You must be considering joining the Quest! Fantastic! I shall explain the rules to you!

Yes, the rules. I know that it seems an interactive story ought to be rather free-form, and indeed the Quest is free-form. However, all games must have rules, or else they would dissolve into nonproductive chaos.

First and foremost, the Quest is open to all individuals who are willing to keep their language and websites (if listed on the site), G- or PG-rated.

To sign up for the Quest, simply email Rainribbon with your screenname, character name, and character description. A graphical representation of your character is not required, but it is extremely helpful, and you will find that most players provide some image of their characters to facilitate plot visualization. If your character is a My Little Pony, and you have trouble drawing a pony, simply ask Rainribbon or one of the other Quest players, and I am sure that they would be glad to provide you with several links to free pictures pages from which you can download and edit a My Little Pony image.

You are allowed as many characters as YOU CAN CONTROL. If you leave characters behind and forget about them, you will need to kill them off or make them disappear in some manner for the duration of their inactivity.

You must always follow rules of etiquette. It is especially important that you USE PROPER GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION OR A CLOSE SEMBLANCE THEREOF. We have had trouble with a player whom no one could understand at all because he wrote with no punctuation or spelling whatsoever.

If you use any weird magical devices that would not be common knowledge, you must describe them. For instance, "SUPER UNICORN FLASH" is worthless unless you explain what it does in sufficient detail.

If another player asks for clarification in your post because he could not understand something you wrote, answer him appropriately.

You must post within a week of signing up, or risk being deleted from the player list.

You must stay true to your character or characters.

It is CRUCIAL that you DO NOT speak for or say what any other characters think. People will become rightfully annoyed if you attempt to design their characters' actions or words.

If you ever post a message not related to the game, label it OOC (out of context). Off-topic messages are not permitted unless they relate to a period of absence or something else that may be relevant to other players in relationship to the game.

You must not harm/kill any other peoples' characters (unless of course they consent to such treatment beforehand).

To quit, you may make your character disappear, or have a monster kill your character.

You can not have the same character name as any one else.

If you claim to be royalty, you must say what part of Ponyland you're from, and it must be approved.

Your character must have some weakness. Even if it is immortal, there must be some way for your character to make mistakes or harm himself or his friends. "Perfect" personalities should not exist in the Quest because if the characters were perfect, their world would not be dying.

Mentis grins.

So, are you ready to dig deeper? How about looking into the character descriptions? Or would you like to leap right into the Quest and figure it out from there? The choice is yours!