Initiation Quest

Sometimes, it's not enough for a video game character to stand alone: sometimes, they have to join a club.

Often featured in games with more roleplaying elements, this trope features a player character setting out to join a group — a gang, crime syndicate, a secret society, even a cult. This can be a Sidequest or a Sidequest Sidestory, it can be the inciting incident for the action, or it can be the focus of an entire game.

The reasons for joining this club vary, but in the event that joining is optional, player reasons for doing so are often as simple as "because it exists and joining up offers perks and XP." However, some quests may feature a player joining with the intent of sabotaging the group from within; in others, players may not be aware that they're up for membership until the offer is made.

Whatever the case, they're offering membership, and you've got to jump through the hoops to get it. Often requires 20 Bear Asses or any other Noodle Implements, and may result in the group's leaders occasionally Moving the Goalposts just to make things harder for the prospective member. Be warned, though: even once you've passed all the tests, some groups offer nothing but betrayal.

A subtrope of Initiation Ceremony.

Compare Deadly Hazing.

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Examples

Action-Adventure Games

• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: The quest to join the Bombers is a Double Subversion. During the first three-day cycle, Deku Link bursts a balloon Jim (the Bombers' leader) was playing with in North Clock Town, and is invited by the team to defeat them in a hide-and-seek challenge. When Deku Link succeeds, he's told by Jim that, if he was human, he would be able to join the Bombers, but since he isn't they only give him the password to access their hideout (the Fantastic Racism is due to Skull Kid having joined them and caused nothing but trouble). Later in the game, Link can challenge them as a Hylian, and upon winning the challenge he's acknowledged as a worthy member, thus receiving both the password (again) and the Bomber's Notebook (which allows Link to keep track of several sidequests where he aims to help people in trouble).

Environmental Narrative Game

• Bucket Detective: The bulk of the game features main character David Davids joining a Lovecraftian Apocalypse Cult in pursuit of fame and glory, participating in their rituals in order to be successfully initiated.

MMORPGs

• Runescape features an interesting take on this with the Shield of Arrav quest; the titular artifact is divided into two halves, with one half being owned by the Phoenix Gang, one half by the Black Arm Gang. It's one of only two quests in the game's twenty-year history that requires the help of another player to complete; while the Phoenix Gang member just has to execute an NPC, the Black Arm initiate needs to 'steal' a crossbow from the Phoenix Gang, which is accomplished by having another player in the Phoenix gang trade a crossbow to the Black Arm Gang player.
• The Secret World:
  • The game kicks off with you being given an offer of membership by one of the Big Three, and in the case of the Templars and The Illuminati, there's at least a voluntary element to it — in that you're technically free to ignore the offer, but you'll need a secret society to protect you from entities who prey on the magically gifted. In any case, the Templars expect you to go to the London district of Ealdwic and endure one of the magical sermons of the Fallen King, while the Illuminati want you to navigate your way through the Tunnel Network under Brooklyn before being put through a battery of psychic tests. Only then are you officially welcomed to the secret society. Subverted in the case of the Dragon, who don't even give you the illusion of choice: they just kidnap you and abandon you in Seoul with no passport.
  • On the Savage Coast of Solomon Island, players have the option to take part in the initiation rites of the League of Monster Slayers, doing such things as plucking black roses from a wendigo's den or spitting into a pool of Filth — during which it becomes abundantly clear that the seemingly childish group was actually tackling real monsters, albeit on a solo basis.
  • In Tokyo, the mission to infiltrate the Morninglight's elite clubhouse requires you to follow the hidden trail of clues scattered across Kaidan district's waterfront, until you finally find the secret door to the clubhouse itself. In this case, the initiation is all about proving that you have the intellect to belong among Morninglight's junior elite. By the time you get there, everyone in the clubhouse is already dead, so the initiation part of this quest turns out to be slightly superfluous.

Simulation Games

• TIE Fighter: Alongside the main briefings, you will receive secondary briefings from a cloaked envoy of the Secret Order of the Emperor, offering you additional objectives to pursue. Impressing the envoy enough will result in you being inducted into the Order, resulting in a nifty Dark Side tattoo.

Stealth-Based Games

• Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Sam Fisher is assigned to infiltrate a terrorist organization called John Brown's Army and must perform specific nefarious tasks for the terrorists to get them to trust him without losing the trust of the agency that sent him on the mission.

Western RPGs

• Dragon Age: Origins: No matter your origin story of choice, the game's prologue ends with your Player Character being headhunted by Duncan of the Grey Wardens, usually by saving you from a messy legal fustercluck and/or imminent death. However, to actually join their ranks, you and two other potential recruits first have to head out into the notoriously dangerous Korcari Wilds, kill a bunch of Darkspawn, and collect their blood. This is because in order to join, you have to drink said blood — and it's so poisonous that it ends up killing one of the two recruits and driving the other to panic so violently that Duncan ends up killing him anyway.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind:
    • While most of the other guilds and factions can be joined simply by talking to one of their leaders, you cannot join the Morag Tong (a legal Dunmeri assassin's guild of Professional Killers) at any of their guild halls. Instead, to prove your ability, you must find their top-secret headquarters and seek out the Guildmaster himself. Even then, you must further prove your worth on a trial assassination mission before you're fully in.
    • Becoming a member of the Tribunal Temple is as easy as talking to one of their priests. However, to be given any actual duties (which range from Good Shepherd "helping pilgrims" quests to full on monster hunting), your first mission will be to complete the Pilgrimages of the Seven Graces — visiting a series of shrines throughout the land following in Temple patron Vivec's footsteps as he performed "miracles" eons ago. Only then are you "in" as an active member.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: While joining the Mages Guild is as simple as talking to a guild leader, gaining access to the Arcane University in the Imperial City (where most of the Guild's best services including Enchanting are located) requires getting a letter of recommendation from each of the guild hall stewards. Cue a number of Fetch Quests to get their recommendation, with the notable exception of one who is a Treacherous Advisor in league with the questline's Big Bad, who gives you a Suicide Mission trying to get you killed, instead.
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
    • After assassinating an evil caretaker in Windhelm to save a group of orphaned children, the Dragonborn is abducted by the leader of the Dark Brotherhood, Astrid, and then enticed to kill one of the then-captured criminals to prove their capability to kill without remorse. From that point, the Dragonborn initiates the Sidequest Sidestory to perform assassination missions under the orders of the Dark Brotherhood, though other events (some of them unsavory) happen along the way too.
    • To join the Thieves' Guild, you'll need to participate in a con being run by one of the guild's current leaders in Riften to steal a ring from a vendor and then plant it on a different vendor to frame him. Only after proving your worth in this way do you get to join the Guild proper and access its services.
• Knights of the Old Republic
  • Once you rescue Bastilla from Taris and make it back to the Jedi enclave on Dantooine, your impressive Force potential prompts the Council to accept you for training in the Jedi arts despite your age. For the next few missions, you have to prove yourself worthy of becoming a full Jedi after your accelerated training course, first by memorizing the Jedi Code, then by creating a lightsaber of your own with a colour determined by your chosen Jedi class, and finally by purging the nearby grove of the Dark Side influence corrupting it and end the threat of the fallen Jedi apprentice responsible for it — hopefully by redeeming her. Once that's done, you're officially a Jedi Knight.
  • On Korriban, your mission to find a piece of the Star Map requires you to infiltrate the Sith Academy by posing as a prospective Dark Jedi. Once you're accepted as a possible apprentice, you have to compete against all the other apprentices in order to earn a place at the Academy, as Uthar Wynn is only accepting one student this year. As such, the lion's share of your time here is spent earning prestige by proving your knowledge, uncovering artefacts, eliminating enemies of the academy, and getting your rivals fatally punished; eventually you're sent out for an Ultimate Final Exam to discover the Star Map in the Tomb of Naga Sadow, followed closely by a Deadly Graduation in which you have to kill Uthar's second in command — or if you take her side, Uthar himself... or even both. Regardless of your alignment or how you end the mission, you won't become a student at the academy, either because you betrayed Uthar or because he senses that your destiny lies elsewhere...
  • After you kill Calo Nord, you receive an offer of recruitment from the Genoharadan, a secret society of bounty hunters safeguarding the Republic from behind the scenes. Your contact, a Rodian by the name of Hulas, gives you the chance to prove yourself to the group in a series of assassination missions, each one netting you another piece of special Genoharadan equipment. Beginning with either an extortionist slaver or an anti-Republic terrorist, you then move on to the three most challenging targets in the galaxy: a Con Man and Knowledge Broker who's never seen in public, a brutal Gamorrean Egomaniac Hunter who kills Krayt Dragons for fun, and a shapeshifting assassin with a penchant for Hunting the Most Dangerous Game. And if you complete these assassinations, Hulas reveals that he was scamming you all along: the three people you just killed were three of the Genoharadan's Overseers, and Hulas — the fourth Overseer — hired you to help him stage a coup d'etat, and he never had any intention of letting you join at all. But hey, at least you've still got that precious equipment!
• Starfield
  • Upon arriving at the Lodge for the first time and agreeing to join Constellation, you'll be given an initiation mission to retrieve another artifact while accompanied by Sarah, the group's leader, before becoming a full member.
  • Upon joining the UC Vanguard, you'll be given a "probationary" mission you must complete before getting access to their improved gear and ship parts.
  • After impressing the head of the Freestar Rangers by defusing the hostage situation at the bank when you first arrive in Akila City, you're welcomed in as a deputy should you choose to join. The first mission they give you, aptly named "Deputized", has you escorted by a veteran ranger for what is stated to be a low-risk mission before you're considered a full member.
  • In order to be accepted into the Crimson Fleet, you're tasked by the group's second-in-command to hunt down and kill a traitor. You have a few options on how to proceed, but once he's dealt with, you're welcomed in.
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: Having been Embraced without official permission, you're technically outside Camarilla membership and granted legitimacy only as long as you continue to impress Prince Lacroix. Consequently, most of the game is spent looking for a group to belong to, with the Camarilla and the Anarchs both making overtures and giving you opportunities to impress them. However, the finale kicks this into overdrive by framing you for murder and forcing you to pick one of the factions: the Camarilla, the Anarchs, Lacroix's rogue faction, the Kuei-Jin... or screw all four factions and strike out on your own.

Wide-Open Sandbox

• Batman: Arkham City: With his TITAN-induced blood poisoning having reached terminal levels, Batman signs on with the League of Assassins in the hope of getting access to Ra's Al Ghul, as his blood is the missing component that Mr Freeze needs to create a cure. In the process, Batman is pumped through a series of hallucinogenic initiation rites until he's presented to Ra's Al Ghul himself — whereupon it's time for the betrayal and boss battle.
• Grand Theft Auto III: Starting out as simple muscle for a Mafia pimp, Claude achieves more trust and prestige with every job until he's working directly for Salvatore Leone himself. In the penultimate mission for the Leones, Salvatore promises to make Claude a Made Man in the Leone family if he can destroy the Cartel's floating drug lab — and then deliver a special car to him. It's all a sham: Salvatore believes that Claude has been screwing his wife and has had a bomb planted in the car. For good measure, after being rescued by the Liberty City Yakuza, Claude doesn't even bother seeking membership in any of the other crime syndicates in the city, working on a purely mercenary basis from then on.
• Grand Theft Auto V: After his wife and children leave him, Michael can join the Epsilon Program, proving himself to the cult in a series of bewildering errands and wallet-straining tithes until he gains a uniform and a new name. And things only get more baffling from there...
• Saints Row: The very first mission of the game is a Gang Initiation Fight, where you have to brawl three waves of Third Street Saints in front of their hideout in order to prove your loyalty to the gang. Notably, you cannot fail this mission, since getting knocked out by your peers is just as good in the eyes of the gang leadership as you defeating them. You do get more rewards if you do, though, as well as a reverent comparison with the gang's top enforcer, Johnny Gat.

Non-Video Game Examples

Game Books

• In the Funfax INTER Active Secret Agent gamebook The Ring Of Thieves, players must infiltrate the conspiracy behind the global art thefts, starting by catching two of the cat burglars in the act of robbing the Prado and pretending to save them from getting caught by a security guard. Once you've helped them escape with the loot, they give you what Lady Slight explicitly describes as an "initiation test" by having you participate in the robbery of the Louvre, giving you their full trust for not fleeing with the loot or selling them out. It's not until afterwards that they trust you enough to give you the really important work of stealing the Rosewood Casket from the Trapper...