[Quest Design] - In a Somewhere State of Mind

sasquatch2o · Post by **sasquatch2o** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 4:57 pm

In a (Somewhere) State of Mind:
-Ironmaidens

"In some town/city there has been a murder of a commoner, male, who was well-liked around the town. The premise of this quest is that the son of the murdered man wants his own personal justice of the killer, while the town guard is wanting to have some empirical justice given. (This quest may only work for Redoran or Imperial settlements, as I think most other places would be on the son's side in regards to justice). The son wants to kill the person who murdered his father himself, while the guards want to apprehend the man and put him to trail. In this quest, there are 2 pivotal roles the PC can fill.

One is to be on the sons side and the other is to be on the guards side. To achieve the level of emotion that would require someone to care enough about which side they choose, there would have to be a bit of banter from the son to set a good image of his father, and even NPC's around the town can show a mourn of his loss as they recall good things he had done for the people with the limited resources/funds he had.

On the guard's side, it can be stressed that they knew the man who was murdered and they know he is a good man, but two wrongs don't make a right and the law must still be followed. Thus a race against each side is set forth.

Starting from SIDE 1: The sons side.

PC will contact the son and listen to his tale about how his father was killed for seemingly no reason and will be asked to look over the father's house to see if there is any hidden clue to his death. Searching the house will reveal a note in a locked and/or hidden chest that details some vague dates and locations. PC returns to the son who asks PC to go to the locations to try and find something out. Perhaps 4 places around town are described, and in 3 places there yields no clues but in one of them an NPC can be questioned (journal conditions must be met, otherwise the NPC says "I really don't want to get involved in this mess.") and it is learned that s/he saw the father meet with some NPC that traveled off outside town to the east. Basically there would be a bandit cave populated by this NPC who could be found and questioned and he would reveal that the father owed him money for Skooma and never paid up so he was slain. The PC can (A) kill the murderer and tell the truth about the father's demise to his son, or (B) kill the murderer and lie about his father's demise, or (C) let the murderer live and try to get the son to report the findings to the guards, or (D) let the murderer live and lie to the son about the findings.

Outcome A: Son outright does not believe PC about his father being a Skooma addict. Small gold reward given, disposition drop of son.

Outcome B: Son is grateful but upset he was not able to deliver justice by his own hand. PC is rewarded gold or maybe a few potions.

Outcome C: Son will give gold reward or maybe a few potions to PC and will refuse to tell the guards and instead will rush off to kill the bandit himself. PC can travel back into the bandit cave and find the corpse of the son in the cave, speaking to the bandit will result in him finding humor the the matter. Corpse can be looted for low-end enchanted dagger.

Outcome D: No reward is given, son is upset that no justice can be found, and a slight disposition drop occurs.

SIDE 2: The guards side.

The PC will be told about the recent murder of the father and that they have a lead. PC will be pointed in the direction of the local tavern to speak with a supposed witness of the murder. NPC is found and claims they saw the murder weapon on NPC in town. PC confronts other NPC and is dismissed. PC returns to town guard who asks PC to search the NPC's home for the murder weapon. The wounds on the body are identifiable as those from a war axe. PC goes to NPC's home and find a war axe hidden behind a dresser and reports back to town guard. NPC is apprehended and a reward of 200 gold and an Imperial Chain Coif given. Disposition will drop with son.

This is an interesting idea to have 2 completely separate outcomes as the unruly route (Side 1) leads to the actual answer and can have either a tragic end or a decent end. The other route (Side 2) actually ends up having an innocent NPC be found guilty of a crime he did not commit, which does happen in real life. Just wrong place wrong time type circumstances. Feedback/concerns?"

sasquatch2o · Post by **sasquatch2o** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 4:58 pm

I will post some comments in the future. I would like to keep the ideas thread strictly to ideas however. That should create a more inviting safe place for people to post without harsh critique or cluttering the thread. Extracting the discussion for quest to a new topic will also help discussion remain more focused and move smoothly into design. IMO it is also nice to be able to browse all recent misc quests without the static, like pages of short stories. Thanks.

Post by **arvisrend** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 9:28 pm

This looks like a good quest suggestion, but am I missing some reference or what is the meaning of the title?

Ironed Maidens · Post by **Ironed Maidens** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 12:04 am

(Somewhere) referring to the city/town this quest would ultimately be used in. I.E.: A Gorne State of Mind or A Necrom State of Mind. Pulls from the reference of a Nas song, NY State of Mind, wherein it's basically saying 'Kill or be killed.', so the vengeance aspect of the son's furry kind of plays into it. IDK bruh I smoke a lot of weed so maybe it only makes sense to me...

Post by **arvisrend** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 12:19 am

I like the Gorne one for it sounding like "gone" :)

So a reference it is. :) Don't worry, these don't have to be very obvious. In fact, they better not be.