So, I had a plot bunny, and it was suggested I write it as a fic or turn it into a Quest. I'd been thinking of trying my hand at making a Quest, but if I do one, it'll probably take up a lot of my time. So I can either do the Quest, or the Fic, and I already have fics I should be working on and adding another leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And to be honest, I get lazy and I'd probably do a single chapter and not update for more than half a year.

Quest is then!

Of course, I need to reread the books, as I only skimmed my first time through. This should take me anywhere from 18 days to 25, 30 at most.

However, also occurred to me that, hey, you know, I should probably check if enough people are even interested.

For those of you too lazy to click the damn link to the concept of the Quest, it can basically be summed up as "A surprise visit to Winterfell from king Robert leads to Barristan Selmy taking a young Jon Snow, who's purple eyes have all but officially confirmed him as Ashara Dayne and Ned Stark's bastard, as a squire."

So basically, two things are set in stone: 1) You grew up in Winterfell for the first 9 years of your life. and 2) You are to squire for Ser Barristan the Bold, Knight of The Kingsguard, Veritable Badass of An Old Man, the very Image of a Badass Grandpa, while in King's Landing.

If that interests you, tell me, because if there aren't enough people interested, this probably won't get off the ground. It will save me from the tedious work of rereading the books, though.

As a reminder, I'm rereading the books first, which will take me some time. This is so I don't fuck up something simple that i missed the first time through. I get the feeling having to edit a Quest is a hell of a lot more of a pain in the ass than editing the chapter for a fic.

Also, this is my first time D/G/QM'ing for a Quest. I might make a hiccup, so if you could dutifully point that out, I'd appreciate that shit.

If you have a question, I'll try and answer, but right now, the idea is still a little vague. I'll do the best i can, w/o giving anything away.

 

I LOVE YOU.
Words cannot convey the utter potential epicness of a quest squiring for Barristan the Badass.
Obviously you're going by the Rhaegar being the true father thing.

I would suggest posting this on Sufficient Velocity quest forums as well.

Just an idea, but why not just read the first 2 books and then start the quest, reading the rest along the way. Whatever works for you i suppose.

 

I'm in if you get this off the ground.

 

Sure, I'm interested.

 

This is true.

Maybe. I see it in my head as being N+A for this Quest, but I may change my mind. If I get a convincing argument from anyone for either, that'll probably sway me.

As of right now though, I think I'd prefer writing N+A=J, if it comes up in the Quest. I'll give a more concrete answer after I'm done rereading. Hoping for like 200pages a day, which'll let me finish 17 days from now. (As I've already read 200 pages, today. (There's 3700 pages in the PDF's I have, which seems to be less then is listed on wikipedia))

Mayhaps. I'll probably do the Quest here, but people from there probably won't hurt. Something for tomorrow, though.

Considered that, but my main purpose in rereading is get as good a handle on the characters as I can. Unlike Harry Potter or Naruto, I haven't been familiar with the various characters for years upon years. This is probably the mot critical thing, because it'll let me figure out how characters will react to any changes in the plot, if needed.

Suppose i could just read scenes involving the characters or from their PoV a needed, when they come up. I'll reconsider after I've reread book 3.

 

Meh, take your time with the rereading. It will make everything fresh, and maybe give you some good ideas while you're at it. We can wait.

As for SV...as this is your very first, a smaller player base may be advantageous at first, especially as you work the kinks out.

N+A...is interesting. No risk of throne shenanigans that way, will be a nice way to differentiate it from Hash's quest.

Do you plan on a canon backstory, or mystery box timeline?

 

I'll keep it in mind. It does sound like it could make things easier. Not that I'll mind a larger playerbase later on.

Pretty much. That said, it's not entirely out of reach if the player's truly want. It'll probably be Hard Mode, compounding the already difficult feat of taking the Iron Throne. It'd also probably require some very immoral choices on the players' part. Well, immoral from our perspective, at the least. To Jon in game, it may seem the best thing to have done at the time.

But the players know better and I guess it depends on how attached they are to certain key characters and how much they truly want the Throne a their end game.

So yeah, getting the Iron Throne would probably mean most of the player base is made up of the cold, heartless, ambitious and willing to anything for some shiny loot variant of gamer.

This is mostly out of my desire as GM to make as many paths open to the players as possible, rather than any preference towards an end goal.

I'll probably stick with canon timeline, for the most part. My initial thoughts on 'character creation' is starting out age 12, with player's choosing what they did as a child growing up in Winterfell and what they focused on in their training under Barristan the last 3 years.

A couple of those choices may effect the timeline. I'm not sure yet.

 

You can always post "the story thus far" and migrate to SV if you want a larger player base once you get the hang of the format.

Honestly, the Throne requiring all that is even better, makes it a real goal and is very much in line with the reality of the Game. Me gusta. Ruthless!Jon, shaped by the reality of King's Landing but still influenced by/showing shades of the kind of man Barristan raised would be fascinating.

That seems like a good way of doing it - have certain character interactions or trips alter the timeline as appropriate.

Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

 

My argument against it is that it's not canon. The evidence for R+L=J is overwhelming and basically confirmed by multiple people in the know outside the text. Changing canon without sufficient reason hurts immersion. There's no reason R+L=J couldn't be used in this story, Barristan's assumption could simply be wrong and Ned could let him go on thinking that.

It'd be like making Harry Snape's son instead of James. Oh wait, people do that. But those stories are all crap.

Or just don't tell the players who his parents are and leave it a mystery, at least in the beginning. Canon Jon still doesn't know.

 

Kind of a weak argument. Immersion only gets hurt if you go into it w/ the assumption that all is the same. I'd make it clear this is a N+A=J!Jon Snow, and thus it wouldn't hurt immersion because people would go in expecting it.

A Quest is basically fanfiction, so it can adhere to the same kind of rules. Which means the author can say 'Fuck Canon.' Menace's Howling Wind fic is completely different from Naruto canon and you don't hear anyone complaining about immersion. As long as I don't break the 'rules' of the setting, I don't see why people would complain.

Plus, my thought is simply that an N+A=J!Jon has more interesting potential than R+L=J!Jon, in regards to this Quest.

I'm not saying N+A=J is likelier in canon, because imo, it's not. It is something I like the thought of, however. As of now, there's no real reason to force me to go one way or the other.

I hope you're not implying I'd write such a crap story, good sir.

It was going to remain a mystery to Jon in the beginning, or possibly forever. If it comes up, it comes up.


Please note this doesn't mean I'm adverse to the idea of making this R+L=J, I just tend to debate stuff like this, because it helps me get a clearer picture. And also form a better understanding of the merits of both sides of the argument.

 

I'd prefer if it were N + A = J, but that's just me.

The reason why some peopl seem to want R + L = J in fanfics/quests is so they can have a go at the throne/read about it, which IMO is completely retarded. You don't need to be a Targaryen offspring, bastard or otherwise, in order to try your hand at it. All you need is might to make it real. There is no such thing as 'rightful' in a world like ASOIAF, at the end of the day.

Now, I gotta ask Probellum, provided you go with Ned and Ashara as Jon's parents, will you be keeping her dead or will she suddenly pop out of nowhere down in the long run?

 

Dead as a door nail.

Having her just pop up like that would just plan be bad writing, imo. (At least w/ N+A=J(I still find that whole 'Ashara being Howland Reed's Wife in disguise' theory weird. But it exists, so who knows? It's also a bit more believable with R+L=J))

 

Would you be keeping Jon the same age as canon then, or change it? I would prefer if you made Jon the elder, it makes more sense as Ned would have little time to go screw Ashara when he was fighting a war (and already married) and her being in King's Landing and would also amplify Catelyn's fear about Robb's succession.

 

I'd love to see a quest like that. The setting of King's Landing while squiring to (the?) most badass knight in Westeros. Yes, please.

I also support N+A+J. Parentage of R+L=J seems to lock people into a "RIGHTFUL HEIR TO THE IRON THRONE! RAWR!" mindset. This setting on the other hand would lend itself well to having cool adventures as a knight in Westeros and/or visiting free cities. (Hopefully not Valyria at the age of 13, though...)

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Ah damn it, now I can't get the idea of Jon being squired by Jaime Lannister out of my head. Imagine the torment players would have to go through: support their mentor and possible father figure so that his incest-born son could sit the Iron Throne or turn against him?

 

@Nath: Jon would be the Elder of the two, yes.

@Audeamus: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, you can have adventures as R+L=J!Jon, but they all become tinged with this "I'm doing this for my rightful Throne!" kind of mindset. Plus, how many fics are their that have R+L=J? This would be something different, from those and from Hash's ASOSS.

Again, though, this doesn't discount the slim possibility of the Throne. It'll just be quite a bit harder, and require a lot more hard decisions.

As to your comment, I imagine it'd work better as a fic. I don't think players would be too divided over that. Simply because, you know, that means they'd have to support Joffrey of all people.



Anyway, If I'm counting right, that's about 11 people who've shown interest. I told myself that if that if at least 10 people were interested, I'd do, so that's enough for me.

 

Though you have to know that the minute you present the option for the throne, people will go for it (damn the consequences). You could have totally awesome quest options, and they'll go for the throne every time.

 

This looks very interesting. In in a manner similar to that of the proverbial Flynn.

 

Just like any person in Westeros =P.
They focus on the throne so much that when the Others come, some stupid throne won't mean much.

 

Eh, I'm not planning on making it obvious on how you should go about getting there. Plenty of the options that you'd need to take can go off in different directions.

It'd also require some damn good luck, in some spots.

Of course, you guys can always surprise me ad come up w/ your own plan to get there that may work. Who knows?

So yeah, starting the Quest is still at least a couple weeks off, but does 12 sound like a good starting age, to you guys? I also thought about 13. (At that point you'd be 4 years into your Squire-ship.)

 

That's a great age to start (12)