[Quest Design] - Not A Fan

[sasquatch2o]

Not A Fan:
This quest involves a persistent hater. The character will regularly stalk you. This may be triggered by quest or entering the area. He will show up in multiple interiors sometimes in group, but typically by himself. He wont say anything, rather he will simply stand there, staring. If confronted he will make snide comments. Eventually something triggers him to pathetically assault the player with a knife. After killing the hater player finds his journal full of some ramblings. Much of it is about his anger toward the player. Some wrong he had suffered. Later multiple thugs, friends of his, will confront you over his death. Mention whatever it was you did to wrong the guy and how you murdered him in cold blood. They are unreasonable and will attack. After discovering Hater's identity, the player has option of confronting his widow to put issue at rest. After killing Hater and the thugs there are no further confrontations related to Not A Fan.

FOR DISCUSSION

[Tondollari]

Do you have an idea about what the "wrong he had suffered" is? Is it a case of mistaken identity, or something the player did?

Also, stalking the PC seems like something a loner/lunatic would do, not the type that has thugs ready to avenge his death.

[arvisrend]

What Tondollari said. This is too unconcrete and I don't think it can be made much better in the framework of a misc quest. In a longer questline involving combat and killing, however, a relative coming back to haunt %PCName is a very nice idea.

[sasquatch2o]

This would be a quest given after character had achieve a high level of fame. People throughout Morrowind know of the player. Whatever has been done some enemies are sure to have been made. This could be as a reaction to a or something else. The vagueness makes this easily usable for variety of different purposes. TR doesnt have enough quests that are in reaction to something the player has done. Morrowind had the sleepers and assassins dreams. Why shouldn't TR introduce a couple haters. THe thugs are the guy's friends. Maybe they were told lies, maybe they dont like something the player has done either what pushes them to confront player is the outrage over the death of their friend. In a group they foolishly have enough courage to face the player. They arent hired thugs just a pack of brooding cowards.

I doesnt it really matters what the player has done, it could be anything. The vagueness is part of the utility of this quest. The journal or widow could reveal information to open up other quests as well or just show the character the darker side of becoming renowned adventurer. It would be a great addition.

[arvisrend]

A good story beats vagueness anytime. There will be enough occasions to have NPCs pissed off by the player for good reason.

[sasquatch2o]

I believe you are missing my point entirely or just being difficult. This quest can be freely used for any variety of scenario. Your inability to invent one does not reflect poorly on the quest's usefulness. The trigger for the quest would depend on what events have preceded the first encounter. A few potentially controversial actions just need to be selected to make this a thing.

Expanding on this further:

The purpose of discussion should be finding solutions and asking the right questions. I don't believe reasonable ideas should be taken off the table without exhausting multiple options. Just saying something won't work is a cue to stop critical thinking. Turning things down should only be done once multiple questions and solutions to possible issues have been explored. I appreciate the feedback, but only when it offers solutions or asks purposeful questions.

Here is how I explain the function of the quest. This quest is purposefully vague to allow it to be used in multiple instances. It is a triggered event, like assassins etc in vanilla, that leads into a a short misc quest to add some flavor.

Explanation made simple:

There is a theoretical quest or choice that character makes with three possible outcomes. Regardless of player's choice Not A Fan will be triggered. The quest is virtually the same except for the details. See below how (a) leaves near infinite possibilities open.

a = whatever happened

Not A Fan is mad because(a)
Not A Fan is triggered

The quest can also be tailored by creating multiple different 1 or 2 page journals and editing a small amount of dialog. This is especially easy because whatever happened is really only revealed at the end. You could have one size fits all quest or multiple variations just by replacing "whatever" with something.

Here is an example:

X = you are favoring Redoran politician over Dres
Y = you are favoring Dres politician over Redoran

In this scenario there are X and Y specific outcomes for Not A Fan

OR

X = you did not assist family attacked by bandits
Y = you did assist family attacked by bandits
Z = you attacked family with bandits

In this scenario there are X and Y and Z specific outcomes for Not A Fan

The second reason I left the details open is to allow discussion on how this scenario would best be used. The vagueness makes it incomplete not a throw away. Tondollari asked a good question and the loner bit makes sense as well. The small details can be adjusted, like the rambling journal. The wild loner is a pretty lame cliche I'd like to avoid. My initial thought was that maybe the guy would be an obsessive radical or have been personally effected by player in the past. His friends are of similar mind, but not equal in their dedication to hating the player for whatever was done.

[Yeti]

I actually like the vagueness of Sasquatch's basic idea here. Making it so the player has no idea why the guy hates him creates mystery and a sense of unease about him.

[arvisrend]

OK, so you wanted it to be woven into a storyline all along? Fine then, though you could have said it. Just let's not make it a "radiant quest"; these were boring in Skyrim and won't be any better in Morrowind.

[sasquatch2o]

Yea, we should avoid radiant-like quests that were fairly bland. This would be in reaction to something the player has done like the assassination attempts or dreams in vanilla. Only here it draws player into a misc quest not woven into any other quest. I'd categorize it as a triggered event. Player only discovers what they have done to cause this would be after the first or second attack. Like Yeti I like the suspense and mystery this scenario attempts to build. Adding more "triggered events" and quests similar to this will make player feel the consequence of their actions on them and the game world.

As seen below a lag can be created between points in the event that run parallel to other quests. Decisions in quest determine when events are triggered and, if desired, what the result would be. Events can be created so that things play out over a longer span of time. In diagram below, instances would play out over a longer period of time by causing no change to event a until the third quest is completed. Some of this could be integrated into the same quest, but this would allow other quests/ triggered events to operate more independently. For this quest the hater would appear at multiple locations the player is likely to travel.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/uTeMzLl.png[/img]