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How-to implement Quests

8 replies [Last post]
Sun, 09/30/2012 - 16:49
questccg
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Hi all,

We are progressing in the design of "Of Legends And Lore" ( http://www.oflegendsandlore.com ). We are trying to determine if our *Quest* mechanic may be improved upon.

How it currently works in the design, when a player gets a *Quest* to complete the level, several things happen:

1-We need to determine the elements of the Quest (I will provide an example)
2-Using a series of dice rolls the elements are placed on the board
3-Players must collect the necessary elements to complete the quest
4-Return to a specific room with all the elements

So an example is "Grave Concerns": the elements of the quest are a *Cross* and *Holy water*. The Cross must be washed in the Holy water.

What happens is that the yellow wink (representing the Cross) and the blue wink (representing the Holy water) must both be collected. Next they must make it to the resolution room where they will encounter 3 zombies, 2 skeletons and 1 necromancer...

Last thing (the rolls), prior to collecting the 2 winks, they must be placed on the board following two (2) dice rolls: 1d12 and 1d8 (So up to 12 and then 8 tiles away).

If you need additional explanations please inquire.

Many thanks.

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Sun, 09/30/2012 - 20:13
#1
questccg
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Another example

questccg wrote:

1-We need to determine the elements of the Quest (I will provide an example)
2-Using a series of dice rolls the elements are placed on the board
3-Players must collect the necessary elements to complete the quest
4-Return to a specific room with all the elements

Another example is "Golden Opportunity": mine gold for the dwarves. The elements of the quest are a *Pickax* (red wink) and three (3) *Gold nuggets* (yellow/blue/green winks).

The Pickax must be collected first before the gold nuggets. Next, once collected, the player must make it to the resolution room to meet the elderly dwarf.

They are placed according to the following dice rolls: 1d12 (red wink), 1d8 (yellow), 1d6 (blue), 1d4 (green).

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Sun, 09/30/2012 - 20:10
#2
kos
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Multiple quests

Can there be multiple quests active at the same time?
The reason I ask is that in the 2 examples both use a yellow wink. So if both were active at the same time (either one player with multiple quests or two players with 1 quest each) then there would be 4 yellow winks on the board which could be used for either quest.

Who chooses where to place the items?
The reason I ask is that if it is the player with the quest, and both items are 6 squares away, then he is going to place both of them in the same room. But if it is another player placing the items, he is going to put them in opposite directions to each other.

Regards,
kos

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Sun, 09/30/2012 - 22:13
#3
questccg
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Good questions

kos wrote:
Can there be multiple quests active at the same time?
The reason I ask is that in the 2 examples both use a yellow wink. So if both were active at the same time (either one player with multiple quests or two players with 1 quest each) then there would be 4 yellow winks on the board which could be used for either quest.

No there can only be ONE active quest. The reason is there are not enough colored winks. If they were all the same color (let's say yellow), well then how do you distinguish between the *Pickax* and the *Gold nuggets*. The pickax is a pre-requisit to getting the gold nuggets...

kos wrote:
Who chooses where to place the items?
The reason I ask is that if it is the player with the quest, and both items are 6 squares away, then he is going to place both of them in the same room. But if it is another player placing the items, he is going to put them in opposite directions to each other.

The game is cooperative, all players belong to the same party. I figure players will always try to make it that the elements are closest to each other in order... Nothing I can do about that since there is no Dungeon Master! :P

Well you have made me think about how Treasures/Rewards get given: in a Boss level (where players need to defeat a monster), EACH player earns one (1) Treasure/Reward. But in the case of a Quest, the player with the *Pickax* (like in my example), will collect 3 *Gold nuggets* and get three (3) Treasures/Rewards. Obviously players can "share" their Treasure/Reward opportunities... But seriously maybe one (1) out of three (3)... Hehehe.

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Mon, 10/01/2012 - 08:26
#4
jbinc
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Loot and Item Placement

questccg wrote:

Well you have made me think about how Treasures/Rewards get given: in a Boss level (where players need to defeat a monster), EACH player earns one (1) Treasure/Reward. But in the case of a Quest, the player with the *Pickax* (like in my example), will collect 3 *Gold nuggets* and get three (3) Treasures/Rewards. Obviously players can "share" their Treasure/Reward opportunities... But seriously maybe one (1) out of three (3)... Hehehe.

If the focus is on co-op play shouldn't everyone get an equal share of the loot regardless of who's holding the pickax (or other items)? After all, even in a boss level there might be one player who gets the killing blow, but it sounds like they won't be the only one who gets a reward.

Regarding placement of items - could you make it more of a challenge if each item has to be placed in a certain order, but X squares away from the last placed item? For example: the pickax is placed 1d12 squares away from the active player; the first nugget 1d8 squares from the ax; the second 1d6 squares from the first nugget, and the last 1d4 squares from the second.

Perhaps you could add a rule saying each time you place an item, it has to be further away from the players than the last (to avoid savvy players 'zig-zagging' between items).

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Mon, 10/01/2012 - 23:12
#5
questccg
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Share maybe equal not always

jbinc wrote:
If the focus is on co-op play shouldn't everyone get an equal share of the loot regardless of who's holding the pickax (or other items)? After all, even in a boss level there might be one player who gets the killing blow, but it sounds like they won't be the only one who gets a reward.

Well I think that's kinda the idea, fighting a boss gives equal rewards - one reward each. A quest allows one player to earn more than that. That is partly an "even" things out mechanism, because players can collect rewards when they have enough experience also. Sometime players will want to do a quest instead of a battle. On a roll of 4 (out of 1d4), players can choose how to resolve a level (from none, to boss or quest).

jbinc wrote:
Regarding placement of items - could you make it more of a challenge if each item has to be placed in a certain order, but X squares away from the last placed item? For example: the pickax is placed 1d12 squares away from the active player; the first nugget 1d8 squares from the ax; the second 1d6 squares from the first nugget, and the last 1d4 squares from the second.

Yes - exactly what I had in mind - but players can decide which direction to go (making the positions closer).

jbinc wrote:
Perhaps you could add a rule saying each time you place an item, it has to be further away from the players than the last (to avoid savvy players 'zig-zagging' between items).

I wanted to make sure that items can be properly positioned, so I did not plan to put restrictions on "zig-zagging". But I was aware that players could position winks in that manner...

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Tue, 10/02/2012 - 15:41
#6
Runedrake
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Exploration

I don't think quest checkpoints should be placed by players.
On the backs of a few tiles it could show what checkpoint it is (#1, #2, #3, #4).

So for example in "Grave Concerns":
Checkpoint #1 is the cross
Checkpoint #2 is the holy water
Resolution room: 3 zombies, 2 skeletons and 1 necromancer

The players do not know where these checkpoints are so they have to walk around the dungeon to find them.
When you go into a room you could flip that tile over to see what is on the back of the tile.

For example...
player 1: I found checkpoint #1...
player 2: Now all we need is to find checkpoint #2. Ugh, I ran into a trap
player 3: "flips over room tile"... checkpoint #2! come over here.
player 1: cool! now if I come over there then we only need to get to the resolution room.

This would also make a lot more sense. It would be a bit boring if in every quest you know exactly where everything is. It also gives some players a feeling of success when they find the checkpoints.

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Tue, 10/02/2012 - 20:16
#7
questccg
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Good points

Runedrake wrote:
I don't think quest checkpoints should be placed by players.
On the backs of a few tiles it could show what checkpoint it is (#1, #2, #3, #4).

So for example in "Grave Concerns":
Checkpoint #1 is the cross
Checkpoint #2 is the holy water
Resolution room: 3 zombies, 2 skeletons and 1 necromancer

The players do not know where these checkpoints are so they have to walk around the dungeon to find them.
When you go into a room you could flip that tile over to see what is on the back of the tile.

For example...
player 1: I found checkpoint #1...
player 2: Now all we need is to find checkpoint #2. Ugh, I ran into a trap
player 3: "flips over room tile"... checkpoint #2! come over here.
player 1: cool! now if I come over there then we only need to get to the resolution room.

This would also make a lot more sense. It would be a bit boring if in every quest you know exactly where everything is. It also gives some players a feeling of success when they find the checkpoints.

Okay this sounds reasonable... The checkpoints go:

Intersection (1), Corridor (1), Elbow (1), and T (1).

The Resolution Room is a room so no checkpoint should go there. Quests have a different amounts of checkpoints according to the quest. And the nice thing is, player's could quit certain quests after the *required* elements are found (like 2 out of 4 checkpoints).

For example: "Golden opportunity": Mine gold for an elderly dwarf. All elements could be optional, only each nugget found (checkpoint) gives the player a reward/treasure from the elderly dwarf.

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Tue, 10/02/2012 - 20:26
#8
questccg
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Storyline

Okay so I think the suggestion of checkpoints on the back is good. One thing to note is that it could take longer than 10 minutes to complete *long* (4 checkpoints) quests.

The good news is that the *Story-mode* could ease that burden by controlling which quests get played. The Story-mode would decide how a level is to be resolved, the boss or the quest, etc. It's nice because players can play the pre-built story and then play a purely random adventure after completing the story!

Many thanks.

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