Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Quest for Glory

Dhruin

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No, not the game Quest for Glory. Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a humorous article on the silly RPG convention of complete strangers entrusting their most personal and important tasks to even stranger adventurers. In this piece, writer John Walker (apparently) dons some appropriate gear and hits some real-world streets to see how people really react:
The plan: To take to the streets, dressed as a wizard, with a quest for the good peoples of Bath, England. Would they really help out a stranger with a strange beard? Would they even stop and listen? Is there any truth to this convention we’ve otherwise entirely accepted?
First of all, I should immediately get this out of the way: No one, at any point, approached me to ask for a quest. Short of suspending a yellow exclamation mark above my head, I’m not sure what more I could have done to attract the attention of any passing adventurers braving the cold thoroughfare through the centre of the town. If anything, people did their very best to avoid me, refusing eye contact, moving far away from my pleading face. It was already concerning.
More information.
 
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Quite amusing. I especially liked the comments from readers.

Oh, and this line:
IN this time of rejection, I did learn a few useful things, however...
..3) Men with grey beards really don’t like to be called, “fellow wizard.” (Although, their wives are likely to find it funny.)

It's nice to know that some men really understand the power of chocolate, as well. :)
 
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No one, at any point, approached me to ask for a quest. Short of suspending a yellow exclamation mark above my head, I’m not sure what more I could have done to attract the attention of any passing adventurers...
Well that was his major mistake, without a special icon how is anyone supposed to distinguish him from an ordinary "filler" NPC? I'm sure everyone in Bath has already heard the same three canned responses the city's filler NPCs are allotted. Their time is better served going to the park and killing squirrels until they level up enough for exciting PvP zones - like Bristol.
 
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I once walked past a guy in New York's Central Park who was wearing a wizard's hat and pondering profound thoughts out loud with a sort of crazy brilliance. It was softly raining that day, and he was wondering why it was falling down instead of up.

I imagine today he's probably on-line and posting regularly on RPG forums.
 
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I loved this article. And many of the user comments (there and here) are superb. :)
 
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Almost makes me want to go out and try the experiment myself....almost.
 
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I was also thinking "I wonder if he put an exclamation mark over his head" ...
 
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