So you're an Otherworlder, and perhaps you've heard a couple of the staff talking about something called "Quest". Now you're wondering what it is.

On the surface, Otherworld and Quest look a lot alike. People put on costumes and run around the Pomfret 4-H camp with swords, blowing spell whistles, and whomping monsters.

This is a surface impression. Underneath, the two are very different. Comparing Otherworld and Quest really is comparing apples and oranges.

What Quest Is

Quest is a "live-action gaming" group. If you've ever played D&D or a computer role-playing game, it's like that, except that it takes place in real-time. So yes, this sounds kinda like Otherworld.

(What's the connection to Otherworld? Well, back in 1991, Kristi Hayes, Jodi Riley, and Dorian Hart ran a Quest event at the Pomfret 4-H camp. They were inspired to take this entertainment form and use it for a "higher purpose". They've since brought onto staff a number of folks from the Quest crowd: Jim Vincent, Jen Platt, Eileen Christiansen, Ken and Chris Reeves, and myself.)

How They're Different: A Metaphor

Otherworld is like a guided tour of Boston, a Duck Tour: it's someone else doing a lot of work to make sure that you see the good parts and only the good parts. By contrast, Quest is being dropped off at Park Street Station with a map. Sure, the landmarks are labeled, but you'll have to go there by yourself. The "up" side is that you do get to pick and choose what you want to see.

The Goal

Otherworld's goal is to educate; Quest's to entertain. This means that Otherworld takes great pains to make sure everyone has a great time, everyone has a part of the game where they are important, everyone has a part that they solve, everyone has to find a part of themselves about which they can be proud and speak with a sense of accomplishment. Teams have to work together and communicate to succeed.

All of these are not necessarily true at Quest. Quest has no staff Companions, hence no pre-drawn sequence of encounters as each party moves down its own individually-written party path. (For that matter, it has no pre-designed parties. Players work together in whatever groups they so choose.) There are often pre-written action paths, but it's not pre-decided which party or people will be on which path. Energetic PCs may involve themselves in multiple threads. It's entertainment Darwinism: those who are the most willing to pursue game events are the most likely to be part of them. Those players who want to be out and in front and intense can do so -- but those who want to be low-key can also do so. Otherworld tries to teach the wallflowers that they can come out of their shell; Quest is entertainment, and maintains that if Questies wanna chill out and hang back, that's their prerogative.

Every encounter at Otherworld has an explicit goal, listed in the staff packet: "to teach cooperation". "To encourage story-telling". "To get participants to think about their personal strengths". Quest's encounters are just there to entertain. A puzzle may just be a puzzle; its only goal is to provide an obstacle and to help further the plot. Remember, Quest isn't an educational group, so it doesn't have to provide a journey of self-discovery. It's just about having fun.

Who Does It

Veterans. Most Quest participants have done it before.

Quest tends to draw its newer members from undergraduate communities. While there are plenty of Questies in their 30's and up, the average Otherworlder is older than the average Questie. Accordingly, Quest's weekend events tend to be a little more physically demanding, and there's more combat.

Also, Quest has more of a "gamer" demographic: it's about two-thirds male, whereas Otherworld is about half-and-half.

Who You Play

At Otherworld you are encouraged to play a "heroic version of yourself". This is not at all true at Quest, where people are playing characters often very different from themselves. There will be people whose characters are rat bastards, loners, thieves, persons reticent to work with others, persons with sketchy motives. For many people Quest is a release, where they can leave aside workday demands of propriety and can play someone less pleasant, without their co-workers getting pissed at them -- where they can let out their impish or grouchy side. Though this is by no means universal; you will also find people who have a crusader side in them, and use Quest to let it out, to champion a cause. At Otherworld the PCs are universally heroes and their personalities are closer to their players'; at Quest there is a wider variety of personas, and the personas often differ from the players.

Otherworld is always working with first-time players, most of whom have not been to an event like that before. They are filled with wonder and excitement, since everything is new to them. Questies, on the other hand, have seen it all before, and therefore can have a lot of expectations about how it will run. In their heads they may be comparing everything that's happening to previous Quest events.

Most of the time, Quest does not pre-assign parties. You come with whatever gang you want to, and you design on your own a party concept that's appropriate to the game itself.

How You Play

Otherworld's rules system is fairly light, because most folks only come to it once, and there's no point bogging everyone down with complexity. It keeps its rules simple and "thin" because it puts the experience at the center.

But Quest is unabashedly a role-playing game, and like any roleplaying game has a wider set of rules to encompass a wide range of characters and situations. Its character-creation and rules systems are more complicated, which can make it a little harder to keep track of things until you get the hang of it. But on the up side, you also can play any type of character you like, and you have a broader range of character skills and spells to choose from.

Design and Logistics

Otherworld and Quest's design structures are very different. With Otherworld, Kristi Hayes governs the design process, and the plots, ordeals, and atmosphere of the story are used and reused.

By contrast, Quest events are the product of community writing, and so each event is a unique experience run by a different person(s), with all-new material. The quality of the event is closely tied to the efforts and skills of the particular GM(s) and their staff. Depending on the story and the GM, the event could be silly, serious, combat-oriented, puzzle-oriented, and/or plot-driven. Some events occur in a shared universe (called the "Continuing Game" world), while others ("one-shots") occur in a universe of the particular GM's creation. And, to be honest, some events are well-run and well-paced, and others are less successful. No two events are the same.

Usually the teaser for a Quest event will give you a feeling for the atmosphere and the character of the game, but not always. It depends on how well the teaser is written by the particular GM.

Production Values

Otherworld is a fully-established educational company that's done extensive fund-raising and which charges $200; accordingly, its event budgets are much larger than Quest's, and its production values are high. Quest charges about a third of what Otherworld does, and accordingly its production values are comparatively spartan; Quest doesn't have the elaborate costumes and masks that Otherworld does. The GMs for Quest Games are creative with the money that they are given, and provide food and atmosphere on a much more limited budget.

Also, Otherworld is more organized than Quest, because it needs to be for professional reasons. Quest is "just" a hobby, so Quest events have varying levels of organization at their games -- depending on the GMs and the operations people present. You won't see a 275-page NPC packet at a Quest Game, and staff people are often asked to improv and be flexible in gaming situations. Some GMs run a highly plotted and structured event; others do not. It honestly depends on the writers and the staff.

I Wanna Try It!

Well, be aware of the above. Otherworld's check-in process is specifically designed to deal with first-timers, since everyone is a first-timer. By contrast, most Quest participants have done it before, so Quest can't spend as much energy on welcoming and assisting newbies, nor are its storylines designed to specifically engage newbies. Indeed, most Questies find they really start having fun after they've been to a few events and start to get the hang of how it all works.

If you can, it helps to create a PC who is connected to a veteran's character. That way, the veteran can help you design your own character, can help teach you what to expect, and you can tag along until you get the hang of it.

If you've been asked to be a staff person, familiarize yourself with Quest's rules. As a staff person you are expected to understand how the rules function.

Finally, since Quest's events vary considerably from one to another, based upon the particular style, skill and tone of the people running a particular event, I'd encourage you to try it more than once; you may not really get an accurate sense from one event alone. If the first event you try wasn't really your thing, give it another shot; that first event might not have been typical, or might not have been the best-run.