Story-driven board RPG

I've been working on a game some time ago but it evolved quite a lot. See old versions here, here and here. I went over all concepts to pinpoint what I find most important:

- Players encounter different (random) events, such as arriving at a mage tower, encountering wild beasts or finding a merchant
- Players start as a "tabula rasa" and through their decisions for specific abilities and the items they find or buy create a certain character
- Players cooperate to complete the final quest
- The game should be short (30 - 60 minutes), and therefore
- Combat should be varied but simple and short

STORY
Brighthill is a small, peaceful town deep in the wilderness of the land of Nertarun. People lead simple lives as farmers, hunters and fishermen and have heard of magic only from the tales told by travellers. But recently weird things started happening.
Every year after the harvest and before the onset of winter, merchants used to come to town to buy the town's produce and sell items of wonder. But winter is closing in and there is no sign of them yet. To make things worse, people started disappearing last week and you sometimes hear unfamiliar and frightening noises at night.
Suddenly, two goblins rush into town and start attacking villagers. You are able to kill them, and find an instruction note on one of them:

“Prepare the village for my arrival in ten days, when the sacrifice will take place. Do not allow any of the villagers to escape and start capturing them at night.”

The result of a quickly organised council is that this villain needs to be found and dealt with before it is too late. But the village consists only of farmers, hunters and fishermen, and most of them are too old and fragile or too young to go on such an adventure. So all eyes are on you: John the fisherman’s son, Steve the miller’s son, Donald the farmer’s son and Wayland the blacksmith’s son. You have no combat experience and there are no real weapons in town, so you have to use cunning and improvisation if you want to stay alive. And no-one can tell you what you will find.

SETUP
In this explorative roleplaying game, you will take the role of one (or more) of four characters and explore the surroundings of the town of Brighthill. Your surroundings are dangerous but you lack experience and equipment. So by carefully scouting the mellow regions adjacent to town you can gain some experience and gather some items to prepare yourself for more challenging areas. But do not linger, because with each passing day more people from your village are killed.

DICE MECHANICS
Every player has three dice, one of each colour:
- Red governs the strength stat, and affects heavy weapons (such as a war hammer), health and strength-based checks (such as moving a large boulder)
- Green governs the agility stat. It therefore affects initiative (whether a hero can attack before a monster), light/nimble weapons (such as daggers and shurikens), defence (dodge/parry) and agility-based checks (such as lockpicking a chest or walking across a narrow ridge)
- Blue governs the intelligence stat, and affects magic (using a wand or casting spells), mana and intelligence-based checks (such as diplomacy)

Players roll all dice simultaneously at the beginning of each turn. This creates their motivation/skill for each stat (strength/agility/intelligence) that day. By investing in a certain feat they get better (modifiers).
There is no real leveling system, but players choose certain abilities (see below) or extra health/mana and stats.

There is also a black die, rolled by the player drawing the event card. It affects whether special features occur. In combat, it may be rolled in every round because it is used for special abilities of monsters.

EVENT CARDS
Each turn starts with an event card. For instance, the players encounter a young man bullying an old man, and both want their help. The players can choose whom to help, each giving a different reward. To help the bully players need a low strength check (the old man is weak) and/or a high intelligence check (he is smart), but to help the old man they need a high strength check (the young man is strong) and/or low intelligence check (he is not so smart).
Event cards may also present the players with a number of enemies (see combat below).

Players first choose whom to help (if required), then roll all their dice, and if they succeed they get the reward depicted on the event card.

WINNING CONDITIONS
Not final. There will be a stack of 10 tier 1 event cards (easy events from the area familiar to the players), and a stack of 5 tier 2 cards (difficult events representing unfamiliar areas). The final event card will be shuffled through the tier 2 cards.
The final event card will also be a random one, such that players are never sure what will happen.
Example:
"An ivory tower rises before you and you feel the presence of a magical shield.
B4: deactivate the shield
G4: find a hidden entrance
Z: the wizard spots you and a thunder cloud damages everyone for 1 damage
If you succeed to enter, you will find the wizard inside (stats given). The wizard tells you he is responsible for the disappearing people, which he sacrificed to summon the demon lord Kath K’tarr.
Defeat the wizard to win the game."

ITEMS AND ITEM CARDS
Items include weapons, tools to improve non-combat situations, and armour or clothing. Items have a cost value which is important if players encounter a merchant, but not when they draw a random item card as loot. They come in 2 stacks representing the two tiers, and perhaps there will be a stack of specific items (if specific events give specific items).

ABILITIES AND SPELLS
Players gain XP for various tasks and can spend XP points to learn a new ability. Every player can learn every ability. Examples:
Pet Handler: player can capture beasts to fight for them
Light Armour: player is able to wear light armour
Taunt: player can force monsters to attack him

There will also be magical spells such as
Fireball: player can cast a fireball for X mana that does X damage
Scry: look into the future - look at the top 3 event cards and discard one
Players cannot learn these just like that because they are unfamiliar with magic, but they can be acquired as scrolls. From that moment a player can use the spell (by spending mana). Such spells can then also be learned from trainers (not bought from merchants).

COMBAT
Monsters can come in groups. Monsters have a value for HP (health), Attack (how much damage they can inflict to a hero), Armour (reduces incoming damage, only on strong monsters) and Toughness. Toughness is compared to a player's green die roll (+ modifiers). When toughness is higher, the monster can attack first. When equal or lower, the player can attack first.
Hero HP and mana are determined by the strength and intelligence modifiers, respectively, how many level investments they made and certain items or abilities. Attack is determined by their weapons in combination with dice (for instance a dagger does 1 damage and +1 damage on a green 6 roll). Armour is determined by clothing and some items give more with the green die (dodge on light armour).
Monsters automatically attack the hero that attacks them. Monsters that are not attacked automatically attack the hero with the highest "threat" (the one with the highest red die roll).
Heroes and monsters can attack with either ranged or melee weapons. Generally melee attacks do more damage, but cannot target opponents out of range. As such, a melee hero has to attack melee monsters first, whereas a ranged hero can focus ranged monsters (and vice versa).

BOARD/MAP
Because the game is driven by event cards, maybe it is not necessary to include a map. Players depart their town and draw tier 1 event cards until they are ready for tier 2. For combat they can place their characters and opposing monsters on a simple grid to indicate whom is in range.
On the other hand, I could include a board with the village of Brighthill in the middle, surrounded by familiar patches of agriculture, lake, meadow and forest. Players then have to draw tiles (squares or hexagons) to expand the map when they venture into the unknown.