I just want to start off by saying, I love ADoM. Duh! Or I wouldn't spend so much time playing it! I honestly think it's one of the best games I've ever, ever played, for a whole slew of reasons I don't need to spent time enumerating to fellow ADoM fanatics. And I'm massively grateful to Thomas for all the time he's spent creating it over the years.
That said ...
I loathe Thrundrarr's first quest, to "kill a <foo>". Loathe it. It's bad. It sucks.
Here's the problem as I see it:
It's either ludicrously easy - "kill a giant rat", "kill an orc" ... Which isn't so bad, but it doesn't feel like a quest at all. The only thing worse in this regard would be a 'go collect me some herbs - I feel a bit of a cough coming on!', or 'Give me some gold - my treasury is feeling a bit empty right now!'
... or it's ridiculously grindy. He'll assign you with a mid-level monster which is super-rare - like, you'll see 4 or 5 in a whole game if you play all the way to D:50 - but if you don't do it, you are blocked from doing any other of his quests, except for the 'portal' quest. Great! Another 2 or 3 hours grinding the Big Room or the ID just to have a chance to do it - or otherwise, just give up the idea of doing any of his quests! I don't mind grinding, but to be forced to grind, or you're denied the chance to do a fair percentage of the quests which are in the game?!? Are you kidding?!? Because when I play ADoM, the first thing I think is, 'Wow, I hope I have to spend hours grinding S'es in the Big Room this game!!!'
Furthermore, when a ridiculously rare monster is generated, it makes me NOT want to play ADoM any more. A quest which, most of the time, just makes me want to do something - ANYTHING - else, rather than continue playing.
It sucks. It just reeks of 'placeholder'. And it's been in the game for a long, long, long time.
Can this please, please be replaced with something that doesn't suck, and soon?
(I say this, Thomas, with the utmost respect. )
PS: I am playing on pre 20; I understand this issue has been addressed since, and doesn't apply any more since the extreme random nature of the quest has been addressed.