[MUD-Dev] Quests

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Sun, 16 Apr 2000, Eli Stevens wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Raph Koster" <rkoster at austin.rr.com>
> To: <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2000 1:21 PM
> Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] Quests
> 
> > I've always considered the events run on Achaea to be a model for how it
> > should be done, but I don't know how much time investment is required.
> > Asheron's Call is doing something similar, and they tell me that it IS a
> > huge amount of effort to carry off one large-scale, non-repeating,
> > consequential event every month.
> 
> I am not very familiar with Achaea's system, is there a post in the archives
> that details it?

I don't think there is. It's not really a system either. The whole point
is to make it as un-systematic (in the eyes of the players) as possible so
that it doesn't seem repetitive. Much easier to say than do, sadly. I'm
not really sure I fully agree with Raph's compliment, but I'm willing to
accept it.

> 
> > But how to do that? I don't know. I can write ONE. But it would take a lot
> > more time to write it than to play it. I can see a way to do them
> > periodically, with a largish staff, to a lesser level of complexity. I
> don't
> > know how to weave it into the fabric of the world. Anyone?
> 
> Hmm.  This is something I had been thinking about a while back, and I have a
> different tack on the branching/coming back together plot you mentioned.  It
> is just a rough idea, but...  It seems to me that the purpose of quests are
> to give players something interesting to do, right?  I imagine that the idea
> started when someone said, "you know, killing mobs over and over is kind of
> boring."  So quests break the monotony of a static gameworld.  If the
> gameworld was non-static, would you need quests (as typically implemented)?

<example of political systems generating conflict snipped>

This is an area that I know well. Conflict between organizations, provided
your game supports them sufficiently, definitely adds a lot to a game. It
is still not a substitute for one-time quests, unfortunately. One-time
quests simply allow a degree of creativity and freedom and _uniqueness_
that so far as not been duplicated by coded, long-lasting systems, to my
knowledge. 

--matt




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