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Quest writing. Harder than it looks?
Ihmotepp
Member Posts: 14,495
Here's my quest:
"I am Farmer Leroy. I have lost my hoe. My favorite hoe. Can you help me find my hoe? I think I lost my hoe on 7th avenue near Broadway. If you return my hoe to me, I will give you a cool hat with a feather in it."
Will you help Farmer Leroy get his hoe back?
yes, I love hoes.
nO, I dont' roll like that bitch.
Can you write a better quest? Try not to write a novel with a hundred pages of lore, just the quest dialog the players would actually see, with choices, like yes, no, give me more info, etc.
What mobs they fight, if any, and what rewards.
Comments
Hello XLeGoLaSX, these damn mongorians have been tearin down my chitty wall. If you defeat five of them and bring me back five chitty mongorian scalps I'll reward you with two copper and a healing potion.
One last thing, you're level one and have a rusty dagger. There are five chitty mongorians with full sets of plate and they are all dual wielding Frostmourne.
It is really hard.
Initially I had the idea for a quest to catch a serial killer that ritualistically tortures his victums, but I figured the quest couldn't just be
"Go catch this serial killer"
So I thought I would have to make a chain quest that involved you hearing about the murders assisting the guards, investigating a crime scene, developing a list of suspects, the killer strikes again but the victum survives, then you have to interview the victum, narrow down the suspect list, then approach the killer at his house, brief chase sequence, he gets away, killer sends letters to the guards, cat and mouse game that ultimately ends in fighting and killing the serial killer.
Then I realized that is a long quest and there is no way I am writting all the text for that.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
"One."
(gotta love that encounter!)
heh, you dont live in phoenix by chance do you?
Originally posted by Scagweed22
is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life
Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.
Nevermind lol.
Check out the MUD I'm making!
In the distance you see a short, greasy looking man standing off to the side. As you approach, he shoots you a serpentine grin, his single golden tooth glimmering ostentatiously in the street light. You struggle to pull your attention away from his bizarre and aberrant garb. He is clad in a deep purple robe, with seemingly faux leopard fur trim. His unctuous hair is covered by a large hat, most likely created from the same fabric as his robe. He brandishes a lavishly decorated cane, his stubby fingers wrapping greedily around its head. His attire looks cheap and stale, as if he was holding onto some sort of nostalgia from many years ago, refusing to let it die.
"Well hello there, sir!", the man says, a thick southern drawl contorting his voice. His demeanor is suave, like that of a salesman attempting to reel in a customer.
"My name is A Farmer Named Leeroy. Please say the whole thing if you would, yes that includes the 'A Farmer Named' part, and yes, everytime."
His eyes scrutinize every inch of your body, as if he was searching for anything he could use for his advantage. He quickly scans yours features, looking for any sort of emotional clue to help him gain his way in.
"Now, a very well built gentleman such as yourself wouldn't be looking for a job, now would we?" He questions, a sly grin on his face.
"Oh, you would? Well then, do I have a deal for you! Now, sir, please listen closely as I explain my particular situation.
I have two of my... personal hoes... that I have seemingly misplaced somehow. Now, these hoes are... family mementos, you see. They mean quite a bit to me..." he trails off, his eyes darting to various objects around him, as if making time to finish creating his impromptu deceit.
"Now, I think I may have misplaced my hoes somewhere around 7th Avenue, near Broadway, next to the General Merchant. Now tell me my good sir, would you happen to be interested in helping me on this little business venture? You'll be rewarded handsomely~." he says, his voice peaking at the end of the sentence, as if trying to entice you. His golden encrusted grin shines in the street light.
"Now tell me, my friend, what do you say?"
<
Reward:
A Farmer Named Leeroy's Feather Crested Hat
17 Armor
+2 Wisdom
+2 Guile
+1 Intellect
-2 Strength
>
1. I'd be delighted to help you, A Farmer Named Leeroy. And you better keep your end of the bargain, else there will be trouble.
2. Are you kidding me? You may be one suave mothertrucker, but no way in hell would I help a cheap bastard like you. Get the hell out of my face.
3. I'll have to think about it.
You guys seem a bit confused as to what a quest is.
Lol, Scott, I still want the MMO with quests that are sieges in a personal instance for that quest where YOU lead the troops.
Check out the MUD I'm making!
*This belongs in the dev corner imo, hope it gets moved, because it's a great topic that will get lost easier here.*
First, I would like to point out above poster is right - a few seem to forget what a quest is. Answer; an event, or series of events, that takes advantage of mob and environmental item placement to show a mini-story using them. Whether that story is pointless or simple tedium is up to how it's handled. Most of the time it's a collection of single-point quests; kill/collect X things or explore an area we made especially interesting just for you. I prefer less quests, but with multiple (and meaningful) story arcs. Let me throw out a few examples;
The Farmer
The man tells you that he has a crop in a deep gully not far from his house where he grows something that could get him in trouble. He asks you, and only if you having a farming skill requirement, to go check on his crop and tend to it because he has "things to do", and promises a reward worth far more than the task suggests. Upon getting there you tend the plot with your skills and an NPC bandit crew walks out from the bushes and demands their cut of the sales the farmer has been getting from the illegal substances he grows. You come to the realization that the farmer sent you out as a martyr to the bandits in the hope you would either wipe them out or be robbed as part of the payment agreement. You have a choice in killing them and returning to the farmer, negotiating the robbing of the farmer for what they are owed, or any mix of that, as well as stamping out the crop and reporting it. All face the same monetary reward.
*That's how I like to approach multiple choice scenarios, and typically stand-alone ones that won't affect the chances of getting another one.
The Serial Killer
Taking Cactusman's idea to a more descriptive implementation, the same idea applies, but with various different set pieces. The start of the quest can be picked up from gossip, wanted posters or directly from the quest-giving NPCs in the law enforcement castes. They propose a reward for any information, as well as a hefty one for the death or capture of the criminal. From there, the quest lacks any direction as to where to go next, beyond searching for clues derived from choice snippets of information;
* The killer attacks women.
* Most murders were in the red light district, the last one at inn "the rusty buckle".
* The killer leaves gold coins in the victims eyes, which leads to the assumption he is a noble or rich merchant.
From there you would just have an idea of what to go, and where to look... that or you could follow the many guides that end up on the web, but either way, the story unfolds based on circumstance. By entering the inn and doing a search of it, you will find traces leading to a locked cellar. You will have to negotiate with the inn-keeper who demands you keep your nose out of it, or handle some dirty business for him by planting evidence on a fellow merchant for access. At any point once you have this critical information that the innkeeper is involved, you can turn it in to the fuzz and walk from the quest with minimal involvement, or submit the info as it comes to you and keep them informed out of good will - but many changes to the story events change depending on how well informed you keep them. I will point out the possibilities as the story is further explained. Going through the cellar either way leads to a tunnel that goes to another abandoned house in the district - a dead end, but gives the point that the killer has escape routes throughout the city, and a deep involvement with local merchants.
With the innkeeper's involvement you can go ahead with the task without informing the NPC, but by telling them you are given the choice to have the policiers siege the inn and grant you access, or allow you to sabotage the other merchant to keep the heat down. The former choice leads to the killer stopping his works and making the trail cold (requiring another deductive section, rather than a lead), while going ahead with the task unexposed will have the killer strike again and you will have a crime scene to investigate with a direct lead on the corpse to a wealthy businessman tied to the person you were told to sabotage.
Without a crime scene, your only lead is to figure out why the businessman was to be sabotaged in the first place, as no one will give you the lead. From there you are to speak directly to the man, then learn of his involvement with the other NPC the crime scene would have led you to. Either way, you find out that man is hard to meet, and he tells you to arrive at his house at a certain time in the night. Once that time has arrived, you enter his courtyard to find dead guardsmen everywhere, and the interior halls besieged by robed assassins. This is where you get to kick a little ass. Upon killing them all, you get to meet the merchant who was being sieged and he rewards you for your involvement up to now. He explains that other merchants have been forming a union of sorts and have been trying to discredit those refusing to join, and is currently looking like they aim to kill them. He asks you to take some men with you and attack who he believes is responsible - your choice to take police with you by reporting the incident or doing so with the crew in tow changes the outcome of the next segment.
After sieging the culprits manor, with either cops or bodyguards in tow, you fight your way to the noble who is cowering. If the police are with you, they attempt to arrest him, but are then presented conflicting evidence stating his innocence. From there you are given the task of returning to the merchant that asked you to finish this for further questioning - but he has setup his defenses and aims to flee through his series of secret tunnels (yep). If you took the bodyguards in tow, the same evidence is presented to you and the merchant slaughtered by the named NPC guard who then turns on you to silence the last witness. Upon killing him you are to seek vengeance on the castle, and at this point you can go to the police for help or do it alone (the latter gives no determinate reward though). In any scenario, you chase the guy throughout the place and through tunnels into various buildings and finally corner him. You kill him in every circumstance, besides when the police are present and they arrest him, that is unless you refuse to let him live during dialog (this does not affect the reward as you basically convince the officer).
*That's a shorter run of what I would do with it, I would have made it much larger*
The Menial Task
I like to think that the only way to make "kill 10 rats" more effective is if it leads to some result of those 10 rats. I think "The Bard's Tale" did the rat quest perfectly; where you are sent to kill the rats, then find a corridor leading to some greater reason to be there - in this case, a fire-breathing rat. I think a kill 10 rat quest could either lead to a location posing as much more than it seems, or lead to a greater task with the idea of rats in mind.
* Kill the ten
* Find source of infestation
* Fight through mutant rats to their queen
* Kill and return to the questgiver.
The NPC would laugh and say "All I did was ask you to kill 10 of em, I'm not paying you extra". At no point in any of these kinds of quests should the player have to return to the questgiver *until its over*. The only crime of multi-tiered quests is asking a player to come back in, only to send him right f'n back to the same spot.
Exploration-Based Quest
A person went missing and you are to retrace the first steps of that person and go from there. Each location would have an asset for pickup lying around (photo, clothing, wallet - anything that fell from the victim), and upon picking it up you get a quest item that when used makes the ghostly visage of the victim appear and give a general idea of where to go next. If you lose track you can always return to where you picked an item up and reuse it to see the clues. In one place the ghost may being pointing off in a broad direction towards a settlement. Then once there you find and item that shows the ghost crawling towards some hoofprints that are only visible right after using the item. Losing sight of the tracks and reusing it while deep on the trail shows the ghost then being dragged by the ankle along it momentarily. The tracks lead to a large wooden door with a knife sticking in it, taking the knife shows you pulling it from the ghost's back as it's removed. Using the knife in the cellar-like maze shows bloodstains on the walls leading to the center complex where tons of bodies are piled up and fed to a greater monster of some kind. Plus there can be things to fight in here too, maybe a group instance, but it requires the quest beaten up to that point in order to take the knife and open the door.
Craft-Type quests tied in to Faction PvP
There are always quests of "get 20 wood" or make "10 swords", and no matter the reasoning behind it - it doesn't really change anything or help anyone. What if faction PvP was fueled by crafters in a sense that signing up for big battles meant getting a gear ration for it dependant on rank and supply catered to by crafting quests. Crafters can turn in tons of items for xp or some kind of advancement, and that directly supplies their faction with tools of varying quality to fight the war with - without sacrificing the personal goods. This can be on different rungs too; where you gather goods for lesser rewards that stockpile a hidden reserve for those doing quests to make items with what ration is available. Worstcase scenario, players may have to get or buy their own resources, but on a good day they might get half of what they need from rationing. Players starting off with crafting and resource gathering would form the base of the pyramid and get the majority of reserve materials and basic gear for battle - while advanced players can seed uber gear to the players kicking ass on the battlefield.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
The Orcs have been raiding our village and burning the crops on our farms for some time. If you can help us keep the Orc population down, we will pay you 10 silver for every Orc Ear you deliver. (And a small, unmentioned, faction bonus).
Our quest is to seek the Holy Grail.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Objective: Escape from Grue 0/1
Reward: Not be eaten by a Grue
If we're talking about a living, visual game world, and the idea of putting text boxes in that visual world, then quest writing is inherently flawed.
If we're talking about quest writing being the narrative voiceovers used by NPCs in in-game events, that's when quest writing is interesting to players (well, as interesting as it has the potential to be at least; some players will simply never care about the story.)
The guy in town may or may not directly speak to you about his lost brother in the orc cave. If he doesn't, he's doing the Oblivion style emergent quests -- he's talking to a friend in a tavern about how his brother's gone missing, and that quest is automatically added to your quest log as a potential activity just by being near the conversation. If he does, it almost has to be a Dragon Age-quality dialog system so that "getting a quest" isn't a significantly less fun activity than "doing the quest" - it's the balance between these activities that causes quest-getting to seem terribly uninteresting in games.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Short, to the point, excellent satire of South Park, which is itself a satire. Bravo!
In the distance you see a short, greasy looking man standing off to the side. As you approach, he shoots you a serpentine grin, his single golden tooth glimmering ostentatiously in the street light. You struggle to pull your attention away from his bizarre and aberrant garb. He is clad in a deep purple robe, with seemingly faux leopard fur trim. His unctuous hair is covered by a large hat, most likely created from the same fabric as his robe. He brandishes a lavishly decorated cane, his stubby fingers wrapping greedily around its head. His attire looks cheap and stale, as if he was holding onto some sort of nostalgia from many years ago, refusing to let it die.
"Well hello there, sir!", the man says, a thick southern drawl contorting his voice. His demeanor is suave, like that of a salesman attempting to reel in a customer.
"My name is A Farmer Named Leeroy. Please say the whole thing if you would, yes that includes the 'A Farmer Named' part, and yes, everytime."
His eyes scrutinize every inch of your body, as if he was searching for anything he could use for his advantage. He quickly scans yours features, looking for any sort of emotional clue to help him gain his way in.
"Now, a very well built gentleman such as yourself wouldn't be looking for a job, now would we?" He questions, a sly grin on his face.
"Oh, you would? Well then, do I have a deal for you! Now, sir, please listen closely as I explain my particular situation.
I have two of my... personal hoes... that I have seemingly misplaced somehow. Now, these hoes are... family mementos, you see. They mean quite a bit to me..." he trails off, his eyes darting to various objects around him, as if making time to finish creating his impromptu deceit.
"Now, I think I may have misplaced my hoes somewhere around 7th Avenue, near Broadway, next to the General Merchant. Now tell me my good sir, would you happen to be interested in helping me on this little business venture? You'll be rewarded handsomely~." he says, his voice peaking at the end of the sentence, as if trying to entice you. His golden encrusted grin shines in the street light.
"Now tell me, my friend, what do you say?"
<
Reward:
A Farmer Named Leeroy's Feather Crested Hat
17 Armor
+2 Wisdom
+2 Guile
+1 Intellect
-2 Strength
>
1. I'd be delighted to help you, A Farmer Named Leeroy. And you better keep your end of the bargain, else there will be trouble.
2. Are you kidding me? You may be one suave mothertrucker, but no way in hell would I help a cheap bastard like you. Get the hell out of my face.
3. I'll have to think about it.
Excellent descriptive writing skills, creative use of diction, adjectives, adverbs, and simile.
Not sure I would want to read this much for every fedex quest, but certainly I might read a book with a good tale written in this style.
Darkcow has some nice skills. I think the text cold be refined a bit further to entice you into feeling more than describing/forcing your feeling, but there is defintitely potential there. But then I don't know either how much time you've given to writing this forum text darkcow.
Anyway, back on topic...
Quest
The vivid wood you enter under a bright sun is morphing slowly around you as you advance. Leprous moulds stuck to dark, convoluted trunks like great limbs contorting in agony. Darkness, from both a thick canopy of mossy liana and the descending night, reigns on the thorny, cruel undergrowth. Hustling leaves, grating, and shuffling sounds hint at creatures just out of sight. No birds here, but an incessant, constant buzzing of mosquitoes and a stream of pinpricks are the only tangible trace of animal life around here.
Emerging in a clearing under a bleak moon should be a relief, except the tree thursting up from its mists bears a noose and a poor, mummified man. The tattered remnants of his clothes look quite rich, and jewellery glisten under the pale moonlight.
Do you search the man's clothing?
- Yes, I may find something useful, at least about his identity.
- No, let him be, I need to get out of here as fast as possible.
- No, but, I'll at least unhang him and give him a decent burying.
As you shift the dried corpse, a crumbling sheet of parchment falls. Picking it up gingerly allows you to read. "I was brought here my the men of Count Alucard. Please find and destroy him, or you will forever suffer the curse I've set on this forest upon dying.
Lord Gnislehnav"
No sooner is the last word under your eyes that the parchment disintregrates in a strong gust of wind...
Reward:
- Lifting of your current curse (+5 to critical failure, - 5 to charm/diplomacy/wisdom rolls)
- Benediction of the Lord, +5 to critical hits
- Listing of the curse on the forest (tie-in with a village plagued by attacks from this forest).
.
Well quests are used as a story telling device, a checkpoint system for advancement, or just plain filler. I honestly don't think that the story or even advancement system of a game should be based on the current "quest" formula. I don't want to have a list on my screen telling me what my objectives are.
Maybe the zones or dungeons themselves should set the goals. For example, someone says that their tow has been attacked for a long time, and somehow the enemy is always able to sneak behind their walls and steal goods or children or something. So all you know is that you should find a way to stop these attacks or at the very least the thefts and kidnapping. So you start searching the town for weak spots and you find that there seems to be a makeshift tunnel built under one of the houses, so you go through the tunnel to find yourself in the middle of the theif camp. You can then choose to sneak around and save the kids and bring them back in the tunnel and then collapse it, or start destroying the camp from the inside. Only to find a diplomat from a rival town providing these theives with money in order to keep this town suppressed. Thus unraveling a conspiracy theory where the rival town is actually being given secrets by the shop owner who's building contained the secret tunnel. Along the way you find the reasoning behind this to be a ransom bargain with a local lord who has been corrupted by dark magic.
And so on and so forth. Instead of making quests, have the player find things out along the way, and maybe provide experience or items at checkpoints to provide incentive. Not only does this get the player more immersed in the story, but it makes the community communicate to help each other find out these little elements (and they don't always need the same solution).
MMOs played: Horizons, Auto Assault, Ryzom, EVE, WAR, WoW, EQ2, LotRO, GW, DAoC, Aion, Requiem, Atlantica, DDO, Allods, Earth Eternal, Fallen Earth, Rift
Willing to try anything new
Excellent descriptive writing skills, creative use of diction, adjectives, adverbs, and simile.
Not sure I would want to read this much for every fedex quest, but certainly I might read a book with a good tale written in this style.
I appreciate the kind words. I'm sure I could be a much better writer, considering I've never taken a writing/creative writing/literature class in my life. I've taken nothing passed 9th grade English (I dropped out my sophomore year of High School
)
Darkcow has some nice skills. I think the text cold be refined a bit further to entice you into feeling more than describing/forcing your feeling, but there is defintitely potential there. But then I don't know either how much time you've given to writing this forum text darkcow.
I actually purposely wrote it that way, sort of in a Single Player RPG or Adventure Game-esque you are the character I made for you way. For an MMO, it definitely should be written differently, leaving more room for personal interpretation rather than a strict, rigid interpretation by the author. However, I also spent probably 15 minutes max on that post, with maybe 3 minutes proof-reading it a few times. It could be better. But like I said, I was kind of winging it, haha. I haven't taken an English or Writing class above 10th grade level.
Wow, and I thought quests were just boxes of text like in wow... they really screwed up their games with this system.
It shouldn't be hard to find an effective way of making quests seem more inmersive and natural.
The only problem is the player will probably have a hard time finding out what to do, so objectives are helpful and needed.
A good quest system would be where these were posted by other player's requesting help, per say, a player has a property, but a giant ogre invaded it, so now he requests for your help to group about 5 party members and try and kill it.
Making quest less static and have actual impact in the community, maybe weekly quests that keep changing like, the player run city will soon be under attack, so the council decides to post a quest in the message board and maybe sound the horn every once in a while to get player's attention, we request help from militia (A giant swarm of mobs charges for the city the specified date and hour).
"Dear citizen or traveler,
Our scouts have reported seeing hostile war camps being prepared a few miles away from the city and have gotten information in which we will be attacked in the seventh twilight of winter at dawn, we warn you to not head for Arson's Creek for the time being and if possible if you could aid us in defending against the rumored attack.
Attentively, Aroth City Council."
Reward, 50 copper pieces, 30 Aroth reputation.
Player made quests sound like fun to me, of course these would also be revised by GMs which would program the attack.
I couldn't disagree more. Objectives exist to enable players to completely ignore the game. That's fine for the lame kill/collect/deliver "quests" that are nothing but errands. A real quest would be like Cactusman's track down a serial killer, or why not, finding the Holy Grail (unfortunately, there is no Holy hand grenade). Let it be hard, and not just because some mob hits harder or takes longer to kill. Make me have to deliver a letter to an NPC adventurer, one who could be almost anywhere because he freely wanders the world.
While I understand why it happens, but I find it funny that they call it a persistent world when the content is so static.