Contents i. A Preamble 1. Setting and Plot 2. Characters and Casting Them 3. Hooks, Mechanics and Puzzles 4. Costumes and Props 5. Location and Information

The very first thing I’m going to ask you to do before you read any further is remember that all of the items covered here work together to make a quest. You will likely remember a quest for the best presented of these elements, but you’ll need all of them to succeed. The second thing that I’m going to say is that this is a guide to help you focus on elements: the way you write a quest may be nothing like this and I am in no way, shape or form an expert. I am best at flying by the seat of my pants and doing things the day of, but I recognize that not everyone is, nor should you leave everything up to chance.

You’ll need the support of other people as much as it would be nice to think that, as a Questmaster, you are a storyteller and everyone is there to follow along. People are not like that; they are archetypes but they are not pre­written. Players have their own quirks and tricks. Sometimes they will do things that make you want to stop trying. Sometimes they will make your work better in a way that could never have been done without them. You can know these people, as PCs or NPCs, but you should never aim to control these people. In doing so you’ll lose the organic nature of a quest, which is all aspects of the story coming to life and telling itself.

The picture on the cover is The Trees by Abigail Diamond, a very generous and talented artist from Pennsylvania. Her artwork can be viewed at finchfight.tumblr.com.

Thank you to Therin, Bleys, Yenir and Ursus for proofreading and giving me pointed tips

on what to cut and where.

That’s all. Get to work. ­ Promethea

set∙ting /ˈsetiNG/ noun the place and time at which a play, novel, or film is represented as happening. "short stories with a contemporary setting"

The setting of a quest is a combination of where and when it is happening. If you are planning to write a gripping quest that requires players to bring back a rare artifact from crazed cultists, it will seem a lot less intense if it is set in a sunny field full of flowers. There are, by contrast, times when you will want to use a setting that is opposite your tone to achieve a different effect. The setting of a quest begins to lay down the tone for what the players can expect.

It is completely possible to arrange a quest with robots and lasers in an Amtgard setting as long as it is explained within the terms of the game’s base: pre­1650 technology meets fantasy and magic. It is very important to think out some of these details in advance so that they can be hinted at or directly addressed in the plotline.

Sometimes the setting of a quest will be directly attributed to the physical location of the quest. If you were planning a quest about volcanoes and are suddenly presented with two acres of swampland, a change in scenery can tighten the experience and make it more immersive. The same can be said for using night as an element of setting. Great quests can come out of adding an element of suspense or a jump scare in the dark.

plot /plät/ noun the main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.

Think of your favourite stories. Think of the best movie you’ve ever seen, book you’ve ever read, or show you’ve ever followed. What events took place that impressed you? Did something make you happy or sad? Did something make you scared?

Plot is the telling of a story through a string of events or scenes. Over time, the scenes will expand on the world, making it rich and interesting.

The most important thing to remember about the plot is that it will address the Five Ws: Who is it about?

What happened? Where did it take place? When did it take place? Why did it happen?

For example, the plot of Star Wars IV: A New Hope could be laid out as follows: Luke Skywalker as the protagonist, as well the Rebel Alliance and the Empire. The Rebellion and the Empire are at war and the Rebellion are losing. Luke helps assist the

Rebellion against Darth Vader, right hand of the Emperor. Space. “Long long ago”. Luke becomes involved with the Rebellion in a search to discover more about his father.

This doesn’t mention any of the movie’s fine details; it doesn’t even mention Jedi. This is because a substantial amount of the story is told through character exposition and dialogue. We don’t know that Luke has Jedi powers until Obi­Wan tells him.

It’s very important when writing a quest to cover all Five Ws to keep all of your players engaged. If we know where and when a quest is taking place, but not what is happening or why it is happening, it’s hard for us as players to feel like we care about the circumstances both in and out of character.

You will likely find that the majority of quests you ever participate in have a base plot. Many plots fall into the same basic structure of progression. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, in fact it can be a lot easier to write a quest if you figure out what your base plot is. This will allow you to set goals that need to be achieved to follow the plot line.

In this document you’ll often hear me say that an element can be broken down into a sum of parts. The base plot is the first of these elements. Consider quests that you’ve participated in before and take a look at the list below:

Combat ­ the PCs are being asked to destroy an enemy force. Mediation ­ the PCs are being asked to try and stop an argument between multiple

parties. Rescue ­ the PCs are being asked to save an NPC or item. Exploration ­ a new area has become accessible and the PCs are offered a chance to

investigate it. Mystery ­ the PCs are presented with a number of clues and/or puzzles they need to

solve. Deadline ­ the PCs are presented with a goal that needs to be accomplished in a set

amount of time.

Once you’ve set a base plot, then you know the basic flow of your quest and can begin writing subplots for various additional tasks your PCs must complete, either for fun or to aid in the base plot. These are often called side quests.

The audience of your plot, the questers, are going to be in character and wanting in character reasons to act. Most characters can be motivated by one of the base impulses:

Love Money Pride Power Justice

Other character motivations are generally blends of these five, such as mercy (love and justice) or revenge (power and pride or pride and justice). This is why so many quests use a rescue or combat base plot. The idea of freeing a person by defeating villains can generally bring most characters together, even those who identify as evil. Everyone has their own motivations, but strong goals bring differing characters together.

Quest Questions Who is this quest about? What has happened? Where is it taking place? When is it taking place? Why is it taking place happen? What is the base plot? What are the sub­plots?

char∙ac∙ter /ˈkariktәr/ noun the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual; a person in a novel, play, or movie.

"the characters develop throughout the play"

Think again about your favourite stories: those books, movies and shows. Who was your favourite character in them? What made them so important to you? Did they have traits you admired? Did they take actions you liked, or actions you hated?

As a questmaster your business will be heavily based on characters, both in terms of

casting them and in appealing to them. What makes a character good is a combination of mannerisms and history. What makes an NPC character good is how they use those mannerisms to tell their story, and yours.

A character is made up of two parts: backstory and personality. Each one of these will expose something about the other: a troubled backstory can reveal why a character has an uncontrollable hatred for bees, but that hatred can also allude to a part of the backstory. The two most important things for the structural designing of characters in quests are:

What is their main goal? How do they plan to achieve that goal?

In much the same way you might set goals of certain type, like money, to attract a certain type of PC, your NPCs will have similar motivations and drives. Deciding what they want and how they are trying to get it lets you develop your base plot. Being involved in a plot makes a character choose protagonistic action, antagonistic action, or inaction. With Star Wars again as the example, let’s say that the main goal of the Emperor is to eliminate the Rebellion to close his stranglehold on all of the planets and races in the universe. He aims to achieve this goal with war, destruction of entire planets, and murdering or slaving those who oppose him. Knowing this, anyone who encounters the Emperor has three choices: aid the Rebellion (action), aid the Empire (action), or keep their head down and fly off into space forever, never to be seen or heard from again (inaction). Why they choose the option they do is based on their motivations and personality, and how they choose to proceed is based on their backstory.

A good way to think of each character is to user a general overview, or archetype. Psychologist Carl Jung believed that people’s personalities could be broken down into one of 12 archetypes, each with their own basic goal and fear : 1

The Innocent ­ wishes to be happy, afraid to be punished for wrongdoing. The Orphan ­ wishes to be included, fear of being ostracised or left alone. The Hero ­ wishes to be skilled and able to save others, fear of weakness, cowardice. The Caregiver ­ wishes to nurture others, fear of selfishness and ingratitude. The Explorer­ wishes a full and interesting life, fears being trapped and feeling empty. The Rebel ­ wishes to overturn a broken system, fears being powerless. The Lover ­ wishes happiness through love of others, fears rejection. The Creator ­ wishes to realise a vision, fears being understood or not possessing skill.

1 http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html

The Jester ­ wishes to achieve happiness through fun, fears being boring. The Sage ­ wishes to understand the world, fears being misled or ignorant. The Magician ­ wishes to change the world, fears the negative consequences of change. The Ruler ­ wishes for a happy, stable community, fears chaos.

These archetypes can be manipulated with additional goals and fears, as well as a personality type. You might find that one of these rings true to your own personality.

When casting characters for a quest, it is generally easiest to determine whether a character is a combat role or a non­combat role and to begin casting based on those two facts. You will likely also want to use the Dor un Avathar and its sister monster manuals to pick creature classes and abilities. Consider your volunteers carefully. Some may specifically want a certain type of role based on their proficiency, like a Master of a class wanting to play an NPC with that class; others may want to scale back their involvement but still play a part. Children for example are fantastic characters, but under 14 they should be with a partner to make sure they don’t get injured in combat.

You can choose to have a hands­on or hands­off approach to the backstory and motivations of your characters ­ you can provide the NPCs with a run­down of things describing the character’s history and attitude, or you can tell them only the important components and let them develop their own character from there.

Quest Questions Who are my characters? What are their goals? How do they plan to achieve their goals? Who are my NPCs? What do they like to do? How much control should they have over their character?

hook /ˈhook/ noun

a thing designed to catch people's attention

"companies are looking for a sales hook"

A hook is something that catches the attention of your PCs and brings them into your

quest. A good hook will lead, a bad hook will drag. Lots of good stories are essentially about the same things: save the girl, save the world, find the lost treasure, etc. It’s what a story reveals somewhere in the first third that keeps our interest or turns us away. In the rising action of storytelling, we will learn something about the main character’s situation that will reveal more of the world to us. Often the first third of the story is where we meet a pivotal character that takes the protagonist on an adventure, or where that protagonist begins to learn about his magic powers or family history. It is within the first half hour of Star Wars: A New Hope that we learn about the Jedi, Luke’s real father, and about the Empire’s actions across the galaxy. All of these revelations make the world larger and the characters deeper. This is what a good hook should do.

A hook is best placed as early in the first third as can be managed. Quests can open immediately with some sense of action, like combat or arguments. Consider the effect on players who come into a deserted town, or a town on fire. Quests can also seem fairly mundane and ordinary until a character appears with additional information. An item that is placed somewhere with prominence or is given to the PCs by an NPC is another excellent hook. Without contextual information, the hook lies in finding out what this item is and what it does. A hook that leads nowhere is often called a red herring. Placing these in your quests can be just as fun as using a hook that does progress the plot, especially for your NPCs.

me∙cha∙nics /mәˈkaniks/ noun

the machinery or working parts of something.

"he looks at the mechanics of a car before the bodywork"

Mechanics is a broad term that can cover quite a few things within a quest’s technical workings, but in this document they should be thought of as a quirk that changes something fundamental in the plot or setting in order to change the level of difficulty for the PCs.

If that seems complicated, a mechanic in quests, just like in video games, is best shown by example:

Time Limit ­ if you are required to do something within a timeframe, or fail. State Shift ­ if a setting aspect changes over time; for example, day turning to night. Point Gather ­ if a section of the quest only unlocks when you’ve gathered enough points

or items.

Faction Approval ­ if progression in the plot depends on being in good standing with a faction or factions.

A quest with a very simple plot and other basic elements can be made more interesting with a mechanic worked in. Often mechanics serve as a good way to keep PCs goal­focused in terms of what they’ll need to do to finish the quest. As well, some mechanics will also remind PCs that it is possible to fail a quest’s objectives if certain requirements are not met. As an example, if PCs need to retrieve 100 goblin teeth in order to forge a great sword, this motivates them to kill goblins. If they’re told that they only have 30 minutes to do this, you will likely see a divide in the PC group between “people who are willing to grind kills for 30 minutes” and “people who will make sure any other tasks need to be taken care of”. Mechanics add interest, but they also add direction.

pu∙zzle /ˈpәzәl/ noun

a game, toy, or problem designed to test ingenuity or knowledge

"he had a hard time solving the mechanical puzzle"

For some people, solving any kind of puzzle in a quest is the entire reason for questing. It’s also basically anything that makes no sense at first until some aspect of it is solved. Most of us enjoy some sort of puzzle, whether it’s a crossword, a riddle, a math puzzle, decrypting a code, or solving a Rubik’s cube. Adding a puzzle or puzzles to your quest that the PCs have to solve in order to pass a point or learn information adds an additional challenge.

It’s hard to talk at length about puzzles because they really can be anything. Toy, hobby and department stores will often have various puzzles made of wood or looped metal that require sliding and untangling to complete. You can also do just as well getting a small, simple jigsaw puzzle from a dollar store, painting over it, and having the PCs find and assemble all of the pieces. Here are some online resources to help give you ideas:

Codes and Ciphers

Logic Puzzles

Matchstick Puzzles Math Puzzles Maze Generator

Riddles Wire and Metal Puzzles

Quest Questions How will I hook the PCs in? What will I use to hook them? Where will they encounter the hook? Should this quest have any large mechanics? Will my mechanics come with a chance to fail? What happens if the PCs succeed? What happens if the PCs fail? Where can I place puzzles to add challenges?

cos∙tume /ˈkäsˌt(y)oom/ a set of clothes in a style typical of a particular country or historical period.

"authentic Elizabethan costumes"

Costumes are a large part of what makes a quest and a LARP more than just some people standing around in a field. Costumes may just be simple tunic­and­pants style garb, or they may include monster components and accessories. The monster expansions have garb suggestions for each creature in the book, but don’t let that limit you. Even the addition of makeup on a character’s body to add tattoos, stripes, bruises or scars can effectively show their character through costume.

Most NPCs have their own garb. Even so, spending the time making garb for your characters and monsters separates those characters from the usual ones you’ll see on field. Having a team of guards or bandits all wearing the same bandana, tunic or tabard brings that group together as one unified team. Adding tape at the tips of an NPC’s ears can make for a passable elf or orc. With larping, costumers and cosplay enthusiasts online, the internet is a near­endless resource for finding instructions. With a “how to make _______” or “_______ tutorial” in a Google search, you can find a huge selection of ways to do things both cheaply and expensively. I’ve pulled together a few simple but multi­purpose resources:

The CosplayTutorial.com Resource Library

Linden's "How to Make a Tunic"

Alona's "How to Make a Sloughcoat"

How to Make a Hooded Cape Simple Scar Makeup (no latex or silicone)

prop /präp/ noun

a portable object other than furniture or costumes used on the set of a play or movie

“the suitcase from Pulp Fiction is a simply­made prop”

Putting something in a character’s hand is one of the best ways to make the goals of a quest tangible. In consumer psychology, the study of why we shop the way we do, there are two different qualities that can be easily applied to props.

The first is visual identification . Stores will put things at a certain line of sight for different 2

customer bases: sugary cereal and candy are roughly at torso height for the average adult, but they’re at eye height for children. When kids see something brightly coloured at eye level, it’s hard to look away. Your props should be visually appealing and fairly easy to spot unless finding them in a hiding spot is the entire point. If characters are looking for a locket, having an NPC wear the locket will draw attention to it immediately and set a PC up to figure out how they can get it. The colour and size in particular will draw the eye and can show other qualities about the item. Is it grey and dusty, therefore it’s old? Is it covered in gems, therefore worth money? Is it glowing, therefore magical and probably dangerous?

The second is item possession . Often in larger, more expensive retail stores a staff 3

member will let you touch and hold the item you’re taking a look at. After a few moments, they’ll take it away and either keep in their hands or put it back into a cabinet. In that few moments, your brain has already started to determine whether it likes the object, and how badly it wants the object. This tactic can be used to make you more comfortable with spending a great deal of money, as you’ve already held ‘your’ new phone or new ring in your hands. Once a PC has fixated on wanting an object, they’ll go tremendous lengths to keep it. They’ll fight off anything, and even fight other PCs to make sure that they get to hold onto it. Props that a PC can hold or wear help gel them into the story further and invest them in seeing the quest to its end.

2 http://www.shoppinpal.com/leveraging­the­customers­line­of­sight­in­retail­stores/ 3 http://lifehacker.com/how­stores­manipulate­your­senses­so­you­spend­more­mon­475987594

A prop, much like a puzzle, can be anything. It is a tangible, real world object that characters can hold and interact with. Common props in simple quests are things like swords, jewelry, and plastic gems. Often you can get everything you need from a dollar store or thrift store. Craft stores are also great, especially if you don’t mind making things yourself. As well, department and home stores often have large sections of random home decor that can make excellent props. Searching Pinterest and Etsy for “larp prop” or “steampunk prop” brings up a host of ideas, tutorials and items. As well, the Facebook community has great resources for artisans who are willing to help you learn a new skill. Consider the Scribe's Guild for scrolls and painting and Plastidip Artists for people who sculpt foam and work in DAP. Here are a couple useful resources to get you started:

Alona's "How to Make an Every Color Spellball" How to Make Glow­in­the­Dark 'Fairy' Jars

Quest Questions Are there any NPCs that have monster requirements? Do I need any garb for my NPCs? Do I need any props for my NPCs? What’s the amount I am able and willing to spend on materials? Is there anything in my house I can reuse for props?

lo∙ca∙tion /lōˈkāSHәn/ noun a particular place or position. "the property is set in a convenient location"

The real­world location of your quest and how it’s used can set tone and ambiance for the entire thing. Many Amtgard parks and large event sites have a few different terrains to choose from, and those sites with more financial investment may also have buildings or other fixtures. But, sometimes the location of your quest is completely out of your control. I have run quests at events where I have never been to or even seen pictures of the site. The best thing you can do as you are preparing for a quest is to walk the area you’re able to use as soon as you can view it. Make a note of large structures, natural features like water or rock faces, and trails. Get an idea of where you might place items and NPCs and where that puts

them in relation to each other. Ask yourself this list of questions:

Are my locations far enough apart? Is the ground safe for people to walk and run on? Are there bugs in the area? Will my NPCs need bug spray? Is there direct sunlight in the area? Will my NPCs need sunscreen? If it rains, will my locations need to change? If yes, from where to where?

Take your NPCs out a little while before the quest and do a walkthrough. Show them all of the areas they’ll be using and where they’ll be in relation to each other. Let them come set up anything they might need in advance so there’s less to think about later. You might consider mapping out the area, even if it’s just doodles on a piece of paper with vague shapes between them.

in∙for∙ma∙tion /infәrˈmāSHәn/ noun facts provided or learned about something or someone "a vital piece of information"

A quest has two types of information. The first is exposition and any pre­quest data given to PCs and the public; the second is factual information that the NPCs should know and can have with them. The amount of information that PCs are able to have before a quest is completely up to you: it’s perfectly acceptable to keep the PCs in the dark until they’re about to begin. Some prefer to be able to plan their spell lists in advance, others prefer the mystery. Use your group’s social media to your benefit, and announcing that a quest will be happening a week from now is a good way to entice people to field if numbers have been waning, but it is still sadly true that not everyone cares about questing and will want to play.

Your NPCs should not, under any circumstances, be left in the dark about the quest’s workings unless an element of surprise is supposed to surprise them as well. Your friends, and sometimes strangers, are volunteering to stand for long periods of time and help tell your story. Things run much more smoothly if they know the content of the quest and ideally how it will progress. It will be necessary to hand out monster sheets and it may benefit you to give cards to your NPCs reminding them of any really important character information, like their name or their relation to other characters.

I like to give NPCs a questbook. The book is usually an overview of the quest as a whole,

and sometimes is what I’ve submitted to an event bid as my story and item needs. Inside will be a plot overview, a breakdown of any quests or subquests, a list of NPCs, the garb they’ll need and their corresponding monster pages, and a list of props needed with how they’re used, if that’s important. This is something that I learned from watching other, more experienced QMs and quickly realized that it could minimize how often I was being asked questions by NPCs during the quest. Armed with information, your NPCs will be more prepared and more able to adapt to changes. That makes the quest more fluid leaves out awkward breaks where you and NPCs talk in hushed whispers.

Quest Questions What is my location like? Where will I put my NPCs? How will people know when the quest is? How much information will I give the PCs? What can I do to inform and involve my NPCs?

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