Guide to Quests
So you want to do a quest huh? Well here's a small guide that will hopefully help you prepare for your adventure ahead.
First of all, think of a theme. What do you hope to accomplish with this quest? Will it be something that will forever change the world of Avendar (i.e. the coming of a new god) or a more everyday event (i.e. a merchant's daughter is sick and the merchant needs everyone to find the antidote).
Once that has been decided, start thinking of how closely guided you wish the quest to be. Do you want every step planned out? Or do you want them to formulate their own plans, and then adapt to them while playing? Be warned, even if you want the players to formulate the answer, you should have as much of the quest built as possible, because you definitely do not want to spend all your time in the OLC editor, while you should be interacting with them as mobs.
This leads me to the next point: Prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. In case I haven't made that point clear, here it is again: prepare. Make your gechoes, notes, items, rewards, modified mobs, new mobs, etc, all ahead of time. During a quest it can often be too hectic for you to be making a mob, one step ahead of when the group will be getting there. Also, this way you can have another IMM take a quick look over it for accuracy and balance.
If you are doing a planned quest, be sure to plan out the specifics of each step. For example, what exactly should the party be doing when they reach Yithoul? Should they encounter an abominable rune? Should the high priest be talking to them? Should the yaril be waiting at the entrance? How do they know when it is time to move on to the next phase?
An ever-present problem in quests is that often our players cannot form one large group due to conflicting politics and morals. Thus when you are planning a quest you should take a look at the current political atmosphere, and see which groups will be vying to complete the quest. You should consider the following: can more than one group succeed in the quest, do you want one of the challenges of the quest to be fighting between the groups, or do you want to separate them as much as possible? Whatever you do however, be sure that you divide your attention to both parties during the quest.
Previous quests have had the "minority" group (i.e. the weaker one) feel slighted since they could not compete with the more powerful group, and thus received little to no IMM interaction. A possible solution might be having another IMM whose sole responsibility would be to watch over the minority group. Another possible solution is just to have more than one path to the "prize" planned out before hand, and allow each group to pursue one of the paths.
This also brings me to the question of how long a quest should be. Unless you are talking about an epic quest, usually it should be limited to one night. I recommend that when you are building a quest, plan addition challenges and steps, with the full understanding that you might not implement them. This is often because the players take a long time to work their way through a quest. Preparing addition stuff allows you to put something in if they are doing well, but usually expect players to take longer than they should. This is especially true if the current political atmosphere will necessitate two groups of players that are hostile to each other. Expect then for the two groups to clash as they both seek to complete the quest. And once characters start dying, the looting starts, and then the quest will practically grind to a halt for awhile as everyone goes insane with greed and eq-whoring.
Once you have the quest down to your satisfaction, I suggest you get the opinions of all the other IMMs by posting it up on the wiki. Let them give their opinion. After that phase, make changes to the quest as you deem fit, and then post up the final copy again. This final copy is not only for future prosperity, but also to allow all the IMMs helping you to have something to refer to. This will help them understand what needs to be done within the quest, and their own roles.
A proper side note at this stage is to stress that the other IMMs should know what roles they should be playing within the quest. I would recommend that you assign roles based on the strengths of the IMMs. For example, Jolinn takes a perverse glee in demonically manipulating player stupidity and fooling them into making mistakes. EYG on the other hand, will often play a powerfully lively role as an attacking mob. I feel that each of us probably has strengths of style and preference that could be easily fitted into the roles of a quest. These roles should be assigned ahead of time, though, so each IMM will know which part they need to be playing next in order to keep the quest moving.
Now that the basic quest rubric is laid out, you need to consider how and when you should do a quest. It is usually suggested that the quest occur during the weekend nights (Friday and Saturday) since then theoretically many players should be able to logon. Also, since you will probably be needing the help of other IMMs (unless this is a very small quest) then the date and time should be worked out to the suitability of all those involved. Once you have decided upon the time and date, you should go about posting it both on the forum and also to write a note using an existing mob to all the players. Another time-honored tradition is to have some form of gechoes that will foreshadow the events to come, though you may not wish to do this for a smaller, more private, quest.
Once you have everything planned, then all you need to do is to await the date of the actual quest. Hopefully you have everything planned out that is possible, though of course many times even the best of plans gets changed the moment the players get involved. That is why you, and your group of helpful IMMs, will still need to adapt to these changes. As long as you had the general rubric of the quest though, any minor adaptations should come easily.
FAQ 1: How many IMMs should I have to help me?
Answer 1: It is recommended that at least two other IMMs are helping you when doing a normal sized quest. The more help you have the more active and responsive the quest will be to the players.
FAQ 2: How powerful should I remake existing mobs? Should I do it at all?
Answer 2: Yes, if you're going to be switching into mobs it is often advisable to tweak them a bit. For example, if they're scholars you should consider giving them the appropriate spells that you can then cast upon players. Also, mobs that will be playing an important role in your quest should often be given more hit points and be no_subdue.
FAQ 3: What level should the players be? Do they all have to be Heroes?
Answer 3: Most quests are built for heroes, since they are not only stronger but also fear death (because of no exp loss) less. Characters in the 40's often join with the knowledge that they might die more, you may wish to consider awarding these characters some exp at the end of the quest if they did well. It is theoretically possible to have a quest for lower leveled characters, but it would be problematic to get a good amount of characters that are willing to take the risks.
FAQ 4: Where should I be putting all these mobs and items that I'm making for the quest?
Answer 4: While we do have a generic quest area (200-399), many times it is easier to just add the vnums into an area you already have access to, if it can fit. The generic quest area may be used if you have several IMMs that are working on it at the same time.
FAQ 5: The quest is over now, and the rewards handed out, yet all the characters are just standing around whining and feeling sorry for themselves, did I do something wrong?
Answer 5: Probably not. Players are often prone to exhibit large bouts of fussiness, especially when it comes to rewards and dying. It is a general rule that about 50% of all players will say that they loved the quest, while 50% will say that they hated it. Yet, the 50% who hated it will undoubtedly be lining up to take part in the next quest when it is announced. Just tune the whiners out, because you know that you did the best you could to make this a good experience for them, and that if they're still ungrateful than it is due to their own lack of sense.
- Any further questions can be referred back to me (Benedir) so that I may mock and jeer at them…seriously though; I’m always willing to make new changes to this guide in order to make it more comprehensive or accurate.
