Questrium

How to play, and how to run it. Part 1 is for players. Part 2 is for the grown-up.

On this page
  1. Getting in
  2. Who are you?
  3. Your four numbers
  4. Helping your friends
  5. Ran out of health?
  6. Spending your gold
  7. Asking for something
  8. If it looks stuck
For the grown-up
  1. Setting up
  2. Awarding points
  3. The buttons along the top
  4. Lists
  5. The daily event
  6. Timer and picker
  7. The projector view
  8. How it’s going
  9. Several classes
  10. Things that cannot happen
  11. If something looks wrong

Part 1 — For you, the player

You can read this bit and stop. The rest is for the grown-up.

Getting in

  1. Your teacher will show you a class code. It looks like FROG-7291.
  2. Type it in and tap Go.
  3. Tap your own name.
  4. Type your 4 numbers. That is your PIN. Keep it to yourself.

That's it. You're in.

Sharing a laptop? When you finish, tap I'm done at the bottom. Then the next person starts fresh and cannot see your things.

Who are you?

Everyone is one of three kinds. Yours was picked for you.

You are a…What you are good at
GuardianKeeping your friends safe. You can take a hit for them.
SageEnergy. You have lots and you can give it away.
MenderHealing. You can bring a friend back when they run out of health.

Nobody is better than anybody else. You are good at different things on purpose, so you need each other.

Your four numbers

NumberWhat it means
♥ HealthHow you are doing. If it runs out, a friend can help you back.
⚡ EnergyYou spend this to use a power. It comes back every day.
✦ XPThis only ever goes up. Enough XP and you go up a level.
◉ GoldFor looks only. Hats, clothes and pets. Gold never makes you stronger.
Your health is private. It is never on the big screen. Only you, your team and your teacher can see it. Nobody else needs to know.

Helping your friends

Tap Use a power. You can only ever help someone. There is no way to attack anyone in this game, and there never will be.

PowerWho has itWhat it doesEnergy
Shield ◈GuardianYou take your friend's next hit, so they lose no health.5
Bandage 🩹GuardianGives a friend 10 health.5
Share Energy ⚡SageGives a friend 10 energy.10
Mend ✚MenderGives a friend 25 health.10
Rally ✦MenderBrings a friend back when they are at zero health. You need level 3.15

Helping earns you XP too. Looking after your team is one of the best ways to go up a level.

Ran out of health?

You are not out of the game and you have not lost. Your screen will tell you which of your friends can help you. Ask them. A Mender can bring you back with Rally.

Spending your gold

It will ask "Are you sure?" before you buy, because you cannot get the gold back after.

Some things say "at level 3". That means keep going — you will get there.

Asking for something

Tap Use a power, then Ask for something. Your teacher sees your ask and decides. Asking costs you nothing.

If it looks stuck

Part 2 — For the grown-up

Setting it up and running it. Nothing here is for the children.

First time: setting up

  1. Open the site and sign in with Google. Only you sign in — children never have an account.
  2. Make a class. It gets a join code automatically (like FROG-7291).
  3. Roster → add each child: first name, last initial, and their kind (Guardian / Sage / Mender). You can choose Decide later.
  4. Give each child a 4-digit PIN on the roster screen. They need the class code and their PIN to get in.
  5. Optional: Teams → put them in small teams. Powers only work on teammates, so teams are what make the game cooperative.
We only ever store a first name and a last initial. No email, no birthday, no photo, and children cannot type free text anywhere. That is deliberate and it is not going to change.

The one thing you do twenty times a day

On the class screen: tap a child, then tap a behaviour. Two taps, done. No confirmation box — that is on purpose, because every award can be undone.

A bar appears at the bottom with Undo on it. Mis-tapped? Undo it. The correction is kept in the history rather than hidden, so nothing is ever silently rewritten.

The name tiles are coloured by kind — Guardians blue, Sages purple, Menders green — so you can aim at a child rather than read the whole grid.

The buttons along the top

ButtonWhat it is for
Needs youAnyone at zero health, and any child asking for something. A number appears when something is waiting.
TeamsMake teams and move children between them.
RosterAdd children, set PINs, change someone's kind.
ListsYour behaviours, your privileges, your events — and How it's going.
TimerA countdown, and a pick-a-name button.
EventDraw today's class event.
ScreenThe projector view. Put this on the big screen.

Lists — everything here is yours to rewrite

Questrium ships suggestions, not rules. All of it is editable.

The daily event

Event → Draw today's event. One per day, applied to the whole class, and it shows on the projector all day.

An event can only ever give — XP, energy or gold. It cannot take anything away, and it cannot touch health at all. That is enforced in the database, not just hidden in the screen.

You can undo the whole event. Undoing does not let you draw a different one the same day — so nobody can re-roll for a better outcome.

Timer and picker

Start a countdown and it appears large on the projector too, so the room can watch it. Give it a name like "tidy up" if you want. The picker chooses a name at random, and picks are independent — the same child can come up twice. That is an honest lottery rather than a queue.

The projector view

Team standings, today's good moments, the event, and the countdown. It polls by itself, so it can stay up all day.

No health, ever, on the big screen. Not even someone gaining health — because "Ann got 25 health back" tells the room she was at zero. Teams are ranked; children are not.

How it’s going

Lists → How it's going. This is about your practice, not about any child:

There is deliberately no per-child history here — not even for you. A browsable record of every bad moment turns this from a game into a file on a child, and you already have the better instrument: you were in the room.

Several classes

With two or more classes a class switcher appears in the dark bar at the top. With one class it stays hidden, so you keep the tap. Children always type one code and never pick a class.

Things that are deliberately impossible

Not possibleWhy
Ranking children against each otherTeam progress yes, child leaderboards no.
Attacking, stealing or any power used against someoneEvery power helps. There is no other kind.
Penalising a team for one child's behaviourNo child is punished for something they did not do. This is the single thing we most deliberately do not copy from other tools.
Buying anything but looks with goldGold is hats and pets. It never buys power, health or privileges.
XP going downXP only ever rises.
Showing health publiclyVisible to the child, their team and you. Nowhere else.

If something looks wrong

Printing gives two separate bundles: Part 1 for the children (about 3 pages) starts first, and Part 2 for you begins on a fresh page.