Class 4 - Formats

A Quest can be enjoyed in numerous formats:

A Quest for an individual. In its purest form, a Quest is an adventure for an individual. They are the easiest to set up because you don't have to worry about 'resetting' any of your interaction stations (more on that later.)

Dinner Party - for groups of 4 to 4000 where guests come to enjoy a meal and an activity - your Quest.

Car Rally - where teams are in cars. Ideas and suggestions for this format are described later, but the basic goal is to arrive at a final destination after completing the mission over a certain area of a city or larger geographical area.

Combination of the car rally and dinner party is when participants do not know where dinner will be held. All guests meet at a predetermined site, the Quest begins, and when they have succeeded, they find the location of the final destination where dinner is being served.

Progressive dinner. This can make for an exciting evening if organized well. Each course is served at a separate home or location in the normal progressive dinner style. (A progressive dinner is commonly experienced with a group of guests traveling from location to location, eating one course at each stop.) However, the Quest unfolds as they figure out which house/location is next. For example, if you chose a pirates' treasure hunt for your theme, you could have your guests meet a mapmaker somewhere in the city who will give/sell them a map and tell them the beginning of a tale of sunken treasure. This map leads to a location where hors d'oeuvres are served. When the guests leave for their next course, they go to another location on their map where they meet the ghost of a pirate who sank with the ship and learn that he knows where the treasure was secretly hidden before the ship sank. Then off to the next location where salad is served. The guests learn more about the sunken treasure as they travel from location to location, utilizing clues they gather along the way to learn the whereabouts of each course's location.

Your format could simply be a party and everyone will participate in the Quest at the party's location.

A more elaborate Quest could be expanded over several days. For instance, when my brother graduated from high school, I planned a two-week Quest for him to the theme of Batman. During these two weeks he got to live the life of Bruce Wayne as he met different characters for lunch, received phone calls at home and even outwitted villains in order for his high school transcripts for graduation to be properly handled (my storyline).
Let your format enhance your theme and storyline.

To continue the course with Class 5: Building the Adventure