Complete IRL Sidequests Guide: Turn Your City Into an Adventure Game
Your city is already an open-world game—you just need the right quest log.
About This Quest
Transform mundane city streets into a personal adventure game using proven quest mechanics, location-based challenges, and real-world XP tracking systems.
Most people walk the same six blocks their entire lives. Same coffee shop. Same route to work. Same weekend spots. But your city contains thousands of unmarked locations, hidden details, and unexplored corners—you're just playing it on easy mode with no quest markers. This system turns real life into an RPG framework. You'll create personal quests, track completion metrics, and build a custom map of your city based on actual exploration—not Google reviews. The goal isn't tourism; it's to engage with your environment like you're solving a puzzle, not running errands. You'll notice the 1920s tilework in that subway station, find the alley with the best natural acoustics, and document the building that changes color at sunset. After three months using this method, your mental map expands. You stop asking "What's nearby?" and start designing routes based on curiosity. Streets become interconnected systems. Your city becomes readable. You've essentially installed a HUD overlay on reality, and it doesn't require AR glasses—just intentional frameworks and a willingness to treat your commute like a side mission.
Why This Quest Matters
After three months, your mental map transforms from six memorized blocks into an interconnected system you can read and navigate like a puzzle. You stop relying on Google reviews and start designing routes based on curiosity—the 1920s subway tilework, the alley with perfect acoustics, the building that glows at sunset. You've installed a HUD overlay on reality using nothing but intentional frameworks and the willingness to treat your commute like a side mission.
What You'll Experience
- A systematic method for discovering unmarked locations and hidden details in your existing environment
- How to build a custom mental map based on actual exploration, not crowdsourced reviews
- Pattern recognition skills that reveal your city as interconnected systems rather than random streets
- A tangible archive documenting your transformed relationship with your surroundings
- The ability to design curiosity-driven routes instead of running the same six-block loop
What You'll Need
Top gear to make this quest great.
Pull it off
Mini Voice Recorder or Lavalier Mic
Captures immediate observations while moving—way faster than typing notes, preserves actual soundscapes of locations, and documents NPC conversations with permission
Physical backup for your quest log that works in rain, cold, or when your phone dies—grid pages enable quick map sketching and spatial notes that digital tools can't replicate
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may change.
Step-by-Step Guide
Build your quest log and categories
Set up a tracking system—app or physical journal—that handles photos, locations, and recurring entries. Create five quest types: Discovery (new locations), Mastery (repeat challenges), Social (interactions), Creative (documentation), and Random (spontaneous detours). Define your starting zone as a 1-mile radius from home.
💡 Pro Tips:
- • Walk every street in your starting zone over two weeks, marking unusual architecture, acoustic spots, time-specific light, shortcuts, and micro-ecosystems as waypoints
Design your first quest chain
Create The Commute Remix: five alternate routes to a destination you visit regularly. Theme each path—Fastest Route, Most Greenery, Maximum Elevation Change, Historic Buildings Only, Zero Chain Stores. Time each route, photograph one detail per trip, rate by difficulty and mood impact.
💡 Pro Tips:
- • Use your daily movement—no extra time required, just different routing
Add daily random quest modifiers
Each morning, roll a die to assign that day's challenge: 1=Street Photography Only, 2=Talk to Three Strangers, 3=Find Something Built Before 1950, 4=Collect Textures, 5=Follow a Dog, 6=Soundtrack Your Walk. Complete within your normal movement. Build a POI database with mandatory fields: location, coordinates, time, weather, what you noticed, why it matters, return-worthy rating (1-5 stars).
💡 Pro Tips:
- • Pattern recognition kicks in around 50 logged POIs—you'll start seeing systems, not random streets
Deploy weekly Boss Quests
Schedule 2-3 hour challenges that push exploration boundaries: navigate home using only alleyways, eat at three restaurants within four blocks in one evening, find ten Art Deco examples, or trace a buried creek using topographic clues. Award yourself XP: new location (10), returned to study details (15), spoke with 20-year resident (25), found something not on Google Maps (30), connected two neighborhoods (40). Level up every 500 XP by expanding your radius one mile outward.
Activate the NPC Interaction System
Identify recurring characters—newspaper vendor, corner bodega regular, park artist. Learn names, schedules, recommendations. Document these connections; they unlock sub-quests you'd never find alone. Design seasonal quest rotations: winter (indoor shortcuts, heated shelters), spring (blossom schedules, rain-watching spots), summer (shade paths, public water fountains), fall (foliage by microclimate, leaf-pile acoustics).
💡 Pro Tips:
- • Create achievement badges for milestone behaviors: 'Ghost Walker' (20 locations between midnight-5AM), 'Cartographer' (hand-drew 50+ block map), 'Time Traveler' (same spot at four different times)
Run weekly retrospectives and build archives
Every Sunday, review completed quests, identify neglected categories, plan next week's Boss Quest, update your master map. Monthly, create a one-page visual summary—hand-drawn map, photo grid, list of five most surprising finds. Define your end-game goal: visit every neighborhood, eat at 100 local restaurants, photograph 500 architectural details, talk to residents in 50 buildings, or create a crowd-sourced guidebook.
Gear Up for Your Quest
The gear that makes this quest work.
Pull it off
Mini Voice Recorder or Lavalier Mic
Captures immediate observations while moving—way faster than typing notes, preserves actual soundscapes of locations, and documents NPC conversations with permission
+ complete the kit — 3 more
Offline GPS App (Organic Maps or OSMand Premium)
EssentialPopularLets you mark discoveries in real-time even in dead zones, create custom POI layers, and review actual paths taken versus planned routes
Mapping software that works without cell signal, allows custom waypoint markers, and enables track recording
Habitica or LifeUp Premium Subscription
RecommendedProvides built-in quest framework, automated tracking, and visual progression systems that mirror actual RPG interfaces—eliminates manual logging friction
Gamification apps that track habits, quests, and achievements with RPG mechanics including XP, levels, and custom quest creation
Weatherproof City Journal
OptionalPhysical backup for your quest log that works in rain, cold, or when your phone dies—grid pages enable quick map sketching and spatial notes that digital tools can't replicate
Water-resistant notebook with grid pages designed for outdoor use (Rite in the Rain or similar)
Get on Amazon · $12.95 — Weatherproof City Journaldetails & deals →RELATED GEAR GUIDE
Urbex Gear List 2026: The 7 Essentials We Actually Carry
Field-tested picks · Urban Exploration
As an Amazon Associate, IRL Sidequests earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Prices and availability are subject to change. The price shown at checkout on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
Editor's Picks
Hand-selected quests our team thinks you'll love
Urban Food & Beverage Culture Quest
The best food in your city isn't on Yelp's front page—it's where rent is cheap and menus aren't in English.
Historical Walking Tour: Read Your City's Hidden Stories
Every sidewalk crack has a story—you just need to know where to look.
Architecture Scavenger Hunt: Decode Your City's Hidden Design Language
That building you pass every day? It's been screaming details at you that you've never noticed.