Resets, repops and quests

[Alex Oren]

Hello guys.

Have been a bit busy a bit lately and didn't follow the discussions.
I'm now under a curse compelling me to catch up with the list (~800 messages
worth of backlog... <gulp!>).

Anyways, There was an interesting thread about a month ago which discussed
resets and repops in a mud.  The consensus seems to be that resets are a thing
to be avoided(tm).

The question that was left unanswered is: How can a mud have a working quest
system without some kind of resets?

Consider having a skill-based MUD (no concept of "levels") in which players can
gain imm status (or any other benefit) upon completing, say, 20 quests of
varying degree of difficulty.  Assume we have a user base of 100 players. 

Clearly we cannot manage 2000+ different quests, so there must be some (heavy)
overlap.  But now we have to deal with quest availability issues ("How can I
rescue princess Grizelda from the hill orcs when Bubba The Dimwit just
slaughtered the whole tribe along with the princess?  Now I'll probably have to
wait 15 years until the king has another teenage daughter stupid enough to be
kidnapped") versus world consistency issues ("Hey, the king wants me to rescue
Grizelda?  Didn't Bubba The Dimwit behead her two days ago???").

Just another thing, let me add that I really like the quest concept on one hand
but highly value a consistent storyline on the other (probably comes from being
a DM for too long).


Have fun,
Alex.