Lately there has been some grumbling about some of the quests and other GM interactions. It's unfortunate that, I think, players are really desperate to play quests and interact with the GMs as can be shown by the number of players who show up for them and it's unfortunate when they leave frustrated or just feeling ignored. I realize that this is difficult often and when I was a GM I often had quests and other interactions with players that flopped sometimes. You can't win them all, butI feel like I can offer some helpful tips on what to do and some commentary on what not to do. So here it is in bullet points for easy digestion:
Do's:
- Do have a conflict as the core of your quest. Even if your conflict is one of the many building quests we've had lately whether it's building a training center, a barricade, or a canal. If at no point before the end of the quest did players have something to fight/negotiate/figure out/etc.. then even if something was accomplished at the end it's likely going to be a pretty forgettable quest. All quests should be able to be summed up with the sentence "This is a story about a conflict that players will have against/with x" where x could be any number of things.
- There should be at some point in the quest a choice that players have to make with any number of options (though two or three are usually the magic numbers. Anything more is starting to get on the complicated end). There should be a consequence to both actions. For example, a cult kidnaps a child and plans to do a ritual on the night of the full moon that will culminate in the child being possessed by a demon. The cult warns that if the players try to rescue the child they will just kill it and kidnap another child for the ritual. Alternatively if they don't try to rescue the child the cult will succeed in their ritual, but just as the players begin to set out demons attack the village. Now the players must abandon the child or abandon the village or split up and risk being outnumbered in both places.
- Once the players make a decision there should often be a point where just as the players begin to believe they made the right decision the heat is turned up and they have to either make sacrifices to reach their goal or at the very least try harder. The players find the cult just as they do a ritual to make the full moon rise in mid day. The baby is possessed by the demon and grows to full size. Now the players have to face the cultists AND the demon!
- Do allow players to be the stars. Give them the tools to do the quest and then get out of their way. When the NPC starts to take the spotlight, do whatever you can to put it back on the players.
- Be clear. This gets more difficult the more players are at the quest. When there are a lot of players at a quest, please broadcast your message to the whole server rather than doing a #me that it's unlikely everyone will catch. I know this might seem obnoxious to the players who aren't there, but I'm sure they can ignore it and continue playing as they were.
- When all else fails, summon monsters! (No, really!)
- Don't expect players to solve things in the way that you had planned it. Let them be creative.
- Don't let people "quest whore." It's unfortunate that there's at least one in every community: the player who just looooves quests too much. The one who hops at the chance to solve the quest before anyone else has the chance to speak. This persists because GM's even love them because they reward GM's with always be ready for a quest and always being excited to partake. It's likely they even send the GM messages after a quest to thank them. While these people should get as much as a chance as the next player to partake and even "win" at quests, spread the wealth around.