tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post7282600791479078492..comments2023-05-27T11:14:02.426-04:00Comments on Some Space to Think: Quest HeresyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-52357025280121241262010-12-29T22:39:03.374-05:002010-12-29T22:39:03.374-05:00I think minor little quests are an important eleme...I think minor little quests are an important element of a sandbox world, especially one which features low-level adventurers, and the GM should have a variety of such ideas available at call. They needn't be full fledged adventures, although if mishandled by the players they can become one.*<br /><br />You don't get this freedom of movement (and therefore have a need for these minor quests), when you are in a world where the gamemaster has a strong idea of the story that they would like to tell, or where the characters are powerful enough to begin substantially affecting the warp and weft of the campaign world.<br /><br />[* The "quest" I remember most fondly involved obtaining a vial or arsenic (unbeknown to me it was the first part of a much larger quest to create a lich). However it turned into doing a chain of favours for various people (including Demogorgon at the end [you have to love old school random encounter tables combined with our players ability to grovel magnificently]). The fun thing was we actually did keep our word and performed the chain in reverse (even though it would have been trivial to take a shortcut with it).]Reverance Pavanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01217657347160811310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-57369282357654682432010-12-29T15:54:09.582-05:002010-12-29T15:54:09.582-05:00It's also interesting how Dragon Age: Origins ...It's also interesting how Dragon Age: Origins uses quests as a way of signalling what kind of game you're interested in having. You start out having random encounters on the road, but if you signed up for the "rescue refugees" quest, you can run into refugees on the road instead. When I signed up for "destroy the circle of maleficarum," a forest clearing that was guarded by a couple random ogres the first time I went there contained a chanting cabal of maleficarum isntead (the ogres killed me and I never went back for them, so I got to see both monster groups).Noumenonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01597461989960782762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-70988287538575829962010-12-29T14:27:02.632-05:002010-12-29T14:27:02.632-05:00I like what pseckler13 said. I'd also say tha...I like what pseckler13 said. I'd also say that Quests can be used to fill Magic Users' and alchemists' sacks of Material Components.<br /><br />Shopkeeper: "I'd love to sell you some Elfsbane for your poison, but I'm all out. I was supposed to get a shipment, but it never showed. Maybe you could pick some of your own? There's probably someone around here that could show you a good patch."<br /><br />So then your quest becomes an encounter using your outdoorsy skills to find a suitable patch and harvest it, or a search for someone who has those skills. Throw in a small twist like "a patch that used to be there isn't anymore and you need to find a new one" or "the only patch nearby is deep in enemy/creature/etc territoy. How can we get to it safely?"<br /><br />Or maybe you make the quest into "kill enough other magic users to steal their elfsbane." ;-pSamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10082606754774274572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-1563066899135576872010-12-29T14:17:21.180-05:002010-12-29T14:17:21.180-05:00There is something really appalling to me...
Any ...<i>There is something really appalling to me...</i><br /><br />Any chance you meant "appealing"?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-29800745905173656172010-12-29T12:07:37.318-05:002010-12-29T12:07:37.318-05:00Here's one way I handed a "kill 10" ...Here's one way I handed a "kill 10" quest: A necromancer raied the skeletons of 12 dwarven chieftains to do his bidding and they eventually wandered off. The quest was to return the bones to rest. <br /><br />Here's the real quest: each skeleton went in a different direction: some of these require research to figure out (2 or 3 were taken over by a rival necromancer..), some of them are random encounters ("a dwarf skeleton was seen recently in the vicinity of the old swamp..") With each incremental kill the party gets closer to the reward. The main point is: the quest lasts multiple sessions, is not mandatory, and is something that can always be running along in the background. It's great to have 3 (or 6 or 12) quests running at the same time, because (Upside) at that point adventures become self-directed. The party might decide to follow up on skeleton hunting or it might decide to put some effort into other quests like "finding the old teleport circle" or "making peace with the treants" at that point.. Downside is that you have to prepare these quests to a degree. You can prepare them incrementally and just provide 1 or 2 or 4 per session alongside the regular adventure and pretty soon you will have a bunch. <br /><br />Works for games other than D&D too, obviously.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com