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From Randomramblings

Overview

Quest to Escape, more commonly abbreviated into QTE, is a series of forum story games based in RR. Presumably inspired by an anime titled Battle Royale, in which a number of characters are given weapons and defenses and stranded somewhere to fight each other to the death until only one person remains, Firestorm Zero chose to create a game where RRers could sign up with characters and then watch as he wrote out the results of the ensuing bracket-style tournament. The results are usually decided by random dice roll, though how this dice roll is set up changes from author to author.

Sign-ups are limited to one character per RRer, and the roster of players usually fills up quickly. Characters range from utterly serious to hysterically silly, and may be either totally original creations or based off of existing fictional/living beings.

The time it takes to finish a QTE is entirely dependant on the writing skills and free time of the game-runner, and may be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. There also tends to be some confusion as to who gets to run the next game after one has just ended, which is why an organization thread was later created.

There was once a running assumption that the QTEs could not be finished, but a recent long string of completed games has proven this false.

The Games

The original QTE

Created by Firestorm Zero. Unfortunately, more information on this first game is lacking, due to a loss of link and thread in the RR purge. Posts in later QTEs imply that it went unfinished, but there is currently no way to check.

QTE II

Created by Firestorm Zero. Unfortunately, more information on this second game is lacking, due to a loss of link and thread in the RR purge. Posts in later QTEs imply that it was locked, but there is currently no way to check.

QTE III

Begun by Firestorm Zero, this game had lofty intentions that it failed to accomplish. 36 people signed up, and were separated into four brackets of nine each. There was no overarcing storyline, and he only finished one battle before quitting the thread due to lack of free time. A poster named Antimatter later attempted to carry on with the writing, managing five more battles before the thread was locked.

QTE IV: The One That Will Get Finished

Intended to use 20 contestants, this QTE was started by Veer. It also had no storyline. Despite the title, he only made it through four very short battles before disappearing from the thread. Adamjirra picked it up and wrote a single battle before the thread fell into disuse.

QTE V

Saurian was the creator of this game. This was the first QtE to ever be finished, and holds the record for shortest time to completion (merely two days). This was where the use of an arena was first required, as well as the first to separate the players into teams (though only in an organizational move, rather than in any way that affected how the game was played, or in any way that was acknowledged within the battles themselves). Served as the launching board for the very first RPG in RR, the Black Angel Saga.

QTE VI

Adamjirra once again took up the mantle of game-author and started a new thread. This game saw the addition of characters' special abilities.

As for the storyline, Satan was supposed to have seen the last great series of games and decided to hold his own tournament by whisking fighters away to Hell, where he would force them to battle each other. The winner would be able to leave Hell intact. Losers would forfeit their soul.

He wrote a total of 14 short battles before deciding to suddenly end the series, declaring Altae the winner.

During this QTE, Giboc--a then-time mod--remarked that he wanted to see all the future QTEs confined to this one thread.

QTE VII

The original thread where Saurian was to begin the seventh QTE was locked, with a post by Giboc stating that QTEs should be kept to one thread. Saurian then moved it back to the thread where QTE VI had previously been held, and set up shop there.

There were a few differences from previous QTEs.

• He set up a complicated battle system involving stats and bonuses dependant on what items a character signed up with, rather than just rolling a pair of dice and seeing who had a higher number.
• Characters added a finishing move to their persona files.
• In a break from the normal, basic tournament-style QtE, Saurian separated all the players into colored teams. The advantage to this was that a team was not eliminated from play until all the fighters belonging to it were killed--so, if there was one player remaining to a team that had not died yet, and he continued to win battles, the team might still claim victory as a whole.
• Leaders of each team, as mentioned above, were Non-player characters that actually fought in regular fights like their team members
• Many character owners involved themselves in this thread with a large deal of OOC talking and speculating. There were 'official' commentators as well, who would run predictions or analyses between rounds.

With only a few matches to go, the QTE was moved yet again to a new thread on Phase Shift forums. Saurian wrote a handful more before leaving the thread dead with the supposed last battle never finished. (It was later stated in QTE X that he had not written it, but the outcome was a complete and total tie between Person Named Bob and an NPC.)

QTE VIII, aka "Quest to Escape: The Next Generation, the final showdown"

Soulshard took command of QTE with the eighth entry in the series. Notably smaller than previous games, with only 8 contestants. The previous use of teams was ignored.

It began with an introduction involving a corrupted land (Ahrah) and its inhabitants, who were enslaved by an evil shogun acting as ruler. This man would open a tournament every few years where the losers could claim only death, but the winners would gain freedom from his control.

Completely finished in only ten days, this QTE saw Professor Socks--a cat--rise up as winner. After all competition was destroyed, he also took out the evil shogun and became the new ruler of the land in a reign that was remembered for a thousand years as the Golden Age of the land of Ahrah.

QTE: Deep Space IX

Catdrake became the next QTE author, using a Star Trek title as a joke based on the one used for the last game.

The number of contestants involved in this one climbed back up to 16. A crazed god summoned all the battlers to outer space and declared that they would all have to fight for his amusement. Losers would, as usual, die. Winners would be set free and returned home.

This series entry was also completed in a short amount of time (12 days) and again ended with the tournament winner--a catgirl named Nekko Nekko-offing the being that was running the whole thing.

QTE X: Nemesis

Another Star Trek joke for a title opened the tenth QTE game, run once more by Saurian.

With the number of battlers staying stable at 16, he added the option for people to include a physical description of their character at sign-up. In addition, the single special ability was to be designated as either offensive or defensive; if you didn't want to use a familiar, you were allowed to have two abilities, one of each kind.

As the starting point for the tournament, it was said that sixteen of the greatest warriors were moved to a structure where they were encouraged to fight, and where they had to avoid a strange thing that had been put there amongst them (later discovered to be a shapeshifter named Nemmy). C'tan would go on to claim main victory rights, though several characters apparently survived to return home with him.

As of this game, players began "calling" numbers of games they wanted to run. Some aimed for games that would be available relatively soon, while others demanded rights to numbers in the 70-100 range.

QtE XI (it's ridiculous, it's not even funny)

Still at 16 participants, QTE XI was opened by Soulshard, noted for previously completing QTE VIII. Based in the realm of the actual KoL game, battlers were now required to give their name, weapon, armour, familiar, defense skill, offense skill, finishing move, description, and KoL-based arena choices.

In this storyline, Jick has pulled the fighters into KoL to give him ideas of what skills to add to the game for levels 12 through 14. As a result, this QTE is packed full of references to the Kingdom of Loathing game and/or its creators.

• Ironically, in the real KoL, Jick implemented the real versions of the skills before Soulshard completed this game.

In the end, Kafajo defeats all others and the development staff at Asymmetric, Inc. have by then acquired enough ideas to include in their online stickman RPG game, so they return him to reality.

QTE XII: The Creators Boredom

With 16 battlers becoming a mainstay of the series, Darkmaster began the twelfth QTE to hit the forums. There are no noticeable differences in the sign-ups, and the story once again revolves around a bored deity summoning the greatest warriors to come kick ass for his amusement.

Featuring somewhat long battles and the return of some people putting up their predictions, this was finished in a standard amount of time.

Of note is the fact that in a few battles, the Creator put his hand in, so to speak, and rearranged details to his liking. Outcomes were changed on occasion by this, but there were no mass uproars as a result.

The winner of this round was Cenobia. There was no end sequence declaring her fate after the tournament ended.

QTE XIII: Triskaidekaphobia

Chaly, through the combination of disorganization and the previous intended author not being around in time, opened the thirteenth QTE. The tradition of 16 battlers has continued, though their requirements for signup were expanded to include their place of origins and a description of their personality.

This QTE started differently, with an opener discussing the failure of any powerful beings whisking away the combatants on a whim. Instead, sixteen invitations to a tournament were sent out by an unknown entity.

Other notes include:

• Battles being broken up by "intermissions", where the inactive characters are shown doing things and moving around in the meantime.
• Battles and intermissions are long, story-like, and complex, as there is a mystery to solve.
• Fighters are in danger from NPCs as well as each other.
• Fan-art occasionally pops up mid-thread.

Triskaidekaphobia is still in progress.

Organization

The original thread was created by Person Named Bob, but fell into disrepair and confusion.

It was refined by TheWalrus and set up with the help of mods, to ensure that there would be as few problems as possible when claiming authorship of future QTE rounds.

This article was featured on Oct. 25, 2006, and is therefore made of epic win.