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Miniquests moving forward

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Rondstat

Rondstat

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We're never going back to 12 quests a year. By this point, I think most Lorehounds have come to terms with this.

But, 2016 has been encouraging in its profundity of miniquests. Two Morytania miniquests, Eleven expansive Arc Tales, a Godwars Tale, a Nomad Tale, and a slough of cases that comprised, at the very least, two miniquests' worth of material.

I strongly hope to see more small-scale story content in 2017, released more frequently, and with a greater breadth. Miniquests in 2016 have run the gamut, from massive undertakings with Master-quest level assets and mechanics, to simple scavenger hunts. But, I think their visibility and impact has been somewhat hurt by so many of them being clustered together, and by covering such a limited number of topics total, limiting their lore and storytelling potential.

Runescape is a vast world, with a history spanning millenia. There are tonnes of story avenues, forgotten locations, names with unknown significance, that could be the jumping off point to countless other stories.

Remember how one person's silly question from a Postbag inspired an intricate backstory for kurasks, their coming of age ceremony, their long trek, and just why they drop so much tropical fruit? Why not take that sort of silly inspiration? What if we could occasionally loot a piece of chewed up fruit, and take it to various spots along the kurask migration route to find and speak to hiding youngsters, learning about their voyage firsthand?

So, why not a miniquest about who buried all these scroll boxes? Or an archaeological expedition into the forgotten Ourg village that supplied the tombs at Jiggig? Or a farcical tale of Achmed the Brutally Violent? We can have low-development, small scale stories that add depth and fill in the gap in major openings in the story. But we can also have lighter tales that do nothing more than enrich Gielinor as a fantasy world.

02-Nov-2016 06:43:21

Rondstat

Rondstat

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The history others have forgotten. The economic/logistic minutiae that no one else cares for. The mundane duties we've not yet explored. Sure, give us tales of Menaphos and Freneskae, if that's what's relevant. But don't forget the story of, say, the Grand Exchange clerks, or the minigame operators.

Ideally, I would like to see a new piece of questlike content every 2 weeks or so - 24 in a year. For many of us, story is the biggest draw, and something like this would incentivize me to actually keep an active membership.

Beyond this, if done well, I think it could prevent story fatigue (for those with shorter attention spans), and get more folks interested in questing. There's an odd culture that wants to finish absolutely everything as quickly as possible, and gets mightily frustrated if this can't be done swiftly and intuitively.

Imagine if the Arc Tales had been restructured, rendered linear, each chapter ending on a pronounced cliffhanger, and each released a week apart. These short, digestible story pieces would get people invested in discovering the fate of Ekahi, or the truth of the Harbinger. Without everything instantly available, it could become a point of allure, rather than a chore, to non-Lorehounds.

2015 was the year of lore books, with several added to new monster drops and minigames. What if this sort of content were tweaked into miniquests? Instead of just reading about Forcae's experiments on Kethsi, what if we got a drop that led us there, and allowed us to summon up a Tales of Nomad style tableau that showed us this incident? What if, instead of collecting Miners' journals, we learned to uncover scratchings on the cave walls? Or, if we were lead to collect some of these journals around the world, instead of waiting for RNG?

I'm not saying change existing content. But, moving forward, potential lore could have more interesting delivery mechanisms.

02-Nov-2016 06:43:33 - Last edited on 02-Nov-2016 07:01:54 by Rondstat

Rondstat

Rondstat

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So, the gist of my argument is

-Miniquests should be released frequently and one-at-a-time, rather than dropped in large batches

-Miniquests should cover a broad variety of topics - from filling in missing lore from major questlines, to giving significance to minutiae and mechanics of Gielinor as a living world

-Miniquests should be the preferred delivery method for lore that does not fit into quests, rather than random book drops (though there's nothing wrong with this lore being text-based)

-Miniquests should have a variety of mechanics and gameplay types. Whether scavenger hunts, monster killings, cryptic clues, in-game activities/minigames/D&Ds, or recycled quest puzzles.

-Most of all, we should have PLENTY of miniquest-based story. This story doesn't have to be expansive, significant, or even necessarily relevant. But it can and should enrich the place where we spend our time adventuring.


Any thoughts?

02-Nov-2016 07:10:24

HeroicSnorro

HeroicSnorro

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I like what you're saying here. However, if we're getting more of this stuff I would also really like to see something like a miniquest tab, somewhere where I can see what I have and what I haven't completed.

More lore is always better, I suppose :)

-=HeroicSnorro=-
Sometimes, less is more.

02-Nov-2016 12:03:30

A Mad Hatter
Dec
fmod Member
2005

A Mad Hatter

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HeroicSnorro said :
I like what you're saying here. However, if we're getting more of this stuff I would also really like to see something like a miniquest tab, somewhere where I can see what I have and what I haven't completed.


I second this.

But what strikes me as odd is that whole 'bottle quest' thing that seemed to get thrown to the wayside after the goebie one wasn't well recieved. Mostly because miniquests sound like exactly the same thing (correct me if I'm wrong on this, I wasn't exactly clear on what they were going for with that idea to begin with O_o ), just without a proper interface or whatever to show reqs and all that other fun stuff.

Either way, I'd love to see more miniquests with other content. My major complaint about the 6th Age storylines this far is how the story focuses on a bigger picture while leaving the little guys to rot in the dust, and that shouldn't be the case since the whole concept of a new God Wars, the Great Revision, the attempts by the Dragonkin to break their curse...all of that is some pretty world changing stuff that affects more than just our little bubble of existence within quests, but so far hasn't been properly shown. Miniquests would be the perfect way to start fixing that flaw.
^+^ Antediluvian of the Draculesti Bloodline ^+^

^+^ If the Gods see fit to curse us with the Blood, then we shall raise ourselves above them ^+^

05-Nov-2016 01:39:16

Rondstat

Rondstat

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A Mad Hatter said :
Either way, I'd love to see more miniquests with other content. My major complaint about the 6th Age storylines this far is how the story focuses on a bigger picture while leaving the little guys to rot in the dust, and that shouldn't be the case since the whole concept of a new God Wars, the Great Revision, the attempts by the Dragonkin to break their curse...all of that is some pretty world changing stuff that affects more than just our little bubble of existence within quests, but so far hasn't been properly shown. Miniquests would be the perfect way to start fixing that flaw.



YES!

At the start of the 6th Age, what excited me most about the 6th Age wasn't finding out all about the gods that were returning, but rather being thrust into a world of war, struggle, tragedy. Seeing the endless, bloody, meaningless conflicts presaged by Death of Chivalry or Battle of Lumbridge borne out in the communities we knew and loved. Seeing Guthix's fears confirmed by callous deities who sat as remote generals. I wanted to see our bucolic little world set aflame.

Instead, the world looks the same while we deal with the creators of the universe. I mean, it's cool, but it's also sort of impersonal, and doesn't leave room for much else. I had hoped to focus more on those mangled in the wake of higher beings' designs, rather than chilling on deck where I could ignore the hoi polloi.

First off - I think we need tales for the World Events - one for each side for WE1 and WE2, and a general Tuska tale. Their events are too important to the story to be permanently gone. Imagine following the story of some aimless Edgeville youth, conscripted into the Kinshra only to die, uncelebrated and forgotten, in Lumby crater. Or uncovering hints of espionage between the Bandos and Armadyl camps? Things like this to humanize the big stories.

Then we could maybe see niche-focus tales, for particular groups/places.

05-Nov-2016 03:51:56

Solanumtinkr

Solanumtinkr

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^ Miniquests that tell the tale of things that have gone before? 5th and 6th age mini quest path? With a sprinkling of all the other random miniquests that have otherwise been forgotten?

There could be storylines of miniquests/bottle quests ect. They could finally have a home. :)
The purpose of adventure is to shine light into dark places,
Poke monsters with a sharp stick, Then steal anything that isn't nailed down!
To the Manor Born QFC 185-186-367-65788716

05-Nov-2016 09:34:20

Voya
Jan Member 2009

Voya

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I agree that there are many stories that could be told with miniquests, and I would like to see more of them in the future.

One problem with miniquests is that many don't see them as 'real' quests (mentioned by Osborne in one of the streams, if I remember correctly - not my personal opinion). Another problem is that they are quite hidden - they are only visible in the MQC requirements, along non-miniquest things. Sagas are an example of perfect quest-like content, but because they aren't on the quest list, they are less known.

The miniquests should definitively be more visible, so that more players would be playing them. They aren't really secrets, because they are found on the wiki, but it is hard to keep track of which miniquests are completed and which are not.

I'm hoping that the achievements system coming next year will solve these issues.
Voya
-
A lorehound, Quest Master and owner of three Quest Capes.

05-Nov-2016 10:33:10

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