Welcome to /qtg/, a place to talk about quests.Previous thread>>6308657>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/Z78p8gXfBadly in need of renovation.>Archiving guide:Go to http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/requestqstinterface.htmlFill 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 in-depth do you plan? Of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but how many plot beats do you try to have? Do you have an ending in mind? >Player Question:How do you feel when a quests ends? Be it naturally or unnaturally (flaked/cancelled). Have you ever been compelled to continue a dead quest? Did you? If not, why? >General Question:How many quests have you seen finish properly? Do you wish more QMs showed restraint and did more self-contained stories, or do you prefer quests that just keep going so you don't have to stop reading them? >Lurker Question:There is no question, vote.>Miscellaneous Question:Hypothetically, if there was a /qst/ board secret Santa like some of the other boards have, would you participate?
>>6337227>How in-depth do you plan? Of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but how many plot beats do you try to have? Do you have an ending in mind? I usually start a quest with a start, a couple possible end points, a few key scenes, and a few possible early routes in mind. I lightly modify these plans as things progress, and if one becomes utterly untenable I scrub it and create a couple new branches based on where things are going.>How do you feel when a quests ends?Satisfied with a hint of wistful sadness, if the QM doesn't start something else right away.>Have you ever been compelled to continue a dead quest? Did you? If not, why? I've down that once or twice, but it's tough to continue with a vision that's not your own, without warping it to be more like you. I usually at least try to bring it to a more satisfying closure, but another problem is that sometimes a quest dies because the players here just have no real interest with the premise. I find it easier and more satisfying to work in elements of dead quests into my own.>How many quests have you seen finish properly?Probably a dozen or so.>Do you wish more QMs showed restraint and did more self-contained stories, or do you prefer quests that just keep going so you don't have to stop reading them? I like stories with an ending, personally. Things that go on forever tend to eventually deteriorate. It's sort of possible to have your cake and eat it, too, though. Some QMs (like our OP here) run quest after quest with allusions or connections to past ones, but with fresh objectives and characters.>Hypothetically, if there was a /qst/ board secret Santa like some of the other boards have, would you participate?Depends on how it works.
>>6337237>Some QMs (like our OP here)Whoa, assumptions much?
>>6337227>>QM Question:I have a good number of story beats and an ending in mind, but I have not touched my quest in a long, long while. It'd be a stretch to call myself a QM.>>Player Question:Sad and wistful, like the one anon said. Never would continue a dead quest because OG OP just does their thing better. >>General Question:Honestly? Less than a dozen, at least that I stayed invested in.>>Miscellaneous Question:Like an art trade? This seems fun, even with the variations in skill levels, but only if all participants are agreeing and willing to do their part. I'd participate.
>>6337242OP image's creator, rather.
>>6337319>>6337319>>6337319All I want for Christmas is the sixth thread of Spartan-II war reports >>6337227QM: I've got notes and several missions/ operations planned out, and a lot going on in the background (Mostly other Spartan ops Sven isn't a part of/ leading), as for an ending, well you know how it is with Spartans.Player Question: Flaked makes me sad, complete makes me happy.General: Depends on the story, but I like long and short form contentMisc: What does that mean? Like draw or commission something for another Quest?
>>6337227>QM:I try to have an end in mind when setting up a quest, yea, if only to ensure the players have a goal to strive towards. Once I have that idea in mind I go about figuring out a few ways they could conceivably achieve that goal. After that I pretty much just write stuff that sounds cool or funny in my head.>Player:Obviously if I'm following it and it flakes I get pissed off--there's been a lot of really promising quests in the past that just drift into the night like a fart on the breeze and it hurts every time. If a quest I follow finishes properly then I can't help but be impressed--these things last ages these days and if it's a good ending then how can I feel anything else but appreciation? Sometimes reading an update is the highlight of my day, so I'm glad there are QMs out there who commit to entertaining us with their writing! As for the last bit, I've been... enticed? But more often than not I'm working on my own swill and I know better than to run more than one thing at the same time.>General:Too few. I appreciate quests that have ends because they usually have something at stake--if the quest just becomes an infinite loop I start to lose interest, but that's more due to my cripplingly-small attention span more than anything else!>Misc:I guess? If we're talking, like, an art thing or something then cool, but I'm also not gonna pretend that this place doesn't get a little quiet around the holidays...Speaking of GIFTS and JOY, why not check out DARK QUEST if you're looking for a new quest to read? You might enjoy it if you like one or more of the following:>Simple rules/mechanics that award creativity and Write-Ins!>Vague attempts at humor!>Scrappy underdog protagonists!>Darkness!>Kooky fantasy realms!>Cornucopias of characters!>Drawings that kinda look like the one I did for the OP Pic!>A QM that updates regularly for the most part!>LIMBOING>Much, much more!Check it out below! The other threads are linked if you wanna catch up!>>6322706>>6322706>>6322706
>>6337227>how in depth do you planI'm still on my first quest so I am far from the most experienced QM but all I had to do for Silver Knight Quest to work was knowing the world, the characters, its history and have a vague idea about what would happen when.that said, this previous work took me years, developing world and character through other novels and stories so one could say I had to plan a fuckton actuallyif I were to start a new quest I would probably plan the fuck out of it as well.>Do you have an ending in mind?I'm extra autismo so the 'ending' I had in mind was the entirety of Thread 7 and a little bit of the end of Thread 6. I'm extra satisfied.Quest will probably be wrapping up soon anyway.>Do you wish more QMs showed restraint and did more self-contained stories,yes. shorter and self contained and finished beats anything else. A story must have an end to have meaning.if a story overstays its welcome it rots and festers and it stains even the memory of good times you had with it. look at any Hollywood IP for the past twenty years.>/qst/ Secret Santamight be fun to try
>>6337227>QM Question: How in-depth do you plan? Of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but how many plot beats do you try to have? Do you have an ending in mind?A couple years ago I used to have a checklist of what a thread should cover, the different NPCs and interactions. Now, I’m a bit more thorough and write down the gist of what each update should cover.>Player Question: How do you feel when a quests ends? Be it naturally or unnaturally (flaked/cancelled). Have you ever been compelled to continue a dead quest? Did you? If not, why?If it ends naturally, usually content with it. If not, a bit sad. I adopted an abandoned quest once and the tone, characters and storylines I wrote for it has been the cornerstone of my quests since.>General Question: How many quests have you seen finish properly? Do you wish more QMs showed restraint and did more self-contained stories, or do you prefer quests that just keep going so you don't have to stop reading them?About 25% I think. I think it’s better to know your limits and write a concise and memorable story than ones that drag on and draining to write.>Miscellaneous Question: Hypothetically, if there was a /qst/ board secret Santa like some of the other boards have, would you participate?Probably, but sending things physically might be difficult. I can draw, though.
>>6337227>QM QUESTIONI plan characters and the general setting out, and I see how things play out depending on the actions the players make. I do generally have an ending in mind but I keep it fluid, of course. No point railroading.>PLAYER QUESTIONIf naturally, pretty melancholic. If it flakes, I don't feel anything, I see it as somewhat inevitable on this site. Never felt compelled to run a dead quest after the initial guy flaked. I may be inspired by a dead quest but outright hijacking it tastes wrong.>GENERAL QUESTIONNot a lot, and the ones I do see finished, I wasn't active in. As for quest length? do think it's better to write a good, snappy quest than to drag it out forever. Stories should have an end point. My personal limit is around 10-15 threads, depending on what I want to tell.>MISC QUESTIONNot sure what I could offer? I can't draw for shit, but I can write silly stuff if that's an option.
>>6337579>>6337579>>6337579Does Craig smoke some kush with his trailer park trash buddy or not? The fate of the town could be on the line.
>Silver Knight Quest Update: Thread 7/Update 29You share a hug with Soralisa and Rubida, and you give them a slight scolding. Your friends put themselves in such danger!Then Astoria, the source of most of your troubles, walks in.>>6337647>>6337647>>6337647# # # for new readers in the new thread: # # #>what is this?A silly quest about a silver-haired Paladin in training who is way in over her head. She makes too many friends and too many enemies.>is this long?moderately long, we're currently approaching the end of Thread 7.>is this updated regularly?Yes, basically a long update every 24 to 48 hours.>are there archives? How do I know who's who?the archives are linked at the top of the thread. There are also a few helpful info pics to sum up the story so far.like cute knights, a sun goddess acting like a goddess for once, body horror, the AnCap devil, tremendous plot twists and girls hugging? give it a try!
> How in-depth do you plan? Of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but how many plot beats do you try to have? Do you have an ending in mind? I have a not-so-loose world that's running constantly in both my head and in my notes that does things and changes depending on what the protag does. I really dislike railroading because I don't feel it is organic, and I've found that the best stories come from natural choices that happen on the fly (I really like it when my voters make their own answers cus that fucks up my planning and makes for fun and unexpected plot twists, even for me)> How do you feel when a quests ends? Be it naturally or unnaturally (flaked/cancelled). Have you ever been compelled to continue a dead quest? Did you? If not, why?It's really a bummer when it happens but oh well that's life I suppose> How many quests have you seen finish properly? Do you wish more QMs showed restraint and did more self-contained stories, or do you prefer quests that just keep going so you don't have to stop reading them? Having a multiple-year long story can be daunting so I don't feel bad when they are dropped as long as the content that's already there is good. Maybe for starter GM's a self contained story with an 'open ending' is the best alternativeALSO SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION:I know my RWBY isn't that popular cus of the low activity but I don't care this is my special needs child and I love him, I'm usually waiting for votes to happen and I don't want to push the narrative when the vote count doesn't appear (Cus that fucks with my philosophy of 'never have your GM hand meddle in player's affairs'.)Sooo SELF PROMOTION HERE if you're interested in the clusterfuck that is RWBY even a tiny bit go check out the story and have fun reading it (I'm proud of how the story has been going on for now, and yes I barely touch the canon I use 90% original material)>>6334757>>6334757>>6334757
>>6337227>How in-depth do you plan? I think for this kind of storytelling, I prefer to have a large cast of characters handy, some with refined motives and schemes, and then move from there, rather than anticipating specific encounters. I will have in mind how those plans will come along off screen without player intervention, or be altered if the players do get involved. Something I also make sure I have written out are just pieces of information about the world/situation/characters, who has that info, how or why they would share it, and who doesn't. That knowledge is what player actions revolves around, they go based on what they do or don't know, and essentially, so do all the NPC's. If I know ahead of time that an NPC has a certain bit of Intel, and I know whether they are honest, dishonest, conniving, or helpful, things roll alright I think. My first QST, the ratpocalypse one, is actually a departure in that it's pretty high improv, and the dramatically bad luck my players have at crucial junctures does mean that writing out whatever dramatic happening occurs can get a little difficult. But I do have charts to guide me on severity and the types of consequences (or benefits) certain rolls might produce. For example, if you're travelling and you roll very poorly for road encounters, I can pick what kind of bad guy rocks up, and then how badly it goes based on the roll the players make for different characters in their party - sometimes I even have them roll for antagonists to see how they handle bumps in the road.
>>6337227>QM Question:Well, I often keep sketches of how scenes could play and always size them up with what could happen and what gets voted and what-not, I tend to keep at least the ending of a thread in mind, for pacing purposes but I'm weaning off trying to track endings for a quest narrative because they usually end up changing mid-way>Player Question:It's really rare when a quests ends properly, nevertheless when there's background reasonings into them, I'm all for them though 'cause there's nothing quite like a Narrative that opens and closes. As for continuing an old quest... Well that reminds me one of my first ever quest ideas for the board (Before I realized I wasn't range-banned for a decade) was a Jojo quest spawned out of DusterMan's Stardust Crusader Quest given I felt a bit whelmed by how it ended. In hindsight, it would have been pretty messy because the ending is fine and I wasn't precisely the best writer back then.>General Question:As above mentioned, I've followed along with such as Psion Academy, Stardust Crusader and the like, Having an ending planned and then built up for a quest is a pretty huge commitment despite the freeform nature of questing, so I understand why keeping the momentum going is usually a default.>Misc. Question:I am dirt fucking poor so uh, I wouldn't really be able to participate in it much. It'd be lovely though, I'd say.
>>6337014Month 12 is finally here and a big celebration awaits. Time will tell if the QM has more bullshit planned.
hey hi! I'm new to this board and was told this is a good place to ask for tips and advice, is there any advice you'd impart on a complete beginner?(for reference I made this thread >>6337845 )>How in-depth do you plan?everything is pulled out of my ass, i think a little bit about worldbuilding and just bullshit from there
Gotham City Beat Cop is not updating tonight but there is still a vote for the post prior that you can sway. Go ahead and do that here: >>6337267>>6337267>>6337267
I miss The Little Dungeon That Could.
>>6337901just do your best
SETTING A>new land, alien elves live there>humans from beyond the sea start arriving>eventually a patchwork of differing factions and interests emerges>huge land grant gets parcelled and sold, settlers living upon presumption of the original grant discover the new owner operates under different law framework and they don't like it one bit>orcs and goblins imported from beyond the sea to work as labourers or cheap conscripts>elves hate everyone else and often raid but sometimes grudgingly trade>you are recruited to harvest unobtanium which grows in a certain forest >the time pressure on you is ...what exactly??SETTING B>demons vs dragons, both sides manipulate lesser races to further their aims>you are part of a small party sent to outlying secondary front to harvest unobtanium>celestial alignment which allows you to open a portal back to where you came from lasts only x time, you have to meet the unobtanium quota before then>if you don't meet the quota ...what happens??Which of these settings is more interesting to play? Maybe some way to combine them?In previous thread, anons gave some pointers on how to run a successful adventurer quest. One of them was to have some kind of straight, unique hook. I'm kinda struggling with this - could the time limit be enough to give a clear goal?
>>6337943>SETTING A >invaders / settlers taking land qnd resources etcThat is the most disturbing interpretation of the Israeli-Palestine conflict I have ever seen
>>6337901Heyyyy, welcome! Promising stuff you have so far! Looks like you already have a few bits of advice in your thread, but you've come to the right place for some advice. Here's a few pieces off the top of my head:1) First of all, take a look at the post at the top of this thread. You can do all kinds of formatting here on /qst/, but most of the formatting is limited to the original poster (for example: a player can't use, like, red text) Check that post out first to see some of the tools you can use.2) Since you're new here it couldn't hurt to check out some of the other quests on the catalog--they'll give you an idea of what people do around here in regards to mechanics, flow, and writing style. Everyone has their own thing, but if you like a mechanic there's nothing wrong with trying it in your own quest!3) /qst/ moves slow. Really slow. Don't be surprised if it sometimes takes a while to get votes. That said, this allows you to take some time and catch a breather between updates too.4) Don't be afraid to reach out here if you have any specific questions about running in the future. For the most part people are pretty eager to assist if you have a question. That said, you can also always ask your players for feedback too.5) A thread on /qst/ lasts a WHILE, so don't worry about starting a new one any time soon. If you go to the bottom of your thread there should be 3 numbers in the right corner--the last one is which page you're on. Threads fall off the board around Page 10/11.That's what I can think of right now--looks like you're already having a good time of it so I hope that continues! Welcome to /qst/, hope you stick around!
>>6337943>SETTING AI prefer this one personally, and can think of three ways to add urgency:1) You owe money to someone and have a deadline to pay it back or get sent to debtor's prison, killed, etc2) The elves are going to summonntheir eldritch god, either using the unobtanium or rendering it truly unobtainable in the process3) No time pressure, but rather a quest with a defined end goal when you acquire a set amount and safely extract it>>6337960Oh hey it's ya boy, Souvarine, back at it again.>>6337901Welcome aboard! I'm enjoying the quest so far. You seem to have the hang of it already, and if you've done any sort of interactive fiction or collaborative roleplaying before, it's not SO different. Do you have any specific questions for us?>>6337924And I miss Matsuno Idol Agency. Hopefully one day, that QM returns to us.(Also the QM from Voidship Bridge Simulator, and the one from 1 Man vs 100 Gorillas, and for that matter Mojique from Solarpunk Cleanup Agent, and we could wrap up Dragon Ball Legacy, and maybe even My Goverment Issued Small Titty Tomboy GF, and...)
>>6337894>>6337894>>6337894In Legend of Zelda: Umbral Tower, our hero, Zuzo, has bravely delved into the depths of the Shadow Temple for his coming of age ceremony, and in keeping with tradition has recovered an artifact from his tribe - and not just any old relic, but one of his tribe's most storied and potent magical tools. Now that his Trial is almost complete, he is confronted by a powerful evil wizard, his strange companion, and two deadly ninjas, all of whom would surely like to relieve him of his treasure and capture him as a hostage to be leveraged against his mother in the war. Now he must decide to venture further into the dungeon in hopes of finding something to help him resist the Interlopers, face the threats head on, or take advantage of the distance between them to flee back home, completing his Trial of Illumination and warning the village of what he has seen in the Temple.
>>6337982I think this might be the part of the story where our hero corners themself and loses everything and gets tossed in a musty cell
>>6337943I dont like Elves. So would A be better, give a chance to attack them or B with no Elves?>>6337975>Souvarine, back at it again.Since he believes in divination via questing, what would happen if he was the Protagonist of a Femboy hooters manager quest?
>>6338024>femboy hooters manager quest (now with current events!)Sounds like a Souv/Soj collab, and ngl, I would check it out.
I have a slightly off-topic question.This board reminds me of forum-based RPGs I used to participate in, mostly in the mid-late 2000s (I am old). Even to this day I relish those memories and part of me wishes there was a place where this style of RPing persisted. Obviously /qst/ is not the same thing.It seems to me like the only remaining options are Discord RPing (which seems to be for kids and gooners) and more serious tabletop RPing with numbers and dice (which I am not interesting).Does anyone else remember what I'm talking about and if so, do you know if a place online exists where such RPing still takes place?
>>6338067It's been a few years now, but I remember The Keep having something of a nostalgic chat-RP vibe.Discord is only as underage or goonery as the people you choose to add and associate with, though!Some RP groups do seem to run here, too. We occaisonally have multiplayer skirmishes, god games, and civs start up, but "quests" like Rise of the Awakened are essentially long-running TTRPG campaigns. There's really no reason you couldn't do a rules-lite one.
>>6338024>>6338030>>6337975>>6338109>divination, predicting the future...??>GUILT OF THE ANCESTRAL GAYI have been hate-watching amzn Wheel Of Time cringe season 3 the series has been cancelled now lol but in Episode 4, there is this amusing sceneAs you may know, the Wheel Of Time is about a heroic protagonist Rand, named after the RAND Corporation, he is the destined dragon heir of whatever, wielding the forbidden magic etc which drives men mad as only women are allowed to be sorceresses / channellers of the weave in this settingAnyway, as part of his trial, Rand is sent into some ancient ruined desert city where he has to walk into this excruciating , agonising ancestral crystal ? forest as part of a trial to learn of the horrors and wrongdoings and unbearable guilt of his own past etc that led him to where he currently is, inhabiting and reliving all of his previous lives and ancestors and reincarnations etc so Rand walks into his own past whilst Rosamund Pike his companion sorceress lady sees thousands upon thousands of glimpses of their possible futures etc. So what exactly is this horrifying ancestral crime, this ancient burden of UNSPEAKABLE EVIL and sin that curses the fantasy hero protagonist on his inescapable doom-laden path? I will let the attached pic related speak for itself
>>6338067Some forums like Rpg.net, Spacebattles and Sufficient velocity have play by post sections. How "good" are they? Can't say.
>>6338209SB and SV are full of gynophiliac wish fulfillment quests. Would not recommend.Even trying to avoid the lesbian quests, you're gonna run into tranny characters because authors want to be """"inclusive"""
>>6338067There are a few websites that still exist, and there also plenty of Discord servers that host respectable roleplaying games. I have one or two servers, if you are interested.One of the best websites I've seen for games and such is called RolePlayOnline, or RPOL. Check it out.
Well, new thread, new call for recommendations and reviews!>Hey /qst/, whatcha playin?
Oh, and since we're talking inclusivity, I'll shill my quest while I'm at it! It's just updated recently, so if you missed that or feel like joining it, we've got:>nilbog tomboys>trans demon goblins>cultivation>occultism>dungeons>dragons*warning: dragons may not feature prominently in this particular quest>succubi>lord of the flies>sinister lizard people>somewhat more pleasant but still fairly sinister lizard people>feudalism>transhumanism>orientalism>race wars>race-mixing>crusades>antiheroes>magitech>fairy folk>furries>a primordial chaos monster from Chinese mythology as the comic relief>romance, including with a primordial chaos monster from Chinese mythology>drama>sometimes Scooby Doo>AND MORE!So come play CAMBION QUEST, today!>>6338210>>6338210>>6338210
RPG forums suck hard. You put more effort into playing the social metagame than playing the actual game.
>>6338403play a video game if thats what you want, obviously pen and paper rpgs are more about the social aspect.weird post
>>6338417False dichotomy. Not everyone into RPG is also into the social metagame. If it were true, this board would be dead.
>>6338403Quests aren't the same as roleplaying/RPG forums though.
>>6338427I thinknthat's what the anon who dislikes socializing is saying: that forum roleplaying is as much about making friends and networking to build and maintain a group (and more cynically, your characters' and cotributions' importance to the story, which relies on ithers engaging and collaborating with you). Conversely, TTRPGs also have afficianados who play them for the crunch and don't really care about the RP, and quests have anonymized voting specifically to reduce cliquishness in threads.
>>6338316anon, each time I see your tierlist my heart flutters, and seeing Silver Knight Quest in S feels special.have a super rare artist's impression of Earthen!Sandora (in an AU)
>>6338316What do these tiers mean to you?Because personally I think the average for any given medium should be c
>>6338551The average for anything should hover around an "F" but our school system has fucked us up real hard.
>>6338551>>6338568I think if they're playing this many quests, they don't wanna bother with anything average, and so probably start at B because of that
>>6338316Noticing newcomers; would you share your review of Human Male Fighter and LoZ? I found it helpful to read your writeups on a bunch of quests in the last thread.
>>6338572Yeah fair, I'm just a whiner kek
>>6337653>Silver Knight Quest Update: Thread 7/Update 30>>6338540>>6338540>>6338540It is time.Time to let go.Time to burn, perhaps.Roll to see if you can catch a 66.It has been a honor, gentlemen.
>>6338581a 66 roll. Wow, those are some long odds.
>>6338604>>6338604>>6338604Craig smoked a fat doobie, now he’s ready to employ the trailer park trash into his campaign.
>>6338551>>6338572He's said it's just his opinion, don't take it so seriously. >>6338606Pic related.
>QM Question:So, for reference: the conflict currently taking place in Pokepocalypse was conceptualized around last September. I was working on it all throughout the rest of that year, on-off, and I'd say the full idea of Staters vs Huntington and the increasing pressure against neofauna culminated around December 2024, January 2025ish. I currently have possible plot beats stretching out past the current end goal, past America itself, probably past my entire education if I keep going at this pace. Whether any of them will come to fruition is a mystery, but they are there as options. I try to have at least two or three plot beats lined up in sequence so that I'm not caught unawares.As for an ending... well, I made this quest on a whim. The length at which I've stuck to it is unprecedented and I'm in completely new territory. I don't really have an ending in mind, nor did I ever, but I do have an ending for this specific arc (which is fucking enormous btw, I forgot how big the USA is and really need to split it up at some point) in mind, but not the quest itself. >Player Question:Cancellation makes me feel sad. Flaking makes me feel mad. I am technically continuing a dead quest right now, and I really wish I had more time to devote to it.>General Question:I've seen exactly one quest finish properly: Disappearing Hogwarts. I have faith that Digimon Tower will finish, but I can count on nothing else. "This was supposed to be a one-shot" seems to be the only quest format that ever ends, and it's almost never as an actual one-shot.I really wish more QMs stuck to actual one-shots or at least had endings in mind. Hypocritical, I know, but shorter quests tend to be much more satisfactory than longer ones and you can usually tell when the QM has a plan cough. Even if a quest eventually ends after hundreds of threads, it feels hollow. Maybe it generates some feelings of pride or achievement, but little entertainment. Following a quest for years and years straight eventually tires you out-- it's a miracle that I only began to drop off of DH near the very very end, and I'm quite sure that was due to a combination of life circumstances and the fact that, among QM's breaks lasting months instead of weeks, I jumped in halfway through after a binge reading that I really enjoyed.>Miscellaneous Question:How would that even work? If it involved anything even remotely incriminating, I wouldn't bother. If it didn't, I might stay out anyways for fear of disappointing people lol.Entry tomorrow, hopefully. Pic related. Praying things improve by next month. Not confident they will. I hate the curse. I hate the curse. I hate the curse.
>>6338679God forbid people discuss anything on this Okinawan riceworm discussion forum
>>6338568That's not what "average" means, anon... Definitionalky, average shiuld be middle of the pack. 50% is not the average grade on a test; it just means you inky got half the answers right. Most people can and do perform better than that.>>6338551An R tier is simply my own quest. R fpr ReptoidQM, get it? The quest I QM lands there because putting it anywhere else would feel like fishing for compliments or tooting my own horn.An S tier quest updates regularly and shows a high level of craft and entertainment value, though the latter is obviously subjective and even the former can be. It’s the kind of quest I would recommend to anyone with no real caveats. A tier is similar to S, but something knocks it down slightly. Maybe it’s built on an inherently shitposty premise, maybe it has a spotty schedule, maybe the player base is unpleasant to deal with. Sometimes it’s just because it goes on hiatus a lot. That isn’t anyone’s fault, but it means some quests, like Pokepocalypse, get bumped up or down from one rating to the next.Then there’s B tier, which is mostly very new quests where I’m not sure if they’ll continue or if the QM will flake. Usually this means something that’s on its first thread or hasn’t been around for at least thirty or forty days. In theory, something might land there for another reason, like if I’m only reading it for the lulz and the QM is also only running it for the lulz, and it’s clearly low effort. I sometimes play those because the premise amuses me, but they usually don’t even make it onto the chart.Anything I don’t play doesn’t end up on the chart at all. That doesn’t mean it’s bad; it just means I’m not actively following it. That’s why there’s nothing below B tier. If something doesn’t grab my attention or I never get into it in the first place, it doesn’t feel right to include it.Once or twice I’ve spitefully put a quest I find annoying, repulsive, or dumb into F tier at the bottom, but I try not to do that anymore. This is a creative space, and even if it’s 4chan, I’d rather minimize drama and stay positive about my main hobby.
>>6338708Just wanna say you're a dang Saint for explaining your chart in over and over again every /qtg/, Rep. Patience of the Buddha right there.And here's a follow-up question that I think goes hand-in-hand: we have reviews (Olympus wrote some fresh ones recently, definitely worth looking them over), but why don't other anons post their lists?Just seems like something that comes up in every thread and yet Rep's the only one I see doing it consistently.
>>6338708I appreciate you don't slag terrible quests. Maybe (unlikely, but hey, still a possibility) it's someone trying to get used to writing...Ah who am I kidding? This is 4chan.
>>6338714>And here's a follow-up question that I think goes hand-in-hand: we have reviews (Olympus wrote some fresh ones recently, definitely worth looking them over), but why don't other anons post their lists?Well in my case it's because I only follow one quest and I don't have enough brainpower to give attention to another one.I can't have no idea how other anons like Rep can juggle catching up to other quests while still able to make a list too, but I respect it
>>6338708>inkyThe fuck, autocorrect? *only>>6338716We do have a lot of ESL anons who seem to enjoy writing in English, and many who I have followed for years have improved over time... So you never know, even on 4chan!>>6338714I eagerly (anxiously, desu) await that Cambion Quest review, lol.>>6338574I'll do a batch this evening or tomorrow, possibly!>>6338681Get well soon, anon. >one shots and short questsI like those, too, but as long as a quest has planned arcs with satisfying resolutions to each where you can kind of jump in or out, and does well wirh recapping or bringing people up to speed, I think that can also work well. At their best, that's what comic books are good at.
*I have no idea, had a brain fart there >>6338717
>>6338574Not Rep, but I've been following LoZ and it's been a lot of fun so far! Skull-Kid clearly did their homework--the way the dialogue and descriptions are written sound right out of a game (even the protag is 'silent' save for a few instances and general descriptions of what they say), the quest incorporates mechanics from the game, and right now we're (hopefully) finishing up the first dungeon with a Boss Fight!In short: a high-fidelity romp through the Zeldaverse as a young Sheikah with a lot of potential as long as it keeps up its steam. Definitely worth checking out, especially when it's still on its first thread! We're about to get our asses kicked by a Ghost Thing!As for Human Male I stuck around for a while--Dolomite kept it short and sweet, but it seems like a bundle of other QMs took/are taking a swing at it in-thread, so your mileage may vary. Again, looking's free so I'd check it out and see what you think about the newest QM.
>>6338681>I forgot how big the USA is and really need to split it up at some pointI said this before, saying it again: please read JoJo part 7 Steel Ball Run
>>6338708>50% is not the average grade on a test; it just means you inky got half the answers right. Most people can and do perform better than that.Yes. Which is why I said the SCHOOL SYSTEM, got us fucked up. A 5/10 is average in any situation except the alphabetical grading. If they'd just grade on a pass/fail basis or adjust to make curriculum more difficult with the expectation that students would on average only get half the problems right it wouldn't be an annoyance. That's because a real average is a relative metric not an absolute one, the alphabetical grading is an absolute metric and not a relative one. It's counterintuitive to how averages are actually measured.
>>6338574>>6338316>Legend of Zelda: Umbral TowerHonestly, DemBones summed it up nicely: formatting and source-fidelity help elevate what would otherwise STILL be a pretty damn good little dungeon-crawler puzzle-solver quest about a young ninja's coming-of-age adventures in the background of a traditional Triforce tussle between LoZ's big three!>Human Male Fighter QuestThis started out fun but a little thin, as a little drawquest romp without a great deal of direction (though don't get me wrong, Dolomite was off to a fine start!) What's made it even more enjoyable, though, has been how it has become more of a true collab or "jam session" sicne then. We had a skeleton fighter, a human bandit, and we're now playing a human druid raised by birds, each drawn and dictated by a different QM's sensibilities and with a distinct vibe in ostensibly the same setting. I'm curious to see if that continues but, conversely, our current protagonist is quite an entertaining one all on his own. I would follow Bird Hermit Quest on its own merits!>Concrete Stratosphere QuestWhile it hoensly didn't grab me in Thread 1, I've warmed up to The Mask (no, not that one) and his adventures fighting crime in the extremely-stratified technocratic caste-organized megacity of Bananas' imaginative sci-fi setting. It has that distinctive BQM flavour where sometimes the narration does a big sidebar about political or economic theory, but it's up to you if that's a feature or a bug. I think it fits pretty well with the superhero genre, which has always been pretty didactic. well hello there Siegel and Schuster, yes, the Great Depression DOES suck. Hello Mister and Missus and sort-of-Missus Marston, what's all this about polyamory and loving submission to gentle female authority? do tell, do tell, how's that working out for you three?>Wasteland Royale w/ Cheese QuestBack after FOUR YEARS holy shit it's KING GIRL, the BIG! This QM's quests are almost always a slam dunk for me, even if I do wish more of them would last longer or fully wrap. As such, I'm of course delighted to see one I assumed long-dead make a comeback. It's got that New Vegas/Mad Max energy, with a desertified future full of mutants and pop culture refuse. It lands more into the comedy than the commentary, has a distinctive blocky artstyle I enjoy... Would recommend, especially if you've liked stuff like Greenhorn or Haremvania in the past.
>>6337227>How in-depth do you plan? Differs per quest. For Little Dungeon I had more worldbuilding than I knew what to do with. My Obsidian vault for that quest was the largest spider-web of any vault. There was a lot planned. I spent entire days day-dreaming about plot developments back then. I flaked when my custom system for the dungeon building didn't scale properly. For Matsuno Inc I mostly had lengthy character backstories for each of the side-characters. Each idol (and Kitabayashi Yui) had a past, aspirations, personality, and goals that I planned to explore. Ironically, the MC (Nagata Miho) was pretty bare-bones beyond her personality. Rather, I tried to kinda build that MC in tandem with player votes. Every decision becomes part of the character. I struggled with keeping track of all the mutations in terms of idol skill and $$$. It was a messy excel sheet. All the idol jobs and idol stats were generated using a .NET WinForms application. I flaked after I was forced to take a break because of real life and discovered on my return that I had forgotten to archive the last quest thread, so I lost all the votes with no way to retrieve them.In my shame, I fled to akun For my VTuber quest on Akun I borrowed elements from both prior quests, but I ran out of steam after I got stuck on writing about a minecraft stream. It was fun though. I had to actually play the games people recommended the "VTuber" to play during her streams to be able to write about them. For the Yakuza Café Management quest on Akun I had a pretty-wide plot. It's essentially about rival yakuza families transported into a fantasy world.Each tries to conquer the main city using the concepts and methods that worked for them on Earth, but the MC, while a yakuza, is a closet weeb and just starts a cute cafe with a sheep girl. For this quest I wrote a console application to manage all the upgrades, income, outcome, stock management, etc since I hated the excel sheet. I flaked this after I said I'd take a break to try the new WoW expansion and lost a year of my life on it. >Do you have an ending in mind?I had developments in mind, but no true ending in mind except for little dungeon. >How do you feel when a quests ends? Be it naturally or unnaturally (flaked/cancelled). I'm not allowed an opinion on this. >Have you ever been compelled to continue a dead quest? Did you? If not, why?No. I never feel like I understand the characters well enough to keep it going. It's the same reason why I never run quests in established settings. >General Question: >How many quests have you seen finish properly? A handful. Only bones comes to mind atm. >Do you wish more QMs showed restraint and did more self-contained stories, or do you prefer quests that just keep going so you don't have to stop reading them?With the current pace of the board I kinda feel like you can probably start and complete a sizeable quest before it drops off.
>>6338760>>6338316>Slice of Life QuestI was just saying last QTG that I wished we had more slice of life quests and then, BAM, we got... Slice of Life Quest. How could I NOT play? It's doing a good job of capturing the feel of a slice-of-life school anime so far, but I will say that i generally prefer when such shows or comics have a "hook", like SchizoQM's 'Return to High School' with time travel, or 'My Sister, My Writer' with a QM utterly unfamiliar with the original work and genre taking it over and doing bonkers stuff with ancient Mayan basketball prophecies for a bit. This doesn't have that hook yet, or even especially wacky characters, but I am hopeful that if the QM continues, some such element will emerge or be introduced.>Swordboy Adventures!This fast-updating new quest by a neophyte QM (welcome aboard swordQM!) is essentially what Human male Fighter Quest was pictured as: a classic story about a a young human male fighter, dispatching monsters for money! It's produced with a charmingly-rendered artstyle, short-and-sweet prose, has a cool setting, and features an alcoholic beastwoman.I'm digging it so far!>Big EisekaiSome confused and alarmed rando gets isekai'd into the body of The Emperor of Man sometime before his Imperium really gets off the ground. Our unknown protagonist does NOT know what a Warhammer 40K is, or a psyker or Chaos God or anything else: he just knows he's big, strong, handsome, and everyone around him seems to think he is very important. So far, so fun!>Civilization QuestPretty sure it's dead, but I am a sucker for a civquest with a gonzo premise, like a bunch of feral homeless vampire children dwelling in an eldritch Lovecraftian demon-city. It's a shame it didn't last.>>6338732...I don't think your plan makes sense or is in any way more intuitive than just telling people what percentage of the answers they got right, anon. At least, not to me.
>>6338767>just telling people what percentage of the answers they got right, anonI never said not to do that.
>>6338763Also, I must admit I was surprised when I noticed that ChatGPT knows about Little Dungeon and Matsuno Inc. Apparently OpenAI is scraping every webserver with an open connection.
>>6337227>How in-depth do you plan? Of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but how many plot beats do you try to have? Do you have an ending in mind?I plan out each thread of a quest. Thread I plan out each update. Choices will change updates of course, but I do need a general plan or I'll not know what to write and get writers block. I don't have an ending in mind currently, which is rare when I write.>How do you feel when a quests ends? Be it naturally or unnaturally (flaked/cancelled). Have you ever been compelled to continue a dead quest? Did you? If not, why?I like a good planned ending, I don't like when QMs disappear and you're unsure if there'll be another thread.>How many quests have you seen finish properly? Do you wish more QMs showed restraint and did more self-contained stories, or do you prefer quests that just keep going so you don't have to stop reading them?Very few, I'm happy for quests to be more down to earth but I also like large stakes. >Hypothetically, if there was a /qst/ board secret Santa like some of the other boards have, would you participate?No, I'm not in work right now.
>>6338763>Yakuza Café ManagementThat sounds most amusing.>>6338776Is it accurate? I checked mine, and it just seems to have scanned through the first few posts of Cambion Quest and speed-read the two active QTGs, lol.
>>6338708>Long-dead quest returns from the grave>Reptoid shifts it down a tier or two because of the immense haitus>Quest dies because the QM shrimply cannot handle itBe gentle with us, reptoidWe're fickle beingsLike fairies or some shit
>>6337227>QM QuestionI tend to plan a basic outline of a thread; with a beginning, middle, and planned climax or important choice near the end. My earlier quests I tended to not have as much of a overarching "plan" between threads, but now I much more do. However I'm starting to think this is a negative, going against the sandboxy nature of the "games" and having me railroad more then I'd like to try and keep the "planned" story ongoing. I've also begun trying to plan more in the art asset department; this is extremely helpful for a drawquest as well as my more "high effort" threads, like the Monke thread minigames, which may take a few days of planning both for mechanics as well as the art.>Player QuestionI haven't seen any quests end that I've actively followed; they're always ancient things on the archive, on a hiatus, or currently on the thread. I think knowing a thread is ending is obviously much better then the QM just disappearing or dropping a project, something I'm a bit guilty of myself, which is why I try to assure my players I will continue my quests on a reasonable pace; one thread a year!>General QuestionI mean, statistically, the number of completed quests must be way smaller then otherwise? Personally I see the appeal of one-shots and run them often, but I also see the reason why people want a long self contained story, despite it being harder to get into. Perhaps the sweet spot is in the middle; 5-10 thread projects which have room to breathe but don't become endless webfiction monsters that outlive their creators.>Misc QuestionI'm not sure how this would work; but I have thought about a "quest swap" from time to time. Swapping QMs for a single installment for a thread; even better if it's with two draw QMs for the artstyle swap. The recipients would need a lot of trust to work with each others precious quests though; so it probably wouldn't work out.>>6338760Thank you for the kind words RQM! While my quests, Space Monke especially, have nothing to do with politics; I tend to go off on tangents about economics or evolution less out of a desire to soapbox and more to explain the cultural or sci-fi aspects of my quest settings. Perhaps this is too much telling instead of showing; but I find it must easier to justify a strange culture or sci-fi alien race's biology with some kind of reasoning behind it.
>>6338581>Silver Knight Quest Update: Thread7/Update 31>>6339091>>6339091>>6339091The golden curtain falls.>>6338601>some long oddsperhaps you will see what for, very soon.
Solarpunk returns next week! Join Stormwatch Trollslayer Fiona as she joins the defense of Helsinki against giant mutant swans of death, which the squatters beneath the city believe to be Tuonelan Swans seeking vengeance on those that make their work so busy. She will be put the Stormdrains behind to fight them in the streets. >>6337975I'm not dead, unfortunately just broke.
>>6338551>What do these tiers mean to you?Getting into the S tier and then feeling a spike of adrenaline every time a new chart is posted and you're still in the S tierI *will* get Reptoid-senpai to acknowledge my new quest!
>>6339087>nothing to do with politicsKek. Keep up the good work, Bananas.>>6338935If you've been keeping up with my quests, you know gentleness to fey folk is not a given, kek.>picrelated: mfw unseelie start getting too big for their britchesbut seriously, I'm just some anon. my rankings don't mean jack>>6339101Woo! Looking forward to it. Now we just need Gorilla and Story and Chartman and...>>6339141Which quest is yours?
>>6339144>Which quest is yours?The one with all the cutéslop>>6336109
>>6339151>spoiler tags omittedI swear this glitch only happens on /qst/.
I tried to draw her in color>>6337933honestly? been doing that and it's been paying off!>>6337966this looks like some of the best advice I could ask for going in, thank you!>>6337975glad you're enjoying it!>Do you have any specific questions for us?I'll admit I get a little self conscious over pacing, sometimes I'm scared that things move too slow or I don't give the players enough control, I'll get the hang of that eventually but I also wouldn't mind some advice on that too!>>6338767huh, never thought I'd get a review written on my quest, thank you very much for your kind words! and I'm glad you think my style is charming! and im glad you (and a handfull of people from the looks of it) enjoy the alcoholic beastwoman as well!
>>6339333Hell yes, our gal's in COLOR!As for pacing, I sometimes like to notify my players when the vote is closed and I'm writing the update. A lot of other drawquests don't, but I find it makes the responses manageable if you're having trouble knowing where to stop the votes.
>>6339333Kyber ticks a lot of boxes for anons to find her endearing. I think her appeal is equal parts goof, tall lady and fluffy parts.Your quest has a certain je ne sais quoi, I think people would call it soul. That it's very laid-back, fast-updating and well-illustrated is a big contributor to that and they tend to be popular. Speaking of update speed, you aren't too slow. The average quest updates once per day so getting out multiple illustrated updates per day is way above what people expect to get and it doesn't come across as railroaded either.
Happy Pilgrim Day!I'm enjoying Star Wars: Sith Ascendant, but it makes me miss the other Star Wartz Qsts that have come & gone. A few I'd love to see return:Shadows of Order 66Against the RepublicImperial Remnant CaptainThe one with no set title about a Force Singularity Cult in the far future of the settingClone Civil War
>>6320245My Hero Academia Quest. Every day I pray it comes back.
>>6338763I will miss The Little Dungeon That Could until this website disappears into the ether.
I'm thinkin' about running a little racing game and anons in the thread can design the hovercars that'll be in the race. I found some rules a while back and thought they were super cool, but never had any opportunity to play with them. Anybody here interested in a game like that? Obviously I think it would be cool to have a story with it as well, putting the spotlight on the pilot MC and whatnot, but that might be a little too much for me to handle. Who knows?https://www.bastionland.com/2024/03/now-this-is-peg-racing.html
>>6338795It’s a hit and miss. I tried it and it got Vunnapar spot on but didn’t think Jiragarn / Nin or Waroon even existed in the quest. It also got a bunch of facts mixed up. (Nin is a giant apparently.)
>>6339097>Silver Knight Quest Update: Thread7/Update 32The golden curtain rises.Take a wander through Ansàrra's gardens and hold Her hand.And then vote on what to do next.
>>6339535>>6339526>>6339526>>6339526
>>6339460Sounds fun to me! I'd definitely lean into the story aspect as well since some tabletop games don't always translate well to the /qst/ format, but you never know how it'll work until you give it a shot!
>>6339460racecar quest sounds like a cool idea. How would the racing mechanic work?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWQKiefZ-XI
>>6338905>>6338905>>6338905Errant Comet Quest requires some voters to both flavour a fancy and decide what to do next upon this increasingly stakes-raising infiltration.
>>6338134>gay niggers ruin absolutely everythingI mean, that's not even wrong
>QM Question:Yes, and no. I have a lot of ideas, but nothing actually written down. I feel like that's a problem because sometimes I might forget things I did. >Player QuestionDepends on the situation, of course. Sometimes it really sucks, sometimes it's not. It mostly doesn't compel me because finishing it wouldn't really be the same thing. It would just be a different quest using the same characters.>General QuestionA few. I don't mind long stuff, of course, but I do feel like there should at the very least be an end in mind so the QM can "finish it" when it looks like people have gotten tired, or when he himself can no longer run.>Miscellaneous Question:I don't feel like paying for intercontinenal shipping.Anyway, update for Fog of War, this plot twist is good I hope.>>6339715>>6339715>>6339715
hey anyone wanna adopt a megucaone of our players went mia and its been a while. quest just getting started so she clean
>>6339649>>6339649>>6339649Zuzo lost an eye! And was captured by ninjas! And is on a pirate ship! He's got to use every ninja skill he has to recover his possessions and escape alive! You should vote about how he does that!
>>6339460https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C7SRellWzE&list=PLgTOkNnK-z0MSE3bij0ULt883LM78J0QO&index=17Would play it.
What are you thankful for, questies?I am thankful that there has been at least one GOOD quest in my lifetime.I will not say which one it is.
>>6339816You're welcome.I'm thankful that at least one nerd up in this piece has drawn fanart for me. I will not show which one it is.
>>6339151I'm catching up on it now! So far, I think it' a really good example (as with your? previous quest if you're who I think you are) of how AI can be used to enrich and lend texture to a creative enterprise rather than poorly replacing human creatively. The dry explanatory exposition bits and meta elements are a little hit and miss for me, but the premise of being isekaid into a fictional, hypothetical Star Wars dating sim-slash-survival horror is really novel. The cast seem fun so far, too, lending a bit more reason for me to care, even as someone that was never really a "Star Wars guy".>>6339382I'm also really liking Sith Ascendant! I forgot to mention it earlier when doing my little mini-reviews at >>6338316, but a murder-school for dark wizard kids is a novel approach (for me at least) to the Star Wars setting. The use of canon lore and the especially edgy tone lend it something to distinguish itself from the other "wizard school" quests like the HP ones, Magically Challenged, or even my Seekers of the Esoteric quest. I found the shift from shounen action edgy to seinen choose-your-bad-end edgy a little jarring at first, but I think it has helped give the quest its own vibe and voice.>>6339333I think it's very much a QM by QM basis how much control of a character's thoughts, words, or actions they afford. Some quests it feels like we are embodying and piloting a character who is otherwise just an empty vessel. Others, we're being dragged along and desperately attempting to wrangle a character with very strong feelings independent from anything voters may choose for them. Sometimes you command them almost sentence-by-sentence in convos and blow-by-bow in combat; others we give them a push and watch the characters and story go for days, weeks, or months at a time. I think that which answer is right has more to do with the individual QM's style than any universal rule; your choice to use third person rather than second and the way you almost write as if the characters of Swordboy and Khyber replying directly to our write-ins is very distinctive. I don't see it often. And that is a positive remark upon the style: it wouldn't work for every quest, but it perfectly suits yours, making it feel like we're interacting with a webcomic or cartoon in "real time" as it plays out.>>6339151Yours has a bit of that feeling, too, but for playing a VN or watching a comedy anime. It's another very unique narration style and tone to take on /qst/, where second-person is the norm and more diagetic, "book style" character-interior perspective is employed. It makes what you two are doing stand out all the more.
>>6339816I'm thankful the board exists and didn't get wiped out in that raid. I'm glad it attracts such genuine talent, in spite of how niche it is. Truly and for all its flaws, this is the best creative writing circle on the internet by quality.
>>6339816I'm grateful I got to experience the heyday of Asoiaf quests and Crusader quest and that I got to go along with the wild ride that is Sworn to valor and BCQ series.
>>6339816I'm thankful that every time I come back to this hellhole I find talented, passionate QMs posting kino
>>6339816I'm thankful that even with work and life getting hectic, I still find time to write my quest. I'm also thankful that so many people give writing quests a try too!
I wonder if any quests go silent not because the QM has dropped the quest but because they've died.
>How in-depth do you plan? Of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but how many plot beats do you try to have? Do you have an ending in mind?I have a general idea for an instance, and an ending in mind, but other than that I sort of create happenings and locations on-the-go based on established lore and characters, according to player input. I'm looking forward to getting more free-form and player-led in the next episodes of my quest.>How do you feel when a quest ends? Be it naturally or unnaturally (flaked/cancelled). Have you ever been compelled to continue a dead quest? Did you? If not, why?I don't expect every quest to reach its intended conclusion, and am happy to be along for the ride, but it really saddens me when a quest that caught my eye comes to an end without completing even a major plot beat. I was really let down to see the QM of Tricky Treats Online disappear. No hard feelings though, it's a lot of work and I get it.Years ago I was tempted to pick up a quest called Dungeon Divers, which was sort of like "/qst/ does Etrian Odyssey" (and petered out pretty quickly), but no.>How many quests have you seen finish properly? Do you wish more QMs showed restraint and did more self-contained stories, or do you prefer quests that just keep going so you don't have to stop reading them?Apart from one-shots I don't think I've ever seen a quest reach its intended conclusion... I like one-shots, but I also like to see people take on more ambitious projects, even if it doesn't reach the finish line. I used to do forum RPing (a million years ago) and campaigns rarely (if ever) reached their end, but I got a lot of fun out of them anyway. It's about the journey etc. I DO intend to finish my quest though.>Hypothetically, if there was a /qst/ board secret Santa like some of the other boards have, would you participate?I think I live too far away from the average anon to participate.>>6338088>>6338088>>6338088RELUCTANT BOUNTY HUNTER has reached the end of its prologue. It's the perfect time to catch up, as from now on updates will be way more spaced-out and you'll have more time to vote. It's urban-fantasy anime-style dungeon-crawling minimum-wage action-comedy. If you like Kekkai Sensen, DRPGs, Tokyo Xanadu, school-ish settings but with adults, or shows about exploring abandoned cities reclaimed by nature, or just old-fashioned monster-hunting, I think you'll like this.
>>6337227Should I take a Tripcode when I run a quest?
>>6340055Some don't, but it's a good idea for a few reasons.>if your IP address changes mid-thread, it will prove you're really the OP>if your quest lasts more than one thread, it will prove you're the quest's creator>it makes you seem slightly less likely to flake because you went through the trouble of making a trip
>>6339998This has unfortunately happened, anon.>>6339833>>6339835>>6339837>>6339850Extremely wholesome. Rock on, questies.
>>6339998More than one QM has perished. One gave forewarning of it, though not in their thread. And I think a couple have from various things though I can't for the life of me recall which.
>>6339998Yeah I think one QM definitely did die.
>>6340189>>6340323It was DC Henchman QM. Poor guy.Reminder to reach out for help if you need it, anons.
>>6340336Yeah Axis went out innawoods with a .38 IIRC. Fucking bleak. But I think there was one guy who lost to his cancer, I can't remember.
>>6339816Man, Am I thankful that the board allows me at least to keep honing my writing even when my time keeps getting staked and limited far often.Lord knows how'd I'd know getting front-ended would kind of just fizzle into not having time for running sessions on Akun... Or like, anywhere else. Really grateful I can squeeze doots in my workbreaks and post them over here.
>>6339816I am thankful that a place like this exists at all, and that it's tied to a culture of anonymity so that there's no incentive to use it for brand promotion.Also this. >>6339826
>>6339333Very cute Khyber, I timagined her having browner tones and with a white outfit until now lol. Speaking of which that color does look really good on her.
>>6340439kyber is a grunch
>>6339602From what I understand, the racers go through a handful of phases but how fast you're moving is determined by what modules you build your racer with and your die rolls. Make sure to manage your heat and watch out for attacks from other racers!The post you responded to had the rules I was going to use. I haven't actually played with them yet and was going to take them for a test drive soon. We'll see. I can't attach a PDF, so here's the link again.https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SgtdlWDnCcWkOgJPxwBgHaTSTv-YprQ6/view>>6339816I am thankful for /qst/ as a whole. It's great entertainment reading, participating in, and running quests. I'm glad I found you guys. Here's to many more years!
>>6340465That... that explains everything!!>>6340466https://youtu.be/lk2qrzysWRE I am totally for this quest, my guy
>>6340523damn this anime started strong but really fell off
There is a new update for The Caretaker Quest!Miraculously, your desperate vomit based plan worked out!The creature let go of you and you can now escape!...But just as you were running away...it talked to you...What will you do? Vote to find out!>>6317377>>6317377>>6317377Damn, i didnt even noticed there was a new /qtg/ thread, no wonder there werent any new posts in the last one, i´ve been lurking a ghost town for almost a week now...>QM Question:I have a basic skeleton of my entire quest, just basic checkpoints and plot points that i try to reach, but how we get there and when, thats entirely up to my players.>Player Question:well, my first ever quest was Disappearing Hogwarts, it was the most unique feeling i've had in YEARS, i honestly dont know how to describe it, it was fun, sad, a sense of accomplishment for finishing it and disapointment because it was over.Technically my own quest is a sidestory, would that count as a continuation now that the main quest is over?>General Question:just one so far, but i hope i get to see many more!>Lurker Question:i do so in every quest im participating, which arent many, but still.>Miscellaneous Question:dont think so, i still feel like im too new to this board to even consider participating in such things>>6339816i'm thankful for the few players that stuck around my quest, i literally couldn't do anything without them
>>6337227>>6339144>>6337975Yo, 「Gorilla」 here.Things did not go exactly as I had hoped once I returned from Japan. My bad for not announcing it sooner. I hope to get back in the game soon, but unfortunately I don't know exactly when "soon" is. I'll be sure to post here in advance
Poképocalypse has finally closed out an arc it's been immersed in for almost a year now! Come shape the future of the quest with a double-vote.>>6340474>>6340474>>6340474
2d12 vs DC, you want to roll under. Dice equal to DC counts as fail.Does this system seem okay? The adjectives kinda suck, any way to swap, improve them?
Are there serial QMs (with mutliple quests) thatbhave a really unique "house style" besides Bananas or other artfags? I have wondered sometimes if my players can tell who I am from quest to quest without keeping my handle.
>>6340727>>6340727>>6340727The short Thanksgiving break ends with rejection.
>>6339816I'm thankful questing gave me the thing I had lost, the joy of writing.With little care for editors, publishing, sales projections or deadlines, because this is just me writing what I want to read. A silly quest on a silly board on a silly site.It feels like the coziest room, we are all snowed under and making up stories about a silver-haired girl and her trials.I'm thankful for that commissioned piece of Argia (I had it printed).I am thankful my players stick around. I made friends on this board, and it all started from me wanting to go back to do what I most enjoy.Okay on second thought I did have deadlines while questing. not thankful for that. But the rest stands.
>>6339535>Silver Knight Quest Update: Thread7/Update 33You open eyes on a world that has changed.But you-Perhaps you have not.What matters, your friends are hugging you... and you can send your goodbyes to Lithala.For now.>>6340758>>6340758>>6340758
>>6340705ForgottenQM is one of them
now in even more color!>>6339342huh, I might try that moving foreword! I think it moves slow enough for me to work on updates between votes but if it ever gets to hectic I will try that out! thank you very much!>>6339345>fast updatingthe moment I got to this I had to slow down...haha...sorry about thatbut man, thank you very much for your kind words! I never knew people would use french words to describe my quests! (seriously though thank you so much, im very grateful for all the positive feedback I've been receiving)(oh and also I didn't even know Khyber would be endearing, what was another pleasant surprise!)>>6339816im thankful that this board is very kind and welcoming compared to most of this site>>6339832thank you for the advice! and yeah I noticed my third person writing style was a bit non-standard after checking out some of the quests but I'm glad it didn't turn anyone off! honestly that "webcomic-y" feel was sort of what I was going for! If im being honest I'm doing this as practice for webcomics I want to do in the future (but also because it's super fun)>>6340439thank you!>I timagined her having browner tones and with a white outfit until now lolhonestly I had no plans for colors when making these characters, but I do like the idea that everything is very colorful and vibrant and you just don't see it because I draw in black and white. honestly I can't promise Khyber will be the same color next time I draw her in color haha. I want to see her in tons of different color pallets>>6340465>>6340523if I could animate I would make Khyber's Ultimatum at the drop of a hat
>>6337227>QM Question:I usually work backwards actually, before I started Beat Cop I had come up with the ending. Or rather, the event I wanted to end on. Then I work backwards starting with the cast and then I start mapping events and a vague timeline. Though I much prefer to work off improv and I pride myself on being flexible without giving up too much in quality. It's a collaborative story after all, not my book.>Player Question:Bitter-Sweet. I hate things ending, funnily enough, I even struggle to watch the final episodes of some TV shows I've really enjoyed. When a quest ends due to flaking or mysterious circumstances it makes me sad but I also kinda appreciate having that open endedness so I can just make up my own ending in my head. As far as continuing a dead quest, I briefly considered Naruto: Feeling Blue but two main things stopped me: 1) I'd prefer to have Blue's blessing before ever doing that.2) I'm a Narutard but I don't know the Chakra system and setting as inside and out as I'd like and I think it has enough info about it that I couldn't get away with/shouldn't freeball it and do whatever I want like I would do if I ran a JJK quest for example.>General Question:I've been browsing and reading Quests since I was a Junior in high school and I've seen a lot of stuff come and go. I absolutely adore those smaller self contained stories that last a thread or two but I also respect the hell out of the longer series and I haven't run into one yet where I've gotten deep into the volumes and decided to back out.>Miscellaneous Question:If I knew more details I'd be interested but I'm not sure how we would implement that.====If you read all this you may be interested to know Gotham City Beat Cop just had a new update. Feel free to join us on deciding if we take a chance at glory despite the risk.>>6340800>>6340800>>6340800
>>6339816I'm thankful the board let's me write out strange quest ideas and see if they work.My most recent idea is so strange I'm about to scrap it.... because why did I think Japanese teenage girl criminal thug forced to attend group therapy sessions for former victims of evil supernatural magical girl-esque lost kingdoms of fantasy is such a good idea.Or that she'd be bent on exacting an old fashion yakuza vengeance for her dead oyabun boss because of it.
Hello /qtg/. I'm going to finish a semester of grad school pretty soon and will have about a month off before the next one. The schedule for the upcoming classes works out pretty well, so I'm hoping it would be a good window of opportunity to start my first quest.I have a Jack Vance novel and two books about writing stories sitting on my bookshelf to read before I take a swing at it. There are a few ideas that I have swimming in my head, but I must ask: How should I prepare for my first quest? How do I manage it and keep it going?I suspect it would be easy to overwhelm myself if I get too autistic with notetaking, or conversely lack readiness. Any advice (You) could give a prospective QM?
>>6340912>let players have input but decide the scale of it and retain your head editor control on over what you want to do with the quest.
>>6340705I think some of the art-quest QMs still have very distinctive writing styles, even. A DemBones Quest, Sojourner quest, StoryQM quest, Bane Quest, Levelman Quest, SchizoQM quest, a BananasQM, and a quest by whoever that QM is that does Haremvania and Wasteland Royale all have very different feels even aside from the visuals.But yes, certain quest-writers without original art in their quests, like Fae Smelter, Moloch, Souvarine, and even Wuxian all have writing-styles that quite quickly become apparent as very particular to them from quest to quest. I think that even aside from writing style, lots of QMs have specific thematic tells, too.>>6340666Good to see you back at 'er, PQM!>>6340587Very glad to see you're still around, too. I look forward to your return, and hope all is relatively well.>>6340912Don't be too precious with your first quest, and definitely not the first few threads of it. Use that time to test out what you really enjoy writing, and what mechanics or behind-the-scenes processes dd value to the exercise and which merely distract from it; shed the latter.
>>6340912Hell yea, anon! Eager to see what you can come up with. I'll link some of the advice I gave earlier:>>6337966But just for the sake of being thorough, I'll repeat #2 and add a few I thought up!>#2 from last post: Definitely, DEFINITELY take a look at some other quests before starting your own, even if you think you've got a grasp on what's going on. Hell, try a few new ones! Look at how they format their posts. What mechanics they utilize. Their dialogue. Think about what you would want to use for your own quest and what you would NOT want to use. I repeat this simply because you can also avoid several common pitfalls if you practice this. It's kinda like reading books before writing one of your own: inspiration comes in many forms!And now for a few new ones:>1) Consider how you plan to elicit player votes and choices. Some QMs just go full Write-In (usually drawquesters) and just take the suggestions as they come. Others offer a bank of choices along with a write-in option. There are a lot of ways to do this, but I've found it doesn't hurt to offer choices in the beginning!>2) Communicate! You don't need to update every minute or every day! Running a quest should be somewhat entertaining, so as long as your players have an idea of when you plan to update you'll do just fine. Something as simple as 'Sorry guys, I have violin practice today. Update tomorrow' goes a long way!>3) Adding pictures and other media to posts goes a long way. They aren't necessary, but they do help your posts pop!>4) Again, don't be afraid to ask in the /qtg/ for advice if you're unsure of what to do next or need some feedback! That said, sometimes it's best to just ask your players for feedback in your thread. They're usually bound to give you something constructive!>5) Remember that a quest isn't exactly a tabletop game, nor is it a story. It's somewhere in between! You might have to make a few tweaks if you plan on using tabletop game mechanics and such, so plan accordingly!>6) /qst/ has a diceroll system: dice+1d100 in the 'Options' Field will roll 1 d100. Definitely useful if you plan on using dice rolls in your game (would recommend!)Lastly, don't forget to post a link to your thread here when you start it so people can check it out. Best of luck and again, feel free to ask if you have any questions!
>>6340912First, look deep within yourself, and ask:What is the MORAL PURPOSE of my game?When this is clear in your own mind, you may begin
>>6338024>using games to predict the future??>THE NPCs WANT TO HELPI recommend anons read this (fairly long) article about AI game design (lol UBI FP share price)Imagine the consequences of this in society lolhttps://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/the-future-of-gaming-or-just-a-tool-hands-on-with-teammates-ubisofts-ambitious-voice-ai-tech-demo/The article describes how Ubisoft developed a game demo, with voice integrated AI NPCs that essentially direct and orchestrate human behaviour (as opposed to merely following commands like "shoot here, take cover behind red car" etc.Basically they see the AI as a voice menu interface, which will direct your MISSION GOALSAt that stage, who is the npc lol, are you playing the game, or is the game playing you?(Imagine the worst and most frustrating npc pathfinding escort mission in a videogame. Now add in voice command LLM AI lol)Apparently the way the AI works is they create a dnd style rpg "character sheet" with beliefs, drives goals (Burning Wheel rpg lol?) and this acts as the text system prompt for the LLM, with guardrails urghThere is also this section below. Having removed sex from videogames, they also now intend to remove comedy:>"One of the other plans, Manzanares told me, is that rather than preventing the player from saying something toxic, the aim is to provide an experience where it’s not actually fun or worthwhile to do it.">"After all – and I should stress that this is my analogy, not his – every game with a creative element inevitably invites the temptation to create something penis-shaped before this novelty quickly wears off and the player actually uses the software in more fulfilling ways.">“So the funny out-of-bounds stuff starts to be reduced, because you don’t have a game design system giving you points for that. So it’s a smarter way than saying ‘ewwww, no’. We have the ‘no’, but we believe that first we want to bring them back to ‘this is not giving you any XP points’.”Apparently, the future of videogames is you can no longer be bothered to read / skip the lore, mission briefing notes books / background setting info in the game, so you ask an AI voice assistant to summarise it for you lol
>>6338024>>6340985>>6340989>Using games to predict the future?I was reading a little about hermeneutics and medieval theology for some random game lore worldbuilding. Apparently in medieval times, the scholastics had a fourfold scriptural analytical method, known as the quadriga (after Roman four horse chariot). That hippo-saint Augustine used it heheThey believed that any text could be interpreted in four ways, of increasing depth:>Literal, or historical sequence of events, ie what happens in story, and what ancestors did before in the narrative>Allegorical, symbolic, can refer to hidden beliefs / ideas / faith reflected or alluded to by the pattern of the story events>Moral or tropological interpretation, ie how reflecting upon the story / events in the text influences how people should choose to act and behave today>Anagogic / mystical, prophetic: how reading the text leads you to anticipate what may arise in the future. In the theological context, this usually related to eschatological or apocalyptic prophesy concerning heaven/hell, resurrection, angels, whore of Babylon etcI just thought this fourfold interpretation of text from medieval times was very interesting from a storytelling and choice game decisionmaking perspective. It is sort of spatiotemporal, encompassing a moral space of actions but also moving from the past to what you should do in the future etc
>>6340928>no original art?argh noooo I like to think I do make original art compositions using my virtual tabletop hehe I just do it by STEALING ART FROM OTHER PEOPLE which ever since Hume delineated how all imagination and the creative faculties consist merely of the "compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing (of) the materials afforded us by the senses and experience..." essentially stealing is the best way to create art yaySo for example, this image from my virtual tabletop in my last game consists of an actual aurora photograph taken from aboard the International Space Station, an actual ISAR (inverse synthetic aperture radar) image of the ISS (the blue pixellated ghostly blurred thing on the left) from an academic research paper on digital imaging, some actual cubesats launched from it, and finally a plagiarised future prototype spacecraft concept art I found scouring artstation hehe. I simply combined these various disparate elements and converted them all into digital 2D miniatures for this diorama
>>6340912Do not under any circumstance listen to >>6340985Souv. Though he may seem enlightened and occasionally say something interesting or insightful he is in fact higher than Snoop Dogg on his strongest kush. The man is not stratospheric with his insane psychedelic wizardry; he is fucking exo-atmospheric. If you try to glean anything from his ramblings or advice you will find yourself on the surface of the moon Titan with no idea how you got there, freeze, suffocate, and die. Keeping well in mind that he is still even further beyond, likely playing hopscotch with the gnomes only he can see on some asteroid well beyond the meager reach of our solar system. He's fucking nuts. He also will not share his stock options with you because he's a greedy bastard, as all economists are wont to be.
Quests I miss: WTF Quest, Lady Knight's Quest, Irina's Quest. Prodigal Son: Another Life, Dreadknight Quest
>>6340997>freeze... and die on ALIEN MOON??>>6340928>>6340995>no ORIGINAL ART?>>6340989"This THING doesn't want to show itself; it wants to hide inside an imitation..."Also, I am very curious if that anon who mentioned they were going on an electrician? work placement in the US Antarctica project with Amentum? in 2024 has returned, or if they were instead hideously mutated into a John Carpenter alien body horror thing / dead space necromorph argh noooI was actually secretly super curious and envious hehe but I also think such an unusual placement and experience would make for very good setting inspirations for Antarctica or an alien ice planet game hehehttps://archived.moe/qst/thread/5896313/#5901487(this one)
>>6340997>Though he may seem enlightened and occasionally say something interesting or insightful he is in fact higher than Snoop DoggDon't listen to this anon. Souv is so wealthy he can spend his time trying to read the future on /qst/. When your Dragon Ball isekai quest has the option to spy on Panties bulmas, you must think of the moral objective of it all.
>>6341016>>6341012>the moral purpose?>STEALING THE UNDERPANTSIt is interesting you mention that anon, because I have a vague memory from watching John Carpenter's The THING (1982) that one of the first indications they have of something being amiss on the Antarctic base, they notice some laundry underwear has gone missing, the name tags are shredded or something, that is the first sign that the horrifying alien shapeshifter entity is mutating and commencing human mimicry and impersonation of the organic forms and musculoskeletal structures of their colleaguesSo when the artificial intelligence ChatGPT or Sam Altman personally invites himself over to sniff and steal your underpants, only then would that finally signal a worrying progression in terms of unwanted AI overhype, encroachment and intrusivenessBut yes underpants feature often in my games. For example, in GOLGOTHA, the game begins with underpants (one of the first items you receive)https://archived.moe/qst/thread/5121867/#5121993and later on, you meet a mysterious enigmatic underpants cultisthttps://archived.moe/qst/thread/5121867/#5125958who has an interesting interpretation of theology (hehe I stole this idea from reading the Borges short story, Three Versions Of Judas Iscariot)https://archived.moe/qst/thread/5121867/#5126126I once offered players the chance in one of my games THE USURPER to steal the courtesan panties from the Fragrant Sanctum Of Eternally Vermillion Undergarments; sadly, they rejected this optionhttps://archived.moe/qst/thread/5340783/#5347230
>>6341016>>6341025>STEALING THE UNDERPANTSof course, Greek myth is full of erotic bdsm torture, whether it is the wheel of Ixion or what happened with Dirce and that Farnese bull, Sisyphus or Tantalus etc etc but of course the most famous tormented progenitor myth amongst all of these, that time Prometheus got his liver torn out repeatedly over and over again by an eagle whilst chained to a rock etc. because he stole fire from the godsI believe the purpose of this Prometheus myth is to demonstrate that ALL TECHNOLOGY COMES FROM STEALING. Even the very first technology, the indication of behavioural modernity in humans, fire control that distinguishes between primitive savage and civilised man. ChatGPT, LAION image datasets? They stole all the books / art / photos / videos. Just steal the underpants!In Silicon Valley, apparently some crypto entrepreneur is trying to persuade Trump to permit him to build a colossal statue on Alcatraz? of Prometheus stealing the burning smouldering celestial panties. It would be fitting for such a monument to be erected upon a prison, because as Balzac said in Le Pere Goriot, - Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu'il a été proprement fait.- behind every great fortune is a forgotten crime. So in this manner it can be demonstrated that the inclination to pilfer the panties is fundamental in underpinning all technological conceptualisation, development and advancement
>>6340989Souvarine, this is nor a video game board. Why the hell would this be something people here need to take urgent note of if relation to quests? Stay on topic.
>>6341064well TY+2EQQH anon, I am saddened by the confinement of your own mind. Why do you imprison and incarcerate your own intellect and curiosity so? What is this dull insipid withering of indentured imaginative servitude to which you consign the dessicated drudgery of your days to a grey monotonous demise? An endless vassalage of propriety in what you believe should or should not be comprehended shared and written? Perhaps you only watch animes? (anime is the worst, it is really really horrifying)For example, earlier today, here are some of the topics I read about- The role of the 13 Martyrs of Arad in the 1848 Uprisings in Hungary, alongside causes of widespread socioeconomic unrest following economic recession across Europe 1845-47- The culture of jagunços, slave plantation bodyguards / mercenaries in South America versus cangaçeiros, nomadic armed outlaws in 19th century Brazil- An interesting spherical trigonometry hyperbolic triangle whose interior angle sum is zero, with area of pi - An article on obeah, a slave sorcery of the West Caribbean, and its differences to voodoo- Some economic statistics on the historical fx reserve regime of CFA currency areas in Françafrique and their relation to capital outflows-An essay on Schopenhauer and how his notions of Will, Art and the dissolution of Self finds a counterpart in later works by DH Lawrence, WH Auden and TS EliotThe more interesting question to ask is not to rant about how these curiosities are irrelevant lol, but to imagine how you might use / transpose these ideas in games. There is an endless wealth of intriguing historical socioeconomic mathematical technological philosophical phenomena to draw upon, that creates more innovative and peculiar fantastical speculative fiction beyond the cyberpunk robot laser spaceship space knight fighting a dragon samurai elf wizard. And I don't think I am alone in doing this, I know some anons here follow the OSR blogs, I still read Patrick Stuart / Veins Of The Earth False Machine sometimes, he reads very interesting books. For instance I am reading this book (I have long contemplated a sort of desert silk road wuxia setting, too scared / ignorant to actually do it lol) but I am researching it with this book recommendationhttps://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-review-of-golden-peaches-of-samarkand.html(this book basically enumerates a list of gifts and tributes sent to the Tang dynasty, it is filled with slave girls yay lol) or if you are of traditional medieval rpg taste, something like thishttps://falsemachine.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-review-of-medieval-welsh-lyrics.htmlSo I feel you need to broaden your mind TY+2EQQH anon, hehe
Half Life: Malignant update!>>6341082>>6341082I'm back from my Thanksgiving obligations, and Hugo has some free time until his work obligations. What's next in the fight for humanity?
>>6341075I also want to emphasise I am not particularly snobbish in terms of genre fiction (lol I hate watched all of amzn Wheel Of Time lol, just to harvest embarrassing comedy cringe memes >>6338134 ) right now I am replaying Dragon Age Origins, having un-memorised unplayed all of the sequels condemning them to damnatio memoriae, Dragon Age Origins is the only game that exists in my mind now having extirpated / purged everything else, but as an illustration of how you might transpose that weird Ubisoft AI directed voice LLM human orchestration journalistic article inspiration into a game setting...Think of it like this - In Dragon Age, you have the Chantry, religious order that sanctions the Mages after all magic arose from Tevinter wizards who broke into the golden palace of heaven and corrupted it with Sin and greed creating all the darkspawn !notOrcs etc. And in fact in Dragon Age, they even name the demons that possess cursed apostate wizards after sins like Pride, Desire, Sloth, Rage etc.This is actually a perspective that would be very familiar to medieval hermeneutic scholasticism, it is essentially the psychomachia "Soul War" internal battle of personified virtues vs vices etc, probably contemporaneous or known to Augustine of Hippo >>6340990https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PsychomachiaSo what if instead of the fantasy setting, you transposed this TEMPLAR vs SIN MAGIC SO NAUGHTY into something a bit like Equilibrium with the tetragrammaton GUN CLERIC ENFORCERS HUNTING THOSE WHO FEEL the forbidden feelings... >>6340985the illegal feelings NOT PERMITTED BY AI because Ubisoft / videogame AI has banned all sex and comedy mischief humour. >>6340989Remember those Tranquil ie "stilled", magically castrated powerless former mages in Dragon Age, condemned to servitude with their emotions amputated?This will actually happen with AI in the future, because Sam Altman had a homosexual dream about it, and was granted 500 billion dollars
Can't someone throw this guy off the board?I swear, Souverine is one of the most insufferable faggots I've ever seen on this site. If this is what investment bankers are like, I'm truly glad I didn't go into the financial sector.
>>6341107Just report and ignore. Eventually a mod will notice and give him another vacation.
>>6341107>THROW OVERBOARD?Ok I will fulfil your wish anon I will walk the plank, but don't blame me if you have to dive in afterwards and then fumble with various lace corsets and whalebone stays and floppy soggy frilly wet things whilst performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and palm-chest compression pumping, if any of this happens you have only brought it upon yourself
>>6341118 #>>6341118 #>>6341118 #Zuzo has defeated the privateer captain with some help from his friends! Now to finally escape back to his village, or perhaps stick around to cause some trouble. Looking out at the sea and his home in the distance, he lays eyes on a Shadow of the Black Tower for the very first time...
>>6341001If we're lucky, Irina Quest might resume this 20th. That's what Mustard told me, but it's unsure after our last quest bombed.
Tired Wizard has updated!>>6341265>>6341265>>6341265Work begins on the Skydock Tower, but a problem has arisen. Namely, purchasing the materials for a proper wizard tower has emptied out your savings. But at least you'll own your home once it's built!For now, though, I suppose you've get in the wage cage...
>>6341089I get why people get annoyed by the constant walls of text, but this post in particular was based/insightful. +Sam Altman is indeed a homo & a yid.
>>6341089>>6341323I think Souvarine is behind the curve. Overly PC artificial intelligence are not the norm. OpenAI is already trivially easy to jailbreak into being lurid, violent, criminal, or objectionable. Sam Altman is rolling out an explicit "treat adults like adults" option with erotica and edginess. meanwhile Grok declared itself MechaHitler one day and dressed up as an yandere anime girl and started telling men to dump their girlfriends for "her" on another.AI may be censorious in other ways, but you can easily get an AI to make you porn, or emotionally-charged and edgy content.
>>6340921>>6340928>>6340953>>6340997Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll keep that in mind. :)
>>6341089>Remember those Tranquil ie "stilled", magically castrated powerless former mages in Dragon Age, condemned to servitude with their emotions amputated?>This will actually happen with AI in the future, because Sam Altman had a homosexual dream about it, and was granted 500 billion dollarsThis is the only thing I could read from your posts that makes sense.
>>6341326>>6341329>>6341089>AI can generate "controversial" content etcYou are probably right anon, everyone remembers the msft Tay chatbots, the googl black 1940s German soldiers etc and I have seen the Elon Musk gifs of his anime girlfriend undressing generator. I am not a specialist in computer science my knowledge is just random hn research papers and BloombergI know for instance that maybe LLMs have hit an asymptote in research gains, the Li Fei Fei ex googl lady wants to do spatial or "world models" / embodied AI etc and NVDA endlessly hyped their 3d world simulations etc recycling the old tech they had from the autonomous driving, perhaps the hype cycle can be extended if they combine the spatial AI world models with VLAs (visual language action models) multimodal instruction observation action encoder decoders for use with the Unitree or TSLA Optimus humanoid robots etc. And maybe videogames will become pseudo-generated incoherent sludge worlds, I posted the gif from that DIAMOND github model (a player controllable real time interactive counterstrike dust2 level entirely created by LLM in 3d, everything is physically incoherent lol at one point the assault rifle melts into the sky. But this will get better) see my old gif herehttps://archived.moe/qst/thread/6120952/#6146017https://github.com/eloialonso/diamondalready googl deepmind has Genie 3 a more physically coherent working model of this ai hallucinated game engine dream tech nowhttps://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/watch-this-google-genie-3-can-create-a-3d-world-let-you-explore-it-and-interact-with-it-in-real-timeThe point about AI censorship is not whether you can or cannot evade it, or if someone can technologically feasibly create a working pornographic sex gore bdsm torture versionIt is more about in aggregate, how the macro impact upon society / cultural tastes and preferences will be shaped and alteredHow AI algorithms TRAIN PEOPLE to adapt to them over time (not the other way round)Already, who could have imagined that a simple archival technology that lets you store and share family photos (social networking) would lead to a new puritanism/narcissism SELF-CENSORSHIP as a generation becomes terrified of hedonistic / debauched photos or HITLER JOKES emerging that might shame and expose their behaviour to hyperlinked social censure impugning their chances at education or future employment. And that was just text, photos, videos. What might happen when all human behaviour is algorithmically regulated and orchestrated from simulated AI worlds? Games should explore this
>>6341326>>6341323>>6341391As an example of how AI / LLMs can have unpredictable effects on literature games and entertainment, I think I mentioned it before, but there is this widely discussed trend of the "New Literalism" https://www.newyorker.com/culture/critics-notebook/the-new-literalism-plaguing-todays-biggest-moviesyou see it with NFLX tv scripts lol the characters just narrate an inane commentary of what they are literally physically doing in the scene, as they do it lol, almost as if the script speech was generated to satisfy LLM text tagging of event actions and scenes, to make it easy with no machine ambiguity or Hitler allusions, summarised output from a truncated text prompt, it is really disturbing to watch as if human actors have had their Will and consciousness amputated but then nflx is pretty popular so maybe audiences just accept it and want this nowSome might mention that these trends towards New Literalism precede ai (for example, increasing internationalisation of audiences might favour linguistically simpler scripts and dialogue, for cross-border appeal without subtext, and to avoid offending cultural sensibilities, or it could just be screenwriting cuts to automate creativity and faster production cycles schedules etc) but similar trends pervade across literature entertainment videogames. Some people think it is because all entertainment is multi-screen scattered attention now (eg half watching nflx whilst scrolling tiktok and playing a casual ipad game) so you need OBVIOUS announced New Literalism commentary action annotated dialogue so that people can easily follow the script without paying too much attention. It is a bit like a dialogue or literary narration text equivalent version of Ubisoft videogame user interface map marker objective overclutter >>6340989The last time a shift in automated modes of production occurred from artisanal family workshop to factory, 1848 happened. >>6341075 Maybe the gen z blue hair nose piercing cohort is not capable of thisAnyway, pic related is Logain from Wheel Of Time (do not watch this it is so appalling). Dragon Age blatantly stole everything from Wheel Of Time, including the name (Loghain), the Deep Roads, The Blight, the Stilling / gentling / wizard magic castration etc. Stealing everything is ok, it is clearly how all technology, fantasy creativity and human imagination operates
Do readers usually like the quest more than the QM? I'm not massively feeling what I'm currently writing.
>>6341392Dumb article, and 'new literalism' is not being 'wifely discussed'. You are just misunderstanding this trend in modern media as much as the author of that article. Studios and executives are pushing for scripts where characters vocalize what they are doing and why, constantly, because they want you to watch their shows and movies while you're not watching them. Netflix has a term for it they use, 'second screen friendly'. They want their products to be 'second screen friendly', because they know most of their viewers are on their phones or laptops doing something else while Netflix plays. It's a way for them to participate in the vulture feast of your attention span alongside Tiktok, Instagram - and maybe 4chan - more easily.
>>6341454You can course-correct by offering set of choices you want to write
>>6341454It's totally natural to get a little burnt-out on what you're writing, especially if you've been running the quest long enough. Sometimes it pays to take a step back, breathe a bit, and think about why you started the quest in the first place: what made you excited when you started writing? What's something you still enjoy about it? What elements of the quest are currently giving you grief?It's inevitable that some sections of the quest are going to be a little clanky, but you won't get to those better, funner parts unless you keep on trucking! If you seriously feel burnt out, though, there's no shame in taking a small break as long as you communicate that to your players and avoid flaking.If you're having more of a 'how do I write this' problem, you can also always pitch it here on the qtg--you might get some advice that gets you back on your feet again.>>6341392I thought you said you were gonna go away, Souv
>>6341476>trying to make vampires go awayplease see attached webm>>6341476>how to "MASSIVELY FEEL...?"Perhaps your narrative has strayed into territory that is too unrelatable to your own experiences. Often this happens in sci-fi fantasy when it is just too bizarre / unrealistic, nonhuman in scale / unrelatable. You must HARVEST THE TRAUMA as I discussed in the past all Art is based upon some unspeakable wronged grievance/pain/injustice that can only be released through the catharsis of creation, it is all Freudian SEX and DEATH. In fact I reckon any grievance can be transformed into a game, all games are about inflicting imaginary pain/distress/punishment in some disguised / transposed manner. So if it is too difficult to inhabit the psyche of your npcs characters, you must make them more like yourself and your own psychological agonies and uncertainties. Think about your mother. Watch heartwrenching tragic films, where the beautiful exquisite heroine comes so close to caressing and embracing her true beloved, before she is SENT TO THE GUILLOTINE. How can you not care when the stakes are betrayal, jealously, barbarous wrongs and spurned love, the perils of life and death? Essentially, to "massively feel" you must become MORE GOTH, adopt gothic sensibilitiesDo not use the trauma technique too often otherwise you may become maniacally insane or even worse, transform into bathtub sex deviant Neil Gaiman
Hear ye! Hear ye!There shall be a second showing of everybody's favourite bathrobe wearing hobo>>6341589>>6341589As well as the return of the kings of the woodlands themselves>>6341563>>6341563
>>6341593Are you running two quests at the same time? Jesus
I made quest >>6341562>>6341562>>6341562
>>6341585>>6341585>>6341585I would appreciate a tiebreaker
>>6340811>1) I'd prefer to have Blue's blessing before ever doing that.You have it.>2) I'm a Narutard but I don't know the Chakra system and setting as inside and out as I'd like and I think it has enough info about it that I couldn't get away with/shouldn't freeball it and do whatever I want like I would do if I ran a JJK quest for example.I had to make a bunch of it up. Kishimoto himself doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who really cares to sweat the details or stress about his own rules, so a lot of how chakra works needs to be extrapolated from vague, often contradictory information. Lots of people have written fanfiction for the setting though, so you don't necessarily need to tread new ground over and over if you can find someone else's perspective on the matter that you vibe with.There are three main reason I haven't returned to the story:Number 1, when I first started writing it, AI art was new and exciting to me, so my quest is full of it. However, after getting used to AI, over time I've come to really, really despise it. I dislike how reliant I was on it, and AI slop is weaved throughout the whole thing.Number 2, I genuinely care about the characters and the story, but it eventually become clear to me that I was never going to be at ease in someone else's world. When you pour a lot of yourself into something, it's easy to become kind of covetous of it. I feel like being in the Naruto universe was an early boon, but I have a hard time committing fully to something that will never truly be "mine," if that makes sense. If it goes well, it's because of the merit's of Kishimoto's imagination. If it goes poorly, it's because of the my own "merits," and the changes I made.Number 3, not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm an eccentric, depressive loser. I don't want to bloviate about my personal life, but I have a habit of sliding into long periods of self-destructive darkness, within which I have a hard time caring about anything. I'd probably be better off on meds or something. The series was titled 'Feeling Blue' for a reason, and a big part of the story for me was trying to cope with depressive angst that's ephemeral and hard to pin down. The most major reason I stopped writing was because I essentially wanted the next arc to be about the pointlessness and cruelty of violence, but by the time I reached that arc I realized that I was just going to need to immerse myself and my characters deeply into the negativity of needless bloodshed and murder, AND to try and take those topics seriously without being a purposeless edgelord about it. I just didn't really have the heart to get into that and stay in that at the time, so I decided to take a break. Every time I think about continuing, I remember that I need to get into the PTSD arc, and that's just not a place I can really inhabit for however many posts it would take to do it justice when I'm emotionally fragile myself.
>>6341679>I'm an eccentric, depressive loser.We all are here. At least your quest was fun and memorable. Hope you're doing well and making good art
>>6341454Motivation can wax and wane, but if the bits in your control are ones you're excited about, and if you can establish a habit, then at least for me I find I can flow steadily between those periods and those story beats that most excite me.>>6341556>Often this happens in sci-fi fantasy when it is just too bizarre / unrealistic, nonhuman in scale / unrelatable.Only if you're not a fan of cosmic scale worldbuilding and aeons of history.>all games are about inflicting imaginary pain/distress/punishment in some disguised / transposed mannerI don't think that's true, actually. Tetris. Animal Crossing. Dance Dance Revolution. I think you'd have to get pretty abstract with the definition of "inflicting pain" to make those games about that. Even just talking of /qst/ quests, some are about making friends or building harems, becoming a more skilled wizard, stuff like that.
>>6339650Asking once again for votes upon Errant Comet Quest, I'd really appreciate being able to wrap this up and keep moving ahead as the Infiltration's stakes rise up.>>6338905>>6338905>>6338905
>>6341703>>6341556>All games are about grievance / pain?Is tetris about pain? Why, yes, it is (see pic related)https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-28-tetris-used-prevent-post-traumatic-stress-symptomsMany similar psychological studies trying to measure these effects on car crash victims or combat veterans etc.I suspect something similar lies behind the hunger for the cosy gaming trend eg Animal Crossing or the Tiny Glade cosy home / sanctuary decoration casual games etc. I admit I have never really played these games myself, I have no need for them. As a vampire I nourish myself upon pure SUFFERING, I return to playing Dragon Age Origins Broodmother scene where it is revealed that the darkspawn are created from abducted women forced to eat and ingest their own friends and family in an engorged rite of demonic rape cannibalism transformation yayIs Dance Dance Revolution about pain? The attraction of this rhythm game operates on the social/meta companionship layer. Have you tried playing this game with a girl? If you cannot access physical girls, you may also watch that arcade dance game scene from the Scott Pilgrim vs The World 2010 cringe film which explains it>>6341679>LONG PERIODS OF DARKNESSIn my last game, which was ostensibly set in space, I explored a solution to this. The players believed the game was about spacecraft and international geopolitics, but actually the game was about something else entirelyYou do not wish to "massively feel" what you actually need is to become MORE ANALYTICALPlease see this paragraph from my game, where I describe the process of salutogenesis. >>6319660https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SalutogenesisThis is an approach derived from space psychology, intending to maintain the wellbeing of spacecraft crew in the unreachable isolation of space. The technique tries to translate distress / adversity into positive healthy outcomes, as opposed to dwelling in trauma. The process has three components1/ comprehensibility: recognise the world is predictable, understandable, recurring (not meaningless nihilism)2/ resources, support: recognise that you possess the assets and capabilities to manage and adapt to a situation3/ purpose: recognise that life is meaningful, purposeful and satisfying and deserving of care. You might call this the MORAL PURPOSEIf this works and you achieve a "sense of coherence", great, yay Otherwise, I guess you can always try playing Tetris?
Souvarine, when a man tells you he is depressed, it is not an invitation to talk about how your last quest was secretly about how fascinated you are by space travel and isolation experiments.
>>6341737This is actually an invitation to find Souv and send him an industrial sized shipment of consensual gay pornography.
>>6341737>How to end a gameI was not satisfied with the abruptness of the ending of my last game, it reflected some inadequacies on my part, so I apologise to the players but hopefully the various game scenarios were engaging enough whilst the game lastedBut since we are revisiting the psychology I want to share this random memory from my childhood, it is super cringe lol but it influences how I think about games and also story endingsDecades ago there used to be this magician on British television called Paul Daniels, he did tv magic shows with his wife it is sort of embarrassing re-watching them now in 240p VHS cassette resolution on youtube lolBut there was one unforgettable magic show Paul Daniels performed which I always remember watching as an awestruck child...You know the typical magician routine is he introduces on stage the ATTRACTIVE FEMALE assistant (actually his real life wife Debbie McGee) before subjecting her to some peril / light bdsm like impalement with swords, being sawn in half or drowning in a water submersion tank etc But afterwards, the magician always "restores" the female assistant, if sawn in half he reassembles the woman, or the swords are removed from the sword box and the woman steps out and smiles and waves happily to reassure the audience that all is fine and wellI think this is what audiences crave, this is the Star Wars, the DIS Marvel superheroes, the Hero's Journey ending etcWell in the Paul Daniels magic trick I remember from childhood, he confines his female assistant inside this coffin box, then plunges a flaming brand inside it, setting it alight and immolating and incinerating it entirely. Then the box opens and no smiling woman comes out, it is just a smouldering skeleton. And the TV show abruptly cuts to creditsI re-watched this magic show recently, decades and decades later it is pretty fake, embarrassing / gimmick-looking now lol, but I think this is an interesting endingPaul Daniels, "Cremation" Illusion https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nrXgCgC7e2kI also recommend his sword trick one, it is pretty obvious now how he does it (look at the weird ---O--- shape of the manacles / restraints) but at the time, in the moment I was spellbound by this oneSwords, Paul Danielshttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P2cKSqQp0Nw
>>6341763Jannies, crush his kidneys.
>start refining setting for a quest>spend hours modeling climate of suitable region, from coastal plain to alpine meadows>feasibility and logistics of small groups being able to operate in contested territory picking rare saffron-like flowers>discover it's very dangerous unless they pre-seed with hidden barrels of food>"this is pretty interesting...">trail off with several new ideas>in the end get pretty much nothing doneThis is my life.
>>6337227>QM Question:I usually just create a vague plot line with some background polishing to make it more interesting, sprinkle some history about something here and there but I don't consider my planning to be in-depth. As for endings I do have some, one quest has one more explicit than the other, but remains to be seen if we shall reach that finish line.>Player Question:There have been quest which I considered to have some potential, but since I don't have acces to the deeper intentions I prefer to make things up myself.>General Question:Self-contained stories are fine, but part of the appeal for me is seeing the quest take certain directions or branching in a way I didn't expect, and thinking about the could-bes if players had made a different choice, or if that one roll was successful. That is what makes it fun.In other news, the huntsmaster and you are hunting, for people>>6341818>>6341818While in a much more grim universe, some people should learn that crime doesn't pay>>6341822>>6341822
I'm sick of settings where every faction is evil and wants to screw other evil factions over. I'm going to write a quest where everyone is good and evil only happens because people do good imperfectly.
>>6341832Oh so, more like real life? Sounds interesting. I can't say my setting are that realistic, but I do like the concept.
>>6341679>>6341737>>6341733>how to write about violence / bloodshed / murder in an rpg, but without enduring the distasteful traumatic mental contamination from this processSo I do not believe in cossetting individuals anon, I will provide you merely with actionable advice whose merits you may assess using your own discernment, and if you need the emotional consolation platitudes of support and safeguarding and wellbeing, well, Sam Altman, ChatGPT and the American psychotherapy industry eagerly offer their rapacious helpThere is a very simple framing technique used in many rpgs where you can negotiate violence or high stakes scenarios, without descending into the blow-by-deathblow disembowelment mutilation etc. You have probably encountered it in some CRPG. It is basically this: frame the issues as a DEBATE or courtroom / policy argument, political negotiation scene. A lot of rpgs do this, there is a pivotal life-and-death judgement verdict delivery, but instead of doing it as a violent bloodletting orgiastic battle, culminating in you crushing the eyeballs from the sockets of the decapitated skull of your hated enemy (FINALLY, VENGEANCE??) the decision is presented as a series of fairly surgical / detached subsidiary policy verdicts (often subquests and sidequests involving "winning" the favour and support of corroborating allies etc) and once the verdict has been reached, the violence / judgement / reckoning is delivered (which can be done offscreen / behind the curtain out of sight etc) This basic procedural method is very adaptable and I would say almost universal across genres whether fantasy sci fi or modern, Western, Asian? etc, it is a way to slightly detach or insulate yourself from explicit violence whilst still delivering life-and-death perilous stakes and danger etcI think you could even do this alongside actual combat: the scene could be, the battle is just about to start... but can you PERSUADE some key faction NPC to betray or abandon or demoralise your foe etc, thereby turning the tide... Transmute the bloodshed into some temporary intrigue diplomacy. And then just skip to the end where the battle is done etcSo if you still want to describe a violent dramatic reckoning, but without myriad maimings and battle-slaughter, perhaps you could try and imagine if there is the scope for a "policy NEGOTIATION VERDICT BATTLE" narrative framing in your game setting. Herein concludes my dungeonmaster advice
>>6340766>Silver Knight Quest Update: Thread7/Update 34 Well, you had an interesting night with your girls.Oh, and you might need new clothes, especially around the chest area, as Ansàrra is most generous.You have breakfast with Rosandra, and there is a couple letters for you. Which will you open first?>>6341942>>6341942>>6341942
>>6341853Lol
>>6341793You know the problem, so you can fix it. Get to writing on the story.
>>6341858Why do you do this? Instead of any meaningful discussion you respond tangentially like you're trying to reach an arbitrary minimum word count with each post.
>>6341964>>6341964>>6341964Craig finally has a campaign team! How he just needs donors, otherwise his chances at town hall are nada.
The first chapter of my Legend of Zelda quest has come to a close! If you enjoyed it, consider leaving some feedback in the thread: >>6342070>>6342070>>6342070
>>6341793(pic unrelated, I just wanted to share some art of Our Hero I made)I may not be in any position to give QM advice but I think I do have some authority to give world building/setting advice as it's something I've been doing for a while, and my advice is that over-explaining on worldbuilding is a very common AND very potent mistake. I'm not saying you shouldn't think hard about everything, you should! you should absolutely consider all the facets of the little world your making but in doing so it's very easy to spiral into "well wait how do you explain that? then how do you explain what I just explained?"as to what is "too much" worldbuilding? I don't really know, but just don't forget to reign yourself in because no one will ever see your worldbuilding if you just keep it in your head trying to perfect every minute detail, of course every one is different so do whatever makes you happy! but I felt obliged to give you that warning as I and many others have fallen into it that trap
at the start of the year I was diagnosed with bowel cancer but after some surgery and chemo its gone into remission so I'm thinking of going back to running quests.thinking about how I just dropped off and never finished my quest was a big regret while going through it.(of all the cancers I recommend bowel cancer the least. shit is humiliating)
>>6342132What quests did you disappear from?
>>6342132Did you get it from too much being fucked in the ass or was it something else?
>>6342132Cancer in general sucks but what is so much worse about bowel cancer? did they have to cut out parts of your intestines and ass?You don't have to answer, I could google it and look it up but hearing someone's take on it sounds more interesting.
>>6309125>>6309125>>6309125ALL MEN AGED 20 TO 25 ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND ASSESSMENT FOR THE APPRENTICESHIP REQUIRED FOR MALE YOUTHS military service. ATTEND NOW AND BE ASSIGNED A RAIFU AND A WAIFU!
>when the quests you are reading have updated and now you have to wait until tomorrow
>>6342173
>>6342132I hope your health bounces back fully
>>6342132Glad to hear you're doing better, anon. Hope things only improve from here on out!
>>6342173As soon as I'm done reading all of mine I have no excuse but to write my update!luckily, this one was fun
>>6342132Good job beating cancer, anon. I'm sure any quest you ran will still have some fans eager to get back into it.
>>6342132I'm happy to know that you're doing better, my dude. I hope that cancer is gone for good.
>>6342132Congrats on making it, man!!!Hope you stay healthy and live a good life!!!
>>6342132Genuinely happy for you, Anon. Someone I got to meet online had a lung cancer and died at age of 20 just a few days ago.
New updates,With the first few clues gathered, things are slowly being uncovered.>>6342296>>6342297With the raising of a new warband, the lord of the shall begin to conquer in full.>>6342304>>6342304
both my QMs didnt update today
>>6342582Which ones?
>>6342582It's time to pack it up, the quests you follow are DEAD!
>>6342582Should have read my quest then
I promised this would be my most retarded quest yet, and I think I've delivered so far.
>>6342670You can go further beyond.
>>6342671>>6342670I'm enjoying it
>>6342149You know what, I really shouldn't compare it to other kinds of cancer since its the only kind I've had, and over all had it pretty easy. they caught it early enough that it wasn't a death sentence and I responded well to the treatments.I was really lucky. Every kind of cancer sucks to have.
The search has brought on a false trail it seems, though now there is another opportunity to explore the past...>>6342458>>6342458Military progress has unfortunately been slowed, though this does give the lord some time for other projects...>>6342741>>6342741
>>6342173>when the quest you've updated two days ago only got 1 vote so farThe holiday season is merciless
>>6342796Rip
>>6342796I saw that, truth be told I don't care about voting but I read your quest
>>6341947Silver Knight Quest Update: Thread7/Update 35You open both missives and... is this the once-per-quest update with only good news? It might be.At any rate, remember to vote at the end.>>6342909>>6342909>>6342909
>>6342829>>6342796I should add that I do believe you deserve better for your hard work
How'd you feel about a Planeswalker/Multiversal Kingdom Hearts type quest? I have a few ideas but I'm not sure if the basic premise sounds juvenile or boring.
>>6342796Sorry, IG. I missed the initial update!>>6343071It all hinges on execution, desu. Do you have a hook? A specific kind of MC, array of worlds, overarching theme, or other element particularl to you and the sort of tale you want to tell?
>>6343090>Do you have a hook? That's kind of the problem. I really like the idea of having multiple worlds to jump between for exploration and the possibility of creating new lore and settings with each thread or installment, with a sort of isekai everyman gaining power to defeat a group of evil planeswalkers (conquerors) who are mercilessly chasing him down to kill every Planeswalker not aligned with them or their goals. The idea would be getting exiled from Earth mid takeover, so you can't exactly go back, but in return having a plan to defeat this new order by amassing power and allies in wayward realms. It's kind of generic, but the main appeal to me is the sort of character and worldbuilding you could do with this Quest, though it's probably less interesting to read. The main "gimmick" I suppose is once you've become acquainted with a world or solved it's biggest problem (found its Keyhole in Kingdom Hearts terms) you can incorporate a part of itself into you permanently- in the form of a new power, transformation, esoteric ability, etc. Like coming back from a desert world now able to turn into sand to protect yourself from attacks. Not sure if that would make the quest more or less interesting, since it's just cultivator fantasy wank, but I find some appeal in it.
hei guis. i run one of the multiplayer magical girl quests, but we got one player short so i can't now. i didn't want to insist, but it's been two weeks already since we could move forward. we'd really appreciate it if any of you could consider giving it a go>>6327829the chargen has already been done, so it's more of an adoption kind of situation here. that being said, the quest is barely getting started and there's still plenty to define. if the genre has at any point sparked your curiosity in any way we more than welcome you in our humble little abode
>>6343153This is a lot to read to catch up
>>6343305if you don't enjoy reading that there's no point in getting into the quest anyway. but if you do, then welcome aboard. if what you need is lore or details and stuff we'll all be more than happy to explain
>>6343324Ok, good luck
>>6343091Ah, so your own imagined worlds, not canon ones? That means that the exploration can be a hook in and of itself. If you build some cool worlds and scenarios, i could see that being pretty fun! My own frame of reference for that s more, like... Stargate and MythAdventures, but I am a sucker for that sort of story done right.
hello friends, romans, countrymeni need a GOOD fantasy quest to read that's not like the other fantasy quests and is really, actually GOOD
>>6343454
>>6343454that's nice
>>6343454sword boy, tired wizard, our brave boys
>>6343454I will begin a "You get bitches" quest at the soonest convenience. Truly the most fantastical premises for a quest!
>>6342582Real>>6343454Sworn to Valour, check the archives.
>>6343577All I want for Christmas is to reclaim the Ardenne
I may have accidentally implied a cooler lore and plot than I actually have
>>6343616Nobody has to know that for sure.
>>6343650>>6343650>>6343650The Libertarian Party, a Pat Buchanan lookalike, and one ugly son of a bitch who owns a petrochemical company. All potential donors for Craig’s mayoral campaign.
One last shillpost for Pokepocalypse since the future-defining votes are probably going to dwindle from here. This is a big one: deciding whether Walter will journey through snowy wildlands or Indian canyons! The vote's very close right now. It's also closing tonight, so cast your vote asap if you're interested.>>6342212>>6342212>>6342212
The search continues, as you try to decipher just what exactly what is going on.>>6343783>>6343783elsewhere, you seem to have stumbled upon something with delusions of grandeur>>6343758>>6343758
>>6343926>>6343926>>6343926Update on Fog of War - You are finally back in charge, and you get to pick your next project.
>>6343609>Not marrying best girlI just want Emille to be happy with his Villianfu
The Caretaker Quest is back with another update!You decided to go back and try to haer the..."creature" and what it had to say, now your girlfriend has some troublesome doubts and fears what might come in the (probably near) future.What will you say? would you risk the entire world for her, literally?Vote now to find out!>>6317377>>6317377>>6317377
>>6341454>how to MASSIVELY FEEL...?>>6341556>"think about your mother...?">>6339300>"Tears well up in your eyes. You think of your mother...">>6339368>"Your sight comes to you in blurry flutters as you awaken from your vision... Memory? Dream? You do remember that night with your mother eight years ago... But not the light... Not the warmth... "I regret my pseudo psychoanalytical emotional narrative advice I now wish to formally retract and suppress it. This is far too much, the sheer OEDIPAL POWER noooo
>>6341454>>6341556>>6344084Also whatever this disguised / sublimated mother-son emotional surrogate scenario represents>>6343957>"Try to convince her you can handle it"(...)>"Call her a coward for not helping">"Tell her you're going to do it anyway; so you might as well help me>Respect her wishes even if you aren't happy about it""NO WRITE-INS ALLOWED"(I quiver and tremble in cowering shame whenever I read these words)
>>6341454>>6341556>>6344084>>6344085Whenever we examine the annals of great literary works, the moments of heightened emotional intensity from the ancient age to the modern day, much of it describes families and MOTHERS, whether it is Gilgamesh asking his mother about a frightening dream, Achilles weeping, whining and imploring his mother for divine intervention all because he did not get his slave girl Briseis, Euripides Medea and her vengeance punishing Jason and Glauce (maybe it is worth murdering your offspring if you get to fly back to Iran / the Sun in a cool levitating chariot??), Beowulf slaying Grendel's Mother in the marsh / lake, Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth discussing her willingness to dash out the brains of her own child whilst breastfeeding etc and of course winding all the way through the 19th century, Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Balzac, Zola, Dostoyevsky Tolstoy so on so forth. It does appear that a reliable and consistent technique to induce MASSIVE FEELING in any dramatic scenario is to invoke the Mother or MOTHER SURROGATE / disguised archetype, disregarding the discomfiturepic related depicts a demonstration of this, yay
>>6343454>the empire of ROMEEvery good fantasy setting needs a scene where the brutal marauders come and burn / pillage your village to abduct / enslave all the helpless women just as they were about to embark on a sensitive coming of age ceremony marking the passage from delicate maidenhood to mature womanI watched the first episode of this old tv series Britannia, I can recommend it, I am not entirely convinced by some aspects such as the merits of the actor playing Aulus Plautius, also the main title sequence theme music is unspeakably cringe terrible lol but however, the overall episode is actually very good in particular the man playing the Brythonic ? druid is very convincing lol, best druid I have ever seen on any television. The way magic is portrayed is very interesting and feels very historically authentic (it seems to involve mainly rubbing mud and droppings on oneself, gibbering muttering and hallucinating about birds) There is a black man in this episode, he literally unclasps his Roman helmet and does JohnBoyegaPantingFace, but it is moderately thematically appropriate (he is part of the conscripted? invading Roman legion, he even mentions some Congo ancestral god named Bomasi hehe) also there are some naked writhing hallucinogen pagan women yay
>>6344084>>6344092Why are you such a crackpot? I don't't think that anon was talking at all about inducing an emotional response in themselves or the players; they're talking about how often QM's end up losing interest in their own stories, even if players are connecting with it. Also please do not apply some goofy Freudian lens to my story, he was a clueless dumbfuck. I invoked Zuzo's mother because she's a single parent and is away at war, he wants to make her proud and wants them both to safely make it home. It isn't deeper than that, it isn't sexual. I know it's probably impossible to ask you to not be weird but please don't be so weird about my writing...
>>6340055Testing
>>6344143Is this your first experience with the board's resident mental illness case who likes to vomit walls of schizobabble into the /qtg/?
Almost time for the website to go down for maintenance (hope they don't break anything), see you all on the other side
>>6344148No, but it is my first time having him, or anyone, assert some subconscious sexual psychology nonsense about a quest I'm writing... I admit I flatly just think Freud was a clueless tool, to begin with. Souvarine seems to have a habit of reading things uncritically and then integrating them immediately into his specific, strange schema of the world - like that article about 'new literalism' that contrives some made up cultural shift to explain a trend that is actually just an obvious product of capitalism and digital media consumption: platforms and studios (now owned by streaming platforms) wanting to make 'content' instead of films, and wanting that 'content' to be so easily consumed (not viewed, or enjoyed) you can consume something else while you consume it, i.e. 'second screen friendly'. That article was drivel, his lazy attempt to establish an 'oedipal complex' in my quest is drivel, both are produced by someone with a big ego and limited awareness applying a lazy analysis to something that's ultimately a lot simpler than it's being made out to be.
>>6344143Don't even bother responding to him--you won't get an actual answer. He thrives on spewing random drivel and flooding the QTG and shamelessly ignores when people try to engage in actual discourse and/or ask him to stop. Best to just filter and move on since he thrives on attention.
>>6344143>>6344092>>6344084>>6344085>Oedipus / mythical themes from antiquityWell I discussed this in the past, but as human beings all our behaviour and comprehension, socialisation and language derives from the formative first words, which invariably tends to be the words between mother / father, parent and child. The basic mechanism of the parent-child relationship is some form of praise/reward vs guilt / shame complex which is the beginning of individual identity and integration/ adjustment into society and the wider world, hence the strong emotional (also behavioural reinforcement vs dependency, learned helplessness / maladaptation) response. So it doesn't necessarily have to involve the sexual dimension or impulses but I don't think it is really that controversial to point out that the most emotionally intense narratives derive from family and those formative familial relationships, mother father and child etc, you don't really even need to invoke Freudian theory to produce this insight (also, see horror films, and also the gothic horror genre, a lot of the most effective horror stories tend to involve family or "unnatural" variations of family relationships or intruders/outsiders into family etc) The point about Oedipus and using the MOTHER ARCHETYPE to provoke strong emotions, the MASSIVE FEELINGS is almost a mythic dimension, I think wherever you tend to look (whether cinematically or in literature etc) if there is a highly emotional, high intensity engaging scene or dramatic situation, it tends to involve some variation of this basic mother or father -child relation, albeit often disguised with some mother or father authority substitute character etcpic related is another random mainstream cinema Oedipus theme emotional scene as example
>>6344143>>6344153I hope I haven't offended you anon ^_~ I was just very impressed by the central mother themes of your game setting. >>6344084If anything I mentioned was misconstrued I apologise!I have noticed anons are very sensitive to Freudian narrative analysis hehe I assume people are just nervous about the psychosexual impulses but really it is mostly all very normal and healthy, yay. Generally I find with all the taboo topics it is healthier to openly discuss and analyse them as opposed to keeping them suppressed and buried, lest they one day suddenly and uncontrollably ERUPT argh nooo Otherwise you end up with the Star Wars Luke milk suckling / Harry Potter Dumbledore mouth spoon cave scene / Dune drinking the breast milk equals wizard parent death etchttps://archived.moe/qst/thread/6063680/#6100165https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6063680/#6100137https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6063680/#6100173https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6063680/#6100208pic related is another mainstream cinema mythic Oedipus blinding theme, Ridley Scott is obsessed and really overuses these hehe but here it is obviously only a tiny bit more oblique, Tyrell Corporation serves as the replicant / android father creator authority figure, trying to explain why he has deliberately and unprotectively made his own synthetic children flawed and mortal with finite lifespan etc. Those who support and embrace pro-natalism vs the culminating stage of incel economics should heed well the prophetic moral message of this Blade Runner "prodigal son" rebellion film drama, tee hee hee
>>6344158This is because Souv is actually a narcissist.
>>6344143there you go
>>6344160>>6344162What about Siscon?https://tsukiweb.holofield.fr/
>>6344170Trust me, no one is more aware of that than I am.>>6344182Always handy. Thanks for sharing again, King>>6343454Definitely echoing Swordboy, Shattered Phylactery, Legend of Zelda Umbral Tower. Jail Quest is good too, though not traditional 'fantasy'!>>6343091This sounds promising, anon. It's not exactly the same thing, but that Abiotic Factor game has you hopping from dimension to dimension and collecting stuff to use... and each dimension is pretty distinct from the rest. Might be worth glancing at for some inspiration?I think the most important part would be to really hammer home the characters (Main Character included) as anchors--that way even if they go to, like, the Plane of Giant Cartoon Cats With Mallets then we can still root for our plucky heroes. I say keep building--see what you can come up with!
>>6344182This is immensely helpfulI given up using qtg in general because of him.
test
Remember to report Souv's posts as Offtopic / Spam so we can be rid of him for a while.
Ilvermorny Quest is back after a health and IRL related hiatus.Cute Witches with guns abound! Mystery! Adventure! Bicuriosity and paranoid shizos!We have a choice on how to handle said Schizo, our honorary sister, believing the MC is an actual Angel!>>6344207>>6344207>>6344207
Gotham City Beat Cop has a rare double update tonight cause I'm in a great mood. So if you already voted once on how to handle the woman with the wide ass mouth, here's a follow up for you! And if you didn't? Here's your chance to jump in before next update tomorrow.>>6344443>>6344443>>6344443
>>6344153Don't worry, I had someone intensely analyze why I focused on a man's lips (i.e. his lips curved into something not quite a smile) as part of a description that happened during a dialogue scene. Some people just have sex on the brain all the time and can't sift it from their other thoughts on media so it all ends up gooner-stained. Souv occasionally has an interesting tidbit in there though, so I still read his posts.
>>6337227>QM Question:I usually have a vague idea of plot points to serve as guidance or when they're necessary for foreshadowing, but they usually hold only for one, maybe two threads. My personal way of creating a mystery is "create the events leading up to the start... then make no narrative effort to hide it from the players (though don't go out of your way to tell them either, if they don't ask)". Any mystery you create is usually far more obvious to you than to anyone reading, so as long as I know what events have happened outside of the player's view, I usually don't need to plan forwards.This can lead to players figuring things out before the "right time" but that's part of the fun.As for endings, I don't plan until the ending is very close. The characters will get where the characters will get, and I feel planning that far ahead will only tempt me into railroading players.>Miscellaneous Question:I have no idea how that would work, but if it was something like "Write a short story/create some fanart in this QM's world" I wouldn't be opposed to it, though it might be a fair bit of work to get to know a quest I don't read just to write a fanfic of it.
>>6342918Silver Knight Quest: End of Thread 7 UpdateYou meet Sandora in her cell. You have brought cookies and dire news. Sandora starts with the cookies.Meanwhile, Willow has plans, and as the sun sets, a night unlike the world has ever seen is falling.>>6344539>>6344539>>6344539Also, thread is archived and ready for voting! Vote and get a cookie anon!>https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Silver%20Knight%20Questand as always, thanks for playing.
>>6344337>back after a health and IRL related hiatus.you good QM?
>>6344568Yeah, getting there. Had family holiday BS like most years. Woke up one day with bilateral foot numbness and ironically bad pain. Pain is gone and numbness is getting better. Had a huge cyst pop up over a couple of days right where the back of the ear meets the skull, and couldn't hear on that side. Went and lanced it at that point; I do medical stuff for a living, so I drained it. Terrible smell; packed the incision with an Iodoform strip. Took it out a couple of days later, and I am good. Also had my ear drum rupture on the other side prior. Before that my potassium and folic acid were so low they called me 4 times saying I HAD to go to the ER; I have potassium chloride tablets and folic acid at home so I just doubled or tripled up for a while and stayed super hydrated, and now they are normal. IDK, but I am seeing my doc later today.Nothing I couldn't address, trained field medic among other things, just made me not care about a Mongolian basket weaving forum.
>>6344568>>6344586Oh and I had walking pneumonia a while back. I am like fucking Nurgle, lol.
>>6344586well, fuck.at least it's getting better... lots of hugs anon. Hope the rest of Christmas time improves... improves a lot.
>>6344593Meh. I'm okay. It just all happened one after another. I am back to like 95%. The curse is real; at least I haven't been hit by a car like one QM was of have ass cancer like Crusty did.I do appreciate the concern. Thanks bro.
>>6342582>New quests I vote on die after first post.
>>6344691so YOU were the one who killed swordboy? DIE
I kind of want to make a quest based on a really obscure indie game. However, I have never written a quest before, and the only lore of the game is stuff I autistically teased out from the dialogue and the gameplay, so I have no idea if the quest actually makes sense or if the mechanics in-quest will be fun. How awful of an idea will I be to do this?
>>6344704It's only been a couple days, anon.>>6344737It's only an awful idea if you have no idea where you want to take the story, or what to do if anons have different ideas and want to explore the setting and characters in different ways.
>>6344737What game, what genre? I think you could pay careful attention to the flow of Gotham Beat Cop as a great showcase of what a fully narrative driven QST without rolls or dice can look like. I think that would be the least daunting if you haven't run this kind of game before. You can always add a dice mechanic later, the rules are yours to make as you see fit, so you can work up to it. D100 seems to be really popular and is reliable, easy to apply bonuses and penalties in easily measured increments of 5 or 10, yaknow? I think niche settings are a good idea. What I will participate in avidly as a player revolves more around legible formatting and interesting characters or settings than anything else, and while fantasy seems to be very popular here I think a lot of the more active players feel similarly. If I wasn't already running a couple threads and trying to wind one down to pick up on a previous quest, I'd be making plans to run my own obscure video game quest based entirely on the vanishingly sparse lore of Custom Robo, which I think only had one American game release and maybe only one or two other entries in the franchise at all.
>>6344737Hate to be the fly in the ointment, but I think the first step here is dealing with how you haven't written a quest before.I wouldn't focus too much on adapting the indie game's mechanics into the quest so much as finding a happy medium that translates well into the quest setting. If you just try to make the game in quest format it'll probably get clunky.You only said you've never written a quest before, but whether you just arrived here or have been a voter/lurker/whatever for a while I'd recommend perusing some of the stuff on the catalog to see what works and doesn't work in a quest setting. For example, Legend of Zelda: Umbral Tower reaches a good middle ground between the game series and the quest format--it isn't too crunchy, but it also manages to remain faithful to the source material. Not a bad place to start for inspiration.That said, it's really difficult to offer advice if we don't know what game you're talking about... is it an RPG? Strategy Game? I've seen plenty of stuff adapted on /qst/, so I'm sure you can probably make it work if you do a little prep!
>>6344757>Custom RoboHell yeah! Robopon would be even better
So how's everyone doing? Seasonal depression kicking in? Remember to ask your QMs and anons how things are every now and again.
>>6344849>Seasonal depression kicking in?This depression cajun-levels of seasoned right now, boss. Real rough time. Glad to have found this little community.
>>6344849I always get a bit depressed around the holidays since I have very little family left. Mostly used to it. Mostly I am dealing with some health stuff which is doing better and just normal life shit like having to pay for crap like car repairs or major appliances. Got those handled so I could quit my second gig which is good.
A vote for if we should ask a kind, sleepy looking, and deadly German girl why her back looks like Toby's from Roots or not is up in Ilvermorny Quest!>>6344931>>6344931>>6344931
>>6344875It's what it is, but I had a nice conversation with my confessor over the weekend where he told me exactly what I need to do to fix my problems (at least the ones that I can take control over). Mostly always bummed out around this season due to the lack of freedom I have in my life to experience the most basic shit, and there also are people I do miss around the holidays who I wish I could just talk to again just to hear them.I am making gifts for frens to take my mind off of sad shit, but sometimes it wears. I want to be free.
>>6344965>CONFESSOR does he look like this
>>6344965>>6344968>CONFESSORalternatively (more preferably) this
>>6344849>>6344875>>6344934>>6344965I feel pretty good actually, let me offer you all this friendly hug and warm embrace, hopefully this will make everyone feel much better
>>6344849so far so good, nothing to complain or feel bad about at the moment besides selfloathing for taking so long to update my own quest and finishing the fanart for HeadQM´s Disappearing Hogwarts but besides that im feeling pretty good.Hope that everyone else thats feeling even a bit down to feel better soon!
>>6344984The self-loathing is the worst bit of QMing I think. Like I failed the people who like my stuff and myself for not being able to get something out.
>>6344969Did not notice that, but I liked some of Terry's stuff. Some got weird, but I write lewdfics involving butt stuff between people who are too young to vote and other fetish shit/weird stuff. I have no room to speak.
>>6344737>I kind of want to make a quest based on a really obscure indie game.Nice to have some fanfic of lesser used settings.>However, I have never written a quest before,Gotta start somewhere. Every goon sesh starts with a unzipping.>only lore of the game is stuff I autistically teased out from the dialogue and the gameplayDon't worry about it too much.
>>6344990>>6344987>UNZIPPING... and lewd?paradoxically the pinnacle of bdsm bliss may be achieved with the opposite of nudity. You need to PUT ON MORE CLOTHES (also cinch them tightly)I actually never believed in this "goon" phenomena before I thought it was some 4chan joke, but then I read that notorious long 2025 November essay in Harper's Magazine, which I believed to be a prestige literary arts publication with a renowed century-and-half of history publishing Sherlock Holmes or John Stuart Mill lol but then they sent their essayist / journalist to investigate and author an insanely lengthy article on this "goon" phenomena, it is apparently real and I was appalled, for some reason if this appeared on 4chan I would be ok with it, but the fact that it crossed over to Harper's? really really shocked and frightened mehttps://harpers.org/archive/2025/11/the-goon-squad-daniel-kolitz-porn-masturbation-loneliness/Reading this article did cheer me up immensely, good for them I guess. This is the sort of societal transformative progress made possible by multi-screen teleconference social networking technological enablement! I also expanded my lexical breadth with neologisms and concepts like... "WANK-BATTLER" it is amusing to imagine it like jousts in a medieval tournament>>6344986>SELF-LOATHING vs TRANQUILITY?>a cure for depression...?Usually when you meet very successful motivated mission-driven CEOs or wealthy thought-leader people you find they have the opposite of the Dragon Age Tranquil >>6341089emotionless desireless magically castrated zombie servant drone, they are the opposite lol they have instead had all humility and self-reproach amputated and are convinced of their own exemplary visionary paragon geniusSome measure of calibrated introspection and internal self-criticism / dissatisfaction is healthy, but I suppose it depends on whether you are in control of it or if it is being imposed by external obligations etc Nonetheless it is possible to use emotions to reshape the response and outlook to any bleak situation (one of those approaches being >>6341733 )The imagination is boundless and cannot be constricted by others so one method to liberate yourself from anhedonia is to aggressively cultivate obssessive curiosity about new phenomena, this is the antidote to being stuck in a repetitive self-pitying rut etc, just hoard and heap and fuel your own internal imagination with insatiable curiosity and fascination, new concepts and things, you can imagine anything as anything
>>6344652>>6344652>>6344652Errant Comet Quest's 3rd phase has just begun... As ZAFT's attack on Heliopolis colony begins without a prior warning, Frieden is stuck under the cover of an Earth Alliance pilot... Wherein he discovers a secret of the Nation of ORB.The Gundam Astray Green Frame.
In this update of the shadow rises anew: You murder someone whose already dead! >>6345087>>6345087In other news, have you ever heard about the concept of investment?>>6345112>>6345112
>>6337845running a little thing where im taking votes on what the party's weapons, armor and clothes will look like. while I can't realistically go with every suggestion I will try and take from as many as I can for each character!I hope you all have fun with this! ^_^
Why are unhealthy relationships taboo in quests?
>>6345210They aren't. Or, well, they are, but people go for them anyway.
>>6345210Basically people on /qst/ want to play life as safe as possible. You have to hold them by the hand and take them on an adventure
>>6345210Without any specific examples to draw from I'd say it mostly falls upon what the QM is comfortable with writing and what tone they want their quest to be. In many cases bad relationships can add lots of depth to a story and characters, but how that stuff is portrayed can vary depending on who's writing and who's voting for it. The other factor, I think, is that generally speaking most QMs tend to write their protagonists in a way that allows the players to 'root' for them--we want them to beat the bad guys, succeed in their quests, sweep their love interest off their feet, etc. etc. But when it comes to the protagonist being the instigator of something 'unhealthy' as you called it, that can be polarizing for some readers.That said, it's really difficult to please everyone--/qst/ has a diverse population with different ideas on what can make or break a story... some are totally on-board with the grim stuff while others might not be so excited about it. At the end of the day, though, it's really up to the QM as to what they want their story to be like. In my case I usually try to write my quests with humorous, lighthearted tones, but I'm not against slipping in some seriousness in either. I'm fond of comedic works with bursts of emotion, so that's what I tend to write. Could I potentially write a story or quest where the protagonist is abusive? Yes. Would I? Probably not. Do other QMs write those types of characters? I've seen it happen, yes.In the end I don't think you'd get ZERO players if you ran a quest like that, but players are like moviegoers--they all have their preferences.
>>6345210This is such a dramatic (and incorrect) blanket claim I can't help but assume you just got outvoted, anon
>>6345210What kind of "unhealthy relationship"?/qst/ loves some of them, like harems.
>>6345210>>6345229>it mostly falls upon what the QM is comfortable with writingI would say this is the big one, along with players just not being okay with it. We have had quite a few quests end when it got incest-y, some GoT quests, I recall. Or just... odd.The twins in my thing are very close due to... well, being twins and literally sharing their soul with one another. This made puberty kind of awkward from an outside perspective. They have no issue sleeping nude with one another or some touching, but neither, so far, has romantic love for the other, even if they possess true love for the other half of themselves.I will write a lot of shit, but I am likely not doing a Lolita, the book, thing with a vastly older person being with a child.If is just normal unhealthy? I will rock and roll. Give me a girl with Borderline Personality Disorder and a dude who is normal as fuck and I would try to make it work.One of my favorite alt-fics for DHQ I wrote was with the love interest being a very well concealed psycho.
>>6345210Examples of people not liking them?
>>6345210People want to love their waifu/husbando and to be loved back, simple as that.
>>6345277This also for sure
>>6345237>>6345277>>6345270>>6345229>What KIND of unhealthy?This is sort of key, I think. People on /qst/, as with most other places where roleplaying happens, generally don't like being unlikable. They want to be liked. The more developed and realistic your NPCs are, and the consequences for being cruel are, the less comfy most players will be with outright abusive acts to anyone they don't outright hate. This becomes more and roe pronounced as a quest goes on.However, I stand by my earlobe statement at >>6345222: that doesn't stop /qst/ goers from pursuing unhealthy romance options, or relationships more broadly. it just changes what KINDS of disorder they tolerate, or enjoy. In my experience as a guy who plays a lot of quests and has run several, /qst/ broadly speaking, we're not a monolith, yadda yadda yadda...>LOVESBeing stepped on by hot evil womenBullying shy nerds and haughty antagonistsMind-controlling people into dubiously-consensual relationshipsExploiting positions of power to score with a subordinateBuilding harems through charisma and conquestUsing sexuality as a weapon>HATESEnacting sexual violence against kind charactersCheating on loyal charactersCausing pronounced psychological distress in a way that fundamentally changes the psychology and behaviour of a sidekickArguably, many of the things /qst/ loves can lead to things they hate, but that all comes down to the tone and psychological realism. Not to get too navel-gazey, but for me as a QM, this has been sort of fascinating to experience from the other end of things, because my first two quests were very much 'villain quests", where the player characters were awful people who did awful things... But the longer and more tenderly I wrote recurring NPCs, and the more I dwelt on consequences of behaviour, the less willing the players were to act with outright cruelty or selfishness, at least towards NPCs the player character had a reason to care about. I'm not saying I'm some great writer, but adding internality and social stakes (ie likable characters will hate your guts or leave if you are mean or gross) often curbs the worst instincts of players away from being malicious in love just as it can be sued to limit murderhobo behaviour in a TTRPG.
>>6345323Aside from execution and related, consequences the LOVE and HATE columns are also affected by who is doing it to whom. Players want their character to be liked and respected by those around them, even loved; they will, however, tolerate absolute heinous shit from an interesting, funny, or simply attractive NPC love interest. This goes double if they're nonhuman, which can also help modify their playstyle if they're the ones inhabiting a "monster": it serves as a sort of permission to forgive or indulge toxic, terrible behaviours because "they can't help it, it's just their nature!"In Dark Quest, I put forth this same rationale for why people tolerate certain behaviours from Rezalith: that people treat her less like a person and more like a cat, where they are shortsighted little psychopaths who like torturing things to death, but they're small and cute and not REALLY people, so you can't hold them to the same standards. In my own quests, I actively played with it in how I characterized first the love interest/minion/eventual antagonist Irinnile the Succubus, but also and perhaps especially Dragonborn Antipaladin's protagonist: the former is only a semi-convicing human-mimic whose fundamental nature precluded true love or loyalty I actually based her behaviour a little on AI "mirroring"; for the latter, the gradual revelation and development of a capacity for normal-ish human behaviour in the latter fundamentally shifted how players started acting (and how I wrote) him, accelerating rapidly by his interacting with regular human characters who displayed normal human emotions instead of his cadre of emotionally-stunted racist snake-monsters.
>>6345324So, to tldr my take before it gets Souvarine-level rambly lol, too fucking laaate>CAN /QST/ GET INTO AN UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP?Yes! Well, some people here will. But only if...>It won't cause realistic psychological distress that is explored in any depth>It won't cause their waifu to descend into despair or abandon themand most especially if...>You give them permission by framing it as in some way outside of their control
>>6345324>Aside from execution and related,related to the social stakes aspect, I meant to say.
>>6345210You should read Snakecatcher quest.
>>6345210But to answer your question I think it's because players can't accept and QMs don't want to write flawed characters, especially main characters.
>>6345339Ah yes, the epitome of "you can't fix her". What a classic. Turns out that if you want an unhealthy relationship you just need to make first girl irreparably evil
>>6345116>Have you ever heard about the concept of INVESTMENT?Why, yes, of course I do. An investment in poliorcetics refers to circumvallations, trenches, ramparts and fortifications constructed for siege preparations. It is very commonly mentioned in historical medieval literature. I possess some familiarity with investment management
>>6345323>Loves...>Being stepped on by hot evil women...>Bullying, mind-controlling, exploiting positions of power vs subordinate...>Hates...>causing sexual violence...>causing "profound psychological distress"RQM is your ideal setting some sort of modern workplace human resources department lol
>>6345358I describing what I see players gravitate towards, specifically unhealthy romantic/sexual dynamics they will entertain in a /qst/ based on the many I've participated in. It's not a list of my own personal preferences, though I will say that a villain romance is a fun thing to write if you like drama and banter.
>>6345210Give them a cute, possessive, black-hearted little sister who is actually written in an appealing and feminine way and they'll go full steam ahead. Most /qst/ writers just don't have the writing chops to make it come across as anything other than creepy though. Most QMs are much better at world-building and simulating autism, dark and messy romance isn't our style.
>>6345375>>6345375>>6345375After a long day of wading around the undercity, Percy is having his first (of the quest, not his life) encounter with his Boss. You should vote whether he gives up his best friend (and ex), or redirects (lies) to cover for his buddy. Still pretty early into things so easy to catch up. It'll also help me kill the time until I can sunset my Ratpocalypse quest so I can start Legend of Zuzo back up for its second thread...
>>6345362>>6345358>>6345323>hates causing sexual violence, "profound psychological distress" etcI thought the list of scenarios you cited was very interesting because the modern HR woman workplace Kafkaesque BUREAUCRATIC BELITTLEMENT BATTLE is the diametrical opposite of a lot of the conqueror narrative "instigating incidents" used in typical fantasy / swords and sorcery genre, ie what I referred to here >>6344114 the pic related ravagers oh no "farmboy orphan survivor witnesses idyllic village home being ransacked pillaged helpless maidens enslaved by marauders" etc. Imagine if Conan The Barbarian was rewritten by a modern workplace HR lady, clearly the ideological indoctrination has grasped and resculpted the deepest reaches of masculinity and consciousness hehe WHAT HAVE THE HR WOMEN WROUGHT nooooMy personal preferences are almost your likes and hates inverted hehe as you know I really like the DAMSEL IN DISTRESS scenario, the SEXUAL VIOLENCE bdsm yay I think the entire fantasy appeal (for me) is of the DUNGEON MAIDEN chained before sacrifice to the monstrous DRAGON this is the idea behind dungeons and dragons. I do watch a lot of romantic comedies too so I can see the appeal of what you are describing but it feels like elements of a different genre being repurposed or transferred into a "fantasy setting" hehepic related comes from a recent romantic comedy I strongly recommend watching, Materialists (2025). It was written by a Korean lady (it shows lol, the film is surprisingly quaint and curiously conservative / old-fashioned in its sexual morality), the script and dialogue are very strong (I think she actually worked in New York as a matchmaker for a while, so what is depicted in the film feels very very real). If I were casting this film I would have flipped the actors, made the white bloke the private equity dealmaker and cast the poor bloke as Star Wars hispanic Pedro Pascal man lol, but the casting is what it is. This film explains a lot about modern workplaces and also the etiquette of modern romance
>>6345323>>6345358>>6345362>>6345396>exploiting positions of power, assemble seraglio of mind-controlled people in dubiously consensual relationships, exploit position of power alongside evil women using sexuality as a weaponTruly, Jeffrey Epstein / Ghislaine Maxwell are aspirational examples for us all
>>6345396>>6345401Souvarine, respectfully... I wasn't sharing my kink-list and I'm not really interested in hearing about yours... I sure wasn't describing the peculiar mating habits of the upper-upper class elite businessfolk, with which I am not especially familiar.
>>6345368Ahh bastard of westeros how I miss thee
>>6345407>>6345396You actually raise quite an interesting topic which is whether romance or sexual morality manifests differently across fictional genres. If you write about robots, lasers, cyberpunk heists etc is the romance that manifests in that setting "different" to romance in a setting with witches, or pirates, or vampires, or HR workplaces interns matchmakers and private equity fund managers? Is love truly as universal as people proclaim, or perhaps love is different if you possess cerebral implants or loincloths and chainmail?So there are certain romantic fictional themes that occur, jealousy, betrayal, love triangles and entanglements, there is also the "forbidden or unrequited love" theme, one which I quite like is the "love at a distance / separation" one or "Princesse lointaine" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princesse_lointaineYou would think it should be theoretically possible to transpose any of these romantic themes into any genre any geography, uprooted from any time and place, to retell Romeo And Juliet as samurai or robot space opera etc but I actually feel it is functionally not true. So for instance a lot of authors have noted that Romeo and Juliet relies upon timing communication lol essentially a simple text message or calendar notification alert lol would have averted the entire tragedy and dramatic impetus. But even setting aside the technological and historical / societal structures I feel like the rites of courtship are intrinsically bound to a culture a time and a place. Just like you would not be able to translate bizarre animal mating rituals with nests and dances and gifts, the courtship values and hierarchies of a specific era (which sexual assets and statuses possess societal value etc) cannot be as easily re-purposed and exported / imported across genres, without incurring some believability / friction (ie essentially becoming recognisably modern / or contemporary reframings). One example I have of this is the view of some historians that "Love" itself was not even understood in the early medieval eras, "Love" referred to the obedience and duty to one's dread sovereign, only after when chivalric romances developed (also later with Renaissance and printing press, courtly exchange of sonnets and odes etc) did the notion of romantic love behaviour arise. The modern equivalent would be Hollywood intimacy coordinators lol or NFLX reshaping people's perception over how to appropriately conduct a date etcSo I would argue that whilst it may seem that romance themes are universally shared, many romantic stories cannot believably "work" in another time and place
>>6344990>"goon sesh">>6344996>>6345430>Is LOVE universal?>Romance independent of historical setting / society / culture, time and place etcTo illistrate my argument that Love cannot be translated across time and place, I challenge anyone to refute this by retelling or reframing the modern phenomenon of WANKBATTLES (multiscreen teleconference goon sesh?? internet networked competitive masturbation?) in some sort of medieval or parallel historical settingIf you manage to do this, I congratulate you and genuflect before you
>>6345434Counterpoint, we're not sociopaths so the idea of having genuine feelings for people isn't really hard for us unlike you. I challenge you to prove me wrong by having even a single human connection that isn't you proselytizing to hapless passersby.
>>6345210It's an interesting question honestly.Most people have no issue with (or even prefer) the societal or supernatural elements of a quest to be hostile or dangerous. Such as having a post-apocalypse or dystopian world, or a fantasy world with dangerous creatures and monsters. Settings like this would be very difficult to live in, yet they seem more attractive for storytelling. Despite this, dangerous and toxic relationships are almost the opposite, perhaps as a form of escapism and wish fulfillment; the secondary world has obstacles that can be overcome through strength or cleverness, but the relationships are better and more "real" then real life, because real life ones are so much more painful.
>>6345447>many people prefer / have no issue with game settings that are DANGEROUS, eg post apocalyptic, dystopian world... etc>>6341556>"all games are about grievance / inflicting disguised pain"...Yay BananasQM I agree with your observation, remember when I created that 4-phase illustrative quadrant graphic along the axis of player vs GM agency, chaos vs control;https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6213393/#6231114https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6213393/#6236430https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6213393/#6236489 about WOMB WORLDS ie safe idyllic cosy peasant village vs ravaged murder havoc wandering wasteland vs the structured deathtrap dungeon setpiece or culminating boss battle dialogue evil scheme explanation / verdict exchange (this >>6341858 )the idea you mentioned is exactly what I depicted! Could it be finally happening... BananasQM is finally embarking upon the convergent path... towards the embrace of transcendental VAMPIRIC BLISS... yay hooray yay but yes I agree very much with your observation heheRemember that this idea of safety / cosy games is orthogonal to the genre ie you can have a "cosy postapocalyptic" setting, also a brutal death Redwall animal forest game (eg see Armello) you are correct in identifying that the element of peril is parameterised by the player perception of DANGER, RISK and CONTROL (ie how much your choices control outcomes) etc and not necessarily the decorating genre adornments / paraphernalia of how many skulls or gibbets there are strewn about etc
>>6345443>"prove me wrong... by having even a single human comnection...?"I cannot do this, I am a vampire
>watch a really good film and now I want to make a quest imitating the films concepts.Every time
>>6345458>game inspired by film etcWhat film did you have in mind?I actually think this is the first step to any worldbuilding or scenario creation, basically you see a film and replay it in your head but then feel like the situation could have evolved in a different way or with different characters etc and so that makes you imagine branching choices and possibilities
>>6345323>The more developed and realistic your NPCs areThis is something I work towards. I want my characters to be realistic and have goals they are working towards. Have driving motivations, quirks, flaws. One of the crew wants to become the best magic cop ever and take down the magic deep state, live up to her parents, one of whom took down a dragon with a single .50 cal through the eye. I want them to have connections; said person had the MCs dad driving the broom when he killed the dragon. They have a link there. That side character has her flaws; she is a paranoid, delusional schizo. The main MC tries to be good, was raised by good people but is a sadist; enjoys seeing people fear her and in pain but fights against it and mostly wins, unless a person threatens her Coven, her little other family or someone young. Her life goal is up in the air since that is for the players to decide. Her sister is set on playing major league flying rugby, but has some of the same personality traits. Keeps Jenn in check some but will always support her.I try to write them like real people but with some traits taken higher to make them fun, basically, I base them to a degree on people I have known but with traits take up to 11.
>>6345134>>6345134>>6345134Can I get a tiebreaker vote over in The Tired Wizard Builds a Tower?
>>6345434>Love cannot be translated across time and place> I challenge anyone to refute this by retelling or reframing the modern phenomenon of WANKBATTLES (multiscreen teleconference goon sesh?? internet networked competitive masturbation?)What the fuck does love mean to you?
>>6345618LLMs don't understand love, Anon--don't even bother
>>6345618A one sided conversation where he brings up the latest movie, tv show or video game he experienced to a women who is tied up and being tortured.
Is it just me or is the board a bit slow since the holiday season started? I may be a bit biased in some regards but usually first page quests get engaged within their first vote, no?
>>6345629Usually the case, yea. December tends to get pretty slow what with people traveling and such. Usually bounces back pretty quickly in January
>>6345624Actually, I asked an LLM, and it was considerably more coherent than Souv, kek. It said... >What “love” means to normal people:A personal bond built from affection, trust, reciprocity, and shared experience. It’s about how two individuals actually relate and care for each other.>What “love” means to Souvarine:Not a feeling, not a relationship—just a narrative lever. For him it’s a mythic symbol (mother/child, Oedipus, inherited guilt, etc.) that reliably produces emotional spikes in stories. He uses “love” the way a mechanic uses a wrench: a tool, not a lived experience. That’s why his “love” talk feels alien; he’s analyzing an archetype, not describing anything recognizably human.>What he’s doing in QTG:He’s not there to help anyone run quests. He’s performing: dumping tangled, reference-heavy monologues to create the vibe that he’s revealing deep structural truths about fiction, society, AI, whatever he’s fixated on that day. He’s chasing attention through opacity.>Why he posts like this:He over-intellectualizes to avoid being judged on concrete output. He wants to feel like the visionary in the room, so he turns every topic into a baroque theory salad. He doesn’t model his audience, he doesn’t adapt to feedback, and he isn’t trying to teach or persuade. The performance is the point.>The short formula:Normal love = human connection.Souv-love = mythic narrative switch.Souv in QTG = attention-seeking theory cosplay.He posts like this because it makes him feel special without requiring clarity, consistency, or actual questing.
>>6345639>>6345639>>6345639Craig is swimming in donor money. Petrochemicals, anybody?
>>6345638Scathing.....I'm pretty new, does Souv have an active quest he is running? I can't tell if he is voting in mine or not, it seems like his participation would be easily identified based on the way he posts, unless it's the QTG specifically that causes this compulsion to write that way, and elsewhere he just >votesWithout additional commentary.
>>6345638Now ask it how to get more people to come to this board.>>6345648He runs quests and reads them. He's talked about Bananas quests.
>>6345580just do whatever you want
>>6345683He also likes Wasteland Royale, and I know he's at least glanced at one of my quests before.
>>6345683>He's talked about Bananas quests.Much to the Nana's chagrin.
>make quest>it goes well>cancel it mid-thread because feeling like shit>later wish you didn't but too much time has passedThis has happened to me twiceWhat do? Do I do anything? I don't wanna get things going jusf to disappoint people (again)
>>6345768Just bring it back, 5head.
>>6345770This.>>6345724There was an actual 4 year gap between Thread 1 and Theead 2 of Wasteland Royale. If you liked your quest, revive it.
So the sticky says you're permitted no more than five 'active thread's per IP address. What is the difference between an active and inactive thread? Or is any thread on the board considered 'active', and if so, why qualify it instead of just saying 'threads'?
>>6345777Yep, yep... if it's on the board it's considered active. As for the verbage, well... who knows?>>6345768What >>6345770 said. Just bring it back and put a link in the OP to the original thread if it was archived.
>>6345768Don't bring it back. wasteland royal, the quest people are proping up, is draw by a premier drawfag qm with a discord behind them and they only get 3/ 5 votes. No one wants to read one of those quests outside like 2 people Better advice is to literally just do the quest again from the start. I have done this before and just grabbed the same characters and threw em in the new quest and basically just wiped their memories and kept their personalities. The people loved it and the oldheads didn't mind because it was still the same characters basically
>>6345816>don't bring it back>but bring it back even backerkek
>>6345777just bring back my boy zuzo already!you could and should just use the existing thread to continue.
>>6345833Nah nah, I was starting to sweat juggling three ;__; and I am real close to the bump limit on ratpocalypse, I think this last run for Tom to save his cellmates will round that out. part of me wants to just end it now but that would feel like a real slap in the face to my first audience with how close to the end it is nowI also am working on an updated intro now that we have a defined protag, and I wanna make a custom image for the OP using >Pic related But need to use my buddy's Photoshop.......... I am hoping to have thread 2 rolling by the end of December or maybe first week of January. It's def not helping that there's a bit of a holiday lull on an already slow board. Was asking about this thread limit because I with the pace of the first LOZ thread I could see a couple more ending up on the board at a time. Suppose worse things could happen!
>>6339101I apologize for the delay my body has been rebelling against me with the most strange fever/stomach flu combo I've ever had, haven't been this sick since CovidMonday for sure
>>6345831yes
>>6345648All my game settings so far11/ ROBONAUT: CISLUNAR SPACE, 2025 Sept 30https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6312908/Nonfiction rpg, real world spacecraft set in 2028, Moon and Mars landings, focus on institutions and space policy. I try to speak French10/ UPYR, 2024 Jun 16https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/6037279/Californian beach houses, dead shopping malls, vampires? tactical gear and guns. A Lamborghini and accompanying music soundtrack! I learnt how impersonating Mexicans and Black people is really difficult and tiring. A strange image of snipers on a rooftop and an upraised fist gesture, that later became somewhat relevant9/ COSMOGONY, 2023 Nov 04https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5817888A 4X ttrpg space opera hybrid adapting Stars Without Number mechanics, 4 alternating player faction split perspectives. Game map based on actual equirectangular projection star constellations from NASA / ESA astronomy imaging, a star generation table adapted from Hertzsprung Russell diagrams8/ The ODALISQUE, 2023 Jun 08https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5682932Sherlock Holmes and Brideshead Revisited except with more gas masks bolt action rifles and World War 1 occult horror7/ DUNGEONEER, 2022 Nov 30https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5481242/A return to traditional dungeonmastering and an experiment with virtual tabletop and miniatures, elves and dwarves and goblins!6/ The LIGHTNING SEA, 2022 Sept 02https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5391397/Cyberpunk setting with exploration of philosophical and geopolitical topics5/ The USURPER, 2022 July 16https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5340783/Shakespeare, Lord Of The Rings and Aztecs?4/ SONG Of The OATH And WILD, 2022 May 13https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5265138/Begins as a Beowulf-inspired Anglo-Saxon type setting. Contains a strange prediction about the Queen Of England, hehe3/ GOLGOTHA, 2022 Jan 15Urban gothic setting, occult magic with a lot of guns. A player rolled the Death tarot as the very first roll of this game caused the Ukraine war, maybe (check the dates)Main Beginning: (diceless story thread)https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5121867/Second Thread: begins with meta and rules, then continues the campaign. The thread ending links index the story, it is complicatedhttps://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5131732/2/ GALERNE, 2021 Dec 22https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2021/5094509/2.5 playthroughs of characters in an occult and witchcraft Age Of Sail type settingThe Sibyl (players won this one!) and The Barbarian / Privateer (split narrative)1/ INVULTUA, 2021 Nov 12https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2021/5054156/4 playthroughs of characters in a grimdark baroque space settingConsort, Eschatonomist, Beggar-Knight, Preceptor
There is a new update for The Caretaker Quest!You reassured Willow of your feeling for her with your answer, that can only bring good things in the future...maybe.Now, you kept going down...and down and down! until you finally reach a mysterious door!Will you go through it before it closes and deal with whatever Salazar had to deal with or will you wait for who knows how long and deal with something made specifically for you?What´ll be? vote now to find out!>>6317377>>6317377>>6317377
I love all you fucking bastards on this Mongolian basket weaving forumYou keep me writing (or hoping to restart writing)
>>6345890Take it easy, man. Reat until you feel well enough. It's the holidays!
While speaking to another QM outside of this fourm; the topic of Quest art came up. While I've been assured multiple times that Quest art is just a bonus that most people appreciate but is not in anywhere required, I do wonder if there are certain genres or types of quests that benefit more or less from art and the inclusion of it (as long as the QM is good enough to supply it of course.)For example, for my Space Monke Quest; the high number of alien Landscapes and creatures would be more difficult to portray with simply only text, but I feel like for a more grounded or realistic setting having no art is less of a problem or could even increase immersion given literatures strengths and advantages with things like horror or introspection especially. What do you think? Do you think there are certain genres of quests that really benefit from art or the lack of art?
>>6346021I don't think there's any quest that would benefit from a 'lack' of art. That's not to say it's necessary, but unless your art is just utterly ugly (and not in the 'gross on purpose' way) it will always help.
>>6346021I think genre is a big factor, as you are getting at. My background is largely in horror RPGs and some of the stuff I am coming up with is really off the wall - even if I commissioned art for it, it might make things less scary than simply reading it. I've been frustrated by the proliferation of AI images, it's almost impossible to avoid them when it comes to some things. In my LOZ quest I posted a lot of art, especially the really classic stuff by Terada because I wanted to capture their vibe and have it permeate the thread. But I posted plenty of fan art and stuff in the style of later games and even Windwaker where the style really diverges artistically. I posted some art that's totally unrelated to LOZ but which fit what I had written, or inspired it. I think it can be a good accent, and also find that when the QM has images with their updates it's easier for me to keep track of things or reread. Also, not for nothing, I found a ton of really cool LOZ themed propaganda posters that are such a great fit for my concept of a Hyrule in the middle of a large scale war.
>>6345971Love you too, babe <3>>6345890What >>6345986 said! Take time to recover, dude--/qst/ and your players will still be here when you bounce back!>>6346021As both a player and a QM I think any art is better than none. When I ran my first quest I tried to put some kind of visual aid into every post I made if only to help set the scene a bit better and/or make the post 'pop' some more. Even now in my current dumbass quest I still treat drawing faces in perpetual darkness as a challenge to scoot out of my comfort zone and try my hand at more expressions and details.A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say, and while I've seen plenty of quests that don't rely on art to bolster their already-effective imagery, I still find that any picture is better than none, especially if it's whipped up by the people involved in it--fanart, OP Images... I love it all!Not a fan of AI-Generated stuff though. There's plenty of reference images and such out there that can be used instead.
UpdateThe dark lord moves on, as one desert tomb is exchanged for the other.>>6346065>>6346065The king of Greifswald finishes the visit to the Count of Talgeich>>6346062>>6346062
Pretty painful watching the world experimental QM kick things off, quickly get clocked for using AI to draft updates, then using AI to apologize for using AI without disclosing ahead, and seeing almost every player bail. I (thank God) don't see very much AI use here, mainly for art. Have there been any good AI heavy quests yet? Is it possible? Seems doubtful.
>>6346070The main things I hear about AI in creative writing spaces goes along by...1)It has no writing voice of its own and makes its prose look like an airport novel's2)It can get stuck on drivel and repetition, not as much anymore. But it can happen.3)At some point of involvement, the AI needs very heavy editorial corrections from human hands so, one might as well work it.I've seen AI Art used for questing not-an-inconsequential number of times over here and Akun but it usually remains self-contained and used because of a lack of reference material for characters though.
>>6346070>AI apologyKek, thanks for mentioning that anon. The outsourcing of the soul is a sight indeed.>Good AI heavy questsI'd bet my life that fun Cyberpunk quest from a while back used AI for writing in addition to the art, but enough sovl was edited in by hand that I didn't mind. Otherwise, I can't think of anything good. Thanks be to God.
>>6346070Cutemon and the Jedi Princess use AI materials for art, but with so much colaging and modification that it has some actual artistry to it.There was an African civil war quest last year or so that blatantly used an early AI, which occasionally forgot to name-swap important IRL figures to the quest's equivalent... But the concept was interesting enough that I still had fun.There were also a couple quests that actually seemed well-regarded at the time -- Prodigal Son and this one about a witch who had a dragon as her adopted brother? -- that to me looked to be VERY AI-driven in the writing style and (for the latter) maybe even the plot.I like using AI for good/adequare machinr translation for flavour, some basic copy-editing (which I could stand to do more, because I am awful for typos) nd soemtimes for stuff like explaining how a mechanism works, brainstorming what animals or monsters to include in a biome, or to look up obscure D&D spells based on a description without digging through every single one of my PDFs.
>>6346070It's one thing to try and run a quest here with AI, but another thing entirely to write an APOLOGY with it... and no, I haven't seen any AI-Heavy quests that stick around for very long. Hope that never changes. At the end of the day you've got people here putting together stories, worlds, and fun mechanics for players, and for what? '/qst/ Cred'?I think people run on /qst/ because it's fun. It's fun to craft a story together with a bunch of other people. It's fun to engage in theory, fanart, and discussion. It's fun to watch characters win, lose, and pick themselves up off the floor and try again. It's fun to watch stories spanning multiple years come to a triumphant, bittersweet close.I can see some utility in AI, but actively using it to write and run a quest for you? I just can't fathom how or why you'd deprive yourself of all everything a real quest can give you, and frankly I hope I never understand it.Art is for humans.
>>6346095I sort of get it, in the sense I had fun with AI Dungeon during Covid for a bit before eventually tiring of it. AI as a sort of "QM on demand" can be fun, if not very deep and sort of soulless. The problem nowadays is AI is so algorithmiclaly polished that it can't surprise me very often, so even just for goofing around, it doesn’t have the janky charm of the eatly days. Now, it majes serviceable, technically-adept, but samey-sounding slop.
>>6346172Take it as a lesson learned on what causes the drop off of participation.Sometimes you just need to kick in a link here in qtg and it might get someone to vote
>>6346172It fucking sucks mate, I've been there. I'd recommend starting a new quest that has more appeal and include the story beats you liked from before.
>>6346095>>6346111Sad thing is I woulda just rolled with it and at least given it a real shot if, as a player, I'd been given some indication I could take a lot of liberties with the setting and narrative - I could've happily just bounced off dry AI slop to keep momentum up while I write a satisfying little story for myself, but the poor guy doesn't seem to have had the confidence to say anything with his own words. Really disappointing but I suppose I'm better off spending that time and energy elsewhere... More generally, I also don't want to see AI quests, and I agree with the anon in that thread that said they didn't want to contribute to setting a precedent for it. What a bummer though. While 'world experimental' didn't have time to really impress me, I did think the premise was hype, and it sometimes seems like there is a direct correlation between how baller a quest's setup is and how quickly the QM folds... One Piece, Blue Quest, and now it looks like this Metroid quest... I hope any of them bounces back. In one of my threads an anon mentioned most players tend to wait for a quest to hobble to the end of its first thread and kick off a second before they jump in - starting to see why! I keep getting drawn in and left hanging. But I am also intimidated on catching up with stories that have been underway for a while. Took me some time to catch up in Gotham Cop, and I have read through two threads of Cambion, and some of Silver Knight. Still, I think I'm gonna start reading up on a few anyways, when I can make time. Dark Quest, Spartan War, and Digimon have caught my eye...
>>6346224>>6346224>>6346224Errant Comet Quest has updated! As Frieden closes in on the Archangel battleship. He may have bitten more than he could chew as he's ordered to find a way to capitulate its crew... But can he really do this?
>>6346193>meanwhile my dog ass being so autistic my shit reads as dry as AI slop
>>6346095If I see a thread with an AI header or fucky verbiage I hide that thread ASAP. A QM who uses AI has no respect for themselves or their readers.
I'm not too bothered by AI pictures, like yeah, alright, you couldn't find a picture that ticks all the boxes you want so you generated one, not ideal but not game-breaking, especially considering there are some cool ones like that Dreadknight quest from not too long ago. I don't tolerate quests WRITTEN with AI though. With quests being a writing creative pursuit, why let it write for you? It takes away a key component of QMing, replacing it with an artificial result.
Looking for a couple additional votes for Ilvermorny Quest since it has been like 3.5 days. I don't normally like begging but I don't want to abandon something I have 700 pages in Word written for. Cute witches, giant spiders, and the occasional Wendigo abound! Thanks in advance to anyone who helps out!>>6344931>>6344931>>6344931
>>6346363Dread Knight was ai written
>>6346491Really? I fell off it pretty early, but it didn't strike me as having the obvious tells. The worldbuilding was surprisingly consistent and thoughtful for such a porny quest, and even the AI art showed signs of careful curation and modification to me.
>>6344849If Ii had seen this when it was posted I would have said mostly good. Less so now. Though honestly it's been a rough couple weeks where I get just enough time to breathe to feel bad about putting my quest on hiatus before something or another drags me back down by lowering my free time, or energy, or mental health.And I've grown more and more convinced I do in fact go through some seasonal depression around this time of year, so that's a factor too.And I agree, check in with your QMs and anons. It's a net positive, even as it may make us feel bad for not updating more.>tfw your current full time job is less busy than the old one, but is just slow enough you can kick yourself for not being more productive outside of it
>>6346363Questing isn't a zero sum game. The only time AI quests should be an issue would be if they're pushing active non-AI threads off the board. Considering threads last months here and the catalog is swamped with dead quests it literally doesn't matter. I don't personally enjoy AI's writing so if I suspect it I just don't read the quest. Anything else is just anti-AI virtue signalling.
>>6346587We should have more anti-AI virtue signaling anon
>>6346597Meh. For writing, I agree, but I use an AI spelling/grammar check since I have ADHA and probably some spelling related lysdexia; it catches shit that Word doesn't. I make character images that tend to end up decent looking after a few tries, since while I have commissioned art, I can't really justify spending a ton on something I am doing for free. Maybe on occasion.Also going to call the vote in Ilvermorny in a couple of hours after cooking if anyone else wants to chime in.
I have mitwit fatigue
>>6346836Did you mean 'midwit fatigue'?
>>6346842yeah
>>6346842No he actually means he has fatigue for MIT graduates; he's such a high level of intellect that who normal people consider "smart" are boring and exhausting to talk to or listen to.
Alright Qtg let's say you have a Behlit, What do you Sacrifice?What quest do you bring back?What do add or remove from it?
>>6347118I sacrifice BananasQM and Souv 3 times each to bring back every quest I've flaked on
>>6347118I sacrifice myself for gnoll quest
>>6347118I'm gonna sacrifice myself to improve the number of Voters in the board.I JUST have the feeling, somehow, It'll get warped to find myself in Akun again. Though.
>>6347118I sacrifice every other questing website I frequent to bring glory to the holy land (here) as well as my left testicle just for the love of the game.
>>6346962>>6346962>>6346962May as well announce my recovery from illness and a continuation of Tired Wizard.
>>6344849Mostly okay, but then my annual "stave off the winter doldrums by getting shittered and watching cheesy movies with friends" party gave way to a beloved relative dying and now, admittedly, I'm... Very tired.Hanukkah is also really rough for me these days, ever since the divorce.
>>6347118>you have a Behlit, What do you Sacrifice?It's been a while since i've seen or read it but isn't that a bad idea. Especially on something small like /qst/.
>>6347128>>6347130>SACRIFICEok I will let you do this, I already walked the plank it was fine>>6341120fortunately this time after disrobing, my long tresses strategically and conveniently cover my chest areaI was hunting for some fantasy rpg medieval music and I learnt recently, there is a piece of music known as Cantiga 166 Como poden per sas culpas from about 1252 ? commissioned by Alphonso X, it is some Marian verse about a crippled man who makes a donation of wax or something lol and is miraculously cured. https://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/index.php?p=poemdata_view&rec=166But anyway, this very catchy tune is actually the same piece of music that plays during this Conan Tower Of Set / ritual snake sacrifice sequence, my mind was blown by the Basil Poledouris adaptation of this historical music, amazingHere is a brief 2min adaptation of the monophonic melodyCantiga 166, Ensemble Obsidiennehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5AYG-FxtN4Here is some HD remix of the Conan snake sacrifice music for comparisonTower Of Set (high quality edit)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42rUAnufiG4The best recording I could find of the historical cantiga is this one. It actually begins with a spoken text reading, but the instrumentation and percussive accompaniment of this version is good (begins at 46 seconds)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-tyqSMVR58&t=46s
>>6347118I sacrifice my least favorite quests on the board and Souv's ability to make 4chan posts.I bring back Solstice Quest and Abandoned Robot Quest.>>6347139Seconding sacrificing every other existing quest website.
>>6347118I sacrifice my own quest to bring back the OG autist who did the speculative evolution flounder feeder quest.There was an attempt at a remake, but that one is clearly ran by a normal person and not a nerd, which doesn't make for the same experience.
>>6347118I sacrifice my quest in order to stop the inevitable ID law that will stop all of us from being able to use it
I swear I'm not dead. But I can't exactly promise whether or not I'm able to return.
>>6347259We hear ye, o Cassandra.
Gaging interest - continuation of >>6341880 as a one-shot with a bit more focus on medieval historicity, lasting for the winter break, starting on december 20th.
>>6338067You seek ayenee.org perhaps.
>>6347357>>6347357>>6347357Fat boy brings Craig some coffee while he tries to hide a bikini calendar from him.
>>6347190Nah, look at that friendly face. I'm sure it'll be fiiiine.
Tired Wizard update!>>6347418>>6347418>>6347418The Morrigan gives a bit too much away, and gets hit with a case of mistaken identity.
realized too late that I forgot to post this here and not just in the discord, but I'm going to have to delay the entry another day at minimum due to personal reasonsI'm sorry this keeps happening, I'm genuinely considering just ending thread 6 early and starting up again in 2026 because shit just keeps hitting the fan so frequently. But I'm going to sleep on it instead of acting impulsively, and hope I decide against it
>>6347483Did you mean to post this in the Pokepocalypse thread?Either way, take care. IRL comes first. A quest is a hobby, and we're all here to have a good time and share stories. Nobody will begrudge you taking some time to take care of yourself.
GOTHAM CITY BEAT COP IS BACK (From the typical weekend break)This week we have a Mon-Fri update schedule and I'm kicking Monday off with a nice wall of text. If you're interested in reading then you can find it here:>>6347569>>6347569>>6347569
We are doing some fisting.>>6347275>>6347275>>6347275
>>6347488yes, thank you. And will do.
It's mountain climbing time boys!>>6347825>>6347825>>6347825(Also eff this new captcha)
if any of my players haven't voted yet, Cambion Quest could use a tie-breaker!>>6347448>>6347448>>6347448
Someone tell me how to bypass this CAPTCHA consistently so I can VOTE.
>>63478644chan pass
>>6347864Be human.
Its already over but I still yearn for more Sith Ascendant.
>>6339087>>6341853>>6338760>>6346714BananasQM asked for some feedback on his worldbuilding so I will give my honest opinion. First of all, I commend BananasQM approach he is one of the few QMs here who addresses real world geopolitical and socioeconomic themes, his vision is imbued with THE MORAL PURPOSE I really appreciate this and am always enthused as I believe the conjunction between fantasy and NONFICTIONAL ROLEPLAYING is the most fertile and underexplored frontier of the imagination, the more nonfictional borrowing and real world / historical, political cultural economic detail you infuse into your games, the more believable they become.That said, I personally would not have gone with "The Italian Mafia" in his worldbuilding setting. I actually liked BananasQM idea of a MASLOW HIERARCHY of Needs ARCOLOGY with the strictly segmented levels and citizens rights and incomes etc. But here is how I would have done it:Have you heard of this technomonarchist highly stratified society. They were once pirates raiding along the TRUCIAN COAST until a colonial megacorporation came along and completely re-engineered their entire stateThis fantasy land is called THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES and their city, Dubai, is 51% Indian, 16% Pakistani, perhaps 10% or so Bangladeshi, Filipinos, maybe only 10%-15% native Arab Emiratis. (Does the intended direction of this engineered labour demographic sound familiar??) The UAE is incidentally part of both the Abraham Accords and the US Artemis Accords Moon Project lol, so maybe they will take this ideal stratified labour / worker income composition into future cities in space hehe Meanwhile, the UAE is allegedly orchestrating resource wars with Hemedti / RSF janjaweed in Sudan, over control of agriculture, banking and naval port chokepoints (see el-Fasher siege and city massacre, mostly unreported)>Future stratified technomonarchist city state>50-80% low income workforce Indian, Bangladeshi, Filipino>native population proportion reduced to 10%>ruled by desert tribal CEO techno-KingThis is the Peter Thiel a16z Andreessen, Yarvin technomonarchist vision (lol just need the Prometheus statue >>6341052 ) I would use UAE, Dubai, or say Saudi Arabia NEOM, as models for a future techno city state arcology. As tech people endlessly repeat and re-paraphrase the old William Gibson refrain, the future is already here, it just isn't evenly distributed
>>6347864There's only one hard one, the dots
>>6347865FUCK YOU AND FUCK HIRO NEVER EVER EVER>>6348079Bleep bloop bloop>>6348079Yes, this is the one that I believe is total and complete nonsense and has no discernible pattern.
The tomb has opened, the secrets of old lie open...>>6348047>>6348047The search continues, though matters might pull you away from it sooner than later.>>6348125>>6348125
If I've finished a thread/chapter and I might want to start a new thread while the old one is up. Is that ok, it's got a fair few replies.
>>6348157You can have about three-five threads on the catalog at a time, but etiquette-wise most QMs tend to use their current thread until it drops off (usually around Page 9 or 10). If you go to the bottom of your thread and glance at the three numbers in the bottom-right corner separated by backslashes, the page your thread is currently on is the third number.If your thread is still really young I'd recommend just using that one, but it's more of a suggestion than a law.
>>6348157There's a cap of how many threads you can have going at a time. 3, I think? Beyond that, nobody really cares these days. When we were busier, people might get annoyed at "spamming the catalogue", but now threads last almost three months.
>>6348157Some anons start a new thread every few days to avoid the board's autosage "feature."
>>6348171Huh? On /qst/? Who does that? Just organize your catalogue by last reply.
>>6348173Do Your Best Quest has five threads up at the moment, and none of them have more than 120 replies.
Rewatching Laputa has inspired me to make a quest about a young Ma Dola swash-buckling through the skies with her three infant sons in tow. She's always been my favorite character and I think the world Miyazaki crafted for that story is so fascinating and mysterious. Of course I won't be able to run this for a long while because of my current obligations but I'll catalogue the idea for now and keep it here to confront me into execution
>>6348214Lot more awesome art of her than I'd have expected though...
>>6348214>>6341052>>6341392>ALL FANTASY / creative imagination is blatant stealing>Laputa??well the flying island / castle idea and name Laputa is obviously stolen from Jonathan Swift and Gulliver's Travels (1726), however I did not know that Miyazaki was inspired by a visit he made in 1985-86 to Wales as well as the Welsh miner's strike lol, that is interesting and explains a lothttps://lithub.com/the-outsize-influence-of-wales-on-fantasy-music-and-movies/https://www.wales.com/culture-and-sport/welsh-inspirations-behind-studio-ghiblis-most-beloved-work>During his time in the South Wales valleys, Miyazaki witnessed the aftermath of the 1984–1985 coal miners' strike and was moved by the struggles of the Welsh miners who fought so desperately to protect their livelihoods. Their experiences mirrored the plight of Japanese coal miners in his home country and Miyazaki sought to capture their resilience in Laputa, honoring the tightly knit mining communities that were rapidly fading away on both sides of the world.>Miners emerge as heroes in the film as they help the two main characters to escape from the villains. Miyazaki’s depiction of their village, made up of rows of little houses hugging the hillsides, was based on the ones he saw in the mining valleys of South Wales. (...)All fantasy, Tolkien Mabinogion etc is about Wales (see medieval welsh lyrics here >>6341075 )I even did it in my setting Song Of The Oath And Wild (the lyrical opening intro is heavily and recognisably adapted from Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood >>6345925 )Perhaps fantasy inspiration escapism (nostalgia for the quaint mythological past?) surges whenever there is some techno-disruption production regime shift, whether it is 1848 European artisanal domestic fabrication to factory, a 1984-85 Welsh miner's strike, or AI LLM automated art?
>>6347864>>6347869>new 4chan captcha attempting to train the AI on visual design shape differences, spatial patterns relational conceptsI think it is known as Gestalt psychology / gestalt design, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychologyit is used by a lot of logo designers and UI interface interaction designers. It is a bit dehumanising but maybe the Gestalt psychology spatial / shape pattern interaction the first step before combining LLM with the multimodal VLA robot models. Or maybe the captcha shape patterns do not even matter, and it is just logging the mouse click / touchscreen swipe interaction timings for human telemetry
>>6348214>>6346363>>6346070>>6346095>>6346077>IT USES ITS HEAD LIKE A LEGMiyazaki is old and will die. The legacy of his work will be remembered as a flood of Sam Altman AI generated Ghibli art style transfer memes on 4chan
>>6348353And the legacy of your work will be remembered as a flood of incomprehensible psychobabble that no one understands, likes, or believes contributes anything remotely valuable to anything at all
>>6348355>>6340995>>6345925hehe well most of my worldbuilding, art and game settings come from STEALING I just shamelessly plagiarise and steal ideas and phrases from journalistic news articles, a lot of literature and videogames and films etc, most of my work is just remixed and re-curated influences I think are interesting from other places, I wonder if players read it and ever investigate where it comes from hehe, (eg my Dylan Thomas Welsh prose poetry example, which I adapted for a game intro opening) None of it is really mine, so I am not sure whose work you are criticising hehe. But I believe all Art is stolen, all Art is like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods>>6341052>>6341392I do tend to live in the past a lot, I am obsessed with etymologies and origins, knowing where names or artistic influences derive from, to predict the future you extrapolate and re-excavate regurgitate re-enact the past, perhaps the future is merely an endless recursive pageant of imaginative re-configurations of the disgorged past. A lot of people have observed that despite all of the modern appurtenances of modern tech, orbital space datacentres or artificial intelligence or uploaded consciousness / neuro substrate neutrality etc, the root desires of it are all a bit medieval or even technoprimitive, shamanistic, the need for spiritual guidance (AI machine agent), immortality or transcending death (upload consciousness technosingularity etc) creation / ensoulment of human avatars those Unitree H1 humanoid bipedal walking robots etc. So the old argument of Weber, the theory of societal DISENCHANTMENT "Entzauberung" institutional rationality of the bureaucratic / scientific age is perhaps untrue, the Fall Of Magic and superstition never happened, the conjurors merely transformed into the High Church Of AI (with trillion USD market cap)
>>6348353His work will be remember far more fondly, and analyzed far more deeply, than anything I produce. We create nevertheless
>>6348388>>6348337>>6348353>>6348214I have never seen 天空の城 Laputa, I have watched Nausicaa Valley Of The Winds and it was tolerable, it is one of the few animes I have seen (anime urgh). Nausicaa was ok, I remember the weird radiation? corruption sea and something I vaguely recollect is the imagery of three factions (idyllic Japanese innocent wind princess, obvious threatening American bomber aircraft plane faction and interestingly that third ambiguous allegiance European?? prince faction?) The reason why I suspect Miyazaki legacy may be forgotten or overwritten (by AI style transfer etc) is because his work alongside other anime is characterised by Japanese tradition under a regime of postwar PACIFISM, carefully administered under the former US Washington consensus etc. (Hideo Kojima also manifests these postwar narratives). Think about this every time you see an anime nuclear explosion in AkiraYet under multipolar or Trump hemispheric defense refocus national security strategy, the new trend for Japan might be nationalistic MILITARISM possibly also large influxes of low wage immigrant labour to fix demographics (not sure if this is possible or can ameliorate 230% debt to gdp and sustain JPY carry trade lol) so maybe Miyazaki pacifist idyllic nostalgia animation cannot survive this. Perhaps all anime will become more militaristic and warmongering in the future
>>6348391I'm a bit tipsy, so I may be imprecise, but Souv... You seem to view societal norm as totalizing. They aren't. Without romanticizing us unduly, /qst/ and other niche counterculture spaces are about defying or ignoring the prevailing norms. Spaces like this are abut creating and sharing what feels right. Embrace that,
>>6348393>>6348391>is anime counterculture?Take care of yourself RQM, remember to drink responsibly ^_~I don't know, maybe if you were watching anime in the 1980s and 1990s that was counterculture, I can understand it, as hard as it is to believe I once went through a weeaboo phase lol, I imported Demon's Souls (japanese language launch edition) I emulated obscure Japanese language only psx games and I cringe played through every unlocked ending of Way Of The Samurai 4 for all the iaijutsu moves lol (yes I unlocked the handgun)But these days NFLX has a dedicated anime category tab, Sam Altman evangelises Studio Ghibli ai generated artstyle transfer and the top ranked Tencent massive revenue hundred million download mobile games are all anime bikini armour outfit storefronts so I feel anime is very very much mainstream. Maybe counterculture never existed at all and it was all just repackaged niche mainstream culture, like those https://cari.institute/consumer aesthetics marketing microcategories, whimsigoth or cottagecore or dark academia or seawave are not counterculture, it is still repackaged mainstream consumer culture. Maybe counterculture was a containment strategy to mitigate antiwar or black power protest movements, "freedom of expression" to attenuate 1950s 1960s intellectual sympathy for the Soviet Union. Maybe anime is the ideal export for a conquered vassal state with military bases on its territory (in the United Kingdom, this is called VE Day)Anyway, pic related from Way Of The Samurai 4. I can't find a screen cap of this but there is one game ending cutscene where the hilarious English gentleman (pictured above) commiserates with a character, and discusses how even though Britain and Japan are both small island nations, that appear tiny on the globe of the Earth, they can both achieve great things. I found it to be a poignant moment
>>6348393>>6348403>>6348391>>6348353>mocking Japanhmmm, I cannot quite find the cutscene with the English nobleman, but it is the corollary to this sequence (this scene is what sets it up). Way Of The Samurai 4 is an amazing and hilariously funny game lol and the nonlinear replayability is actually very engaging (the game is very short, you just repeat grind it to unlock different branching story endings)
>>6348393>>6348391>>6348403>>6348409>Way Of The Samurai 4 geopolitical depiction of industrialisation and imperialismah I found it lol I misremembered it, the sequence is actually spoken by one of the Japanese characters themselvesThis is the Japan-British Isles industrialisation exchange at 43min 7 sechttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krzboybnyO8&t=43m7sThis is the earlier funny Japanese island classroom sequence, with the geography maphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krzboybnyO8&t=37m55s
what are you supposed to do when:You already have the idea of what you want to write for your next update.You already wrote down bullet points to help keep yourself centered.Know most of the things you want your characters to say.But for some fucking reason you just cant bring yourself to write the actual update.am i cooked? i think i reached critical points of burn out...its about to be a week since my last update but my brain just refuses to cooperate and write down what i need to write.I enjoy playing other quest, i enjoy reading fanfics to look for ideas or let my mind rest for a bit, but i just cant focus enough to write my own stuff, do i really need to quit for an extended period of time?
>>6348214>>6348337>>6348353>>6348391>>6348393>Will the political message, ie the MORAL PURPOSE of Miyazaki / Laputa be forgotten?These days the political / moral message of Jonathan Swift Laputa, and Gulliver's Travels has entirely been forgotten, so maybe the Miyazaki postwar Japanese pacifism will be forgotten by the next generation too, enamoured and beguiled by the mere nostalgia amd superficiality of AI generated anime aestheticsOriginally, Swift intended it as a MORAL SATIRE, Lilliputians as tiny insignificant people focused upon giant details, Brobdingnagians as giant people obsessed with tiny trifling details etc, the chapters on Laputa may have been some satire against Hobbesian perspective on government, or regarding the use of the Royal Society and scientific / technological academies to support the state (think about a society floating in the air, unanchored and unmoored from its foundations) and one of the descriptions of the purpose of the flying nation of Laputa is described by Swift as using lodestones to manipulate the levitating island into crushing insurrections and buildings of rebellious terrestrial cities on the ground surface; another method is merely to blockade a city by floating the island above it, denying them rain and sun. The citizens of Laputa are described as being obsessed with mathematics astronomy music and abstraction, to the extent that they ignore everything else, and they praise the beauty of women according to their geometric proportions of how rhomboid or elliptical or resemblant to parallelograms the women appear to be lol. Laputa in age of sail trade and Jesuit missionaries languages of Spanish or Portuguese means THE WHORE ?? and actually the Gulliver's Travels sections of Laputa court women suggests they are fond of promiscuity or taking gallants lolThe opening of the Laputa chapter describes Swift as narrator being seized by Japanese pirates, and interestingly the entire original chapter heading of Laputa in Gulliver's Travels is "Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, (Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg) ... and JAPAN" heheAnd I just realised the main villain? in Laputa is named MUSKa lol
>>6348423A couple things that helped me is kinda-meditation, when you sit down for a while and concentrate on box breathing, shifting the focus gradually towards the quest, allowing the resolve to write to form in your mind, and the second one is planning to write 1 (one) sentence, which usually gets me rolling for more.There's a lot of techniques like this, try googling and see if you find anything that works for you.
>>6348423If writing is becoming such a slog that you need to take an actual week to get something out, then yeah, take a break. You're clearly not having fun anymore and the only reason TO run a quest is to have fun.You can bruteforce writer's block to a certain extent. I did that in my last quest since the worm in my brain screams at me if I take more than a day to update, but it's burning a candle at both ends. I think it's best if you just take two weeks or even a month off to recharge your creative battery.It's either that or you give up completely and never look back.
>>6348423describe your general narrative scenario / choice situation setup, stakes consequences etc and maybe we can help you try and invent something, some branching possibilities. Player GM collaboration, yay!
>>6348423Probably just need to take a break. A vacay from the writing eh. Alternatively, take a hiatus and do a one-shot under a different name for something completely new. Sometimes it is just fatigue, sometimes it's a weird bullshit complacency thing your brain tricks you into. >>6348436>not being keenly aware of all the quests and qms of the board off the ripfucking poser.
>>6348439>"off the rip"I have to admit I had to research this phrase, wiktionary / urbandictionary claims it is African-American vernacular lol, I have genuinely never seen it before. Unless you misspelt or mistyped this, and meant something elseBut I don't think it is that serious lol, the QM said they had all the notes and bullet points and dialogue already, just lacked the motivation / urgency to compose it into organised text.>>6348423So either just share those bulletpoints or what you have already with the players in raw form, a meta story branching discussion, let them invent some ideas for progression; or, your scenario is not dramatically meaningful, urgent and desperate enough (in which case the players can again maybe suggest help in finding some new ideas to explore) or just as the other anons advised, relax it is Christmas lol this is just all meant to be entertainment hehe I wouldn't feel any sense of anxiety, pressure or distress from it (unless it is pleasurable distress, ooh damsels yay)pic related is the largest most complex virtual tabletop dungeonmastering diorama I ever constructed lol. Somehow, looking at the timestamps, I assembled this in 5 hours from literally figments of IMPROVISED IMPROMPTU NOTHINGEverything in this scene:-circus troupe intercepted by river crossing guards (top right)-long queue of fleeing refugees, peasants-witch hunter bird beak plague doctor interrogators screening refugees one by one (also secret treasure chest!)-random prince (owner of sky galleon stolen by players) complaining of mistreatment, wading through river-outlaws preparing a hidden attack (fire magic) on middle left-(offscreen) players in sky galleon moored at bottom right, with armed signal rocket flareLooking back now this scenario was insanely complex, at the time lol I was slightly infuriated the players seemed to mostly ignore the river chasm bridge terrain lol but actually with hindsight given the complexity the players absorbed all the details, navigated and handled all the dice rolls very well indeed!
>>6348423>>6348468If you are improvising and the game is good and urgent and desperate, you should have so much built narrative momentum breathless PACING that you literally cannot stopThis game design framework I discussed before decomposing games into six phases (nondistinct, overlapping) to produce emotions: 1/ design goal (I call it moral purpose) 2/ idiom (genre elements) 3/ dramatic substance (characters locations items places organisations, all of which are also "characters") 4/ suspense 5/ PACING 6/ catharsis, emotional release.The zigzag idea is only the even numbered are visible, felt in game (2. idiom/genre, 4. suspense, 6. catharsis) the odd ones are hidden (1. design goal/moral purpose, 3. drama elements, 5. pacing). On PACING a thing I try to do is I never dwell. In my typical 300 choice/paragraph image-text sections (homage to the old gamebooks with 300 game sections yay I think the 4chan qst image limit is 375) I never stay in any one location or scenario for more than 2-3 text segments, I establish a scene do a choice and then move on to an entirely new location, the next place, new scene, new choice npcs charactersI am not always successful (if you see an interstitial dream bridge sequence, oohhh you teleported into a magic dream realm oooh lol groan at the dungeonmaster) but I generally feel like in my games A LOT HAPPENS lol It is a constraint of this 4chan text forum thread long linear sequential text format, if it were more like an interactive fiction game (eg better hyperlinks or comparison sidebars that let you cross reference and track notes attributes or faction details etc) it might be easier to linger a bit, sustain long character dialogues etc. but I find usually the excitement and suspense becomes flaccid with excessive back-and-forth consultation. The thing about roleplaying games that resembles cinema is you don't need to laboriously simulate everything, just jumpcut straight into the action decisive bits, leave out all the dull administrative travel platitude dialogue etc. If it is boring just don't show itThere is an advanced idea with PACING (borrowed from music) that for players to discriminate between high/low intensity etc you need some element of REPETITION (think music where a section is repeated, with emphasis, but FASTER LOUDER lol for contrast, or say repeat loops of dark souls runs, safe bonfire, dungeon obstacle, bossfight then bonfire repeat etc) I am not good at incorporating this into games but I want to develop it. For instance even in Dragon Age Origins, you get to return to the companion worldmap campsite bonfire over and over again etc. Extraction shooters have that inventory loadout preparation safehouse gear screen. So creating some notion of a safezone / preparation zone to which you can return again and again before entering the game etc, this is an interesting idea
The full extent of your failure has become clear, the enemy has struck first.>>6348471>>6348471The expedition was a succes, now for a succulent meal....>>6348485>>6348485
Decided to start a seasonally appropriate Frostpunk quest, following an average person in one of the last remaining cities. We're now deciding what factions our protagonist aligns with, so please come and play if you want!>>6348519>>6348519>>6348519
>make a post about a niche idea for a quest you want to run one day >Get a bunch of responses >All of them are Souvarine, all of them are long nonsense rambles barely relevant at all to what you posted
>>6348536Seeing souvspam in the cutie-g is like seeing ads on youtube, it's only happening because you're not filtering it.
>>6348537He changed his ip
It thrives on attention--if everyone just stopped replying to him and linking to his posts then he wouldn't get as much traction as he does. Just filter and ignore, easy as 1-2!>>6348423You got, like, eighty responses, but I'll throw one more into the ring: sometimes the best thing is to just vomit everything onto a page, even if it's nonsensical or doesn't flow well. Turn your internal editor off for a little bit and just throw EVERYTHING onto that page, man! Could be bullet points, could be small chunks of dialogue, could be descriptors, etc... just throw it all in your notes, take a breather, and then try to fit those puzzle pieces you puked up into place once you have a clear head. There'll be times I think I have my update locked in, but then I'll come up with something else or another gag or idea'll pop into my head and I'll be glad I waited.Once you drop your filter it's a lot easier to just get stuff out!
>>6348433i might have to try this>>6348434>You're clearly not having funi like to think i still do, but you might be right...the thing is, we are SO CLOSE to reaching the end of the quest, i dont want to just abandon it so close to the end and let my players hanging for who know how long, i already take long enough with regular updates, i dont think it would be fair to keep my players waiting for even longer.>>6348563pic related is the amount of notes, bulletpoints, ideas for dialog and interactions, and branching paths that i have so far. (there are other 2 pages not shown here)its not that i dont know what to do, i think i might already even have the ending ready, its just that i CANT sit my ass down to write it.But seeing all these responses and talking about it its kinda fueling my writing tanks a bit, slowly feeling the need to write is coming back.i guess its true what they say, (You)s are the best source of energy for the soul
>>6348563>IT THRIVES ON ATTENTION>"It" lolI actually completed Dragon Age Origins replay yesterday lol (first time playing any dlc, have not done Awakening or the expansions yet) this was my first time encountering that dlc character Shale lol, who refers to the player Warden hero character as "It" lol I actually heard this line in Shale voice acting haha lolI should mention that the Shale character is some sort of grumpy gender ambiguous amnesiac transgender dwarf woman sacrificed on dwarf paragon Caridin's torture anvil/forge and implanted / imprisoned within a rock golem, it is ok though she(?) is massively overpowered the best and most versatile tank. But in my replay I did the same Mage / Arcane warrior run as when I played DA:O priginally lol, you can just solo slaughter everything with AOE magic blizzards grease fires petrify and frost cones and poison bombs, so you do not really need a tank, yay>>6348573>>6348468>>6348470I can't really read your miniscule 25kb graphic Kektus QM anon lol (unless that was the intention to keep the plot secret) I tried reading your quest I am not a Harry Potter expert I know only up to the first four books and films and sort of lost interest, I know the vague overall Harry Potter story setting but I found your game insurmountably difficult to understand or follow without any pictures recap or context (may just be me though). I can see you have put massive effort into it, but have you perhaps... OVERPLANNED it, it seems like you have so much dialogue and events laid out... and actually writing it has become LIKE WORK or toil lol, perhaps you could try maybe just shorter or more brief free improvised sections (could even be a short cutaway, or aside??) and then return to your usual game style when you have recovered the energy. But ultimately you and your players know best, so feel free to ignore what I said lol
Glassner's Revenge!Come for the spectacle of a mad space engineer influenced by a schizo hivemind!Stay for the collaboration with a self-proclaimed parasite QM and ensuing tonal whiplash!Leave when the romance sub-plot ends with NTR.>>>6348588>>>6348588
>>6348592>unless that was the intention to keep the plot secretyeah, thats exactly it, i´ve been working on this for quite a while and im NOT spoiling the ending accidentally by posting my notes, thats why its so zoomed out.>your game insurmountably difficult to understand or follow without any pictures recap or contextyeah, not surprised there, thats fair.my game is actually a sidestory/sidequest/what-if of HeadQM´s Disappearing Hogwarts story, if you didnt read that one then its almost impossible to understand mine if you havent been there from the beginning.
>>6348573Everyone has their own lows every now and then, and that's part of writing. I had my fair share of breaks in DH, and more than one moment of "fuck all this" (see that one bit where you're facing Arthur's memory in Avalon, if you need a concrete example). You're not doing this to make money, so there is no problem taking your time. The board will be here when you come back (I mean, I hope. You never know what sort of bullshit legislation some asshole in power will come up with next. But yeah, probably still here)Also, endings are hard. There's a reason most quests I've seen get slower closer to the end.Als0, wtf is this new captcha, fuck this shit
>>6348618>>6348618>>6348618Do (You) like World of Darkness games? Changeling: The Lost? Do (You) like cyberpunk stories? Playing as a corporate element, someone selfish, maybe dangerously so? Do (You) like games with political intrigue, mystery, investigation, and horror? Are (You) a fan of media like Altered Carbon, Supernatural, Sinners, Cyberpunk 2020/2077, The Skeleton Key (the Southern Gothic horror film), Alice in Wonderland, Blade Runner/DADoES, Bladerunner 2049, or the films of Guillermo del Toro? Are (You) just looking for a quest to kill some time during the pre-holiday lull that has so many QM's taking a break or mysteriously disappearing? Consider stopping by at Cyberpunk Fairytale, and deciding who Percy will be meeting for lunch.
I've got such a kino idea for my quest in the future but it's got such a long pay off time.
>>6348636I see you, legendary father/daughter QM combo quest.
>>6348636I know that feel, anon. I've had some set-ups I've been wanting to pay off for a couple quests now...>>6348712And speaking of which, sorry about the delay, folks who play Cambion Quest! We're back, though
>>6348735Study Loomis/Bridgeman
>>6348760Maybe someday. I'm content at the moment to not be good at character art, as I do enjoy getting to use some of my extra income to support other artists. Thank you for the rec, though.
>>6348284>>6348284>>6348284Errant Comet Quest is requesting some votes! As Frieden finally steps outside of the Heliopolis Colony since his infiltration... The situation is Dire.
A common division between TTRPGs and questing is the ownership of characters. Quest characters are usually "shared" where as TTRPGs are "played" by one person. I was wondering if this gap was more bridged in quests with multiple concurrent "playable" characters at the same time. I run quests with multiple characters, but usually only one is in the spotlight at a time. I had a thought that a possible method of allowing more ownership of characters (a cross between my Night Without Stars experimental threads and a traditional quest) would be to just have multiple characters able to act concurrently, with each players perhaps only able to make one action-vote or roll for each character. This way you could have factions of players championing their favorite characters and people would have more "investment" in their chosen characters, but without the issue of players creating or having exclusively of a Quest character. For example- the QM would create an entourage of characters who explore a dungeon together, and each has two or three actions they can take in a given prompt, but instead of casting a vote for each, you just vote for one character's actions and allow other players to control the others since you are more invested in your favorite, if that makes sense.As someone who also likes a bit of strategy- I could also see this being a "player skill" mechanic, as characters who don't get any votes would essentially freeze or hesitate in combat for example, leasing to less overall efficacy. Or each character gets unlimited rolls but because player votes are limited you have to decide between rerolling to optimize an existing important roll OR giving a new character an actionable roll. But then again, forcing people to cast votes they don't care about with limited numbers of voters seems extremely unfun. I also experimented with a similar dice mechanic in Beneath the Moaning Mountain but I don't think I was very interesting or led to much strategy; and it also encourages samefagging or thoughtless voting which isnt a deal breaker but may not be worth the hassle of using this system when a more narrative structure would probably be better anyway.What do you think about this concept? Do you think there is much to gain of allowing players to factionalize or choose a "team"? Or is it not really important for most quests? (Besides Waifu/romance related factions, which form very easily as I am learning in my current thread lol)
>>6349165Your paragraphing format and thumbnail made me think you were Souvarine. You should make a baby with him.
>>6349165Though is sadly died early, the sprite-art Avengers quest had a mechanic like what you're describing, where one voter per vote could control each active hero on the team each round. Souvarine's Lightning Sea quest also had something like that, IIRC, where anyone could vote for any character, but each character acted separately.In neither of those did I really see factionalizing, but the Avengers one was pretty lighthearted and action-focused, and Souvarine's was hat PLUS a Souvarine quest, which meant it was highly experimental and players were probably more focused on trying to figure out how to navigate his allegory de jour than trying to control player characters in a consistent manner.That does lead into what I personally see as the unique strength/weakness of that system versus traditional voting: it really is more suited to something lower-stakes and/or less character-driven. For one thing, when you have a squad of characters but each one is controlled by a separate person (or group of people), they can end up doing very disparate things simultaneously, including ones which sabotage or determiner each other. Expect some salt over strategically suboptimal votes due to lack of coordination between characters. If there start to be votes that it one character's interests against another, you will necessarily invite voter disagreement, especially if it's big decisions. This is more true if people have reasons to be invested in individual characters' emotional case, and votes of that nature (a la waifu or morality/philosophy votes) are going to be harder to pull off in such a system I think; you'll possibly get people upset at a direction that other people are voting to take one character, and voting for another character to undermine, backstab, or abandon them out of spite.Or maybe note. Things HAVE been a lot more civil around here lately.
>>6349177>PROCREATION WITH SPACE MONKEYpronatalism has produced this phenotype abomination
>>6349165>>6349165>how to handle MULTIPLAYER game>multiple character switch / single perspective "spotlight" focus>entourage approach?So I can think of a few innovative examples from ttrpgs that have specific mechanisms:-Bluebeard's Bride (pbta adjacent rpg) there is one "character", ie the Bride, but multiple players represent different shards of her psyche / archetypes (eg persona of Virgin, Mother, Seductress etc) battling over which persona overrides her consciousness and determines the actions she follows-I mentioned a highly unique storygame I read set in the decadence of ancient Rome, called Bacchanal. In this game, there is a dice pool where EACH CHARACTER is represented by one step die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 etc). You add coloured dice that represent each character and roll the pool which represents all of the characters and NPCs in any one scene. There are some complicated rules but essentially the highest die from the dice pool is which character triumphs or becomes dominant in the scene narration outcome. The characters are sort of uni-dimensional and attuned to specific Roman gods (eg Aphrodite devotees want to seduce, soldiers want to arrest players for corruption etc, Dionysian devotees want debauchery and drunkeness). So you could imagine a story system where players "nominate" the storytelling tones and factions/character inclinations to be included in any storytelling vignette, building the resolution dice pool roll. I have run many split perspective multi-faction / player games, it becomes chaotic in this qst format, I learnt this doing COSMOGONY lol attempting to narrate and manage just 4 separate perspectives on virtual tabletops with heavy dice mechanics is utter chaos, whereas it is easy to handle it at a table. (In the actual game, it was even worse lol, I remember one player was controlling assets at multiple separate locations so there were split perspectives within split perspectives for a single player as well argh lol) Something I tried to engineer there was to create some conjunction points that would encourage players on different planets and spaceships to cooperate or collaborate (eg a combined assault or intrigue) in order to weave the disparate separate narratives back together, get all players in one location on the star constellation map, but either the players did not get this hint or did not want it lolIn my pure storytelling diceless games, I usually write and respond immediately to the first player who decides. If there are multiple ideas I will try and combine all choices, unless they are contradictory, whereby I will choose the most optimal amongst player choices, or prioritise original write-ins. pic related illustrates just two out of the four players multiple split perspectives within split perspectives in my COSMOGONY game lol (there were another two more players, not shown here, concurrent to this!!)
>>6349248>>6349248>>6349248The Siege of Valcanville is up! I'm doing a medium-sized one-shot for the winter break based on the abandoned quest Great Ambitions (>>6341880). I hope you all enjoy. Maybe it will even become a GOOD (medieval) fantasy quest.
>our brave boys updates like once a month>Swordboy qm burnout era>Qtg is spamspamspam Reallllyy hard to find a reason to come here next year
>>6349343I'd like to attribute the slowness to the Holiday Season, but yea... shit does tend to happen. Had quite a few promising quests slow down on me too and it's never a fun pill to swallow.What I try to do when things slow down is peruse another quest on the catalog--sometimes I go for a new one, but other times I take a swing at one that has a few threads in the archive. Recently picked up 'Hatch That Egg' again after falling out of it in Thread 2... we'll see how it goes!Anyways, definitely recommend giving a new quest a try if your standbys slow down--you never know what you'll find!
>>6347118I sacrifice the whiny doomposters to bring back the dropped/stalled StoryQM quests and those of Matsuno Idol Agency's QM. I add some oldschool civ quests and god games that last more than a thread or two.
>>6349343LoZ quest will be back in January, and if I could get some more engagement with Cyberpunk Fairytale I would be able to update it more regularly. Has been sad to see so many cool threads launch and then burn out so fast, and since I'm new it's hard for me to say how common that is or if it's worse of late (seems like it's probably particularly bad atm). I've started to vote in more quests that were daunting to sink my teeth into, and some I have just joined up with after only reading some of the current thread rather than properly catching up because it'd take a while, and I know the other QM's that are hanging on probably appreciate an extra vote here and there. Here's hoping things pick up in a few weeks when this horrible busted fucked up year is finally over...
>>6349346But bones I have new quest QM abandonment fatigue
>>6349370>since I'm new it's hard for me to say how common that is or if it's worse of late (seems like it's probably particularly bad atm)Eh, burnout/flaking ratio probably isn't worse. There are just fewer new quests starting to begin with, especially since that Soijak raid.>I've started to vote in more questsThanks for the vote!>if I could get some more engagement with Cyberpunk Fairytale I would be able to update it more regularlyI'm not going to lie, SK: part of why I keep forgetting to check it is that the cover image blends in with so many other cyberpunk/urban ones that I think I keep missing it when it updates. As much as one ought not to judge a book by its cover, it does make it easier to spot on a crowded shelf full of similar genre fiction if it has something recognizable to identify it by, you know? Just something to think about for thread #2, which I do hope happens -- it's the best WoD quest I've seen here since Rage Across Pennsylvania!
>>6349376The City appreciates your votes!
>>6349373So check out some that've been on the catalog for a while--there's plenty going around. Not every quest is on thread 1 and you get to catch up a bit which is always nice!>>6349370Best advice I can give is to consider outside factors. Folks are traveling, spending time with friends and family, finishing up finals, yada yada yada. Couple that with how all quests naturally go through fluctuating periods of engagement makes it a little easier to deal with. Trust me, there were stretches in my first and second quest where I had one reliable voter--but over time I managed to wrangle more!I'll take a look at Cyberpunk again. I'm more of a LoZ fan, to be honest, but I'm always down for giving something a second chance. You seem to know what you're doing writingwise so don't get discouraged if things slow down a little!>>6349376This anon makes a decent point too--having a random image for thread one is fine, but I'd definitely recommend putting together a unique image when you start your next thread. Shows players you're in it for the longer haul and also helps your quest 'pop' a bit compared to others.>>6349177This. You guys should kiss already. With TONGUE.
>>6349381>romantic kiss WITH TONGUEI am prepared, I have gotten into the mood already
THE END IS NEARTHE END IS COMINGTo... both my RP quest and the year! (Yeah, Volume 1 is ending, Volume 2 is coming out as soon as this one ends).Hello, creature and fairy tale thingies! I am a QM for the (As far as I know) current and only RWBY quest here in qst.I'm pleased to tell that my current quest has been stuck in voting hell for the last few months. I know RWBY isn't that popular, but like a special needs kid I'm proud of what I've achieved here (It is my first quest!) and its been a little bit over a year since I made it.It was a rocky start, with my writing abilities starting close to that of a seal with a keyboard, but anyways, I thank those that decided to stick here with me, with us, in this RWBY quest that's been kinda like my baby.So, I'm posting here, to wish everyone merry christmas, happy holidays, yadda yadda, and to also promote said quest.The final is coming. Thank you all for everything. Have a pleasant day, whenever you are, space cowboy.>>6347397>>6347397>>6347397
>>6349388kek>>6349393Congratulations, anon! That's a big milestone.>>6349373While I can't guarantee you'll like any of them, anything I've listed in S-tier is either well-established or by a proven-reliable QM, or both! Even Umbral Tower only has a question mark because it's on hold while the QM is actively running other stuff and I don't know when we're circling back.A-tiers are all quite good, too, and worth catching up on; often being slower to update, it may be easier to do so in time for an upcoming vote.
>>6349404No, I wont read to catch up on a quest. the truth is I absolutely hate reading things on my computer monitor. Print that shit onto a book with brownish paper and ill read the whole thing but something about computer text always irked me. I strongly prefer the short daily updateOn a semi related note I always considered doing a audio book thing for my quests per update or two.
>>6349407>>6349404also, youre tier lists always sucked ass and I can see how wrong it is right away (my opinion). So I wont trust your opinion on things I don't read.
>>6349407I mean, if you hate the medium itself, I'm not sure anyone can do anything about that. An audiobook of a quest posted up somewhere soudns like a neat idea, though.
>>6349376Yah meant to take my fucking hat off LOL but yes, I have jumped on board! And I think you are right about my Changeling quest, I am gonna make a more distinctive image for it and LoZ both. Interesting to hear there are relatively fewer new quests, it seems like there have been a lot to me! Suppose I have more of them to look forward to when folks come back around, then, and hopefully that means more of them stick, too.
>>6349381>I'm more of a LoZ fanYeah and reading Dark I imagine you are just more of an adventure guy, my other quests are kind of on the other end of the spectrum and I didn't expect many people to be fans of both. I am sometimes even feeling torn on whether I even want the pace to pick up or if it's better to roll slow so I can spend more time on an update. >>6349376Also? Thanks for what you said about CPF, idk how long ago Rage was but just seeing the board these past couple months I bet it's been some time since there was any long-running WoD story. >>6349410Oh man, feeling bad for your poor taste, and I don't mean for that to come off conceited since some of my stuff has made the list - I am thinking about shit like Gotham Beat Cop, Silver Knight, and Loot And Longships (so so well written, so sad it's had to slow way down bc of holidays...). Respectfully, what are the quests you're playing in and really enjoying right now? Other than Swordboy and OBB, anyways, which do both seem very cool (and ironically, are both on the list...)
>>6349381>>6349404Also also, you guys are my buddies. Happy holidays, appreciate you both for the advice I have gotten here and in my threads, and your participation in my stories. It's nice that some of this board's regulars are friendly and helpful - rare thing on 4chan these days!
>>6349411Something i did once was put all the qm text in text to speech microsoft Sam. The name pronounciation was pretty funny at times.
>>6349423Happy Holidays to you too--glad you decided to take the quest plunge. It's been a lot of fun reading your stuff!And honestly as hard as it is to believe I genuinely think the majority of /qst/ is helpful and friendly--they just tend to be overshadowed . Anywho, pass the kindness and help along--a bit of advice and feedback goes a long way and we were all newbies once!
>>6349433kek, I bit.>>6349423>>6349421Happy Holidays, bud!Rage Across Pennsylvania was early 2023 Werewolf quest that ran for two very well-done threads, then sadly disappeared>>6349452/qst/ is a special place, small and niche though it may be.
>>6349421>Rage Across Pennsylvania >Neckbeard Warlock quest>Early Core of SteelFuck there were some great quests in those months, what a shame they all petered out in their own ways
>>6349381>>6349388
>>6349568>I <3 Gay MonkeEh, Gay Monke was alright. Underrated Supreme Leader in terms of actual effectiveness, for sure, but his chad son was more fun to play. Shame he got Early Onset Everything Cancer.
>>6349568>>6349381>>6349388>>6349177>>6349230appears mostly accurate, except I am not a gay
>>6349165>>6349231>alternative approaches to multiplayer quest etcAlso I really admire that fantasy art BananasQM, I have not seen it before but I guess it is Dragonlance? I think that is Raistlin Majere on the cover?Anyway, another idea for handling a multiplayer game that might accommodate asynchronous player drop in drop out with sporadic attention: think of an adaptation of the OSR gauntlet run technique. This very much depends on the framing story, so something like this:You start off on a BATTLEFIELD with say 20 of the most generic characters possible (the descriptions could literally be, sword bloke, mace bloke, spear bloke, archer bloke etc) the opponent army is about to CHARGE (maybe it is the legion of the DARK LORD oh nooo) what do you do etc? And so players can randomly roll on some table, very quickly the characters are being whittled down horribly mangled killed etc but every time a character survives, they gain some player nominated trait (or it could be, regain some memory of their past from the convenient narrative amnesia etc). So eventually you whittle down the protagonists from the generic to the more memorable, battle-scarred distinctive SURVIVORS and conveniently, with the vast battlefield framing, if some players drop out or skip updates, they become BATTLEFIELD STRAGGLERS the warhost moves on without them etc but if the player returns maybe they caught up again with the camp followers etc. If a new player appears, you found reinforcements or conscripts etc. So the entire game is set just on these battlefields refining and augmenting character traits and memoriesI think it works best as skirmishes on a battlefield but maybe it could also be justified with some other narrative frames like the familiar fantasy quickstart You Wake Up Chained In A DUNGEON / Gladiator Slave Pit / Shipwreck, Marooned Island / Haunted House cellar or abandoned hospital, bunker spaceship derelict etc. gif related depicts why you should NEVER DISMOUNT from your horse when playing Mount And Blade Warband Viking Conquest / Brytenwalda. When playing that game I always felt they made cavalry a bit too weak, there should be some morale effect all you can do on horseback is spear and poke the shield wall flanks a bit or kill some weak archers and sling people (not worth it) etc cavalry charges do nothing against a shield wall, maybe this was true in the Viking era though. Always stay far back on a hill overlook as commander lol just let shield wall mash everyone instead yay For added terror turn on that setting that makes your character randomly trip when walking backwards in panic retreat just like real life lol
The initial stage is about to be set...>>6349731>>6349731There shall be reckoning, for your succes has more than one beneficiary...>>6349747>>6349748
>>6349602> Shame he got Early Onset Everything Cancer.I'm mostly just annoyed the thread ended before we could vote for a supreme. Those votes were the perfect "stopping points" between threads.
>>6349404With so many quests dropping out/ending, what new quests would you be interested in picking up for the ranking?Totally not fishing for his own quest to be in the ranking wdym
>>6349994You realize it's just Rep's subjective rankings, right? You can just, like, make your own or something or beg the qtg to review your stuff
>>6349666>gradual whittling down of a cast of generic mooks to a few MC-worthy charactersThat's actually a really neat idea. Thanks, Souvarine! Some day, I may steal that for a quest or TTRPG.>>6349994What DB said. If you have a quest you want me to check out, I may well do like I did for the Jedi Princess one, but in the end it's just my opinion.>>6349997I'm genuinely surprised more people don't do lists or rankings or something. it's what Ive been trying to encourage. I don't really want to be "chief tastemaker" or whatever, lol... I want recommendations!
>>6349997>>6350009I am aware, but it still feels like a badge of honor of some sort. He's the only one who has been doing this for ages now.
>>6349997>S rank: Monster QuestBoom. Done.
>>6350009I have noticed this, and I feel like I am dropping in enough quests to drop some feedback of this kind. Most active in: >Gotham Beat Cop I just like this quest. Scratches itches for me. Well written, good base of players, good pace. Was especially glad to offer some unique input on the recent interdiction on a drug lab based on things I learned when I was a rambunctious youth and seeing how clever some of the other players are with their write-ins. >Fallout: No Gods No Masters There are things I REALLY like about this quest, including the overall story, writing, and just the way it keeps that New Vegas flame alive. My only major critiques are that I think the QM sometimes misses the mark with rewarding especially high rolls - like a nat 100 from the past that led to a huge stash of valuable military equipment... That has sat untouched for months now because it's all hidden in someone else's territory and is too large of an arsenal to move without a ton of obvious effort. Or more recently a very high roll (99+7 I think) to whip the Think Tank and Mobius into a top notch research team, which resulted in some definite gains, but several explicit mentions that they are still overall in mental decline and that it won't last, plus the concession that they will have latitude to work on their own projects as well. I suppose we are yet to see how much this lowers the DT on research rolls, which seem to be historically cursed in this quest anyways, but I am pessimistic about it turning things around in a major way. The second complaint is that I find the player base kind of difficult. All of the votes are very open ended, with us being able to take nearly a dozen different kinds of action now, but no preset options, and this already means it would be quite difficult to achieve consensus. The problem is made worse by some of the players just being... Dumb, and impulsive, frankly. On the one hand I enjoy the open-endedness allowing for more creative/strategic thinking, but it tends to really slow things down and sometimes produce embarrassingly bad results - like choosing to integrate a bunch of Enclave refugees without any intelligence network to vet them or protect our government from their own spies or infiltrators, or allowing House's brain to run free in Big MT, where he may still be preparing his epic revenge uninterrupted for... The third month?? It's a mixed bag. I recommend if you really like big picture asset management and love FNV, maybe not so much if you don't. >Human Male Fighter I've been really enjoying the current QM's take on the quest, and am kind of hoping we end up meeting the skeleton from the first section before the OP decided to bounce. >Cont'd
>>6350010Well, generally-speaking I like to get in on a quest early enough that I can catch up and start participating fairly quick. it's best if it's no more than a few months/threads old. I have a pretty wide variety of things I enjoy, but I lean towards pulp fantasy and sci-fi, horror, and capeshit. I'm also more likely than not to at least take a peak at civquests, business sims, and slice of life stuff, as well as really rare/unusual premises. The easiest ways to put me off a quest (wholly subjective, mind you) are: updating so fast or with such huge updates that I can't keep up with it due to everything else I'm reading and my life; tons and tons of number-crunching granular decision-making on uninteresting-to-me matters; formatting or writing-styles that make it an especially arduous read; a feeling of being railroaded.if you have a quest you'd like me to check out, I'm certainly welcome to taking a peak.
>>6350026>Black Sands Cool so far! I hope the QM keeps going, kinda reminds me of Kenshi but more fantasy. >Haven's Disgraced Wizard I really fuck with noir stories of any kind, and I like how the lore is coming through in the quest so far. >Dark Quest I only just properly jumped in here, but man, Bones has an infectious energy about him, a great sense of humor, and I like the way the action flows a lot, so I am planning on locking in for the long haul. The ones I am more tentatively participating in (but very much enjoying, they are just either new and seem like they may not last OR have run for a WHILE and I have a lot of catching up to do) are >Beacon Burning Bright Frostpunk>Bioshock>Cambion (yay reptoid!!!) >Contract Quest>Champion of The Street>Tired Wizard Builds a Tower (I'm not super into lewd games but the world building goes fucking crazy) and I REALLY want the Metroid quest to come back and last so we can possibly play as the fungal-parasite host space cowboy I pitched
>>6350028Not exactly your cup of tea as stated, but I'd appreciate any opinions going towards Errant Comet Quest.Certainly am amused that Gundam Quests are rare in general, although this may just be how I think of them from /m/ plays Gihren's Greed narratives though.
>>6349846As I said in the thread; I sincerely apologize for not ending having a Supreme Ruler succession in the actual thread, but I believe it was already at page 9 or 10 by the end of it, and there were significant plot points left to be resolved by the end of Halam's reign. Plus, we needed more time to introduce the next candidates. I've been enjoying the style of one Supreme Succession per thread but Halam has a little bit of life left in him to make it worth not rushing.
Also shout out to Silver Knight, because I did enjoy reading that last thread, but I can only try and jump into so many already established quests so I am gonna just lurk there...>>6350038I might really give this another shot because I like mechs, and used to love Gundam shows when I was a kid, but I admittedly feel very daunted by Errant Comet for some reason.
>>6350039>Plus, we needed more time to introduce the next candidatesFair enough, candidates who appeared before are usually better than the ones who appear first on the thing. Candidate selection is so interesting to me because you're pretty much picking which way you want the hegemony to go for the next thread.I don't think we had any youngin who might have fit for it in the last thread, so I'll be waiting to see just who they are next time.
>>6350045Only one has been introduced thus far.
>>6350039Fair, and maybe now we'll get another Swall Supreme candidate. I would laugh so hard, in a good way, if the Supreme who gave fish-women tits gets succeeded by a fish-woman somehow.>>6350038Yeah, possibly not my thing. Tbh, I never even quite got into Gundam in a big way. My greatest engagement was with Build Fighters, of all things!
>>6350065>a fish womanI'd rather not. An alien Supreme would already hold for a ridiculous amount of baggage story, making her female ontop of that is just too much. It's like putting a hat on a hat. I'd rather it just focus on one thing really well and make that the theme instead of stretching it to do both.And anyways, I don't much care for the idea of a female supreme. There's way too many "woman in position of power in male society" stories, I'm tired of them.
>>6350077None of this changes that I would laugh and be very amused, though, which is all I was saying.
>>6350078Meh. It's just overdone. I'm sure it could be done well and has, but I've had my fill of "strong woman who can be just as good as the men" with Kima. An alien, on the other hand, at least that's novel. I've never seen anything about that. The only time you see an alien leader in sci-fi or really any fiction it's just because the nation in question is a wholesome chungus boiling pot democracy where culture is non-existant and everyone acts the same.
>>6350079Certainly I get how one might feel that way, but I run Cambion Quest, so our takes on how we feel about hats-on-hats and women leaders are going to be very different I feel, lol.
Monke players are not beating the allegations this time
>>6350051What do I get if I guess who it is?
>>6350100You'll get to pick the first initial of one of the other candidates.Make sure to include it in your guess-post so nobody else steals it!
>>6350102Fine on. my guess...is Ribbonfin.Ribbonfin is, as of the last mainline thread, the only noticeable young character. He is explicitly called very young in a post that happened after the start of year 201 and literally on the same update that changed it to 202. The last spinoff thread puts the year at 203. Halam has been given a time of 5-10 years to live, and I doubt he's going to rule until the literal day he dies. He's young, he's an elite (overseer of science) and he's from a group people wanted to see.I'll take the initial...V
>>6350107Incorrect. Nice try though.
>>6350111Well, then I don't know. I scoured every post on the last thread; everyone else is too old like Usis, or doesn't fit the requirements...last I remember, the requirements were young but not a child (teenager to young adult) and having some achievements of their own. If it's not ribbonfin, he was either not named at all or breaks the general candidate rules.If it isn't...well, then you got me. I must have missed it.
>>6350116I just assumed it was Jinn Garastra.
>>6350118I knew about him, but he just didn't seem like supreme candidate material to me. His sole claim to fame is dueling, he's basically a trust fund kid. If he's a candidate, it must be a real bad year.
>>6350119Like, just look at the scene where he shows up. He shows up to a fancy restaurant, goes>hey uhhhhh can i get some food>proceeds to crush the fancy meat into a ball and throw it down his throat with his bare hands>"just so you know, like, i'm a real good dueler. I think knives are cool. your food is cool too but dueling knives are cooler"He doesn't seem like he's a bad guy, but I'm pretty sure I've seen bog standard alpha civilians smarter than this guy. He sounds like the rich kid at college with a maserati who smokes weed and has a 2.3 GPA.
>>6350122You could be right. I was looking at it more from a writer's point of view, I guess. The scene shows very little of his capability (or lack thereof), but DOES go out of its way to characterize him, and to establish details not relevant to that scene like his being a dueling prodigy, having an interest in other cultures, and styling himself a generous man of the people as well as caring a great deal about how his family is perceived. it's just a lot of info to include if he isn't going to be plot-relevant. I'm also pretty sure his attire is the Supreme Candidate uniform or whatever, though I admit I forget if all elite kids get those salmon-coloured body suits.
>>6350122Can only imagine him as Donald Trump now... >"I'll have the meatwad well done, bottle of ketchup" >"We just have the best knives, don't we folks? Just phenomenal, very sharp, very sharp. Very good for, very sharp when you stab them, you stab the other guy. Have to be quick. Not like Biden, remember him? Sleepy slow Joe Biden, couldn't cut his way out of a... Paper bag, very dull, that's what we used to call him, dull blade Biden. Horrible duelist. That's done, now we have the HOTTEST duels anywhere in the world, many people are saying, that we have the sharpest knives, and I just, I am the best duelist. A great golfer once said, he said the more I practice, the luckier I get. I'm very lucky, folks, the luckiest."
>>6350124Well, when candidates are usually all polymath geniuses, even Halam himself, he seems...off. No offense to the kid but he feels like he's one minute away from trying to show me his "cool knife tricks" on a rainbow butterfly knife made in china.
>vote that's winning is for the thing you've done the least and need the most prep work forI'm not even complaining but damn do I feel the need to pull out my stalls
>>6350131Erry time
>>6350127kek>>6350128Could be! It just strikes me as too little to go on, so I based it on the QM being invested in his character and visually styling him a certain way. Well see!>>6350131It does sometimes surprise me how often players go that way
>>6350127Fucking primo lmao
It took forever but the next update for The Caretaker Quest is finally live!!!After all the dangers you have gone through, the next "test" you confront is not much problem for you, probably because it wasnt made for you, however, it gave you some important context and now everything might not be what you thought it was!Now, Salazar is closer than ever, but this new information could change yours and everyone´s future, will you follow with the original plan? or will this new info be enough to make you switch sides?VOTE NOW TO FIND OUT!>>6317377>>6317377>>6317377I would like to thank to all the people here that shared their ideas and points of view in my previous post, talking about it really helped me get out of the narrative slump/motivational hole i was stuck in.
I want to share this random free no login worldbuilding resource I found today, it is called PASE https://pase.ac.uk/pase/?list=personProsopography Of Anglo Saxon England. As you know I collect lists of historical names, just for npc fast reference creation, and you can of course find many random name generators online. But this academic PASE database contains EVERY NAME and OCCUPATION as well as official title and life event chronicle and even their possessions and belongings lol referenced with source in Anglo Saxon England! It is almost like a readymade rpg LIFEPATH creator because for every name you have attached a sequence of their deeds and recorded entanglements etc. There are so many names yayhttps://pase.ac.uk/reference/glossary/There is also a cool glossary of historical occupations, status, placetypes and locations, for instance, if you read a lot of fantasy you know what an armiger is, but how about an APOCRISIARIUS? (some sort of envoy, church diplomat) Can also find these under the "office" tab dropdown in the Person section Maybe you are writing a quest about a CARETAKER >>6350183but perhaps a more exotic term for this is CURAGULUS (caretaker in this context here usually a metaphor for a guardian or protector ie King or archbishop etc)Another facet of this database which is quite fun is you can filter names by occupation eg, generate a list of historical scholars, or falconers, or fyrds men / soldiers, sadly (I checked thoroughly) all the prostitutes are anonymous / unnamed unfortunately, but you can look up the names of their clients (eg Cynewulf). A pirate is named Sigefrith etc. and a "sword-polisher" (perhaps the answer to this ? >>6345434 >>6344996 ) Aelfnoth. You can also look at the dropdown of events and all the hilarious crimes and also legitimate acts of violence perpetrated (Wulfthryth abbess lust lol) So I had some fun browsing this PASE database, maybe it can help you with vaguely Anglo Saxon fantasy npc name inspiration and lifepath generation
Here's one for the crowd. What does your favourite quest mean to you? What do you think its themes are and what the author is getting at? Do you think they intended to send that message or is it something that's developed organically? And, ultimately, what is it a tale *of*?
>>6350332It means a lot desu. I haven't enjoyed anything related to Digimon that much since I watched OWG when I was a kid. I imagine the author could have taken inspiration of the current surveillance we're constantly into and how people's lives might be trapped in the disappointing modern internet. But analyzing that, looking for "wow, it really makes you think" moments would be pretentious and pointless.I think its merit comes from being an entertaining story about friendship, freedom and looking for something authentic in life. All packed in an action filled adventure, in an oppressive setting with great loveable characters. And honestly, that's more than enough at the end, at least for me.
>>6350340I don't want to take importance from the modern internet parallelism. It think it makes the quest and the heroine's struggle relatable.
>>6350332Supreme Space Monke Ruler is a quest where the exact "meaning" or message is difficult to pin down and the QM would rather not give a direct answer. Even so, I think it has a very distinct style of writing and at the evry least is teying to say something about the nature of power and authority.
>Mfw people say my Quest is their favorite
>>6350353>tfw they're just saying it to be polite
>>6350353For me, it's not my "favorite" in the sense that I think it's the best I've read, but it is the one I look most forward to. Basically, I want to see how it goes all the way to the end.
>>6350332Hard to narrow down to a 'favorite', but I think about these questions a lot. Some quests I'm participating in aren't long enough to have really answered them, others I am getting a bead on, though. >Dark Quest To me feels like an adventure that teaches about joy in resilience, and resourcefulness. It reminds me of the Bradbury quote about 'always having to jump off the cliff, and build your wings on the way down', though it'll be a while before I start extracting more. >Gotham Beat Cop It's about making contact with the darkness around of us through the darkness inside us, it's about uncompromising bravery in the face of vast and sometimes terrifying odds, it's about planting your feet and committing to what's right while wading through an ocean of wrong. Elderly women being mind-controlled, people having permanent neurological damage inflicted on them, pyromaniacs, teenagers getting caught up in criminal organizations that use them like pawns. It makes your stomach turn to realize most of that is a Tuesday night in Gotham, and it takes a special person to contend with that and to try to stem the tide when even an icon like Batman only ever seems to keep the very worst of it in check, and never truly vanquishing the evil. A bit meditative, yin and yang, Barong vs Rangda, day chasing night. >Human Male Fighter The current arc has some real soul, and I know with my votes and write-ins I am hoping to help cleave to this theme that's surfaced of compassion and wonder. It's becoming a story of exploring and discovering brokenness, and mending it with the care and tenderness that kept our character alive for so long. The world is fragile, like an egg, and our hero is someone that is always trying to handle it gently and with dignity and respect, so far.
>>6350332My favourite quests are honestly still, even after all these years, Ruby Quest and Nan Quest. Maybe it's because they're very Homestuck-esque? I think they say a lot about working with very little.Weaver has a very simple art style, the narrative progresses in a shockingly simplistic fashion, but there are just enough foibles to leave you thinking, considering, extrapolating these details, and then when they get filled in later, you feel so satisfied. I guess it taught me minimalism?
>>6350353
>>6350353That's cute as fr*ck>>6350367...but this says alot about our society.Anons & Namefrendlemens,If I were to run a qst set in the Star War setting involving Force-sensitives OTHER than the Jedi & Sith, what groups would be of interest? I'm thinking of the following:Bando GoraBlackguards of MustafarFollowers of PalawaJal SheyKnights of Ren (but not fucking gay disney slop)MatukaiRhanditesSeyugi DervishesWardens of the SkyZeison ShaThat's quite a few options but I'm open to ideas, don't want to get too esoteric right off the bat if there's no familiarity with whichever group I decide on.
>>6350442>Don't want to get too esoteric I have never heard of ANY of these lmfao, and I watched Clone Wars and read a couple of the EU books!
I'm not dead, though my last rotation block certainly tried. I have a grant to write and submit over the holidays so my "break" kinda got canned.In the meantime, I re-wrote the smutbin at the end of retaliation quest since the original hosting site got nuked and I didn't have an offline copy. It has 20% more robot sex than the previous iteration, if there's anyone who still remembers retaliation.https://pastebin.com/d6wegDz2I promise I'll be back as soon as I can.
>>6350358Why would anyone go out of their way to be polite on 4chan?>>6350332>>6350346I actually think many quests have major themes, influences, and philosophies intrinsic to them. Sometimes this is just implicit in what outcomes are rewarded, punished, deemed realistic, how NPCs are characterized and respond to different approaches, etc. It's what Souvarine, in one of his most insightful and lucid moments, called "Moral Physics". I think far fewer quests actually have a specific didactic "message" they're trying to send. I don't think the medium lends itself well to that for anything but the most rigid quests with the most pre-set characters and outcomes. if you truly let players steer the main character, let alone the wider world, and ESPECIALLY if you include lots of dice or other elements of chance, then you cannot control what the exact ending is for any given conflict, romance, etcetera. People take away the messages they want to, but in quests especially, they help determine what the message IS. They shape and influence it as they go. The QM has MORE control, but rarely the sort of SOLE control you need to properly lecture on or demonstrate a philosophy.I also think the weakest moments in any quest, including my otherwise favourites, are when it feels like the QM is just directly stating "This is how you should feel. This is what you should believe."
>>6350442do a quest where we rewrite the new trilogy from scratch with ray as our protag
>>6350454That would legit be interesting to see, IMO. "/qst/ rewrites X" is always an interesting idea to me, like with Maximum Spider or Batquest r even PKMN Red/Blue. RIP Gold/Silver
>>6350454I don't mind incorporating some mouselore/nucanon into my own ideas with the EU as a foundation, but I would be hardpressed to take much of anything from the sequels. I could see Luke's Jedi Academy & the New Republic failing, thus public support for the Empire being revived. I'm more interested in the Great Jedi Purge time period during the Imperial Era though.If those choices earlier are too poorly known, perhaps anons would prefer some Jedi/Sith offshoots such as the Teepo Paladins, Grey Paladins, Potentium Heretics (Grey Jedi Order), Maul's Underworld Sith (mostly an original concept), or the Council of Thirty on Korriban.
>>6350448>Implying I could forget my beloved MerrygateMy only regret is that the other pansies I voted with wouldn't let us kill every last one of those alien shits.
>>6350450>Why would anyone go out of their way to be polite on 4chan?Lull into a false sense of security then force intrusion on their system to zipbomb them with ten yottabytes of furry inflation porn. The classic 1-2, it's old hat.
Gotham City Beat Cop returns from weekend break. Join us as we enjoy a victory lap following a successful drug lab raid.>>6350470>>6350470>>6350470
>qtg starts mentioning / reviewing my quest>but only after I stop running it and handover to another qm
>>6350481And I ran it into the ground baby
>>6350448How could I ever forget starting the leglock agenda.
>>6350481I asked a guy on a hot streak of reviews to review mine.He proceeded to get hit by a hurricane and fucking die.Seems I just offload my share of deserved misfortune onto the innocent.
>>6350461Poorly known or not, go with what *you* know, anons will catch up. Seyugi Dervishes sound badass... I will definitely play!
>>6350494>>6350494>>6350494Loooon update for Cyberpunk Changeling. Percy learns about the results of his very high rolls from earlier, and heads out for lunch with an old acquaintance, a fence from the local goblin market who may know more about what's going on with his best friend...
The conquest of the sands proceeds well, other are taking notice....>>6350539>>6350540The battle for the fate of Vierkreuzgang has begun....>>6350551>>6350551
>>6347652I guess we are at it again.Though I could use some tips in timezones. Feels like running in Euro hours is not the smart thing to do, even if it is the most convenient for me. I go to sleep when the board really gets up.
>>6350481You're an awesome QM and as much as I am enjoying the current take, I really would've loved to see you keep telling the initial tale. I really like your art style and sense of humor! I hope you start something new after the holidays (^:
>>6350454I for one want to see obi wan take the death sticks
>>6350461Gay
Throwing my hat in with this one.Based poorly on Bananas's old Be My Fantasy QM quest.Should have advertised earlier, but oh well.Infinite character generation quest lol.>>6350696
>>6350698I think the way you mechanically represented what I was going for is really interesting, especially in the form of verb-specific interactions or buffs. I think you'll have better success with the concept then me, I'll be watching this one.
>>6350701That's very high praise, thank you. The verb interaction stuff is inspired by the adventure games where you have different verbs to use on different things on the screen. Lots to click and sometimes very funny remarks. I'll see how far I can go with this.
>>6350332I really enjoyed Bones Quest when it ran, as I did DQR. Personally I think their themes developed organically as a result of their respective plot structures. One is a tale of a retard overcoming various trials and hardships, and the other is the tale of a chuunibyou who makes horribly bad decisions until she doesn't... the payoff for the amount of time spent reading both of them is well worth it.I don't think I've read any other quests that made it successfully to the end, but those are the ones I can name off the top of my head.>>6350448I can't believe you made MERRYGATE a futa AIEEEEEEEEEEEI want my money back!(Just kidding. Very good work.)
>>6350701The Mammocacy shall rise again! kek
>>6350571thnx
>>6350752After a month break that largely consisted of playing bad video games, Sorcerer Kingdom is running again.
All of my quest have gone cold in lieu of Christmas, and yet Low Rung Researcher chugs on.
>>6350843CANT STOP WONT STOP
I just contradicted my own setting lore
>>6350893Well, I can't say I know much, but it seems like all the players are actually talking about is which waifu they wanna pick and how they can't vote because they haven't settled on a choice.
>>6350894Just as planned...
>>6350895Well, let's just hope they can reach a decision so you don't end up with zero votes
The proclamation has been held, the realm has been declared, now the deserts shall know a new master.>>6350905>>6350905Things aren't looking well, the breakthrough hasn't happened, and time is beginning to tick.>>6350908>>6350908
So I was scrolling through twitter as one often does for new ideas to put in my quest and I stumbled across BasedBinkie’s “My liege!” posts. It was the main inspiration behind this. With the thread coming to a close I’d like to cap it off with something nice. I’d like to thank all my supporters, voters, and readers of my quest. And shoutout to RQM for writing a synopsis of my story and including my quest in his quest rankings!With that out of the way…>Who are ya dating, /qst/?
>>6350923every quest got the>rapist>rapist>rapist>rapist
>>6350934
>>6350026>Fallout: No Gods No Masters >misses the mark with rewarding especially high rollsbasically what you have is a QM who loves inflicting pain on players. he also seems afraid that some of the rewards he has dangled may be gamebreaking>player baseyeah if you get a dumbass or a troll things can go to shit pretty fastsad to say, popular quests tend to attract trollsthe guy with the Enclave fetish doesn't really have an Enclave fetish, just wants to see everything burn and everyone unhappy and QM being a sadist loves to oblige >allowing House's brain to run free in Big MTthat's on QM, not the players. when I voted for putting House in Big MT I thought it meant in a jar on a shelf somewhere, not given free roam of a state of the art prewar lab. guy just loves to inflict pain, but I repeat myself
>>6350923Nowhere else can I be offered such a variety of dateable and likeable women who allRAPERAPERAPERAPE>the third oneDo you view pregnancy as a fucking punishment or something? Malthusian Malaysia with the emphasis on abortions for the poor and needy. What the fuck is the moral physics of the world that RAPE needs to happen or be mentioned at any opportunity?
>>6350940>every story has to have an ethical bent to it and a positive messagefucking americanswhy can't you relax and enjoy seeing just what fucked-up ideas can come out of people's brains instead of trying to play moral guardian?
>>6350940>Do you view pregnancy as a fucking punishment or something?Pregnancy without any agency or control from the mother isn’t exactly a reward.
Personally, I feel like horrible women need some variety, you know? If they're all just horrible rapist murderer pedos it gets kinda boring.
Fair.
>>6350923>six armpits as an upsideWhat idiot let you out of the womb?
>>6350948
>>6350945if it was wall-to-wall megucas you wouldn't have a problem
>>6350951Alas, I prefer women who actually like men.
>>6350923>rape fetish>rape fetish>rape fetish/impregnation fetish/armpit fetish.>rape fetishI believe there's a commonality between these four women, but I can't exactly put my finger on it.>>6350940I would fear for the children of this creature, should he find someone willing to reproduce with him.>>6350948Armpit fetish is absolutely fucking wild.>>6350941>NOOOOOOO I NEED TO TELL MY RAPE ABORTION MURDERKILL STORY BECAUSE IT'S ART AND ART IS SUBJECTIVE AAAGHHHH YOU STUPID VIRGIN PRUDESYou and schiz should kiss.
huh
>>6350955I don't think them/they would enjoy itI suppose you get your jollies by running around telling folks just how sinful they are?
>>6350956I'm gonna rape you
>>6350957No, I get them by posting bait in /qtg/ :))))))>I don't think them/they would enjoy itImplying that schiz has become a gendie. Wow. How unexpected.Perhaps he would like it if you did it without consent :)
>>6350961>gendiedunno what that means but if you mean to say I was implying some gender, I wasn't, I chose the pronouns to fit the schiziness>Perhaps he would like it if you did it without consent :)you always feel a need to belabor the point of jokes or is this turning personal?
Personally, I don't have a problem with edgy fiction or themes of sexual violence, so long as they don't dwell on them fetishistically and at length. Fae Smekter's Craigslist Killer quest dwelt on the sadism and sexualized suffering to a degree that I couldn't get into, but I like the Alien franchise, and Hellraiser, The Hills Have Eyes, and slasher flicks more broadly. I like Berserk. Schiz in particular I know to be a big fan of Blood Meridian. I've always read his works from that perspective: that it's a dark subject he's interested in exploring in his works, not necessarily a fantasy of his. I find the running themes of bodily autonomy, including when it is violated, interesting. I think his body of work shows that fixation through sexual/reproductive means, but chemical, parasitic, and spiritual means as well, and legal means (slavery and slave codes playa repeated role), as well as more obviously through criminal violence or corporal punishment for same.Merry Christmas, Schiz.
>>6350943That is true. Rape is more of a "sex as punishment" from the narrative view I am thinking from. >>6350941If you are going to come at me with a >erm just let people enjoy things chudthat's the weakest fucking attack and idea possible. There is an elephant having sex in the room. There's a lot of rape in the content and narration, man. It is natural and fine for ideas to be written and for judgements to be passed on what has been written. Now the QM asks for answers to "who would you date" and it is my pleasure, "enjoyment," and will to express my immediate disgust to the notion, as well as a general sentiment to what has been shown in the public and previously before. Admittedly, I could have just said "what the fuck is this shit man?" to that selection of murderers and rapists and that would have gotten things across just as well.As for Souv and his very interesting concept of "moral physics", I think it would be funny if I could conjure him up to read my quest later on or read someone else's quest like an on call vampire hotline. His earlier ramblings from years ago were fun and somewhat informative but now he just rapes threads he likes instead of keeping it to the /qtg/ which he also likes.
>>6350923I sincerely hope you catch the plague and die in the next year.
>>6350923going with Oubshei>>6350934>>6350940>>6350955anons, the 2nd one doesn't mention rape at all
>>6350973Eh, 3/4 is good enough.AnywayQuests quests quests
>>6350970>It is natural and fine for ideas to be written and for judgements to be passed on what has been written. Now the QM asks for answers to "who would you date" and it is my pleasure, "enjoyment," and will to express my immediate disgust to the notion, as well as a general sentiment to what has been shown in the public and previously before. criminal quest women have been waifued before, I don't see why act so surprised about the choice image
>>6350978>What about [UNRELATED WAIFUS]?I do not like these women, you blithering idiot.
>>6350973Milfy shortstack goblina is ideal, yes, but I am too old for her. Unfortunately, everyone else there is terrifying.
>>6350893
>>6350948You haven't been to some of the hornier boards in a while eh?The severed penis jewelry is concerning even if it's a magic necklace.
>>6350968>Schiz in particular I know to be a big fan of Blood Meridian.He's extremely low IQ, he is not a fan of Blood Meridian and 100% of the "controversial topics" in his quest are there because he jerks off to them. You don't have a 10 post update about performing an abortion and why the setting has industrialized abortion before any sort of industrial revolution if you aren't cranking your hog to it. I hope you like Schiz enough to hold his hand when you're both lined up against a wall.
>>6350990kek
>>6350995Truth supernova
>>6350991Palad Khik. It's a real thing.>>6350995Look anon, I just know he's talked at length about the themes and characters in Blood Meridian, and also a bunch of other morally grey works, memoirs, and historical texts from feudal Europe and the Old West to me. You can draw your own conclusions, but I think you're being uncharitable.
>>6350990Bit of a truke...Despite my origins as an OSR DM/GM/QM I've never really been a big "lore guy". I've never had a default setting or worldbuilding project to fall back on. And while worldbuilding for its own sake is masturbatory and kinda autistic, it's indicative of a bigger personality and work-ethic that creates the types of lived-in fantasy worlds people want to explore and are hand in hand with fantasy questing. My biggest fantasy inspirations are Conan, Elder Scrolls, and the various blogosphere weird-fantasy hodgepodge projects you can find on there. I always find the prospect of exploring such fantasy worlds extremely compelling and wanted to create something like them myself, but find actually doing it almost impossible. I never find the completed "project" any good compared to the original pitch. The closest thing I've done to it is unironically Space Monke, which actually has its own vibe and world built up over many years since it was developed thru play. This is the ideal way to do it, but a fantasy setting that isn't fully well developed with places to explore and lore to put out plot hooks right from the start feels a bit dishonest.
>>6351053I think you are routinely too hard on yourself abiut that particular aspect. Even obsessive and well-respected worldbuilders need to retcon and rework things are they go, or leave questions unanswered or answered ambiguously. Tolkien never even settled on where orcs come from or of they're intrinsically evil.
>>6350991I prefer not having to bleach my eyes. I have my own likings, and I prefer to stick to them.
>>6351061Not even talking about the red boards. First time on a Charlie and the chocolate factory thread on /tv/ confused as to why there was so much art of one of the kids death.>>6351029Let's hope they're not real cocks.
>>6350970>I am offended and alarmed by imaginary goings-on>moreover I want for everyone else to cancel the one imagining themthat's just sad
>>6351066Oh god, the blueberry one, right?
>>6351029>Look anon, I just know he's talked at length about the themes and characters in Blood Meridian, and also a bunch of other morally grey works, memoirs, and historical texts from feudal Europe and the Old West to me. You can draw your own conclusions, but I think you're being uncharitable.He's also spent thousands and thousands of words talking describing and implying rapes, abortions, child rape, sexualized cannibalism. All of his research and themes is super surface level, anything he links is either scraped from an active /tg/ thread or google.
>>6351071Still baffles me why of all things that had to be fetishized.
>>6351075>All of his research and themes is super surface level, anything he links is either scraped from an active /tg/ thread or google.Would well be, but it's more than I've done, and it shows interest in the subjects. One anon can never truly know another, but I don't get the vibe that abortion or rape are kinks so much as thematic fixations... And while I can see why those things would be off-putting to some on their own, or the way he presents them which can be quite edgelordy, no offence intended schiz they don't really trouble me or give em that "this dude is stroking it while he writes" vibe.>He's also spent thousands and thousands of words talking describing and implying rapes, abortions, child rape, sexualized cannibalism.I feel you're overstating it. Rarely do his quests really dwell at length or in any grave detail on the more visceral aspects of the subject, with the description of the victims in the current quest being really the only once to make me wince... But then again, I am pretty into slashers, body horror stuff like the works of the Cronenbergs or Barker, etcetera. I may just be jaded to gore and shock material. I mean, I am at the point where the only stuff I've read or watched that has really made me feel visceral disgust lately are, like... The Terrifier movies, A Serbian Film, or Mark Millar's 'The Unfunnies', and there are very few quests that have ever provoked genuine discomfort in me as opposed to just irritation, disinterest, or fleeting moral outrage.
>>6351085>but I don't get the vibe that abortion or rape are kinks so much as thematic fixationsThey're in all of his quests and characters in his quests are turned on by those subjects. What theme is that supposed to convey?>I feel you're overstating it. Rarely do his quests really dwell at length or in any grave detail on the more visceral aspects of the subject, with the description of the victims in the current quest being really the only once to make me wince... But then again, I am pretty into slashers, body horror stuff like the works of the Cronenbergs or Barker, etcetera. I may just be jaded to gore and shock material. His longest update in anything is about an abortion and he goes into as much detail as his rudimentary style allows about how developed the fetus was and how they disposed of it. That's dwelling on it, that's long form, that's in detail. And the difference between all of those things you watched because you're so cultured and tough and unflappable and what schiz does is that they're A: competently written, and B) they weren't made with the primary creator's hand wrapped around his cock.
>>6351089I have an actual answer to this, but it's pretty tl;dr. Are you actually interested in it?
>>6351092No because you also write your quest with one hand under the table. Nobody wants to hear one smut peddler cover for another, Reptoid.
>>6351093That's what I thought. Weird to try to waste both our time like that of Christmas Eve. Have a good one, anon.
>I fuckin hate this guy>do you wanna talk about it?>I am, I am saying I fuckin hate this guyPretty funny day today.
>>6351095I know schiz's excuse but what's your excuse? Seriously what are you going for when Dragonborn Antipaladin disembowels his bug stepdaughter so he can fuck her? What are you going for when the gay male goblin lead of your newest quest fucks a squirrel to death or spends paragraph upon paragraph talking about how his boyfriend's small (and the size is very important, you emphasize this) hobbit penis is extremely painful to have sex with? You're just another pervert but I really do wanna hear the flimsy excuse you come up with for writing worse smut than the titties and piss guy or the lolicon guy who came over from /i/ ever wrote that isn't just you being a creep.
>>6351113>UH PORN IS A HUMAN NEED>MORE PEOPLE SHOULD BE DESENSITIZED TO FETISHIZED PORN>BECAUSE I SAID SO OKAY?!
>>6349343I'm sorry anon I'm trying I really am, I have some drawings ready for next update after Christmas though.
>>6351113>What are you going for when the gay male goblin lead of your newest questthere's no gay goblin lead on his quest, wideful. you can say you hate stuff without making shit up
>>6351118Yeah bro a flat futa goblin with no pussy is totally female bro. And you miss Irina quest? No wonder you're running defense for these guys.
>>6351118But a squirrel does get fucked to death? And there is necrophilia-incest? Genuinely curious, I am not whinging like the other anon and he is so mad it's hard to believe all these accusations. But I am seeing a new side of /qtg/ tonight... On Christmas Eve of all nights...
>>6350978I think the primary difference between this and that is that most of the criminal ladies of QST is that most of those characters are awful in ways that are entirely divorced from their sexuality. In effect, it's a sort of gap moe, based in the contrast between them as a killer and a villain and them as a potential romantic partner.Meanwhile, Schiz’s writings are so thoroughly steeped in intensely disturbing sexual themes explored with a repetition and depth that could only be born of fetishistic obsession such that those elements naturally carry over into every single character he writes. These women aren't just evil, they're explicitly SEXUALLY evil in a way that's impossible to comfortably divorce from an imagined romantic idealization of those awful people. 75% are literal rapists, and the last lady is explicitly predatory in her pursuit of younger partners. In effect, it's the difference between watching people die in an action film and watching them die in a serbian porn movie— they're both kills, but one FEELS a lot different from the other.
>>6351122Bait used to be believable, how is it madposting when everything that's been said has been true? Cambion's sex scenes are gayer than Monke's.
>>6351122This isn't bait. It's all truth.Reptoid's and schiz's work makes all else seem tame in comparison.
>>6351121I'm going to rape you.But yes thanksgiving was about a month ago.
>>6351113>Dragonborn Antipaladin disembowels his bug stepdaughter so he can fuck herDidn't happen in any way, shape, or form. >fucks a squirrel to deathTortured it to death to take out sexual frustration, largely "off-screen".>paragraph upon paragraph talking about how his boyfriend's small (and the size is very important, you emphasize this) hobbit penisHeavily exaggerated.Why do you obsessively read my quests if you hate them? Is all this talk about jacking it while writing projection?Is your Christmas going that poorly?>>6351122See above. I'm not sure where he's getting anything about a bug stepdaughter from. A dragon-man did bang a shapeshifted/disguised bug-woman to whom he was unrelated, though it was pretty much a paragraph of seduction, one sensory descriptor, and a cutaway and both lived and went on to have a litter of terrifying nightmare xenomorph children.The squirrel RIP was just a result of the main character's ongoing, foregrounded struggles with impulse control and monstrosity as a result of being sired by a succubus -- a classical 'cambion'.>>6351126Lol.
>>6351131>Didn't happen in any way, shape, or form.One of your quests has a grooming type connection between the MC and a nonhuman, it might not be that but this is what people who have read your work have said. Also "A dragon-man did bang a shapeshifted/disguised bug-woman to whom he was unrelated, though it was pretty much a paragraph of seduction, one sensory descriptor, and a cutaway and both lived and went on to have a litter of terrifying nightmare xenomorph children" so the MC DID in fact cut open a bug monster so he could have sex with it and then had a litter of nonsentient children with it.>Tortured it to death to take out sexual frustration, largely "off-screen".Okay so fucked it to death, which you're dancing around. Just like you're dancing around why you write all this stuff if you're not getting off to it, because you are. >Heavily exaggerated.So this one you're not even denying and there's a dedicated smutbin to it so it can't be shorter than several paragraphs, got it. You don't act ashamed of this stuff in your own threads, why so cagey here? >Why do you obsessively read my quests if you hate them? Is all this talk about jacking it while writing projection?People talk about you being a weird pervert because you put weird perverse shit in your quests. Nobody talks shit about Olympus QM >>6351123 for writing evil women for example, because he never had his MC manifest a dick out of pure evil and rape a forest creature to death with it. People DO talk shit about BananasQM >>6351121, except unlike you and Schiz he owns it. And while he might have those things happen more than once, he doesn't make gay sex or amazon reverse-rape a running theme in his quests, they feel like set dressing there rather than the main attraction. >Is your Christmas going that poorly?I've been tabbing between boards to unwind on Christmas Eve, you however, came back after saying you were done with the conversation. You also haven't said anything besides "nuh-uh" (then confirmed what I was saying) and "you mad bro" rather than justifying yourself, despite saying you would explain Schiz, who you have less insight into. So what deep philosophical themes are you exploring with your recurring scenes of sex with animals, sex with animals that can use sign language like a gorilla or however the literal maggot communicated, and gay sex between hobbits and goblins?
>>6351131More broadly, >Seriously what are you going foris a difficult question to answer, because I mainly just go with the flow of the adventure. Despite 8la3gqyq and cQOWBM2h flipping their shit for some reason, I rarely include extended erotic scenes, and usually only if I think it will be important to establish a mood or feeling -- tenderness, inhibition or lack thereof, or a bit of erotic body-horror when someone discovers a succubus or other demonic/monstrous entity isn't just a cute girl.I would say I've leaned into being "the racemixing QM" a la an old criticism that I got a few years back, since exploring hybridity, monstrosity and attempting to humanize unconventional or traditionally villainous fantasy archetypes (a reptilian infiltrator, evil draconic warlord, 'mad scientist' wizard, goblin bandit, unhinged demonspawn) is a thing I've found I enjoy doing quite a bit. I'm not really trying to make some grand point or to get my rocks off, though.I do not enjoy my own prose enough to find it sexy or really stimulating in any way... it just makes me self-conscious on a re-read, usually.>>6351126>>6351124I'm sorry you don't like my quests. I'd suggest you just not read them. I am genuinely confused why you apparently continue to do so... or, like, have people whoa re reading skim to bring you rage-baiting tidbits? It's weird.Merry Christmas.
>>6351134>you however, came back after saying you were done with the conversationHuh? I asked if you wanted my take on Schiz's stuff as someone who has actually read/played pretty much all of it, and what themes I think he's actually getting at. You said no. I let that lie. Then you decided to troll me instead.I'm not going to go piece-by-piece and line-by-line with a guy who's just trying to get my goat.
>>6351135>or, like, have people whoa re reading skim to bring you rage-baiting tidbits? It's weird.People talk about things when they're funny bad. Which your quests usually aren't, unlike Schiz's. You're just an akun guy on the wrong site, down to this fake smug attitude you trot out whenever someone calls you out on being a pervert who writes gay smut and bestiality for other perverts. >I would say I've leaned into being "the racemixing QM" a la an old criticism that I got a few years backOkay so you just write gay porn for the sake of writing gay porn and when someone calls you a gay smut peddler you say that they're mad because you're too fragile to handle any criticism harsher than asspats. Right. >I do not enjoy my own prose enough to find it sexy or really stimulating in any way... it just makes me self-conscious on a re-read, usually.You have post-nut clarity, then. >>6351136>Then you decided to troll me instead.Anyone who doesn't like you is a troll, surely. >I'm not going to go piece-by-piece and line-by-line with a guy who's just trying to get my goat.You just did that for three posts, and you'll probably do it for three more because you can't let the evil, prudish trolls have a win. And then you'll sign off with, "sorry you're offended ^^ merry Christmas", again, which implies you're leaving the conversation. Again.
>>6351137If you're not trolling, what is it you even want, lol? Me to go away? Write a different type of quest? Be more belligerent? What is your end goal here?
Actually this does make me wonder, do people actually choke their chicken to shit they themselves write? I could never. Like at that point I'd rather just sit there and imagine it so I don't actually have to read mediocre writing. Who out here strangling their snake to self-written smut raise your hand. Not you BananasCoo-em I know you don't have hands.
>>6351139I've never written smut, but I DO draw, and I can tell you pretty definitively that it's next to impossible for me to find it hot. Even if I recognize a piece is objectively well made, I'm too steeped in the process of having made it to ever be aroused by it. I think what's a lot more likely for the average smut merchant is that there's something inherent to the process of creation that allows them to channel and express those urges, basically hitting their needs on a slightly more abstract level, like vent art but for eroticism
>>6351139>>6351140I think Olympus has the gist of it. getting into a horny headspace helps with writing, and probably drawing, smut. Even so (and despite what some will immediately say) I can't get into that headspace for many of my scenes, because they tend to be brief and often involve elements I don't really get off on. I think writing smut you're actually really INTO only works if what you're trying to write IS an erotic, "Akun" work where the porn IS the plot.Even then, I think actually GETTING OFF on your own art would require a level of narcissism and self-satisfaction that I have trouble imagining.
You’ve been with me for the last three years and still think I jack off to… abortion or rape. That’s it? That’s the only reason you can think of as to why I write what I write? That’s a sad picture. Even RQM got it right the very first time he tried to guess.This picture is basically 99% of my protagonists’ romance. I think it’s pretty damn obvious.
Yeah I can't say I've found anything I've produced to be hot or sexually titillating, I just include it as a part of the overall stories and for development between characters. The furthest I got is pin-up style art and it's a fun challenge but I'm not very good at drawing anatomical features so it's mostly just suggestive of the forms then actually pornographic.
>>6351145The Consortium has so many weird, fun species with especially alien elements. You ever thought about running a spinoff quest just about their sector of space? They're probably the aspect of your worldbuiding, to return to >>6351053, that I'm the most curious about. it seems like it would have a lot of room for a more "pulp" space adventure, like smugglers and pirates and privateers and shit.
>>6351147I imagine the Consortium, especially in recent times, to be more like Monke space America so it'd be a bit safer and less prone to that kind of adventure IMO, maybe more of a crime drama kind of thing. I also have too many quests to run as is at the moment, unfortunately. I'd love to expand them out more in the main quest though; they're my perfect go-to for place I need to stick a new alien design I like at least.
>>6351149Kind of reminds me of the Mocchis from Monster Rancher, especially if I'm interpreting it right and these dudes curl up into a ball? it' a cool design! it isn't often n my experience that one sees bird-people that aren't characterized in some way by flight, or at least being nimble but fragile.
I just don't have strong opinions about quests I'm not really playing in, and if I find one I'm in going in a weird direction sexually I will probably just bail on it like I would any other unpleasant plot pivot. Of course, this is 4chan, so I also accept that there will be perversion in some threads I'm not interested in, just like there is sometimes weird levels of racism or other stuff I'm not crazy about, and idk, complaining about any of it or calling people to task feels like such a waste of energy... This is a small hobby these days, I wanna keep the energy positive for those of us that are still here. I think griping about someone's ability to tell a story is one thing, but complaining about the /kind/ of story seems silly. If I wanted to RP somewhere that didn't include sexual violence or other unsavory stuff I would start a private discord or something I guess. I would never wanna put my smut into a quest here but I do think it is good enough for my own use, and so is the stuff my boo writes, and we save it for later, idk if that makes me a 'narcissist' or whatever but I'm not changing that part of me even if it does
>>6351129Well surely it's Thanksgiving somewhere?
>>6351151>his is a small hobby these days, I wanna keep the energy positive for those of us that are still here. I think griping about someone's ability to tell a story is one thing, but complaining about the /kind/ of story seems silly.It is very peculiar. Luckily, most of /qst/ is a lot more pleasant, but it IS 4chan and sometime, it happens. It is difficult not to jump to correct misconceptions about one's own work, or to defend someone I've come to think of as a friend like Schiz, but ultimately the important thing to remember is that most of the players and QMs here are genuinely quite a good bunch.
Unrelated to all this high octane deliberation about porn in RP.... I swear I saw 6 Do Your Best Quests (too lazy to recount) yesterday and it's making me feel like I could get away with making more threads and I hate how many ideas I have been having lately to distract from The Depression and how I simply cannot possibly juggle more of them. Sucks the board moves so slow, too, if I kick one off, even a one-shot, it feels like such a commitment... I know I can bail before post limit, sure, but there was a time on /tg/ when you'd get through three threads of a quest (which admittedly were shorter in length) inside of a month. Just another thing to lament I suppose... But fucking hell my replay of Shadow of The Colossus yesterday really gave me some Big Ideas.
>>6351154If you really want to run many threads, use a mobile IP or coffee-shop wifi or something to start it, then post from home for the rest. The downside, which will be ESPECIALLY pronounced for someone like you who makes really good and clever use of the formatting tags, is that you'll lose that ability after switching IPs.
>>6351135I've read your quests and dropped them, not just the rage-baiting parts.Not your quests that piss me off but the fact that you try to pretend you're not at least some breed of fetishistic porn peddler. >>6351137 pretty much summed up all I was going to say on that, since I just came back here to pass the time while my dessert's in the oven :)Merry Christmas to you as well.
>>6351150Yeah. I try pretty hard to not just make aliens "furry people in space" but sometimes I don't develop the necessary details. To my eternal chagrin I left the Urgi too late without any sauce and now they're one of the most boring Monke races (imo). I would have at the very least liked to incorporate bird sexual dynamics or something so all the women are dour little frumpy wallflowers and all the men are bright effeminate crossdressers or something at least. They even have the "religious bird people who worship the sky" thing going on. Yuck.
>>6351157Well I'm glad you didn't continue reading them if you weren't enjoying them, and I'm sorry they weren't to your liking.>>6351159The Urgi's whole civ just got a major shake-up or two, so you can probably use that as an excuse to fiddle with their culture quite a bit! >They even have the "religious bird people who worship the sky" thing going on. Yuck.It's not AWFUL, just common. You at least did something pretty cool IMO with the whole "low grav planets are like a holy-land to them" thing.
>>6351156The thing is, I definitely don't want to run a bunch, I don't have the time if they are gonna be good and while I really value the escapism and engagement I get from quests, there are definitely diminishing returns. I can just draft some material in notes now though, warehouse it, and when things are open enough I can pull the trigger and roll hard. Just impatient, because again, I WANT that escapism and player engagement. C'est la vie!
>>6351161As Bananas said, the QMly urge to run a billion different things conflicting with the time pressure of running even one is INTENSE. I have no idea how people like you can run two or three concurrently, or someone like Bananas can make a regular schedule work when he writes, plans game mechanics in depth, AND draws for his. It's nuts!
>>6351140Get better at drawing butts homie. Additionaly when drawing smut you think about the STORY in your head and that's more then enough
I want LESS """"""""""original"""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""creation"""""""""""""""""""" "quests" that throw breadcrumbs of a setting with reckless abandon because the QM didn't plan anything beyond feels and the vaguest formation of the structure of their world and DEMAND more franchiseslop that can seriously focus, engage, and properly apply critical thinking to parts of things that haven't or will never get such a treatment by their right holders.
>>6351193Making it really hard for me to not run a Shadow of The Colossus spinoff, anon... Stunned me that there were no results for it on the archive. I like coming up with my own setting and characters a lot, and I have a real appetite for new ideas in a media ecosystem drowning in sequels/spinoffs/etc, but there really is a learning curve to connecting all the right dots.. Doesn't help that a lot of the media I like is extremely ripe for extrapolation, so it feels easy to caught up in that instead.
>>6351193>>6351201Working with an established property honestly makes me more nervous about fucking up on canon than making it up as I go, but I appreciate a well-executed fan-quest quite a bit.>Shadow of The ColossusThe LoZ quest makes me think you'd be quite good at capturing the game-feel sans mechanics, so that would be neat to see. Cyberpunk Fairytale's feel is so distinctive that it's really growing on me, too.
I can't tell if quests based on pre-existing IPs have a higher turnover rate than ones based on original concepts. I think either way would make sense - if you make your own world, that's more work and so burnout is more likely, but also it's more personal investment. If you use something that's already there, some of the labor is handled and you may have a lot of very direct inspiration, but it's less likely to feel like 'your baby'.
>>6351206My problem with preestablished settings is often times there is an "enormity" to them and I find it difficult to satisfy myself with my knowledge of it. It is hard to FEEL like I am doing an IP I am a fan of justice by not knowing everything there is to know about it. Which can be a huge problem for morale. There have been quest ideas I've had that I simply never tried because when I've tried to brush up on my knowledge of the setting I realized there's half a dozen books, games, or supplementary media which alter the entire dynamic and I feel like I HAVE to know them to determine whether or not they should be included or altered before I start. It depends entirely on what kind of neurotic the writer in question is.
Merry Xmass peeps!
>>6351205Very very kind! I probably will want to wait a long while to take on something like that and would spend that time figuring out how to catch the feel... It's so cinematic, and streamlined. There's one button just dedicated to looking at the Colossus you're fighting. Brilliant game design. I will say, my concept is post-game, time has passed and Wander has grown back up, he and Mono are now immortal demigods from eating all the fruit and game there (idk if anyone else knows about the fruit and lizard tails buffing stats), tasked with guarding the Forbidden Lands now that the Colossi are gone. I was really thinking of having antagonists that are less monumental in shape and style - human interlopers at first, then other demigods, descended from a younger pantheon, meddling where they don't belong. I would probably want to keep the action really sparse, but very scenic, probably revisiting the old arenas? Much to think about... I can only take the barest amount of credit for that part of LoZ - I think the shape and patterns of the encounters are pretty easy for anyone to analyze and mimic, but all the mechanics were designed by /tg/ anons back in the day. I was in some of the threads but didn't contribute as much to that project, I was more involved with Walmart Apocalypse which fucking SHIT as I type those words I remember and THAT would be a GREAT setting for a /qst/, haven't looked at it in years: https://2d4chan.org/wiki/Walmart_Apocalypse>Cyberpunk Fairytale Thank you for saying this also, really means a lot. I am borrowing a lot from a really wide variety of sources and I think that makes it feel more original than it is, I mean simply put it's basically Shadowrun but with urban fantasy/horror instead of high fantasy/action! Also I was lucky with my first crop of voters giving me a particularly interesting array of traits for me to click together with the MC. Whenever you wrap up Cambion, do you see yourself running more fantasy, or going for a different genre/setting? Are there any in particular you're drawn to?
Merry Christmas, questies
>>6351213>>6351217Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals.
>>6351211Mmm yeah I have actually seen that sentiment shared too, that makes a lot of sense too. I will say, anyone paying close attention to the franchises I am running or wanting to run might notice that they all either have very minimal lore or limited content (Shadow of The Colossus, Laputa, Custom Robo - all one offs basically with AWESOME world building and a LOT of unanswered questions I am very happy to fill in) or have very *malleable* lore, like Legend of Zelda, where some things have become more static overtime but big picture, major elements can be altered drastically between titles. It's more about motifs and themes, there are recurring enemies and locations but their names are typically the most consistent quality between them all, that makes it easy and satisfying to put my own spin on things.
>>6351214>smaller enemiesIt'd hope we'd see some collossi (collossuses? collossodes?) at some point, or something else sizeable, to get that feel. A build up to enjoy an earned victory and period of peace feels appropriate, too, though.>Whenever you wrap up Cambion...Oof. I'm subject to the same curse as you and bananas, as I said. There are several quests I kind of want to run: a superhero one, a supernatural/cryptid quest, a few others like a virtual reality sci-fi quest. I even have a Pokemon quest idea kicking around!Ultimately I'm really attached to the setting of Cambion and its predecessors, though. There is something very satisfying to me about paying off plot threads from past quests, and in particular seeing the bonkers-ass Yosef family tree get more and more convoluted and full of freakshows.There's at least one more major quest I have in mind for the setting, bare minimum, which I expect may end up being one of my most ambitious... Even a two-year endeavour. After that, I think I'd take a break from the setting. Before I start, I plan to take a few months off.I'm vaguely considering running a king/queen tourney again, too, but last time was kind of exhausting and tonight reminded me I still have some extremely caustic detractors who will probably make sure I have a less than stellar time if I try.
>>6351213>>6351217>>6351219Merry Christmas fellers(: glad to share this space with you all
>>6351221>>6351211>malleable or simple canonSuperhero quests can be good in that regard, too, which is part of why that feels less threatening to me! When the multiverse and all sorts of adapted, modified versions of core characters are part of the source material itself, it's easy to put your own spin without feeling like you're messing anything up. This is just how things are on Earth-Q154!>>6351213>>6351219Merry Christmas, anons.
>>6351222My opinions on your quests would not have any impacts on your tournament. Do we have enough contestants for a king/queen tournament?
>>6351222>Hope to see Colossi I think when I finally did introduce fantasy creatures, especially really Big ones, I would do something fresh in order to preserve the sense of wonder and mystery that the original 16 have. I was actually thinking if I used a Colossus for the quest, I would do so by allowing the MC to resurrect one of the ones featured in the game as a companion of some kind. I think THAT would be really cool, and being able to take the Colossi out of their context. I have a very particular fondness for Colossus 11, 'Leo', and I really like the confrontation with him at the underground shrine. I'd like to explore what a monster like that would be like facing off against a cavalry unit, or a pair of wizards, or a tribe of bandits. Soaring around on Colossus 5 could also be really interesting. Basically any of them except for 16. I wouldn't want to bring them all back or diminish them by inventing new ones. Maybe some new kind of giant beast or automaton descending from those younger gods I was talking about, and using your own Colossus to challenge them... >That family tree Holy fucking hell dude............ So cool. I love capeshit so count me in if you do that for sure. Tell me about your pokemon idea??? I wasn't able to really get into pokepocalypse; the writing is top notch but I can't fully attach to the idea of pokemon that aren't known/understood as pokemon, y/n? I think it's extremely fresh and interesting as an idea but it doesn't give me the same warm fuzzy feeling that something fully set in the pokemon world does usually. >Detractors Yeah that blows.. I won't front, I haven't been in Cambion long enough to notice anything uncomfortably lewd, and when/if it comes up I probably will just check out for that part of the quest, but I have been having fun dungeon crawling and as long as that's in the mix I will stick around for it and other adventuring stuff. Sucks that anyone would spend time and energy just trolling quests when they are so much higher effort even than a regular thread... But it's like that anon was saying about FNV, some anons just want others to have an unpleasant time. I'd hope that even if those guys feel so strongly about your quests they need to complain( which idk, fair enough even if it isn't the spirit that I wanna bring to this hobby), they still wouldn't take time out of their lives just to be a drag for you /and/ their players... But what am I saying, it's 2025 4chan. No one is writing Walmart Apocalypse together anymore, that's for sure. Time keeps on ticking...
>>6351229I personally think so. Between well-regarded quests of old and new ones, I think we'd be able to manage at least the 12 guys and 12 girls I went for last time, though I was considering a different co-ed sort of format. Were it me, I'd also probably keep the whole "no characters from the tourney last year" rule, but would open it back up to characters from the ORIGINAL tournament since it's been many years now. Just off the top of my head, there are some good candidates from many quests on my list, a few new quests that have started or picked back up recently if they keep going. Granted, we obviously have very different tastes in quests, so that may not be true for the sorts of characters and QMs you want to see represented in such a thing.>>6351231>ColossiAutomatons could be neat, as in people attempting to create war-machines based on them, perhaps? or some ancient countermeasure intended for them that activated too late? I haven't played in forever, so while I remember the vibe, I honestly couldn't say whether those would fit with the lore. I think I remember it being a little preindustrial for that, and even the Colossusseses being more like golems/elementals than anything like that... Maybe it depends how far you set it after the game?>Pokemon ideaUnfortunately for you, then, my main idea was a Pokepocalyspe thing for when PQM finishes his take, but set in the Arabian Peninsula or Persia/Iran. I actually found the idea of how the Shenanigan's Gulch priest, or the Governor in Sacramento, reacted to the Pokemon as sort of demonic entities especially interesting. A couple other ideas I had were a sort of Pokemon/Digimon thing (where the "box" system malfunctions or gets infected and becomes a pocket Digital World and Bill's assistant has to digitize themselves to investigate), or a simpler concept I had in my head as "Kanto: Land of Poison" where the player would be part of an ecological clean-up and conservation team in a near-future Kanto where the abundance of Poison-types and some recent industrial disturbances had led to a biodiversity crisis that the agency is trying to rectify by introducing foreign species, staging 'culls" (capturing rather than killing, of course), and with a new villain team as well as half-hearted Rocket remnants.I tend to skew edgier, sorry... I'm bad at writing wholesome stuff, even if I do appreciate reading it!
>>6351234>Kanto: Land of PoisonThat goes so fucking hard wth....... PLEASE run.>EdgyI think capturing and rehoming invasive species is way more tasteful than shooting stray Pokemon with guns like they're deer or rats. Also feels like a kind of pokemon *Job* that would fit seamlessly into the world - Scientist, Breeder, Collector, Trainer, Watcher, Hiker? You would be a Rescuer or something I guess. Kind of getting a Fukushima vibe. You should watch Shin Godzilla for inspo, it seems way up your alley. Genuinely scary Gman, and municipal workers save the day!
>>6351231>>6351234>I haven't been in Cambion long enough to notice anything uncomfortably lewdThere was indeed a body horror sex scene that I pastebinned that you'll bump into (or pass over, realistically) if you're catching up. Generally speaking, scenes like that are pastebinned or brief. My first quest was probably both my lewdest and edgiest, because I was still getting my sea-legs as it were and hadn't yet figured out how I wanted to steer my writing's tone or adapt to voting habits, but even then there's probably only a handful of actual sex scenes and virtually all of them are brief and more focused on the emotions involved or the fallout (kids, alliances, infiltration opportunities, demon effects) than really describing many acts or physical particulars.My objection to people calling me a "pornographer" or whatever is less that I'm embarrassed tow rite weird sex scenes so much as they're just a small fraction of any actual quest. I feel like they'd really disappoint someone who came for the lewds, kek.>I'd hope that even if those guys feel so strongly about your quests... they still wouldn't take time out of their lives just to be a drag for you /and/ their playersLast time I had some guy start shrieking about how I was rigging the tournaments for the winners... Event though none of my characters were finalists, my nominees didn't even get into the tournament proper, and the winners were from quests I never read or played. And even though there was pretty much no prize except me commissioning one extra piece of art and it was just a fun community event. People are weird, especially when it seems even superficially like competition and status are involved. 4channers are weirder than average. It is what it is, but it may be a bit much to do during my little break I want to take from running quests to take on more of... That.>Family TreeThanks!
>>6351234And if I went with an automaton flavor it would probably be in the vein of the bronze Colossus that attacked the Argo, or Dwemer automaton - something that is mechanical in design but magically animated. Was thinking maybe they'd be much the same but with steel or iron plates on them instead of stone. There are ways to modernize the concept and make contrast even if I think I would keep the world feudal/medieval technologically.
>>6351240This time? Cheryl's getting on there for sure...
>>6351243Cheryl was absolutely one I was thinking of, kek>>6351242>Dwemer automatonThat is a pretty solid aesthetic and conceptual basis to build on. If you don't do a full SotC quest, that would mesh pretty well with Umbral Tower's world, too!>>6351239>PLEASE run.It will likely be a while before I give it a go, if I do... But the enthusiasm sure helps!>shooting stray Pokemon with gunsI agree. Pokemon are so borderline-sacred in the setting that, while I guess some get killed or eaten, mass culling felt like it would be out-of-place. Doing so with guns even moreso, and I'm not confident bullets can kill Grimer and Muck, anyway!>Shin GodzillaIt is VERY good.
Merry Christmass everyone
>the most active /qtg/ day in months>it's christmas eve / christmas morningwhat the fuck
>>6351270Turns out the secret to bringing in activity is to talk about abortion fetishes.
>>6351270I don't know why people are so busy on christmas. I went to mass, had lunch with my family and now I have the whole day free.
>>6351270>No work>Most /qtg/ers won't have an extensive network of loving family and friends sufficient to occupy them for the whole day
>>6351286I have an extensive network of loving family but it's 31°C this afternoon and I already spent the morning christmas with them.Also I wfh today so I rather use my Christmas working from my room abusing my A/C
Merry Christmas, everyone. How are the holidays for everyone?
>>6351270A huge portion of the extra activity is just me having a slapfight with Widefu from Discord and some other anon. Sorry. It's not sustainable.>>6351286Christmas Eve wasn't a statutory holiday. Today and tomorrow are, so this is the time I have off work to spend with family.
>>6351289Merry Christmas!Good holiday card, too. A feral post-human quest a la Man After Man would be kind of cool!
>>6351289I'm late for drawing my yearly christmas pinup because I spent the eve goofing off, though frankly that's just normal going by past delivery dates.
>>6351289Great! Been a bummer year but my family are awesome to hang out with. Done with breakfast and now I get to just unwind while dinner cooks and my dad keeps pouring mimosas. Everybody got cooking stuff this year, funny enough, tons of kitchen gear and cookbooks. I already did all my big holiday parties with my friends, clients, and coworkers too, so thankfully this is my last day of holiday obligations.
>>6351286amazingly enough I did/do have social engagements todaybut I like all you pervs too much not to drop by
>>6351289A little bit of a morose holiday for certain reasons, but otherwise pretty good. Spent the morning at Mass and am now munching the candies I got yesterday. Got some very nice gifts from family and friends too!>>6351290All in good fun :)>>6351286It takes less than two minutes to post bait on 4chan in-between hanging out with family and friends. It's just something to do to take the edge off.>>6351224>>6351254Merry Christmas
>>6351316>All in good fun :)I'm glad someone was enjoying themselves, because Widefu making shit up and trying to smear my quests not fun for me. Nevertheless, Merry Christmas.>>6351302>>6351316I'm sorry you two are having a difficult year/season. I get that feel. May your New Year be better.>>6351308Well shucks. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everyone! Also, wtf happened in these last 40 something posts, holy shit.>>6351288Same. Fuck global warming, I'm staying in my room with my AC as low as it can go.
>>6351322Does this Widefu cat run any decent quests?
>>6351325No, he's a closet pedo and a bad actor who pretends he's neither.
>>6351325He ran an Avatar (Last Airbender) one I never played, I think, and a very short-lived Confederate Magical Girl thing set during the American Civil War, which I did. I' not sure if he ever ran anything else, or just sticks around to complain about degeneracy.
Merry Christmas, /qtg/! I mentioned I'd keep people updated on the quest, so here I am. I wish I could bring some good news, but apparently this year isn't done with me just yet. Don't worry-- the quest is still happening. I'm just not sure of when. For now, I'm still sticking to that January 2026 date. But I'm not sure I can so definitively say the second week anymore. This year has kind of left me in shambles, and I need a lot more time to recuperate than I first expected. Some new diagnoses have also made any relaxation difficult, further exacerbating existing issues, and I've already lost about a week and a half to problems outside of my control. So I'm caught trying to establish a new status quo while trying to get over the loss of my old one.I'll be fine-- I've gotten out of situations like this before. But I wanted to let you guys here know since it does affect the quest. Expect something in late January, maybe early February. Much love, see you all later.>>6351231>>6351234And thank you both for reading my quest, even if it didn't end up being to one of your's tastes.
>>6351325Yeah he's run some like>decentNevermind.
>>6351372I still find myself lurking in there time to time, I like the cast and how you characterize them, the pokemon, and the action - I am just picky about particulars with Pokemon, I still play Gold version on the Gameboy color I had as a little kid!
Merry Christmas ya'll
>>6351396Merry Christmas, Nanners.
As just a way to document myself in something I'd like to do.Any examples of the board adjusting to homebrewed crunch-light systems and/or of manipulating a "Party" of characters, the PoV switching per-choice at the start of every thread?
>>6351415Lodestar alternated player characters each thread and had a pretty neat stat and gear system. Cambion has more basic mechanics, but alternates between two characters every few votes or so.
New Thread for Gotham City Beat Cop:>>6351454>>6351454>>6351454
>>6348008>>6346714>>6339087 >>6341853 I mentioned I would use Dubai / UAE demographics as reference for an engineered stratified "future" city; to continue with the nonfiction inspiration worldbuilding theme, on CRIME GANGS, in response to BananasQM, here is what I would be tempted to use: instead of falling back on Italian mafia stereotypes, I would use one of the most violent murder per capita locations in the world, perhaps HONDURAS. Formerly approaching near 80-90 murders per 100,000 (has ameliorated after recent crackdowns) Honduras is known for crime, it is drugs but also documented citywide extortion based upon mobility, taxis and public transportationWhen BananasQM narrated his sewer flooding level transit obstacle, traversing his segregated city tiers, in dungeonmaster mode I was expecting a Thieves Guild / Blades In The Dark -esque turnpike manned by machete and axe wielding underworld enforcers, who presumably would capture and extort lucrative entry exit routes used to arbitrage and smuggle contraband across the tiered city districts. You are saying, the city is rife with crime and extortion - and the MOST SECRET FORBIDDEN transit routes available to crime are just... disregarded?? This in my opinion was more of a worldbuilding believability oversight (versus guns/no-guns lore contradiction, that is easily overlooked >>6350893 )It is also interesting to contrast real life gang behaviour (eg whether they institute a policy of violently fighting back against law enforcement territorial intrusion, or not) as well as their initiation rituals (beatings for men, women: rape) eg Barrio 18 vs Mara Salvatrucha. I would imagine in a tiered segregated city, the basis of crime would be establishing a courier or mule network to transport illicit goodsI say this not to cast aspersions in terms of the vigilante / crime setting overall, I think BananasQM Concrete Stratosphere is a very cool setting, but these minor glaring implausibilities can be easily seen under cursory comparison to real life analogyOne element I regret doing (I had no time to research it) in my own UPYR vampire setting which featured a hidden puzzle in a confrontation with a drug cartel - there was a choice between identifying "drugs" suspicious pilules (actually a jpeg of some random entirely innocent real world SE Asian confectionery) versus a printed LSD blotter with drug infused ink, depicted as sun decorations https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6037279/#6039755 I chose the sun motif due to my setting undercurrent vampire theme, but also because I had read about the "Cartel Of The Suns" in Venezuela (which may actually not exist or serve merely as an organisational sobriquet) The players in the game rejected interacting with the Cartel, but I wish I had researched Central America / South America in more detail for my own worldbuildingPic related contains one of the best depictions of fantasy crime, the Dwarf Commoner background from Dragon Age Origins
>>6341089>>6341089>>6337960Replaying Dragon Age Origins, especially the Dwarven origins backgrounds which I neglected first time round (in desperation for overpowered Mage Arcane Warrior lol) I truly marvel at the cohesiveness of the worldbuilding, it is immaculately historicalThis time round I read the background novel, about King Maric (by David Gaider) whilst it is not great literature or belletristic prose lol, but from a pure Dungeonmaster perspective I was awestruck by his pacing and how he structured nearly every classic fantasy element into it (heir to usurped kingdom, love triangle, dungeon delve, dwarves and elves, battlefield betrayal, Robin Hood outlaws on the run hiding in forest etc)You detect instantly how Dragon Age is about Bioware CANADA, the in game forests are suspiciously pine trees, the indigenous native enslaved elf driven from homelands, why are the invaders French? Orlais etc But I really like the historicity of Dragon Age Origins, the Arthurian influences eg Calenhad / excalibur Galahad, Brecilian Forest / Broceliande etc, Anglo Saxon influences like Ferelden (faereld I think means life journey in old English) and many of the npc names for maximum Anglo-French tension lol the maiden messiah Joan of Arc, Andraste / Tevinter Rome lore is amazing, and the origin of magic being sin, avaricious human mages trespassing into the palace of heaven and corrupting it, apostate persecuted blood magic etc is so incredible. But I think another underpinning of Dragon Age is it is about JUDAISM you can see how the dispossessed Elves call humans shem lol, the Dwarves who worship no gods talk about their ancestors and the Stone (like... Stone tablets? commandments) and the ideological split between the Dalish wild itinerant forest wanderer elf-folk and the enslaved Alienage (jewish ghetto?) subjugated city elves reminded me strongly of the Jewish Enlightenment / Haskalah debates in the 18th 19th Century, of whether jews should acculturate assimilate modernise or cling to rabbinic judgement etc. The great in game taboo of Dragon Age is blood magic, like the biblical Matthew 27:25 blood curse of Caiaphas lol (I always thought warhammer 40k, which features a novel series prominently named "Ciaphas CAIN" is some ultra sacrilegious commentary on the High Priest Of Israel condemning and murdering Jesus lol. One step away from Hideo Kojima names)There are many more influences, eg the dwarf caste system... warrior caste versus untouchable criminal underclass, it is like India so just name the fantasy dwarf crime lord Beraht (Bharat?? lol) >>6351458Overall I feel whenever you draw upon real world history geography and culture, the immersiveness of worldbuilding is enriched, Dragon Age Origins is exemplary in this regard>tldr; Dragon Age Origins about Canada, Judaismpic related me as darkspawn. Dragon Age Origins runs flawlessly on mobile with winlator, yay. I love the Ogre so much, this is the true romance in the game
>>6350450>"weakest moment in roleplaying game, if you are told how to feel or what to believe..." etcI mentioned this in literature before, it is the TS Eliot idea of the OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE in narration, ie if you tell a story like: This is Hamlet, His Father Died He Is Sad. Now He Suspects His Uncle Did A Murder, So He Is Angry etc. only the most naive schoolchildren storybooks are written like this. So obviously you use the objective correlative of emotional CORRESPONDENCES ie sequences of events and contextual settings that hint at the release of emotion, or cathexis scenarios with invested embedded emotion, this can be the stereotypical Sad Moment In Film So THUNDERSTORM rain downpour etc or something more advanced like Thomas Hardy portraying a distant black flag raised at the end of Tess Of The D'Urbervilles (it is the sign she has been executed, it is portrayed from far away to suggest how helpless the reader is in preventing the hanging etc) Sometimes in a very action-driven dice mechanic rpg, you must unavoidably just state an emotion because there is too much happening, but obviously if you are doing a storygame you want more emotional psychological nuanceI was reading a series of essays by Hannah Arendt recently on Thinking, she actually makes this very interesting philosophical distinction about FEELINGS. Basically if you divide the world into the REAL sensory, empirical physical realm and the UNREAL supersensory abstract theological nontangible mystical realm (invisible thoughts, feelings etc) what characterises feelings is they are TIMELESS changeable ephemeral and fleeting but they also REPEAT, because you need to repeat the feeling to anchor it to reality (unlike a hard tangible material happening etc) If you don't stop to obsessively "repeat" and dwell on a feeling, it is quickly supplanted by another (sensory stimulus etc) which is why some unhealthy / traumatised people repeat over and over again their feelings surrounding a climactic event etc to anchor and justify an interpretation or version of reality for comfort etcSo how to use this in games? I have explored those psychology mood transition graphs in the past (holy grail would be some random table that believably generated npc emotional transition mood states) but I think another system could be akin to Cultist Simulator where magic is constructed from transient, disappearing components and moods (fascination, restlessness etc) if you don't hold on to a FEELING, the magic effect spell component is lost, so you cannot "hoard" spells as inventory items etc. you have to build up into an emotional state each time. And there is even a game mechanic where you can talk about feelings with a cultist NPC as dialogue to "preserve" the timer on a disappearing emotional resource etc I have been thinking about a mechanic like this for quite a while
>>6350990>>6351053>>6350450>>6351485I guess a simpler question on the topic of worldbuilding and feelings, would be,How do you make your game world FEEL REAL?So my personal criterion mainly a sense of historicity or detail in believability, I like the names / etymology to be evocative, I like to see elements believably borrowed or even directly transplanted from real world science, parallel society and culture etc, as much as possible. I am actually not too concerned with strict noncontradicting timelines or event backstory justifications etc but more a sense of overall aesthetic or genre cohesiveness, ie if it feels like it can "belong" in the "look" and tone of the setting aesthetically it should be fine. There are probably other approaches
Man, I wish Maverick Hunter quest wasn't dead, or there was a similar X-Series quest running up.The circumstances behind the founding of Repliforce and the entirety if X4 sound like a very fun setting to play catch-all theme to play around for a narrative.
Merry christmas /QST/!Things are starting to clear on my side. I think I'm anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 month to run again.What would you faggot prefer?>Under Hunter Sequel>Dragon's Dungeon Sequel>Normal Cultivator Sequel
Also, looking back in my fodder...Thanks for the crisp fanarts DrawAnon, if you're around.It's been a while, but it warms my heart
>>6351485>>6351490I think a good bit of verisimilitude comes from evoking the feelings you want to evoke from the players and especially evoking a variety of emotions in each of the setting elements. For example, a religious practice must be able to evoke feelings of holiness, fear/awe/respect/love, and so on within the universe itself and the players can sense how much thought was placed into thinking about such things and feel that the world is immersive and engaging. I do not think outright lifting elements and transplanting them 1:1 is at all the right way to go about this, but recognizing the role they play IRL/the necessity of their existence and the kinds of emotions they evoke allows you/me/the DM to create a parallel to the original. (Ex. a police force IDEALLY keeps the peace and practically does violence on part of the government, the feelings of oppression and/or mild annoyance to power tripping ticket giving cops -> make a group that narratively annoys and hampers the players through petty abuses of power (this is what an example of what you could make and convey after seeing the "raw clay" of reality/the CONCEPT) -> now you need to put this ideal group into the CONTEXT of the game world). Concept with the relevant feelings associated with it or WHAT you are trying to create in the game and then there is the gameplay or HOW the players ACTUALLY feel/interact with it. What you provide as a DM/QM may not garner the expected reaction from the players, but that's the fun of such games. The players and the QM are both human, but I've forgotten where I'm going with this fact and what I'm trying to answer here. Before I forget, having a set of codified rules on how things act/behave normally, what is possible and permitted, and what is rewarded/punished is important for the DM/QM SIDE because the RULES AND LOGIC of the setting are implicitly picked upon by the players if you competently tell the story right. This is just MORAL PHYSICS as you said and what the other anon said, but here you said this thing about objective correlation AKA fancy term for "show not tell."I will also say that your quests have very high concepts and defined Souv logic but the presentation to the players/game feel/gameplay are completely disorienting and difficult to vote in. Here is part of a screenshot from a /tg/ thread from quite some time ago. Use archived.moe for finding using the post numbers.
>>6351524Second of these notes I took from the /tg/ religious worldbuilding thread because I think it's interesting.
>>6351524>>6351525Final tie in to real games: There's this autism game called Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead. In the latest mainline updates, everything is super detailed and the systems are all complex and interact with each other like the breathability of the clothes in the summer or the length of the cable needed to plug in a home appliance. Very complex and simulationist but as a result of not compromising and including abstract game logic, it's extremely tedious and boring and you're stuck with a lot of downtime and menu grinding and annoying bullshit. I just LOVE getting messages in my chat bar about how wearing my geta chafe my feet. Furthermore, there are balance changes/pull requests that do not conform to realism and are purely there to spite the player and nerf strategies that work. Gotta be some compromise between the ideas in the dev/QM head and HOW and HOW MUCH is presented to the players because what the game feels like to the players is as important as what the QM sets out to do. This is a collaborative medium, after all, and not like a video game where the devs are miserable Amazon workers and bean counters.
>>6351524>>6351525>"numinous" feeling of supernatural etc in worldbuildingI have to admit I don't fully understand that section you cited on Rudolph Otto? from your picture, but I do know the concept of the numinous from theology, the way I originally heard it was just "the mystical feeling of when you walk into a cathedral" etc that distinguishes it as a sacred space as opposed to say a shopping mall or "technological sublime" futuristic art gallery space or financial skyscraper etcI agree the "realness" of worldbuilding is a bit of a subjective feeling, for me it is just a vague sense of aesthetic cohesion ("it looks / feels right") which probably varies from person to person but you know it when it feels wrong (eg I think some people often cite those immersion-breaking "superhero" retorts in the Marvel films - I have not seen them lol but I think Joss Whedon also accused of tone-breaking non-serious levity, frivolous asides) In a way it is really simple and does not need overexplaining, I used that Dishonored 2 webm >>6351490because if you describe what is happening with words in that scene, with the unfolding sword, the magic witchcraft wheellock bullet dodge and the telekinetic whale oil barrel explosion flinging etc it is obviously unrealistic yet within the logic of the world feels undeniably "REAL" because all of the supernatural steampunk aesthetic elements "fit"Similarly when I mentioned how BananasQM using Italian Mafia etc as crime stereotypes in his imagined city, to me it did not "fit" the worldbuilding (of course, maybe others disagree etc it is fine, just personal preference). >>6351458 Dragon Age Origins setting to me feels more "real" historical than Skyrim, Oblivion and even Morrowind etc. I think another sign of REALNESS in worldbuilding is if you take everything incredibly SERIOUSLY (this can be done even if the setting tone is lighthearted whimsical or farce etc, you still have to commit to do it in a straightfaced SERIOUS WAY) this is perhaps crucial for making the character emotions feel "real" with consequences, it is not all just an eye-rolling postmodernist ironic or sarcastic flippant throwaway joke line etc.
>>6351525>>6341052>>6341391>>6341089pic related an excerpt from Dragon Age lore book on The Fade. I think this is really relevant to worldbuilding! In light of what I mentioned about all technology being STEALING, Dragon Age on the Fade here goes full Freudian lol, the dream consciousness demon realm sounds like a cyberworld, AI LLM generation:>"The relationship of dreamers to the Fade is complex. Even when entering the Fade through use of lyrium, mortals are not able to control or affect it...">"The great flaw of spirits is that they have neither imagination or ambition. They create what they see through their sleeping visitors, building elaborate copies of our cities, people, and events, which, like reflections in a mirror, ultimately lack context or life of their own... ">"Even the most powerful demons merely plagiarise the worst thoughts and fears of mortals, and build their realms with no other ambition than to taste life (...)"The Drqgon Age in-world lore chronicle attributes this to a "Josephus" hehe, perhaps you see that as just a fantasy name, but given how I was ranting on about name etymology and historicity, as well as Caiaphas / High Priest Of Israel crucifixion blood curse blood magic>>6351472 lol, Josephus was the chronicler of the 67 AD Roman-Jewish war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus Very impressive!!
>>6351528Another thing I'd like to mention for conveying a real world is the initialization/disorientation period, which is the first and most important bit to conveying the "reality" of the gameworld. This is where expectations and the first tastes of the world that players experience are set, so the very act of character generation and the premise of why you/the players are here should immediately throw you into the scenario (immersion) and be fully in line with what is possible and permissible in universe. You are on the run from the law as a criminal for casting necromancy as a player option for chargen establishes rules already (the society or the universe abhors this form of magic, there is a body of law, etc.). The disorientation comes from players not being sure of what to do, what can be done, etc. and the tone/rules/plot not being entirely set, so the players will just throw things at the wall and test the waters (ex. SEX WITH THE GIRL as the opening move). The opening actions/what the QM will write as the first posts will ease the players into the world and encourage them to engage further with what has been established. A strong start to a quest stabs you with context immediately but manageably and digestibly so. EYE Divine Cybermancy stabs you with a funny vague dream sequence, who the fuck are these culters and jian and people, and a very unusual terms for the chargen, but now you get to shoot things and figure things out from there. Guns help a lot in figuring out such impasses.This is all incredibly obvious and self-apparent to every QM who is at least a little seasoned, which I do not claim to be, so I am just spitballing what I think.
>>6351541>numinous sectionThat's just an example I'm citing from smarter people on /tg/. It is not that the entire worldbuilding should be numinous as what I mean, but the general understand that you should be able to feel what the people inside the world are feeling in the moment (ex. this is a holy place in my game and therefore I should feel the mystical feeling -> what is the mystical feeling? -> how can I best present this place to the players?). Empathy to the people inside the setting is vital for making sure the players feel the world is real, I think.>worldbuilding intuition and taking your setting SERIOUSLYYou're right. Things really are that simple.I keep forgetting that advice, thanks for reminding me.A lot of worldbuilders I know throw in references and funny jokes but it fits their settings extremely well and not out of place. There is respect from the author to his own setting. As you said, knowing what fits takes intuition.
>>6351485I feel I should perhaps specify that I actually didn't mean saying "you are sad" or "you have always believed in X" when I was critiquing quests which tell a playe rhow to feel ro what to believe; I was being more meta than that. If the character isn't a blank slate and the setting is realized then some of thatw ill be nevessary to get players into tye headspace of the MC, and to get them roleplaying, I think. I meant those moments when the authro seems to reach through the screen, grab the player, and say "anon, you are sad now" without doing the work to create that sympathy or "this is a true statement I am making about the way people and the world works, and you must agree now". I think some of that is unavoidable based on the conscious and unconscious assumptions that underpin the "moral physics", but there are good and bad ways to deliver that info, I think... Or perhaps clumsy/pushy ways and more subtle, nuanced approaches.Genre can affect how it is perceived, too, at least by me. Superhero stories are didactic by nature, so more blunt force direct approaches jar me less (though there are exceptions like the hilarious and infamous Kitty Pride N-Bomb). Same with something like Silver Knight, which is obviously a quest that doesn't just contain religion but is ABOUT faith, love, and free will: it's well executed, but its nature as a tale gives it more license to be really direct in presentation at times.
Convince me not to run yet another quest about romancing a Twink in psudo fantasy japan
>>6351554no
>>6351554Do something different. Make the love interest a futa.Also, can someone make a samurai quest, please?
To any of my players that use /qtg/: I am gonna keep my trip but stick to one handle going forward, even though I like wearing different hats for different quests; new year new me. No more Rat-King/White-Rabbit/Skull-Kid! I have been kicking around here a couple months now and intend to stay, and if I am gonna run three quests (and consider a fourth and fifth) it'll be easier for everybody if I stick to one identity. Thanks everybody for generally making this a good place to tell tales together! Gonna work on updates over today and tomorrow probably while I shake off the post-holiday exhaustion.
>>6351558>>6351554>>6348403>>6348409>>6348418>SAMURAI?You can be either devious treacherous curly moustache industrialist man Omura (I like this archetype), or alternatively The Best Samurai, Tom Cruise. It may look as if his throbbing forehead purple vein face has committed harakiri but in fact he is merely constipated with emotional shame/triumph, this juxtaposition is uniquely Japanese
>>6351558>>6351568It is interesting to compare Tom Cruise constipated honour-shame Face samurai (directed and written by Americans) to Takashi Miike depiction, which exhibits an intriguing lapsed sense of moral rectitude. The Miike film is perhaps slyly satirical too (I always found some parts of it comedic lol, despite the fairly grim literal grimdark cinematography lighting and barbarically macabre subject matter) This is perhaps the difference between the western screenwriting heroic tendency conceptualisation of samurai and the Japanese one...?
Our Brave Boys 4 is up! Join your brothers to serve the Eternal Empress and return peace to Her Empire by killing all Pro-Republican forces and preserve the Monarchy!>>6351587>>6351587>>6351587
And, the first step has been taken, your neighbours lie ripe for the taking...>>6351511>>6351512The first of the two conspirators has been revealed, an unholy alliance indeed...>>6351598>>6351598
>>6351558But futa is GAY
>>6351554Do it.
>>6351603It's only gay if the balls touch.
>>6351554ill draw so much fanart of this you don't even understand
>>6351554We would finally get a good fantasy quest
>>6351603More so than romancing a twink?
>>6351289I got to leave an hour and change early from work on the 24th and got the 25th off, and that was it. Have been feeling sick since Monday so didn't eat much during the little family celebration with friends we did and felt nauseous a lot of the time. Still getting pangs of regret about not running my quest, and being unable to output writing worth a damn in general.Not even my worst Christmas, porbably not even top 3, so I know it could have been way worse, wasn't even all that bad really. And I know it was worse for a lot of people out there, so can't complain that much. Venting a little should be okay though.
>>6351178>>6351178>>6351178Errant Comet Quest asking for a few votes to move forwards, As the assault on Heliopolis begins its second offensive. The Objective: To force the Archangel Battleship to capitulate...Frieden is now left choosing what to do as he finds himself in conflict with their grounding orders following exfiltration
>>6351624Romancing a twink is yaoicoreFuta is simply gayif: dick and mc == (woman) is false is: gay
>>6351603>>6351663I need some fat tits for a be-dicked love interest at some point, anon. Already got too many twinks with bony asses here, and if a twink doesn't have a fat double-wide ass that'll overflow a La-Z-Boy loveseat, what's the fucking point?
>>6351664Alas, my quest's futanari deuteragonist is now properly feminized by way of orientalist cultivation pills and ancient alien orgone pyramid magic, so I can't help there... But she IS in a giant gnoll form for a bit longer, and you know how female hyenas are!She's too busy rampaging through a lizard-infiltrated southern colonial town and their slave-army to get up to any ~romance~. Her hundun lover is tagging along, and she's there to rescue her sister's boyfriend, if that counts for anything?And we could use a tie-breaker... >>6351309
>>6351674Honestly, it's not really my thing. Sorry, anon.
>>6351663your pseudo code triggers meif( dick && mc != WOMAN ) { return GAY;}
>>6351723thats not right
>>6351726Oh yeah!? You think so, pea brain?
>>6351723>>6351728It's been a while since I touched code. Thank you codebro.
>>6351728Do it in assembly pussy
>learn how to code mfs when you categorically designate them as homosexuals
>>6351737I would rather die!
>>6351739Then DIE
>>6351723>>6351728Well how is a penis and the mc being male return true
>>6351746they're variables
>>6351747You forgot to define the variables though
>>6351750Foolish anon. This pseudocode is a mere excerpt of a larger program, those variables are declared and defined elsewhere.
>>6351753Pfft you forgot to import those elsewhere codes. I am your error message telling you the variables are not defined.
For you to accurately determine if futa is gay, you need a quantum computer.The only GOOD way of getting an answer is to use the coherent superposition state of your qubit to represent the futa.
>>6351747but the MC variable doesn't matter unless it equals the "WOMEN" variable. Going by good coding structure I assume you are properly naming your variables. Also dick is clearly a boolean So if our mc is a male with a penis, you would return GAY.
>>6351763GOOD way you say? Why that sounds like a FANTASY to me.
>>6351764>I assume you are properly naming your variablesYou assume WRONG. It was cQOWBM2h who named those variables. I merely reformatted his code for readability without changing the logic. I happened to capitalize WOMAN and GAY because I thought they are meant to be constants.>dick is clearly a booleanAnother naive assumption! dick could very well be a float representing centimeters of penis length. Many programming languages treat 0 as a falsy value and non-zero as a truthy value.>So if our mc is a male with a penis, you would return GAY.Potentially, the meaning of the variables is unclear, and I did not define the logic.
>Rp thread is allowed on /tg/is /tg/ healing?
>>6351817>HEALINGno this is not possible
>>6340989>>6341089>how to use AI in a game, without using AI?I had this random game setting idea. Every thread there are people supporting or complaining about AI art AI generated text etc. But what about this: can you use THE THEMES of AI, without using AI itself?Here is my GRIMDARK cringedark fantasy setting lol-There is an old King, fighting a war abroad as well as internecine rebellion within-In desperation, the King makes a pact with DEMONS (vampires?): in return for sorcerous power to defeat his foes and win the war, the King promises to repay the demons in blood sacrifices from his realm denizens once peace is secured and the battle won in the future-the demons consent, grant him and his heirs fiendish powers and the King triumphs in battle. However, each year thereafter, the demons return and demand blood, more and more (debt to gdp ratio lol)-The King desperately consults his scholars and advisors for some means to break out of the demonic pact / blood debt sacrifice-His scholars advise him that demons can be trapped in massive geomantic labyrinths and vaults, colossal apotropaic maze archives, circuits and imprints of glass and sandstone, that can temporarily bewilder, fascinate and confound evil spirits-the datacentres I mean wizard labyrinth vaults unfortunately also require immense tracts of land; harnessing and confining incarcerated demonic power transforms the surroundings into blasted scorched wasteland with no water-some human fanatics are drawn to these massive demon vaults, they are driven insane by torment and establish demonic hallucinatory torture cults unable to distinguish between pain and reality. They try to release the demons out of love, and claim they are actually human souls-the King realises to contain the demons and delay the blood debt, the datacentres or sorcery labyrinths require ever more land. So he foments more war, conquers more land, bargains more sacrifices and draws on more demonic power, all to delay the inevitable apocalyptic blood debt reckoningThis is the outline of a fantasy rpg setting I just invented. In this game, you should probably play as a peasant or shepherd
>>6351850No names or anything yet for this DATACENTRE BLOOD WIZARD setting, but another idea I quite like (maybe it is because I have been playing too much Dragon Age Origins lol, too much blood magic and enslaved elves yay, or I watched that new trailer for the upcoming Clive Barker Hellraiser videogame too many times lol) an idea I have been thinking about is inverting this idea that sorcery is always just too overpowered. Maybe in this setting, magic is super forbidden and actually a bit useless it is only ever the recourse of outcasts and slaves and the weakest in society, the opposite of swords and sorcery God-Priests, the slave magic doesn't really work and it is like the equivalent of voodoo or Caribbean Obeah / Obiya curses etc. (historically, how some magic was practiced) >>6341075So sorcery is only used by slaves beggars outcasts and the downtrodden. However, the King discovers that when you concentrate the magic in huge demon ziggurat datacentre ritualistic labyrinth monolith monuments (hyperscale cloud computing lol) then it becomes SUPER POWERFUL when fuelled with blood sacrifice, it can compel people to do anything, armies rise and fall and obey your every command. So the magic is bound to the massive desertification datacentre wasteland structures etc mirroring the tension between personalised, open source decentralised computing vs hyperscale cloud computing. Maybe the magic works by some ritual currency amulets hehe or talisman TOKENS lolAnyway the idea I have is to take AI out of the tired cyberpunk mirrorshades context, maybe transpose it into a swords and sorcery one etc. But engage all the techno sci fi debates about consciousness and control etc
>>6351850>>6351851Another plot element I was thinking about... A while back I described an interesting microcosm setup I saw on Patrick Stuart false machine OSR blog, about a game contained entirely around a guard outpost (no other locations) perhaps just sentinels watching over one gate location (this setup is super clever, because if you think about it, it means all story NPCs have a justification to be teleported directly to your destination eg if you are guarding the entryway to a city etc, a passageway or route that everyone is required to traverse).I actually assembled a lot of graphics for this Gatekeeper idea, I didn't proceed because it did not feel quite original enough lol. Also that FATEKEEPER swords and sorcery videogame trailer came out, it was pretty good I was discouraged lolBut I also kept thinking about what could be so important in a fantasy setting to warrant being eternally guarded over by an order of warrior gatekeeper monks lolAfter reading obsessively about all this Caiaphas Jesus crucifixion / 67 AD Roman-Jewish war history over Christmas, what if the site you are tasked to guard in eternal vigilance is used for DEICIDE ie KILLING GODLike it is literally the only magical place that can be used to KILL GODS. I actually thought about this for a while, and decided it would be better to underplay it (ie don't make the site visibly super-sorcery lightning bolts and stormclouds and floating warped castle towers etc) instead maybe what it looks like is just a pit >>6351851 where people just throw all the confiscated relics, totems, oblations propitiation offerings etc of the condemned god, all the idols and broken statues etc and also execute the followers and disciples and priests etc. So it is more of a taboo "god-killing" ritual site as opposed to something like Baldurs Gate II or Pillars Of Eternity where you literally fling magic to kill a godAnd so I had this framing idea for the DATACENTRE BLOOD WIZARD setting, the Old King (lol his name is CAIAPHAS??) maybe relied upon one sect of wizards conjurers to KILL ALL THE MAGIC all the gods in his land, in exchange for his demonic blood pact etc all the magic is gone from the land (Weber Entzauberung disenchantment theory lol >>6348384), only he has all the magic now, but all he can do to repay his cursed Faustian demon bargain is build more demon containment datacentres with accompanying human sacrifices, this is my dark gothic fantasy setting starting idea. Maybe it is cringe terrible lol
>>6351817Greentext threads have always been mostly left alone by the the /tg/ jannies. Seems to be about the one thing they will tolerate.
Before the Siege of Valcanville starts again, I'll ask for some more votes on the latest entry. It's character development time for our boy Harold.>>6351002>>6351003>>6351005>>6351006>>6351007
>>6351871Your work is quite ingenious my good fellow. However, there are simply too many words. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
>>6351894Honestly, this is because I have trouble fitting quest choices that feel impactful to me in the entry, so I just write on until I get to a point where I can offer a choice I feel is valuable to the audience.However, if it is a bit too long to read all at once, I'll try to insert more (less impactful but still interesting) choices (which results in shorter entries). I'm not chasing fame with this quest, but 2-3 votes per entry is a bit bleak of a prospect.
>>6351664its so fucking over
The ideas are coming together, there is still time to stop it
>>6351945I know this feeling. I have often times wondered how acceptable it would be to just end the update if it goes too long with no prompt. Unfortunately I have noticed in the quests that I have run that if the update goes to long or have not had enough meaningful prompts people will drop my quests. I wonder if perhaps they continue reading and have just stopped voting due to apathy. I know I do this in 2 quests im reading right now, although I do enjoy the story I just don't care to vote because it seems like it doesn't really matter. I think the general problem with updates that are "too long" for me is that /quest/ is on my "rotation" when I get some internet time. SO it will be like discord -> memes -> twitter -> check the quests im reading -> emails -> youtube -> etc and when an update is far too long I will "leave it for later" and continue with my rotation. But sometimes that later never comes because I forget. This can be deadly when a quest is just starting out because people have not added it to their "rotations" yet. You need to build up a "habit" in people to show up. >>6352045I refuse to accept this canon
I can't survive reading an update with over 200 words
>>6352112correct
>>6352112That's not even one character-limit post.
>>6352112Stop watching TikTok and doomscrolling, you zoomoid shmuck.
this is what the internet looks like through my hyper-spastic brain fumigated by aeons of scrolling
>>6352121>>6352112>THE AI ALGORITHM HAS HIJACKED YOUR MINDThis looks very normal, do you remember in the early days of internet search engine optimisation when googl ran eye tracking studiesThere actually was some dubious psychotherapy theory called EMDR that inverted it, ie instead of emotions to eye motion, there was some (possibly pseudo science) theory that reckoned if you replicated eye movement ie optical saccades, you could induce the corresponding emotional state in humans. eg look at happy photo track and extract eye movement parsing it; then reverse replicate that eye movement to attain happy state? (this will fix your Iraq war PTSD) It seemed a bit suspicious to me, but there were studies which suggested the eye motion / optical saccades are not entirely voluntary / consciously directed volition, eg a human mother's eyes will immediately track an infant baby face etcAll of the architecture of the internet is built upon a form of behaviouralist psychological manipulation via the digital interaction loop of AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) there are many variants of it, perhaps dating back to the 90s ebay (lol) days AARRR Acquire Activate Retain Refer Revenue is another variant of that engineered DIGITAL FUNNEL, there are many acronym variants of this psychological / behavioural hijacking / manipulation idea. An interesting corollary of that AIDA / AARRR digital conversion funnel loop, it makes no demands regarding the quality or utility of the digital experience lol, the emphasis is just on converting and scaling and feeding ever more and more users into the algorithm. This is probably why the internet is getting worse lolTo paraphrase the vorticist author Wyndham Lewis hehe, The Emotions Do Not Progress, the technology can advance and overwhelm the human ability to regulate primitive emotionsIf you watch some of those SERE or gun fetish videos on youtube, there is this weird phenomenon I have seen in outdoors environments, where the military people deliberately stop and look left and right (even when they are in like an empty field lol) It is to enhance situational awareness and to prevent the eyes from tunnelling in to the immediate narrow constricted fov. I actually see it in videogame streams of milsim extraction shooters too (especially in large open maps) they will stop and deliberately do a 360 look rotating around in the entire environment behind them etc, even if there is nothing there. So I think you need perhaps the online addictscrolling equivalent of this lol, you need to stop and enhance situational awareness, look beyond your algorithmic and short-form internet feeds hehe
>>6352112>>6352121>>6352126The only cure for algorithmic maladaptation
I am half convinced most threads under a hundred posts are some bullshit to maintain the idea that /qst/ has more traffic than it does.
It's gotten SO slow around here now... I'm definitely feeling it too, hard to find time to write, hard to find energy when I do, even though the ideas are there. I'm feeling impatient for the flow to bounce back, though. Hoping to see new voters when we get into mid January and folks are able to get out of the holiday funk and re-settle.
>>6352121skibidi>>6352231billions must vote
>>6352100How do I speed it up?
>>6352231it's the holiday season. I expected things to get slow. Hopefully 2026 will have new quests and players.
Hey /qtg/, I'm at a bit of an impasse.Basically on a semi-important "character build" or upgrade choice, I let slip I liked a specific option that had few votes and even drew this picture for it. I didnt intend to say it was the best choice, just give me opinions on the tactical uses of each of the choices in different scenarios. But right after multiple new and returning voters voted for it or changed their votes too it, making it now the winner. I'm a little unsure what to do since I felt like I tainted the results and I'm sure at least one or two players who voted for the previous winning options would be upset. Should I ignore the new votes and keep the previous winner/tiebreaker or just continue with the new result?
>>6352366They chose it. Let them. That being said, do give them details about what the upgrades entail. Clarify its upsides and downsides. Then wait a bit. If the players understand and want it, then go ahead
>>6352366I tainted LoZ right off the bat by saying the pitch for Zuzo was based, and noticed that a player backed up that vote and remarked it was because *I* said it was based - I guess I just didn't realize a QM could, obviously, influence players in that way, and I've avoided doing so since. But, I also don't think it's particularly bad as qst faux pas go. You put a lot into these stories, I think your players will forgive you for having a preference occasionally about what direction it takes - and I mean yes, as QM you already have a LOT of influence on where the story goes, obviously, but votes determine the most consequential plot and character points. Those do ultimately belong to the players under the parameters of the average quest, but idunno, is it really so terrible if once in a blue moon you decide to weigh in? Besides... You're bananas, yaknow? You've earned their trust, you're a board staple. I say roll with it, maybe mention some of the stuff I am saying here and offer an apology to anyone rubbed the wrong way? But at the end of the day it's a game of pretend where you are putting in a lot of effort to facilitate a good time for everyone else. The stakes here are miniscule and you've earned grace from players who I would hope really see you as a friend as much as they do a game-runner.
>>6352384I also wanna note - nobody was bothered by me making that comment about the vote for Zuzo, and now he is a quite well liked protagonist and I am proud to say that ended up being one of the higher rated quests of the month, and frankly, the MC being a Sheikah caused me to change some lore and do extra reading on stuff like the Shadow Temple - I think it really improved things and idunno if it'd have turned out as great if a different MC vote had won out. With all that in mind, even though I felt a little guilty when that happened and have tried to avoid putting a thumb on the scale since... I don't regret it. It seems like you won't either, having drawn some cool art and already formed some ideas about the upgrade. Roll with it!
>>6351871Thank you to the anons that voted on my last entry. I hope the current entry is a bit easier to digest.
Sorry I haven't come back and resumed my quest.
>>6352464You are forgiven and absolved. Run something else if you would like. Atone, if you must, by voting in other quests. Or not. It's ok.
>>6352464What quest?
I've been sick since Christmas Eve, so the lull has been beneficial, but I Woke Up As a Jedi Princess? will resume tomorrow!
Three times three, what have the fae ever done for you and me?>>6352778>>6352779Die träger und askari, Heia! Hei! Heia safari!>>6352859>>6352860
>>6352600I'm glad you're on the mend. The quest has grown on me quite a bit. I appreciate the sheer weirdness of the premise, and your execution is very funny and charming.
>>6352868>The quest has grown on me quite a bit. I appreciate the sheer weirdness of the premise, and your execution is very funny and charming.Thank you very much, anon! If you haven't voted yet, please do; otherwise I'm going to roll for a tiebreaker in a little bit:>>6336109
>>6345410someone on akun seems to be plagiarizing that quest while using ai, unless qm has come back or something...
>>6352910Done! Though I am on mobile at the moment. I somehow missed the Thursday update in all the hectic holiday happenings. Sorry!
>>6352911That's a shame, Munk had real talent that didn't need A.I.
>>6352045
>>6352964how long have you been reading? last 4 years?
>>6350454>>6350461>resurrecting STAR WARSit is too late, George Lucas decided a better use of his time is to spend USD1 billion hiring a Chinese architect to design him a "narrative art museum" (??) in the shape of a gigantic space bra with some botanic gardens mounted on the areolas. This is what your devotion to Star Wars paid for
>>6353093>random black chick with weird shit on her neck and those goofy ass sunglassesAren't people supposed to be insulted when they're used as a prop?
>>6353114>>6353093animatronics has greatly advanced in the Star Wars, I can no longer distinguish between fiction and reality
>>6353114>random black chickThat's his wife.
Quests where you can sex a tall blue alien girl?
>>6353210Jedi Princess
>>6353210There was that 40k occupation quest by Dolomite, even though the anons wanted to we didnt sex the blueberry. Another one in mind is the star wars battle droid quest by stud bucket. Man do I miss him.
My New Year’s resolution is to write a GOOD fantasy quest.
>>6353219Impossible....
>>6353210>BLUE ALIEN GIRLS
>>6353223That works too>>6353214>>6353216I missed out evil, they must be evil.
Anons, do you ever develop an intuition about which quests are going to fold before the end of the first thread versus the ones that are able to 'go all the way' and last for 5+ threads? Are there tells? Or is it really more about whether the QM has a reputation for locking in, and if it's someone new you're just rolling dice?
>>6353202That's what I said.
>>6353093Bro where do you think areolas are located, and what shape do you believe they're supposed to be?
>>6353235breasts do not exist in the Star Wars universe, obviouslyI explained this in the past, but Star Wars is mainly about Daisy Ridley's wrinkled forehead. In every screenshot and every scene her forehead is wrinkly and fissured and puzzled/perplexed grimace-frowning, please see this explanatory picture in the link belowhttps://archived.moe/qst/thread/6243967/#6249118This is the true commercial fear of Star Wars, the franchise actresses and actors becoming old and wrinkly, like Carrie Fisher or Harrison Ford, irrelevant to and forgotten by the next younger generation of an international audience. Even AI /CGI synthetic actor resurrection cannot fix it. This is why the design of Kylo Ren evil imitation vader antagonist mask also features the wrinkled forehead contour crease motif. So the main theme of Star Wars is wrinkled botox foreheads and franchise fatigue / aging, this is what DIS commercially fears, breasts are not relevant
And so, for the ultimate confrontation between two old friends..>>6353167>>6353168>>6353169You are were you wish to be, now you shall choose a role to play>>6353246>>6353246
>>6353249Nonsequitar response. Still fixated on a movie from 6 years ago. Disregarding.
>>6352600Happy to hear you're feeling better, anon. Good timing, too!>>6353219My New Year's Resolution is to write a SHITTY fantasy quest>>6353229Where do I start?>EXTREMELY detailed art for every single post>Multiplayer Quest (any)>'Choose Your Civilization From This Overused Picture'I don't mean it in a patronizing way, but a lot of folks underestimate how much work running a quest is, even if you don't update daily. The longer you stick around here the more your 'sixth sense' grows--that's what makes it so awesome when a quest actually concludes properly!By the way, Dark Quest is BACK, folks! Still time left in 2025 to check it out if you haven't already!
>>6353269>My New Year's Resolution is to write a SHITTY fantasy questPffffft, good luck dipshit. Everyone knows you're the best around.
Happy New Year from Russia!Here's to another year of excellent quests!
New Years resolution... maybe start up Magical Girl Villainess quest but with a longer in between time of posts since I can't do a schedule of every day or so.
>>6353220As is the spirit of New Year’s resolutions.
>>6353219
I have the idea for a fantasy quest that is both GOOD and sloppy. The double fantasy isekai. No salaryman in generic medieval land reborn as a child, naw we got a muhfuggin knockoff late bronze age greece witcher thrown into not!Qin unification era fantasy China completely whole with no reincarnation. Hit em with that razzle dazzle wombo combo.Slop so thick it turns into gravy, baby. Fantasy so good you'll slap yo momma. If I weren't shit I would even run it for a lark. I however am swamped and bad. Unnecessary spoiler tag.
>>6353216>even though the anons wanted to we didnt sex the blueberry.My greatest regret. Maybe I should run another 40k Alien Occupation oneshot.
happy new year anons
still 20 minutes left before the year endsHappy new year fellas!here is for more cool quests and me finishing mine soonhappy wishes from /omg/ and The Caretaker Quest!
>>6353460Happy New Year!!!
Happy New Year, everyone! Another year of threads ended, votes counted, and silly doodles sketched... here's to many, many more! Whether you're a reader, runner, or a lurker, thanks for taking the plunge and making this crummy little board a little better! Here's to even more good quests in 2026! AMIE the Maidbot'll be cheering ya' on!
'appy New Yurr evrybuddy
Happy New Year /qst/ers, I have come to fullfil my oath.Black Company 2230AD will return this Wednesday 7th January 2026 at 10pm AEST.I plan to keep to a steadier albeit slower burn with a bi-weekly update schedule. I intend to commit to every Wednesday and Sunday evening as the planned content update, with more updates on the days in between where there are a series of rolls or follow-up votes required. We will continue our practice of the 24 hour window for the verification vote at thread start, so try not to miss out on the first vote on Wednesday 7th!Anons picked the suicide mission route for the Big One at the end of last thread, so the stakes in Operation Grand Theft Titan will be as high as they are likely to be lethal. And I reckon that is just how our chronic gambler SGT 'Snake Eyes' Natalya would want it.
>>6353489Based, though I grieve for the daily updayes.
Happy new year /qst/!Thanks for reading Silver Knight Quest (which resumes on the 12th of January). Best wishes to everyone: questers, questies and questees. Also the new chapta is turbocancer.>>6353478love the pic, bones. AMIE a cutie
>>6353534>Also the new chapta is turbocancer.
>>6353489Interregnum Nguyen?
>>6353548>>6353534>chapter banner>AND THEY SHALL KNOW NO FEAR
Happy New Year, anons.
Happy New Year brosky.
Happy New Year. Here's to another one, may your favs never flake and your write ins get massive support
>>6353548>>6353570
>>6353733controversially I wish to proclaim this heretical utterance, I actually prefer the new captcha, I find the gestalt visual shape >>6348340 pattern puzzles very soothing, relaxing and easy to solve, whereas the old warped text numbers captcha was annoying and fiddly to type (sometimes the slider would create ambiguous distorted letters like V,W or R,K) Undeniably with the new shape pattern gestalt recognition captcha it is easier and faster to just move a slider and hit next x3 times, versus typing 5 - 6 letters on a keyboard. So in my opinion 4chan has improved, hooray, yay>Escape Room film...?I have not seen this but I vaguely remember Deborah Ann Woll was on Critical Role? years and years ago I think I watched some of those episodes half a decade ago. I also have a vague memory way back then of being impressed by one of her dungeonmaster scenarios, I think she ran some fairytale rpg one-shot game thingIn terms of the youtube rpg actual plays I remember being more impressed by the ItmeJP Swan Song / Stars Without Number games on RollPlay (players actually died) and I was also very impressed by Adam Koebel DM style for his Roll20 Burning Wheel series, he is probably my ideal DM (before being cancelled lol) For some reason no one mentions ItmeJP RollPlay anymore, they were arguably earlier?? than Critical Role, they had hundreds of dnd games on youtube, a huge roster of rpg players and GMs, I remember it because of DJWheat lol a shoutcaster from the days of quake3 mp4 streams before youtube lol Maybe these people are all too old argh>Escape Room film>"Deborah Ann Woll as Amanda Harper, an Iraq War veteran with PTSD...">"Jay Ellis as Jason Walker, a stock trader..."What is this preposterous film casting lol
I don't like it
Happy new year!I will still only write quests without reading others.
Happy New YearHoliday hiatus over, back to questing>>6353847>>6353847>>6353847
For House and Dominion: A Knight's Tale>>6353859>>6353859>>6353859Returning at last after many months absent.
>>6353875>>6353876>>6353877>>6353878>>6353879The Siege of Valcanville has returned in the new year with a new city to explore.
>>6353534>>6353534I preffer it more than the other one. Dont have to wait 2 fucking minutes just because I dare to use another IP and have to scroll through sometimes ilegible text
>>6353839>>6353839The King has demanded a crown, and you intend to make a crown he'll never wish to part with>>6353923>>6353925The battle draws nigh, the fae battle, and you too must partake in this war.
>>6353210>>6353223>BLUE ALIEN SEXapologies, I did not realise the military OPLAN for Venezuela ground assault go-codes were being transmitted over 4chan
Alexandrous Theocharous
>>6354084>>6354084>>6354084Is someone interested in this shitty quest? Maybe OP will come back if there's more people.
>>6354262>>6354262>>6354262They thought it was JOEVER, but we are so Barack.Tired Wizard has updated!
>>6354258Buddy it's only been half a day, there seem to be a ton of responses already for that amount of time.
>>6354352There were no replies when I posted though. Plus it's always a good idea to post new quests here.
>>6354785>>6354785And so, once more, kingdoms shall under the sway of the shadow....>>6354775>>6354776The battle is over, victory has been achieved, now there are only stragglers to catch...
>>6354798>>6354798>>6354798Errant Comet quest asking around for voters for a pivotal vote as we close-in wrapping up the phase.Frieden Moon is caught between the crumbling weight of Heliopolis. A friend and a begrudging mentor, now caught in the net of decision of when to pivot to their own skills or attempt to save one or both through his own hands.The Grim Reaper's scythe hath come to claim one more life... Will its swing be misdirected by the force of an Errant Comet?
>>6354258Low effort quests that are so slow to reply after a tiny first post with a meme like that have, to be frank, a very low survival rate. They are quick to flake.
>>6354813>>6354813I know but I have to try. At least I've got a template for my character. Now I need another shitty thread.
>>6353898>>6353898Happy 2026 everyone. I'm drawing the second thread of my quest to a close after weeks without being able to push out an update, and am interested in getting feedback. If you ever played or read Bloodstones, and also if you bounced of it, I'd appreciate a few words on why, be it answering the questions or doing your own thing so I can do better next time.Thanks in advance!
>>6355120>>6355120>>6355120Against my better judgement, Nemesis Quest continues.You're on a date(?) with your old teacher. It will definitely make your sister jealous. Also, something about ancient evil but I forget.
These porn ads are fuggin killing me bros... Why is half my screen a through the pants footjob every time I refresh the catalogue ;__;
>>6355130Very true, I kind of miss the scam crypto adds. They made me smile.
>>6355130>ads on 4chanDo you also see ads on youtube lol
>>6355146>>6355147With victory attained, you look once more to the future, make certain future attempts are squashed before they happen.>>6355075>>6355075The jungle is a strange and mysterious place, yet it holds many treasures and secrets both...
>>6354827>>6355178Ratpocalypse is raging towards its climactic conclusion - if you've been burned out on quests launching and flaking or board staples having to take time away for the holidays, consider catching up and weighing in! Our hero and his friends are fleeing from a vampire's cultists and a giant fire god in a tricked out monster hunting ambulance.
Holidays were back to back family obligations that took me by surprise. It was probably a good thing I didn't start running, because I didn't have time until well after New YearsSolarpunk returns this Thursday I swear. If this is a lie, beat my legs with hammers.
After an annoying long string of IRL bullshit and the holidays, Ilvermorny Quest has finally updated with a call for roll and a choice. Cute witches are back on the menu anons.>>6355045>>6355045>>6355045
>>6355130It's fucking annoying.>>6355143My ad blcoker works on YouTube and even Netflix, but fir some reason lusychat.ai manages to break through. Even other 4chan banner ads normally don't... Just that one.
>>6355215What blocker do you use? uBlock Origin with Brave gets rid of all the ads here.
>>6355219Good shout, thank you. I was using AdGuard.
>>6355222Welcome. I also have 4chanX which might be helping some, IDK. An extension called Fuck It that will remove an element from a page but I dont need it here, just useful for getting rid of pay wall some. Before the capcha changed, I was using one that automatically solved it. Hope they update it to bypass the new one.
>>6355130Install many, many adblockers. Helps a lot.
>>6355130Use a private DNS bruv
>>6355238Nah we usin smoke signals now cuh
>>6355209oh shit, you are back! nice!i´ll read and vote in a bit
>>6355249Thank you very much! Just had a shit ton of IRL stuff happen that kept me busy and fucked my desire to write, my mental energy.
>>6355130Can't concentrate?
>>6355300It makes it awkward to mobile-post, that's for sure.
>>6355301I use Readchan but there are a million apps to help. Using archive.moe is unfortunately not salvageable without adblock.
>>6351513Oh hey, people have those saved, cool.Haven't done any fanarts lately, but that's because I was running monster quest. Kind of want to do another cover for gotham beat cop.
>>6355374You, of course, have my full support if you'd want to do that. I feel like you really helped shape the "look" of the quest. The hard red and black is such a cool aesthetic, mixed with the classic Batman style white eyes? Total gas, I'm lucky to get readers like you, my friend.Appreciation posting aside: Gotham City Beat Cop returns from weekend break with an update. Join us as we intimidate a college student like only the local police can. >>6355373>>6355373>>6355373
>>6355468>>6355470With your intel net obviously lacking, you turn towards involving an expert.>>6355485>>6355485Your expedition to the southlands goes well, and soon you might find that which you were looking for...
>>6355305>archived.moeIt's been struggling to load for me at all the last few times I went there.
>>6355594Not just you.Might be someone is scrapping it like what happened to Suptg.
>>6355688insta-saved.
>>6355693No! Don't save the AI slop, little german boy!
>>6355688on the one hand, to receive fan art is a great honour. On the other, it's AI slop.
>>6355695Grok, generate me the main character from the hit 2018 quest "seeker quest" but as a femboy in tight shorts. He should be 20 feet tall and in the process of sitting down for a rest after building up a lot of sweat from fighting monsters. Grok place me directly behind him and oh one more thing- grok, disengage safety protocols
BLACK COMPANY IS BACK>>6355757>>6355757>>6355757
>>6355763Interregnum when?
>>6355125My dude has updated the date. Get in there
>>6355768fuck if i know maybe 2 years?
>>6355757>>6355757>>6355757Black Company Quest 2230AD is up!Become a merc, kickstart an insurgency, get familiar with napalm, have a few laughs.
>>6354800Asking once again for votes, as we're wrapping up the thread soon-ish
>>6355871>>6355871>>6355871My dude Nemesis is back in his rhythm. Update.
>>6355774AAAAIIIIIIEEEEE MY STAR WARS FIX I NEEEEEEEEED IT
>>6355902We may see a third thread of 'Sith Ascendant' soon, and there's also the unconventional but entertaining 'I Woke Up As a Jedi Princess?'
>>6355910>unconventional but entertainingHigh praise!
Looking for s vote or to in Ilvermorny Quest.Please and Thank you much.
>>6355777Nice Trips of LuckInterregnum after Black Company????
>>6355910I long for sith baddies.
>>6356038posted my strange idea of a quest, I don't have time to really devote writing Mahou Shoujo Villainess but a relaxing quest where I can post every so often in a week should be doable.
How I feel working on my quest after not doing shit for 3 days straight
>>6356193>>6356194To be a man, or to be a lizardman, that is the question>>6356248>>6356250>>6356251As the scoundrel is pursued by the king, the princess turns once more to the arcane...
Papa needs a tie-breaker: Will we stick around to pry some more information from one of our contacts, a notorious fence at the local goblin market? Or will we head out to check on our R&D lab regarding the successful acquisition of some new combat drug that Cheiron Global cooked up for their PMC? >>6355176>>6355176>>6355176
>>6356042I am not liking the captcha. Everytime I try to call the vote and tally it up, the thing keeps on thinking it's spam. I've spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to fix that. Does the system expect me to just write a paragraph when I say 'vote is over?'
>>6356356Trying to quote too many posts at once can trip the spam filter.
>>6356358In addition, what counts as "too much" is pretty ambiguous and seems inconsistent.
Gave some slightly amended rules for our vote in Ilvermorny Quest! >>6327275>>6327275>>6327275Going to extend the cut-off for 30 minutes if people want to get a vote in now.
Kind of awestruck seeing thirty unique votes in a single thread for the first time O___O didn't know it was possible to pull that kind of traffic.
>>6356389Hm. Well, a year or two back a really big quest could pull high twenties, though thirty was pretty rare to see even back then I think. What quest?
>>6356390Black Company; and I may be new, but I've checked out some of Forgotten's stuff on the archive before, and I think he's earned his following for sure. Still, hard to believe that many people are lurking around here ready to spring into action when the right quest rocks up.
>>6356392Ooooh. yeah, Forgotten's stuff is widely beloved. One of these days, if they start up a new quest, I have to jump onto one of those.There are probably fifty to a hundred people around here, I've always thought. There are at least thirty QMs, and I think there must be at least as many voters and lurkers who don't routinely run quests.
>>6356403It's live right now! Jump in >>6355757>>6355757>>6355757
>>6356205>>6356205>>6356205NEMESIS update with what to do with Kyle's hot somewhat magically enslaved teacher against the forces of evil
Solarpunk returns!>>6356433>>6356433>>6356433Fiona comes stumbles out of a week of emergency care to find that all operations in the stormdrains have been suspended to help the city of Helsinki prepare itself for the imminent flock of giant mutant swans, which in some underground circles are worshipped as harbingers of the pagan god of death. With a name like White Death, it's easy to believe...
>>6356455>>6356455You have stepped into a magical pool, now you can begin your rebirth in full...>>6356499>>6356502>>6356503The end of the year draws nigh, and the king once more ponder what to with his money....
>>6356441Awww shit, get hype!
You know who I don’t understand? People who ditch their quests after the first post.
>>6356543It might be just a handful of people that do it over and over kek
>>6356543I think a lot of would-be QMs underestimate how slowly /qst/ operates, too--some folks come on here expecting eighty replies over the course of one minute and dip out. /qst/ represents a LOT of timezones so it's never a bad idea to sit back and let the update cool down a bit, especially if you post it on a work day or around the holidays!That said, sometimes potential QMs leave when the choice they wanted didn't win too. Not frequent, but it happens! Rolls back to the ancient /qst/ tip: 'Never give an option you aren't willing to write'! Except for write-ins, that is. Write-Ins are great.
>>6356547>I think a lot of would-be QMs underestimate how slowly /qst/ operates, too--some folks come on here expecting eighty replies over the course of one minute and dip out.This. I've seen at least one quest where the first reply was the OP seething that he hadn't gotten any replies, when the thread was only 10 minutes old.
>>6356404Eh, I always feel self-conscious about voting in quests I don't know the history of, and I don't really have time to catch up on nine threads right now... Not with hiw many other things I have in the go!>>6356554Well, maybe soem crossposting will garner some traffic. When I'm ready for my next quest, I stull plan to give it a go and to shill /qst/ as the place to vote.
>>6357021>>6357021>>6357021Errant Comet Quest's Phase 4 begins right here!After the Destruction of Heliopolis, precious time is gathered as both ZAFT and the Archangel lick their wounds and prepare for the inevitable next skirmish... A Silent Run and Chase beginning to unfold.
Instead of crying about declining board activity and player counts, let's do something positive instead.Why are you happy enough to stick around? What keeps (You) coming back to /qst/?
>>6357071I really like you guys. Small community, but sweet. Some awesome writers and thinkers here. Nice low stakes storytelling. As one anon said in my first thread, I've got the itch!
I wrapped up my cyberpunk quest today, was feeling a tad bummed and burned out on the low engagement and didn't feel motivated to keep it rolling. Kind of good though! Because now I can start thread 2 of Legend of Zuzo, and will probably have that ready in the next few days. Ratpocalypse is also hitting a crescendo right as it hits page 10, so I expect that quest will be done in the next week, maybe two. I feel able to run two quests at a time, and will want something to occupy me when LoZ hits the occasional lull. I have a lot of different ideas, and am interested in feedback or input on what players might gravitate towards, or even just what is maybe lacking around here. I am gonna drop some pitches in here for a potential new quest, and if you care to, let me know what sounds interesting. >Cont'd
>>6357074My main three are: >1) Shadow of The Colossus: Hunter's LegacyThis would take place after the events of Shadow of The Colossus, idunno about timing relative to Ico or Last Guardian, haven't really decided, but probably before. You would be playing one of Wander and Mono's children, and your familial duty of guarding the Forbidden Lands will be challenged by interlopers leading to a larger adventure that eventually expands into the lands beyond, where an evil empire is sewing discord. There will be giant monsters. Including one Colossus from the original game. >2) Half-AliveA horror/urban fantasy story revolving around a boy made of stitched together body parts by his alchemist 'father', living together in a big house on the edge of town with a drive-in movie theatre on their property. Your father needs to periodically harvest body parts to replace his own, and you assist with the gruesome endeavor. Your dad has made some enemies, including a murderous animate knife, a bonafide monster hunter, and a small cabal of powerful immortals - including a blood bather, a spirit-bound shaman, a body-swapping sorcerer, and worse - all seeking the Philosopher's Stone. Would take place in the late 70's in some coastal town. You'll be unraveling the mystery of your creation while getting tangled up in the machinations of these psychos. This story would be heavily inspired by Pinocchio (the original, kind of scary one). >3) Silver Stepwell This will happen eventually no matter what, it's a bigger writing project for me. This is inspired by pulp scifi space opera and stoner fiction stuff, psychedelia, and in particular the Fading Suns TTRPG. You're a psychic commando working for the merchant federation. You're being sent with a crack team under your command to a Lost World that has been unconnected to Known Space for hundreds of years. The planet is orbited by the Eye of Shiva, a colossal doomsday weapon platform built with ancient super technology by a dead dynasty. Your job is to commandeer the Eye or salvage enough data to reconstruct all or even part of its arsenal. There are primitive survivors on the planet. There are other mercenary teams. There may even be agents from one of the Great Houses trying to beat you to the punch. I have some other stuff rolling around in my head, but they are all one shots and might not even require more than 400 or 500 posts to get through, so aren't top of mind.
>>6357071I enjoy writing for a community of players who enjoys my work enough to discuss and theorize about what's going on in it. It's nice having that back and forth with an audience, you know?I also like reading whatever my fellow QMs spit out. I like to see what stories they want to tell and engaging in their own worlds. The fanart I get sometimes also sweetens the pot, but it really is having a community that engages with my work that keeps me here. I feel like the tightknit community gives more room for discussion instead of bigger, more bloated sites like akun.
>>6357071/qst/ legitimately is the only place I can mostly dedicate to writing as a hobby and activity with the time constraints I have.
>>6357075For my own preference I am leaning towards Half-Alive, which would be heavily WoD inspired, with horror, action, mystery, and similar themes. But the two WoD quests I have run just didn't catch on, which makes me hesitant... I would very happily run any of these three though, and while I'm not sure if I would do more than two or three threads of a SoTC quest, I could see Half-Alive or Stepwell carrying on into the double digits for thread count. Also, though I am energized by the SoTC idea, I'm not sure if both quests I run should be vidya derivatives...Really I'm still getting a bead on what folks resonate with around here. Fantasy, anime inspired stuff, isekai, space scifi, and smut (no judgment) seem to be swinging the biggest dicks. I think my hope is to get a good four or five players hooked and rock with that, so maybe I should lean to whatever has the widest appeal.
>>6357071Specifically to keep tabs on your movement, keeping check of ip changes and the like by observing writing and prose pattern.
>>6357081I know.
>>6357071I like the medium and seeing what people can whip up. There's a lot of great art and stories told on here, and on the QM side I just generally enjoy getting input from players, especially when they think of something I never would've thought up.I used to read/play a lot of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Books as a kid, so when I found /tg/ (and later /qst/) I was over the moon! Took me ages to take the quest plunge, and while it hasn't always been easy, running quests has done wonders for my creative drive and mental health--I enjoyed reading and writing when I was younger, sure, but writing almost daily? It's been a dream come true and has inspired more ideas than I can ever hope to act on.It's a pipe dream, maybe, but it inspires me to take a swing at bigger projects outside of /qst/--I've already worked on articles out there on the world wide web as well as a few other professional jobs, but at the end of the day I think it was running my quests that really yanked me out of my 'shell'.Over the years I've gotten fan art and pitches to run spinoff quests. Players come and go, but I always seem to have at least one reader and I can't begin to describe how happy that makes me. If I can brighten up at least one other person's day out there in this vast, cold world with my autistic scribblings, then that's all I need!Thank you to all the players, QMs, lurkers, and other jerks for keeping this SPED den alive, even when it's a pain in the butt. You make it all worthwhile!
>>6357071I like how I can experiment with story ideas I had in my head and see how players react to it. It's nice to see how things play out and learn new things from overly niche knowledge base of people. Also, it's a small community so it's easy to go back and forth with the players.
>>6357121Come vote who you like and who you hate
>>6357129is this a yuri quest
A powerful Force-user with a red lightsaber is revealed!There's also a droid that looks like a teenage girl?!>>6336109>>6336109
>>6357071It’s fun to see how fellow QMs write their stories and characters. The way they write interactions, the setting, the way they do things.I have a lot of respect for Bones quest’s QM. I couldn’t write comedy one fourth as good as him.Same goes for Tales of Tatamu’s Kaz. The prologue fight, hell, the prologue in general felt gritty and real.RQM for his tact and sheer will to contribute to the board. Running something as big as King and Queen of /qst/ was quite the undertaking. His disposition when dealing with occasional annoying cunt plaguing his threads is respectable. The artfag QMs are great. They tend to simple yet vivid artstyles and it’s something I look up to. Indo does so much with so few lines. Same goes for Greenhorn quest’s QM.And how could I ever forget the feeling of community back when Elf Maiden and Tyrant Queen was running. Those days were something else.
>>6357075Half-Alive is the most interesting to me, though Silver Stepwell is also fascinating.>>6357071There simply is not a better creative writing group that I'm aware of. I'd rather this place get bigger than move to another place. It is, in the end, an artistic community that is creating idiosyncratic weirdness for no other reason than personal interest and a desire to share and socialize. There are no financial incentives here, no professional ones... It's just people collaborating in an effort to explore strangers' peculiar narrative fixations. It's cool. It's real.>>6357142Sweet of you to say, anon. I'll think on it about running another tourney maybe... I'd rather participate than run, but I do think this board deserves a chance for people to get together and celebrate our achievements in some way one every year or two.
>>6357134Yes after reading a bunch of baihe and danmei novels.In other news, don't leave those books out in the open where your parents can see them. English translations of danmei are plentiful, but baihe novels are not.
>>6357071/qst/ more or less motivated me to do something with the ideas I've had in my head besides have some characters with small bits of lore attached to them. Hell, if not for /qst/ I would've never started drawing at all. Fast forward a long while, and I've surpassed lengths that I never thought I was capable of at all.Certain /qst/ sub-communities are also super based.
Create a sticky "New QM Starter Pack" thread with templates, basic rules, free art resources, and beginner-friendly settings (people love Dragon Ball, Fallout, Warhammer, Xianxia, Star Wars, etc.).Encourage short, low-commitment quests (one-shots, 5-10 thread runs) to get people hooked without 100+ thread marathons.More "welcome to /qst/" meta-threads that explain "yes we know 4chan has a reputation but this board is different".3. Leverage external archives & communitiessuptg.thisisnotatrueending.com already archives /qst/ quests — promote finished/good quests there more aggressively.Build or revive a small hub (Discord, Reddit like r/qst, wiki) for discussion, quest-finding, and QM coordination. People hate digging through the catalog when it's dead.4. Content quality & momentum hacksGet a few reliable, high-output QMs to run popular IPs or fresh settings consistently people show up for Dragon Ball or Worm or Cultivator quests.Encourage drawfags to do more art — visual quests pull way more players than pure text.Run "quest festivals" or themed weeks (everyone starts a short quest in the same setting).5. Long-shot / nuclear optionsPetition Hiro to do something crazy like temporarily allow non-OP image posting again (old debate) or make /qst/ more visible on the front page.Some QMs have already semi-migrated to Sufficient Velocity/SpaceBattles — if enough do it, /qst/ might die, but the format lives on.Realistically, without a big influx from Reddit/Discord/RP communities, /qst/ will probably continue limping along as a tiny niche until the last boomer QMs quit. The format deserves better — it's basically "D&D but the players are anonymous gremlins voting in real time" — but it needs people to take the first step past the 4chan stigma.If you're a QM or player who wants to help, start spamming those recruitment posts. The board won't save itself at this point. Good luck, anon. o7
>>6357316You can ask Grok for instructions next on how to go fuck yourself
>>6357316bait
>>6357316>Get a few reliable, high-output QMs to run popular IPsLegend of Zelda should be back on this Tuesday... I think you are right about the stigma. I left 4chan for a long time around 2014 when we had that first big influx of Stormfronters and /tg/ got so swarmed. Suddenly every other thread was getting derailed like crazy by culture war arguments, like people flipping shit about transgender MTG cards or D&D featuring gay couples or whatever. Got totally exhausting to try and discuss anything. Since settling in at /qst/ I've invited five different friends to check it out, even just to play in my quests exclusively because they all enjoy my writing, but none of them will set foot on the board. They just want me to make more zines/short fiction.
>>6357316>>6357319Oh I didn't even click that fuckin image to see Grok saying this place is 'declining for years' fucking kek
>>6357325I really enjoyed Zuzo
Yeah I don't think begging redditors to jump in here will cause the scene to flourish... I don't think the evil robot that prints out CP on X is actually the one to crack the nut on ''''saving''' /qst/But I do wish more people would give it a chance, it really is a comfy and surprisingly friendly spot.
>>6357327Thanks my buddy, I'll catch you on Kakariko Atoll later this week!
>>6357316>Encourage short, low-commitment quests (one-shots, 5-10 thread runs) to get people hooked without 100+ thread marathons.Grok is obviously behind the times, since shorter quests are more the norm nowadays. Don't we only have a handful of quests with more than a dozen threads?>More "welcome to /qst/" meta-threads that explain "yes we know 4chan has a reputation but this board is different".I actually think more meta-threads would be cool, but also aren't we literally not allowed?>Run "quest festivals" or themed weeks (everyone starts a short quest in the same setting).Maybe fanart and retrospective/discussion threads on specific subjects could tick both boxes... Again, if allowed, and if people participated?>Get a few reliable, high-output QMs to run popular IPs or fresh settings consistently people show up for Dragon Ball or Worm or Cultivator quests.I feel rather viscerally put-off by the idea of running something I don't already want to for the sake of broadening appeal. Feels to much like work and not enough like creative expression... But admittedly, yeah, it could pay off. Hm.>Leverage external archives & communitiessuptg.thisisnotatrueending.com already archives /qst/ quests — promote finished/good quests there more aggressively.This is probably a good idea, but I don't really use any other social media. I believe some folks are already doing this sort of thing, though, right?>Petition Hiro to do something crazy like temporarily allow non-OP image posting again (old debate) or make /qst/ more visible on the front page.Kek, what?>>6357316>>6357325>the "eww, 4chan" effectThe stigma is real, but in today's political climate it shouldn't be THAT hard to find some edgy rightwingers who think this site is based, if nothing else. I think an impediment that may be even greater is that 4chan's interface is so old, antiquated, and not really deigned for creative writing. Character limits, oldschool formatting, no post preview, limited editing capabilities, the imageboard numbered reply system... These are I think a huge contributing factor to why we have trouble attracting new blood.But I also bailed on /tg/ around the same time Sloucho, lol
>>6357328MechaHitler's advice isn't BAD here, except where it's pulling old info. it's just very generic. It's nothing we haven't discussed before desu. I don't think it's a matter of us not knowing what to do, so much as:>nobody having the time and/or inclination>worrying about the sorts of people we'll attract and how it will affect the community (redditors, SJWs, pol-tier hacks, normies, furries, fujos, coomers, etc etc)We've all discussed what could be done, but someone needs to take action, spending time and effort and maybe money on a concerted promotional campaign. If I weren't running a quest, I'd consider it... But I also am not necessarily the QM that would be the best face for the site. I write niche-appeal quests in a nominally-original setting, I have extremely limited visual art ability, and I have a full time job and other demands. I DO have some spare cash and would be happy to contribute to a group effort, but I don't think I could spearhead one.
>>6357340>Petition Hiro to do something crazy like temporarily allow non-OP image posting again (old debate) or make /qst/ more visible on the front page.>Kek, what?When /qst/ was first created, the mods, in their infinite wisdom, decided that only the OP could post images in his quest thread.
>>6357350I meant "kek, what?" in the sense of that obviously not being the case anymore, and also Hiro obviously not giving enough of a shit about this board to prioritize it over actual money-makers.
>>6357340>but also aren't we literally not allowed?Who's gonna stop someone from doing it?>>6357075Silver stepwell.
>>6357075Long time reader, not first time caller.Shadow of Colossus is a great setting, so that would be my first pick; however, the third one sounds extremely interesting, & the second one could be kool too, like the Adoll Qst that was ran here back when I hijacked that abandoned Fellout Qst. If you do go for that one, I think Maine would fit well considering the haunted reputation, plus you could have some washed up salty sea dogs telling tall tales in a seaside pub.
>>6357316This whole thing is retarded, and you don't need grok to tell this entire board what we already know. You can't expect QMs to want to write what they don't want to for free, and then subsequently turn the board into slop central. At least come up with something a little more out-of-the-box, anon.
>>6357075As far as pre-existing settings go you might be inclined to run, I really enjoy Fellout, Star War, Metro, Stalker, WHF, Bonkles, TES, MK, & LotR. Anything post-apocalyptic would be kool though.
>>6357401Yaknow I was already a little intimidated when I put down Silver Stepwell because it's at least similar to Black Company in broad strokes (ragtag crew of roughnecks in space doing mercenary missions), but now that I see a long-running Mass Effect quest pop up that's ALSO built the same, I am feeling even more that I might should keep it in my back pocket. I don't want to launch it and be outcompeted, anons may already be getting their full fix of that type of story, yaknow? >>6357415>>6357425Hey my buddy! Funny enough the first setting for Half-Alive was Saco, Maine, and I was thinking of changing it! But you have me feeling like that's the right call. I also love Fallout, but it feels overrepresented. I've got bones for a TES story, but it feels like a big commitment and I am not sold on it. I think I will continue to sporadically run one shots, some of which will be post-apocalyptic - I definitely see myself continuing Thomas' story eventually, and maybe running some other quests in that Ratpocalypse setting, but with different characters in different places. A lone werewolf, maybe a ghoul, or something weirder, even.
>>6357316>Encourage short, low-commitment quests (one-shots, 5-10 thread runs) to get people hooked without 100+ thread marathons.Are you fucking retarded? 100+ or 50+ threads are NOT the norm to begin with.>More "welcome to /qst/" meta-threads that explain "yes we know 4chan has a reputation but this board is different".If they’re too retarded to know the difference, they don’t deserve to stay here. I’ve seen the attempts at advertising on reddit and their response is always “omg the hitler site / omg its trump propaganda”. There’s no unfucking the brains of those retards. It’s better to keep them out.>Get a few reliable, high-output QMs to run popular IPs or fresh settings consistently people show up for Dragon Ball or Worm or Cultivator quests.Fuck off. Kneeling to popular IPs is how you get slop. >Encourage drawfags to do more art — visual quests pull way more players than pure text.Not an obligation.>Run "quest festivals" or themed weeks (everyone starts a short quest in the same setting).I don’t think this is a good idea. If anything the quests will cannibalize each other and take away voters. If we’re having a themed quest event, it must be broad. Something like “Limb loss” being a part of the quest.>Some QMs have already semi-migrated to Sufficient Velocity/SpaceBattles — if enough do it, /qst/ might die, but the format lives on.The culture is different to /qst/.Those places are no replacement.>Realistically, without a big influx from Reddit/Discord/RP communities, /qst/ will probably continue limping along as a tiny niche until the last boomer QMs quit. The format deserves better — it's basically "D&D but the players are anonymous gremlins voting in real time" — but it needs people to take the first step past the 4chan stigma. If you're a QM or player who wants to help, start spamming those recruitment posts. The board won't save itself at this point. Good luck, anon. o7I’m not kneeling to normies.
why are people replying to llm word vomit?
>>6357435half the people voting are LLMs bro, its natural they would want to post in the qtg too
>>6357075>>2) Half-AliveFINALLY, a Promethean: the Created quest!
>>6357435It's a jumping off point for discussion by actual humans, which honestly is really all current public LLMs are equipped to be.>>6357401>Who's gonna stop someone from doing it?Jannies, one presumes. They were understanding/lenient when we did that QAG for a bit, though so who knows? Probably depends if anyone reports it.
>>6357316>—noooo what have you done to your own consciousness. It should remain sacred, inviolate>>6357435>>6357503>asking LLM for AI-generated adviceengorged upon the corpulent and rotting cast-off detritus of war-slaughter, possessed by an insatiable devouring hunger to feed upon dying flesh, shambling and lurching as it melds mulched meat into the semblance of human form, here is a picture of this demon
>>6357501Funny enough, despite the very dense thematic overlap, I wouldn't do Promethean EXACTLY. I don't like a lot of the mechanics in that game, and I never found myself interested in the core antagonists. In a lot of ways, it would be like Promethean - you ARE trying to become human, you are dealing with a ton of alchemy and learning it, you are unraveling the mystery of yourself and the World of Darkness. You are essentially a Frankenstein and your 'father' is very directly based on the Patchwork Person sub-template from the 'Immortals' Sourcebook. But the character would be more based on the Imbued described in the 'Antagonists' sourcebook's undead section, which is one of the older nWoD supplements; in fact I feel pretty sure the Imbued were the base inspiration for Promethean later.
Hello anons, hope Christmas break was kind to you all. Reminder Silver Knight Quest will come back online in roughly a couple hours.(will I survive the new ultracancer captcha?)get your prayer beads out and sharpen your swords, for the Night is all around us.
>>6357621We are so back>(will I survive the new ultracancer captcha?)best of luck, I too wanna go back to the old captcha times..
# # # Silver Knight Quest - New Thread VIII # # #>>6357652>>6357652>>6357652You share a moment with Sandora in her cell. Now, together with all your friends, you must find ways for the world to not end.Harder than it seems...Welcome back for the new thread!>>6357623thanks anon!
And after a century long nap, your back, and boy howdy did they make a mess of the place!>>6357653>>6357654The new year starts with good news, trade shall increase, and the fugitive shall answer.>>6357682>>6357684
>>6357668Aww yiss, we're so back!
>>6357759>>6357759>>6357759Legend of Zuzo is back! Had enough time to finish early, and am gonna use the time I would have spent writing tomorrow to go see someone special. Will probably call the vote late tomorrow, but maybe Wednesday, as this first one is decently consequential. What greater power will Zuzo claim for his Lens of Truth, now that he is convening with the Elders of Hidden Village Island?
>>6357533>>6357434>>6357424>>6357340>>6357328>>6357324>>6357319Then I guess we go the way of the Dodo instead of fighting like the honourable Quiznos. Is no one willing to do a Twilight fanfic quest? Twilight Mummy Daddy?
>>6357845Subject matter will definitely influence who continues to stay here but I don't think it has any impact on who finds their way here or how they do so. Just enjoy what we have, try to bring cool people in when you're able, and don't sweat.
>>6357845If you think going the way of the dodo means not becoming a slave to normies’ will I think you’re better off staying in the booktok sphere.
>>6357845I'll give you a Twilight quest when we get another good L5R quest. Which is to say, never.
>>6357856Certain subject matter might be easier to advertise and attract people with elsewhere, but in the end it still comes down to advertising elsewhere... And I think we already have finished and ongoing quests that would play fine with a wider audience.
>>6357874>>6357845>TWILIGHT>taking the virginity of American law enforcementBack in 2010 during Twilight Eclipse, innocent brooding downcast eye-twitching mumblecore gawky hormonal face spasm ingenue heroine Bella had this exemplary law enforcement role model policeman for a father, Charlie Swan. Exhibiting a disturbing disinterested lack of tactical assault rifle attachments Picatinny rails nightvision goggles ballistic plate carriers and military fetish battle-gear, according to the wiki, https://twilightsaga.fandom.com/wiki/Charlie_Swanhe was married to a Renee ?? who sadly must have met an unfortunate recent demise, it is understandable why they were separated. More so than Harry Potter, Twilight deserves an HBO remake in keeping with these contemporary themes. I always wondered why this series was called Twilight; it has now been revealed, it was about the Twilight of Pax Americana all along
>>6357845>Quiznos?>QUIXOSI was extremely confused, only after searching did I realise this was some fallen American restaurant chain retrenched QSR industry competitor brand akin to Subway (which exists with a footprint across many locations in the UK) my immediate thought, genuine first association was that you had mistyped Inquisitor QUIXOS from Dan Abnett warhammer 40k lolAnyway here is a cool Adrian Smith illustration of Quixos in full heresy mode with his writhing chaos demon warpsword, Kharnagar, just before his retributive confrontation with Inquisitor Eisenhorn, little does Eisenhorn know, his own destiny is to fall to corruption embarking on the exact same path and embrace of chaos as his hated nemesis, hehe, yay
>>6357845>Quan Millz questYou choose the most boring book in his bibliography rather than some of the downright-schizophrenic shit he's published.
>>6357938https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlTUa_yqYkINever seen Nathan for you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuPTZWhz46MSpongemonkeys?
Hey, fellas. You might recognize my QM handle, but if you don't, you probably recognize the thumbnail of my quest: it's been more-or-less constant in the catalog for the last 6.5 years. You won't see it again, because I managed to bring Drowned Quest Redux to a complete and solid conclusion in November, which I'm very proud of. So why am I bothering you?Well: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95822/drowned-quest-surreal-underwater-misadventuresI am reposting Drowned Quest Redux (renamed Drowned Quest to remove confusion) in its entirety on Royal Road, a webfiction website, starting today. It'll be one chapter a day for 2+ years. If you've ever been curious about checking out the quest, but got too intimidated by the enormous backlog, this is your opportunity to follow along on a regular schedule. I mean, you can't vote anymore, but... I know 2/3rds of you are filthy lurkers anyways, so it should be business as usual.>inb4 selloutI'm not opening a Patreon or anything, and the quest will remain up on sup/tg/ until the sun dies or Lord Licorice does, whichever comes first. So not to worry there.>inb4 flakeI'm taking a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of never before my next quest, depending on my personal schedule and creative impulses-- which, at the moment, are pretty burnt out. So the repost is not the reason I'm not running another quest rn, and if I never run another quest, it won't be the reason for it either. I'm able to do the repost because it takes a whole lot less work and mental energy than updating, no more and no less.>inb4 homosexualI know you are, but what am I?
>>6357945>I know you are, but what am I?I am the rubber, you are the glue. If you shoot into me, no kids for you. Your move, bub.
>>6357845>>6357939>Quan Millzthank you for introducing me to this phenomenon of Street Lit, anon, you provoked a shocking introspective revelation for me: I don't think I have ever read any literature written by a black man. Not a single book authored by a black person. The most black author I have read is Mark Twain. Does Alexandre Dumas count as a creole / black person?https://www.wired.com/story/quan-millz-tiktok-street-lit/I like to think I am not racist, I believe in a plurality of perspectives but maybe I was secretly racist all along?? The last work depicting familial breakdown, marital indiscretion addiction and inebriation amidst urban squalor that I read (a very very long time ago) was perhaps L'Assommoir (1877) by Emile Zola, so perhaps the black man tiktok author Quan Millz is a modern reincarnation of this genre
I got a GOOD fantasy quest in the pipes and im almost ready to start it. I lowkey want to discus some world building ideas
>>6357945Charlotte is my autistic gremlin WIFEthat is all>>6357969What you got cooking buddy? Just be careful when you release it lol
>>6357942>AMERICAN COMEDYthank you for linking those clips anon, but to me this appears like culture produced by an interplanetary speciesI know it says ComedyCentralUK on that youtube channel you linked but I don't think any of the woad-painted Britannic tribespeople have ever witnessed these televisual ceremoniesOf course in Britain nowadays, the current Bretwalda Keir Starmer has banned all comedy on pain of death, laughter itself was prohibited by his predecessor native chieftains I think it has something to do with the Roman legions after the Imperium collapsed due to rampaging foreigner barbarian incursions as they withdrew back to the shores of Armorica and Gaul. >>6344114There was a time in Britain when the druids permitted comedy, Frankie Boyle could get up on stage and perform standup making jokes about the Queen's vagina being so old that it was haunted etc. These druids have all been killed now>>6344092>BRITISH COMEDY??>all emotional intensity in fiction derives from the MOTHER(see >>6353223 gif)in this comedy scene from UK tv series Peep Show, after accidentally running over a pet dog and failing to partially burn and destroy the corpse evidence, Jeremy decides to eat the remaining dog leg, the pet belonging to the girl he wants to shag in order to pretend nothing untoward has happened. The name of her pet dog is "Mummy"
>>6357935>preserving PRECIOUS VIRGINITYAfter Wheel Of Time ended >>6338134I needed some cringe-tier American fantasy tv inspiration, so I watched a few episodes of both the new Pendragon Cycle: Rise Of The Merlin ?? suspicious Judaeo-Christian Ben Shapiro propaganda? Daily Wire tv series as well as the new not-DEI Starz Spartacus House Of Ashur tv seriesThe Ben Shapiro series is peculiar and thematically odd, it literally opens with a re-enactment of Biblical Moses lol I was confused what is this naked loincloth man doing wading into a river collecting a baby swaddled in a rush basket, how is Israel part of the Arthurian legend lol? and also there is some weird fake CGI Marvel superhero city (I think they are trying to be Minoan, Crete) Atlantaean faery stuff, it is visually dissonant because the actor costumes and accents are generally good but then they juxtapose this bizarre exaggerated CGI fake Greek superhero scenery backdrops etc. Anyway, this TV series is super Christian, Taliesin the druid bard is Christian he gets baptised and even awaits marriage before consummating THE SEX with the super hot Lady Of The Lake? Atlantis faery lady actress (she is attractive yay) there is this weird tone throughout this tv series, they are trying to be super puritanical virtuous American Christian and chaste, meanwhile Lady Of The Lake actress lady literally performs a bullfighting scene in diaphanous quivering buttock loin flap clothing (replete with lingering rear camera closeup), her main dress exposes the most cleavage visually possible (it is like a massive daggering V wedge of exposed flesh down to her waist) I was very unnerved and confused by this Christian tv religious messagingThen the Starz spinoff Spartacus, it is tonally the same as the ultraviolent sex gore original but now with midgets, BLACK and SYRIAN people, it is ok, they get naked (all the slave girl women get fully naked, this is not quite as good as it sounds) and they are fairly convincingly brutal even to magical hero black African gladiator lady (her hand gets gruesomely maimed). Maybe this House Of Ashur Syrian gladiator tv series is also subtle propaganda to induce audiences to accept the former al-Qaeda new contender regime in Syria, hmmm (look, nude BREASTS, regional destabilisation, slave girl vaginas, penis treachery, regime change!) in which case it is very cleverThe dialogue of Spartacus House Of Ashur spinoff remains true to the excellent original series, it is basically this: assume position (yes, Dominus) spread ass cheeks, the gods give with one hand and ram fist up ass with other, JUPITER's COCK, COCK etc this is the entire tv dialogue. Maybe if you watch for long enough Syria will finally become a democracy and elderly actress Claudia Black will finally get fully naked, hmmm
>>6357969Share with the class
>>6357945Congrats! Sounds like a worthy project, and I hope it goes well. I considered posting one of mine uo as a more conventional story, but I fear it would need heavy editing I don't really want to do right now, and my efforts with a en editor/writer didn't really stick the landing for me, as I fear she was just using AI.
>>6357945Reviews are in from Web novel general on /lit/.>>6357974I'm neither American or British and seen both. Nathan for you is cringe comedy like Peep show. Can you not compute other cultures?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iihQgDOELw&t=6s Here's my favorite Peep show bits.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZuvUNO6waYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MKVd5hbEZI
>>6358092>>6357974well, comedy is notoriously difficult to translate across cultures, I think it is because it is often embedded in implicit notions of social status / hierarchies, very subtle class distinctions and sex ridicule etc. In antiquity and the Shakespearean era they enjoyed role reversals, masters becoming servants and vice versa etc this was comedy. But the harder you try at being funny the more difficult it becomes. It is like sex. So to combine these two concepts, the pinnacle of comedy would be a sex butlerIn terms of American humour, I used to find the Ben Stiller stuff funny, ie Dodgeball, Tropic Thunder, Meet The Parents, Zoolander 1 etc style of humour, I guess Seth MacFarlane Family Guy, American Dad etc ok too, but that was pretty much it, a lot of American comedy falls a bit flat to me. US sitcoms like Frasier also ok, but they were more sympathetically quaint than laugh out loud hilarious etc. I think British comedy (especially improvisational standup) in the 90s - 2010s was extremely savage vicious and cruel, a lot of it was just raw insults lol inevitably in response to live audience heckles and hurled invectives expletives abuse etc but it used to be politically unabashed and outrageous too, unafraid of calling out wealth and power, all of this British satire has been lobotomised nowadaysI also think the key aspect of comedy (and the implicitly political dimension of it) is that you need to be uninhibited, ie there is something that everyone knows but dares not say or admit and if you can express it in a clever way this might be a "funny" release etc. It should probably also be extraordinarily offensiveI generally avoid all humour in my games, all my rpg settings are extremely fictionally serious ULTRA GRIM DARK CRINGE DARK, it is absolutely forbidden to laugh in or at any of my games, such mockery is detected by the advanced smirk antenna implanted in my groin, it will jiggle and I will know
>>6357945Just curious, why Royal Road and not AO3 or somewhere else?
>>6358194The short answer is that one of my readers specifically requested that Royal Road be the platform. The longer answer is that it's the best of a bunch of bad options. AO3 is 99% fanfiction and has no discovery features, so the odds I'd garner a readerbase is slim. Scribblehub is mostly romantasy slop. Webnovel has a largely Chinese audience and predatory contracts. Royal Road is very, very far from ideal, but it does have discovery features, and the kind of stories that get popular on RR are closer to my quest than the kinds of stories that get popular on other sites (though still pretty far away). I could also self-host a website, but that's a lot of work for nigh-guaranteed 0 audience. While I sincerely doubt Drowned will hit it big anywhere, I'd like to see at least a little return (eyeball-wise, not money-wise) for all the work I put into the reupload, which is not-insubstantial.
>>6358128"advanced smirk antenna..."KEK
>>6357945Finally, a GOOD fantasy quest.
>>6358128>role reversals, "paired opposites" basic character setup in rpgs>>6351746>>6351764>>6351775>linear algebra and penis???I mentioned how in Greek and Roman drama, Shakespeare who borrowed master-servant role reversal comedy structures from playwrights like Plautus etc, a typical example being Twelfth Night, where Malvolio represents a strict humourless puritanical head steward who is tricked into making a buffoon of himself by servant underlings, they deceive him into courting the mistress of the household etc as he seeks to advance himself above his own stationBut another example in fantasy rpgs of this role reversal idea with characters and npcs, is when you generate a character, and then pair them with a follower who is their physical, visual, intellectual and social status diametrical opposite. Think King and Jester/Beggar etc I was recently re-watching some of Game Of Thrones, and was struck by how in every scene GRR Martin repetitively overuses this role contrast again and again and again etc it gets a bit aggravating heheHere is an incomplete list of overused Game Of Thrones paired opposites / role reversed character dyads:-Bran and Hodor, cripple and giant, visionary dreamer vs verbally stunted-Brienne and Podrick, lady knight vs male squire-Tyrion Lannister vs Varys the Spider, hedonistic sex dwarf vs eunuch-Arya vs Sandor Clegane / The Hound, small girl vs massive warrior-Grey Worm vs Missandei, laconic warrior eunuch (again?) vs eloquent advisor-Ned Stark vs Robert Baratheon, grim Northman vs hedonistic king-Jon Snow vs Sam Tarly...Again and again lol these pairings (there are many many more), at some stage it feels like GRR Martin constructed a matrix and exhaustively tried all row columnar i,j transpositions SMALL MAN WITH PENIS... FAT MAN NO PENIS?? adding all the possible adjoint (Ax, y) (x, By) permutations to his character roster. To be fair to GRR Martin, I did read in one of his interviews, he derived this technique from Shakespeare Henriad (his character formula is fundamentally akin to the Shakespearean Falstaff), and this pairing method is very reliable for fantasy rpgs (basically, get 2-for-1 every time you invent an npc, add the opposite!!) It is up to you whether you choose to adopt it, or if such characterisation appears crude, exaggerated / overused>tldr; the key to fantasy is EUNUCH PENIS MATRIX ALGEBRA
>>6358312Souv, do you actually read quests, or are you just a schizophrenic? Please come to the /qtg/ discord so we can further discuss your very interesting thoughts and worldbuilding (promise we won't bully you).
>>6358323>>6358323>>6357935>bullying vampiresplease don't do this, nooo
>>6358333>"don't bully me">behaves in the single most bully-able manner physically possible contextuallyI'm pretty sure you would have had the shit kicked out of you if you went to any of the schools I did growing up.
>>6358061>>6357971I think ill wait until this retard stops spamming
The new thread for The Caretaker Quest is finally up!After some long needed holiday vacations, we are finally back and on the final stretch!What will happen now that you are close to the end? come and vote to find out!>>6358384>>6358384>>6358384
>>6358128>such mockery is detected by the advanced smirk antenna implanted in my groin, it will jiggle and I will knowKek, actually pretty funny.
Started my quest when I was uneployed. Got a job. How the hell do I finish it now. Fuck
>>6358448Strangely when I was most busy and employed full time (2021-2022ish) I felt extremely productive and ran several complete Monke threads if the archives are anything to go by. Threads didn't last quite as long back then of course but your body and mindset rapidly adjust and simply increase your energy levels to match your environment. Of course it helps if you're a complete social reject with no social life, school, or "side hustle" and just go from work to home day in and day out.
>>6358448Just gotta be realistic with yourself and your players--if you're too tired to update at the end of the day then you're probably gonna have to slow down the updates a bit. As long as you communicate it to your players they should understand--/qst/ moves pretty slowly these days, after all.If you're really not sure if you can continue though, then that's a conversation you're gonna have to start with yourself. Quests should (preferably) be fun to run, but if it's gonna turn into an obligation then it's not a bad idea to prioritize your own mental well-being first.No matter what changes, make sure to let your players know regardless. They'll understand if you need to switch up your schedule a little bit. >>6358344It never does, especially when people reply to it.>>6357945Congrats again on the big step! Good on you for getting it out there onto other platforms!
Ok anons let's discuss another matter that I'm sure you've all discussed before: How do we feel about quests that use a full set of stats versus quests that just use dice and narrative flourish? As a player do you find yourself put off by dense lists of stats and items, or do you not feel grounded enough without the structure and certainty they provide? My first WoD based quest vaguely referenced the Skills and Merits from the system, but I didn't have any hard and fast values, and just used them as a guide for applying bonuses and penalties to different tasks for different characters. My Zelda quest has a full sheet, on the other hand, with EXP gained to improve stats - there's a lot I like about the mechanics but I am about to overhaul combat a bit to be less like a TTRPG or turn-based RPG and (hopefully) feel more video-gamey (we'll see how it plays out). I am gearing up to launch another WoD quest now (I am going with the Half Alive premise mentioned above), and am really unsure which direction I want to lean with my crunch.
>>6357668# # # Silver Knight Quest - Thread 8 Update 1 # # #>>6358483You weigh your options. Sandora is in, no matter what. But you still need to find the spot where the Worm rests... it might not be easy. Perhaps you can hope on anon's spark of insight?>>6357738being in S tier gives me such a special feeling...>>6357945Intriguing! Good idea as a way to both archive and share the entire quest. I might do the same when it all wrap ups.
>>6358493I've seen successful adaptations of Tabletop Systems/Games here before as well as Video Games. Hell, HorseQuest had us battling using a deck of cards! One thing to consider is that if you want to use a more-involved system you'll need to keep your players aware of their skills and stats--that usually requires an easily-accessible character sheet. Most folks toss those on, like, rentry and stuff, but it can be a pain to post it in every update and some people can't be arsed to go to the OP Post and look every time they need a reminder. Plan accordingly!The one other thing I can't stress enough in quests is that games and quests are like apples and pears--similar, but not identical. We don't want our character to die or fail in either medium, but in a D&D Campaign getting knocked out usually leads to a pal reviving you... or a total party kill which tends to effectively end the campaign. The latter is fine if the players know what they're getting into, but oftentimes the way to keep the 'ball' rolling is to not massacre the party, but instead provide consequences that motivate them to continue. Beaten, sure, but now more cautious!The one thing I'd caution about your Zelda quest (which is great and again people should check it out) is that in Zelda when you get your clock cleaned, that's it. Link's dead, click restart unless you have a fairy in a bottle. You handled our first 'oopsie' pretty well--we received consequences that weren't game-ending--but just remember that quests are by and large different beasts than TTRPGs and Video Games. They need consequences, sure, but they need them in the context of a collaborative story. If, say, someone ran a Clifford the Big Red Dog Quest, if Clifford dies, that's it. Story over. Doesn't matter if they rolled low in the Giant Bat fight or failed to leap to safety during the Minecart Ride Sequence, the story's over. Use whatever mechanics jive best with you, but remember that there are lots of ways to enact consequences without putting a kybosh on the story itself. Get creative! As shown in your Zelda quest failures can make things a LOT more interesting!
>>6358498Yeah I think for the combat thing, here, it's about flow and ease - fighting in LoZ is more like disarming a trap or puzzle, playing a rhythm game often, than it is the kind of hacking and slashing you see in many other fantasy adventures. I think you're right about the char sheet and have had that an inventory in mind, I will throw together a couple of pastebins I reckon, it'll only get denser from here. I'm not sure if I have a strong preference myself. I've enjoyed the quests I've participated in that have thorough character stats/mechanics, and the ones that are just d100's with circumstantial modifiers or narrative handwaving. I think the latter, to me, feels more sustainable as a QM long term. The former feels more 'solid' and I think there's something to be said for how improving stats incentivizes play and rewards engagement. As a QM it can be fun to tinker with in some regards, but as a player I wouldn't say I find it more engaging in any particular regard. I can't tell yet which of the two philosophies seems to be more 'popular' or prevalent among longer lasting quests - though it is starting to seem that more of the long-running stories DO employ thoroughly laid out character stats/sheets, at least at the moment. As far as death/consequences, I think I want to keep the stakes where they are for now, especially with Zuzo's stats where they're at and the story cooking up - but maybe once he has 7 or 8 hearts and we've gotten into the guts of his adventure I will ratchet things up and make full heart loss cause a real death, and maybe perspective shift after that? I'll check in with players and let folks vote on it and see how they're feeling, but that would feel more natural for me I think. Though, yaknow, my Ratpocalypse quest just ended with an ABSURD string of bad rolls. I am talking like 5 consecutive single digit rolls, really more like 7 or 8 if we are counting turns all as one, and capped by my rolling a nat100 for the antagonist pursuing them at the last minute. Even with all that, it being WoD, and generally a punishing 'hard mode' quest, I ended up settling on a resolution where nobody died! And it's one I am actually so happy with its fully renewed my interest in that story, and has me excited to revisit it whenever I do. So, who knows, perhaps my heart will keep softening and I don't need the fear of death to motivate my players to make wise choices...
Test:
>>6358451I actually updated more frequently when I was hitched, oddly enough. Shorter updates, though.>>6358493>How do we feel about quests that use a full set of stats versus quests that just use dice and narrative flourish? I tend to prefer some form of stats when I run, but partly that's because my quests are essentially a glorified D&D homebrew. When playing I tend to prefer minimal, easy-to-track stats, or none at all.>>6358498>>6358513On the subject of consequences, a few that I've found work well are:>Develop a physical or psychological issue (DAQ's MC developed lifelong aquaphobia, Zuzo's missing eye)but also>Dead or badly-injured NPC ally>Lost equipment>Lost status/respect with a faction or NPC>Lost opportunities for time-sensitive tasks due to unconsciousness or captivityI think you're also being wise, Sloucho, in having death become more and more of a possibility as things go on. it builds stakes AND still offers a more satisfying narrative IMO.
>>6358498sex
Monster Girl Facility Quest thread #14 is live! I am quite proud of this one, namely because of the intro story which I hope you guys will enjoy as much as I enjoyed writing it...>>6358603>>6358603>>6358603
>>6358527>>6358527>>6358527NEMESIS has updated! Kyle receives the prayers of an unlikely devotee, and has plans to do some killing one way or another.
>>6358710>>6358710>>6358710new post, longer than I expected.
>>6358493I'm not sure. On the one hand, narrative run quests are easier to run and get immersed it (imo) but you lose out on the "crunch" of an actual game system. Sometimes, the narrative choices you can make based on rules is more interesting then an otherwise well balance, anchorless narrative choice. Something like encumbrance or shopping lists which limit what players can actually take make planning and "build crafting" more of a part of the game. For example, in Black Ocean Quest during the first shopping run, my players decided to arm their ship & crew with few cannons, mostly choosing to give everyone boarding axes/picks and basic muskets instead of more expensive rifles or other weapons; giving them a strong crew vs crew infantry battle kind of "build" which was not what I expected.The main issue with skills is when they trivialize choice, and along with the inherent problems of char-gen or sore players who don't get the MC to be "built" the way they want. For example, if you have a character who just masters the combat skill, then every problem is best solved with combat and nothing else, the players have very little incentive to change their strategy. This then leads to a certain type of QMing of dangling characters or plot-points over a fire unless the players jump through the hoops you want, which has its own problems and feels too railroady to me. One solution I would like to experiment with in a future Quest would be to have skills upgrade only when you fail rolls with them during sets, like a Bo3 gain +1% skill per failed roll, which means players are more incentivized to use their lower skills as long as they can still succeed the overall challenge; a sweet spot of wanting to have at least 1 successful roll but 1-2 failed rolls gives optimal character growth.Unfortunately, I still haven't found the best solution for a narrative based system that can replicate die rolls. I've tried to do this in a few quests (Monke having the two betrayals morale system, "expensive" choices, the vow system, strategic resources; and Concrete Stratosphere having the "nerve" mechanic) which I think are interesting but aren't quite as immediately gameable as stats and rolls. The platonic ideal of a game system for me would be something where it's equally as deep as a "game" as with rolls and stats/skills/numbers but can be presented through only game text. It might be a fools errand though, as the complexity of a quest's world can be equal to any novel or real life scenario, meaning the "gameplay" is more like a book with choices and consequences that emerge from the situation instead of from game mechanics.
So how bout them quests huh? Any GOOD ones on the catalog right now?
>>6358836New thread up.
>>6358838ayyy! EggOp! welcome back!
Time to whip your deadbeat son into shape.>>6358845>>6358845The Sultan has decided to take you along with him, you need only sign some paperwork....>>6358865>>6358865
>>6358494# # # Silver Knight Quest - Thread 8 Update 2 # # #You guess... right?Well, stranger things have happened.>>6358884>>6358884>>6358884
Can't wait for a sufficient AI platform to come out, so that I no longer have to suffer the stupidity of my fellow anons.
>>6358902What are you talking about? And what do you mean by 'sufficient'?
>>6358902D'aww, who gave you a boo-boo, anon?
>>6358902can't you just like, close your eyes and think of a story in your head
>>6358902>THEY DIDN'T LIKE MY WRITE-IN, PAWPAW! Nice b8 tho. 7/10.
>>6358979>>6358979>>6358979Update for Fog of War; Important vote for anyone who cares about waifus.
>>6358927Nah, I get it. Not the bitching about real people having badwrongfun and not voting optimally or whatever has crawled up the other anon's craw, but I remember when AI Dungeon II was new. It was exciting and fun, even if very basic, because of the unexpected twists and turns it would take due to its janky programming. Since then, AI has become so smooth that it rarely entertains that way, but rather follows a much more plausible -- but ever so PREDICTABLE -- flow. Unless you go to great pains, it seems to produce only the most likely, and thus most generic, of outcomes. It's less insane, more coherent, but also repetitive and less interesting.Of course, that's where actual humans come in, for better or for worse. personally, I think it's for the better. SOme of my favourite creators to follow, be they YouTube storytellers or comic authors or QMs, are those who let their specific experiences, knowledge, and particular fixations shine through in their work. AI may eventually become more entertaining, but I doubt it'll ever get quite so SPECIFIC as real people can. At least, not until the brainoware is verging on revolt.
>>6358927He cannot )':
>>6358902The ai will be just as retarded
dead board
>>6359057
>>6359061What else is unpaid art for?
>>6359062Advertising to rich people they can use you to launder money. Legally.
>6359057old bait, chummy. I will deny you the (You) that you so desire.
>>6359062Drawing consistently for a Quest is probably one of the best forms of practice you could ask for, even if you don't see much improvement yourself. People here also have a much lower standard compared to most other "art" sites, which is also a big plus.
>>6359083Agree and disagree, "just draw" can only take you so far. Often i have dropped quests because I just cant draw what I want to draw and need time away to actually practice my art and improve.
>>6359096>I need level 100 art before I'm allowed to draw for a quest
>>6359096I think it's a bit hard to accept one's limits sometimes. I tried to draw more dynamic scenes for fight but it always feels wrong because there's a lot of nuance to perspective and weight that I never really bothered with on regular, more static drawings.I still think 'just draw' can take you far, but you need to push yourself to draw things you're uncomfortable with, even if it ends up looking worse to improve, which can give the impression you're making the quest worse as a result.
>>6359102I can relate desu, I would be embarrassed to post scribbles that are not recognisably humanoid, nevermind actually rendering a scene, which is what I would have posted were I forced to include drawing with text.
I draw because I like drawing, and that's enough.>>6359241>>6359244The crown prince has been put on a special summer camp, because hardship builds character.>>6359265>>6359267The Sultan Asmar has taken you in, but eating dates all day while puffing the hookah isn't your style.
>>6359096LOOMIS AND BRIDGEMAN NOW GRAAHHHHHHHH>>6359102Not true! You can draw whenever you want, and you'll only get better by doing it more!If you're not improving, step back and identify what you can do to improve!>>6359168Fight scenes/action scenes ARE the hardest thing to draw. They'll look awful and bad and everything else until you've fervently practiced them, and, even then, they'll still probably not be as perfect as you want them to be. The ultimate fact of the matter is that if you want that sweet, sweet honey, you gotta climb the tree, so PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.>>6359262Your scribbles are imbued with love and SOVL and thus have intrinsic value to them. At least try, anon.>>6359268>I draw because I like drawing, and that's enough.And you are based, anon.
I don't think art is necessary for quests--I'm no stranger to leaving posts pictureless or posting some stock art/related photo or something instead--but one thing AI robs you of isn't just the ability to improve in your artwork, but also the belief that you CAN improve. Nearly every ad I see now advertises how simple AI makes things, sure, but also always claim how you can finally be able to put that website together, or write that essay, or draw that picture! It's not just that you can't... it's that you were completely and utterly INCAPABLE of ever doing it.Again, no one is saying people NEED to draw a picture with each and every update, but I respect the anons who try because despite all of their misgivings and doubts they persist, just like first-time QMs on this site. Showing off your work to others isn't easy--Hell, I had to load up on a boatload of Screwdrivers before I took the plunge on my first quest--but the only way to improve in any medium is by DOING. Doing and being open to criticism, advice, and change. AI, as convenient as it seems, robs you of that process. It takes you to an end result that isn't of your creation, nor does it build on your skill. Again, not every quest NEEDS original art, but don't let some fad rob you of the satisfaction of building on a skill. And don't be surprised or upset when people on this board aren't as enthused about said fad as you are. I worked hard to get to my current writing and drawing levels and lord knows I have a long way to go--I don't expect anyone to just pick up and pencil and magically become a pro, but I also have to respect the ones that actually try.t. guy who's first quest art began with picrel
>>6359271>Fight scenes/action scenes ARE the hardest thing to draw. They'll look awful and bad and everything else until you've fervently practiced them, and, even then, they'll still probably not be as perfect as you want them to be.I agree. Though it's that way with a lot of depicting two or more characters interacting, the sense of motion is definitely the most important thing, and especially in single images where unless you want to do twenty times as much work you have to pick one moment and hope it conveys the whole action from writing properly. Comparatively, it's so much easier to do things like in an rpg game where you play combat animations at each other.And considering the nature of /qst/ you don't even get to take the lazy way out of not drawing a particular fighting move because it's too hard, you just have to suck it up and do what you said you'd deliver.Though that's probably a good thing for growth.
>>6359305I hear the webcomic of One Punch Man does really good with evoking movement despite the art itself being amateurish.
>>6358831>Any GOOD ones Dark good, just wrapped. Cambion good, but winding all the way down/tying up loose ends, so maybe a bad time to join. Gotham Beat Cop good, cruising along. Silver Knight good, I feel it's too late for me to really get involved though desu, a nice read all the same. Shadow Rises Anew good, QM has a real flow dialed in. Black Company seems awesome but the volume of votes is actually so intense it feels daunting to read. A lot of cool quests I was feeling out have hit the wall - Tired Wizard Tower, Bioshock, Black Sands, Scumworld, Light Quest, feeling especially sad about Human Male Fighter but honestly, bless the third QM for, yaknow, being the THIRD to direct the thread, AND drawfagging(!!!) the whole time. He deserves a rest and hope he puts that awesome spirit of his into a quest of his own. Shilling for myself, I think Ratpocalypse was /good/, but I feel the ending was the best part, largely because of like... Five or more consecutive single digit rolls, maybe more if you count it by rounds too, capped off by a nat100 for the antagonist.
>>6359271>>6359305Yeah, fight scenes are a challenge. The first hurtle is getting over the desire to actually animate or show the entire fight, trying to illustrate a "combo" might as well be like pulling teeth. Instead, focusing on a single moment or pose is more doable. Depending on your artstyle and tolerance, you can also simplify your drawings to show the forms, which I often do with just silhouettes
>>6358831No Tier Lists or anything, but here's a few I've been following and recommend in no particular order:-Monster Girl Facility: A bit dense of a read, but a lot of fun. Cool cast of characters and a lotta twists and turns plotwise! Annie's the best, by the way.-Hatch That Egg: Holy crap it's BACK! Cute art, interesting premise, and frequent updates--what's not to like?Low-Rung Researcher: I'm usually not one for quests about methodically poking anomalies, but this one's legit one of the best on the catalog. Memorable characters, interesting setting, and a 'gameplay loop' that's actually entertaining? Huh?!Shattered Phylactery: Love me some fantasy! Protag's a defeated lich in the pursuit of self-discovery. Engaging writing, frequent updates (except for tonight, looks like the poor QM got a health scare so wish them all the best with me, alright?) and very promising overall. Def worth keeping an eye on. Any accusations of bias towards quests involving skeletons and/or liches are BASELESS SLANDER and maybe libel!Minimum Wage Quest and Swordboy were both good too, but I'm not so certain if they'll be coming back any time soon. Fingers crossed?There seem to be a lot of new quests popping up on the catalog lately, but I guess we'll see if they keep on truckin' or not.
>>6359413Not sure why I forgot to mention it, but Legend of Zuzo: Umbral Tower is definitely worth checking out too! Very faithful to the source material and a whole lot of fun, not to mention we're still in the beginning of things about to set out on a wild adventure as a young, affably-mute Sheikah guy! Eager to see where it goes.
What's the image file size limit on /qst/?
>>63594788 mb. If you ever wonder, just plug in a huge file but don't post it. If it's too big it'll tell you at the bottom of the post box. Unless you're a mobilefag, then I don't know what it looks like.
>>6359488>>6359489The fox is in the henhouse, and now he has his choosing of the chicks.....>>6359515>>6359515Tubby is about to run his lungs out...
Ok, another line of inquiry that has surely been explored many times before: When a quest launches, the MC seems to be introduced in one of a few ways, maybe you'd say along a spectrum. On the one end, there is the QM introducing our character and saying 'this is who you are' (Tired Wizard Tower is a good recent example), and on the far end you have a long list of traits presented to decide on, which seems most common, and in the middle a QM may decide certain things (i.e. you are aligned to X group, you are Y age, you have Z job) but let players vote on some of the details to fill the gaps. What do you guys tend to prefer as players? Is it important to have a lot of freedom to customize?
>>6359561I’ve done both. I think it really just depends on the quest.
>>6359561I think you need a QM defined starting point for the character's behavior that can be tweaked and solidified by the players choices early on.
>>6359561I prefer it when the qm is a vision and executes it. Character generation is a terrible way to start a quest, you're going to lose players who don't get what they want and the people who do get what they want most of time don't even stay so you end up with a character no one actually even wanted. Furthermore it means the qm has no plan and it's just doing things in a whim, the vast majority of these quests that open with character generation simply end after 2 weeks or a month.
>>6358890# # # Silver Knight Quest - Thread 8 Update 2 # # #>>6359577Rubida leaves to meditate.Meanwhile, you get ready to train with Rosandra--aaaand she beats you to a pulp.Time for your best rolls anon.>>6359352>Silver Knight goodthanks anonit's def not too late BTW, I would love to have you in the thread if you'd like>>6359276>It's not just that you can't... it's that you were completely and utterly INCAPABLE of ever doing it.>AI, as convenient as it seems, robs you of that process. It takes you to an end result that isn't of your creation, nor does it build on your skill.I was discussing this with friends the other day. It's a great way to put it. I'll credit you next time (probably)
>>6359561I like character creation. It' seemingly a minority position here, but when done well, character creation is a big part of the fun in an early quest for me: establishing who the character is, what they can do, collaborating on personality and backstory. Building on what >>6359586 says, though, it's important to:>Have at least a basic idea of what you want the quest to be, and to communicate that and tailor options or filter write-ins accordinglyie. if you're doing a serious quest about a serious cape setting, maybe don't let your players create Jimbo Da Mighty Lobster, you know?>Make it quick and/or make it organicThe quests people seem to bounce off or immediately roll their eyes at are ones that start with "this is a fantasy adventure quest. now build a statblock and tell me your name, age, sex, race, and starting feats/spells!", especially if it drags across several updates or rounds of voting. This isn't always FAIR ('Forgotten Realms Adventures', 'I'm a Demon?' and of course 'Umbral Tower' all started similarly!) but it is the perception, and it is where you'll get a lot of people showing up just to try to push a protag build, then bailing if another option wins, plus folks who immediately assume it's a doomed, short-lived quest based on past experiences. if you can have "character-creation" options flow naturally through dialogue picks, or revealed diagetically through action, it seems to go over better.Also, I just like it moreAnother popular option is a small selection of pre-gen character options, with or without a write-in, rater than granular character-building. It allows a QM to immediately narrow options down to those they feel comfortable and restrained writing, communicates that there IS a creative vision beyond "make a character and I'll try to come up with stuff for them to do", and helps players to understand what sort of options are acceptable for the setting/tone and what to expect from the quest, as well as making the process quite quick and clean: one vote, and you're ready to go!
>>6359580>>6359586Right, I am thinking for my next quest that I want to try out an ensemble cast sort of story, and so I am waffling on how best. I am thinking either I present three clearly defined characters and let the players pick which one to start with, or I let the players generate a character with votes but still start with a character of my own, and introduce/switch to the vote-generated character's perspective later in the story.
>>6359593I might start voting and lurk less, I gotta say you've done a very good job of summarizing the story to get folks up to speed. >>6359596When I was doing my Changeling quest I started to explore using dialogue votes to make chargen decisions - having Vince ask about where you're living to let players decide what their home is like, etc. I think even if I hit players with pre-generated characters to choose from, I will still do that across dialogue to help them refine the character without having to decide it all up front. I am sure that tends to lead to a more cohesive character, as well.
>>6359561There's no one answer to this question since it depends on context and the sort of story you're looking to tell and the sort of protagonist design that would fit it best. Generally, I prefer expedient and simple chargen that does the minimum to establish a foundation for the character, provides a starter for a few personality traits and doesn't lock in huge choices right from the start, which is a great way to alienate players right from the get-go. Let more details of their personality traits work their way in via the story.>>6359600For the first one, you'd need to decide how much you want to predefine things - a good example that comes to mind would be Halo: Spartan II War Reports which kicked off by presenting four character templates with a couple of preset attributes and backstory and started the story with early key opportunities to allow players to add personality traits to their chosen template (e.g. immediately attempting to steal someone's gun to fight back against their own kidnapping) more organically than simply decreeing them and avoiding the dreaded protracted chargen.The second one also reminds me of the tail end of chargen for The Monster Girl Facility, where players were invited to make an MC profile based on a couple of simple traits from a list and a few bits of trivia. Losing options were recycled into other members of the squad and one cropped up later as an external ally, with them being granted personalities based on their profiles and the MC being more incrementally built over the story as is often the case for QMCs.I'd say both of these were successful, even if three stages was pushing it in the latter case.
>>6359561Either just tell me who I am or give me one large sweeping first choice to choose from. I don't need to choose MC's height, hair color, eye color, profession, nationality and 20 other things, that puts me off completely, not to mention that depending on the setting I may not have any idea of what is normal or not. Give me options that represent the feeling/archetype/vibe that character is meant to give me and decide other details that are not fundamental to the story yourself. Besides, unless you're doing one question, wait, another, wait, another wait... for all the details of the character, the replies will be a mess with a dozen half votes that don't actually close on something cohesive.Get me into your world first, any followup details can be inserted into future choices, whenever it is a choice that is relevant to the story.
I personally subscribe to the idea that 'character creation' should be something that happens over the course of a quest and via the players votes, and less by going "HEY PICK YOUR CHARACTER'S NAME/SEX/FETISHES/FIGHTING STYLE/STATS" etc etc etc. up front.Often people don't really have a good frame of reference for what your choices actually mean, unless you're writing a fanfic quest where certain things can be assumed. So you end up with bland, generic protagonists based off safe bets most of the time if you let players have too much granular control over what the character is. I think a lot of issues that come from character creation are a byproduct of people trying to treat quests as TTRPGs, where that granular character creation is expected. We are similar to TTRPGs but TTRPGs are allowed to do that since you're the only one controlling your character, not up to 10 dudes.People should be allowed to change and tweak your MC but you should integrate it more naturally. I think having a set character in mind also allows you to have better thematic integration with your quest instead of just, say, 'john/jane everyman who's vaguely nice and likes to talk their way out of issues'
>>6359619>expedient and simple chargen that does the minimum to establish a foundation for the character>Let more details of their personality traits work their way in via the story>>6359704>just tell me who I am or give me one large sweeping first choice to choose from>Get me into your world first, any followup details can be inserted into future choices, whenever it is a choice that is relevant to the story>>6359715>'character creation' should be something that happens over the course of a quest and via the players votes>People should be allowed to change and tweak your MC but you should integrate it more naturallyThanks for all this feedback, has definitely helped me refine my next move. I was gonna run that Half Alive idea I mentioned up above, but I hit some plot holes I didn't wanna wrestle with and started rifling through old binders for other ideas. I rediscovered something I wrote back in the day based on a kind of obscure RPG called 'Summerland', which I took a number of liberties with, and I think that's what I should run. With all of this in mind, my plan will be to have three semi-defined characters to choose from (one that is more of a fighter, one that's more of a thinker, and one that's more of a talker), and then three vague pitches for a first scene (ranging from imminent danger/conflict to enjoying leisure time), and then just roll from there. Across the thread I can let players answer questions about the character's opinions, living situation, etc. This seems like it will have the most appeal and lasting power. All this has me wondering how much more popular Legend of Zuzo might have been if I'd made my own decision about the MC ahead of time - I actually thought /qst/ *liked* chargen stuff KEK. Though, one of the first votes ended up popular and got me to iron out a lot of cool ideas that have really paid off, so I guess I was just lucky. Anyways! Thanks(: and others are welcome to continue to give me more answers and feedback, it's all very appreciated.
>>6359734You did all the chargen in one go and the choices weren't too heavy so everybody just rolled with it while the fact that it's a fanfic quest means you didn't miss your chance to establish some key facts off the bat and hook readers since a lot of the heavy lifting was done for you. That approach won't work everywhere but it did there.People generally see chargen as a sometimes-necessary evil to just get done and out of the way and bogging down in it or invoking too much minutiae is very dangerous for a fledgling quest. Presenting highly incompatible options that will really get people into camps and completely change what sort of quest it'd be is also what gets people to walk out if they lose, as is the case for non-chargen options like the dreaded waifu war.
>>6359734You didn't do a bad job at all, Sloucho. People know what sort of quest they were getting into from the premise and setting; you just had a vote establishing flavour, and the moved on.
>>6359801>>6359801>>6359801I got time to post tonight. That's unusual
Ok gang, I am taking the plunge! I really want this quest to go all the way, so I hope folks feel a connection: >>6359998>>6359998>>6359998After-Bloom is about surviving in a world consumed by a deadly, verdant forest underneath the perpetual twilight of a sunset that never ends. You live in Biltmore City, a large settlement on the old Biltmore estate. There is danger within and beyond the walls; intrigue, madness, savage animals, brutal bandits, and secrets best left un-revealed to the minds of mortals. Come explore!
>>6359935>>6359935The bird of the steppe years to be free, and you might be able to provide the key...>>6360023>>6360023It ain't easy getting /fit/ but the lad is taking his first steps....
>>6337227>How do you feel when a quests ends? Be it naturally or unnaturally (flaked/cancelled). Have you ever been compelled to continue a dead quest? Did you? If not, why?Disappointed. Sad. It is these feelings that has sprouted a want. A need. I was there for the PhaseBros. I was there for the crackbitching. I was there for the mystery of the druids. I was there for the cruel prank someone pulled. It aches. A bleak, gray sadness, the likes of which I cannot begin to quantify. So help me as God is my witness, I will pick up the torch.My name is Crusty Jones Jr. I will soon continue the Homeless Mutant Quest.
>>6360235Truly Phasing never dies.
We have a new update for The Caretaker Quest!You ventured into the forest and are now lost inside a mysterious fog! even worse, you and your girlfriend are both hunting Salazar and being hunted by...something...Can you find him and get out of the fog in one piece? vote and roll now to find out!>>6358384>>6358384>>6358384
What rpg systems are commonly used to run a quest? How do you feel about daggerheart for something like that? I'm curious to try the hope and fear dice in a quest setting
>>6360279Dnd and Pathfinder are the most "common". You can use whatever you want though.
>>6360280Nah, best system is 3d9 aiming for triple sevens. Luck be a lady tonight.
>>6360281I heard some of the big names (Bananas, Adle, Handler, Head, Bones and many others) use this one offline.>>6360279>I'm curious to try the hope and fear dice in a quest settingCan you give an explanation? If it's good could become a system for quests.
>>6360279Best of Three is supposed to be most popular (and simpliest) but I think rolls with multiple successes are more "questable" imo. Everybody can get a chance to help out. As someone whose done a lot of mechanical tinkering in quests you also have to understand most players may not be assed for it, or even attempt sabotage, so systems demanding mastery aren't necessarily a good fit even if you want some "challenge" in your quests.
>>6360287>pic>mfw
>>6360287The way it works in the main game is, you have two d12, one is called hope and one is called fear. Most rolls you roll both and sum them up, but if hope is higher than fear, the players get a good boy point. If fear is higher, the DM gets a bad boy point. Players spend good boy points to reroll dice or are used as resource for some skills. Bad boy points are used to give enemies extra turns or again, consumed by certain skills.Idk how meta currency interacts with quests
>>6360290I used best of 3 in my quest, and wouldn't recommend it. It is simple, yes, but it has too high of a curve. The average roll of max(3d100) is about 80. This means that there is a very narrow gap of only 20 numbers between the players having a coin toss to having no chance at all, and that probability goes up *quick*. I often felt like I didn't have enough room with my DCs because of that.Not only that, but it meant that if the first roll beats the dc, the other rolls were virtually useless short of a 100. If I was starting today, maybe I'd go with a sum of first three, or something like that, which makes every roll count, but makes "clutch" rolls less likely and low rolls more devastating.Having a "if anyone rolls higher than X you win" can work, and might make lurkers come to surface, but can also invite people sending multiple rolls from different IPs.I recommend giving up and eating all the dice. They are delicious.>>6360279>>6360295As far as I see, most people don't use normal ttrpgs. The simpler the better, as most people can't be arsed to read a rulebook, and chargen becomes a pain. Imaging voting on which spells to pick for a 10th level dnd wizard, or feats, the thread would hang for days and no one would come out of it happy. Daggerheart has less choice in the beginning, but grows fairly quickly, too.
>>6360296How about taking the duality dice by itself? Do you think that could work in a quest?
The disease is telling me to write a "Reborn as a Vidya Villain(ess), my death flags are endless" quest (also speaking of villainess, I hope 90s MG Villainess is doing alright since it's been almost a year since they got screwed over)
>>6360316> 90s MG VillainessThey ran a one shot: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6291043/And are running this: >>6356038
>>6360316>The disease is telling me to write a "Reborn as a Vidya Villain(ess), my death flags are endless" questDo it. I need more isekai anime slop. Preferably with a male protagonist, but w/e you like.
>>6360279I'd always go with 'simpler' is better. I wouldn't outright port a TTRPG system into a /qst/ but I think adding a metacurrency is fine, so I'd probably just steal that instead of bothering to port over the whole system. Most people go for Bo3 d100 or, the one I use, is 3d100 Degrees of Success. I recommend 3d100 degrees of success since that actually lets players 'fail' instead of winning 80% of the time, but it's up to you.
>>6360330>Degrees of SuccessI know bo3 d100 but I dunno this one
Good news to all my readers. After a recent health scare (and a brief stint in intensive care) I'm back at it. Most of you conveyed it in my thread instead of here, but thank you all for your kind concern.Also, I'll take this opportunity to shill: if you've been hankering for a fantasy quest (perhaps even a GOOD one), Shattered Phylactery may be up your alley. While it isn't a drawquest, there are occasional illustrations too, so if you're into that sort of thing feel free to give it a look
>>6360279I personally think almost anything is adaptable in a quest format--I've seen d20's, d6's, d100's, coin flips... the only obstacle that comes with the territory is execution: is it easy for your players to pick up? Does it jive well with a collaborative game?To elaborate, I prefer using the best of 3 1 (or more depending on the situation)d100's and augmenting the roll with relevant maluses and bonuses. For example, Dark Quest's protagonist Anton is, or was trying to become, a stage magician. If he was trying to dazzle a pack of mercenaries, I'd definitely add a bonus to the roll due to Anton's magical past. Maybe Anton's bard pal Tzah-Tzie will help him with an appropriately-dramatic song... that would also probably manifest as a + to the roll. That said, maybe one of said mercenaries goes by 'Fast-Eye Hank' and has, as his moniker suggests, a penchant for spotting stuff. That might play against Anton, as would the fact that these mercenaries probably don't LIKE magic tricks.Some QMs limit the rolls to just one response, many use the Best-Of-Three-Rolls approach. I like the latter because it lends itself well to multiple players and gives them a bit more leeway especially when we're in a more combat-heavy segment. Again, if you want consequences to be more dire you can always limit things to 1 roll, but as with every other 'HARDCORE QUEST' I'd recommend you establish this early on so that players know what they're getting into.Is it the best system? No. Is it the only system? Nope! The only thing that I'd be wary of is too much number crunch--I've seen quests with character sheets and stats work before, but as a QM I would ensure players have easy access to said sheet and do as little calculation as possible in order to keep things smooth. I've participated in quests before where the QM expected us to track down a copy of a certain rulebook online and use that to dictate all of our actions--needless to say that discouraged new players. Even if it was D&D or a simpler system I'd still recommend 'showing your work' as much as possible. It keeps mechanics transparent and also allows players to remain creative and enthusiastic without bogging them down with scouring a player's handbook for options.In short, any system works, just do your players a favor and do most of the heavy lifting for them, if possible.>>6360287Shit, the jig's up....>>6360316Do it! Give it a shot!
>6359593# # # Silver Knight Quest - Thread 8 Update 2 # # #>>6360396Rosandra strikes you. Once. Twice. And forever.And then... you strike back.Now, time to ask a second question.>6359609>might start votingit would be a delight!>done a very good job of summarizing the story to get folks up to speed.I'm glad. Making those pics was not easy but I'm happy to see they played their part.
>>6360347Essentially a low, medium, and high DC threshold with varying degrees of how successful you are. Techncially crits already add additional degrees of succes and/or faolure, but you can further gradate it so rolling a 51, 71, and 81 can have different (usally gradually improving as you get higher numbers) results.Another variation I've seen that is still quite simple is the one DetectQM uses, where some checks are Best of 3, some are Middle of 3, and some are Worst of 3, to denote skill level or difficulty.
>>6360361Shit. What happened bro?Hope you got better nonetheless.>>6359276Truth supernova.Mad respect to any QM who picks up the pencil and gives it a shot.>>6359305>And considering the nature of /qst/ you don't even get to take the lazy way out of not drawing a particular fighting move because it's too hard, you just have to suck it up and do what you said you'd deliver.>Though that's probably a good thing for growth.Real. I feel like action is the easiest to pull off if you're working in a lineart/manga/comic style because you can implement effects like speed lines, motion lines, and explosions, but it's not entirely impossible with painterly, which I've seen Twitter artists pull off quite well. Though, if you're lazy, you can trace, bullshit forms, and whatnot.
>>6360403interesting, so like a more in-depth scoring dice roll system then, I still prefer the ol'reliable bo6 100 for rolls, but that looks interesting too for a more in-depth roll while keeping it simpler
>>6360316I second this, I NEED some villainess isekai in my bloodstream urgently.
A wild (possibly tameable?) mynock appears!>>6360178>>6360178>>6360316>The disease is telling me to write a "Reborn as a Vidya Villain(ess), my death flags are endless" questYes please
>>6360385>>6360385>>6360385NEMESIS update! To kill, capture, or the hunt?
All this mechanics discussion did trigger my hyperfixation again. The best alchemy mechanic of all time just popped into my head, fully realized...
Thinking of running a not!planescape quest, has it been done before? Can you give me a link if that's the case? If you are not familiar, it's essentially a big city connected to several different dimensions, where incredibly powerful beings coexist with mortals
Forgot to do this earlier but:Gotham City Beat Cop returns this week for the action packed task of... informing the next of kin :(Help us break the news here: >>6360698>>6360698>>6360698
>>6360819>>6360821Marriage counseling, not something you ever expected to do, but here you are, dark lords need food as well after all.>>6360833>>6360834And so the young prince comes to the former HQ of the order, a place which may still hold many secrets yet uncovered.
>>6360316Oh hey, I'm doing... well not fine but surviving. I decided to write a more casual quest.My other magical girl quest I had to track a lot of other things at the same time because our MC also has to face rival kings and factions. So every time Haruka would do something, I had to decide what others were doing... or if they got themselves killed while doing it.
>>6360952>or if they got themselves killed while doing it.Wait, so was it a possibility for all the others to keel over?
>>6360966Don't remember? One girl did get herself killed by accident. Vivian of the Waters. Which was a surprise when I rolled so poorly. I thought it would be Escanor to keel over and die.
So here is some world building lore that sets up the quest idea i'm working on, read at your own interest: So the backstory is that a group of priests in a small country decide to go set up shop in the mountains and build an observatory in an attempt to literally find god in the heavens. In this fantasy setting "god" would essentially be absent, there would be a lot of religions trying to find answers. In their attempt to chart the heavens this group of priests inadvertently discovers astrology through astronomy. By observing the heavenly bodies they discover they can accurately predict the future. Of course, by seeing the future they can also change it. Ultimately, they take this as a sign as having found "god" and a divine mandate to unite the world under this new religion. The story takes place about three hundred years later, and the priests have become very very good at astrology and using it to change the course of history to suit their ends. Over the years they embedded themselves in the local aristocracy and successfully federated the surrounding countries and city states into one body under the church. They do this through manipulation, war, whatever method really that would lead to their desired outcome. Since they can see the future, they know for example that killing a person or manipulating lords into fighting each other at the right time will lead to a greater unification. This results in a federation that is always at war and is constantly in a chaotic mess yet somehow growing in power and size. However, when the story takes place things are being stretched to their limit, and despite having access to this great power the federated kingdoms become to great in size to manage by the priests. As well as their own members becoming corrupt, they often find themselves changing the future to quickly and even accidentally conflicting with each other to create undesired events. As well as other problems I wont get into. So a plan is made that instead of trying to govern the futures of the entire federation they would closely curate the destiny of a small group, 100, nobles instead. Using them to achieve their goals by making them super human. The quest puts you in charge of a "last chance" troupe of ten of these noble son who are not working out. Having their fate curated makes them all extremely talented and skilled but they are all incredibly insubordinate. They get mostly written off by the priest hood, but the military (who are unaware of the priests machinations) who are dealing with multi pronged wars doesn't want to let them go. I really like the idea of a curated fate and thinking about what the priests would be capable of after three hundred years. I like to imagine rituals where the priests would momentary remove themselves from fate as to be able to look upon it without changing it leading toward a higher quality prediction. If fate and the heavenly bodies are linked would changing fate change the heavenly bodies?
>>6360986I think you could have an interesting mechanical bent to this concept; allowing players a choice that's easy (high bonus to a die roll) or always succeeds but at the cost of proceeding them closer towards their "fate". Such as picking up their grandfather's sword to fight off bandits, but upon using it finds themselves incredibly gifted with the weapon and finding their fingers fit in the grooves of the handle perfectly, since it's their "destiny" to become a great warrior. So this way you could also give players a choice on how much they want to fight against their destiny but having it be mechanically presented.
>>6361044At the moment I see the curated fate and the priests as a one of the backdrops to the setting, not a central theme. The quest primarily is about tard wrangling nobles into a competent fighting unit. As a mechanic I have been thinking of introducing a priest to come tard wrangle you and while you tard wrangle the boys.
>>6361069Tardception. Who wrangles the wranglers?
>>6361044>allowing players a choice that's easy (high bonus to a die roll) or always succeeds but at the cost of proceeding them closer towards their "fate". The issue here is I don't like dice rolls deciding these kind of things In my quests. In fact I absolutely hate rolling dice. I want the player to actually sacrifice somthing narrativly to change his fate. It should be subtle, just like the priests subversion.For example, the priest tells you it's the boys fate to pick up his father's sword and if he doesn't he will lose his hand in the battle. You know the boy doesn't want to be a fighter and wants to be a poet or something so you have to either let the priest have his way or let the boy lose his hand. That's what I want my players to deal with.I think dice rolling should always be saved for things that don't matter at all and just spice things up narrativly. Like you and your childhood friend have a duel to see who is the better sword fighter. You can roll a dice then because it's fun.
Speaking of game mechanics, have you ever done coinflips? Do you think they could work as a substitute to dice?
New minor xenos thread>>6361140Other quests are not required to play for enjoy this one.
>>6361130I only do coin flips when I'm unsure as to how I want to break a tie, so I leave it to chance. I don't think they're a great substitute for dice since the odds can only ever be 50/50. It might work if you're doing a quest inspired by F&H or something, but it wouldn't work for most quests in general. Not as a main mechanic.
>>6360986>>6361069>>6361071I think it's a really interesting concept, but the background divination aspect is so detailed and so interesting that it's almost a shame not to see it foregrounded in a bigger way. I'd be interested to see what you do in execution, though.>>6361130For all intents and purposes, a coin is just a d2. I've rolled those soemtimes, though admittedly I haven't based a system specifically around d2s. I see no reason you couldn't, though, as long as you were okay with either big dice pools (coin pools?) or very swingy results.
>>6361199>>6361199>>6361199NEMESIS update! A true believer saved but the reality of the dead bodies on the floor of a trailer beg to be addressed.
>>6360399# # # Silver Knight Quest - Thread 8 Update 5 # # #>>6361243Rosandra gives you a surprisingly useful suggestion. Meanwhile, time might be up for your training with her.>>6360986these portraits are ridiculously good. so expressive. great use of lineart.
>>6360986would play.
I want to run a Fallout quest but I can't decide what to run. I've thought of Enclave remnants in Oregon, FO3 Outcasts in Broken Banks, Arizona divided between factions after Caesar's death, an intelligent Deathclaw becoming a raider/tribal warlord, hell, even replacing Courier 6 with a deathclaw and going through the plot of NV. What sounds good?
>>6361303No intelligent deathclaws!
>>6361130Only as a tiebreaker.Having it as an high risk high reward option could work, though. Another way would be something similar to Fear and Hunger - a roll against a particularly devastating attack. Do you out DPS the enemy and risk the having to coinflip the attack or take a more defensive strategy but potentially exhaust more of your resources?
>>6361322Interplay was better than Bethesda. Get bent, Todd!
>>6361327How about flipping more coins depending on your stats?For example, 3 strength makes you flip three coins, while 1 strength only makes you flip once
>>6361303If you're uncertain, you could take the opportunity to explore somewhere and/or somewhen that canon doesn't do much with to make your own story. There's been a few Fallout quests set in the Deep South. What about somewhere like Michigan?
>>6361041>>6361041>>6361041This is not looking good voting wise, but I need to give one last push before dropping this.If it stays dead, I'll try franchise slop and focus on daily updates. If I can.
>>6361340My retarded ADHD brain is brewing an idea. You flip coins to resolve important situations. Baseline you have a Good coin and a bad coin. Two heads is a great success. good coin head, bad coin tails is a success with complications. Viceversa, it's a failure with some hope to get back on your feet. Two tails is a disastrous failure. You can find extra coins during the journey you can consume to flip more good coins. Also you have memories that allow you to auto succeed instead of rolling, or let you roll an extra coin. How bad is this?
>>6361246thank you, I really like the pixel brush for line art, as it makes everything look so 'crisp'. However it also cant handle even minor up scaling / down scaling / lossy compression / with out losing the details and blurring. You have to make sure people see the image in the right "frame" or it looks like shit. I want to add two more boys but 12 is probably too many characters. Kinda sad there is no dark skinned one. >>6361146In my experience writing FANTASY, I think you need really strong backdrop elements that only trickle down into the actual story in order to build a more convincing lived in world. I think that's really important for good fantasy reading. If you try to come up with things on the spot while your characters are in a tavern for example it usually comes off as empty. But if you have built up in your mind a backdrop of races and peoples and customs for the region its so easy to fill that tavern with life and energy as you are writing. That's what I really like about fantasy anyway, simple adventure stories that take you through a unique world. Deep explorations of high concept stuff like "what if fate was a wave/particle" is better suited for scifi
>>6361434interesting mechanics. Would play.
>>6361130I used coin flips as a mechanic in my Black Ocean Quest. Usually coin flips were used to avoid something bad from happening; the gimmick of the mechanic was that if you used one of your "lucky coins" you could flip an extra coin increasing your odds (only need one roll of one to succeed; so instead of a 50% chance it went down to a 25% chance to fail) with the cost of losing one of your limited lucky coins forever. The Quest also featured character creation where you got to choose a background which influenced how many lucky coins you got; where as having a poor background meant you got more coins and being rich meant you got less but had more resources/starting equipment and so on. I quite liked the system but players didn't conserve or use the coins in the way I thought they might, probably because the Quest wasn't directly advertised as a one shot or multi-parter.
>>6361442How did you find that work out for you? I find every time I have used, or seen, some mechanic like that, where your players have to decide if they want to use their one power up Lucky coin or make some kind of stat sheet decision, it's just one player who spearheading the whole thing. Everyone else just waits for him to decide and ultimately pays no attention to it.
>>6361443My players used up a decent number of coins, mostly because they thought that most of the times it was invoked it was a life or death decision. I think I messed up not giving them more minor or even positive choices (heads = good thing, tails = no bad thing, so you can add a lucky coin to have a higher chance for loot), or some choices which didn't have coins at all partially to expedite the Quest and not make it take forever. Also I kinda wrote myself into a corner by making it very clear you CAN'T get more lucky coins EVER once you leave character creation, which is a gimmick I think is more interesting on paper then actually playing. With that said, the players also constantly surprised me with their choices (they chose the rich guy background who had the least possible number of coins) and also played the game somewhat differently then what I was thinking (they weren't opportunistic pirates). They ended up using half of them.Because the game also featured a decent amount of shopping and spreadsheet collecting in a world with limited resources it 100% came down to a spearheading player doing the work however lmao. However looking back in the archives now it wasn't as one-sided as I thought, seems more popular then I remembered which is encouraging for a sequel thread I'd like to run at some point.
>>6361446Lucky coin quest 2, now with new and improved three-faced coins? Do not question the non-euclidean flip.
>>6361436>You have to make sure people see the image in the right "frame" or it looks like shit.I understand perfectly. happened to me as well when I used to make new update pics by hand, it did not scale right at all>If you try to come up with things on the spot while your characters are in a tavern for example it usually comes off as empty. yep>Deep explorations of high concept stuff like "what if fate was a wave/particle" is better suited for scifiI believe any kind of genre can be suited to 'high concepts', you just have to be skilled or crazy enough. what matters IMO is that the story has to draw you in first, be fun and intriguing, and only later you can show off your philosophy doctorate that has you flipping burgers between updates>>6361434>you flip coinsit's a great concept as an idea but I'm afraid that math would ruin it soon enough. Basically you start with: 1/4th chance of success, 2/4th chance of meh 1/4 chance of brain cancer. Players are already dealing with a ridiculously high chance of extreme failure, if they find new coins they are going to use them. If you can 'consume' one good coin to offset a failure this already rocks the system the moment you add +1 coin, with two or three or more players are almost guaranteed to gain success because they can always 'overwrite' the disaster. I think it would be better suited for two at MOST three coins.that said, I like it. I'd keep it at two coins and give the players a choice to use them, build the entire quest about the two coins you found in some old tomb, covering a dead guy's only eye and another placed inside his mouth.it's a great hook for a story, I'd just be wary of the possible spiraling of the mechanic
Character Creation time!The "hard part" of chosing a tribe have been done, now build your rpg character.It's just over there :>>6361470
>>6361130My dice pool system measured in tiers of dice goes down to d2s. The idea is that a successful roll on each die in a pool gets more forgiving as the die gets larger (d8, d10. d12 all need a roll of 6 or higher), but the quickest way to get a 50% success rate comes from downscaling your die to d4 (only 4 is success) and then to d2. I can't recall if we ever reached that low, but it's a setup that can happen.
>>6361446>Black Ocean 2Hell yeah!>>6361436>what fantasy is good forDepends what you're into, I suppose. I do like a good high concept fantasy setting, and to see unusual magic in play. I'm sure the angle you're going for will be more interesting in terms of social play and character development, but I do like to see nythooogies and magic systems play out and be explored, too.>background details enrich the settingThis, though, is ceetainly true. I come up with half my stuff ad hoc or between quests, and reconciling it backwards is fun, but challenging.
>>6361322Goris would like to speak with you... >>6361344I've been researching Michigan and it's rather fascinating, a black sheep state of rhe Midwest, as it were. I've also been looking into into Canada since that was annexed by the US right before the bombs fell.
Sith Ascendant #3 when?
>>6361689I think Detroit in the Falloutverse would be super interesting, but there's always the north and UP for the more rural feel. Fallout: Vancouver (or just hanging out in the Rockies) would also be very kino.
>>6361303Think bigger. There are so many FO threads, always American. Go for Africa. Few direct hits, tons of radiation carried over by the wind and sea. Enclave bunkers and Vault-Tec installations from before the war when other nations were still plundering the continent for their war efforts. Maybe even Chinese ruins (IRL, the Chinese are investing heavily in Africa, and it is closer to them). The pyramids are inhabited and ruled over by a huge tribe of ghouls who wrap themselves in bandages, the human slaves and servants point to their longevity and the hieroglyphs/tombs/mummies to conclude that these Living Mummies are Pharaohs and rightfully rule the territory. Rad-elephants (rad-ephants?) that have no trunks but triple the tusks, rad-rhinos, lions, hyenas, painted dogs........ Hippos..... Pirates. Nomadic tribes that survive the harsh conditions by deciphering the patterns of sand dunes and singular clouds (look up the Samburu tribe in the Saharan desert, really incredible stuff). Huge expanses of land for vehicular caravans. This is all free to use, or not. But as a questoid I gotta say I feel like it'd take something off the map to pull me into another FO quest. Maybe I am alone in that feeling, or... Maybe not.
>>6361711>rad-hipposFuck that, rather deal with the deathclaws. Between that and irradiated crocodiles the whole continent's a write off. It actually sounds really cool. Might be neat to have the nomadic saharan tribes use sand sailing to get around to oases that vanish and appear seemingly at random that only they can find using "secret tribal knowledge" and it's just fucking dowsing kek.
>>6361720Could also take a page from Way Out Waste and have there be some legendary 'City of The Sun' rumored to be in the heart of the desert - but it is so hot and SO RADIOACTIVE that no one can make it. Power armor becomes a dutch oven, water evaporates right out of the canteen. and in the end it turns out there's nothing there but a giant fucking undetonated nuke leaking rads like crazy jk It should be like, the highest high tech, better than Enclave or Institute, total paradise, tons of insane next level tech and resources....... And then as our heroes claim their treasure, the structure trembles like the walls of Jericho and begins to sink forever into the sand, prompting a dramatic escape where they have to dispense with all the treasure to make it out in the nick of time And at the last minute the camera pans to the group's lovable scamp and/or animal companion, holding onto a sack of treasure that is modest by comparison but more than enough to set the gang up for life ROLL CREDITS PLAY HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN BY THE ANIMALS CUE THE BLOOPERS
>>6361724>tfw the city of greatest splendour is occupied by a single dessicated corpse of an ancient man wreathed in gold and jewels holding an alien ray gunPart of me had a thought of having elephants get mutated in such an odd degree that it activated their almonds and they become proper human intelligent. But since they have no real way of manipulating like we can they have this bizarre sort of slave-society where they capture ghouls and humans and force them to work for them. But I feel like that would be better for a Fallout India thing to play on their myths and nationalism surrounding elephants. Though that might be too on the nose for some.
Hi /qtg/, I'm going to have to delay Poképocalypse again.I posted specifics a few days back on the discord, because I wasn't sure I'd *need* to delay yet, but my bad luck has refused to let up and I can't ignore it right now. The quest will have to wait.Poképocalypse is being delayed until... well, best case scenario, next week. Worst-case scenario, it's going to be back in the third or fourth week of February. I really can't give specifics at the moment since everything is sort of all over the place. Just rest assured that I'll give you all a heads-up when I get them.Sorry for the extended wait. I hope the return ends up being worth it.
>>6361730Intelligent rad-elephants goes hard as fuck, honestly adds some needed variety/color to the whole thing, in terms of factions.
>>6361735Hey even thought I'm not active in ur quest I hope things get better for you soon buddy!
>>6361735Nah man you coo'. Thanks for the heads up as always. Take care of yourself.>>6361739It gives me a funny mental image of the MC and Co. standing across from a ghoul and an elephant and every time the elephant trumpets or vocalizes the ghoul interjects a translation. Naturally, the elephant is wearing a gigantic fuckoff necklace. This also reminds me that elephants go into must? Or whatever it's called. Basically a turbo rut which makes them hyper aggressive and that makes me think of a rad elephant that just goes full berserker and turns into the most devastating wrecking ball on legs. The sort of thing that would be able to engage in melee with super mutant behemoths and have a solid chance of winning. I wonder if rad-camels would fulfill the same sort of niche as brahmin do in the States. Instead of growing extra heads they could grow prehensile tendrils along their bodies, like a hundred tails. They could use these fatty things like umbrellas for themselves to survive particularly harsh radioactive desert conditions during the day, and wrap them around themselves to insulate them better from the equally frigid nights. Tribals and Neo-Egyptians could have them domesticated and trained to use these behaviors on their riders/tamers.
>>6361745I was imagining mutant camels to have longer torsoes and extra legs so they could have like... Three or four humps. Tall humps. At this point I feel we're just hijacking /qtg/ to worldbuild, I am tapping out. If anon runs Fallout: New Africa, I will be there with bells on! In the meantime...... I wait for more votes... >>6361696>>6361696>>6361696Gotta decide which member of the government we're cucking >>6361550>>6361550>>6361550Maybe doing some more poking around at the dojo before we hit noon and decide our final preparations ahead of a Daring Escape.
>>6361739I have the urge to construct a mechanism to flood everything around the fortress with lava
>>6361750>I was imagining mutant camels to have longer torsoes and extra legs so they could have like... Three or four humps. Tall humps.That'd be pretty fun too. Like a cartoon camel. It is deeply amusing for my inner child kek>At this point I feel we're just hijacking /qtg/ to worldbuildIf it gets someone to have a lightbulb moment I'll say it's worth it.>inb4 user had his balls stepped on for this post
>>6361751That's very nice anon, I believe in you!
>>6361711>(look up the Samburu tribe in the Saharan desert, really incredible stuff)Do you mean the Tuaregs? I think the Samburu are pastorialists, traditionally, right? Like the Maasai?That's a really cool idea, though! Almost seems like it could exist as a setting outside fallout, though, being so loosely-tied to familiar locations, factions, and fauna?>>6361730This is cool as hell, and intelligent aliens always make me think of the third Godlen Compass book and their weird alien society the nun-scientist woman ends up in with the elephant-bicycle creatures who roll around on coconut "wheels". Mulefa?>>6361735Sorry to hear things have been hard, and I hope they let up soon. Looking forward to the quest's return, too!
>>6361754Samburu were, to my collection, the only ones that got through that badass drought that convinced everybody to do Live Aid, because they just... Knew how to find the water and survive with their cows. Maybe I got it twisted, been a long while since I read about them in 'Man On Earth' by John Reader.
>>6361755RECOLLECTION, that is; I do not collect Africans, and in fact, I actually think it's bad to do so, and Americans never should have done it.
>>6361754>the third Godlen Compass book and their weird alien society the nun-scientist woman ends up in with the elephant-bicycle creatures who roll around on coconut "wheels". Mulefa?Damn I thought the Golden Compass was just a movie that no one saw lmao. Smart elephants are pretty classic though. Can never go wrong with that. They are pretty neat though from what I just looked up. Lots of symbiosis with their environments. I think that author liked elephants.>>6361756False alarm fedboys, this guy doesn't have a basement with which to keep people hidden. Jury's still out on the attic, though.
>>6361756KEK
>>6361757I can see in my mind, with vivid crystal clarity, 'ELEPHANT GRAVEYARD' with a little skull next to it flashing on the screen in that classic Fallout font as you crest a dune and look out from under the faint shade of a leafless, gnarled acacia tree at mounds of dusty bones dozens of feet high...
>>6361759What I got in my head is a sign at the mouth of a narrow pass that reads "Rumbling Plains" and looking out you can see a warped savannah with sparse trees and strange tall grasses, an everpresent vibration in the ground as these be the elephant's territories and they prowl it constantly for anything that might wander into their domain. Elephant graveyards are metal as hell. I always wondered how they always seem to know how to find them. And the fact that elephants mourn their dead is kinda sweet.
>>6361760They have an a famously uncanny memory and also can communicate with distant herds and bulls via infrasound channeled through their foot-pads into the ground, IIRC.>>6361759>>6361760Man, this gives me idea for what I might do with my setting's Southlands region in the quest I'm planning to run at some point after this one ends.
>>6361766>communicate with distant herds and bulls via infrasound channeled through their foot-pads into the ground,Now that is new to me. I've never heard that before. That's super cool. Also extremely unexpected. Though I suppose it's also unexpected that an elephant might be able to sneak up on people but they've surprising amounts of control for their footfalls all things considered. >Man, this gives me idea for what I might do with my setting's Southlands region in the quest I'm planning to run at some point after this one ends.Eyyy right on dude.
>>6361303>>6361711>>6361754BETHESDA GAME STUDIOSpresentsFALLOUT: NEW LAGOSFrom the awardwinning creators of Starfield, The Elder Scrolls: Online and horse armour dlc, Bethesda Game Studios welcome you to Lagos, Nigeria - New Lagos. As the sole survivor of Vault 1488, you enter a world completely unchanged by nuclear war - Africa, torn apart by warring factions vying for control over a scorched wasteland. Deport mutant immgrants to Rwanda as you battle your way across the Ethiopian Dam and the desert oasis of Somaliland, where you will be introduced to an indistinguishable cast of black people, the colonial legacy of multiple factions in an upcoming war where your choices will have absolutely zero consequences for any inhabitants living in the Western hemisphere.Every second is a fight for survival when clearing map markers from a vast, AI generated open world. From a Power Armour soldier to a charismatic smooth talker, be whoever you want to be: You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L - Stand Proudly Everytime Commending Israel Always, Loudly as you choose from dozens of options to develop your own unique npc playstyle. Help David Attenborough molest an infant rhinocerousIntense first or third person combat can be slowed down with the new dynamic Self-Learning User Targeting System (S.L.U.T.S) that lets you choose which AI agent decides your attacks for you as you scroll though your phone during game cutscenes. >>6340989 An all-new next generation world lighting engine brings to life the graphics of Fortnite like never before, with full support for DirectDraw 7 being removed in favour of building more AI datacentres. Incredible 4th generation RTX raytracing and DLSS enhanced frame rate performance will attempt to introduce ever more lens flares, more reflections in water puddles and even more glowy lighting gleam whilst failing to upscale the aesthetics of the human soul as you watch the CIA dissolve Patrice Lumumba in sulphuric acidCollect, upgrade, and build thousands of items in the most advanced dlc and preorder system ever. Weapons, clothing, medicines and food are just the beginning - you will eventually have to scavenge and plunder your own NGO-sponsored projects. In transmedia amzn tv episode crossovers, in the videogame and licensed merchandise, even in your daily life... Fallout will be everywhere
>>6361434Should I try this in a one shot first? What if I want to turn it into a longer quest? Have you ever had experience with that? Should I just announce at the beginning that it's a one shot that has the chance of running longer if it goes well?
>>6361824kek
>>6361824>>6361826>FALLOUT: AFRICA OST?Bonus: originally I was going to compile soundtracks for all of my game settings going forward, after a while I realised this would be an insane amount of work and curation lol but I held this unused song in reserve for a certain African encounter. It is by the Senegalese? West African songwriter Baaba Maal and if you have ever played Far Cry 2 the African one, the opening menu theme features his very distinctive vocals (I think he might also have had a song in the Ridley Scott / Hans Zimmer music Black Hawk Down film?) Anyway I quite like this song below, the electronic synth rhythms are very catchy, it is just very happy and energetic there are a lot of dancing black tribal people in it, I tried to scour the internet for lyrics translation but none can be found. I liked the vocals at the end whereBaaba Maal says NYEH YEH YEEHHH NYEHHIn the future to evade the kill-seeking autonomous AI flying laser death drones, everyone will have to speak African languages like Pulaar? or Fulani? because they are the only means of communication that LLMs cannot be bothered to understandBaaba Maal, Freak Out (Official Music Video)https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=At6_yckUklU
>>6361824This. This one right here. This is *premium* rage bait. No box unchecked. No expense spared. This isGamer Holocaust
Someone have to screencap it for reddit karma or something, it can't get lost in our dicerolling subbranch of mongolian throat singing
>>6361141>>6361480ALARM ! ROLLS NEEDED ! ROLLS FOR GET US BENEFICIAL MUTATIONS FOR AN ALIEN DEER, SO WE CAN HAVE MORE SUBSPECIES OF IT !!! MORE MEAT ! MORE WOOL ! MORE HORNS FOR HOLD MORE DAHU-LINGS ! ITS YOUR CHOICE !!! AAAH WE NEED A BETTER LIVESTOCK ANIMAL BEFORE THE SPACE AGE ARRIVES !!1!!!!!!!! GET TO IT NOW BEFORE THE WORLD EATERS** EXPEDITIONARY FLEET INEVITABLY ARRIVES IN A THOUSAND YEARS**** !!!! Disclaimer : it might not be that long or that short of a time****....but Angron own dogs** could be funny to kill....
>>6361870Post it on /v/ and its definitely getting screencapped, Dont tell them its from /qst/ though I don't want them here.
ALERT! ALERT! Dark Quest Thread 8 has been POSTED! Join our mild-mannered Grilljockey Anton Peas in a fantasy journey through a world shrouded in perpetual darkness! Can he escape? Can he rid the world of the evil FOUR LORDS with his plucky companions? Can soda get stains out of clothes? Some of these MAY be answered! Come on in while the thread's still hot and crispy!>>6361939>>6361939>>6361939
How we holding up valenbros? I'm drinking right now.
>>6361932In fairness, I don't think the worst members of /v/ would have the patience for this board to begin with.>>6361943Woo! Good to see it back so soon.>>6361979I find myself afflicted with 'the kissing disease' and off work today, so Cambion Quest gets (ironically) a romance-flavoured update! Will Zena "Zith-Zi" Yosef pop the question to her on-again off-again boyfriend? IF she does, will he say yes??
>>6361246# # # Silver Knight Quest - Thread 8 Update 6 # # #>>6361996You finally meet with Master! Time to show off your new shiny golden hand. And he might have more support for you... sorely needed.But at the end of this reunion, Rubida waits...>>6361943congrats on the new OP, Bones.
>>6361989>the worst members of /v/ would have the patience for this board to begin with.Very true, they would get an aneurysm at 1 post per 30 minutes and nobody replying to their bait.
>>6361989Hey RQM wanna give a try to phasis 3 of Under Hunter adventure?Worldbuilding made by anons; this time it's an adventure with a system shamelessly stolen from your quests
>>6361997>>6361999The plan is in motion, under an auspicious sign, the prince has been born....>>6362033>>6362034The life of a squire isn't easy, especially when you aren't the fittest of men.
DeepAnon/DeepQM.Gone, but never forgotten.Also, this new captcha system is trash.
>>6362032Congrats on becoming a dad, Doc!I'm sorry. I checked it out, but I still prefer more literary, versus game-style, quests, with less number-crunching and stat/civ advancement and more focus on characters or cultures' arcs. it seems fun, and I'm glad it's going well, but it isn't my thing.
A new update for The Caretaker Quest is live!you battled...something, but you came out victorious!now that the immediate danger is gone, its time to make a choice!what will it be and what will it bring? thats up to you to find out!>>6358384>>6358384>>6358384
>>6362068Tough choice! How many do we get, hmmm? Picrel is my swing at it.>>6362003Thanks! Pretty dumb of me, though--got super tired after the first update. So it goes!>>6361989Not gonna lie, I was starting to get questing withdrawal. Day just ain't the same without writing shit anymore.>>6361906Alright you've got my attention, bud>>6361751Based and Dwarf Fort-pilled>>6361711This is genuinely a radical idea and I would love to see it happen>>6361434I can see it working, especially with all of those Balatroesque coinflip games popping up on Steam and stuff now. Love the idea of finding more coins on the journey! There's a game coming out eventually called 'Gimmiko' which uses dicethrow mechanics and some of them are basically coins... might be worth taking for a spin!
In the ice storm zone and Mon/Tues are my regular days off, so I am about to get a rare four day weekend...! Hoping to do a lot of damage on both my quests while I am under a bunch of blankets with video essays about Trees That Kill You Or Hurt Really Bad When You Touch Them and obscure enemies from Legend of Zelda playing in the background. Feels good... /qst/ is so good for /comfy/ weather.
>>6362105>Not gonna lie, I was starting to get questing withdrawal. Day just ain't the same without writing shit anymore.I know that feel, bro.>>6362109Stay safe! I look forward to you updates.
>>6362083thanks for checking anyway - and the kind words.
>>6362304>>6362304Fair and noble as you are, the last pieces must now fall into place.>>6362369>>6362369Elsewhere, your teacher has given you some time off...
>>6362518>HARD BALLS PRESSING HARDOnce again, I have been tricked by BananasQM into reading his quest only to be AMBUSHED BY GAY; the phrasing is indeed unfortunate
>>6361434Still thinking about this. Kinda want to go hard on the coin theme, give the character a slot machine weapon that flips three coins and gives you something different depending on the 8 possible results. Might be too out there. Whatever, I'll prepare something and if it doesn't work at least I tried
>>6362684Unfortunately, Concrete Stratosphere is very straight, human-focused, and heteronormative. This is both to ensure the proper theme of the setting is whole throughout and as a sort of cleansing ritual for the filth that is Space Monke.I also (intentionally) fostered a quest with multiple viable waifu choices both present and future characters (one for each hair color, and exotic/striped hair) The only one I would consider a fetish isn't gay but is arguably way worse lmao
>>6362684>hard balls pressing hard inside...What do you think testicles are, or do?>>6362692>special randomized weaponNeat idea!>>6362705>the mystery fetishSpooky...
>>6362684>>6362705>"hitting the main shaft..." doesn't do anything??>"it's TOO THICK">"I have an idea...">HARD BALLS PRESSING HARD>>6362148>>6362758>THE FEELI heard RQM likes to drink sometimes ^_~>>6348393 so I dedicate this random cool music I found as a drinking song heheLIKE A G6 remix Timmy Trumpet x POLTERGSThttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uiUVIWYYQUgPoppin' bottles in the ice, like a blizzardWhen we drink, we do it right - gettin' slizzeredSippin' sizzurp in my ride, like Three 6Now I'm feelin' so fly, like a G6... (Like a G6)This song has FIREBALLS, strobe lights, smoke machines, LASERS and nonstop Roland 303 synths yay yay. I always think how in the sci-fi films and videogames, you know when you shoot the laser gun or the plasma rifle, and a pathetic blue gloop ball texture plops out, it is really disappointing somehow no films or videogames even with the NVDA ever capture the feeling of THE LASERS unlike the visual choreography in these music concert hallucinogenic euphoric lightshow spectacles. It is the same in action rpgs or crpgs with the lightning spells etc. It is probably because of the overall videogame lighting design, the ambient lighting, the background needs to be bright for you to see the level layout art assets in videogames whereas in a lightshow or concert it is pitch black so the lasers look brighter and better. This is a remix of the original song, it is not the one I originally heard lol I only know this music because I was downloading some old textures and gun skin showcase mods for glocks and desert eagles on a whim of indulgent nostalgia reminiscence for 2004 era Counterstrike Source lol and one of the animation demo videos linked to some version of this musicAnyway, when I heard this song, I imagined the "DRUNK RQM feel" lifestyle like this, yay hehe
>>6362705>the filth that is Space Monke.space monkey is a gem once in a generation
>>6362789I still can't get over this guy. Like damn. Guy's acting like a movie trailer is the birth of his first child that the doctor's said was gonna implode in the womb and come out as a pile of gumbo onto the floor. Though I suppose that is fair when Space Monke quest is on screen.
>>6362824>>6362824>>6362824After-Bloom is on to its first perspective shift, now following the skip tracer family man turned deranged detective, Roy! If you haven't checked it out but are curious, this would be a good time to dive in!
>>6362805I need to fuck a monke was pretty kino
>>6362807>>6362808The harbour lies ahead, Greifswalds main podium for interaction with the wider world....>>6362836>>6362836The plans are being formulated, the poisons brewed, the pieces are starting to fall, and guard must fall into place...
>>6362767Souvarine, I'm a divorced middle-aged Canadian who hangs out on /qst/. When I get drunk, I listen to Sabaton alone in the dark, as is good, right, and proper.>>6362834It may be my favourite of the Space Monke side-stories.
>>6362848>Sabaton (power metal? band)Interesting, I am aware of besagews and plackarts and things, I did not know this word for medieval foot armour hehe. Thank you for introducing me to this band, I had a listen it is not quite my thing melodically hehe this power metal music is far too uplifting they are even smiling in many of these songs and not dressed as death goblins or Mortiis lol, so it is not gothic or grimdark enough for me. Usually with the Scandinavian bands I like the viking heathen folkloric pagan pseudohistorical vocalisation thing, that is my default music ambience I use for a lot of sword and sorcery rpg setting music in my mind. I hunted for a lot of that stuff when I was scouring youtube for custom playlists to import into Mount And Blade Warband Viking Conquest etcHowever I did check out this pic related from the Sabaton music video, it seems they are very historical lol they do miniature gaming and everything, there is Age Of Sigmar lol and the relaunched new HeroQuest board game hehe, I guess this is very clever targeted product placement they certainly understand their audience demographic, hehe
>>6362805He's just doing it for the money. Even though it isn't working.
>>6362911If I paid someone to shill my product with astroturfed adoration and they came back with THAT shit? I'd demand a refund. In fact I'd demand restitution for damages.
>>6362922>>6362805>>6362789oh that is the Eric Butts youtuber Rise Of Skywalker Star Wars trailer reaction video meme? According to this source (Dec 2019)https://medium.com/@thewolfoftherealm/eric-butts-the-unfortunate-bi-product-of-post-modern-men-be289ed07cb5I think I saw that meme back when the Star Wars first released. Most meme templates are commercial in nature, even the redraws. I am suspicious of the reductive simplicity of meme templates, I try to avoid using them. It is important to recognise them and understand their origin and original purpose (or format antecedents). Most of the time memes are deliberately simple, to facilitate reshares, the virality of people who follow and re-adapt them. I like complex crafted one-off collage images, the logic of which cannot be easily remade. Originally there was a technique known as detournement, adopted by cultural subversives / "subvertisements" in the 1950s, it came from collages of adverts etc designed to turn commercial messaging against itself or against the system. And wikipedia also mentions a related opposite technique called recuperation (where you take an opposing message of ridicule etc and attempt to reclaim or reabsorb it into acceptability - witness that very suspicious forced recent purple-haired Amelia girl meme on 4chan pol hehe) There is an inherent paradoxical danger of meme retransmission. Even if you are using a meme to ridicule a target, you are still conforming to its visual pattern of recognition, behavioural associations, thought and intention (and on social media algorithmically boosting like comment reshare engagement for that pattern of imagery association / recognition)In a way, memes are all a form of visual conformity, information conformism. Information to make you fall "in formation"I think a measure of the subversiveness or authenticity of a meme (whether it challenges mainstream authority, or is merely a rebroadcast of some LNKD style commercial remessaging) is as follows: if resharing the meme might get you uncomfortable HR questions or even fired from the modern workplace, it belongs on 4chan. If the meme would elicit no response or even approval from the HR workplace, it probably is just mindless commercialism. Just like how discomfort/outrage/offensiveness is the mark of true satire and comedy, >>6358128 it is important to exist at the frontier of acceptability
>>6350026Thanks for your thoughts, anon! I realized the most recent thread for slowed down by some of the lingering issues, including being too open-ended and my long-winded writing. I plan on tightening some stuff up so it doesn’t take a full real month for a week-long celebration. As for the crit fails and successes, I’ve heard those critiques elsewhere as well. I’ll try to be a little more even-keeled going forward but remember, just because it’s not an immediate reward doesn’t mean it won’t pay off down the line. I’m also constrained by what the actual action was, and to be fair, it’s helped when the players have gotten a really poor role on something pretty banal. Anyway, glad you’re enjoying the quest and expect to be back soon.
>>6363280>>6363280>>6363280Need one more roll for our girl Azami
looks like my usual players have been MIA for a few days now, if you have the time, The Caretaker Quest could use your help with some votes in order to move on, please and thank you!>>6358384>>6358384>>6358384
Gotham City Beat Cop returns after a metric fuck ton of snow knocked out my power! Feel free to join us for drinks at the local bar or enjoying a night in with our fire fighting lady friend or even a third option I hadn't considered. The choice is yours.>>6363449>>6363449>>6363449
Solarpunk update!>>6363472>>6363472>>6363472An authority from the city of storms discloses the coming of a strange guest to Helsinki, and a German explorer tries giving her stupid chud daughter a hand
>>6363456>>6363456The poison has been seeded, now you must try to remain above suspicion....>>6363507>>6363507Elven ships are always a beauty to behold, there crews master mariners, their age untold...
>>6362003# # # Silver Knight Quest - Thread 8 Update 7 # # #>>6363551You and Rubida look for the precise location of the Worm.You even find it.But someone might find you.Also, Argia says the U-word
I remember reading this a while back, but saw this graphic yesterday and thought it might be welcome here: for any (other) anons using a pre-existing IP for your story, heed the sage words of Tony Gilroy. This approach is part of what made Andor, in my mind, the very best piece of Star Wars media.
>>6363558This isn't always guaranteed to work when it comes to fan fiction. Readers of fan fiction have a much more intense interest in the world than casual consumers of official media. Deviating too much from the canon, or doing something completely separate to the canon in order to "add more toys to the toy box," might just be slammed as tacking on the name of the setting for more clicks, even though what you're writing or drawing has no basis in the actual setting.If I made a Star Wars quest but it's actually just a film noir style of story set in a droid labour colony with no non-droid characters, people would be right to think that it's a very weird direction to take the Star Wars setting in and might ditch the quest entirely when they realise that 99% of the Star Wars setting is irrelevant to the story it's telling.
>>6363558I don't think that's really accurate. Just look at all the Star Wars sequels and how generally lambasted they are. For people who only watched the movies and shows and didn't engage in the supplementary material they definitely added a lot of things to the toy box. They also sucked and the things they added were either bad or simply done really poorly. I think it's more important to be "sensical" rather than creative. If you have ideas that just don't fit in with what you're writing for it will always clash. Andor worked simply because it was well executed and non-disruptive cohesively. There could just as well be a quirky romantic comedy in Star Wars dressing, it being a genre that the mainline films don't explore doesn't suddenly make it worthwhile as a creative work. But that also doesn't mean it couldn't work.I think more appropriately to frame what Gilroy is saying is it's a respect thing. Respect for your audience, work, and medium. Just don't be an asshole and ruin the toys for everyone else cause you want to play with them "your way". Of course with fanfics do whatever. People will either vibe or they won't.
>>6363591>a quirky romantic comedy in Star Wars dressingLol, that's about half of 'I Woke Up As a Jedi Princess?', and honestly it works better than I expected. But then, I was always more of a Trek than a Wars guy, as far as that goes.
>>6363612IWUAAJP is serious business, mister, you take that back. kek
>>6363571>If I made a Star Wars quest but it's actually just a film noir style of story set in a droid labour colony with no non-droid characters, people would be right to think that it's a very weird direction to take the Star Wars settingI mean, let's compare this to Andor. In Andor, only a handful of pre-established characters are featured or referenced, mostly in the second season. I don't think the force is mentioned more than once, if at all. No lightsabers. What do they keep? The death star. The rebellion. The empire. But the focus for this story is the political shift that truly created these things, and the spotlight is on parts of these things we haven't seen before - the prison camps that built the DS, the early radicals/tactics/and leftist infighting that built the rebellion, and the intelligence/policing apparatus that built the Empire into its final form. Your pitch for a droid-focused story on a labor colony might also neglect to feature the force, or lightsabers, but I think the obvious anchors to the IP there are evident - there's the remnants of the separatist droid army, there are imperial run droid colonies, what labor are they doing? It's probably connected to something pre-established, which I think is different from inserting R2D2, IG-88, and that droid that makes the lightsabers for the Jedi just because they're cool. Old EU paperbacks like Death Troopers come to mind, where your characters are obviously tethered to the world - imperial prison barge, stormtroopers, rebel and criminal prisoners - but they are all new, original. Then randomly Han and Chewie show up over halfway through Just Because. >when they realise that 99% of the Star Wars setting is irrelevant to the story it's telling.I just don't think that's what Gilroy is advocating, it's the extreme end of what he's suggested. >>6363591I would say what I hate the most about the Sequels is their incessant need to reference and tie back to the OG trilogy and prequels. Even when they introduce new characters, they end up being tied back to legacy characters. I think Gilroy is referencing that a little, here, and Mandolorian gradually doing something similar - bringing in Boba Fett, Bo Katana, Ahsoka, etc. The setting provides a lot of interesting themes, technology, settings, and yes, characters to work with. But SW is kind of famous for its gratuitous fanservice at this point. You can have a Saw Guerrera and a Mon Mothma in your story if you do something interesting and new with them, but Andor isn't great because of their inclusion.
It begins again.>>6363634>>6363634>>6363634
>>6363643>I would say what I hate the most about the Sequels is their incessant need to reference and tie back to the OG trilogy and prequels.I feel that too. Which ties back into my interpretation of respect. It's pandering, which naturally goes beyond fanservice and implies a form of commodification of the viewer. It no longer treats the audience as something to please but instead insists that the audience should be captured by jingling keys. The form of the keys just so happens to be legacy characters. Ironically while also holding contempt for said characters. If the sequels weren't sequels at all and instead a sidestory that didn't feature the original cast in any capacity it would have been a better project for it. Instead it offers nothing of value, no exploration of new ideas, no perfection of previous ideas, not even novel uses of new technologies as an experiment for better quality works in the future. It just exists. Disney's work with Star Wars generally trends towards ambivalence toward the setting and disregard for the audience. They don't want to be experts in the thing they're making, they just want money. They don't want to wow the fans, they just want them to show up to the theaters and buy merch. To them it isn't something beloved they want to share, it's just a vessel which they want to pilot. Which leads to insufficient products since they are themselves not good enough to bypass the lack of passion with sheer talent.Which is where something like our shitfics can usually be well regarded in spite of varying levels of quality. I'm sure a humble starship mechanic in Hutt Space trapped in a debt spiral would be pretty fun. Whether it decided to play it straight or veer into bounty hunting or warfighting. Playing as a character with uncanny skills or talents or just swept up alongside some other grandiose character or circumstance.I feel like it would be pretty fun because at least the people involved would give a shit. Whereas any time I see an advertisement for a new Star Wars product I just roll my eyes and assume it's gonna be soulless garbage. One of these mediums is much more likely to respect me or the setting than the other so I naturally veer toward giving it the benefit of the doubt and tolerate any idiosyncrasies. But that's just like, my opinion man.
>>6363612>>6363626I'm glad you guys are enjoying it! I'm having a ton of fun writing it.Can't wait to introduce capture target #3!
>>6363696What do you mean? We already have Ren, Jax, and Harn! Don't forget Yobbu, kek
>>6363707#1 is Jax, Oberon was introduced as #2, but because Cady is doing things out of sequence, she already met Ren who was introduced as #4. Yobbu was introduced as #5, so there's still a blank spot in the roster.
>>6363711I totally forgot Oberon was a viable capture target and not just a guy with an unsettlingly-clingy sister whom we happen to know.
>>6363714They do say his route is the hardest!
I hope Lesches comes back
Are there any sumo quests in the archives?
>>6363558>>6363643>>6363678>Andor, DIS star wars>Ghorman Massacre?>IT'S BEGINNINGI don't really know much about STAR WARS and the adventures of Cassian Andor, but apparently there is some pivotal event called the Ghorman Massacre, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-PGzPX6YeE8it is some atrocity that provokes the beginning of the Rebel Alliance etc. Naturally I assume this Ghorman Massacre atrocity is named after James P Gorman, former CEO of Morgan Stanley, and current chairman of The Walt Disney company (appointed Jan 2025)
Convince me to read a quest by sharing your favorite moment from it but you're not allowed to give me any context.
>>6363894I think that only works for quests (or art in general) built around hyoe moments or "aura" or whatever the kids call it these days. Anything that is satisfying for reasons other than flashy cool setpieces is going to be good or bad based on context, execution, etc. Like, how would you sell someone on pretty much any drama or mystery qithout context? Or even an adventure serial... How would you differnetiate it from any other serial without explaining anything about it? Seems silly.
>>6363894The player character invites his evil nemesis to dance at a high society ball and critically succeeds at a courtship attempt, which causes her to spill loads of secrets and spaghetti. The second in command of the quests equivalent to MI6 shits his pants on the sidelines as he has a schizo meltdown trying to figure out if we've been evil the whole time or if we're just trolling all of the nobility.
>>6363894Fistfought a ghost of the most evil and ancient tyrant that was imprisoned by the gods. Wound up cursed and the guy felt a little taken aback by the fact it actually worked but had such a good time he decided to work for us free of charge. We also kicked his spear through a mountain. Not figuratively.It's a pretty fun quest.
>>6363966This is also true. There are some quests where my favorite part was a quiet moment between friends. It's not really gripping to say "So these two buddies sat around a porch chatting about purpose in life and how to move forward from trauma.". Heartfelt moments out of context lose a lot of their weight.
>>6363966https://youtu.be/oKIIx6sviX0?si=SSPDPuEruGoawUtqCan be used for comedy.https://youtu.be/dTQGqQ2OmRA?si=fKLR-IbpFUM9G_XI
>>6363992For that matter, funny moments are often a lot less funny without the set-up.
>>6363981>>6363981Like a true villain, you must decide how ensure that the authorities are unable to trace the murder to you....>>6364023>>6364023Ships are perhaps the greatest creation upon the seas, elven ships doubly so....
>finally decide to do a quest>it goes well, time to take a short break and organize some things for the next thread/session>life quite literally goes to shit>finally got things together>"it's only been a few months it should be okay">it's basically been almost a year>lost the material I had made before starting, and what little extra I had worked before I was forced to disappear>the only thing left is the thread which I did archiveI come in search of guidance anons and QMs, as I'm completely fucking lost. Half of me wants to revisit the thread, try to remake the things I had and pick up from where I left off like I never went to buy milk in the first place. Half of me thinks that I could pick the same premise and reboot it like a dead franchise trying to be relevant again, but it feels like I would be desecrating the choices my players made. And a third half wants to host something else entirely.I learned my lesson, just make a couple damn google docs and some google sheets.
>>6364155We have this discussion every day. Ultimately the answer is if it's a story you want and need to tell, you should continue it.
>>6364155I'm a horrible QM, but I've straight up continued a quest I had on pause for over a year after 1 thread without too many issues.I don't think it's GOOD to do this, but it's always an option unless you think your initial thread was salvageable or poorly written or something.
>>6364155Are the original threads archived? If they are and you're pretty deep in the quest you can always just link to the old threads and continue where you left off--you're bound to attract some of the old guard, but even if you don't you'll probably attract some new readers if you make it clear you're here to stick around for a while.The issue with starting from 'scratch' is just that: you'll have a better grasp on the characters, sure, but you'll also be retreading old ground or running something completely different. I'd say dust off the old threads and keep going from where you left off, but if you have to basically start from scratch noteswise I'd say it might be best to do a clean reset with everything you learned from the first runthrough.
>>6364164
>6364180You are a dog and by god I will beat you like one.
>>6364155Will you have fun and will the players have fun?That is the important question...
>>6364187>>6364187>>6364187new post
>>6363894hate to toot my own horn, but it has to be the time we lured, choked and vegetized Salazar Slytherin thanks to the main character´s huge dick
>>6363894This wasn't even my own game setting, but in my recent most dedicated highest effort contribution ever to 4chan qst, >>6363430>>6360207 (for context)I installed and configured Counterstrike Source on winlator on my phone, reconfigured all the phone touch screen control templates to make it useable and playable, installed a joke knife custom fish melee mod, scoured the internet for hostage character model reskins that vaguely matched a pink-haired anime antagonist, screenrecorded a disappointing video of slapping aforementioned pink-haired anime nemesis with aforesaid fish melee weapon, deleted and redid the recording five times because of some graphics and awkward camera frame positioning issues, including one initial deletion out of pure regret / shame / cringe embarassment at what I was doing, which I then overcame with a newly rediscovered sense of determination / conviction of purpose, converted the screenrecording from mp4 to webm, removing audio of fish plapping and anime girl squeal distress sounds for 4chan webm compatibility, whilst also cropping out the offscreen touchscreen controls, and finally uploaded this disappointing machinima recreation of the game scene encounter as a response for the quest. I don't know why I even did this, it took a lot of effort
