Pathfinder Quest Lets Players Rewind Adventures With a Time Dragon — Metagaming Encouraged

Paizo is launching a cooperative Pathfinder board game called Pathfinder Quest, and the crowdfunding campaign goes live on BackerKit today. The game uses familiar Pathfinder classes and setting elements, while adding a tile-based adventure board, a branching story, and a time-travel twist that *encourages metagaming*.

• Live on BackerKit: campaign launched today on BackerKit.
• Gameplay: 12 adventures (you play eight per run), tile maps, 400 noncombat challenges, and a d6-based resolution system.
• Time mechanics: a time tracker, time as a resource, and a revealed time dragon that lets you go back and replay with knowledge.
• Components: standard and deluxe editions, miniatures, map tiles, tokens, and STL files via Titan Forge for 3D printing.
• When: Paizo is targeting spring 2026 for fulfillment; the standard edition will be sold through retailers.

What Pathfinder Quest is

Pathfinder Quest is a cooperative adventure board game set in Darkmoon Vale, a starter-friendly area of the Pathfinder world of Golarion. Players control characters on grid-style maps made from double-sided tiles, move through scenarios in an adventure book, and face both combat and narrative choices.

There are 12 included adventures, and each one runs about an hour to 90 minutes. Players will also encounter a book of 400 noncombat challenges that capture decisions like opening chests or dealing with NPCs. According to Paizo lead designer Joe Pasini: “Beyond the immediate consequences of choice, there’s a campaign sheet where you record some of the bigger things that happen. Did you save that mill from burning down entirely or did you not quite put out all the fire?”

Rules and resolution

Instead of the traditional d20, the game uses special six-sided dice. Four faces show pips for successes, one face shows a skull that can trigger enemy abilities, and one shows a star that grants class-specific effects. Character skills can alter results by ignoring skulls or adding stars. Jason Bulmahn, Paizo’s director of games, said: “The d20 is a fun die for a narrative adventure role-playing game. It offers a broad swath of outcomes. When it comes to a board game, I wanted something that mathematically had a bit more of a bounded outcome. … It allows you to tailor a gameplay experience that is not as swingy and you can really dial in where you want the challenge to be.”

Choices, campaign tracking, and time

Choices have both immediate and delayed consequences. The campaign sheet records major outcomes, and some story elements are sealed or delayed; for example players may find a sealed letter and decide whether to open it. Pasini explained: “There’s a sealed letter. Do you open it and read it or do you leave it sealed and just deliver it? … Maybe in that same adventure, even several adventures later, you’re going to find out something different will happen because of the choice you made earlier on.”

Time is also a central resource. A cardboard time tracker shaped like an hourglass ticks down as players act, and spending time can heal or trigger other consequences. Bulmahn noted: “There are benefits and drawbacks to going fast.”

Replayability is built into the story. While players will only play eight of the 12 adventures in a run, Paizo revealed a time dragon miniature as part of the campaign and hinted that the game will let players go back and try different choices. Bulmahn said: “Let’s just say at the end of your playthrough you’ll be given the opportunity to go back and do things differently. It’s actually part of the story that this is a thing that can happen, so we kind of encourage you to metagame and use that knowledge to your advantage to try and get a better outcome.” The time dragon reveal is shown in a BackerKit update here.

Characters, classes, and components

The base game launches with four core classes — rogue, cleric, fighter, and wizard — and ancestries including dwarf, elf, gnome, goblin, halfling, and human. Oracle is listed as a crowdfunding stretch goal. Characters level up after every adventure, and players can choose class cards at each level or opt to play as one of Pathfinder’s iconic characters.

The standard box includes cardboard pawns for monsters and characters, 17 double-sided map tiles, and 100+ tokens for locations, objects, and hazards. The deluxe edition adds miniatures for the four iconic characters plus the time dragon. Paizo is also partnering with miniature maker Titan Forge to provide STL files for every creature in the game for home or print-on-demand 3D printing.

Crowdfunding goals and release timing

The BackerKit campaign is primarily being used to gauge demand and decide production quantities and optional components. Paizo plans to expand the line with additional adventures and challenge books if the campaign performs as expected, and they said new item cards or other content could be added without redesigning the whole box.

Paizo is targeting spring 2026 for fulfillment. The standard edition will be available through retailers after the campaign.