Hello all. I've recently been considering writing a text RPG using quest. The only problems are these:

• Quest's Interface is okay, but I would really prefer writing my game in a text editor. I know Quest uses an XML-based programming language (ASL) under the hood, so I may be able to write my games the old fashioned way. Is there any documentation for the ASL language?
• I would prefer not to reinvent the wheel if I can help it (as far as combat and the like), is there a decent library supporting combat (preferably D20-based)?

(filler for getting my edited post, updated/posted)
(again, filler for getting my edited post, updated/posted)

if you want to create/write/code your games directly in code:

highly recommend you download and install this advanced (and totally free) text editor: notepad++ ( https://notepad-plus-plus.org )

once you got this text editor installed and opened up, at the top menu bar, under 'languages', select the 'xml' programming language, as it seems to match up with quest's own/unique 'asl' programming language without any errors in the color coding

and here's a a link to a bunch of help links on getting started with learning quest and its coding:

http://textadventures.co.uk/forum/general/topic/ljjm32av4e2t9ot49k478g/help#710be61e-eae1-4af1-8363-520cc718ba1c

and this particular link (from the above link), is my guide on how to code directly in code for quest games:

http://textadventures.co.uk/forum/quest/topic/mu7itzjqv0yxrkdwgsbmzg/how-to-make-npc-confront-you-with-chioces#46cdb25b-4767-40a6-8bf4-3cd84e805781 (ignore the stuff at the very top of my post, I was responding to some one else's post, but jsut below that top stuff, is my guide on how to code directly in code, for quest games)

you can always just right click on a 'XXX.aslx' quest file, select 'open', and choose whatever text editor software you want (notepad, wordpad, Apple: text editor, notepad++, etc), to get at the full game code

'xml' is a web-based programming language, so it's similar to another web-based programming language 'html'

(if you learn the basics of html, you should have no problem with quest's 'asl' language)

this free site is great for learning the web-based languages:

https://www.w3schools.com

(quest can use a lot of powerful web-based features, through JS: JavaScript, so you can get really fancy with quest, if you know the web-based programming and its languages well)

JS (JavaScript) and Java are completely different

JS is a scripting language for web-based programming

Java is an entire massive "full-bore" programming language (one of the 3 main "full-bore" programming languages: C++, Java, and Python)

unfortunately, they both have 'java' in their names, so it confuses a lot of people who don't know the world of coding / programming that well

as for your second question, take a look at pixie's libraries (the combat library):

https://github.com/ThePix/quest/wiki

https://github.com/ThePix/quest/wiki/CombatLib

Pixie also has a 'zombie apocalypse' game, which acts as a tutorial with combat as well, take a look at its coding (not sure where to find it though exactly, if can't find it, just get pixie's attention and he can give a link to it)

You can take a look at The Pixie's zombie tutorial.
http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/zombie-apocalypse-1.html

This tutorial is by onimike. He made quite a few tutorials and put them up on YouTube as well.
https://textadventures.co.uk/forum/quest/topic/esmdvhzfgku1eupws3rt6w/weapon-and-combat-system-tutorial

I made a few tutorials as well.
Simple RPG Combat
https://textadventures.co.uk/forum/samples/topic/qzqe52enhuuacpdrljnffq/simple-turn-rpg-combat-for-the-web-quest
Simple RPG Combat 2 With Teleportation System
http://textadventures.co.uk/forum/samples/topic/vg6jtjrayesr4e5kqqytig/simple-combat-code-update-working-on-a-new-system

Here's how to make a Quest system real fast. You can change it as needed.
0 = not started
1 = started
2 = completed
Quest1 = First quest
Quest2 = Second quest

if (game.quest1 = 0) {
  msg ("You have not started this quest yet.")
}
if (game.quest1 = 1) {
  msg ("You are making progress on this quest.")
}
if (game.quest1 = 2) {
  msg ("You have completed this quest!")
}
if (game.quest2 = 0) {
  msg ("You have not started this quest yet.")
}
if (game.quest2 = 1) {
  msg ("You are making progress on this quest.")
}
if (game.quest2 = 2) {
  msg ("You have completed this quest!")
}

Hot damn, if only I'd done a bit of searching on GitHub. Just found the Pixy's combat library (with accompanying tutorial). Now I just have one problem. The way the desktop Quest player displays content, and the way said content interacts with my screenreader, means the default character creation system cannot be used when I playtest my game. Can anyone advise as to how to create a text only version of character generation?

here's the basics of it (creating a list: a stringlist attribute, then using the 'show menu / ShowMenu' Script/Function to display the list's items/choices, and to select the choices, or you can also use the 'get input' to get the person playing the game's input, and assign that input/value to an attribute):

https://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/character_creation.html

ask if you need help with anything

The way the desktop Quest player displays content, and the way said content interacts with my screenreader, means the default character creation system cannot be used when I playtest my game. Can anyone advise as to how to create a text only version of character generation?

The best way is to copy the code and make it by hand, by clicking on the code options in the game editor. You can use code view, which I've done before; it's not as hard as you'd think.