Advice for Running a Quest

A basic guide on how to do run a Quest correctly, with advice written by various successful Quest Authors. These are all rules of thumb, and as such, can be broken when necessary, but following these is a good start.

Important Note: If you feel like you have any advice to give, go right ahead and add it! We are all ears.

Starting A Quest

Advice for preparing to make a quest.

Character Creation

Do you want to let your suggesters create the main protagonist, or do you want to have a completely pre-made protagonist? Either way works. Both ways can provide an entertaining time for all.

Opening Exposition

If you have a good idea of the world and/or the characters, you have a couple of choices. Instant Immersion, or Opening Exposition. Instant Immersion lets you get right into the action and explain the world and/or characters as you go along. Opening Exposition lets you introduce a few concepts about the world and/or characters before you get into the fun The World is in Danger bits of the quest. Both have their cons to go along with their pros. With Instant Immersion, if you aren't careful, you can miss out on explaining a key element of the quest that might have been important or even helpful in prior situations. With Opening Exposition, you stand the risk of dragging the exposition on for too long, letting things get dull and stale.

Have Events Planned

Have a few different things planned that will happen to the protagonist, and think of a few ways he might react to them. Come up with a general idea of the order in which these things will happen, and a reason for them to happen.

Have Events Happen That The Protagonist Has Nothing To Do With

The rest of the world is still happening. Maybe some small time NPC we met 5 chapters ago got married since the last time we saw him. Or while we are out adventuring, we come home to find the city has a new mayor because the old one was caught cheating on his wife. Life still happens, and having a few things like this will help add realism to the world, and make the players think that more is out there than what we see.

Have an Ending Planned

This may sound like railroading to some, but knowing how you want to end it will help you have a goal in mind, and help you keep going and (hopefully) help you finish.

Running A Quest

Advice for once you have it off the ground.

Always Present Options

This is most important. There always needs to be something for the players to suggest, or else nothing can happen. So, do your best to give them something to work with. If they don't bite and do something entirely different, that's fine too, but at least they had options. There are a few guidelines to help ensure you are doing this, which can be tl;dr'd as follows:

• TestPattern: Yelling at PCs < Faffing about < Boring exposition < Interesting exposition < Stuff that reveals new options
• Farmer's Corollary: Cutscene your way to hell if you have to; do not stop to wait for a choice until there is a choice to be made.
• Nahkh's handy little suggestion suggestions: If you want to be quick and dirty, throw a bunch of small reminders at the bottom of a post to tell the posters of possible actions.
• ALWAYS END WITH A QUESTION! End with a question whenever the character is legitimately confused about something.

Don't Present Options That Are Not Actually Options

• There is a path going left or right.
• >Go left
• The left passage ends in a locked door! Nothing else is here.
• >...Go right I guess

Don't do this. If you present options to them that don't actually affect anything if they are taken, don't present them. The locked door above could have easily been right at the intersection, and it would have worked just as well. Making people waste time doing things that aren't actually doing things directly relates to the guideline below this one.

However, in the above example, if we already happen to have the key for the door on the left, then it's not a false option. We could then use the key and proceed. If the key is actually down the right path, however, then the left door was never an option, and going right first was the only choice.

Don't Waste Updates

Don't have an update not actually update anything. If it doesn't present new information, new choices, or new stuff to work with, then it isn't really an update. For example, yelling at the players for being stupid is a waste of an update. Yelling at the players for being stupid and then pointing out information that they seem to have overlooked is not great, but better. Working with their stupid and showing them why it was a dumb idea is even better.

Always Have Ideas (But Don't Get Too Attached To Them)

Even when your options are left open and possibly vague, it's good to still have a few 'correct decisions' thought of beforehand. This helps you plan ahead, prods the players towards possible courses of action when stuck, and gives you an idea of what might happen in your next update.

But if the players come up with something different, consider just rolling with it. Part of the fun of questing is the effect players have on it, and you might be surprised with the results.

Know When to Yield (AKA Listen To Their Theories)

Admit; you can't think of every possible thing. And the players will, sometimes, invariably, think of stuff that would never cross your mind. So, steal their ideas. Show no shame!

How often you'll do this depends on how crazy / random your players are, and how fast-and-loose you are handling your own plot. And when done well, they'll never notice you cheated. Hell, they might even think they 'guessed your plan', and that tends to make them happy. If you need examples, ask your favorite quest writers.

TGchan is always a cupid

It's been said, often by posters themselves, that they will always seek to pair up as many people as possible. It's up to you whether to encourage or discourage this, but remember to remain consistent about it! If you don't mind and want to encourage pairing off, offer multiple options of equal viability. If not, you can either set up a girl/boy to be there already, or you can make the situation not possible (the character doesn't care, the situation doesn't allow for it, etc.).

• Driblis' Addendum: While it's nice to allow some romance if you like, be wary of making your quest that was supposed to be about adventuring veer towards being about Sex or breeding. Some authors are rather prone to this. It's a thin line to walk, including romance or sex in a quest, and while it has been done correctly in the past, it's a razor's edge.

Make Your Characters More Than Stereotypes

Sometimes it's fine to have a villain who is pure, unmotivated evil, or a hero with a 100% pure soul and a raging hard-on for justice, or a girl whose one personality trait is LOLRANDUMB or a love of cheese (okay, that's never fine). Usually, though, it's good to fill your characters out a little more. Start with their driving inner objective. It has to be something broad and general, not "Get a cake" or "fuck that chick" unless you want them to be shallow (which, of course, can work. NicQuest started with a quest for lolcats). Make it something more like "Make a lasting difference on the planet", "ensure those who wrong me pay for it", or "Be accepted by my comrades". Something to drive them forward, like "Become the Devil" or "Purify the World". I think it was Reka who gave the advice that every character begins with one driving objective, which gives them, well, character. Build them up from that to flesh them out.

Once you've got that down you can move on to their stated objective, or how they present themselves to the world, whether that's in contrast to or bolstering their inner objective. It's the personality they put on for the benefit of others. Muschio pretends he’s a gentleman, Mudy uses flowery language, Hope disguises herself as a sweet little girl, Demesi steadfastly maintains a blissful naiveté even as he beats the shit out of his enemies with his sword feet (SWORD FEET).

After that, work on their flaws. Even good people aren't ever perfect. It could be anything from a hot temper that arises at unfortunate times to a penchant for screwing your own sister, but without it people will have less to identify your characters as people rather than ideals. They can be paragons of good while still having a crippling fear of spiders. The exterior, interior, and flaws are the three biggest fish to fry. Now focus on your character in the now. What’s their status in the world they live in? How aware are they of their surroundings, and what others think about them? Do they care about that? What was the last thing they had to eat? When did they last sleep? Laugh? Screw? If they’re interacting with someone, how do they feel about them?

OK so some of those questions were sort of bullshit, and at any time there’s really no need to answer them all every fucking update. But you’d be surprised how much the minutiae can affect actions and words.

Remember that every time someone opens their mouth to speak, they’re censoring themselves. Picking their words. What’s on their mind right now, and how do they translate that into how they are speaking?

Ending a Quest

Advice on how to actually finish one of these things. (Finish? A Quest? HAH.)

End it with a Bang

People like a good show. Give it to them, and make them remember it forever.

Where Are They Now?

Be sure to 'reward' the players with a look of where the characters are, maybe five years later or ten or whatever you feel is appropriate. Make sure you include who ended up in a relationship with whom. (see point: tgchan is always a cupid.)