[MUD-Dev] quests involving players

[diablo at best.com]

I'm thinking of putting in some quests that involve a particular player.
For instance, as a trivial example, let's say that a particular quest
involved, as part of it, getting through a magic door. In order to get
through the door, one would have to say a particular phrase. In order to
make quests less monotonous, I want to give control over this phrase to a
player. So, the player would be given a command to set the phrase, and
change it whenever he or she wanted, and then if other players wanted to
do the quest, they would have to perform whatever task, answer whatever
riddle, etc that the player-in-control sets. The advantage to this, I am
thinking, is that it would make for a much more interesting questing
system, and would make for more varied entertainment for the players.

I'm wondering which of you have done this sort of thing before, and what
were your experiences with it? Did the other players find it annoying to
have to sort of pander to the whims of the player-in-control?

--matt