A story as a gift: making a personal quest for a friend
A personal quest, full of the people and places someone knows, is a gift they can play. Here is how to write one in an evening and send it on the day.
A personal quest is a story written for one person, full of their places, their running jokes and the people they love, that they can play rather than just read. On Lantern Saga, you tell the forge the story in plain words, it writes the quest, and you send your friend a link: they play it free with an account.
What makes a gift quest work?
- Their world, lightly disguised. Their street becomes a market lane in a river town; their dog becomes a loyal hound who finds the hidden door.
- A quest they would choose. If they love mysteries, give them a missing bell and a village that forgets. If they love adventure, a map and a mountain pass.
- A few private jokes. One or two, placed where they will find them: a character who always orders the same terrible soup.
- An ending that says something. The best gift endings are quiet ones: a door home, a letter, a lantern left lit.
How do I write it in one evening?
- Write the story in a page. Who they are in it, what they want, what stands in the way, three places, three people.
- List the moments that must happen. The joke, the dog, the reunion.
- Imagine two or three endings. One happy, one bittersweet, one strange.
- Answer the forge's questions and let it write. It takes about ten to thirty minutes.
- Play it yourself first. Ask for changes if anything is off, then copy the share link.
What should I leave out?
Anything they would not want shown: private details, real names of other people who did not agree to it, anything hurtful. The content rules also keep out sexual content, real people in a bad light and copied stories.
Questions
Does my friend need to pay to play the quest?
No. Anyone who opens your share link can play that quest with a free account.
Can I make it for a child?
Quests are for ages 13 and up. For a younger reader, choose "gentle" when you tell the story and play it with them.
Can I keep it private?
Yes. A quest is private until you share it. The share link only lets in the people you send it to, and you can make a new link at any time.
More guides
- How to create your own text adventure (without writing code)You can make a playable text adventure from a story told in plain words. Here is what to put in your story so it becomes a good quest, and what the forge on Lantern Saga does with it.
- Gamebooks, text adventures and interactive fiction: what's the difference?Gamebooks, parser text adventures, choice-based interactive fiction and text RPGs all tell stories you play. Here is what sets each apart, and what modern text RPGs keep from each.
- How dice checks work in a text RPG (2d6 + stat, explained)Each risky choice rolls two six-sided dice plus a stat against a target of 7, 9 or 11. Here is how success, partial success and failure work, and how perks, items and difficulty change the odds.