A type of Play-by-Post Game heavily inspired by Interactive Fiction and Gamebooks, the Forum Quest, Quest Thread, or simply Quest, is a unique style of roleplaying that first appeared at the tail end of the Turn of the Millennium, and started spreading across the internet over the course of The New '10snote . As in tabletop roleplaying, the protagonists are controlled by the players and the rest of the world is controlled by the Quest Master, but in a Quest there is usually only a single protagonist, with every player calling out potential actions. A "player" in this sense is simply anyone who visits the thread that the Quest is taking place in, with the playerbase as a whole collectively deciding the actions of their shared character. The QM has the liberty of interpreting these commands as they wish, whether they take the one with the most votes, combine every non-conflicting input, or use the one that they feel would best serve the story.
They are often titled "<subject> Quest", a tradition dating back to the Trope Codifier Ruby Quest.
Is the Roleplay version of Interactive Fiction (for Video Games) and Gamebooks (Literature). In particular, there's a lot of overlap between this trope and Interactive Comics (Webcomics) when the QM draws images for the Quest.
Examples:
- Ad Astra Per Aspera Quest
- Alanna
- Alchemical Solutions
- And Justice For All: A One Piece Quest
- Apotheosis Quest
- The Archivist (Worm)
- Ashen Legacy
- Asuka Quest
- Battle Action Harem Highschool Side Character Quest
- Biohazard
- Can You Feel the Sunshine
- Cauldron Quest
- Cherno Alpha vs. the World
- Collection Quest
- Communication
- Conquest Quest
- Covered In Blood And Surrounded By Spirits
- Crystalwatchers Magical Girl Quest
- Danger Time
- The Dao of the Awakened
- A Destiny of Strife, a Hollow's Quest (Bleach)
- Digimon World: Infamy
- DoofQuest
- Dorf Quest
- A Dragon of the North
- Dreams and Destiny: A One Piece Quest
- Dungeon Life Quest
- A Dynasty of Dynamic Alcoholism
- Embers in the Dusk
- Fen Quest
- Fix It Fixer
- For The Tyrants Fear Your Might
- A Geek's Guide: Corporation of Occult Research and Extermination
- A Geek's Guide: DeathWorld Earth
- The Glorious Restoration
- Harry Potter And The Age Of Superheroes
- Harry Potter Nasuverse Quest
- Hatchling Quest
- Ignition
- Iliad Quest
- Inferno Quest
- The Insane Quest of Unfathomable Randomness
- In the Beginning, There Was Man
- I Promise, You Can Be a Hero
- John Quest
- The King of the Show
- A Knight's Quest
- Legend of the Illuminatist Madoka
- Lego Quest
- The Light of Our Solus
- The Long Founding
- The Long March
- Luck of the Draw
- A Man's Dream Never Dies: A One Piece Quest
- Marked for Death
- Meow Quest
- Mudy Quest
- Musou Verse
- Nehekharans Never Die
- Neuroi Quest
- No Matter What Happens I Still Won't Become An Anime Character
- NorseQuest
- Overlord Ascendant
- Panopticon Quest
- Persona: HEAVEN (Afreaknamedpete)
- The Price of Power (RWBY)
- Projection Quest
- Project Prometheus
- Puella Magi Adfligo Systema
- Rain Quest
- Re Incarnation Quest
- Respect Your Elders
- Riding Victory
- Rise A Warhammer Fantasy Game
- Rules of Nature
- Rumia Quest
- Sayaka Quest
- Scrambled Eggs - A Sonic X Sega All-Star Villains CK2 Quest.
- Second Chances: A Blue Archive Mob Quest
- Semper Ad Meliora
- Shadow Quest
- A Shock to the System (Roleplay)
- Shotaquest
- The Shyish Student
- A Slime Quest
- Spartacus Rising 1919: An Alt-TL Revolution Quest
- Super Robot Quest
- A Sword Without A Hilt
- Terrascape Academy
- There is no GATE; we did not fight there
- To Boldly Go... A Starfleet Quest
- To Live Is to Dream
- To Rule
- Towergirls: TV Tropes Edition
- Try To Survive The Winter
- Usagi Quest
- Veritable
- Victoria Falls
- Warhammer Dynasty
- Warhammer Fantasy: A Dynasty Shrouded In Mist
- Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties
- Warhammer Fantasy Norsca United
- What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?
- Winds of Magic
- Witch Quest
- Xander Quest: Reborn on the Hellmouth
- You Are Patient Zero
- Zeon Quest
- Acid Soup
- AsteroidQuest
- Blind Quest
- Dive Quest
- Dungeoneer
- Enemy Quest
- Knight Blades
- A Little Town Called Coxwette
- All of the MS Paint Adventures except Homestuck fall into this format, and so do most "MSPA Fan Adventures"note born on its forums. Homestuck itself started out this way, but the author turned off player submissions after a while and took full control of the narrative.
- Nan Quest
- Ruby Quest
- Tiny Cat People
- Trashy Vampire Romance Novel
- Unnatural Selection
- Viral By Committee
- 4chan has the /qst/ board specifically dedicated to play-by-post quests, which was created in 2016. Prior to /qst/'s creation, the /tg/ (traditional gaming) board was the main hub for quests on the site. To a lesser extent, the /mlp/ (My Little Pony) board also has a subculture of quests where they are often, but not always referred to as CYOAs, or Choose Your Own Adventures.
- Questden (formerly known as tgchan) was created to host these.
- SpaceBattles.com has an entire section of its forums for these.
- Sufficient Velocity.com, having originally been a fork of SpaceBattles, naturally has an entire section of its forums for these, too.
- Viridian Dreams hosts a large number of these.
