Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

OnyxFlame · 02-28-2003, 10:50 AM

I have a few interesting ideas for structuring of quests, although I've never seen them implemented anywhere.

How about interlinking quests, or multi-part quests? (Also quests that can be completed in multiple ways, but I've actually seen that one.)

Example of interlinking quests: The Dwarf King has a nifty magic sword that he'll only part with if you give him a ruby the size of his head, or equivalent money. The problem is, the ruby is part of a dragon's hoard. Meanwhile, the Dwarf Queen wants a beauty potion because she's getting old and fat and thus her husband doesn't want to spend much time with her so she sits in her tower room staring out the window a lot. The potion can be made with the appropriate herbs and alchemy skill, or bought from an old hag somewhere out in the boonies. In return for restoring her beauty, the Queen would give you an old wand which a now-deceased wizard used to use (which has a random spell stored in it). So, back to the King. In order to get his sword (which he's too old to use but he likes to keep it as a memento of the "good old days"), you can either go kill the dragon for the ruby, amass a fortune to pay him, or kill him. Of course, if you kill the King, the Queen won't exactly be well-disposed towards you, and thus her quest won't even be available to you until after the whole thing resets. (Although maybe once in a while the Queen would decide you did her a favor and give you something entirely different, hehe.)

Example of a multi-part quest: The ancient elven stronghold of Vymar is rumored to contain vast treasures, as well as ancient wizards who can teach you rare spells. However, the stronghold has been hidden with magic to defend its residents from all the troubles of the world, and the only way to enter is to find the 3 Orbs of Armelia. Maybe one orb is deep in a labyrinth of caves underneath Mount Orloss, another is in some old farmer's basement (he just thought it looked neat), and the other lies under the ocean guarded by feral mermaids. Or maybe the hiding places are random. Either way, you have to wander the world and do a few quests just to find the things to begin with. Then, upon entering Vymar, you can either just kill everything that moves and take their treasures, or do various quests inside in order to get them to give you some of them voluntarily. The wizards of course can't give you spells if you've decided to kill them. Or you can just wander through selling your stuff to their shopkeepers and reading histories (and perhaps info about other quests) in their library.

I think quests such as these would not only add a lot to the flavor and history of a world, but take the mudding experience closer to the old Nintendo games we wasted so much time in front of way back when. Admittedly, these are spur of the moment ideas which probably suck, but I'm focusing on the general concepts more than the details here.

02-28-2003, 10:50 AM	#3
OnyxFlame Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 153	I have a few interesting ideas for structuring of quests, although I've never seen them implemented anywhere. How about interlinking quests, or multi-part quests? (Also quests that can be completed in multiple ways, but I've actually seen that one.) Example of interlinking quests: The Dwarf King has a nifty magic sword that he'll only part with if you give him a ruby the size of his head, or equivalent money. The problem is, the ruby is part of a dragon's hoard. Meanwhile, the Dwarf Queen wants a beauty potion because she's getting old and fat and thus her husband doesn't want to spend much time with her so she sits in her tower room staring out the window a lot. The potion can be made with the appropriate herbs and alchemy skill, or bought from an old hag somewhere out in the boonies. In return for restoring her beauty, the Queen would give you an old wand which a now-deceased wizard used to use (which has a random spell stored in it). So, back to the King. In order to get his sword (which he's too old to use but he likes to keep it as a memento of the "good old days"), you can either go kill the dragon for the ruby, amass a fortune to pay him, or kill him. Of course, if you kill the King, the Queen won't exactly be well-disposed towards you, and thus her quest won't even be available to you until after the whole thing resets. (Although maybe once in a while the Queen would decide you did her a favor and give you something entirely different, hehe.) Example of a multi-part quest: The ancient elven stronghold of Vymar is rumored to contain vast treasures, as well as ancient wizards who can teach you rare spells. However, the stronghold has been hidden with magic to defend its residents from all the troubles of the world, and the only way to enter is to find the 3 Orbs of Armelia. Maybe one orb is deep in a labyrinth of caves underneath Mount Orloss, another is in some old farmer's basement (he just thought it looked neat), and the other lies under the ocean guarded by feral mermaids. Or maybe the hiding places are random. Either way, you have to wander the world and do a few quests just to find the things to begin with. Then, upon entering Vymar, you can either just kill everything that moves and take their treasures, or do various quests inside in order to get them to give you some of them voluntarily. The wizards of course can't give you spells if you've decided to kill them. Or you can just wander through selling your stuff to their shopkeepers and reading histories (and perhaps info about other quests) in their library. I think quests such as these would not only add a lot to the flavor and history of a world, but take the mudding experience closer to the old Nintendo games we wasted so much time in front of way back when. Admittedly, these are spur of the moment ideas which probably suck, but I'm focusing on the general concepts more than the details here.