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121761 No. 121761 ID: 395c02

Welcome to the Quest Advice thread Mk. 2! Anyone is welcome to offer advice or ask questions about the amazing world of interactive storytelling!

Check the wiki page for additional information and tips: http://questden.org/wiki/Advice_for_Running_a_Quest

The Questden discord may also be of assistance: https://discord.gg/Fh5zMTX

Old thread (Advice may be outdated): https://questden.org/kusaba/questdis/res/15880.html
Expand all images
>>
No. 121762 ID: 6f491a

If you have a cute furry in your quest put the cute furry in the opening image of the quest.
>>
No. 121804 ID: d63ea8

I'm kind of new to the site; is there a tutorial for the various functions tgchan has?
i.e Bold, Italics, Green Text etc?
>>
No. 121805 ID: 05ff2f

>>121804
That kind of info is in the site FAQ, which unfortunately has a link on the site's front page that isn't that noticeable. If you have the sidebar frame, hit the "Front Page" link at the top of it, or if you don't hit the "Home" link in the upper right of the board pages. On the page that comes up hit the FAQ link in the tab between "News" and "Rules." The FAQ has info on post formatting tags and how to use the site's dice roller among other things.
>>
No. 121806 ID: 3abd97

Could also just link the faq instead of describing how to find it.

https://tgchan.org/kusaba/news.php?p=faq
>>
No. 122159 ID: 9c48ac

Favicon thread, for setting an icon for your quest:
>>66907

(Seems like a good thing to have near the top of this thread.)
>>
No. 122608 ID: 0eda7a

I'm trying to find a quest that I've lost track of; it might be either in the archive or graveyard at this point. It featured a rather bashful protagonist who injudiciously used a magical artifact and found himself very large. He was setting off on a quest to find a way to get back to normal, together with a (standard-sized) woman he had a crush on.

Might someone happen to know the quest and be able to point me to it? I don't remember it getting very far, but I'm kinda hopeful that the QM might still be around and one day plan to continue it.
>>
No. 122609 ID: 33cbe7

>>122608
Was it Hugs Quest Gaiden? That QM's still around.
>>
No. 122611 ID: 0eda7a

>>122609
That's the one, thanks! https://tgchan.org/kusaba/graveyard/res/679723.html

Oh, that's Slinko and Typo! No wonder it was so awesome and memorable.
>>
No. 122626 ID: 13cc26

>>122611
Yeah I'm still here. Not sure when I'll get back to that one, though.
>>
No. 122772 ID: 50d32d

When someone rants in your /dis/ thread about how they hate the way your quest is going, think everyone fools for making the suggestions that you took, and now feel the quest beyond saving and wish everybody dies... in a way, you should take pride in that. You inspired such passion in them, even if it was a negative emotion. Your art was powerful, and they truly, genuinely like your art, and care about what you're doing. They just don't like the way the plot went, and they might even change their mind about that, once they see where you were going with it. People like that are scared, scared that you'll get written into a corner and stop being able to think of updates, or scared that you're resenting the shitposters, and will stop updating because your quest got ruined by all the stupid suggestions. They don't hate you, or your work, otherwise they wouldn't have felt a need to express themselves in such anguish.

If someone says something like that, know that they care about you, even if they're wrong in the way they want the quest to go. Tell them I'm sorry you feel that way but I'm happy with the direction the quest is going. Tell them how you see the situation, if you think it'll help them feel better knowing someone else's perspective. Tell them why you still love the quest, and that you hope they can come to enjoy it too, but you're not going to do something you don't like, even if they object to what you're doing.

But don't think that they hate you, or they think your art is bad, or they think you suck at storytelling. Because they don't. They care about you, and in their own bitter, frightened way, are genuinely trying to help.

I was just noticing some quest authors saying that angry comments like this hurt them, and make them want to stop questing. But I am almost totally sure that is the last thing that commenter wants to happen. A comment like "This quest is boring. When is Slinko gonna update?" is a hundred times less supportive than, "This is terrible! How could you do this to my absolute most favorite character of all time?!" (Well, unless you're Slinko that is.)
>>
No. 122924 ID: b93a7b

>>122772
I completely disagree
creating a negative response from people is not an achievement nor any proof of quality. trolls inspire passion in people all the time, it's easy to make people angry, often very easy.

at best anger and outrage is the dying embers of passion, it is the voice of people who feel betrayed. it is typically followed by disinterest and abandonment.

when people are angry you should consider what you have done, whether their complaints have merit, and how many people share this opinion, and to keep in mind many of the people displeased will be to polite to say anything.
>>
No. 122938 ID: 26e876

>>122772
>>122924

Questing is a cooperative storytelling effort that directly involves the audience. If you verifiably made a decision the readers really didn’t want, some of them could feel cheated, and rightfully so because the audience has stake in the story.

I’ve never lashed out at authors for stuff like this, I just simply stopped reading. I don’t get angry, I don’t hate the artist, I don’t hate their art, I just lost interest. You’ll probably get a good handful of people like me per one outwardly angry reader.

If I got an “I’m sorry you feel that way, here’s my opinion” in response to criticism, I would dip out of that conversation so fast. Criticism can be hard and not all of it is valid or constructive but in the cases that it does hold water, a response like that dodges the reader’s concern.
>>
No. 122973 ID: b93a7b

>>122938
I don't think that's as much dodging the readers concern as disagreeing with it.
it's unreasonable to expect a writer to agree with every criticism especially when those critics are in the vast minorities.
remember a piece of art is created for a large group of people not just an individual.
>>
No. 123059 ID: 69d4b9

>>122973
It's unreasonable to expect an audience that is used to participation to stay engaged when they're being treated like they're watching a television show. Except it's worse than that, because the authors of television shows only expect their positive feedback in the form of getting renewed each season by a board of suits, while in this format the authors expect feedback in the form of thoughtful, ego stoking, replies.
>>
No. 123102 ID: b59fad

For an audience to feel like they were railroaded, their choices didn't matter or that they were forced into wrong/stupid paths is bad, in quests, because it violates the implicit promise of the medium that your choices will matter and that the "puzzles" (whatever form they might take) can be figured out. If someone suggests the right answer to a question and the character doesn't follow it (and the readers are aware of this) then they'll rightfully feel cheated, as they will if the best path required some knowledge that they should have been given but weren't. There's probably a whole list of things that will make a quest audience feel rightfully angry or frustrated.

However, if the overall story is just going through a dark spot, the author has the right to say "hold on it looks bad now but it's for a good reason". It's not reasonable to expect that there always exists some 100% perfect true path where the quest protagonist avoids every possible woe. They also shouldn't be shielded too much if they do genuinely make a mistake or fail to figure something out, though in that case it might be useful for an author to be able to say (or just give hints) what the right path was and how they could have managed it.
>>
No. 123176 ID: b93a7b

>>123059
I'm sorry I don't quite understand what you are trying to say, but since my comment was tagged I'll do my best to respond.

I believe a quest author, or any sort of story teller should neither ignore all critiques nor accommodate every critique. most of the time acknowledging a negative complaint and adjusting accordingly will not change the elements of the story people already like, but in some rare cases it does.
at that point the author may have to ignore critiques that will damage the project in the short or long run.

it's frustrating I know if your critique is the one ignored, but it is important to understand that accommodating one individual might end up alienating three others or more.
>>
No. 123178 ID: cc5ab4

I think this is somewhere in the first quest advice, but hey.

What sort of licensing is stuff posted on TGchan covered under, and where is it listed?

I assume creative commons, but hey.
>>
No. 123204 ID: d8f02e

>>123178
Licensing is for sure a per-author thing. The default license if not stated is probably the standard US copyright thing where the artist(s) fully own and control it (minus fair use).

So if you want to do something with the content, ask the author first. Even if you think you can use it legally, you can come off as an asshole for not getting permission first.
>>
No. 123347 ID: 0467b7

Friend and I - drawing and writing, respectively - are thinking of starting a fantasy quest; any authors here who'd be willing to talk on a 1-on-1 (well, 2-on-1, though the other's quite shy) basis about getting started, plot, etc?
Email's smergthedargon@gmail.com, FA's SmergTheDargon - I check the latter with greater frequency because I'm a degenerate. Once I get the message, I'll send a link to my Discord server so we can talk.
>>
No. 123444 ID: 334b68

IF YOU FEEL THE NEED TO ASK "IS THIS QUEST DEAD" IN ATHREAD LAST POSTED IN LIKE A YEAR AGO:
1. IT IS
2. DON'T POST

>>
No. 123452 ID: caf1de

urge to post is this thread dead in every non graveguard quest rising
>>
No. 123480 ID: 334b68

>>123452
I'll fuckin' ban you if you do it

edit: while getting my staff rank to show up on my posts is apparently fucked, this is not an empty threat
>>
No. 123509 ID: dbf422

Hey, weird question but could I just test the dice rolling system here? Last time I tried to roll I utterly embarrassed myself in a quest by getting it wrong. I couldn't figure out if it was "dice xdy" or "dice+xdy" (without quotation marks).
>>
No. 123511 ID: 33cbe7

>>123509
The FAQ covers dice syntax on tgchan.
https://tgchan.org/kusaba/news.php?p=faq
There's also a thread on the /tg/ board you could use.
>>
No. 123514 ID: 7fad5d

>>123509
You can also use the /moo/ board to test stuff in general.
>>
No. 123522 ID: dbf422

>>123511
>>123514
Thanks you two.
>>
No. 123523 ID: dbf422

>>123511
Though I should point out that the FAQ doesn't include that it goes in the email field. That's probably common knowledge, but that's what I had messed up.
>>
No. 123528 ID: 3abd97

>>123523
It does.
>The desired expression should be put into the email field.
>>
No. 123533 ID: dbf422

>>123528
Figures I had to fit in one more mistake.
>>
No. 123967 ID: c66305

To the mod who banned ClockworkFountain and I on ITQ,
I would like to put forth an apology and hope I might offer an explanation as to what I was doing. I’ve read old posts where quest characters would have letter correspondence between each other and I was trying to do something similar to that. I was not intending to break any rules. When I was given a warning the first time I was not intending it to get as far flung as it did. And when I was asked a question by Clock, I was legitimately trying to answer him based on what my quest character would do. I wasn’t trying to start a whole RP on that thread and I wasn’t intending it to blow up the way it did. I hope this gets us unbanned, at the very least I ask you in an Clock as I dont think he deserved that. Thank you and again sorry if it seemed I was breaking rules, that was not my intention.
>>
No. 124441 ID: 416751

how do you change the icon on the browser tab?
>>
No. 124449 ID: 671537

>>124441
The mods change that, the details are in this thread >>66907
>>
No. 124717 ID: 4cef42

To the person that permabanned me from all boards and called me "a horrible person": I have no idea what I did wrong. The last posts I remember making here are a suggestion on Acid Soup and posting a link to a clip from Spaceballs on FRACTAL's quests. May I at least receive an explanation for my ban? My ID was d887c0.
>>
No. 124718 ID: 394bd8

>>124717
It looks like it was a spambot ban that happened to catch your IP address as well. It should be resolved now.
>>
No. 124720 ID: d887c0

>>124718
My endless thanks.
>>
No. 124936 ID: bd5c42

Hey, I have an etiquette question. I recently resurrected one of my quests that had fallen into the graveyard by starting a new thread for it. I now want to get people talking in its disthread, but the old thread was never replied to by anyone but me and has fallen into the depths of the disthread archives. Is it more proper to start a new disthread and not resurrect the dead one, or to use the same one to avoid cluttering the archives?
>>
No. 124939 ID: e2ea73

Probably just use the old one. I find it's really hard to predict what will get people talking.
>>
No. 124982 ID: 31eb45

How much activity is a reasonable amount to wait for before making a dis thread?
>>
No. 124991 ID: 4f1cbc

>>124936
There's really no need to make a new dis thread unless the old one has gotten large, or you're reorganizing. If you make sure your quest thread links the dis thread, readers will be able to find it when they need it.

>>124982
Some authors wait until one is needed (ie, suggesters start trying to discuss stuff, or ask for one) other authors start one up preemptively (so it'll be there when needed). Either is fine!
>>
No. 125003 ID: b0b5d0

I'm planning to start my first quest fairly soon and I was hoping to get some advice on how to navigate something I want to do. What I want to happen is that the main/player character outright lies about something, it will become pretty obvious fairly quickly that at the very least what the character tells the reader isn't the whole truth, but I'm a bit concerned I'll drop the ball writing it in some way so tips dealing with this would be very appreciated
>>
No. 125012 ID: e2ea73

The trick I feel is establishing that there can be a disconnection between what the character's saying and what's actually going on. For example if it contradicts something they'd previously said. Also if it's a lie their telling to someone else, you have the option of showing their internal state to the suggesters, which can suggest something's off.
>>
No. 125364 ID: 7969eb

Hey dudes, if I was thinking of doing a quest by having several smaller updates carried out on Saturday/Friday nights, college and work permitting, would this be feasible on tgchan? I'd be keeping the sessions to the same nights at roughly the same time with a twitter to announce it all.
>>
No. 125366 ID: ceb185

It could work. Tgchan's usually a little slow paced so you might get less suggestions per update, but generally when people see a quest is updating frequently, they'll check it more often.
>>
No. 125369 ID: 4f1cbc

>>125364
Updating in sessions once or twice a week? Yeah, that's fine, there are plenty of quests that update slower than that.
>>
No. 125555 ID: ad4798

General tips for maintaining readership/getting a consistent amount of suggestions? I know that’s a very broad question, but I feel like it probably has broad solutions.
>>
No. 125564 ID: f1cb5f

>>125555
These are probably still a bit vague but as far as getting good suggestions goes, I think the big four are:
1: Make decisions important. The suggesters need to feel their input matters.
2: Make decisions nuanced. Try to avoid making The Obvious Correct Choice an option.
3: Make information available. One piece of advice I've always liked is most of the information you need to know should be in the last three updates.
4: Reward interpolation. This is in tension to #3, but leave chances for better options where the suggesters have remembered other bits of information or have come up with a better plan.
>>
No. 125574 ID: 8049ed

>>125564

To expand on that, make sure there is actually something to suggest before waiting for suggestions.
Also that there isn't just one glaringly obvious path forward, that kind of situation tends to get one reply of 'do the obvious thing' followed by silence.
Balance that with too many paths forward though, too much choice tends to be a flaw in city builder quests that can paralyze discussion.

Early on expect to get the four basic text adventure commands a lot:
Look at thing, use thing, take thing, check quest log.

Try to be wordy enough that 'look at thing' and 'quest log' are mostly taken care of by the story posts. We need context and motivation.

and finally, update despite a low response! A common mistake is to assume questors will do the writing for you. Give your characters some initiative. Whatever character is the focus at the time should essentially be a questor that always posts.
>>
No. 125988 ID: 9125e0

How do I make my text blacked out?
Some how I still dont know!
>>
No. 125998 ID: 891b91

>>125988
Use spoiler tags, assuming you mean something like this

Read this for details: https://tgchan.org/kusaba/news.php?p=faq
>>
No. 126019 ID: 9125e0

Thanks man
>>
No. 127211 ID: daffb0

Here's a bit of general advice that occurred to me recently: if your quest isn't directly about solving a mystery, be a bit careful about how you present mysteries.

Often for the purposes of plot or atmosphere, you might want to put in mystery elements that aren't really meant to be solved. Perhaps the quest is supposed to be more of a character-driven drama or be about solving smaller more immediate challenges, and you might want a larger mystery in the background set it all up. Alternately, you might have smaller mysteries, like how exactly some supernatural element of the story works, or what your antagonist's motivations are, or what happened in a place or person's past.

Usually you'll want your readers to have some interest in things like this, but often you won't want them to be the focus or to interfere with your quest's pacing or slow things down - the "/quest/ spends five updates just asking a character questions" problem. A thing to be aware of is that tgchan, unlike some other interactive adventure sites, is descended from old /tg/ culture and draws a lot of its inspiration heritage from tabletop games (and a certain class of video games), with the basic result being that we tend more towards being a bunch of nerds who like to puzzle things out and assume everything has an answer if you look hard enough. So, if you present unknowns, and it seems even slightly like whatever's unknown could possibly be relevant or interesting, you'll get a bunch of suggesters going oh jinkies gang and jumping into the mystery machine to obsess over it. If you don't intend for a particular mystery to be focused on, you might want to think about how enticing you're making it look, or consider whether someone without your special knowledge of the plot might think that it could be important.

This is partly why quests so often start with the protagonist in a place that's strange to them, so that they and the readers learn things at the same pace and you're not immediately bogged down with your main character answering a ton of questions. When new characters get introduced, there's also a tendency for them to also not know much, or to be cagey for some reason, or for there to be some sort of time pressure or danger that stops them from simply sitting down and explaining things. This doesn't always have to be the case, but it's something to keep in mind when you make your own quests.
>>
No. 127323 ID: fb2a85

One easy way to solve it is to have directed questions like in ace attorney or LA noir.
A checklist of clues to ask, and an order to ask to open people up.
Another solution is to have quick updates.
It’s fine to have non image updates, that’s just talky talk.
>>
No. 127505 ID: 70be57

There is an old quest that I would like to continue updating but a longer period of time has passed making that quest a ghost town. Is there a way for me to update that quest or do I need to create a new thread for it?
>>
No. 127506 ID: 5fc3a0

>>127505
Report the OP post in that quest thread, saying you'd like it revived, then a mod will (eventually) move it out of the graveyard and into quest where you can post again.

Hopefully quickly, as it's worth noting that the auto graveyard function doesn't discriminate against threads that were just recently moved out of the graveyard, and thus would move that thread right back into the graveyard again.
>>
No. 127797 ID: 7dc36a

How frowned upon is it to delete your own suggestion?
I ask because I know how to do it and have done it multiple times before. Sorry.
>>
No. 127798 ID: b1b4f3

>>127797
I frequently delete and repost to edit them, provided nobody's responded.
>>
No. 127806 ID: 891b91

>>127797
I can't speak for anyone else, but I wouldn't mind it, personally. If I were to notice it happening, I'd just take it as a sign that the suggester changed their mind, and remove the suggestion from consideration for the next update.

That being said, I'd say it's a good idea to make your best effort to ensure you're satisfied with the content of your suggestion before posting it.
>>
No. 128322 ID: 93878c

Question for those a bit more versed in board etiquette than myself.

Is it taboo to ask for someone else to do quest art for my quests? I really can't draw for the life of me, but I somehow feel that asking someone else to do this would be rude, I just don't want the quality of my quests to suffer because I never graduated from stickmen.

And if it is acceptable, how would one go about this? Do I just call to the masses for help in the dis-thread? I really don't know.
>>
No. 128351 ID: 2735ca

>>128322
Asking for free art is generally considered rude, yeah. For a quest it would be extra rude, because you're asking for a lot of free art, not just one piece. There are cases of people doing art for another person's quest, but generally they pay for it as a commission or get it as a patreon reward. When quest art is done for free, either the artist and quest writer are good friends or the writer has established themselves as good enough already that the artist is a fan of their writing and wants to facilitate more.
>>
No. 128355 ID: 891b91

>>128322
In terms of having someone else do art -- yeah, I'd say your best bet for having someone draw for your quest is to either pay someone (which will probably get pretty expensive over time, considering the sheer volume of images involved) or find someone who is willing to collaborate with you on it (which, as >>128351 says, has to be done with care so as to not come off as rude, and probably requires being good friends with the artist anyway).

That being said, I strongly encourage you to consider doing the art for your quest yourself. I understand the concern about the art quality harming the quality of the quest overall; I don't want to demean the value of having nice art, but art quality/skill honestly isn't crucial for a quest to be good. It's a nice thing to have, of course, but by no means necessary. Dorf Quest and RubyQuest, for example, both used fairly rudimentary/simple art styles and still enjoyed enormous popularity. Generally speaking, what people want out of a quest, much more than high-quality art, is interesting characters, setting, story, etc. Visual art factors into this somewhat, but not as much as writing does, in my opinion. A boring story with amazing art is still boring, and an interesting story with rudimentary art is still interesting.

This raises the question of why image-based quests tend to enjoy more popularity than text-based quests, but I think that has much more to do with the presence of the art than its quality. Having actual panels showing the environment, what is going on, what the characters are doing, etc., adds a visceral quality that is difficult to reproduce with text alone. For this purpose, stick figures are often as effective as the most polished art. (It might be ironic that I'm advocating this, considering that the general perception of my quests' art seems to be that it's very high-effort, but that's really just a symptom of my own tendency towards perfectionism. I don't think it should ever be considered a standard for other people to follow, because there are a lot of downsides to my way of doing things.)

Additionally, running a quest is, in my opinion, an excellent crash course in improving your art, and pretty much guarantees that you will improve, since it constantly challenges you to draw things you aren't used to drawing. Just look at Dead Dust; maybe other people's opinions on this will differ, but I see a rather stark difference between the quality of art I was putting out at the start of the quest and the quality of panels I'm putting out now. I've seen great examples of this in other artists' quests, too, but I think it would be polite to avoid naming names, since I'd prefer not to hurt anyone's feelings.

There are always shortcuts, of course, all of which are completely legitimate, and often a good idea, to use. One option is to reuse art assets: The Witch Who Lost Her Panties makes great use of paperdoll-style character assets for most of its panels, for example. Related to that is the use of pixel art, which lends itself very well to asset reuse; The Herd does this to great effect. (NOTE: If you go the pixel art route, I highly recommend using an image editor that is specifically designed for it, such as Aseprite.)

So yeah. This post kind of turned into a huge wall of text, but the main point I want to get across is that you have options. So don't be too hasty about counting yourself out as a possible artist for your quest.
>>
No. 128362 ID: 98e742

>>128355
Thank you, that's helpful.
>>
No. 128391 ID: afdebc

>>128322
Collaborations between two or more authors / artists providing different parts of a quest happen fairly often. (Usually arranged between existing friends and acquaintances- as established, asking someone out of the blue to art for you is rarely works out too well).

Unfortunately, they tend to have a even higher fatality right than most quests, since you're adding in scheduling and cooperative problems on top of everything else.
>>
No. 128439 ID: 7fd053

>>128322
I wanted to chime in as an artist who has tried making my own quest, drawing for existing quests, and doing a whole new quest as a collab.

I draw Nice Save and Toastline writes it and I think its the longest running collab? I don't know how to measure that lol.

I prefer collabs to personal projects so I seek them out. I worked with Toast to come up with the whole concept and stuff after I'd known them for a bit and knew we had similar interests and goals. If you want to truly collaborate, I suggest creating something from the start with that in mind, with the artist. It gives you both ownership in the project.

As far as meeting artists that would be interested, I used to hang out in tgchan irc a bit, but I think I got the most useful connections from assorted discord servers we both hung out in. In the end it was more about doing a project with a friend than finding a partner for an existing thing. Which is really just echoing >>128351 a bit.
>>
No. 128547 ID: 91e45d

Thanks to everyone for answering my question, your advice was most certainly helpful.

And so, of course, I'm here seeking more.

I want to write a quest that would contain characters and material that belong to other authors, like, a lot of stuff from other people.

I've asked permission from a few, but there are too many to individually ask all of them for permission.

So would it be acceptable to use characters and material without asking? I don't mean to mock or disrespect in any way, I simply want to include them in a quest of my own. And of course I would credit all original creators.

I've checked, and it would legally fall under fair use. But I really don't want to do anything that would make people angry.

All I could find in the site rules was a thing that talked about 'Writefagotry', which sounded a little different than what I have in mind.
>>
No. 128548 ID: 2007b6

>>128547
Legality aside, it'd at least be more polite to make a reasonable effort to personally ask everyone involved. Compile a list, compose a simple form letter, ask on the IRC channel for anyone whose contact info you can't find on the wiki. To avoid having a missed contact stall the whole plan, maybe frame it along the lines of "unless you reply by such-and-such date I'll assume you either approve or don't care." http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1600/fc01546.htm
>>
No. 128562 ID: ab1fe9

>>128547
As a creator, I'd say it depends a lot on what you intend to use them for. If you're planning some silly parody party quest, for example, you can probably go ahead. Beyond that, though, it's questionable.

Some people are very personally invested in certain characters of theirs and wouldn't want anyone else to use them at all. I don't think we have anyone like that around here, but what we might have is people who are like that to a lesser extent, who'd allow things like fanart and short comics and fics, but wouldn't want anyone to use them for anything more extensive or "serious". Some people aren't so personally invested but have put a lot of effort into how a character is perceived, and something that could disturb their characterization would be objectionable. For example, if you took a character who's supposed to be appealing and sympathetic and put them in a story where you had them do something ugly and horrible, that would be a huge problem, because people might go back to the original story and then not be able to look at that character without the association you added to them. And some people might not object specifically to a character being used but just with having their work generally associated with anything that includes certain themes or story elements (usually things along the lines of violence, sex, drugs, horror, specific political ideologies, etc., but you never know).

If you're doing anything that wouldn't be really obviously just a dumb fanficcy "take none of this seriously" quest, I'd suggest trying to personally contact everyone whose characters or material you want to use, and forget using anything you can't get permission for. Beyond being the right thing to do, a lot of authors might be willing to tell you things about how to authentically write their characters that aren't obvious.

>>128548
Using the "unless you reply" tactic is acceptable when dealing with hostile bureaucracy or things you should have a right to do anyway, but if you're using it on individual people to get permission to use things that are unequivocally theirs, it isn't. Like, a lot of people might not even check their messages that often, or might have changed what account they used, or happen to be away from a place they could check for a while. In any of those cases or anything like them, you'd basically just be acting like kind of a manipulative scumbag.
>>
No. 128565 ID: 270774

definitely seconding >>128562 — if someone doesn’t reply or you can’t get ahold of them you should NOT use their stuff, rather than going “well if you don’t get back to me in time i’m just gonna assume you’re fine with it.” i can’t speak for everyone, but i would be PISSED, and i personally know very few creators who would be okay with someone using any aspect of their work without permission, even for a silly parody work (sometimes ESPECIALLY for parody, honestly.)

every creator is going to feel differently about this, which is why it’s vital to make every effort to contact each of them individually and ask. and if you can’t reach someone, find a way to make it work without using their intellectual property when you have no idea how they feel about it.
>>
No. 128584 ID: c8d230

>>128548
>>128562
>>128565
I'd like to see a response any clearer than that. Okay, I'll use nothing without express permission.

Thanks all.
>>
No. 128599 ID: 2007b6

>>128562
Yeah, that's a fair assessment.
>>
No. 128821 ID: c0641d

Testing:
strikethrough
readable pink
green 1
green 2
>>
No. 128822 ID: c0641d

Is there a shorthand color name syntax for the color of greentext, or something similarly yellow-green? I’ll need it for when Gluttony (eventually) rears its head and I don’t want people confusing it for Envy.
>>
No. 128823 ID: c0641d

Testing:
greentext color
>>
No. 128824 ID: 688dd6

>>128821
Do your testing in https://tgchan.org/kusaba/moo/
>>
No. 128841 ID: 25fbe6

I have a question. Again. Again after the last one, I mean.
I would like very much to use characters and material from Knight Blades, but to my understanding Reaver has left tgchan entirely. And I wasn't able to find any reference to any place I could contact him about permission. How should I proceed?
>>
No. 128866 ID: b1b4f3

>>128841
Knight Blades is part of the Dive Quest world. Ask Weaver instead. He should be easier to contact.
>>
No. 128921 ID: c0641d

It's me again; I'm having a dilemma in my current quest (Rise of the House of Osé). The suggestions to my latest update aren't really all that helpful, or at least they feel that way; a lot of general advice but not too much in the way of actually picking options. Is it my fault the suggestions don't feel complete, should I have made their segregation as individual works and the time system more clear? I was considering implementing a multiple choice list outright for the house management part of the quest (while keeping day-to-day interaction freestyle as to form a sort of hybrid system), but I've been apprehensive since one of my close friends had a bad experience trying to run a quest with a multiple choice system. (To be clear, I'm really not blaming the suggestors; it really does feel like I missed something and left things too ambiguous because of it.)
>>
No. 128924 ID: f46e5e

>>128921
highlighting each thing that will take a portion of the day might have helped. I personally am not exactly sure on how these time units work, also we do need to see what is inside.
Chances are we are going to want the most bang for our time, so a better idea of what exactly we can do and how much time each thing will take will probably help prompt lists of actions to take with Ose's time.
Also, I suggested going inside to further survey what we are working with.
I know I assumed each of the things from the prior update were just going to take half a day with possible clever tricks to optimize once we had more detail, not be highly granulated and seem like there is more than half a day's work in just the outside.
>>
No. 128928 ID: c0641d

>>128924
From this stated assumption, I can surmise that I haven't been clear enough on presenting the restoration and management of the estate as a... I hesitate to say game mechanic, but a mechanic of sorts. A followup post to clarify and correct definitely seems like the right move, but should I introduce an outright bullet point list of options a la Dragon Romance, etc.? Might be the right move, especially since I have several axes of choices I want people to decide on (read; pick between a vs. b AND x vs. y). Still, what are opinions on that? (Aaaaaaa... This is my first attempt at questing that I don't plan on allowing to go into a coma in the crib, and I'm already running into problems.)
>>
No. 128930 ID: 8eaf98

>>128928
Might be able to get faster back and forth on the IRC, and with more people than just me. this is the link provided to me not long ago so I'll give it to you too: https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.rizon.net/#tgchan as far as I know any IRC client should work
I think the biggest thing is just to be clear how long Ose expects things to take. since Ose seems to need no sleep just giving a number of hours a task is expected to take (assuming 24hour day-night cycle) and a modifier for how magic use will impact that if applicable, at least as long as we are actively budgeting time.
Most quests seem to follow a 'you have X do thing slots and list Y of things that are options' it seems like that might be what you are going for but i can not really tell, reading the post felt confusing as to what each thing Y is. same with how many 'slots' we have, to a lesser degree.
chances are you are going to want some sort of system for this. What I find I want out of such things is consistency or a reason for inconsistency (be it in-universe or out of universe, be that rules not being as we thought, author error, god changing the universe, or what have you)
Disclaimer: I have run one silly quest >>/questarch/926177 and am otherwise just a reader and suggestor.
>>
No. 129505 ID: 395c02

Friendly reminder: Suggestors should avoid using the subject field! Authors sometimes use it for various reasons, and suggestions using that field can be disruptive.
>>
No. 129679 ID: c914a9

I think I'm in a bit of a conflict right now with what I wanna do, and I'd like suggestions.

I want to use dice rolls for luck-based events in my quest, in a way where I administer all the dice rolls. I pretty much pick a suggestion and roll a die for it, and depending on the number, I'll write a different outcome for it - whether it works or it doesn't.

The thing is... I don't know how I'm gonna go about rolling the dice AND writing the pages based off the dice roll.

There's the obvious one - I could wait for the suggestions to come in, then roll the die, and then I'd take my time to make the pages based off the outcome of the die. But the thing is...
If I choose to use a single message to roll the die every single time, I'd be:
1. Bumping the thread for no reason, and also flooding my own thread with dice rolls.
2. Possibly making things awkward for anyone who wants to post a suggestion after I have already rolled the dice?
3. There would be a ridiculous time gap between my die roll and the time I'm taking working on the pages, as I need to know what the outcome of the die roll is before I make the page.

Then there's the other option - I could roll the die for the next action in the previous one. As in, I ask for suggestions and roll the dice for the outcome of whatever suggestion I'll get right away. But the thing is... If I do that, people will already know whether the outcome will be good or bad regardless of what they choose, and that takes away all the fun of it. All of it.

And then there's the last option, which is to make a cliffhanger page just to roll the die every single time I want to roll it, but that would be just kind of boring, honestly.

Neither of these work for me, but I still want to do this. What am I supposed to do? Does anyone have any other ideas of how I could go about this?

I know letting the players roll is a viable choice and all, but that sounds chaotic and I don't really want to go with that, as it kind of defeats the purpose of "OH NO, A SURPRISE DIE ROLL!" - not to mention it'd be bothersome to beg of people to roll the die every time.
>>
No. 129682 ID: e7c7d3

>>129679
This is something I've tried to figure out myself. Here's some possibilities:
-Going off of your second option, but instead of a single dice roll you offer the suggesters a pool of dice rolls. That way, there's a choice and discussion of whether or not to use the good rolls for the current situation, or to save them for potential future problems and suffer the worse rolls now. Sort of have them make their own luck! Once the current of dice rolls is used up, then you roll up a new pool of rolls.
-Another possibility is that you have an array of possible dice results and have the suggesters roll the dice to see what sort of outcome they need to make suggestion for. So for example, in your update you say that 1-5: player is attacked by the goblin, 6-12:dodge the goblins attack, and 13-20: player attacks the goblin. If the suggester roles a 4 then they need to make a post making a suggestion on what to do about the goblin landing a hit on the player. It's sort of passing on the multiple posting problem from you to the suggesters, but it might be a lot less obnoxious for the non-quest authors to do it. Or it might be more obnoxious, I dunno. I've yet to try it out myself.
>>
No. 129683 ID: 0fae41

>>129679
You can do your rolling on a less visible board and mention the results in your update post. Or, just use an offsite dice roller. You're the quest master, if you say you rolled something you rolled it.
This is one such thread full of dice. >>/tg/1940
>>
No. 129684 ID: c914a9

>>129682
Nice! The first one sounds like a fun way to do it - but it still feels like it'd overly complicate it a little too much.
And the second one isn't really viable, that definitely sounds like it'd be kind of obnoxious, and I'd have to beg people to roll anyways.
Thank you so much for the suggestions though!

>>129683
Thank you so much! I think I'm gonna go with this one, this might be just what I need! I don't think I wanna use THAT dice thread though, it seems way too flooded and would be pretty messy.
And I know I can just roll by myself and say I rolled, but I think I just like the idea of people being able to see the die roll and such, as opposed to just me saying it.
Do you think it'd be viable to make my own thread on /moo/ just for that quest and roll the dice there?
>>
No. 129690 ID: 0fae41

>>129684
Of course.
>>
No. 129714 ID: 8eaf98

>>129679
idea roll a bunch of dice every post and roll a secret dice to see which of the results is used (though i suppose that would be complicated if you want to use multiple result dice) that way you can point to the result used and questors don't know exactly which result they will get. (another option screenshot the die roller you use and add it to the post picture)
>>
No. 129777 ID: 75cf31

actually, on this subject, something i’ve been meaning to ask for ages — on quests where the readers are the ones who roll, how do you generally sort through the results? do you decide that the average of what was rolled is what will impact the update? is it typical to, as in >>129714, just pick a single one of the rolls randomly? (i imagine that if it were clear you were choosing based on an average/majority/etc you might scare readers off rolling + suggesting based on whether people have already posted a few good rolls, if that makes sense, out of fear of bringing an already good average down.)
>>
No. 129804 ID: 8eaf98

>>129777
From what ₗᵢₜₜₗₑ I have seen it seems the roll of the suggestor whose suggestion gets chosen is used.
Though I guess in the case of choosing a hybrid of different suggestors suggestions it gets confusing again, and you could go with average of chosen suggestions or randomly choose one of base suggestion's rolls.
Problem with using suggestor rolls is the whole 'reposting till you get a good roll' issue.
>>
No. 130074 ID: b14c9b

>>129777
>>129804
Back when I ran things on /tg/ I'd do separate things for the suggestion and the roll. But then again, that was a really fast-paced time, where I could speed through a whole thread in a single night (and perhaps a roll update in like 15 minutes). I'd often determine what roll I would use by the situation. Though one of my favorite bits was when I had a luck-themed enemy encounter and picked the lowest roll every time.
>>
No. 131120 ID: 502f42

Could someone clarify for me the rules on suggesters posting reaction images on the quest board?
>>
No. 131124 ID: 5fc3a0

>>131120
What is there to clarify?
"Don't post reaction images in a thread. You may only post images if the author is specifically asking you to do so (paperdoll, etc)."
>>
No. 131130 ID: b28250

>>131124
Okay, thanks. Dumb question, I know; but I’ve seen reaction images in (admittedly older) quests and I didn’t know if I was just missing something.
>>
No. 131138 ID: 19fdd8

If I want to ask a question that would necro a thread, can I post it on the author's active disthread for another quest?
>>
No. 131188 ID: 7ebbf9

It depends. If it's a lore question about that quest and the author's still clearly around it's probably fine to revive the old thread. If it's "Are you going to continue this quest?", then probably not.
>>
No. 131360 ID: c0e130

So whats the main difference from tgchans quest board to 4chans quest board?
>>
No. 131367 ID: 7ebbf9

Tgchan is almost exclusively drawn quests and original content.
>>
No. 131371 ID: 465a14

tgchan's also notable for not being hot garbage abandoned and shunned by its own host site's moderation.
>>
No. 131398 ID: 864e49
File 157333440282.jpg - (37.20KB , 265x395 , xG5YlsD.jpg )
131398

>>131371
>>
No. 131400 ID: f7ff14

>>131371
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DYje57V_BY
>>
No. 131453 ID: 2dc938

>>131360
Tgchan is occupied pretty much exclusively by furries.
>>
No. 131458 ID: f7ff14

>>131453
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DYje57V_BY
>>
No. 131670 ID: ca2950

>>131453
They wanted to know what the difference was.
>>
No. 131973 ID: f7ff14

>>131670
There is somewhat different in the platform but a bigger difference is the type of people that visit the sites and the people who create quests on both platforms.
>>
No. 132030 ID: ce39da

Hey, so I'm thinking of reviving Rise of the House of Osé. Would simply necro-ing the dead thread be fine, or would it be more polite to start a new thread with a repost of everything so far?
>>
No. 132042 ID: e7c7d3

>>132030
For quests, if it's been long enough to be in the graveyard then you need to contact a mod to ungraveyard it. Then yeah, just update it.
>>
No. 132049 ID: c3dca7

>>131360
>>131670
Most of the difference comes in the community. Tgchan/Questden has way more in common with /trash/ and /d/ than it does /tg/ and /qst/.

Questden also values OC way more than 4chan ever has.
>>
No. 132094 ID: 2bd15b

>>132049
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3fVj8A-K8E
>>
No. 132204 ID: 7ebbf9

As a reminder, if your quest has been graveyarded from inactivity, you can contact a mod to get it put back. The fastest method is the questden discord - https://discord.gg/Fh5zMTX - but it can also be done by reporting the thread.
>>
No. 132305 ID: d63ea8

rolled 6, 2 = 8

Don't mind me, just testing out the dice functionality.
>>
No. 132398 ID: d63ea8

Quick question. I seem to have run into this same problem multiple times. When I post a photograph to one of the boards the minimized image is flipped sideways even when the expanded image is perfectly fine.

Is there a way of fixing it so that the minimized image is also upright?
>>
No. 132459 ID: ff5854

>>132398 Usually that's due to the image orientation being stored in metadata, which the thumbnail generation code does not support.

Not sure how to fix it (other than updating the site's thumbnail code)...
Perhaps some image editor has an option to "rotate the pixels the way the orientation metadata says they are"...
Or you could try copy-pasting the image contents from one instance of your image editor to the other, for example when you resize the image for posting on the web.
>>
No. 132509 ID: ce39da

Hey, about to start a new quest here. Checking real quick; what's the ideal file size for pictures that won't blow up the viewers' screens when they expand them? The images I made so far are 2048x1536px. Should I halve those dimensions, or is it already good?
>>
No. 132510 ID: d86b66

>>132509
I think it depends on what kind of monitors peeps are using, personally i find that pictures around the size of 600x600 or smaller work the best for my screen. So i think at least halving it is a good idea.
>>
No. 132519 ID: 887abe

>>132509
on both my phone and my desktop, 1000-1200 px across at the most is what’s comfortable and larger than that creates a side-scrolling issue. i set my panels at 700-800 wide just to be safe (and i honestly like how tiny quest panels have to be! i think it forces me not to spend a million years on panels agonizing over tiny details when i prefer to keep quest art pretty quick.)
>>
No. 132691 ID: 2c012e

>>121761
Meet this site first time. Sorry for bothering you to test if I could post.
>>
No. 133318 ID: 094652

I think the posting HUD needs a rehaul.
>>
No. 133388 ID: f91b19

I haven't been in this community for ages (POSSIBLY A DECADE, OH NO) but tgchan is what inspired me to learn how to draw.

Please egg me on and bully me into running a quest.
>>
No. 133391 ID: e7c7d3

>>133388
Egg egg, bully bully

Did you run a quest before?
>>
No. 133407 ID: f56a2b

Make a quest, and abandon it after the OP.
Make a quest, and railroad the entire thread.
Make a quest, and punish the protagonist for suggestions that don't fit your idea of what should happen.

Make a quest, and only plan one path for the plot out; wing anything that diverges from it.
Make a quest, and wing the entire thing.
Make a quest, and write up three pages of personality and history for every named character.
Make a quest, with a plot outline written out for at least 9 threads.

Dare to be stupid; make a quest at all.
>>
No. 133469 ID: a0dfd2

>>133407

Someone's probably said it before, but honestly, it's very similar to running a tabletop game, like D&D, except everyone's controlling the same character. So really, the secret is remembering that the random elements in the game are the fact you've got potentially dozens of people coming up with things to do.

Pick what works, roll with the rest. And remember: you can always give characters agency. If people aren't playing along or just being butts, the character can point that out. If anything, it's a good way to handle it:

https://questden.org/kusaba/questarch/res/809939.html#862127

(I can't remember the shorthand for cross-thread references)
>>
No. 133583 ID: e96198

Don't mind me, new to styling the text.

Test, did I do it right?
>>
No. 133807 ID: 3aa06e

Another test, pay no attention.

>>Newbie's first green text.
>>
No. 134204 ID: 2aa5f0

>>133807
for green text all you need to do is put > at the front of whatever you want to wright and the site does the rest for you

>like so
>>
No. 134322 ID: 3aa06e

>>134204
Thank you.
>>
No. 135528 ID: 26235b

The following threads are, or will soon be, in conflict with quest board ID numbers.
>>/questarch/1000005
>>/questarch/1000012
>>/questarch/1001208
>>/questarch/1001473
>>/questarch/1002229
>>/questarch/1002368
>>/questarch/1004220
>>/questarch/1004245
>>
No. 135558 ID: 47be15

>>135528
What does that actually mean? This is the first time hearing about this and I was here from 2016.
>>
No. 135565 ID: f8fa51

The board uses internal IDs to refer to both posts and threads. Posts and threads use the same set of IDs. The archive uses the same set of IDs as the quests, so that old quest links get automatically redirected to the archive. I don't know for sure what other ramifications this could have, but I know that, for instance, it can create some ambiguity in what post or thread a link is meant to go to.
>>
No. 135575 ID: 47be15

>>135565
Ok thanks for the explanation
>>
No. 135580 ID: e13b1d

>>135565
Could it be fixed by specifying in a URL/link /thread and /post?
>>
No. 137585 ID: 391a38

-
>>
No. 139141 ID: dc13c4

can anybody send me the link for the tgchan discord?
>>
No. 139247 ID: b57fea

>>139141
Unless you were banned, the link at the top of this thread should work just fine?
>>
No. 140739 ID: c3120d

>>139141
The Questden Discord is plastered all over, but here's the original TGchan Discord:
[snip]
>>
No. 140761 ID: 462d8c

>>140739
This an offshoot group or about the 4chan TG board or something?
>>
No. 140846 ID: 51f2a2

>>140739
Please don't confuse newcomers by linking to unofficial discord servers.
>>
No. 140848 ID: 51f2a2

This thread is for quest advice.
>>
No. 140873 ID: 1fa538

Slinko (and others who have taken the plunge), any advice on adding extra media to quests, like animations or minigames?
>>
No. 140890 ID: 4562ef

>>140873
Don't make it too complicated. The number of assets you'll need can pile up VERY quickly, especially if you do a game with animations. Have a well-defined goal, a purpose that you want to achieve with it, for example "character bouncing around a room with physics because it's funny." Once you have made that happen, then you can think about adding things onto it.
>>
No. 141021 ID: 87e33c

>>140873
Yeah, would reccomend incredibly small scopes per project, stuff like:

> Just a guy moving around and talking to people with text and simple character/environment art

Is actually a lot for most people even just using premade assets and software. Not to mention the writing and art assets also required to make it work. Not to mention most people feel it's a requirement to add talksprites so that's basically doubling the artistic work required.

Keep it simple, and if you consistently make more projects, then add like one new thing that you felt you needed to the next one.

At least, that's how I'd suggest handling it if you wanted to produce something reusable or long term for a project while working solo.
>>
No. 141264 ID: 2a82d3

Is it possible to delete other people's comments?

If so, I might have made a mistake. Sorry.
>>
No. 141286 ID: 462d8c

>>141264
You're only able to delete posts you know the password to. A password is auto-generated and automatically filled in for your posts.

So if you're worried that you deleted someone's post, don't stress about it. Unless you managed to delete some spam then hell yeah!


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