To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
Her memories of Lady Rin were starting to get fuzzy. She didn't know why she was here at 5am. Just that...oh she did something terrible. She did something so terrible. She begins to sniff.
We're now about 2/3rds of the way through SQ2, if I'm going to estimate.
Well, maybe a little bit less than that. But we're past the halfway point at the very least.
Questing is definitely something that's a bit finicky, and I kind of shied away from it for a while. The general expectation from a questing audience isn't exactly that of "Oh we want to be told a story". It's "I want a power fantasy." That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I personally don't find that particularly interesting.
How many questers would look at that kind of people that are in Sayakaquest...hell, how many questers saw these characters and asked "hey, why are they not straight", "they're weak for having personal hangups" or "I don't want bad things to happen to these characters".
Not because of actually caring about the characters and wishing for the best for them, but because it subverts the idea of a "golden ending". It's not enough to actually enjoy a story or participate in it. There needs to be some strange incentive for a golden ending. The story isn't actually a story, it's a puzzle box to be solved.
This is why I turned away from questing for so long. And why I might not return after SQ2 is over. And in some ways, that's a shame.
What I used to find most fun about running a quest was that player involvement. The weird ideas that players could have.
But then it got mundane to me. I saw the tendencies that scared them away from actually taking risks. Where minor numerical changes caused temper tantrums. Where changing the story to be more interesting meant that players panicked instead of thinking about themes or concepts. It wasn't about understanding the hows and whys of characterization, it was about stomping on a setting.
There are exceptions, of course. One of them is by far one of the most famous quests on the site by the wonderful @Omicron. And perhaps it's because of the likes of him or @mothematics that I decided to go ahead and just shy away from old questing methods that I used to stick to.
Because I used to think quests had to be a certain way to be enjoyable but I don't agree anymore. My understanding's changed as I've met new people and grown as a writer, an artist and a person.
Maybe I'm being self-indulgent.
But then again fanfiction is mostly self-indulgence. I mean I'm sure as hell not doing it for money, that's for sure.
Thank you for following SQ2 through Chapter 2.
I can tell you, I'm excited for Chapter 3. And I'm excited for the interludes leading up to it.
Except these lampposts are old. They're not meant to hold a magi in full armor, even if she's admittedly lost a lot of weight over the course of the night.
I definitely see what you mean about the tendencies of players in quests that come at the expense of good storytelling. It's some of the same things that I dislike about a lot of tabletop RPG playstyles—the emphasis on stats and optimization, the extreme risk-averseness or absurd recklessness, the disregard for consistent characterization and in-universe values, etc. It makes the characters feel like a video game protagonist, not a real person in a fictional situation.
The questions players should be asking themselves isn't, "What is the optimal action here?" but "What would this person do, given their personality, values, and knowledge of the situation?" And the right framing from the QM/GM can definitely help push players toward this mindset. I think you've done a great job so far of striking a difficult balance between telling a good story and allowing the players to make choices.
To be honest, while on some level it's a matter of mechanics and optimization?
At least from my perspective, it's legitimately out of love, I grow to love these stupid dorks that run around having adventures and I want them to be happy, I don't want them to suffer, or get destroyed, or crushed under the weight of a setting that rejects that kind of thing. I want there to be a happy ending, a time where these stupid, adorable idiots I grow to care for can sit back, can be happy with one another, and not need a bunch of third person omniscient assholes watching over their shoulder trying to help thread the needle to get them out of a stupid position.
I mean, I might get caught up in the arguments too, I might get caught up in people's flow, but you know what? It's because I care, it's why stuff like this is stuff I keep reading even as it breaks my heart and I don't dare inflict my own weakness on it at risk of fucking it all up, and this update made me feel a bit better after a really, really, really unpleasant last few months of my life, capping off with one of probably the top three worst weeks of it.
So, what I'm trying to say is, thanks? I guess? Getting a bit weepy here and all that and I know that's a bit out of character, but it's nice for these stupid, lovable friends to finally have a bit of a ray of hope, for something to go right in a setting geared from the top down to grind hope into the dust and dare it to try again.
Right, gonna need a moment to collect myself, but... Well, thanks again for writing this you know?
I only found out about this quest fairly recently and binged it until I got to the Mami reveal and then stopped, because I find characters I care about being manipulated by people like Rin deeply uncomfortable and was anxious about the upcoming clash. In the end the need to know what happens to these people, especially the amazing, relatable disaster that is Minako, was just too strong and it seems I decided to continue reading at just the right moment.
This was honestly one of the most powerful quest updates I've ever had the joy of experiencing. Thanks for writing it.
That tiny hugged Candeloro is honestly the highlight of this Quest fucking everything in existence.
\o/
I honestly didn't know what I came here for, sure as hell not for power fantasy, since whether you know it or not, Moiderah, your quests don't support that net positive feedback loop of endless empowerment. Even Asuka Quest had actual consequences, you absolute madperson.
What was I talking about?
Ah yes.
Now I retroactively justify my participation by the tiny hugged Candeloro, and honestly it's a very, very good reason.
Moid, this quest has been an amazing experience to participate in. And participation really is the key. To riff off Alectai a bit, we get invested in these glorious dorks. And that investment, from all our effort trying to thread them through these needles, makes us feel the consequences they suffer all the more. Because we've tried to help them succeed, and ensured they did the best they could with the perspectives they had, and sometimes success still isn't possible. Because this world is hard. And the deck is stacked against them.
And then you give us moments like this, that remind us of the hope — that brightly shining defiant hope, spitting in the face of the odds and the foes and the enmity and the hate.
Mina's right, standing there in their loving, hopeful defiance. Shit's been hard, and we may feel like sinners, but it's okay, even when it's awful, because we're not alone. We don't have to be alone.
Go hug somebody, y'all. We may be running our respective shitshows on bad ideas, but we don't have to do it alone.
Surely their parents would have taught them what it's like to have a good idea, I mean, it's Kyouko and Sayaka, I'm sure they have good ideas all the-
Oh wait.
I think I feel a lot of what Moid is actually. There have been times I've tried to push an option I knew was bad, admitting it as such because I wanted to see it happen anyways, because it was a decision that we shouldn't make but would be so easy or make perfect sense in that moment.
In this one, I really want to see the cast succeed. I want them to make good decisions in part because I trust that Moid is going to push then for it. the difficulty system here helps as does the way the quests are laid out. The question for me wasn't 'Do I want to talk Mami down', it was 'is trying now going to hurt are chances to actually do it long term?'.
Also, I kind of think of Moid quests the same way I think of Urobotchi anime. Lots of suffering, but even if the ending is bittersweet it'll be one where nothing character and audience walk away satisfied if not necessarily happy.
Personally. I don't see these as mutually exclusive.
These quests feel like a game. Something I play. So yeah I act like I'm solving a puzzle in order to get the best ending and base my decisions accordingly. However, that doesn't mean I don't care about the story, and that I'm not invested in it's themes. If anything I'm even more invested because of it, because I'm not aimlessly making decisions for shits and giggles but I'm attempting to achieve a goal. That means things that threaten that goal feel more threatening and things that help feel more uplifting.
I'm sure it's not just me, but that's my feeling on the matter. This is like a game and games have stories, except here I can't save scum and there is a person behind it all ensuring there are branching paths depending on the decisions made. Questing is awesome.
As a guy who followed SayakaQuest back when it was on SB (I'm honestly still surprised at myself, I'd never even watched the show at the time. Just knew about it through anime osmosis and memes), it's been quite a ride and a pleasure.
I'm kinda surprised at this. I figured we were maybe a third of the way through with the story. Though the goal is more straightfoward this time with less grinding to do and less outside distractions (Tokyo 6 and other Rogue Magi) from the main goal (killin' Walpurgisnact).
Also props to Minako for doing the thing their own way and clutch pulling Mami out of her Grief Spiral. I was thoroughly expected the whole thing to have been a trap and for Minako to get football tackled by a bunch of Rin's Minions. Pleasantly surprised is a mild understatement to how I feel.
I'm kinda surprised at this. I figured we were maybe a third of the way through with the story. Though the goal is more straightfoward this time with less grinding to do and less outside distractions (Tokyo 6 and other Rogue Magi) from the main goal (killin' Walpurgisnact).
SQ1 and AQ were made without much of a plan in mind. And while RSoF had a plan, I mean...that story works better in a visual medium. (also that story is also going to take actual years to finish as a comic but regardless-)
Like, SQ1 was paced really, really badly. Like there were a lot of repeating scenes because I just didn't know how to fill time, how to keep things progressing and instead what happened was a lot of repetitive conversations and character interactions.
AQ had it way, way worse (breakfast, anyone?) but SQ1 inherited that same problem.
SQ2's managed to avoid it because I'm no longer afraid to just skip ahead as the plot requires. I don't have the day-by-day dragging that happened in AQ and SQ1 up until I just went "fuck it" and skipped to Walpurgisnacht.
...helps that it also doesn't have the PQ problem of "I have no idea where the fuck this is going"
You also took out SQ1's Grief Management mechanics when writing SQ2, and instead had the matter of grief be narrative, as well as mostly narratively important thanks to the Giant Seed.
i always knew that plan was a bad idea. i chose it because i got really fuckin bored with the wacky bullshit going on in asukaquest; it wasn't even a winning vote and i did it out of spite
stupid goofy-ass comedy gets real fuckin boring real fast
You also took out SQ1's Grief Management mechanics when writing SQ2, and instead had the matter of grief be narrative, as well as mostly narratively important thanks to the Giant Seed.
Also doesn't have PQ's issue where -in spite of both authors saying it wasn't even remotely necessary- the voters kept stopping for Micromanagement Poochie so much that they never got to Akemi's Fireworks Factory before the quest had to return to it's home planet.
Well, that and the dice had a burning eternal thirst for half-dragon tears and tortured Priscilla harder than that analogy.
