All Quests are Fetch Quests!

[DerVVulfman]

All Quests are Fetch Quests!
by DerVVulfman

Hey, friends.  It's the Resident Werewolf and I wish to talk about the mechanics of your game's epic adventure.  Some RPG games of days past were nothing more than dungeon crawls with little to no story.  Most others tell a tale.  But all games put the player in a position of going from point A to point B in order to obtain something, even if it is nothing more than various treasure drops in a simple dungeon adventure.

Early games like 'Hunt the Wumpus' or 'Wizardry', you had very little story to go upon.  You either had to fetch a weapon in time to kill a monster, or kill the monsters while fetching the treasure.  And if you had to get past a gate or door, you had to fetch a key.  Even early first-person shooters such as DOOM had keys one had to fetch in order to go from one level to another.  And then one may consider whether the player itself is the subject to be fetched.

While people argue about games being filled with mundane fetch quests, let's redefine the argument that a developer didn't disguise the fetch quest enough.

Simplicity in Itself:

The simplest quests are merely those where the player must go somewhere in the game's world and possibly find something.  Whether a traveling quest or the basics of a fetch quest, it requires that the player actively travels.  If he has to find or acquire something, it could be for himself or by request of someone.  And in the latter's case, he will have need to return.  Such quests can be like the following:

• You took a challenge to get to the capital of Sharnides by sundown.  This is a time trial.
  
• You need the legendary sword Lenier, and must travel to find it stuck in a tree trunk. Just claim it.
  
• An old woman needs her medicine, but she broke her leg.  Travel to the store, buy it, and return to her.
  

These appear more like simple jobs or missions.  But quests these are, basic at the very least.  All the hero has to do is go somewhere and typically pick up something.  And depending on the mission, return to get a reward.

These are the most basic forms of quests, that being tasks that have no challenges to plague the hero; no obstacle to block his way.  Quests are meant to be difficult.  After all, if they were easy to perform, they wouldn't be much of a quest at all and everyone would be up to the challenge.  Ergo, one should focus, not on the task and journey itself, but what may impede the hero.  So let us discuss how to make these simple missions more of a challenge.

What Bumps in the Night:

Monsters and enemies are an easily recognizable obstacle.  An old saying used to go, "Where does a wise man hide a leaf?  In the forest."  If you were given such a task, it would be a bit of a challenge to find that leaf.  However, that task would me much more dangerous if one fills the forest with angry, carnivorous beasts.  If your hero absolutely needs to make it to the township of Baudidon, the canyon passage he must traverse may be guarded by a giant ogre that wants him dead.  And while some mage may beseech you to find a rare ingredient for him, it turns out that the ingredient is the gall bladder of the Dreaded Yakalope in the Purple Mountains.

These can be handled quite well, or can be handled clumsily.  Animals of the forest may be randomly scattered, or well placed in area where the player need traverse.  The ogre may be a generic monster suitable for a hero of a specific level, or the game author may be considering different ogres based on the strength of the hero.  And the mage's requested ingredient may be part of a randomly selected monster quest that chooses a beast at random for the player to find.

But enemies may not be the only obstacle.  One may find hazards, both natural and manufactured, barring the hero's path.  The hero may need to traverse a swamp with the only safe way known to a hobbit tortured and deformed over millenia, or the entrance of the mansion is blocked by a manicured hedge maze.  And while it's there, no one knows where the Minister is keeping his secret plans in the castle keep.  However, these described are merely a tactic to slowdown and confuse the hero and not a threat.

One may decide to fill both swamp and maze with carnivorous beasts.  But other touches may be made, that being the use of pre-set traps.  Stepping on a thick but spongy root to a mushroom tree may release a cloud of toxic spores.  The hedge-row maze may have 20ft deep pits covered by layered turf.  And while it appears unguarded, the lock on the chest with the Minister's plans may be trapped with a flash grenade.

Let's Mix it Up:

The hero of your story is meant for an epic adventure.  This epic adventure is not one where the task it to go to the store to pick up a bottle of medicine.  An epic adventure will force the hero to perform amazing tasks and go on dangerous missions. There will be many quests in which to complete.  But quests are usually much more than mere single-stage missions.  Instead, the quest the hero undertakes tends to have multiple objectives.

"When will this end, Flag??" - Deadshot (Will Smith in Suicide Squad)

A proper story-driven quest isn't a single fetch objective, but tends to be a collection of tasks.  And these tasks are usually disguised by the game developer's story. Will the player know how long it will take to finish the quest?  Perhaps.  Or perhaps not.  It will depend upon the style of gameplay and the type of actual story-driven quest that is given to the player.

In a military game, your hero may be a soldier.  Each quest he is given by his commanding officer is a mission with a final objective.  He is given a course of action, smaller tasks to perform, that he needs to perform.  And these tasks usually need to be performed in sequence.  Usually, the soldier knows all the tasks he needs to perform to reach his objective.  Each of these will tend to be variations of simple fetch quests themselves.  One fetch quest to reach a destination and deliver an object may be that the soldier must reach the ammo dump and drop off a timebomb.  This could be followed by a simple traveling quest which is really the soldier getting clear of the blast which would clear away guards from his final objective.  And this could be followed by one more fetch quest, this being that the soldier steals the invasion plans before heading back to base.

Other types of quests may not be so straight forwards and may not have neither a known final objective nor any lists of tasks given.  The player may be asked to discover who stole a priceless amulet and be given the role of an investigator.  Here, the player must go through a series of smaller fetch quests to get clues, these being by talking to other NPCs or finding loose items on tables, in chests, or on dead bodies.  These items could collectively trigger a story-driven event which would let the player determine who the thief may be, or perhaps have the thief attack the player before being turned into the police.  The player would not know who to question, nor where any evidence would be found.  And the player would not know who to suspect until the quest is nearly done.

Stop griping:

People make a fuss about fetch quests in their game.  However, it can be seen that any task you have is a fetch quest in one way or another.  It just relies on the imagination of the game developer.  What one may deem a mere fetch quest could in fact offer much more.  Even the most professional games contain simple fetch quests, though the creators may leave somethinbg behind to make the most avid powergamer willing to partake.

Years ago when 'World of Warcraft' hit the internet, there emerged a Female Gnome named Myaka.  While Gnomes in 'World of Warcraft' found themselves limited to a mechanical chicken as a riding mount, the player who created Myaka had higher goals and planned to beat the odds.  Immediately, Myaka completed as many alliance faction quests as she could.  After that, she headed to the Swamp of Sorrows and began the Lost Supplies quest.  A simple and repeatable fetch quest in itself, she made deliveries between the swamp and Netherguard Keep.  However, this quest she performed at least one thousand times.  In doing this, she was allowed to purchase the exalted Noble Steed!  But this wasn't enough for Myaka.  Another repeatable fetch quest was available where she was to deliver Morrowgrain Darnassus and to Southerland.  This, she performed well over four thousand times.  And in doing so, she was able to earn a Knightsaber tiger as a mount.

Wherever you go, there you are:

Fetch quests are everywhere.  Since the simplest of adventure games, they existed.  And in the most recent of MMORPGs they appear.  They can be linked together within a game to make a mission feel grandious, or be offered by a simple peasant to pick some apples from a tree.  So while some think it to be amateurish to have fetch quests in their game, perhaps they should look towards other games and think twice. The basis of many of the quests in every game are a collection of simple fetch quests.

Fetch quests, whether made simple or concealed behind the game developer's epic story, permeate every known adventure game.