Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
Okay, there may be more or fewer than that but that's the point of posting this. You may have heard of the 36 basic plots of literature (depending on the source the number may be listed as 20, or 7, or something else). Those plots are naturally VERY useful in running a D&D campaign, but it's not the same thing as how that plot is presented to PC's in an RPG.
Aside from the "36 plots" notion my inspiration here actually came from MMORPG's; initially City of Heroes, but then reinforced by World of Warcraft and other MMO's I've played like Everquest and Asheron's Call. It occurred to me that, to a limited extent, the ways in which MMO's were feeding quests to PC's was a useful model for D&D and other REAL RPG's. Not that interaction with NPC's should be handwaved except to continuously shovel quests at the players, but that by reducing RPG adventures to the form of "quests" or "missions", as MMO's handled them, was a method that may have certain advantages. New DM's might particularly find it useful as a reference to use in getting a campaign or an adventure started.
At this point all I'm trying to do is establish a list of all the basic forms that an RPG "quest" will take. What I've come up with so far is:
Aside from the "36 plots" notion my inspiration here actually came from MMORPG's; initially City of Heroes, but then reinforced by World of Warcraft and other MMO's I've played like Everquest and Asheron's Call. It occurred to me that, to a limited extent, the ways in which MMO's were feeding quests to PC's was a useful model for D&D and other REAL RPG's. Not that interaction with NPC's should be handwaved except to continuously shovel quests at the players, but that by reducing RPG adventures to the form of "quests" or "missions", as MMO's handled them, was a method that may have certain advantages. New DM's might particularly find it useful as a reference to use in getting a campaign or an adventure started.
At this point all I'm trying to do is establish a list of all the basic forms that an RPG "quest" will take. What I've come up with so far is:
- Sweep/Patrol
In MMO’s this often takes the form of “Kill x number of this monster”. It may alternatively be, “Kill this type of monster until you come up with x number of monster parts that prove you’ve killed enough of them.” It also takes the form of the PC needing to kill monsters until he obtains another type of item that can be found in the possession of the monsters. Actually, that’s probably the most common form for MMO’s, giving PC’s a reason to fight and having them collect things from the monsters to be traded for money or used in crafting. It might be that once enough monsters are killed one of them offers up a needed piece of information, or one of them turns out the be the individual monster that is being sought. Unless you're going to start patterning your D&D game directly after Everquest (a foolishly limiting notion) there's probably a limited use for this in D&D. However, I have almost made it a tradition that at some point low level PC's will be hired to inflict some attrition on orcs, goblins or the like and earn ?Gp's per left ear as a bounty. - Dungeon
In City of Heroes the equivalent would be a "Door mission". A VERY common MMO quest. It simply sends PC’s to a given destination like a door, a building, a cave, where assumedly the PC’s will know what to do. For good measure the NPC will generally provide that information as well, though. “Go to this place and kill everything/obtain the widget you find there (which simply by extension generally requires killing everything there)”. The PC’s could be sent by an NPC, by followng a map, have simply discovered the location as they traveled through the area, or have found it by following some other clue. - Ambush
In D&D this is probably the equivalent of a random encounter but as a category it covers more than just random violence in the wilderness. This could just as often be an event triggered as a act of revenge because of previous PC actions (and it was this pattern used in City of Heroes that sort of tripped the idea in general). It can also be a “probing” attack that serves the purpose of indicating to otherwise unaware PC’s that something like a dungeon is nearby, or simply wears down their hit points and equipment before reaching their nearby destination. Finally, it could be a set piece – an encounter that occurs for no reason other than that the PC’s are in the correct place at the correct time (see also #12) - FedEx/Delivery
This should be used a little sparingly in D&D simply because it is so over-used in MMO’s that players come to be annoyed by it. It involves moving an item or information (which is otherwise often of little or no intrinsic value) from one person/place to another for pay. In MMO's they are typically set in a series such that an item must be taken to one NPC after another and it helps to keep players mollified if they know ahead of time how many legs they’re going to be facing in order to complete the quest and what the payoff is. It is also easy to use it as a parenthetical or bookend quest where simply attempting to get from A to B to deliver a widget the PC’s are subjected to a lot of intervening attacks, sub-quests, and side-quests. - Challenge/Competition
This is a type of “quest” that is really seldom used. As I’m seeing it the completion requirements (what it is that actually gets you money, xp, etc) would be highly variable since the type of competition, the rules for it (if any), and the “prize” could be dang near anything. Really, it’s more a matter of how the quest is being presented than what the required completion conditions actually are. - Steal Something
In this case I’m thinking of obtaining items or information by STEALTH as opposed to open combat, quite probably because open combat would be certain death for the PC’s. The drawback to this type of quest is mostly the danger of making it succeed-or-die. In MMO's this takes the form of a given quest that in attempting to succeed at it PC's repeatedly die until they figure out the only “safe” means of circumventing the dangers. However, when handled carefully in an RPG by a living DM who plans ahead to provide players with multiple “outs” should things start to go wrong, it can be very interesting and exciting. - Fix Something
In MMO's often used as a minor quest. In conjunction with other quests it amounts to little more than quickly obtaining or moving a widget to simply enable further progression in another ongoing quest rather than as a standalone quest. Example: you reach a door with a complex, broken lock into which the PC inserts a missing gear to allow the door to open and access to whatever/whoever is beyond it. In D&D it seems to be the opposite - a quest to fix something is a larger scale endeavor that entails a lot of lesser adventures/encounters. Example: reassembling the Rod of 7 Parts to use in banishing/destroying a demon or god. - Collecting/Scavenger Hunt
A HIGHLY over-used type of quest in MMO’s. Players are required to tediously collect and accumulate basic ingredients for crafting, special parts for assembling widgets as part of crafting or quest completion, and so forth. A pattern I would NOT recommend to use habitually for D&D. - Roleplaying/Meet & Greet
Perhaps the most simple form of quest it consists of going to a second location or NPC to get needed information, to manipulate other NPC actions, instigate certain events, or perhaps just exercise “roleplaying” opportunities. The latter can take the form of learning personal information about NPC’s, general information about the world, completely extraneous information, or information that actually constitutes clues to various quests and so forth. - Discovery/Search
Rather than being SENT on a quest the PC’s simply go wandering in search of one. In MMO’s this is largely a waste of time because quests are assigned at specific locations, by specific NPC’s, with very fixed parameters in order to keep players occupied as much as possible. Thus in MMO’s this will often manifest as nothing more than finding interesting terrain features by travelling from one place to another. It could be an unusual statue in the middle of nowhere, beautiful vistas like waterfalls or canyons, a purple lake, unusual trees, the names of the game designers carved into a cliff, or the like. In D&D, however, even more can be made of these opportunities. The PC’s can simply head off into the wilderness to see what’s there and this type of “quest” initiator fits the bill. In simply wandering around the PC’s can find people and places, or experience and witness events that they otherwise would not, all rather than merely stumbling across the occasional pretty scenery (though the impact of that too in an RPG should not be disregarded). - Follow/Spy/Scout
Although it happens a fair amount in RPG’s I can’t recall a single instance of seeing this kind of quest in an MMO. Yet in RPG’s and D&D in particular it seems to predominantly take the form of a rogue/thief being sent on a solo mission due to their specialty of clandestine activity that other PC’s can’t manage. This is a drawback because it leaves other PC’s with nothing to do - but there’s no reason it HAS to be that way. Fighters, for example, can simply remove their heavy armor and though they may not be able to “Move Silently” as a rogue they can still exercise STEALTH in penetrating a castle at night. As long as the PC’s won’t attract undue attention for simply BEING there any of them can follow a subject through a crowd to watch where he goes. And spying means obtaining information without being detected and that can just as easily mean MISDIRECTION and CONFUSION rather than something only being able to be accomplished by stealth. - Location/Time-Based Events
Somewhat related to #3 above but rather than the PC’s being attacked they could experience other events or be provided options simply by being in the right place at the right time. - Assassination
PC's are tasked to kill a specific individual, possibly as a matter of course within another "quest" such as the final showdown with the BBEG, but as I'm thinking of it a more self-contained attack as might be exemplified by the act performed by the classic 1E Assassin class character.
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