[MUD-Dev] Re: Do Quests need to be Fed-Ex

[Chanur Silvarian]

From: <eversilver at yahoo.com>

> Also, there can be all kinds of quests in a game that aren't
> specified by any NPC. Perhaps someone's game has a holy
> grail. Players can go on a quest for the holy grail until they
> manage to locate it, if merely for the prestige of having such an
> item.

Why do they ever have to find the grail?  Why can't players ever
fail to complete a quest?  Why can't there even be varying degrees
of success?  For example in a simple FED-EX if they take the item
from NPC-A directly to NPC-B they get a full reward but the longer
it takes to get the item to NPC-B the less reward they get.

In my experience, and I admit I've not seen it all, devs tend to
think only in terms of "WHEN" the player character succeeds, not
"IF" the player character succeeds.  Sure, some quests should be
completely successful regardless of how long the player takes or how
many failed attempts they've already made, but there should also be
a good variety of quests that can fail and also a good variety that
have a range of success.  I also believe that most quests should
have multiple paths, the good/bad paths if you will.  The person may
just take the item that they are supposed to FED-EX and use it or
sell it themself... the bad path (as well as a failure scenario).

I guess it can be summed up in the statement, "put the roleplay back
into the roleplaying game".  Meaning let the player choose their
path, don't restrict it to just one linear outcome.

- Chanur Silvarian -
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