The Quest

[Jack7]

Many times I have designed interesting Quests for my players to undertake. A few times I've been on really interesting Quests as a player.

This thread is for discussions about the Quest.

​

What are some of the best and most interesting Quests your characters have ever been on? Best use of a Quest you've ever made as a DM?

Most rewarding Quest(s)?

This thread is dedicated to the Quest (get it?).

And of course, what do you consider the key elements, or the most important elements of a really good Quest?

 

[Halivar]

My favorite quests are the ones that follow the typical literary epic model. Some thing has to be done, it's on the other side of the world, and it's not so urgent that you can't spend some time on side-adventures along the way.

The quest will take years to complete. It will require the adventurers to be steadfast and devoted. The quest must become their raison d'etre if they wish to succeed (I know, this is perhaps less a feature of the quest than it is of the questors, but isn't it always thus?)

My favorite quests are the ones where, for the sake of the quest, I must suffer small defeats along the way. A village I cannot help. A person I cannot save. the quest takes priority, and if I should fall or die in a side-quest or sub-plot, then the greater quest suffers. It makes the emotional investment in the quest all the greater.

EDIT: Sorry Jack7, apparently I can't quite give you XP yet for an awesome series of threads. Post fewer awesome things so I can spread the XP around.

 

[Jack7]

A Knight?s Quest for Humanity?By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)

An extremely interesting article, to me, about a man's series of life-long Quests.

 

[Jack7]

EDIT: Sorry Jack7, apparently I can't quite give you XP yet for an awesome series of threads. Post fewer awesome things so I can spread the XP around.

Thanks Hali. Not sure it's true, but I appreciate the compliment. And right back at'cha.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Had a group of dwarves that were questing after the stolen recipe of their clan's beer. Basicly the clan was attacked by orcs who killed the Brew Master and took the recipe (magical dragon bone tablet). The dwarves had to track down the orcs, who had traded it to some human arms dealers, who had sold it to a art dealer, who had it stolen.

 

[Skyscraper]

I find quests are often simple and straightforward: fetch an item or kill a bad guy. Is that desirable? I can see pros and cons.

 

[Jack7]

Had a group of dwarves that were questing after the stolen recipe of their clan's beer. Basicly the clan was attacked by orcs who killed the Brew Master and took the recipe (magical dragon bone tablet). The dwarves had to track down the orcs, who had traded it to some human arms dealers, who had sold it to a art dealer, who had it stolen.

A couple of years ago I started making my own beers, and spicing my wines and beers. Often following ancient spicing recipes. It's not as easy as it first seems but after a few months of experimentation I got good at it. And now others often ask me to spice their beers and wines. I hope no one takes a run at me over it, but if done right, you can make some really fine drinks that are really good for ya. Plus the chemical experimentation is a lot of fun.

So I see why they went after the recipes.

I find quests are often simple and straightforward: fetch an item or kill a bad guy. Is that desirable? I can see pros and cons.

I guess it depends a lot upon what you're going after and in what way. If it's just, "go find an item," then that to me is a retrieval. Not a Quest. A Quest has to meet certain minimum parameters to me for it to be considered a real Quest.

I think that real Quests are very rare in our society, for a number of societal and cultural reasons, and things that are really just retrievals and searches are these days mislabeled as Quests. When in fact they are not Quests at all.

(Or put another way, modern man has developed a totally different definition, and a much more anemic one in my opinion, of Quest than those definitions used in earlier ages to describe a Quest.)

And the same is true of Game and Imaginary Quests. Modern men have a hard time even imagining what a real Quest would be like, or why it should be undertaken, or what it would really involve. Because modern men are used to doing things extremely quickly, wanting problems to be resolved almost overnight, and because they prefer to mitigate risk (nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves, they just aren't always a realistic way of approaching every problem in life) rather than embrace and conquer risk, especially if by conquering risk you have to suffer real injury and hurt. (Much easier to heal by potion or spell, or modern medical technique, than recover through hard effort, or to suffer life-long crippling.)


I'll list below what I think are the most important elements of a real Quest. Others can discuss those elements if they wish or make their own list.

 

[Jack7]

In my opinion the elements listed below qualify as some of the components of what constitute a Great Quest. Not all are necessary for any one adventure (or to be more accurate series of adventures) to become a Quest, but most of these elements are common to Great Quests.

ELEMENTS OF A GREAT QUEST
​

1. The object or objective of the Quest must be of highly personal significance to those undertaking the Quest. If not it is simply a search, and not a Quest.

2. The Quest must be perilous. Usually people think of peril as being mere physical peril, and physical peril is often an important sub-component of the overall Peril, but the peril can and often should be mental, psychological, spiritual, and even cultural or societal.

3. There should be a highly important spiritual or religious or metaphysical, or sometimes all three, aspect to the Quest.

4. The Quest should be impossible to complete successfully unless it is undertaken by the proper "Questors," but the Quest should be of much greater overall significance than the identity or personal value of the individual Questor(s).

5. The Quest often chooses the Questor(s) rather than the other way around. (Although anyone willing may at least attempt the Quest.)

6. There should be a series of strenuous and exhausting challenges which either disqualify certain Questors as being improper or unfit for the Quest, or which verify that the Questor is qualified to proceed deeper into the Quest.

7. Quests often involves Mazes or Complexes which are extremely difficult to traverse or complete.

8. Quests often involve difficult to solve Riddles, which are multi-layered and may have more than one interpretive meaning or answer.

9. The objective of the Quest should be an extremely rare or ultimately entirely unique object, device, relic, artefact, event, occurrence, or person.

10. A Quest should be costly, and often in many different ways. Quests are often both Heroic, and Romantic.

11. In addition to being perilous and dangerous a Quest must also be extremely difficult to complete successfully. If not Quests would be easy and any and everyone would undertake them, and any and everyone would survive them.

12. Not everyone will survive the Quest, even those who come close to completing it. Sometimes it will even cost the life of those who do successfully complete it. Those who do survive often suffer some type of difficult to recover from, or grievous and life-long, injury or illness.

13. A Quest will sometimes have a "false conclusion." That is to say it will seem to have been successfully concluded by a particular Questor or group of Questors, but in fact it will not have yet been successfully concluded.

14. Secrets and mysteries surround the Quest.

15. Quests may go on for a very long period of time, sometimes even for centuries or millennia (certainly they may go on for most of a single lifetime) before being successfully concluded, and may have killed numerous Questors before finally being successfully resolved. Few Quests are resolved quickly, and none are resolved without great effort.

16. Powerful (and often otherworldly) creatures, monsters, characters, and beings will be encountered and will surround various stages of the Quest.

17. A very dangerous and potentially lethal creature, monster, character, and/or being will guard the final objective of the Quest.

18. To successfully complete the Quest the Questor must pass a final test that is very often posed by the Ultimate Objective or Object of the Quest itself, and often this objective or object may itself be extremely dangerous, even potentially lethal.

19. Quests are almost never about personal Ego and aggrandizement, but rather usually instill in the Questor both a sense of real humility and an appreciation of their own (and a universal) Heroic and selfless nature. (This is a point almost entirely lost on most modern men and on modern society, and one reason why real Quests are so rare in modern sensibilities.)

20. By the end of the Quest the survivor and/or the conqueror of the Quest is a very different and very changed Man or Woman, especially psychologically and spiritually, and sometimes mentally and physically as well.

 

[onedtwelve]

Your elements of a great quest are pretty good, though I would disagree with a few in a sense of quests that wouldn't be considered "Epic."

I think the main things to keep in mind when talking about quests are that it should involve the main characters emotionally. They should have some kind of attachment to whatever the quest is for.

In RPG terms, you have to be able to fail. I don't mean, "Oh, you died fighting these goblins that attacked you randomly on your way to the BBEG's lair." What I mean is when you fight the BBEG, you should have a good chance of failing at stopping his plan or at surviving his assault and after you fail, you should get to see what happens to the world or region or town or whatever.

Foreshadowing is another great thing to add to quests to give them some life. Little things here and there that the players will notice that you've hinted at before and larger things towards the end that they may notice.

Give them reasons to hate and fear the BBEG, but also give them reasons to sympathize with him. A BBEG that is evil for all the right reasons is a BBEG that the players will remember. I always say "There's a thin line between lawful good and chaotic evil." A good example, in my opinion, is Light from Death Note, who kills every bad guy no matter what their crime. His reasons are good and his method is lawful, but his actions are evil and lead to chaos, and the biggest part for me is how likeable a mass murderer can be.

I think my biggest disagreement, Jack, is that the Questors don't necessarily have to be the only ones who can complete the quest, but that is one option. I wouldn't say that it is necessary, but it is a trope to have the Questors be destined to complete the Quest.

I would also say that a Quest doesn't necessarily have to last an extremely long time like years. A good quest could last weeks or months and still feel like a huge accomplishment and still feel pretty epic.

 

[Jack7]

I thought you raised some good points.

I think the main things to keep in mind when talking about quests are that it should involve the main characters emotionally. They should have some kind of attachment to whatever the quest is for.

Completely agree.

In RPG terms, you have to be able to fail. I don't mean, "Oh, you died fighting these goblins that attacked you randomly on your way to the BBEG's lair." What I mean is when you fight the BBEG, you should have a good chance of failing at stopping his plan or at surviving his assault and after you fail, you should get to see what happens to the world or region or town or whatever.

Concur. One of the real risks of a Great Quest is that you'll fail.

Give them reasons to hate and fear the BBEG, but also give them reasons to sympathize with him.

Considering exactly what the nature of the Quest is, I agree. I think of Gawain and the Green Knight. Fear leads to awe leads to the difficulties of survival, leads to understanding.

I think my biggest disagreement, Jack, is that the Questors don't necessarily have to be the only ones who can complete the quest, but that is one option. I wouldn't say that it is necessary, but it is a trope to have the Questors be destined to complete the Quest.

Again, considering the nature of the Quest I could agree. I certainly wouldn't argue it in every case, if the Quest were unusual enough and the objective could be met more than once.

I would also say that a Quest doesn't necessarily have to last an extremely long time like years. A good quest could last weeks or months and still feel like a huge accomplishment and still feel pretty epic.

I think there is somewhat of a difference in these areas between real Quests (such as the Quest to reach the North Pole, or put a man on the moon), literary Quests (such as to find or recover the Holy Grail), mythical and legendary Quests, and game Quests. Game Quests and film quests, etc. operate under a very compressed time scheme. Compared to other types of Quests. So I wouldn't necessarily argue here either.

Although even in a game or film time can pass in different ways.