a Stillroom, any quest can bring home a regional harvest, far more often with aPathfinder along.

A lost quest means missing, not dead

When a quest is lost, one random member of the party goes missing rather than dying. Every 30 days each missing hero has a chance to resurface: 15% in their first year, falling a fifth each year to a floor of 2%, and half as likely again with a Tally-Keeper on the roster. Of those who resurface, half walk home, a quarter send word and a rescue Expedition appears on your board, some come back as wanderers, and a tenth are found as remains.

The tavern quest board

The board holds three regular postings and refills every day; sending a party leaves that slot empty for two or three days. If nothing is eight days or shorter, the next posting will be. Postings expire after 10 to 20 days.

The board leans with the season: more expeditions in Highsun, bounties in Emberfall, sellsword jobs in Deepwinter and escorts in Greentide. A region that lost a war posts more bounties for 120 days.

The Chart the Way conviction cuts a fifth off the road, the Old Wayfarer guildmaster a day, and the Stables a quarter off every quest, escort and vault road. Each home-town Roads shop cuts a tenth more.

Escorts, foraging runs, rebuilds, vault maps and rescues appear on their own terms. An escort's result depends only on whether the road ambush is won, and nobody fights on a foraging run.

Tavern quest questions