Questions
Questions and answers
How the quests play, what the plans include, and how the forge turns a story into a quest.
Playing
What is Lantern Saga?
Lantern Saga is a library of text RPG quests you play in your browser: interactive stories of about an hour, read in a terminal-style screen, where you make the choices, roll the dice on checks and fights, and reach one of several endings. Storytellers can also write their own quests from a story told in plain words.
Is it free to play?
Yes. A free account plays the free quests with any of the three ready-made heroes, one save slot per quest. The Adventurer plan ($4.99 a month) opens every quest, including the ones written by storytellers.
What do I need to play?
A web browser on a computer, tablet or phone. There is nothing to download or install. Your saves follow your account from one device to another.
How long is a quest?
About an hour for one playthrough, and every quest has two to four endings, so most players come back for another road.
How do the dice work?
A check rolls two six-sided dice and adds one of your three stats (Might, Wits or Charm). Meet the target and you succeed; fall just short and you get a partial success at a cost; fall far short and the story takes another turn. Failing never stops the story.
What is the Adventurer plan?
Adventurer costs $4.99 a month and unlocks everything there is to play: every quest in the library, every storyteller quest, custom characters with any perk, legacy perks carried between quests, three save slots per quest and the endings gallery.
What is the Storyteller plan?
Storyteller costs $19.99 a month. It includes everything in Adventurer, plus the forge: tell a story in your own words and it becomes a finished, playable quest, up to 3 new quests a month. You can share each quest with friends by link and publish it to the Storytellers' library.
How does the forge turn my story into a quest?
You tell your story the way you would tell it to a friend and answer up to three questions. The forge then plans the chapters, writes every scene, choice, check and fight, tests the quest thousands of times with a simulator so it is fair in every difficulty, and has an editor read it before it reaches you. It usually takes between ten and thirty minutes.
Do my friends need to pay to play my quest?
No. Anyone who opens your share link can play that quest with a free account. Quests you publish to the Storytellers' library are open to every Adventurer and Storyteller.
Who owns the quests I write?
Your story stays yours. By publishing a quest you let Lantern Saga host it and show it to the players you share it with; you can unpublish or delete it at any time.
Can I cancel any time?
Yes. Cancel from your account page in two clicks; you keep your plan until the end of the month you paid for, and you are not charged again.
Writing with the forge
Do I need to know how to code or design games?
No. You tell the story in plain words: who the hero is, what they want, what stands in the way and how it might end. The forge does the structure, the choices, the dice and the balancing.
How long should my story be?
A few paragraphs is enough to start; a page or two gives the forge more of your world to work with. Name your characters and the places that matter, and say which moments must happen.
How many quests can I write?
3 new quests each month, and the count starts again when your plan renews. A quest the forge cannot finish does not count.
Can I change a quest after it is written?
Yes. Tell the forge what to change ("make the innkeeper an ally", "add a chase across the rooftops") and it rewrites the quest, up to 3 times per quest, without using a new quest.
Who can play what I write?
At first only you. Then you choose: share a private link with friends (they can play it free), or publish it to the Storytellers' library, where every Adventurer can find it.
What stories are not allowed?
No sexual content, no hate, no real people, nothing copied from someone else's book, film or game, and violence that serves the story rather than gore. Dark themes, horror and hard choices are welcome.
Still wondering? Read the guides or write to us from the about page.