MindMatters Quest

A Therapeutic Storytelling Game For Teens

How To Play

MindMatters Quest has been designed as a tool for therapists, teachers, and parents to engage teens and improve their mental health through storytelling. 
 
The game has been designed to let you decide how much emphasis you want to put on the mental health aspect of the game. It is also design to be flexible around the time you have to play. You can focus on the storytelling/therapy aspect of the game or just play the game to “beat the final boss". The game can be as deep or as surface level as you’d like. It’s all up to you!

The following instructions are a guideline in how to use this tool to help your teen grow and learn. Once you learn the basics of the cards, you can fit the game to your personal style and goals.

In addition to the MindMatters Quest deck, you will also need two six-sided dice. If you don’t have dice, the cards have a built-in system to simulate six-sided dice (see “Back of Cards - Dice Alternative” below).

Overview of Play

First, you will lay out cards that represent steps in a journey. Each card will be turned over and a challenge presented. Each card offers some details about the story that you can use to add to the overall story. The difficulty of the cards' challenge will be represented by a number that you must meet (or beat) by rolling two six-sided dice. Completing challenges and adding to the story will give you treasures and bonuses.  Missing the challenge will increase the difficulty of the final event and, hopefully, add to the adventure.

Inital Setup and Layout of Cards

The following setup has been created to take approximately 20 minutes of play time depending on how much exploration you want to do.

The initial layout of the cards will look like the following:

Create the layout:

- Separate and shuffle the Location, Milestone Event, Treasure, and Epic Treasures cards.

- Place the Treasure and Epic Treasure piles to the side. They will be used througout the game.

- Place, in a row next to each other, the following cards: One Start Event card, two Location cards, one Milestone Event card, two Location cards, one Milestone Event card, and, finally, a Finale Event card.  This will match the image above.  Adding or removing Location and Milestone Event cards will increase or decrease the time to play the game.
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Playing the Game

Each card represents a step on the path in your journey towards the Finale Event. Begin by turning over the Start Event card and read the card.  Use any elements on the card to add to your on-going story.

You will then continue to turn over each card and resolve the challenge on the card before moving on to the next card.  You are encouraged to use the information and prompts on each card to add details to your journey. 
 

Location and Milestone Event Cards

Location and Milestone Event cards present challenges along your journey. Most of these cards will have you describe details of the location or event that can add to your story.  

Most Location and Milestone Event cards will have an obstacle or challenge that the player needs to overcome.  The difficulty of this challenge is indicated by the Challenge Value. To succesfully complete the challenge of this card, you will roll two six-sided dice.  The total of the dice needs to meet or beat the Challenge Value. There are ways to increase your dice roll or decrease the Challenge Value through bonuses, treasures, and the like.

If you meet or beat the Challenge Value, you receive the Challenge Reward found at the bottom of the card (within the blue area). Any bonus received can be applied to later cards.

If you miss the challenge, tell the tale of how this happened, and then place the card under the Finale Event card. This will increase the difficulty of the Finale Event. 

Details of The Location and Milestone Event Cards

Location and Milestone Event cards have the same elements. Milestone Event cards usually have a higher Challenge Value which make them more difficult to complete.

Card Title
The name of the location or event

Card Icon
Identifies whether this is a Location or a Milestone Event.  This icon matches the icon on the back of the card.

Location Icon

Milestone Event Icon

Flavor Text
Describes the location or event and gives some “flavor” that you can use in your storytelling.

Challenge Value
This is the value you have to meet or beat by rolling two six-sided dice. After rolling the dice, you can use Challenge Text bonuses or Treasure bonuses to help you successfully meet or beat the Challenge Value.

Challenge Value Icon

If you are unable to meet or beat the Challenge Value, add to the story by describing what happens when you don’t complete the challenge, then place the card under the Finale Event card.  Each card under the Finale Event will increase the Challenge Value of the Finale Event. 

Challenge Text
Every Location and Milestone Event card has a gray Challenge Text box. This area will contain details about the challenge of this card. Most cards will guide players to add more details to the on-going story.

Important: Any bonuses shown in the gray Challenge Text box are only applied to this card’s Challenge Value.  

Go Deeper Text
Some cards might have a “Go Deeper” aspect of the Challenge Text.  This is an optional component of the challenge, but encourages players to explore a deeper aspect of themselves or the story.  If you are working with a teen, this encourages them to explore deeper therapeutic themes, but gives them a choice to do so.  If they choose to “go deeper”, they will obtain bonuses and benefiting from that deeper exploration.   

Challenge Reward
At the bottom of the card in a blue area is the reward for completing this card’s Challenge Value.  When you meet or beat the Challenge Value, you gain the Challenge Reward. Some rewards are immediate such as “Gain a Treasure”. Some rewards you can use at a later time such as a +2 Bonus (adding 2 to your dice roll). If you choose to use the Challenge Reward later, take the card and put it in front of you. At any time, you can discard the card and gain the benefit of the Challenge Reward.

Treasure and Epic Treasure Cards

Treasure and Epic Treasure cards have the same elements. Epic Treasures are usually more powerful and give you better rewards.

Once you gain a Treasure, you can hold on to it and use it when you’d like. When you use a Treasure, tell the story about how you’re using it in the current Location, Milestone Event, or Finale Event. You will then apply the Treasure Reward and then discard the card.

Details of The Location and Milestone Event Cards

Card Title
The name of the treasure

Card Icon
Identifies whether this is a Treasure or a Epic Treasure.  This icon matches the icon on the back of the card.

Treasure Icon

Epic Treasure Icon

Flavor Text
Describes the treasure and gives some “flavor” that you can use in your storytelling.

Storytelling Reminder
A reminder to tell the story of how you use this treasure before you use it.

Treasure Reward
The bonus or reward of this treasure will be at the bottom of the card in a blue area.

Other Icons

Here are other icons you might find on cards and what they represent:

Bonus Icon - Increase dice roll by this amount

Challenge Value Reduction - Decrease Challenge Value by this amount

Epic Treasure Upgrade - Exchange any Treasure for an Epic Treasure

Optional Bonus Phrases

To encourage storytelling and interaction, you might consider using a phrase such as “Well done!” or “Hazzah!” to indicate a player has done an exceptional job in storytelling or in dealing with an obstacle. When used, the player receiving the praise will get a bonus point to be added to their dice value or, perhaps, a re-roll of a die.

Back Of Cards - Therapeutic Indicator

There are two flavors of Location and Milestone Event cards - general and therapeutic. The general cards have locations and events that further the story in a general way, but are not connected to any formal therapeutic goals.  The therapeutic cards address one of the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy goals.

A subtle marking in the design on the back of the card identifies whether the card is general or therapeutic.  If the card is general, there will be a dot in the upper-left corner of the card. If the card is therapeutic, the dot will be missing. 

Using this identifier, you will be able to choose how much or how little therapeutic depth the game will have by adding more of fewer therapeutic cards to the initial layout.

Back Of Cards - Dice Alternative

Although it is recommended that you use two six-sided dice, it is not required. All Location and Milestone Event cards have an alternative solution embedded in the design on the back of the card.

At the top and bottom of these cards, there are a series of dots ranging from one dot to six dots. The dots on the tops and bottoms of the cards will always total seven. This means, if there is one dot at the top of the card then there will be six dots on the bottom of the card. If there are four dots on the top of the card then there will be three on the bottom. And so on... 

If you don’t have dice available, find six cards that you didn’t use in the initial layout that have one through six dots at the top. For each dice roll, you can shuffle these six cards, randomly take one, and that will be one die value (1-6). You can then repeat that for the second die roll.

You can also do this with just three cards.  Find three cards with one, two, and three dots on the top. This means these cards will have four, five, and six dots on the bottom.  During the shuffling process of these three cards, you will also need to randomly rotate the cards reversing the top and bottom dots.