Quests

I have never played a live-action role-play game. Or maybe I have. On a few occasions I ran a clue-laden hunt or quest and it seems like a fun thing to reminisce about here.

Dragon Egg Hunt

I adopted an old FOME tradition and adapted it into a Dragon Egg Hunt. We held it close to Easter back in the late 90s. It was played on campus and those gathered were separated into a few groups. We met and came back together at something that was demolished long ago. An art gallery stood in what is now the new education faculty complex. Behind it some steps overlooking an open courtyard felt like a pagan shrine. Anyway, the groups were given clues that would then take them to more clues. They cast campus locations in fantastical terms. I had some assistants who would follow the groups around and award them with small choclate eggs as they progressed. Eventually they were given much more impressive eggs as prizes.

My favourite clue (if I do say so myself) was inserted into my sig file (the text appended to all sent emails which would sometimes include a quotation or song line). Among Monash students this was called a plan (as in your joking personal scheme for world domination). One clue told them that 'I hide in the ether and have a plan'. They pretty quickly went to the computer centre to log in and see a message I had sent them that morning which included yet another clue. Pretty clever use of the Internet for one as technophobic as I.

A Yulemoot Quest

Some time later I organized a more ambitious quest as part of a Yulemoot. This was a FOME house party held close to Christmas. The host house was Stonedhenge and it was a shortish walk from the Scotchman's Creek. We started the quest at dusk in the Melissa Street Playground. The twilight combined with the festive consumption of that evening rendered some of our group rather open to evocative suggestion. Walking directly from this lot along the Huntingdale Road Basin took us to the creek. For one friend it was as if we had walked into another realm from everyday suburbia.

Back then it was a grassy boggy tract of land and was only more recently turned into the far more useful and inviting Huntingdale Wetlands. I had some assistants each playing a role of sorts scattered across this area. One sat on a log and offered the questers gold (chocolate coins). Across Stanley Avenue the next sat on a bench off a bush track and offered Frankincense insense sticks. The last two helpers were in fact fire-twirlers who were supposed to surround and scare the group once it had entered the creek tunnels under the freeway. Nobody was scared. Everyone just got a fun surprise and were given whatever we had for myrrh. I'm happy we managed to get a night walk happening from a house party. Friends since have become so much more sedantary.

Statue Quest

I held a picnic as part of OFTAM back in the 00s. At that picnic I offered friends the chance to partake in a short Statue Quest. They would simply walk around the small Queen Victoria Gardens and find the answers to the following questions.

1. What are the names of the two characters depicted by the busts at the entrance (coming from the City) to the Gardens?

2. What is The Genie made of?

3. What are the four virtues that are personified around the base of the statue of Queen Victoria?

4. In which years did Edward VII reign?

5. What are the two statuesque inhabitants of the pond covered with green growing stuff called?

Nobody undertook that activity. Everyone was content to just picnic. I suppose I had invoked rather hot conditions that day...

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Most recently I drew a fantasy-themed map of the Brickmakers Park which could form the basis of some sort of quest along similar lines to the one held at the Scotchmans Creek. It could be more for parents and children and combined with a barbecue (which I have done there). I wonder if it would enthuse anyone these days.