Everyone knows the problem with rpg quests.

You have the more interesting but inflexible quests like Wicked witch or
Successor of Province where you can play it once and then any repetition
is a drag as it's exactly the same. The other big issue is that this
style of quest is very easily abused or cheated by passing on information.

Indeed, the biggest issue i had with successor of province was finding the
syntax that was omitted in the walkthrough. Passing on information like this
is frowned upon but very hard to control.

It's also very easy to be dragged through quests by higher level characters.
Zonni statue seems the most common but i recall being pulled through lq 50 and
51 so quickly that i couldn't tell you what was actually done..


Then there are the make-work tasks. Sometimes referred to as fetch quests
or padding... Off the top of my head, and with a bit of help from websites

1. Kill 10 rats.
1b. Kill named rat or.. the rat that has aspirations.
2. Fetch me 10 stones.
3 Deliver this stone to this person.
4. Escort this mob to this point. hijinks ensue
5. Defend this spot- endure this number of mobs
6. Locate this spot.
7. Craft this item
8. Achieve this point (level, skill level,)
9. Interact with this object.

These can be as dull or as interesting as the designer would like. Time
limits can be added, quest types can be combined, limitations imposed. These
require an action to be completed so it's harder to cheat them but still
possible. I also can think of a couple more quest types that aren't
on the list but these are the major ones what i've run across.

The problem with these quests is that they feel arbitrary and ultimately
like make work. They're easily repeatable but without attention.. become
way too common and dismissed entirely. Assassin's creed springs to mind..
so many bs quests that feel lazy.

So what elements can be injected to make quests more interesting?

I find throwing randomness into the equation keeps me coming back.
Minecrafting
has a random loot table which motivated me enough for a long while to keep
digging. The random quests thrown into Cryllara Lucentium tasks keep
things interesting as well.

More difficult, is making the quests react to the way you complete them. I
played through Silent Hill 2 in the standard fashion and when i completed
the game, My ending was determined because throughout the game.. i left
my character at mid to low health to maximize healing effectiveness. The
game decided this meant i was self destructive and I had the Suicide Ending.

The inventiveness of this concept is that i never knew what actually caused
me to get that particular ending. With the cryllara tasks being completed
daily by some players, information could be drawn from the tasks and
options could be added. Of course this requires coders to come up with
multiple quest threads.. but it could be as simple as a good/evil split.

The best quests seem to have options for multiple skill levels and provide
a form of short term reward (fast grind) and usually some over-arching long
payoffs (long grind).

Don't intend this as a critique... just looking at what keeps the game
from being a straight xp grind and what examples from other games work
and don't work.

I can't get away from the idea that If someone were able to code
a random area generator.. That any number of quests/tasks could be designed
around that central feature.

It could be given options of varying size.. allowing for small, medium and
large areas. Formats could be coded to make them more structured, when a
deliberately designed area is called for.. ie, balanced layout for dwellings
limited to one or two floors... or

Generic descriptions depending on the style of area created..