An Intro to Questing and a proposal.

A (hopefully) helpful guide.

Welcome new quester, to the hive of scum and villainy wonderful place that is questing! If you don't already know what questing is about, it's an avant-garde form of roleplaying where there is a single or group of Game Masters/Quest Masters (GMs/QMs) that write a situation for the community at large (the Players) to interact with.

To put it in simpler terms:

Quest Master (QM) presents scenario, participants vote on a path to take, QM resolves action generating a new derivative scenario, participants vote on path to take, QM resolves action generating a new derivative scenario, repeat.

Section 1: Types of Questing!
What is questing? Well sir quester in a quest, the players vote for a character(s)/nation/etc. action through a community consensus, whereas an RP usually has each player controlling one or more of own characters.

Well ok then, sign me up! Where do I start?

Well there are many types of Quests, but some of the most common types of quests are:
The Standard Quest! Also known as a Character Quest, it is a staple of Questing. This particular style is one where the QM allows the players to take control of a singular character, in which the players are able to control and affect the decisions of as a collective.

The Civilization Quest! A form of Questing that involves the players taking control of a civilization as a whole, rather than a single character. The players affect the decisions of the civilization and guide it forward to glorious victory or bitter defeat!

The largest difference between the two is that Civ Quests almost always find themselves having clearly delineated single update "turns," although if an important battle or bit of diplomacy happens that requires greater granularity it is possible to have multi-update turns, while Character Quests tend to have multi-update "Arcs" that bleed into each other.

Obviously hybridization is possible, such as Civ Quests about a "Player Character" who is in charge of the organization, rather than the organization proper.

That being said, there are plenty more types of quests that can be classified as Character or Civilization Quests, but have varying voting systems. Some of the more common voting systems are:
Majority Wins! The gob standard of Questing, Majority Wins is exactly what it sounds like. Whichever action/vote get the most people supporting it, gets done.

Riot! A very interesting twist on the standard Majority Wins style of voting, the Riot vote system is one where every vote is taken into account. What this means is that every vote is turned into an action, regardless of how many people support it. However, the more people who support an action/vote, the more time/bonuses/etc are applied to the action.

Planning Rationality! This kind of system is a little strange, not to mention rare, but is very much fun to play and interesting. While there are many bits of minutia this kind of system can have, most quests that feature this system will have the QM automatically veto an action that the character will not take In Character (IC) and/or the QM will take the plan of action that has the best reasoned argument.

Weighted! A close cousin of the Riot style, this style of voting will have standard choices as in Riot or Majority Wins styles, but will have modifiers attached. This modifier represents just how IC an action may be and votes for more IC options carry more weight. For example [1.0x], means a normal option that gets 1 vote per voter, while [0.7x] means getting .7 votes per voter, and [3.0x] means getting 3 votes per voter.

Council - This interesting cousin of riot quests is unique in that it has a set player list and each player is a distinct character of a sort, who helps to make a communal decision; of which each player is often delegated a specific domain they have full control over. Think a circle of aristocrats deciding the fate of the country, partitioning either regions or responsibility. The players usually have full control over their area of responsibility, and shared control of the game's direction.

Again, hybridization is definitely possible and these should be seen as generalizations not rules. Remember to carefully read the voting rules of any Quest you join, young Quester!

Section 1.2: RPG Systems
Well that's all fine and dandy, but what rule systems do they use?

Good question my friend! That actually depends on the QM. See, some QMs like to run very free form quests that don't have any specific rule system, some like to run very much rule heavy quests taken from other styles of role playing games, and others still run quests that fall somewhere in the middle. As for finding out what rule system a quest uses, my suggestion is to look at the first 10 updates (including the opening post) of any particular quest because the QM will usually lay out what system they will be using early on.

Section 2: Questing Rules!
While each quest is different, there are a couple of things you should note about questing in general: each quest usually has it's own set of "house rules" that the QM lays out for the players to follow. These rules are specific to each Quest.

That being said, the rules themselves can be very different per quest. Some QMs may ban the use of certain dice rollers while others may require you to only roll in one particular place. Some QMs may penalize the players for making jokes of a particular kind, while others encourage it. Some QMs provide systematic bonuses for player contributions (either through something called write-ins, covered in section 2.3, omakes, covered in section 2.4, or art) while others do not.

Needless to say, questing rules are as diverse as the amount of different quests there are in existence.

Section 2.1: Voting!
How does one vote, you ask?

Well it's simple! You do so as follows:

Type "[x] (Insert text of vote here)" minus the quotation marks and then post it!

Generally the QM will give choices for the players to vote on, and thus you will be able to copy and paste one (or more if the QM allows it) of the votes and cast it as your own.

But, I don't like my vote anymore! How do I change it?

Well, you don't have to worry about going back to your previous posts to edit them, just make a new post with your new vote, and alert the counters!

Section 2.2: Write-in Votes!
Now that you know how to cast standard votes, there are also a special kind of vote call the Write-in.

But, what is the Write-in and what does it do?

Well novice quester, I'm glad you asked! The write-in vote is one that allows for the players in the quest to literally write in what they want to do. While each write-in is subject to the approval of the QM, it does allows for the players to come up with creative solutions to the situation that the QM places them in during the course of the quest. Do note that not all QMs allow for write-ins at all and some only allow for them at certain points. Make sure to look for the "[] Write-in?" option before you make one, and also make sure to ask if they are allowed if you do not see the option listed! Also note that a few QMs will sometimes only give you a write-in option at a given point.

So why use the write-in rather than the choices the QM provides? Shouldn't they be better because the QM gave them to us?

Well, that depends. Write-ins have pros and cons like any other decision you make in a quest.
Pros
Ability to creatively solve the situation the QM gives you
Ability to creatively make the best of a situation by doing more with one action
Ability to customize the way your character handles something befitting of their personality
Cons
It takes time and effort to come up with something that is workable
Write-ins do not always go according to plan, especially if you are not working on complete information (which is usually)
The QM may veto write-ins that circumvent certain systems or situations they may have in place

Section 2.4: Omakes and Other Player Contributions!
Now I know what some of you are thinking, what if I want to make fan works? Well, I can happily inform you that most QM's love fan works! Whether you want to draw something, write something, or contribute in another way, just doing something for the quest (unless you are using it to push an agenda of some sort) is always appreciated!

"Well that's awesome! But what's that word you used up top over there? You know, omake."
Welp an 'omake' is a stolen borrowed word from Japanese which means "bonus" or "extra". It usually means a snippet of some sort relating to the story that either:

A) Doesn't fit into the the story at hand, and is thus most likely a humor piece.
B) Hasn't been covered.

If your omake falls under the second category, and you're lucky, it may be declared canon by the QM, cementing your work as part of the greater whole!

Another interesting thing about omakes is that some QMs actually give out BONUSES for the things that people contribute! THAT'S RIGHT. BONUSES. These bonuses may come in the form of a +5 to a dice roll, an extra trait for a character, or even heroes for civilization quests!

Remember though, not all QMs give bonuses for omakes, and not all bonuses given are equal, so be sure to check what your local Quest's policy on omakes is before deciding to make one for profit. However, you should always make one for fun if it strikes your fancy!

Section 3: Dice Rolls!
So now that you know all about how Quests work systematically, let's move onto dice rolling in a quest!

Section 3.1: Interpreting Dice Needed
That's awesome! Say torr, the QM said something about a 3d50. What does that mean?

Well young dice roller, a standard die is 6 sided, however the QM may ask for a 3D100, 1D20, or any other combination of number D number. The first number refers to how many dice need to be rolled while the D stands for the word die(dice) and the last number stands for how many faces the die(dice) should have. So in the example you provided above, the QM is talking about rolling 3 dice that have 50 faces!

Now do note that not all quests use dice mechanics due to the variations in the systems that the QMs use, and some QMs prefer to roll their own dice. If however, the QM allows the players to make the dice rolls, you should follow any rules the QM has on rolling before consulting the rest of this section.

Section 3.2: Rolling Dice!
Ok, I've consulted the QM's rules and he/she said that I should be rolling from (non-specific) dice roller! How can I prove I made the roll?

Well good quester, there are many ways to do so, but the easiest way is to make a link to the roll you made! Here's a few dice rollers that you can use for easy proof of rolling!

Exalted Dice Roller
Roleplaying Dice Roller · Rolz
Dice Roller • Orokos.com

You are able to link to the rolls that you made in these rice rollers and then post them up on the Quest thread for your wonderful QM to use!

So hopefully you persevered through the explanation of what Questing is, the reason I've brought it up is that I want to propose to the Steemit community my running of such an iniative, the question remaing now is whether Steemit is interested in such a thing? Leave your comments and please upvote us.