Title: He who was not
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/a-harry-potter-quest-he-who-was-not.47920/
Author: Tabula Rasa
Rating: T
Genre: Quest
Status: Ongoing
Length: 38k words
Fandom: HP
Pairings: None
Summary: The main character is a young, riddle fascinated Ravenclaw who was created by the player base. He is in the same year as Harry, but it is not a Harry-centric story. The quest started in year 3.

Important fact: It's still early in the game, but there are so few decent HP quests that I thought you guys might want to give it a shot and influence the story while it's fresh.
The author has a good track record of delivering content.

 

Great quest. Avoids most of the trappings of other HP quests by starting in year 3 so you avoid the pitfalls that are found in early quests (Diagon Alley buying sprees, trying to befriend everyone, early metagaming, etc.). Instead the QM started in year 3 and you play as a curious but anti-social Ravenclaw with a passion for mysteries. Another positive of this is that the MC has no ties with Harry, Hermione, or Ron. He is outside their clique which is refreshing in a way.

What really brought me into the quest though has been mysteries, or cases as the QM calls them, that our MC tries to solve. I won't spoil the first, and only one that we have participated in, but he managed to present a pretty horrifying mystery in such a way that it could believably occur under the nose of Albus Dumbledore and the other great teachers of Hogwarts and only be solved by a young student.

4/5 for now. The only real problem I have with it are a few spelling/grammar errors that occur every now and then.

 

Will check it out, but you put it in the wrong place @Ishaq. WbA is for stuff you're working on, this should go in the Review Board.

Mod should be able to move it though.

 

Thank your for pointing that out! It has been moved now and is finally open for ratings.

 

Got around to reading it, 4/5 for me. I like the premise and the system, but the MC is antisocial so we're low on fun supporting cast, and it feels like the first big mystery got resolved way too quickly.

 

I liked it. Once I stopped trying to figure out all the buffs or debuffs that come with this kind of quest it's just a good story.

The first mystery is well handled and you can tell there's tons of room for more. The MC is interesting enough and he hasn't just shot up in power but he's making steady progress through fortunate rolls.

4/5

 

Really, really, really friggin good.

The mystery is tight and enthralling, and holds your attention to the end with an amazing twist. I just wish it updated more. The character is interesting with a good background, and realistic actions.

The author manages to balance the autism of SV's voters well, and still makes an interesting story.

4/5

 

I didn't like this. Granted, I wound up dropping this before reaching the end, but I made it through the first mystery and then some and was near enough to catching up.

The writing itself is rather plain. It's fine and functional, but just okay. Not a huge notch against it, but certainly not one for it. The character work is... well the MC is boring and there is no supporting cast to speak of because apparently voters don't really care about making friends, nor is the author concerned with providing any. While an antisocial protagonist can be interesting if done well, here I just find Jacob irritating. Goes double for whenever he uses intelligence as the chief metric of a person's worth, because it's always a bit of a crapshoot whether that sort of arrogance is meant to be a flaw that has consequences or something the author expects me to nod and agree with. Didn't get the sense that Tabula Rasa is one of the latter, but didn't see the former either. Jacob has no friends and is a bit arrogant, which are character flaws, but I never saw these things act as obstacles or setbacks for Jacob. Rather than making the story more engaging to read, it just made Jacob a more irritating character to read about.

And these things all mix poorly, because what's left to engage me? Not fun character interactions, or fun characters, because the MC doesn't interact with other characters if he can help it. I don't like the MC -- the one character I do spend my time with, and he's just not interesting enough to carry the story all by himself. And the prose on its own just isn't good enough to draw me in.

This leaves what, worldbuilding? No, certainly not enough. The plot? The Sally Anne mystery was rather nice, but resolved itself far too quickly, there was nothing left to grab me after it was done with, and as for everything else it's all rather disjointed. The quest format used here does Rasa no favors and they aren't skilled enough to pull it off. Posts just went long with stretches where I felt like nothing was happening aside from box checking. And there certainly isn't some other "it" factor to it that inexplicably raises the whole thing.

Going with a 2.5/5. While I wouldn't call this bad, it's not a long piece yet I still couldn't reach the end, so my gut is saying round down.

 

The Story Updated.

 

Anyone caught up with today's chapter? It hit me just like the first revelation about Sally-Ann. I'm feeling rarely inclined to hear other people's opinions on this.

While I had some suspicions, I didn't see the scope of the revelation coming.