What is this site? What exactly are Quests?

[Mar Sadeh]

I know, I know, I should almost certainly know this, and I apologize for my ignorance. I stumbled upon this site more or less by accident, and made this account specifically to reach out to an individual that I knew from another site some years back who has an account here. Since I'd made this account anyway I figured I'd look around a bit to figure out what this was, and...

I confess, I'm a bit confused. There's a place to post stories as forum posts - that I understand and may do myself with one of my stories if there is interest. There's also... what seem to be text-based games that are like a tabletop role-playing game, but the person who makes it makes the rules (unlike, say, D&D, where the rules are already established and in a rulebook). And they are (or at least can be) highly fetishistic and sexual, if the one I found about women that are also ships and you have to repair them by having sex with them is any indication. That's certainly something, but I immediately find myself with all sorts of other questions. How do these work precisely? How do you play? Are there rules and standards for a typical one? What kind of qualifications are needed to join one? To start one? How'd this sort of thing come to be? What's the etiquette?

I looked around for some thread or post somewhere called "New here? Here's Everything You Need to Know!" or something comparable, but I couldn't find any (though I of course could have simply missed it, in which case a link to it would be great). It seems as though there's an expectation that anyone who finds this place knows exactly what they're getting themselves into, but frankly, I have no idea what I'm looking at and would super appreciate a primer. Thanks in advance!

 

[DIT_grue]

Ah! I knew I'd seen something somewhere. OK, try starting with this intro, which links to a history (although since you're posting here, specifically, it may be worth quibbling over the precise origin of QQ). Hopefully that provides enough orientation that you can start to make sense of what you're looking at.

(Thanks for the catch, @Iridesce - I'm not sure why that had a problem, but at least this one tests out okay for me.)

 

[DaigoMyGOAT]

You might actually be one of the first people to find this site without having learned about it through SB or SV I've met. How did you hear about this site?

Also, to answer the first question in the title:

It's basically a place for Smut, ERP, and Quests (of a more lewd variety)

Quests are basically a choose your own adventure where people vote on what happens next at the end of each chapter.

 

[Iridesce]

precise origin of QQ).

Click to shrink...

Just so you know, that link appears to be broken.

 

[Mar Sadeh]

How did you hear about this site?

Click to shrink...

I was a proofreader for Four Deadly Secrets a decade ago, that being a RWBY fanfic on fanfiction.net. The story stalled and the author, OneirosTheWriter, and I fell out of contact. Last week I decided to look up the username to see if I could find him anywhere and catch up, and found a same-named user on this site. I made this account singularly to reach out again to him, and then, having done so, went "Okay, I am now here I guess... Uh... Where's here?"

 

[Mar Sadeh]

Ah! I knew I'd seen something somewhere. OK, try starting with this intro, which links to a history (although since you're posting here, specifically, it may be worth quibbling over the precise origin of QQ). Hopefully that provides enough orientation that you can start to make sense of what you're looking at.

(Thanks for the catch, @Iridesce - I'm not sure why that had a problem, but at least this one tests out okay for me.)

Click to shrink...

Holy shmoopus, the "Interactive Fiction: A History of Questing" is equal parts hilarious, fascinating, and bizarre. Thanks to the intro and that history, I think I have a good idea of what to expect here now. Thanks!

Now I just have to very carefully curtail my use of this site, lest I get sucked into it too much.