Quests

Quests are one of the most important aspects of the System, and the element that takes the system from being a loose structure of power to becoming far more binding and integral to the dynamics of the Pearalos cosmos. At their core, Quests are very simple: they are structured tasks or requests posted by one party for another to complete in exchange for some kind of reward, often some kind of monetary or loot-based reward.

Quest Groups

There are three broad groups of quest - Emergent Quests, Personal Quests, and System Quests, and they each fulfil very different purposes within the System's broader structure. Below, we will discuss each one.

Emergent Quests

These are Quests that the System itself creates and distributes to Quest Boards based on emergent scenarios; an orcish incursion might trigger Combat Quests related to driving them back for example, or a natural disaster might trigger Courier Quests related to transporting supplies to those locations.

These are Quests provided directly by the System in response to events across the world, and are regionally aware and limited in scope - someone in Shirahanai won't receive Quests to go and fight an Orcish invasion in Central Thrain for example, unless they have the means inherently to get there quickly - and like Personal Quests have to be chosen to earn credit towards them. Because the System itself is providing these Quests, however, they also offer Experience, like System Quests (though not as much of it) and a small amount of Crowns.

Personal Quests

Personal Quests are provided by denizens of Pearalos through the System's Quest Boards, for other people to complete in exchange for a reward. These are far more varied than the Emergent Quests, but are inherently incapable of rewarding Experience tacitly - as only the System itself can award that, but they can offer Crowns and any number of other items that the Quest's creator wants to offer for a job well done. These tend to be the bread and butter of Quests on Pearalos, and the lifeblood of the Adventurer Economy in many ways.

A curious aspect of these Quests is the fact that the System does enforce good faith behaviour with them, but only to an extent; Quests that send wannabe adventurers into a waiting trap are permitted by the system for whatever reason - natural selection, perhaps? - but if a Quest offers a reward, the System does ensure that said reward is provided upon successful completion of the Quest, and it also enforces other terms of Quests - notable for specific Courier Quest variations.

System Quests

Perhaps the most important kind of Quest overall, System Quests are very rare indeed, but they fulfil an extremely vital role. These Quests are only offered by the System itself, provide very little in the way of direction, but provide extremely potent rewards without fail. These Quests are how the Core Limit is overcome for most progression methods, how Abilities and Essences are empowered, how certain Advanced Classes are unlocked, and so on.

These Quests always include some kind of hefty reward, but it is never monetary or item-based in nature, as that does not align with how the System functions. The rewards of these Quests are always tied to the system itself, as mentioned above, and as such they are often seen as vital to complete, if someone can bring themselves to do them - which is especially rare in cases like the Quest to overcome the Core Limit. No matter what rewards are offered, Experience is always among them, and these Quests offer a lot of Experience.

System Quests are almost always personalized to the person the System is addressing the Quest to, but often this personalization is a small section of the Quest, done to still allow people on the same kind of Quest to work together to complete it. Only the Core Limit Quest - which as mentioned is very different - doesn't work this way.

Refinement Quests

A notable sub-section of System Quests are Refinement Quests. These always refer to the process of improving and empowering Abilities, Essences, Techniques and Skills, and are generally related to demonstrating mastery in the usage of the current refinement tier of the power (or its unmodified version if at refinement zero).

Refinement Quests are generally considered to be the easiest kind of System Quest, but that's not to say they're easy; quite the opposite, it's just that the other System Quests are often so difficult that these come across as mundane in comparison.

The Structure of a Quest

Quests themselves are very simple to understand, but there's a lot of moving parts behind them, including their difficulty tier, method of obtaining them, quest types, objectives, and much more. Below we'll discuss each of these things.

Quest Types

While Quests can be extremely varied, they fall into a few broad types that define the general overarching identity of a given Quest; these types don't restrict a Quest in any way, but they provide useful guidance to all parties on what the Quest entails at a glance. These quest types are detailed below.

Combat Quests

Generally covering Quests that require the adventurer to kill monsters, harvest monster parts, rescue people or escort people, these quests are generally the most common for Quest Boards to offer, as they make up a large percentage of Emergent Quests offered by the System. They're also the easiest to understand, and so most rookie adventurers start with these.

Exploration Quests

Exploration Quests cover those that require an adventurer to travel into the wild in search of things, be they new lands, charting the map, or anything else. On their own, these Quests have generally faded from relevance with time, and likely would've continued to do so were it not for the fact that Dungeon Quests - which task adventurers to enter dungeons and explore them - come under this type too, which has ever kept Exploration Quests relevant.

Courier Quests

Covering Quests that need items taken from one place to another, these Quests are a cornerstone of the adventurer economy and allow for the businesses of the world to remain functional, even when caravans can't make the trips to bring materials. A notable subset of these Quests are Gathering Quests, which are the same, but don't require items to be picked up from one place and taken to another, but instead need them to be gathered and returned to a recipient.

Crafting Quests

The final major type of Quest, these Quests are very self-explanatory, and require things to be created and given to a recipient, usually the Quest giver. Crafting Quests are simple, but very important indeed, as they form a core basis of how the crafting economy of the System functions, and Guilds in particular give out these quests a lot to request gear for their novices - militaries and mercenaries do too, as well.

Quest Objectives

Quest objectives can be extremely broad and range from incredibly vague to exactingly specific; you can be tasked to kill 25 orcs, or be tasked to obtain the ring fingers of 25 male orcs from a specific clan who must be within a certain age range, as an example of the extremes - though there are even more extreme cases possible. This plays a part in the rewards of Quests, as much like difficulty, the more specific a Quest objective is, the more substantial the reward must be, to compensate anyone for going to the lengths for such precise specifics.

The actual objective types are similarly broad, but tend to be coupled inherently to quest types; Combat Quests are almost always going to be kill objectives - or objectives to obtain parts from creatures - while Courier Quests will always involve item delivery and travel objectives. Objectives can also be layered and stacked for more complicated multi-step Quests, but like with everything else, more steps require higher rewards to be offered.

Difficulty Tiers

Like with Dungeons, Quests are each assigned a difficulty in the form of a difficulty tier, which determines the general level range someone should be in to take that Quest. A wide variety of factors can influence the tier assigned to a Quest, from the difficulty in acquiring the needed materials, the danger inherent in reaching the Quest location, the level of the creatures that need to be killed, the difficulty tier of the dungeon involved (if applicable), and much more.

All quests receive a difficulty tier, though for Emergent Quests it just informs the rewards and plays no part in how one can obtain those Quests, and in general the difficulty tier factors into the rewards of a Quest; a more difficult Quest as calculated by the System requires more rewards to be promised, and for Personal Quests that can mean that the System prompts the Quest giver to promise more rewards than they perhaps initially wanted to offer.

Obtaining Quests

There are a few broad methods for obtaining quests, with the most generally convenient being Quest Boards (detailed to the right). This is the method most people use, as there are Quest Boards everywhere, maintained and operated by the System itself, but it also possible to use the Adventurer's Guild - which is also integrated into the System, but are manmade extensions instead of system-operated like Quest Boards - to obtain Quests, and to obtain Quests directly from the Quest giver. For more information on the Adventurer's Guild, see the Guilds article for how the System deals with guilds and the Adventurer's Guild at large.

Quest Rewards

It has come to be expected over the countless years of the System being in force across the world that Quests should give rewards, and indeed, they do - and have to as per the system's rules. The rewards of a Quest vary considerably, with System Quests often giving system-based rewards - Ability Empowerments and Class Options for example - while Emergent Quests give Experience (like System Quests) and Crowns most of the time, but few Quests are more versatile and varied than the sheer variety of options available from Personal Quests.

In fact, the only things that can't be given as a reward from these Quests are system-based rewards and Experience, as those are the sole dominion of the System itself. Anything else - Crowns, weapons, consumables, buildings, vehicles, anything - can be offered, and the System uses its extensive catalogue of information (visible through the System Compendium) to value all offered rewards to ensure they at least match what the various metrics of the Quest require to be provided, but it does not stop a Quest from offering more in terms of rewards than it should for the work required.

Type

Metaphysical

Quest Boards

Quest Boards are a feature of every settlement with a tavern present - which appears to be what the System uses to anchor them. They are constructs of the System itself and can be moved in the local area, but not destroyed or relocated to different areas entirely.

Quest Boards are the lifeblood of the entire Quest System, providing a centralized offering of the myriad Quests that the system provides support for - be they Emergent or Personal - and making them available for Corewalkers to select.

Quest Boards - like Quests and Dungeons - have a Difficulty level known as a Tier, which determines how difficult a Quest they can have listed on them. This doesn't mean that someone living around a low-tier board can't obtain high tier Quests, but they have to obtain them from the source instead. Emergent Quests can appear on any board, as their difficulty tier is not factored into anything except rewards.