let's think about quests

[grobblewobble]

Let's throw out some ideas and start brainstorming! Here are some quest ideas that came up on IRC.


* Some event where you have to make a decision, which determines which sort of monsters you meet in the wilderness later..
* A unique monster that can only be killed with a unique weapon with low stats.
* Having to disguise yourself as someone else before you talk to an NPC, by wearing the right items.
* A quest that results in a few more vague hints about the weird tome, to feed rumours.
* Training a companion, return to owner for reward or have it rejoin later.
* A difficult quest for an amulet of life saving.
* A quest that opens a vegetable shop selling herbs.
* A quest for the concentration skill (maybe the mad minstrel could teach music + concentration?).
* A quest for the alertness skill.

[Aielyn]

Here's a few that come to mind:

* A quest to locate the (unique) pieces of some ancient object - bring them all together to the giver of the quest, and they'll reunite the pieces to form an artifact or other important item.
* A quest that results in the establishment of a new town in some location that is otherwise wilderness. Could have variations in resulting town depending on the terrain it's established on. (if I'm not mistaken, there's hills, mountains, plains, swamp, forest, and water - so six different variations of the town)
* Needing to give an item to a certain NPC in order to activate a quest, without the NPC asking for it (hints available from various sources).
* A pair of mutually exclusive quests that each lead to unique artifacts.
* A quest hidden below the Old Barbarian's hut.
* A quest for which you must be Neutral, and for which the resulting reward is highly valuable to Neutrals specifically.
* A quest available only to males.
* A quest that requires the PC to rob the Casino (assuming the Casino's defenses are dramatically boosted to make it a really challenging thing to do).
* A purely lawful quest that requires you to completely pacify a specific location (thereby requiring multiple Scrolls of Peace), which results in the location generating only friendly (to Lawfuls) lawful creatures.
* A quest specifically requiring the Bridge Building skill (that is, Frost Bolt useless and Teleportation blocked on level).

[hbpo]

Personally, I would like some quests around the background of ADOM that allow us to discover hidden plots, instead of adding new ones.

For example, with Yggaz as a main protagonist: why is he crazy and knowing so much at the same time? Corruption? Maybe by giving him a PoCC he could briefly recover his mind, assign us a quest, and then going crazy again.

[grobblewobble]

Personally, I would like some quests around the background of ADOM that allow us to discover hidden plots, instead of adding new ones.

For example, with Yggaz as a main protagonist: why is he crazy and knowing so much at the same time? Corruption? Maybe by giving him a PoCC he could briefly recover his mind, assign us a quest, and then going crazy again.

I prefer connections to existing hidden plots and existing characters, too. Then again, I think that quests around them will inevitably involve some new ideas. As an alternative to giving Yggaz a PoCC, maybe you need to give him a ring of the clear mind?

@ Aielyn: some cool ideas! A secret hidden below the Old Barbarians hut sounds awesome (maybe you have to dig there?)
For this bridge building, maybe there is a ravine you can build a bridge across?

[Dervi]

Personally, I would like some quests around the background of ADOM that allow us to discover hidden plots, instead of adding new ones.

For example, with Yggaz as a main protagonist: why is he crazy and knowing so much at the same time? Corruption? Maybe by giving him a PoCC he could briefly recover his mind, assign us a quest, and then going crazy again.

I'm supporting this idea. There are many NPCs/locations mentioned in ADOM that are merely hints or flavor text that could be expanded. With the $90k donation mark, we're gonna get the volcano and Rolf added. I'd like to see Alhacrasts's city implemented: a brand new town with a lot of illusions, invisible monsters, secret places, traps, the corpse of Lubaf who failed to find the scroll of omnipotence, and a well-hidden scroll who would be labeled "OMNIPOTENCE" and, when read, would say something like: "Sorry to disappoint you, but I had a better use for the Scroll of Omnipotence. Go deep below the Caverns of Chaos, cross the Gate, and you'll find me there..."

[grobblewobble]

* A quest that results in the establishment of a new town in some location that is otherwise wilderness. Could have variations in resulting town depending on the terrain it's established on. (if I'm not mistaken, there's hills, mountains, plains, swamp, forest, and water - so six different variations of the town)

I'd like to see Alhacrasts's city implemented: a brand new town with a lot of illusions, invisible monsters, secret places, traps, the corpse of Lubaf who failed to find the scroll of omnipotence, and a well-hidden scroll who would be labeled "OMNIPOTENCE"

Combine these?

Will the city have a Red Rooster Inn? Will there be nothing left of the Red Rooster Inn except burnt down ruins?

[Dervi]

Combine these?

Will the city have a Red Rooster Inn? Will there be nothing left of the Red Rooster Inn except burnt down ruins?

Of course the city should have a Red Rooster Inn!
But maybe it would be another illusion

[Aielyn]

For example, with Yggaz as a main protagonist: why is he crazy and knowing so much at the same time? Corruption? Maybe by giving him a PoCC he could briefly recover his mind, assign us a quest, and then going crazy again.

I had a really cool idea for Yggaz a long time ago, involving an artifact blanket.

It's part of my list of ideas for new Blankets to add to the game, listed both on the old bug system and the new one (I reposted it on the new system with updates incorporating some others' ideas and a few extras of my own). here is the listing on the "new" system. Note: I seem to have made a mistake in that thread, and called him Yggur instead of Yggaz. Not sure why.

In the context of this thread, it's specifically about the quest. And here's how it works:

To trigger the quest, you have to not enter the SMC prior to reaching a certain level (I offered level 15, but it could be higher). Then, you have to talk to Yggaz (perhaps you have to give him something, too... but I don't think that's necessary) - he gives you the quest, to go into the SMC and "retrieve one of the best" (he likes to say that, but this time he's clearly lucid). Of course, the challenge here is that the game initialises the SMC to roughly double the level of the PC, making it dangerous to enter if you wait until level 15. It also delays entry to the HMV. And the reward is mostly valuable if you complete the quest early (it's useful later, too, but less so) - so actually completing it while at a low level (15-25) is encouraged, despite the dangers.

If you satisfy the conditions, and obtain the blanket (which replaces the usual fireproof blanket, and provides the effects of both a fireproof and waterproof blanket that can't be destroyed, as well as reducing the effective weight of the contents of the pack (different from increasing carrying capacity, mostly because of effect on walking on frozen water)). It's useful especially in the ToEF (where it perfectly protects your pack from the heat), but there's a high chance that you'll need it while at a relatively low level.

There's a second use for the blanket, though. You can return it to Yggaz. In doing so, you get an "achievement" in the memorial file (and perhaps a literal achievement, too, now that they're going to be added). Doing so could also result in Yggaz explaining just how much it means to him, and in doing so, telling his story. The story, as I imagine it, is that the SMC is where Yggaz lived for a period of time, and this drove him rather insane, given the nature of that damned cave... when he finally returned to Terinyo, he left behind his prized possession, his "seamless blanket"... and he had no way to return to the cave and survive long enough to retrieve his blanket.

There could be an additional reward for returning it to him, perhaps... but I haven't thought too much about that.

Anyway, even if it doesn't get added like that, it might serve as inspiration for an alternative idea.


grobblewobble - a ravine or something like it was exactly what I was thinking. Perhaps it could, say, be a location a little north of the gremlin cave - perhaps a deep canyon with a magical wind flowing out of it. The wind prevents teleportation, and a thin spire in the middle of the canyon holds some item... perhaps it could be the location of the guaranteed AoLS (although that's perhaps a little too "easy" for an AoLS). Of course, you need to learn of the location of the spire, first (by which, I mean you need to trigger the game to make the canyon location available).

And thinking about it, you might also be able to go down to the bottom of the canyon via a stairway found on the opposite side of the canyon from the entry point, where another quest occurs, with a magical theme to it, since it's where the magical wind is coming from.

[Deg]

A while back I was thinking it might be interesting to find a quest giver on say the 2nd level or 3rd level of ToEF. It might be useful to tie a quest giver in the tower with the volcano quest line.

[Stingray1]

Yeah was thinking about one where the Mad minstrel would offer to teach music to pc's with high App and Cha in exchange for some blessed instruments. The amount dependent on the pc's Haggling.
As items of Cha and App are mostly considered 'junk' and Haggling is under-used. Level of pc and alignment still needs consideration.
In order to get offered his main quest of the auto-cursing Artifact instrument. That enslaves creatures with a mind. But corrupt when in the tool slot and when used. And frees the enslaved creature when removed from tool slot. He would offer the location or give this Artifact in exchange of say 5 tamed greater claw bugs.