#quest set

[hollyhockash]

World-Class Wonder (full quest set)

[an Aspect quest set about focused practice at the highest levels of a sport or art] [full Shepherd and Storyteller arcs available]

You’re good at something. In fact, you’re one of the best in the world. This is about how you get even better at it, and some of the things that happen along the way.

This quest set is for chess grandmasters, world-record speedrunners, Olympic gymnasts, and marathon runners alike: because being at the top of your field is a peculiarly similar experience, no matter what you're doing.

This quest set consists of five quests, each with a full-size and simplified version. I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for Aspect. Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Practice Makes... (20-30/35 XP) (Aspect 1/Shepherd 1/Storyteller 3)

A New Perspective (25/35 XP) (Aspect 2/Shepherd 2/Storyteller 1/2)

Exhibition Match (25/45 XP) (Aspect 3/Shepherd 5/Storyteller 2)

A Rivalry (30/45 XP) (Aspect 4/Shepherd 3/4/Storyteller 4)

The Moments You Missed (20/30 XP) (Aspect 5/Shepherd 3/Storyteller 5)

Arc Features

On this quest set, you will need to define a Sport: the thing you are one of the best at, and the thing you are continuing to work on. While it does not have to literally be a traditional sport, it is competitive and easily measurable. (Thus, pure mathematics research isn’t really appropriate; it has to be Math Olympiad.) Usually it is also a thing where you are ultimately a solo competitor. (Team sports, for example, could probably be shoehorned into this quest set with some modification, but they’re not what I built this set for.) The Sport also has a community of practice - a lot of other people who also know the Skill and are also trying to get better at it.

Your Sport needs to be on your character sheet as a mortal skill (although it’s okay if the wording of what the skill is called is slightly different), and it will almost always be rated 3 or 4. This is because this quest set is designed for things that you've worked hard to get to a very high level at, and I believe that this kind of work must be done on the mortal level. A few people may get away with the skill at 2, if it’s backed by a Bondfliction or miracle that makes you The Very Best, or if it’s something absurdly niche like speedrunning Action 52’s The Cheetahmen, but that’s not recommended.

Also, your Sport is something you genuinely love pursuing. This is something you willingly give up large parts of your life to practice. This quest set is not designed for an outside authority forcing you to pursue the Sport. If you need an explanation as to why this is the case, see the Arc Notes.

Skills for this quest are things like:

chess

gymnastics

go (the board game)

martial arts

musical instrument(s) such as violin or piano

competitive dueling

competitive magic dueling

stunt flying (with a plane, or wings)

a competitive video game, like a fighting game or head-to-head Starcraft

video game speedrunning

swimming

track and field (running, and things adjacent to running)

The conceptual penumbra of your Sport skill here will be quite large, and you can use it for a lot of different things. Not only are you comfortable with practicing your Sport and things related to it, you have an extensive network of contacts related to the Sport, you can teach the Sport reasonably well, and you’ll regularly find financial or fame-related opportunities related to your Sport (such as speaking engagements, getting free trips to play video games pre-release, or offers to put your face on the cover of national magazines). I mean, obviously you will still have an Obstacle 3 to use Swimming to fix a clothes dryer, but even then the HG should let you have a relatively free hand here. Maybe when you give up and call someone else to repair it, they turn out to be a big fan of you and give you a discount?

You will also have a Community. This is a group of people who are also pursuing your Sport. At least some of them will be roughly equal to your skill level, and you regularly compete with them on a friendly basis; they are also, to an extent, a social club. This is because when you are incredibly interested in something, and other people are also incredibly interested in something, and you often interact with each other in the context of competitions, you already have a lot of surface area to bond over.

Arc Notes

Aspect arc

Practice Makes...

A New Perspective

Exhibition Match

A Rivalry

The Moments You Missed

This is the original order of this quest set, and fairly straightforward. Your routine involves practicing every day and not really getting anywhere. Then you discover another school of thought. After that, you show off your skills to lots of people. If you continue on, you could end up in a dramatic rivalry, and might also have to confront the fact that you've lost touch with another part of your life.

Shepherd arc

Practice Makes...

A New Perspective

A Rivalry or The Moments You Missed

A Rivalry

Exhibition Match

In the Shepherd version of this quest set, your ordinary routine of practice every day is disrupted by your discovery of a new school of thought, and you work through that for a while. After that, you either finally manage to demonstrate yourself as someone's equal or come to terms with how much you haven't been able to do. Beyond that, you might participate in a legendary battle with another titan in your Sport. And possibly, eventually, you go around showing off just how good you are.

Storyteller arc

A New Perspective

A New Perspective or Exhibition Match

Practice Makes...

A Rivalry

The Moments You Missed

You find yourself suddenly interested in a new way to approach your Sport. Then you either continue to pursue that path to try to wring more results out of it, or you spend some time trying to show other people that this way is better. Eventually, you end up lost and at an impasse as to what to do next. Perhaps you are pushed to new heights by a personal desire to best a rival, and might find yourself facing the fact that you've pushed aside "little" things that are no longer quite so little.

Distinct lack of Emptiness arc

This quest set is designed for a Sport that you give up large parts of your life to practice. On the Aspect, Shepherd, and Storyteller arcs, you do this (mostly) willingly and gladly, and the bad parts come from how much of your life you give up to pursue it. As best as I can tell, then, the Emptiness arc for this quest set would be for you to break because pursuing this would force you to lose other things you cared about.

I can’t write that arc.

To explain why, let me tell you a story.

I am classically trained in piano. Part of piano classical training is to learn to play complex songs from memory. There is a special type of recital - piano competitions, in my case, although I assume there exist similar events for other instruments - where you go about showing off your memorized song playing to judges, who then rate you for your performance/interpretation and award medals, much like figure skating or gymnastics routines.

My sister and I were at one such competition. They had practice rooms, one piano to one soundproofed tiny room. These pianos were in the practice rooms because they were broken in some way; almost all had strings (and thus notes) missing, and some had actual keys missing. When I got to the venue, I went to one of these practice rooms and did some last-minute rehearsal of my song. Eventually, my performance timeslot rolled around, and so I performed the song in front of the judges and an audience, and did so reasonably well.

I was later told (by my other parent, on the ride back home) that my younger sister, when confronted with these practice rooms, went to each piano, said “this piano is broken, so I can’t practice at it”, and demanded to go to a different room, and did this again and again until her actual performance timeslot came up. Then she completely failed to perform the song, as she hadn’t actually memorized how to play it.

We had been given the same amount of training, put through the same amount of required practice, and expected to perform the same. But I wanted to be good at piano, and she didn’t, and in the end that was all that mattered.

(Later on, I encountered depression, and also moved away from that piano teacher, so I stopped. But that’s another story.)

To write this Emptiness arc, then, would be to assert that it is possible to train someone to the highest levels of performance without their consent. Certainly, it is possible to train someone to bare proficiency if you use enough force. But for someone to reach the highest levels of their craft, they have to want it with all their heart. The truly world class spend their days planning out what they want to try next, and their nights dreaming of innovations. That drive can't be forced.

As such: when you experience training as Emptiness, as something that you are broken into pursuing, that’s a story so different that it cannot be fit into this quest structure.

I would know.

Practice Makes...

Aspect 1/Shepherd 1/Storyteller 3

Realistically, when you're one of the best in the world at something, you have to practice intensively every day to maintain your skills. This isn't even time spent improving yourself. This is devoting an hour or two a day just to keep the rust off.

(Mind you, in Chuubo’s realism is not really a concern, but for the purposes of this quest set, the point stands.)

Practice Makes... (35 XP)

This is the one where you are actively struggling to keep up, and it’s hard, and it feels like the goalposts keep moving.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you suffer a minor injury such as a sprained ankle

you acquire a new nifty gadget that purports to help with your performance and then stop using it after a few tries

you hear of someone younger who is more talented and better than you

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

wait all day for something that was supposed to be done within an hour or so, with no explanation as to what’s taking so long

get up extremely early for practice

eat a granola bar

write emails or letters to other people in your Community

wash your hands carefully and thoroughly with soap

do maintenance on the equipment you use for your Sport

irrevocably screw up a practice run or practice test and have to start over

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

Practice Makes... (Simplified) (20-30 XP)

This is the one where you’re just... practicing. You know? It’s not really such a big deal. (This version is not suited for use on the Storyteller arc.)

This is a Shepherd anytime quest, where the catchphrase is something like “I need to go to practice”.

A New Perspective

Aspect 2/Shepherd 2/Storyteller 1/2

You change the focus of your studies/practices. Sometimes you're looking into a different school of thought (studying AlphaGo's record instead of historical Go games). Sometimes you are focusing on a different specialization (speedrunning glitchless instead of glitched).

A New Perspective (35 XP)

This is for when changing your practice opens up a whole new field of opportunity.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you acquire a major upgrade for the equipment you use for your Sport

you take a complete break from your Sport, doing your best to push it out of mind, for at least a Chapter

you establish a way that you can practice your Sport without actually literally playing through it (thinking through chess problems instead of playing chess; practicing high diving moves suspended on ropes above a trampoline; using one of those extremely good trumpet mute microphones that digitally processes it back into sounding like a real trumpet)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

study videos of someone else practicing your Skill

attempt a new trick and completely fail at it

practice as the sun rises

calculate probabilities

repeat a nonsensical word or phrase (that you are presumably using as a mnemonic device ICly) to yourself several times

catch something someone throws at you

drink the entire contents of a water bottle in one long gulp

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

A New Perspective (Simplified) (25 XP)

This breakthrough is not such a big deal.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you successfully come up with a setup or technique that allows you to perform what was previously an inconsistent trick consistently

you achieve a new personal best (distance? time? ELO? perfect replication of every note? whatever it is for your sport)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

practice in front of a mirror

write a checklist (following through with using it is optional)

carry an extremely heavy bag or backpack

ask for help

drink the entire contents of a water bottle in one long gulp

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

Exhibition Match

Aspect 3/Shepherd 5/Storyteller 2

You attend a handful of events that are more about raising your profile than about serious competition. Often these are charity events. Sometimes you are involved in organizing or instigating them. Getting to these events is arduous, and the physical conditions under which you’re performing are not the greatest. But the energy of the crowd rooting for you keeps you going.

Exhibition Match (45 XP)

This one is for when you go traveling or touring.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you physically meet someone you know from your Community for the very first time

you push yourself to appear and perform despite being sick (usually with a bad cold)

you warn the people watching you that this stunt has never been done in front of a crowd before because it is incredibly scary, chancy, and/or dangerous, do it, and somehow succeed

you set up your equipment or practice despite being in a space wildly unsuitable for it (such as hauling your GameCube and CRT monitor out on a camping trip, or having someone pass you your electric keyboard through a window while you dangle outside on ropes)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

take a long plane trip or bus ride

practice in front of a crowd

set up or practice in a place only somewhat unsuitable for it (such as doing a multi-hour running session on some random hotel treadmill, or hauling your thousand-piece wargame out onto the deck of a cruise ship)

eat junk food

connect with a stranger over your shared love of the Sport

are recognized by a slightly-too-adoring fan

have a bad dream about failing in front of everyone

use hand sanitizer

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

Exhibition Match (Simplified) (25 XP)

For if you want less travel.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you compete with someone from out of town

you spend a night on the couch of someone you originally met in your sport’s Community (e.g. staying for a night or two while traveling; having a sleepover; your home being temporarily inaccessible since it’s being fumigated)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

sit somewhere extremely uncomfortable

drink your third cup of coffee

solicit donations for a charity from friends

wear an embarrassing piece of clothing someone dared you to

have a bad dream about failing in front of everyone

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

A Rivalry

Aspect 4/Shepherd 3/4/Storyteller 4

You compete seriously with someone else - someone so good that people half-jokingly wonder if maybe they sold their soul. (Or maybe they're just cheating with steroids or money or video editing, but you can't prove that. Not during this particular quest, anyway.) It is absolutely infuriating. It also drives you to heights of achievement that you have never before attained.

A Rivalry (45 XP)

This one is for when the rivalry is highly structured and has an audience and so on.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you lose. No qualifiers. You weren’t at a major disadvantage like being injured or sleep-deprived, they weren’t visibly playing dirty, you just straight-up lose and acknowledge it as such.

you invent and demonstrate a technique or trick for your Sport that was previously thought impossible (such as a quintuple jump in ice skating)

your winning celebration is interrupted by a referee’s ruling that it didn’t actually count

someone from the Rival's end of your Community (insofar as there are different sub-social-circles in your Community in the first place) gives you insider information

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

skip a barrier

have practiced so long through the night that you find you’re still doing so in the morning

wake up only a few minutes before practice is due to start, and have to rush to get ready

wander into a scene while talking to yourself about strategy

analyze footage/records of your Rival’s past performances for potential weaknesses

clean/maintain your equipment

stop in the middle of washing your face in the sink and stare up at yourself in the mirror, dripping wet

wipe sweat off your brow

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

A Rivalry (Simplified) (30 XP)

This rivalry is more unofficial/informal.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

someone threatens to hurt you or ruin your reputation, but you don’t back down

you do something absurd to try to enhance your performance

you don’t show up at an event your rival shows up to, and they’re crowing about it

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

crack nut shells with your teeth

wake up only a few minutes before practice is due to start, and have to rush to get ready

use a stopwatch or timer

clean/maintain your equipment

wipe sweat off your brow

shake someone's hand

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

The Moments You Missed

Aspect 5/Shepherd 3/Storyteller 5

There is someone you haven't gotten to meet, or some part of your life that you lost, because you've been focusing so much on your sport. Maybe you receive an invitation to a family wedding that you had no idea was coming even though you should’ve figured it out. Maybe you had to miss your high school graduation. Maybe you realize that you hadn’t met your new niece for the entire first year of her life.

Perhaps you couldn’t have stopped for it. More likely you’d made the tradeoff knowingly, let it pass by for the sake of the Sport you love. How are you supposed to make up for something like that?

The Moments You Missed (30 XP)

This is the one where you go full-on doubting yourself.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you construct a coherent story of how things could’ve gone differently, thinking through what other decisions you’d have made if you’d been less wrapped up in your Sport

you get sick in an ordinary, Sport-unrelated way

someone in your Community helps you out of a bad situation

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

take an extremely, extremely long shower

fixate on how you could’ve done things differently

compare something in ordinary life to something in your Sport

make an extremely obvious mistake in your Sport that you should really have caught earlier

distract yourself from negative feelings by throwing yourself into your Sport instead

peel the shell off a hard-boiled egg

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

The Moments You Missed (Simplified) (20 XP)

This is the one for when you have already gone through this a couple times, and have more or less made your peace with the fact that your Sport will make you miss things.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you watch a home video of someone else’s major life event

a teacher, coach, and/or mentor retires, moves away, or otherwise exits your life permanently

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

repair something

haul old toys or clothes to a donation center

do stretches

talk about what you "should" be doing

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

[hollyhockash]

Quest Set: Scionic (1/8)

[a Knight quest set for trying to inherit a great and terrible legacy] [full Aspect, Storyteller, and Mystic arcs]

Because we needed a quest set for the good ol’ “kid inherits an ancestral weapon, then goes off and chases destiny” story. Also, I needed a good excuse to use the pun that is now the name of this quest set.

This is for a character who is actively interested in pursuing their legacy. If they are being unwillingly dragged into the legacy, you probably want to use the Heroic Journeys quest set from the Chuubo’s core instead.

This quest set consists of six quests, each with a full-size and simplified version (except for Things You Must Learn, which has two different variants with the same XP total for different situations). I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for one type of Knight arc (there is a second Knight arc ordering that I will explain in the arc notes). Arc notes will be posted shortly. Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Taking Up the Sword (25/35) (Knight 1/Aspect 2/Storyteller 1)

Things You Must Learn (30/35) (Knight 2/Aspect 1/Storyteller 2/Mystic 1)

I Knew Your [Absent Guardian] (35/45) (Knight 3/4/Aspect 4/Storyteller 5/Mystic 3)

Deep In the Jungle (20/30) (Knight 2/3/Aspect 1/2/3/Mystic 2)

Relearning the Way (25/40) (Knight 3/4/Storyteller 3/Aspect 5/Mystic 4)

The Inheritor (25/35) (Knight 5/Storyteller 4/Mystic 5)

Arc Features: Your Absent Guardian

This is someone - often a parent, although it could also be a longtime mentor - who is absent from your life, but whose effects continue to ripple through your life, through a Legacy (something you will pick in the next step):

your parent, who actually had royal blood but didn’t tell you about it until after they were dead, or who you never knew about in the first place (until you figure it out during this quest set)

your father, who died in battle

your mother, who died in childbirth

your parents, who were trying to build or do something but died before they could complete it

your mentor, who said they were going to do something dangerous and then were never heard from again

your older sister, who performed so well in school that the teachers are still dazzled when your family name comes up on the roll call (she’s now in college, which takes care of the “absent” part)

your older brother, who stole a powerful ancient artifact, dropped it on your lap, and then ran away

your guardian, who built you wondrous machines but died before they could give you said machines

your creator, who made you to fulfill a purpose (but the conditions under which you are expected to work to fulfill said purpose have changed, dramatically, in the meantime)

Arc Features: Your Legacy

You’re trying to grow into a Legacy, which is some sort of expectation, task, or unfinished business that your Absent Guardian left you with:

taking up the same profession/hobby that your guardian had

becoming a priest/medium/other consecrated individual for a god or force connected to your bloodline

taking revenge for the death of your guardian

scraping up enough money to give dead guardian(s) a proper funeral/burial

protecting someone else’s family line

searching for a grail or lost treasure

Arc Features: The Token

The legacy you’re inheriting is associated with a Token, which is usually a useful physical object that is passed down through the family (or the mentorship line) in the same way the metaphorical legacy is/was. Occasionally, there are actually multiple tokens (although it is rare to have more than seven). It should be personifiable (this goes without saying in the standard Chuubo’s world, but it’s something to pay attention to in other settings). Something like:

a sword (this is very common)

a magical or religious artifact (sometimes this is useful only because it marks a spiritual connection or god-sponsorship)

a house, mansion, estate, country, etc.

a business (“This restaurant has been in the family for three generations!”)

a fleet of ancient servants/golems/statues (There are usually more than seven of these, but you’re expected to treat them as an aggregate rather than as individuals.)

fortified secret base(s)/hiding-spot(s)/bolthole(s) in remote area(s)

a token of safe-passage/legality that is rarely, if ever, issued, but that is still respected if you have it (such as a ring forged by the dwarven empire for ambassadors to wear, or a taxi medallion)

In some cases, the Token is a magical or supernatural ability. This isn’t central for this arc, so things may become semantically weird, but if you really cannot find a suitable physical object, it may be something like this:

the ability to tell when land is near, and where, solely by feeling the motion of the waves under your boat (Okay, I know I said supernatural, but this is an actual thing that actually exists.)

the ability to sense and/or control a certain element

a dangerous forbidden technique

some other sort of bloodline-related power (such as the ones from the Naruto series)

Note that, in all cases, the Token has to remain more or less unchanged down the generations (give or take a Ship of Theseus problem).

If you happen to be on the Allegory miraculous arc, your Token may or may not be your Legendary Weapon. It depends on what kind of character you are!

Development notes:

Despite - or perhaps because of - the sheer iconicity of this quest set, it was unusually difficult for me to write. It’s easier to write a quest set when you have two or three specific works in mind, because that way you don’t end up running a slow search through the entire zeitgeist. I eventually filled most of the quest set in by referring to The Lion King and Steven Universe.

Contrary to what you might think, I have actually not seen any Star Wars, even though this would logically be the quest set for it. I do apologize. As always, you have full permission to change anything you need to make it fit better in play.

[hollyhockash]

The Curious Ventures of Anthony Ott (Curious Ventures 1/8)

[a Bindings quest set for gamebreaking - more specifically, Sburb gamebreaking] [full Emptiness and Knight arcs available / some Storyteller quests available]

This is going to be an extremely Replay Value-specific quest set. If you want to use it for another setting, you have my permission and my blessing to switch out as many quest flavor options as you need to.

The Game is a game. It can be broken. How do you know it’s broken? Because it’s breaking right in front of you. Because there’s a bug that is, or will be, threatening you - a bug that will take dangerous, exceptional work to comprehend and fix. If you’re on this quest set, you’re going to take these extreme measures. You might even be happy taking these extreme measures.

But what does that make you?

This quest set consists of five quests, each with a full-size and simplified version. I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for Bindings. Arc notes will be posted shortly. Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Tentacle At Your Heels (25/35 XP) (Bindings 1/Emptiness 4/Knight 3)

De Facto Expert (20/30 XP) (Bindings 1/Emptiness 1/Knight 2)

Three Wrongs Make A Left? (25/35 XP) (Bindings 2/Storyteller 3/Emptiness 3)

A Desperate Gamble (35/45 XP) (Bindings 3/Storyteller 2/Emptiness 2/Knight 5)

Binary (25/35 XP) (Bindings 4/Storyteller 1/Emptiness 5/Knight 1)

And Another Thing... (20/30 XP) (Bindings 5/Storyteller 5/Knight 4)

OK, I’ll admit, this particular quest set doesn’t have any easily visible points for you to hang customizations on. But fear not! You can still vary the quest set’s contents by changing any or all of these things:

the kind of problem that you’re trying to fix

the method with which you approach researching the problem

the method with which you approach fixing the problem

who else is affected by the problem

who else you work with to help fix the problem

[hollyhockash]

A Basket of Dogs (Dogs 0/5)

[a Shepherd quest set for having to take care of a large handful of children, animals, etc.] [full Bindings, Storyteller, and Knight arcs available; partial Aspect arc]

You’re put in charge of several small children, dogs, or other things that need caretaking. You don’t know how to handle them. You’ll just have to learn through experience - and what an experience this is going to be!

This quest set is about learning to take care of a roomful of wriggling little rascals - and, just as importantly, learning to take responsibility for a roomful of wriggling little rascals.

This quest set consists of five quests, each with a full-size and simplified version. I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for Shepherd. Arc notes will be posted shortly. Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Just Another Day (25/35) (Shepherd 1/Bindings 1/Storyteller 3/Knight 1/Aspect 1)

Puppies! (30/45) (Shepherd 2/Bindings 2/Storyteller 2/Knight 3/4/Aspect 2)

Everything Short Of The Divorce Lawyer (30/40) (Shepherd 3/Bindings 5/Storyteller 5/Knight 2/Aspect 3)

Take Your [Charges] To Work Day (30/40) (Shepherd 4/Bindings 3/Storyteller 1/Knight 3/5/Aspect 4)

Barn-Raising (25/35) (Shepherd 5/Bindings 4/Storyteller 4/Knight 5)

Arc features: Your Charges

Your Charges are a group that you have to take care of. They’re usually children or small animals.

Here are some examples:

a stray dog having a litter of puppies in your garage

your friend dumping their entire collection of Tamagotchis on you because they “don’t have time for that anymore”

meeting a family with a very large number of children, and ending up babysitting them (yes, I am drawing from Cheaper By The Dozen. Yes, both the book and the movie. No, they are not the same story at all.)

having a School club somehow form around your after-school anime-watching, without you noticing until it’s too late to dissuade everyone

taking a short-term position at an animal shelter or daycare, only for it to stretch to months or years

(Jennachat suggests) Batfamily shenanigans

(Jennachat suggests) being a long-term substitute teacher

[hollyhockash]

Quest Set: The Dramatic Tales of Cecelia Favreau (Dramatic Tales 0/5)

[an Aspect/Shepherd quest set about finding your way in a troubled world... with an internet connection]

[full Knight arc/some Bindings and Emptiness quests available]

In RV Chuubo's, this quest set is for either being the Artist, or else being the Heart's friend. I started by basing it off the structure of "Literary Medal-Bait" from Glass-Maker's Dragon, and there are a few options I've borrowed, but the actual quests and flavor (and even the available arcs) are mostly different. (This quest set does not require you to have a copy of GMD to follow along with; it's self-contained.)

This quest set was built for RV Chuubo's. While I've tried to make most of the flavor adaptable to other settings, it definitely requires the existence of an Internet on which to blog, chat, and otherwise socialize. If you're looking for this quest set without the Internet, you really should be looking at "Literary Medal-Bait" instead. Well, except if you're trying to use the Bindings arc, for which the only advice I have is to look at the structure of "Fighting Back" versus "Action!" in the canonical "Literary Medal-Bait" sequence.

This quest set consists of five quests, each with a full-size and simplified version. I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for Aspect. Arc notes will follow shortly. Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Neurosis (20+/35 XP) (Aspect 1/Shepherd 1/Knight 2/Bindings 1/Emptiness 3)

In the Strangest of Places (25/45 XP) (Aspect 2/Shepherd 3/Knight 1/Bindings 2/Emptiness 2)

The Blogosphere (25/35 XP) (Aspect 3/Shepherd 5/Knight 3/Bindings 5)

Fighting Back (35/45 XP) (Aspect 4/Shepherd 4/Knight 3/5/Bindings 3/4/Emptiness 4)

Time to Mourn (25/35 XP) (Aspect 5/Shepherd 2/Knight 4/Bindings 5/Emptiness 1)

Arc Features: Blog

So, you have a blog. I mean, usually you just run it by writing a bit of a thing every so often, maybe snapping and uploading a few pictures. It doesn't have to be a Bond or anything. So long as you establish it exists. I mean, you'll probably eventually end up with an "It's A Living" perk or Bond perk attached to it, but no rush.

For the record, you do not actually have to write these blog posts in-character. You should establish what your character's writing about, how much time they're spending on it, and the general kind of tone that they tend to write (scholarly? whimsical?), but I do not expect you to have to write a blog post.

Now, if you'd like to for extra credit, that's great! But it's certainly not required.

Arc Features: The Strange Friend

On this quest set, one of the things you'll do is find friendship in the strangest of places. But this is more than just any old friendship. It is stabilizing enough that if you were a troll you might consider it, or mistake it for, a fated moirallegiance.

They're pretty far opposite from you, but I think that difference in perspective actually helps them balance you out and keep you in check.

On some arcs they're going to be more of a legitimate friend; on others they might be a kind of representative-of-the-enemy - but even then, they're still a really decent friend and you'd probably like them despite that background.

You probably don't need to establish precisely who this is right away - in Literary Medal-Bait it's noted that for the first few chapters of this quest, you might hang out with several different people before settling on any given strange friend, and that is also the case here.

[hollyhockash]

Quest Set: Missing (Missing 0/5)

[an Emptiness arc about something you've lost] [full Bindings and Otherworldly arcs / an Aspect arc with some redundancy]

Someone took something from you. There's an empty space it left inside you. You're not going to be able to get it back.

This quest set was designed for the aftereffects of having had a character with the Alchemist powerset take something important from you, something permanent - but it's also possible to use for other kinds of treasure. I am not actually sure if the set is repeatable, but even just the one time should be interesting.

Because it is a treasure. If it wasn't valuable it wouldn't've been taken from you.

This quest set consists of five quests, each with a full-size and simplified version. I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for Emptiness. Arc notes will be posted shortly. Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Lost Soul: Reward Offered (25/35 XP) (Emptiness 1/Bindings 1/Otherworldly 1/Aspect 1)

Companionship (30/45 XP) (Emptiness 2/Bindings 2/Otherworldly 2/Aspect 2)

A Fruitless Search (25/35 XP) (Emptiness 3/Bindings 3/Otherworldly 4/Aspect 5)

Blame (25/40 XP) (Emptiness 4/Bindings 4/Otherworldly 3/Aspect 3/4)

The Reasons Why (25/40 XP) (Emptiness 5/Bindings 5/Otherworldly 5)

Arc Features: The Treasure

It's something you've lost, or something that you've had taken from you. Something like this:

your heart (Jasmine Apocynum-style)

your memories

that precious trinket your grandmother gave you before she died

your first pet (Okay, in this case, it'll probably be your first pet dying, not being kidnapped. Sometimes the 'taking' isn't necessarily so literal.)

your innocence

I'm not actually sure there's a way to get it back. It's quite likely that there isn't - I mean, this is being built as an Emptiness quest set first of all - but maybe on a different arc it might be possible?

But it's not gone!

In some cases, your treasure's been irrevocably ruined, rather than taken or destroyed. Or it's been defiled. Or something like that. This plays out essentially the same, honestly - I just wanted to make sure you knew that it was an option.

Arc Features: The Companion

The person I'll refer to as the Companion on this arc is someone who has the thing you lack; possibly even in excess. If you've lost your memories, maybe they have a near-photographic memory. If you lost your innocence far too early, you may find yourself hanging around Rinley Yatskaya. And so on, and so forth.

A content note

Being an Emptiness quest set, and furthermore a set based on an experience that some people have in fact had in reality, I should probably warn you that this kind of story can bring up some seriously deep shit. Be careful.

[hollyhockash]

Quest Set: Newcomer (0/6)

[a Knight quest set about exploring new social circles]

[Aspect, Storyteller, and Mystic arcs available / several Shepherd quests available]

The world is full of tiny weird subcultures with idiosyncratic norms, strange vocabulary, and people who'll want you to prove yourself before they trust you.

This is the story of how you prove yourself. Or, at least, of how you try.

This quest set is best tuned for digital communities, but I've tried to make it so that if you're using this for a real-life community, you won't be totally lost. Unfortunately, where the demands of quest set design intercede, I prefer the points I can use for RV Chuubo's over those usable in other settings. Sorry!

This quest set consists of six quests, each with a full-size and simplified version. I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for Knight. (Please note that there are two Knight 3 quests.) Arc notes are here. Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Please Read Before Posting (20/30 XP) (Knight 1/Aspect 1/Shepherd 2/Mystic 1)

Frist Psot (25/35 XP) (Knight 2/Shepherd 3/Storyteller 1)

Groupthink (25/40 XP) (Knight 3/Aspect 2/Storyteller 3/Mystic 2)

Error 404 (25/35 XP) (Knight 3/Aspect 5/Storyteller 5/Mystic 4)

Integrity (25/40 XP) (Knight 4/Aspect 3/Shepherd 5/Storyteller 2/Mystic 3)

Something Better (30/45 XP) (Knight 5/Aspect 4/Shepherd 4/Storyteller 4/Mystic 5)

Arc Features: Your Normal Social Group

So, you've got some people who you fit in with. They're your friends. Or should be your friends.

Your inspiration is running a bit dry, though. Or you're ranging out to find something that your normal social group doesn't have.

In extremis, your normal social group could even be bullying you, and you don't know because you never noticed. Because they've managed to convince you that it's normal. Or that you wouldn't find better elsewhere. Or that this is all you deserve.

In these last cases, over the course of this quest set you will realize that you need to leave your normal social group for sanity's sake - although just because it may be necessary does not mean it will be easy.

Arc Features: The Community

In this Arc, "Community" refers to the tiny weird subculture that you're learning about. They believe some awesome things and also some really strange things. Their social norms are very different. It's certainly not uniformly good or uniformly bad! If you think it's one of those things, more complexities will emerge as you get deeper into it, and part of the point of this arc is that you learn that people are the same wherever you are.

You're not trying to assimilate. You're interested in them the way an anthropologist would be interested in them. But they might come to trust and assimilate you anyway, depending.

So what's the community you're interested in?

A new club at school that you want to join?

A new social network with different norms (pseudonymous vs. real name, public by default vs. private by default, whether it has plugins, etc.)?

Your local homeowner's association?

A local activist group?

A local hobby group?

A new Internet forum about a specific topic that you've recently started investigating? (See this and this XKCD, it explains how weird that kind of forum can get faster than I can.)

A tightly-knit circle of friends, with their own injokes and everything, that you've just been introduced to by someone who thinks you'd go well with them?

...Or is it something else entirely?

Arc Features: Community Representative

The community representative is someone you feel is a good microcosm/representation of the community you're trying to join. They do not have to be in a position of power - often, it's even better for the story if they aren't - but they have the essence of the place in them: they are an exemplar of the group's values, and an attractive one too. Even if the group is generally made of sullen, xenophobic trolls (whether in the figurative or literal sense of 'troll'), the representative will be welcoming and generous, and stick up for you.

And even if you're forced to part ways with them, or the community, they don't get angry about it or anything! Maybe they're sad about it since you were a friend or something. But mostly they just are.

[hollyhockash]

Quest Set: Cracked Pedestals (Pedestals 0/5)

[a Shepherd quest set about realizing that your mentor is flawed] [Emptiness, Aspect, Mystic and/or Storyteller arc available]

This is a story about creating a great and beautiful work, but at the cost of losing someone you once idolized and learned much from. It is a fundamentally bittersweet tale, a Shepherd quest set for a Fairy Tales universe - but you could just as well make it the quest set of a different arc in a less horrifying genre.

Note: This quest set was originally written for Rissa Hier, who is a character in The Age of Replayer Networks (for RV Chuubo's). Among other things, RV Chuubo's (Rissa's setting) does have the Internet, so several quest flavor options involve it. If you're going to use this for characters who don't have Internet access, you might need to tweak things some. Sorry!

This quest set consists of five quests, each with a full-size and simplified version. I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for Shepherd. Arc notes are here.

Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Someone Awesome (20/30) (Shepherd 1 / Emptiness 2 / Aspect 1 / Mystic 2 / Storyteller 1)

Responsibilities (20/25+/35) (Shepherd 2 / Emptiness 4 / Aspect 3 / Mystic 3 / Storyteller 2)

Feet of Clay (25/35) (Shepherd 3 / Emptiness 3 / Aspect 4 / Mystic 4 / Storyteller 3)

Undertow (25/40) (Shepherd 4 / Emptiness 1 / Aspect 5 / Mystic 1 / Storyteller 5)

Onwards (20/35) (Shepherd 5 / Emptiness 5 / Aspect 2 / Mystic 5 / Storyteller 4)

EDIT for clarity: These quests are going to get posted over the next week or so. I've stuck everything in the queue.

Arc Features: Mentor

So you're going to have someone who works on the same thing that you do, except that they do it better. (At least at first! By the end you might even do better than them.) This person will be your mentor. They're someone that you can learn from. Maybe they only tolerate you, maybe they actively like you? It doesn't matter very much on this quest set but you should establish whether they actually like you early on, for consistency.

But my mentor is dead!

That's no problem. Hell, if you're Rissa/Emmit, you'll start with a dead mentor!

Basically, you discover some sort of log, diary, or collected works from them, and the rest can follow on from there.

Arc Features: The Work

Because this is a Shepherd arc first and foremost, the other major feature of this Arc is that you have something you're working on, or someone you're guiding. The thing you're working on is thus called The Work (even if it's a person). You have a Craft (some kind of skill, or some clump of skills) that you are using to cultivate The Work (if what you're doing is mentoring someone, you'll probably be using 'long heartfelt conversations'), and you're at least not bad at it (although you don't necessarily need to be good at it, at least not at the beginning).

The Work is big and awesome, and you don't believe you have the skills to do it. It's something like this:

mentoring someone to teach them a skill (that you're not that spectacular at yourself)

building a house from scratch, with only your life partner to help you

taking over a website after the owner disappears and stabilizing it, fixing the bugs, and trying to establish yourself as an authority

making the biggest wedding cake in the world

making the biggest anything else in the world

capturing/photographing something that most people think doesn't exist or that's legendarily elusive (Pokemon trainers aside. This is a pretty sad quest set so be aware of that if you're considering it for that type of character.)

creating a new community or club from scratch

rescuing a neighborhood from decay

establishing a farm using all the cutting-edge techniques

writing a novel

You'll take on the burden of the Work during the quest Responsibilities, so this isn't something you need to decide right away, and ICly you probably don't know it's something you're fated to take on at first.