>What is a quest? An interactive story in which a Quest Master (QM) writes and provides the readers with options on how to proceed — similar to a choose-your-own-adventure book or an old text adventure.
Questionably Useful links: >QTG discord: https://discord.gg/dZavHuK >Skirmish discord: https://discord.com/invite/DZCVvVU >Evo Game discord: https://discord.gg/xGZAX9tAvx >Old pastebin containing advice for QMs: https://pastebin.com/Z78p8gXf Badly in need of renovation.
>Archiving guide: Go to http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/requestqstinterface.html Fill out the request form to archive a thread. Threads are also automatically archived by other websites, such as archived.moe.
>Formatting guide: Only the thread's OP can format. Note that should the OP change ID, they will lose this ability as well. Remove the spaces between the [] brackets and the letters: Bold: [ b ] text [ /b ] Italics: [ i ] text [ /i ] Red: [ red ] text [ /red ] Blue: [ blue ] text [ /blue ] Green: [ green] text [ /green ]
>Formatting guide for everyone: Dice (type this in “options”): dice + [no. of dice]d[no. of sides on the dice] (optionally you can add modifiers: dice + [no. of dice]d[no. of sides on the dice]+[modifier]; for a negative modifier type: +-[modifier]
Examples: dice+1d100 = a 1d100 roll, dice+1d100+10 = a 1d100 roll with a +10 modifier.
Spoiler: [ spoiler ]spoiler[ /spoiler ] or by pressing alt+s in-thread (doesn't work in OP)
>QM Question: How much time do you spend on your quest besides writing/drawing for it? This includes notes, behind-the-scenes crunch, drawings that don't go with updates, side content, etc.
>Player Question: Have you ever had a write-in that actually won a vote? What was it? Did you have to argue for it? Did the QM prefer it to their preset options?
>General Question: How do you feel about multiplayer games/quests/skirmishes? Which type, if any, do you prefer, and why?
>Lurker Question: There is no question. Vote. Unless you don't want to buy a pass, that's understandable.
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AnonymousID:AlORSwZ305/03/26(Sun)20:52:22
>>6407330(OP) >Player Question A few times. I don't know how the QM felt. It didn't require much arguing. You just need to be first to vote or near the top and not be obviously wrong usually.
>General I used to like the god games and evo games but as a lurker. Multiplayer quests flake too often for me to get very invested. Skirmishes attract the same few anons every time, I think.
>>6407330(OP) >QM question I'm always thinking about it, but I rarely spend much actual time on it beyond the update (and updating the pastebins every once in a while). It's very much a hobby for me, not something that consumes every waking hour of mine. >Player question A decent amount of times. Usually, it's because the QM found it funny if nothing else. It's not really hard to convince people to go for a write in as long as the write in makes sense, and isn't just an outright meme. >General question I play in a few of them. They're really fun but they are a different beast from quests. I tend to lean towards the simpler ones, because I don't want to feel I have to spend 4 hours crunching numbers before deciding what I should do for my turn.
>Player Question: Yes. Many. Some were the seed of a great deal of fun for the future. Others... to my shame haunt QMs and still cause them to seethe years later. I've become more picky about doing write-ins over the years and am nothing but grateful for QM feedback and patience.
>General Question: Something simple and well explained, like the series Bananas did. That was perfection.
Oliver is caught in a lie by his secret lover, who happens to be married to the mayor, who Oliver thinks may have hired a P.I. to investigate him, a P.I. that may be dangerously mentally ill, plus... Who was whistling at the end of the hall?
>>6407330(OP) >QM Question: Depends on the week, but a single update can take a few hours to handle on the long end. I have a lot of notes already prepared for the quest I am running, even drafts from old versions of this story I can reference - there were a couple of conversations about turning it into a novel at one point. But if I take a leap I may spend 3-4 hours working on outlines, scrap dialogue, etc. I try to read or watch something every week that will help inspire me, and that can be a twenty minute bit of media or even a full movie, so that's variable.
>>Player Question: Often, actually. I think my first really popular one was for a goofy Libertarian mayoral candidate in a quest about an election. The QM burned out quick and I don't think really liked my idea, even though the other players seemed to get a kick out of him. At least once I have been able to use my checkered criminal past to inform a write-in for Gotham City Beat Cop, and the QM was impressed enough to give us some advantages without rolling because it was thorough! I like write-ins that come from people's life experiences the best, they always tend to add the most color to a story from a vote imo. Don't wanna crank my hog or anything but I have had a bunch get backed up since then.
>General Question: They kind of intimidate me! I want to take the plunge though. Will soon.
>Have you ever had a write-in that actually won a vote? What was it? Did you have to argue for it? Did the QM prefer it to their preset options? Yes with multiple levels of success. Sometimes it's great fun, sometimes QM only takes certain aspects of the write in, sometimes it's a disaster.
>General Question: How do you feel about multiplayer games/quests/skirmishes? Which type, if any, do you prefer, and why? Anything as long as I get to take my own bad decisions. Skirmishes look easier to manage. I think they might be the future of this board. A single QM wasting hours to get three votes and two +1 doesn't sound very sustainable. A format where the players and QM's both put a great deal of work to entertain each other has more sense to me.
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AnonymousID:WKJ13PnS05/03/26(Sun)22:59:18
>>6407330(OP) >General Question: I like skirms, but some are hard for me to understand when my favorite thing is the alternative, which is to read updates with a single MC and roll a 1d100.
Tbh I like anything so long as the plot/characters are well-written.
>QM question For my current one, quite a bit! Workshopping encounters, planning out items and upgrades, tracking player movements, conditions, hp, resolving attacks, checking over spells and loadouts, and occasionally drawing bonus illustrations for my players. The upside is that it's very expedient to actually write the updates, since most of the effort IS in that crunch.
>Player question It happens every now and then, and it's quite satisfying. No particular pushback or anything like that from the qm, as I recall.
>General question Most of this question's contents can be answered by checking out my thread, SPELLDIVERS: Skirmish and Sorcery, so I won't belabor my ideas on skirm design philosophy too much. Instead, I'd like to highly recommend VANGUARD. Awesome art, really accessible mechanics, cool playerbase, tons of activity, the works. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I have given Vanguard surpassing praise in my own work. If you're looking for a good entry point into skirmish in general, I'd recommend starting there.
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AnonymousID:G70CtWSP05/04/26(Mon)00:19:28
Where did Lannister quest go right where other Asoiaf quests did not?
>>6407441 The specific premise of this AU seems especially fertile for lore-beards eager to pontificate about what will come to pass and how it may be averted or accelerated. The QM has a very steady pace, and the board is currently very hospitable for slower quest running. The QM is highly responsive towards the input and desires of all the lore-beards that are ranting back and forth, they feel listened to and valued, and the story is genuinely more collaborative as a result in the strictest sense. No big focus on eroticism or scandal. Measured and successful attempt to explore one of the more mysterious parts of the setting.
The most impressive thing is that even when the players disagree strongly, they are ultimately still respectful towards one another. No one is being mean or unsportsmanlike even when they debate a possibility, or argue the facts of a certain canonical incident. I am really proud of everyone in the thread for that.
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AnonymousID:25+iXPZS05/04/26(Mon)00:39:10
>>6407330(OP) >PQ Many a time. I love write-ins, both entirely new options and addenda to existing options. QMs who freely incorporate player chatter and caveats into actions are the best. >GQ I pass on them. I find them overwhelming with many more moving parts to keep track of, enough crunch to break my teeth on and/or a fast pace I can't keep up with especially considering the other two points. I'm here the the storytelling, skirms especially feel like a completely different genre.
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AnonymousID:aaO44n2W05/04/26(Mon)02:27:44
>>6407330(OP) >Player Question A couple of times. The one that stuck out most to me was using a board game to lure out someone. QM seemed to like it. >General Question I find them interesting, I'm surprised to see some are still going. I've played in some multiplayers but I dislike not just being an anon. Then the QM got hit by life and did spinoffs without finishing the original.
>QM Question A lot of the spare time in-between goes to my quests. Driving to work, from work, while I eat, or do other 'autopilot' activities I usually come up with broad strokes as far as ideas or scenes go. If I am interested enough with an idea that I cement it on my story board that's when I'll make sure to research parts I don't understand fully (like Norwegian sailors or how the pimp trade works) and that can be anything from a couple articles or a video into full on hours long deep dives depending on how much the subject interests me.
>Player Question I try not to do too many write-ins in other people's quests which is ironic considering how much I love them from my own players.
>General Question Multiplayer quests and skirmishes all look like a ton of fun but sadly I am not available frequently enough to run/play in one consistently. Though I still like reading through them when I have time. (Read Spelldivers)
>Lurker Question I said it once in my own quest but I think I'd rather burn myself alive on national television in front of my friends and family before I'd buy a Chan Pass
If you read my answers maybe you read my quest, GOTHAM CITY BEAT COP, if you do then there's an update available here: >>6407536 >>6407536 >>6407536
If not then you can check out the whole catalog here: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Gotham%20City%20Beat%20Cop%20Quest
>>6407330(OP) >QM: Not as much as I should, probably. Dark Quest's 'artistic style' allows me to chug out drawings faster than I did in my last two and I like to plot out plot nodes and such long before I start a quest, so really my time is spent writing updates and coming up with new crap that might read better. There's no, like, 'READY' status for a quest, really... you can plan and plan til' the cows come home, but sometimes the best thing to do is come up with some vague ideas and fill them in with your players. Plans change so it never hurts to be flexible. >Player: Hotdog Mobile for Digital Goddess Quest. Shame how that all ended up. >General: I'll admit I was intimidated by them in the past, but honestly some of my favorite quests are multiplayer ones now. If the past few months have proven anything they're a good way for players to get what they want out of a quest while also fostering creativity and fun! Wish there were more on /qst/ honestly--they aren't as easy to run as they look, but not every multiplayer quest has to be a skirmish/loot-gacha gatherer! Sometimes you can just have a quest with multiple player-controlled protagonists! Neat stuff!
Totally unrelated, but Dark Quest #9 just started up! Not a bad time to get caught up with things! Can our stalwart hero and frycook ANTON PEAS save a fantasy world shrouded in perpetual darkness? Maybe, but only if you--yes, YOU--join in! >>6405694 >>6405694 >>6405694
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AnonymousID:UP8tYTph05/04/26(Mon)06:08:33
>>6407581 It was going to be called the /qst/ that could...
>QM Question Not as much as I would like to, but I do always keep some notebook where I keep the ideas and sketches for scenarios that I actually do consider worth to pursuit, if that counts.
>Player Question There was this one write-in I dropped into a Bleach quest that was just me trying to say that the costs of Hybridization would bite us in the ass, which it most certainly did as the other character we had at the time damn near went insane, the quest died shortly from that vote, so I always wondered if me doing that just killed its momentum altogether. Still maintain the opinion, the Vizard needed a century to chill out and Ichigo's is such a special case that He's Him
>General Question I like the concept but keeping up as a player seems daunting and nevertheless running one seems a bit too much IMO, I do remember the recent Avengers quest wherein multiple players played between pre-made characters and that seems like a pretty nice way to equalize the issues of a crunchy, stopgapful system.
That aside, Errant Comet Quest is back on its sixth Phase, jeeding the disappearance of Lacus Clyne at the Junius Seven Colony Ruins, Frieden Moon embarks ahead to location, uncertainty and doubt beginning to bear fruit as they arrive from a week in the homeland.
>>6407330(OP) >1 post by this ID until whatever vote wins
Sometimes I forget how much I hate this place, and then I am shortly reminded.
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AnonymousID:a7kZVIbc05/04/26(Mon)23:24:33
I shouldn't have dropped running With Great Power and I regret it every day.
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AnonymousID:SE6CnJcJ05/04/26(Mon)23:29:50
>>6407853 It's not too late. I'd still participate and I've been playing since thread 1.
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AnonymousID:a7kZVIbc05/05/26(Tue)03:52:50
>>6407857 I'll be honest, even though there's a big part of me that regrets dropping it and wants to get back to it, the way it dropped down to just one or two votes a post really demoralized me. I was already struggling with keeping my energy up too. Now it looks like the board has only become slower.
For QMs who consistently turn out daily updates: How do you keep up and keep moving the plot or game-scenario forward?
Sometimes I have trouble thinking of "what happens next", especially with a quality prompt (something that is player facing, has stakes or an interesting decision, and fits the scenario) I've considered using various randomization methods like random tables or even consulting an SRPG oracle from time to time but most of the time I just try to think of what logically follows or look over my notes for the next event or choice that follows a previous. But this is easier to do in a Civ quest when you can just pop up a brand new advisor or situation somewhere and advance the timeline forward. For a more linear, traditional quest with a single MC, how do you keep the ball rolling with unique events?
>>6407330(OP) >QM Question I guess it's always in my mind, even down to when I post the update I go "Hmm, what will I write on the next one." The process of writing it doesn't take more than a few hours since it's a stream of thought for me, but I guess I could proofread more often since after I write I just go "Finally, glad that's over." >>6408062 I guess my case is an exception since it's not action heavy and more talking, but sometimes you gotta accept that some updates will be more important than others. One day you'll have some very revealing plot point you wanted to write for a while, and others will just be building the steps to get to that.
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AnonymousID:+/pBcINP05/05/26(Tue)20:05:26
https://chaosgachaweb.onrender.com/ Seems a popular story on other sites to roll the dice and use what comes up.
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AnonymousID:CpZdSwtE05/05/26(Tue)20:37:30
>>6407972 It's hard to keep replacing players that dropoff over years of running the quest and multiple lengthy hiatuses. The price of entry at this point is reading a whole lot of archived threads. Maybe you should try a reboot or spiritual successor to the original quest if you're really regretting dropping it daily. Or a new character and story in another part of the setting.
>>6408217 Idunno if I'm an authority on culture or anything, but commissioning writers to write stuff is cool. I think a fair bit different from paying for a D&D game, which I wouldn't do but feel neutral about.
>>6407853 Take it from someone who rebooted their quest: It's worth it if you really got the itch. Since the board is so slow, you can take your time updating and there's no real pressure from anyone to update.
You can expect few votes but that's basically the norm now here unless you're a brand new (or really big) quest. Having 3-4 votes would mean you're attracting a lot of attention. Expect a pace of 1 vote every 24 hours until you gather more posts in your thread, if you can deal with that you'll eventually attract more anons as they see it didn't flake instantly. Weekends are a little more active so it might be a good moment to reboot.
Try to up the pace and make sure the prompt choices are meaningful. Pace is so important in quests and more so now that things are slow and you'll be providing them with content only once every day or two days. No need to decide what color your shoes will be today or what to answer to every single thing the MC is asked, your anons won't mind as long as you don't fuck them over because of stuff they can't control.
Make sure the OP has enough information for someone to just jump in and interact with the quest, give a summary of what happened so far in the quest, define the main character, talk about other relevant characters, anything you think might be relevant. It's better to read a fat meaty OP than having to get through a backlog of 18 threads just to understand what's going on. Explain things that seem obvious to you (and you think would be obvious to your players) just to give the newbies a way to catch up.
Something else that worked for me: I purposefully made the first scene just a fight between the MC and an enemy. Keeping the first few scenes and prompts simple and making sure there's no big choices that depend on extensive background knowledge of the quest is a good way to restart, it attracts players who may otherwise get confused and spooked off the thread. Your MC is here, guy in front of him is bad, beat them up. Good way to show off your MC's personality so the players get a vibe for it.
Last tip: Publicize your quest here and in the discord. You'll attract some clicks on your quest and maybe a few votes to get shit going, because sometimes it's just what you need.
>>6408217 I.... don't think that's ever been done, no? People have namedropped old quests before and have brought some back from the brink--hell, some folks have even taken over old quests or ran spinoffs, so it's not entirely unheard of. I guess it'd depend on who would actually run it.
>>6407972 It has, but it'll only become slower if less people run quests--some charitable anons have bought ads in the past and site-wide event participation might help a bit. The site soccer tourney's a good example--mentioned it last qtg and while it'd take some doing to get set up it'd be fun in the long run. Even without dwindling numbers it's only natural for quests to run 'dry' at times. It's not always fun having just a few voters, but sometimes if you keep going you'll gather up new regulars! You never know!
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AnonymousID:cg4Z5bko05/05/26(Tue)22:00:41
>>6408217 Do you mean you are offering monetary compensation for it or just requesting a quest to be made. The former sounds like a really bad idea the latter possible but not very likely I think. What did you have in mind?
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AnonymousID:+JavGym805/06/26(Wed)08:02:53
>>6408217 Shit like that is done on Akun, but I always find it weird, something about the creative spirit or whatever.
>>6408217 >>6408244 >>6408412 >JUST PROSTITUTE YOURSELF FOR MONEY Everyone who is even in possession of merely cursory familiarity with commonplace 19th century Verdi or Puccini operas like La Traviata or La Boheme knows, in the end prostitutes die tragically of consumption
>>6408217 4chan and /qst/ culture is to get rich with stocks and crypto (e.g. thread #5992502). That's like NEET 101 after living in your mama's basement. So yeah, you should have a lot of spare money to spend on anything you find entertaining.
>>6408559 >>6408467 >"get rich with stocks...?" Not mentioned much in these days of speculative mania, but the original function of capital markets was to serve a social purpose, to identify value-added enterprise and efficiently allocate resources to the highest throughcycle returns above cost of capital. Investment managers fulfilled fiduciary obligations, as prudent stewards of portfolio holdings, conserving capital on behalf of society; in a well-functioning capital market, investment managers act with discipline / vigilance, performing a strategic surveillance role pressuring against corporate mis-management, malinvestment over-exuberance and cyclical risk-taking excess, including unmerited executive remuneration
Widespread indexation and passive investing has attenuated this societal function, to the extent that the median income person (who likely does not own significant financial assets as a proportion of their individual net worth) can sense the significant divergence between SPX, MXWO or other benchmark outperformance against their own sense of economic wellbeing, disposable income, spending power; institutional investors detect it as a narrowing of market breadth, as a disproportionate driver of returns remains concentrated in a handful of stratospheric valuation / momentum and sentiment-driven names.
The original pursuit of asset-light financial engineering returns is responsible for Western deindustrialisation and trade deficits, the underlying source of multiple societal grievances in terms of income stagnation, declining wage share of earnings and over-reliance upon foreign immigration to further suppress domestic wage cost. But corporations can now grow earnings into a "declining" economy; corporations pursue "valuation maximisation" and equity returns over even traditional profit maximisation, cashflow and revenue growth. Firms no longer embrace competition to excel, but retrench into abuse of monopolistic dominance and intellectual property. Some corporations manufacture investor press releases and nothing else. Others manufacture debt and war
The inability of any system of societal and political organisation to improve real-world economic circumstances for the greater majority of its citizens is of paramount concern to the governing strata of society, regardless of the satisfaction and self-accumulation of net worth. Thus the endogenisation of asset value considerations and short-term market fluctuations within policymaking exacerbates dangerous destabilising tendencies towards procyclical amplification of market irrationality and speculative mania. Wealth cannot purchase contentment. In the end, you have to know when is enough
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AnonymousID:J053hoFj05/06/26(Wed)19:48:42
>>6407330(OP) (OP) >QM Question: I just plan what I will write by thinking about it really hard during the day. Writing doesn't come easy for me, making events flow into each other, that sort of thing. My update times are slow, and most of that is just me struggling to write 4000-6000 characters of anime fights and matter-of-factly dialogue. >Player Question: Probably not actually. Despite playing a bunch, I think I never won with a write-in. I'm a terminal contrarian and rarely win votes in general.
>>6408217 The ones who do it on akun are grifters, they charge $15-25 for a single "session", which usually consists of 3-7 updates, typically under 1200 words total, always under 3000 words total. Really they just throw on live, run two votes, then leave until someone ponies up again. It also happens on forums, I'll skip how it works on the NSFW ones because it's fucked up and you couldn't replicate it here; I only know of a couple of examples on SFW forums, and they're sort of grifty because most of them are from a serial flaker, but he flakes when he stops getting paid so it's at least more honest than what happens on akun. Basically you work out how much content you're willing to pay for at a time, and then that's what gets ran. It adds up though.
I've been thinking about starting a new quest for forever, writing updates when I'm idle. I think I might start the generation today, if I can get my OP image done today. At any rate I've returned to /qst/.
sup?
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AnonymousID:mlZoR6gq05/07/26(Thu)18:11:54
>>6409033 Welcome back, though I don't even know who you are, fellow 1 post id.
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AnonymousID:ijfzQQb105/07/26(Thu)19:07:11
>>6409033 >Generation If you want to write a quest why not just write a quest? And if you DON'T want to write a quest, why not just not post one?
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AnonymousID:WKJ13PnS05/07/26(Thu)19:53:16
>>6409033 >generation You are either retarded or ragebaiting, and I'm inclined to think it's some of both. You don't even have to be a pro artist to rip an image from Google and doctor it up, you know?
>>6409056 >>6409071 >Generation Ah. My bad. That is a perfectly direct interpretation of what posted but not what I meant at all. I apologize for being clear as mud. I really needed a nap.
I have an idea for a different spin on the whole "players create the world the qm runs the quest until they lose interest" kind of quest. So it the quest itself that we'll start generating.
I'll be writing it, because that's the whole point.
>You don't even have to be a pro artist to rip an image from Google and doctor it up, you know? Definitely. I'm not against using an AI image for my quest to save time but definitely not for the OP.