Quests
Overview
Quests help make roguelikes interesting. They involve completing a task and receiving a reward. Quests may also have prerequisites that must be fulfilled before the quest will be given. Quests may be required to progress further in the game.
Prerequisites
Often a player will have to complete certain actions before starting a quest.
- Completing a previous quest
- Attaining a certain level or having certain skills
- Being a certain alignment
Triggers
There are several ways to start a quest.
- Speak with the proper NPC
- Attain a certain combat
- Enter a certain dungeon level
Types
Quests come in several varieties. Here are a few:
- Kill one or more monsters.
- Retrieve an item
- Explore or enter a particular level
Some games have special quests; that is, you need to perform certain actions to complete them. ToME, for example, has a quests where you need to you clean a river by using certain potions with the polluted water tiles. Gearhead has quests that involve protecting caravans, infiltrating houses, and so on.
Rewards
There are many rewards that can be given as the result of completing a quest.
- Money
- Special items (usually weapons and armor)
- Experience in skills
- Companions
- Alignment changes
- Access to new places
Tasks in Roguelikes
Sometimes there are tasks that are either implicitly or explicitly mandatory to win a roguelike, but are not considered quests by the game. Killing the boss monster is an explicitly mandatory task. The player knows at the beginning of the game that his key objective is to take down that monster, and the game cannot be won without doing so. However, implicitly mandatory task are often required to win as well. In Angband, for example the goal is to kill Morgoth. It is implied that the player must kill Sauron as well, to access the final level. In ADOM, the task is to close the chaos gate at the bottom of a certain dungeon. However, to reach that point in the dungeon requires the player to pass a wall of fire, and they need to retrieve an item that will allow them to get through.
Conclusion
Not every roguelike has quests, and the ones without them can still be very fun to play. On the other hand, quests add unique and enjoyable content to the game. Quests are a way to take a break for the typical mindless killing that is often required to win the game.