by QuestWorks
A professional development-themed tabletop RPG where your expertise shapes every action. Each character has a HeroType with three unique Areas of Expertise that define how they solve problems.
Just like in the real world, success in Expertise Engine comes from knowing how to apply your expertise and work with others. It's about:
You can do anything that suits your character and comes to mind—fight, persuade, avoid danger, share your expertise, search for clues, etc. But you'll probably have to roll the dice!
Think about what your character is good at, and what they would do in this situation. Then ask, how big of a risk do I want to take? The more risky or challenging the task, the more dice you'll be required to roll. You can act alone or strategize as a team.
The Quest Guide sets a difficulty level between 1–9+ dice: 1 being trivial, and 9+ being near impossible. This number represents how much luck it'll take to succeed.
GM Tip: Narrate your difficulty decisions aloud by stacking context clues. This helps players follow your logic and get better at estimating risk.
Example:
"You're trying to cross a frozen bridge under fire? The wind is brutal, the bridge is unstable, and there's an archer firing at you from the cliffs. Sounds like 4 dice."
You must roll enough dice to match or exceed the difficulty. You cannot roll if you don't. You can do this by:
Can't meet the difficulty?
Once you decide to roll, the pool is locked, and all dice must be rolled sequentially in the order they were committed. Stop rolling right away when a 6 or a 1 is rolled.
XP: Each player gains 10 XP for each die they personally rolled. Dice that aren't rolled due to a 6 or 1 don't grant XP.
All helpers share in both the outcome and the risk, even if they only contributed special moves.
To keep things tense, the Quest Guide may set a Countdown Clock—a limit on how many actions the party can take before something big happens. This helps incentivize players to take higher-risk actions.
Example: You have 6 rolls before the cult finishes their ritual. Rolling a lucky 6 could extend the clock, while a 1 could speed it up.
In addition, every roll is governed by a Tension Timer—a tool for managing pacing and introducing time-based challenges. The timer adds urgency and pressure to player decisions by providing a limited window to:
The Quest Guide sets the timer as soon as the situation is described. Within the allotted time, players must declare their intent, learn the difficulty, AND build their dice pool. If they fail to complete all steps before time runs out, the action fails automatically.
Once per session, you may do the following:
Push Your Luck: After rolling a 6, you can roll another die to press your advantage—but risk undoing your success if you fail.
Pay a Price: If a 1 is rolled, you can pay a price to avoid the instant failure and continue rolling. Pay a price by sacrificing something important to you that fits the context—like your supplies, your reputation, or extra health.
Combat is simple and high-stakes. Describe what you're trying to do (gain a tactical advantage, disarm, wound, decapitate, etc.) and the Quest Guide will set the difficulty—just like any other action.
Enemies are defeated when it makes sense to the Quest Guide that they would be, and they deal as much damage to players as makes sense to the Quest Guide considering the context, their might, and the player's roll results. 1 damage for glancing blows, up to 6 damage for beyond-lethal ones.
Armor can absorb damage, point for point. When it runs out, your health is at risk. Damaged armor is useless until it is repaired.
At 0 HP, you're temporarily out of action—with lasting consequences to your wellbeing. Recovery requires proper rest or healing.
You have two options instead of simply being knocked out:
Last Stand: When you hit 0 HP, you may immediately succeed at a final heroic action of medium difficulty before you're knocked out. Choose one of your expertise to fuel the move—it becomes completely unavailable until you complete a quest to restore it. No roll required.
A Hero's Death (Level 7+): If your character is level 7 or higher, you may choose death. In exchange for the ultimate sacrifice, you succeed at an impossible task—something no combination of rolls, moves, or strategy could have accomplished. The cost: your character dies permanently, and you'll start over with a brand-new character at level 1.
Each character has one of these Edges, granting a once-per-session special move:
Sneaking, acrobatics, lockpicking, sleight of hand, precise strikes, careful words—when delicate touch beats brute force. You're agile and have killer reflexes.
Assessing situations, finding weak points, spotting traps, spying, identifying patterns—you see opportunities that others miss.
Street smarts. Blending in. Manipulating situations. Doing things that have never been done before.
You are inextricably linked to all of nature—flora, fauna, and fungi.
You understand how everything fits together—people, ideas, places, environments.
Change, energy, and transformation. You are one with it.
Your familiarity with the wilds—and the creatures that inhabit them—make you a skilled tracker, scout, hunter.
Your watchful eye, survivalist knowledge, and swift reflexes help you keep people alive in harsh conditions. Think archery, trap-setting, crafting, or standing guard.
Your instinct for navigation guides you through uncertain territory and sharpens your aim.
Odds, chances, and big swings. Your second nature.
Disorder. Mayhem. Upheaval. Revolution. It's like your oxygen.
Who has it, who wants it, who's gonna get it next. And, if something takes brute force, you're the one for the job.
Commanding attention, rallying allies, intimidating foes.
You know your way around conflict—and any weapon, tool, or technique involved.
You can read and predict the flow of conflict.
Casting spells, understanding magical forces, and applying your academic or arcane knowledge.
Breaking puzzles, revealing illusions, solving riddles—when complex situations need solving.
You're a quick study and learned scholar. If it happened, might happen, or could happen, you've probably read about it.
Support, belief, protection, and healing. Your connection to the divine.
Birth, death, the afterlife—you're deeply familiar with it all.
You are emotionally, mentally, and physically attuned—extraordinarily so.
You just… get people. You know what makes them tick.
The arts, the emotions, the performance—you've mastered them.
You can show up anywhere and fit right in. You've been there, you've done that—you've probably even heard songs about it.
You know every law and code—and when to break them for the greater good.
You can always tell what's… off.
You naturally command respect and inspire order. Your movements project focus and discipline in all things—from speech to steel.