What Does Quest Fic Mean?
Fic TypeAn interactive story format in which the audience votes on what the protagonist does next, and the author writes the winning choice. Quests thrive on forums like SpaceBattles and Sufficient Velocity.
Quest Fic in Practice
A quest runs as a thread: the author (the QM, or quest master) posts an update ending in choices, readers vote and argue strategy, and the next update follows the decision — part fic, part collaborative game, with dice mechanics in many quests. The format descends from forum games and choose-your-own-adventure traditions and developed deep conventions on the SpaceBattles/Sufficient Velocity forums, including planning posts where readers draft elaborate multi-step proposals. Quests produce a unique reading experience where the comment section is half the text, and failed votes haunt communities for years. The format stays mostly in forum spaces since AO3's architecture doesn't support live voting, making quests one of fandom's last platform-specific genres.
Example usage
"The quest's readers voted to trust the obviously evil advisor, and the thread has never emotionally recovered."
Related Terms
SpaceBattles
A long-running forum whose creative writing section hosts one of the largest fanfiction communities outside AO3 and FFN, known for Worm fic, crossovers, and quest fics. Its sibling forum Sufficient Velocity shares the culture.
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Round Robin
A collaborative story written by multiple authors in turns — each writer adds a section and passes it on. Nobody controls the plot, which is both the chaos and the charm.
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