Looking for Advice on being a "Quest Giver"

[Fitzmagus]

Some of my favorite characters to play around in ARM so far have been the ones who make me feel cool, by giving me things to do.

I want to be just like these characters when I grow up.

So tell me:

• Any advice on how to generate interesting contact/tasks/plots for other characters? (even as a no-status mundane commoner?)
• What are some awesome examples of Quests you've seen given?
• What do you like to see from a quest-giving character/scene?

[Riev]

There is both remarkably little, and a vast amount, of things to 'do' for a quest in game. Everything from "kill 10 scrabs" to "bring me a full bag of sandstone", to "I want you to climb to the rooftop and wait there for three hours, and report on any movement you see".

The trouble is, outside of coded-item fetches (like bring me 3 scrab shells) its hard to enforce that the person actually did it, and hard to know if you're doing it right. On the part of the quest giver, you have to 'trust' that they either did it properly or are trying to screw you out of some coin. On the quest taker, you don't get any notification that you're in the right area, or that you've seen the 'thing' you're supposed to see.

Start with stuff like scouting. Bring me a rock from the watercave. I want you to fetch me a skin of water from the Mul Outpost. Simple fetch stuff that has a coded component for them to return with. They COULD just bring you any rock, or any skin, and you'd never know, but that's the risk you take.

[chrisdcoulombe]

Don't forget spying.  Information is valuable.  Find out who is who and learn things about them through your network of spys.  You send out spies to get information, which you in turn sell to an interested party.  It would allow you to pay the person on the quest and also recoup your loss.  Don't quit your day job though.

Tell amos (speaking in a low whisper) Pay attention to Lord so and so and tell me what his plans are.  Any information you bring me will be rewarded with (X) coin.

If you know who Lord So and so's enemy is you have someone to sell the information to.

When you get really valuable information consider promptly killing your spy.

Or you could have it as a less Nefarious thing.  Instead you only do good spying.  Like for the intentions of good gift giving or so someone could say the right things to someone they wish to be their mate.

[Grapes]

That noble made you bow and took your boots? That jerk! You'll show HIM. Now, where's a rinthi elf to hire to draw offensive leaflets of them and scatter them to the winds from the rooftops?!

EDIT: Keep in mind what players can codedly do. If you come up with a good quest you want it to seem like a seamless IC expeience, and not some herky-jerky coin dump. No one will enjoy it if it's obvious you're just giving out quests to give them out, so try to have IC reasons for it that make sense for your character. Sometimes your quest may be impossible to fulfil, at which point it would likely be wise to reward the person regardless and find new things to focus on.

[650Booger]

I love playing the quest dispenser.  its possible even on the mostly lowly ranked halfbreed scum characters.  message delivery, item quests, spying quests, assassination contracts... money talks!  spend those sids on paying other PCs to MCB instead of buying new sandcloth footwraps from the vendor.

[Grapes]

Which is exactly why I say the economy isn't broken. It's janky, to be sure, but the problem isn't too much coin, it's that too frequently the coin is being spent on the wrong stuff. Also, don't overdo assassination contracts. They're great when absolutely warrented, but otherwise blugh. If your name begins to cause hardened assassins' stomachs to turn, you might need to ease up a bit.

[Molten Heart]

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