Incline Quests which you would like to see in RPGs?

[PorkyThePaladin]

The main problem with RPG quests (modern RPGs in particular) is that in their attempt to leave no idiot behind and make the games more accessible, developers keep breaking the quests down from some actual interesting goal into tiny steps, each of which is banal.

Let's say you start with something like "We want to help group A overthrow group B in Fucksville". On the surface, this would be a fascinating quest, but in a modern RPG (and even some old ones), it would be broken down into:

1. Visit NPC 1 in Fucksville.
2. NPC 1 spells out step 3
3. Kill NPC 2
4. Return to NPC 1
5. Talk to NPC 3
6. NPC 3 tells you that thanks to your previous work in steps 1-5, the goal has been achieved.

So even though the actual "quest" is really cool, what you actually end up doing is a series of brain-dead mini-tasks that make you feel like an errand-boy, and bring zero satisfaction.

The few RPGs that do let you accomplish higher level goals in a free format where YOU figure out how to get the quest done (e.g. Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis, Anachronox, Betrayal at Krondor, to a lesser degree Albion, Fallout, Deus Ex, etc) are amazing in this sense. Not only is the gameplay so much more interesting and stimulating, but you feel so much more empowered and engaged.

The ideal RPG should just let you you loose in the world with some high level goal, and let you free to figure out how to get it done. BotW was great at this btw.

 

[Marat]

I don't like quests, story, dialogue, etc. It is always boring and badly written and stupid.

I see your tag is well deserved.

 

[Bony Hands]

You get stuck looking after some rich idiot that wants to be an adventurer, but he's a well connected idiot so you can't tell him to go away. But if he thinks you're protecting him, he'll throw a fit and bring unnecessary trouble on you. So rather then an escort mission, the goal is to set the adventure up so he gets his fill and gets home safe. Drug the enemies so they can't fight back, stuff the treasure chests full of things he'll like, maybe even give him a close brush with death so you can 'save' him and get on his good side.

 

[Lurker47]

I want more religious conversion quests.

 

[Dodo1610]

Optional sidequests that actually reveal important information about the game's plot or even better about your own character.
I really liked t you only find out about Adam Jensen's origin if you do a sidequest or the companion quest in Greedfall where you meet your aunt.

Also, hidden timers can be great if used correctly.

 

[Falksi]

Optional sidequests that actually reveal important information about the game's plot or even better about your own character.
I really liked t you only find out about Adam Jensen's origin if you do a sidequest or the companion quest in Greedfall where you meet your aunt.

Also, hidden timers can be great if used correctly.

That's something which the 00's era of JRPG's did do well. Sidequests in games like Lost Odyssey fleshed the whole thing out very nicely.

 

[maximusriley]

I like the more everyday human elements. Like hanging out and drinking with the boys in The Witcher 3. Not everything has to be about accomplishing some massive task or whathave you.

 

[anvi]

Get some buddies to go drinking with in real life, then gaming could focus on gameplay.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I sent a quest idea to Black Isle back in 2001:

"hello mr. black isle,

hello i was wondering if u could maybe consider in ur future hit GOTY 2002/03/04 to make sum more quests that maybe let u befriend enemies. i got this idea cuz i noticed in ur 2000 hit title, blader's gate 2: shadows of amnish, u could romance three variety of elf girlz (dunno why u can romance anomen tho, probably a suggestion for young upstart josh sawyer) and yet u cannot make friends with ur enemies.

so i was thinking perhaps u should let us go into, say, a spider cave and u meet a bunch of giant spiders but rather than attack and ruin the meticulous webs they have woven for the last six years, u bring them a gnome as sacrifice/tribute and dey are like "hzzzz, we are pleeeeased... yes... u meet master..." and take u to the leader spider named the SPIDER KING who wears a crown and majestic purple cape. the spider king looks at ur gift and is like "hero u have proven ur stalwart resolve and are now a friend of the arachnidia, wear this badge in the underdark and twelve viconias will pussy-pounce u." then he can dub u as a spider knight and u become an honorary champion.

idk i think it would be cool and i hope u consider this btw i think josh sawyer should have a thorough background check done on him becuz im p sure he was on a sex offender list.

thanks for reading,
tarantulasbeastwars2000@hotmail.com"

This was my reply:

"Dear Tarantulasbeastwars2000@hotmail.com,

Don't ever send an e-mail to us again. We have received your last twenty about this subject. Also, Josh Sawyer is not a registered sex offender.

Thank you for your cooperation."

If you ask me they left money on the table.

 

[anvi]

I don't like quests, story, dialogue, etc. It is always boring and badly written and stupid.

I see your tag is well deserved.

Only 14 posts and that was one of the chosen ones..?

You know if you actually cared about stories, you could have been enjoying millions of them written by professional writers on all sorts of subjects. They are cheap yet packed with content, all in a tiny package which is light weight and portable enough to keep in your pocket! What more could you want? There are even interactive ones. If for some reason you still wanted more, then luckily that exists too. It is called an Adventure Game. They were huge in the 80s and 90s before the mass retardation of the planet. There was a popular one about pirates and monkeys and even one about a guy called Gabriel. And you had an inventory and you go to places and talk to people and such amazing things, that yeah, normal people do in real life anyway, but now you could simulate in a game. All with a decent story to give context to everything.

And for people who can already go to places and talk to people in real life, there were other games that let you do all sorts of things you can't do in real life, and it was exciting and fun and challenging. It was a glorious time, pre-idiocracy. Now I must go bitch at Microsoft for not letting me roleplay a transgender tiktok influencer in Flight Simulator.

 

[Kainan]

I find it most memorable when you have to find some person by asking around, gathering clues etc. Caius Cosades, Xardas in G3, a guy in Arcanum that you had to track down whose name eludes me...
In Space Rangers this was the best as the.npcs constantly moved around.

 

[Marat]

Only 14 posts and that was one of the chosen ones..?

What can I say? I'm the strong, silent type.

You know if you actually cared about stories, you could have been enjoying millions of them written by professional writers on all sorts of subjects. They are cheap yet packed with content, all in a tiny package which is light weight and portable enough to keep in your pocket!

What do you know? I actually have enjoyed them in the past and will continue to do so.

What more could you want?

A role to play in the story (as in a Role Playing Game). Fun thing about this genre is that it's the only one that, at least sometimes, attempts to let you choose what your act will be and how you will play it.

I won't bother to point out that, just like there are other genres that tell a story, there is plenty of genres without ANY storytelling that you so hate.

 

[anvi]

You play a role in Monkey Island too... and most games. Sounds like you should be playing choose your own adventures instead of trying to ram your crappy airport novels into a place where gameplay should be the focus.

There are not plenty of games without storytelling, I like tactical combat and even in those games they are forced into spewing out mountains of high school standard story and dialogue. Go read a book, just one of the famous ones, see how many leagues above gaming the writing of a real novel is. It is like from best to worst:

Famous novel
Masterpiece movie
A good book
A good movie
An average story
A bad book
An exceptionally well written video game
A terrible book
Street signs
99% of games
Your posts

 

[Marat]

I think you're just upset 'cause you wanted to watch pretty lights on your screen and they force you to read long words instead.

 

[anvi]

 

[Smerlus]

I'd like more to be done with magical/unique weapons. usually the magical weapons found in games all have flavor text that say some adventure defeated a dragon and that's how this spoon is now a fiery spoon +2. As a player character you will probably accomplish much more in a game so i'd like to see how a developer could create something around that. I'm not talking BT4 or Fable type magical weapon quests either but at least they tried.

The Pen and Paper game Earthdawn had things like researching things in the library, setting up monuments, killing a certain creature, blood oaths and things like that.

I'd also like to see a heist quest where you're given a budget and a variety of party members or NPCs with varying degrees of useful skills and depending on choices and how the team is picked, the heist would play out in a variety of ways.

Would be interested in actually being able to utilize mercenaries for quests. send them off to do something you don't want to do or even just send them off to harass the main antagonist similar to how most games send mercenaries to hunt the player character down. Would be nice to out bid the antagonist since most RPGs have the player rolling in gold coins.

 

[anvi]

There was a MUD that had lots of weapons and lots of people had a Steel Sword or whatever. There were rare weapons too, but also there were mythical weapons which were completely unique. Only one thing in the world ever had it, and if you killed the creature, you got the sword. And everyone would know the new owner of the sword and their name. It meant they were famous but brought unwanted attention too. And if that person was killed, the sword went to someone else. Everyone in the game knew the names of these sorts of items and getting one was a big deal and made you a big deal. My friend played this and it sounded really good. The best I've played is Everquest which was very similar to this. I can remember legendary items 21 years after I played it.

 

[Serious_Business]

I don't want to see a peculiar type of quest, but I'd like to see the line between "main quests" and "secondary quests" be more blurred as time goes along. I think the concept of a main quest is archaic, it's a structure to carry the gameplay, but many rpgs now have open-ended gameplay and don't support that structure, or that type of design and narrative. A game where you have many options (many quests), mutually exclusive options, is what I'd like to see here - open world games need to go that direction. A quest would only be the "main quest" if the player give it that kind of importance. It's not so much that you need to abandon quest design or narrative-driven gameplay - some games do that and I do enjoy it, but then they cannot do much from a literary standpoint ; it's mostly about multiplying the possible narratives.

 

[The Great ThunThun*]

Ideally, I'd rather not have 'quests', but 'goals' that can be achieved using existing game mechanics with muh story events working more as rewards (along things that affect the game world) rather than a thing you get showered with on every corner.

You see, this is the crux of the matter. The entire problem of a design called "quest" is based on the idea that Heroes of legends did them. Perseus went on a quest to slay Medusa with magic items, Jason created a party to get the Golden Fleece and the Round table quested around to get a Holy Chalice. This is not a bad design at all. It is just that it is the only one in most cases. And thus, the goal is foisted upon you without any real motivation. At least in the stories, the goal is a necessity; Perseus and Jason have been assigned their tasks to claim their birthright and for the Knights of the Round table it is a spiritual duty as well a quest for *fame*. But in the computer game, you do quests because they are added to your journal. Often, they are ill-written and present little if any conviction as to why the player must or should do them. While optional things like that are fine, they are perfect incubus when presented as a *necessity*.

Somehow this is a narrative structure that very few games seem to be capable of breaking. However, now there are more and more of them recently. And I believe they represent a step in the right direction, where the player decides what constitutes a quest.

I present the Expeditions series as a clear example, where for illustration, you can recover the Sword of King Arthur, arguably the most powerful weapon in the game, as a completely missable side-"quest". It is not even a real quest as there is no indication that this is the final reward. You simply notice some runic stones; pardon me; menhirs, and from that reconstruct the path to a hidden location where you might wander to just explore. There, on the island of dem apples, you may recover the weapon conditioned on your previous experience in the game; if you are the rightful king of the Bretons you can pull it out of the rock.

Now that is a brilliant design. Why? Because it gives you, the player, the initiative. It does not present even a goal or a map marker. It does not have the allure of a reward. You just decide if you are intrigued by the evidence or not.

Thus, if the developers can write *compelling* leads to a hidden target, I would consider that in general as the best design in lieu of the "Quest" structure.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Ideally, I'd rather not have 'quests', but 'goals' that can be achieved using existing game mechanics with muh story events working more as rewards (along things that affect the game world) rather than a thing you get showered with on every corner.

You see, this is the crux of the matter. The entire problem of a design called "quest" is based on the idea that Heroes of legends did them. Perseus went on a quest to slay Medusa with magic items, Jason created a party to get the Golden Fleece and the Round table quested around to get a Holy Chalice. This is not a bad design at all. It is just that it is the only one in most cases. And thus, the goal is foisted upon you without any real motivation. At least in the stories, the goal is a necessity; Perseus and Jason have been assigned their tasks to claim their birthright and for the Knights of the Round table it is a spiritual duty as well a quest for *fame*. But in the computer game, you do quests because they are added to your journal. Often, they are ill-written and present little if any conviction as to why the player must or should do them. While optional things like that are fine, they are perfect incubus when presented as a *necessity*.

Somehow this is a narrative structure that very few games seem to be capable of breaking. However, now there are more and more of them recently. And I believe they represent a step in the right direction, where the player decides what constitutes a quest.

I present the Expeditions series as a clear example, where for illustration, you can recover the Sword of King Arthur, arguably the most powerful weapon in the game, as a completely missable side-"quest". It is not even a real quest as there is no indication that this is the final reward. You simply notice some runic stones; pardon me; menhirs, and from that reconstruct the path to a hidden location where you might wander to just explore. There, on the island of dem apples, you may recover the weapon conditioned on your previous experience in the game; if you are the rightful king of the Bretons you can pull it out of the rock.

Now that is a brilliant design. Why? Because it gives you, the player, the initiative. It does not present even a goal or a map marker. It does not have the allure of a reward. You just decide if you are intrigued by the evidence or not.

Thus, if the developers can write *compelling* leads to a hidden target, I would consider that in general as the best design in lieu of the "Quest" structure.

Sounds like bad design. The good design would be:

"The menhirs speak to you. They crave blood. Collect 10 wolf pelts (5% drop chance) for each menhir to get $100 and learn their secret."

Quest added to the journal.

Now that's 10/10 material worthy of a classic RPG like WoW.

 

[Marat]

Sounds like bad design. The good design would be:

"The menhirs speak to you. They crave blood. Collect 10 wolf pelts (5% drop chance) for each menhir to get $100 and learn their secret."

Quest added to the journal.

Now that's 10/10 material worthy of a classic RPG like WoW.

 

[fantadomat]

I like retaking ground type of quest,villages,bases etc etc. Like the ones from the witcher were you kill a bunch of enemy and X village is resettled. Tho i want them done bigger and better and with some side quests and shit. For that tho there must a good setting. If lucky we might see similar thing in the new pathfinder game.

I do like the feel of actually doing something in a conflict that it makes sense,you being an opposition. Also DA:I did have similar quest and feel,but they did fucked it up. Tho the base/faction building was pretty nice,if you managed to ignore that most things were irrelevant.

 

[fantadomat]

I like the more everyday human elements. Like hanging out and drinking with the boys in The Witcher 3. Not everything has to be about accomplishing some massive task or whathave you.

KingdomeCome Deliverance has pretty good drinking quest .

 

[Lord_Potato]

I like retaking ground type of quest,villages,bases etc etc. Like the ones from the witcher were you kill a bunch of enemy and X village is resettled. Tho i want them done bigger and better and with some side quests and shit. For that tho there must a good setting. If lucky we might see similar thing in the new pathfinder game.

I do like the feel of actually doing something in a conflict that it makes sense,you being an opposition. Also DA:I did have similar quest and feel,but they did fucked it up. Tho the base/faction building was pretty nice,if you managed to ignore that most things were irrelevant.

Did you play Gothic 3 by any chance?

 

[Acrux]

Something like this maybe? Just found it today. I agree that there is hardly anything like a compelling murder mystery to investigate.

The premise had my interest. When I saw it's a game developed by nerdook, it became pure incline.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1304770/The_Magister/