Well, I've had it since I proposed Waterdeep, but it sank with that idea. Recently i've been engaged in some statics on BG and they've made me think about how to improve on them to add more enjoyment to them. Which, in case people havn't noticed, is the reason i'm here
First of all, i can't script for shit. I probably wont ever be able to do it either. That's why this is just some brainstorming and hopefully someone who is more talented than I am will figure out a simple and fun way of implementing this.
All of these ideas were things that was going to be implemented in the Waterdeep server. There is no reason to just sit on the ideas so why not share them?
Delivery quests
One thing that irks me, or well not really irks me, but something that bothers me is that the delivery quests, regardless if it's mailbags or iron pots, are always the same thing. You repeat them etc. That means several people get together and run laps if need or they are done when no one else is online. What they do is promote RP when with others. You have a task that you have set out to do and you do it. You RP on the way and everyone gets happy.
I'd like to revamp the mail delivery statics. The way I think they should/could work is that you talk to the postmaster as per usual and agree to help him out. Before you accept the mission, he informs you that they have mail going all over the place. Sometimes it's as little as a single letter, sometimes it's as big as a crate filled with rocks.
What happens after you accept it, is that the actual destination gets randomly decided as well as the cargo. That means you dont run the same laps with the mail runs all the time, you get to explore parts of the server you may not usually go to and what's more is that in a group, you may get two separate destinations which only means you stay together longer with promotes more RP.
The reward for this would depend on a combination of value of cargo and destination.
Static spawns
Goblins in Cloakwood getting too boring for you? In ALFA1 we had diminishing returns which wasn't very fun. Risk/reward should go hand in hand. Imagine that the badass fighter keeps cleaning up the "streets" in Cloakwood (or any other place appropriate per server) for the same reason people walk with mail bags. He is bored and is looking for something to do. But killing goblins that can't even hit you anymore is just plain boring. Hell, even if you are a full group of people you kinda just breeze through some places.
What if after you've slaughtered three to four groups of goblins they start running away from the characters in terror. Now, this is where some players would start to complain because they want their new Goblin ear necklace. Now fast forward a bit and when the Goblins now see the same Fighter coming along, they dont only run away, but they do so because they are sneaky. They run away, luring the Fighter into a trap where they set loose a tortured and captured troll which of course goes after the Fighter.
Why do this? Because it's exciting. It's boring to know what happens and this way what would be a simple enough encounter can be adjusted on the fly to suit the person or persons who trigger them. The possibilities may not be endless, but it can be pretty fun to play around with and it would make casual play more fun, even for our higher level PCs.
That brings me to...
Gold/Experience/Reputation
The WD team played around with an idea to make sure that farming statics wouldn't end up with a heap of incredibly wealthy characters running around. The idea was that actual reward for many statics would be more focused on a new "stat" called "Reputation" and it would be server specific. Today, with the ACR, I imagine it could even be global. The idea was to reward players with minor gold/xp rewards for completing statics, and give them a third reward which was a shift in the reputation with the group or person administring the quest. This would then act as a form of currency that the player could use (and thus decrease reputation value) to influence NPCs or if they are really well respected within an organization, the player, should his body be retrieved, could even have them pay for reviving the character.
These doesn't have to be something stored on the Character Sheet, it could just as well be no-drop stackable weightless items that can only be removed by a DM. And this way, we could even award players negative reputation. Screw the city guard over enough times and they wont take too kindly to your kind. It could even mean getting banned from certain places or gain access to otherwise restricted locations.
The idea on WD was because of all the guilds there, it would be a great way to align the characters and make them choose sides in conflicts etc.
Anyways, brainstorm away!
