I’ll Drink to That! A Review of ‘Drinking Quest’

Elliott MillerAug 4, 2012

Game Name: Drinking Quest

Publisher: Wiseman Innovation

Designer: Jason Anarchy

Year: 2011

Players: 2 – 4

Ages: 21+ (If you are Drinking)

Playing Time: 60 Minutes

Retail Price: $25.00

Category: RPG Drinking Game

Components:

62 Cards
3 dice
Pad of Character Sheets
Instructions

From Wiseman Innovation:

Drinking Quest is a Sword & Sorcery game like no other. It’s a light RPG but a complex drinking game, perfect for an off kilter Game Night with the gang. You’ll be slaying monsters and earning Experience Points but also downing your drink when you run out of Hit Points! Not a big drinker? That’s okay, Drinking Quest is full of enough dry wit and internet memes to entertain even the most sober of guests.

Don’t like your card? Use the Headbutt to the Groin or Hell’s Hangover card to lay the monster to waste.

Time to chug your drink? Well you’ll think twice before you rush into battle without proper Drinking Quest armour.

You just killed a pack of wild Booze Hounds? Use the coins they inexplicably carried to buy a Bottle Opener Sword or a Keg Destroyer Axe.

Failed a Saving Throw for Sexual Prowess? Turns out she was a zombie the whole time.

Already played a game and want a new challenge? There are four unique characters each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses that lend to a new play style. Not to mention a randomized quest system that guarantees no two games will play out the same!

Grab some friends, a case of beer and enter the exciting, inebriated world of Drinking Quest!

I’ve had this in my “To Be Reviewed” pile for some time now, mostly due to the fact that I’m not a big drinker. My twenties are long behind me now, so it wouldn’t be getting to the table very quickly. You don’t HAVE to drink to play the game of course, but I am dedicated and want to get the full experience from the game for you gentle readers.

The game comes in a tuckbox and includes cards, three green dice, and a small pad for tracking your characters stats and items during the game. The cards are black and white with some simple yet nice line artwork on each card. The rules are on a single folded sheet and so are fairly easy to digest.

The object of the game is to have the character that scored the most experience points at the completion of the fourth quest. As you can guess, the game is broken up into four quests, and each player character will advance through them all, growing stronger with each one.

To start the game, each player selects one of the four provided hero cards. Each hero has different starting stats, and you mark these on a blank character sheet. The stats used in the game are:

Maximum HP: Max Hit Points, the amount of damage points that you can take before you are dead.

Attack: The amount rolled when attacking a creature. A typical value would be 1d6-1 or along those lines.

Defense: The modifier applied to the the attacker’s die roll. It is subtracted from the attacker’s roll and the result is the amount of damage received (or dealt) during an attack.

Quickness, Sexual Prowess, Tolerance, Smarts: These are all basic skill values that will come into play via certain cards during the game. Your goal would be to roll the value of your score or lower with three dice when making a saving throw against that stat. So if you are asked to make a Tolerance saving throw, and your Tolerance value is 10, you’ll want to roll a 10 or less with the three dice.

Starting Weapon: Each player also has a starting weapon, which is how the starting attack value is determined. It can be upgraded during play.

Special Ability: Each player has a special ability that can be used once during each quest. The abilities are specific to each character, and separate “Special Ability” cards are included that give the full description of the ability.

Once the player receives their character and special ability cards, and fills out their little character sheets, it is time to set up the quests. Shuffle each of the four quest decks into separate piles and place the “Quest Summary” card on top. The summary card is basically a flavored introduction to the cards you’ll be facing during the quest. Each player will be drawing one card from the current quest deck on their turn, and once the deck is depleted players move to the next quest. Your max HP are automatically restored between quests.

As an example, the first quest summary card reads: “Quest 1: Lolevel Forest – Begin your journey Thirsty Wardens! Lolevel Forest is full of filthy, stinking goblins. Their lackluster brewing practices have been a boon to Bellow Ale for a long time. Perform these quests, and win the favor of the Gods and eternal intoxication will be yours!”

At this point you’ll want to have the booze filled drink of your choice available for chugging during the game. Remember, it IS a drinking game after all.

Players roll at the start of each quest to see who goes first, and play proceeds clockwise from there. On your turn you will draw a quest card and follow the instructions. You’ll either be facing a monster or making a saving throw. Players attack first, and monsters return the attack after that. This continues until one or the other is killed. If you kill the monster, you earn the coins and experience listed on the card. If the monster kills you, you must chug your drink. If you do, you regain all of your hit points and are ready to go next turn.

The rules do point out that you only need to chug one drink during each quest. If called on to chug a second drink, you can replace it with three good swigs. So you aren’t in much danger of vomiting everywhere, depending on the size of your drinks that is.

As you work your way from quest to quest, you’ll earn coins that you can spend in the shop. There is a card with weapons and their cost on one side, and armor and items on the other side. This will upgrade your abilities, and you’ll need it as the monsters do get stronger from quest to quest.

The two items of main interest that you can purchase are “Bellow Ale”, which can give you an emergency boost if you get killed (use it to get 1d6 HP back and continue the battle), and “Make Opposing Player Chug Drink”, if the other players aren’t drinking fast enough for you, buy this option and make them chug.

At the end of the game, you’ll all be a bit drunker and total up your XP. The player with the most XP wins the game.

As far as drinking games go, this was pretty entertaining. It was way more fun than most games like this you run across, if you are a gamer that is. You should adjust the number of drinks to meet your own needs, including not drinking at all. The game tries very hard to be funny, so it is entertaining even without the booze. I probably wouldn’t play it outside the drinking game, but it was fun for what it was. There isn’t a lot of replayability value, but if you are drinking enough for this to be an issue, then you have bigger problems to deal with than replayability.

Note: The game does urge you to drink responsibly, and I’m not promoting drinking by reviewing the game. If it isn’t your thing, then avoid “Drinking Quest”.