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.
