Quests, Questmasters and In-Character Event Information

Heavy WIP. Please see this page later.

Quests

Quests are a personal event, events or storylines which are requested by a Player for their Character, or a Group of Characters.

SPL features heavy involvement of the wider DM Team in most aspects of the server. On one side, the wider DM Team is focused on preserving the Lore (historical, philosophical, social, magical etc.), especially due to the Persistent World nature of SPL; on the other hand, the Team is constantly involved in enriching the Players' experience through Events, Storylines and Quests. Storytellers focus on open, lower stake events and storylines, Dungeon Masters focus on higher stake and more grand narratives, while Questmasters focus on a mixture of the two, weaving in open storylines of a more larger scope and also being in charge of running Quests.

Questmasters

The Questmasters have two functions. A Questmaster regularly holds Events, primarily orientated towards Factions & Sects, portraying some sort of narrative in the Planescape Multiverse at large. The 2nd, much more important function of a Questmaster is holding Quests. Quests tend to be a personal event, events or storylines. Any player on SPL can request a Quest, from exploring a Plane to fighting an archnemesis from their past, pilfering a vault of a merchant, to destroying a temple of some Power. Quests can be small in scope, or large and lengthy, depending on the reason and idea.

Player - Questmaster Dialogue

It is incredibly important to not be afraid to consult with a Questmaster about a Quest idea.

This can allow you to set OOC expectations, check whether a Quest is lore appropriate, appropriate in scope of power, etc. Even if a Quest is not appropriate in scope or lore, a QM will help and advise you how to adjust the Quest to suit your character idea, or may advise another alternative which you might feel is appropriate. Rejections of Quests should ideally be explained so the Player can understand why they are not fit or impossible to do. However, you shouldn't get discouraged as there are always interesting alternative Quests to approach. Do not be afraid to change your idea, partially or wholly, as the QM team will try to work as best as they can to have your idea realized if possible.

Please remember that QMs are not guaranteed to pick up a requested Quest even if there's nothing wrong with it. They could just need to feel the right moment of inspiration or be busy. Like any DM, Questmasters can have specific preferences for types of events. We receive multiple requests every week that need to be organized, looked over and fleshed out to be ran in addition to the time required to set up and run the Quest. Please be patient if your requests takes some time. We do look over all Quests.

For this reason, we highly advise you post your Quests as Tickets, rather than directly in the #submission-requests.

New Players & Quests

Players new to the Server should wait at least two months before attempting to request a Quest, since they should be focusing on learning the way the Server works through open Events (ran usually by Storytellers and Questmasters) rather than immediately seeking personalized Quests. This allows them to understand the nuances and expectations of how Events and Storylines go. Storytellers are typically expected to hold Events which are accessible to the general public (though alignment, philosophy and such might make it less accessible), while Questmasters are focused more towards specific approaches to something, eg. a narrative that's specifically tying in 3 Factions, a narrative involving a group of Characters who got cursed, as well as Quests requested by Players.

The Hero's Journey

The Hero's Journey is the common template of stories that involve a Hero who goes on an adventure, faces challenges or a crisis, and overcomes it through sheer will, power, focus, a friend's (or master's/tutor's) aid, undergoing a transformative process within, before returning home changed, for better and worse. Many stories follow this principle, many don't, but within the domains of RPGs and collaborative storytelling, you will find many stories follow this principle. These principles can also be warped (a Hero could be a Villain, a Hero could be a Group...) or in some rare scenarios, the Quest might not even be a Hero's Journey (though usually for stories of a smaller scope and risk).

You should approach a Quest with this in mind when seeking to portray a Hero's Journey:

• What does my Character seek to achieve?
• How will the Character attempt to achieve it?
• What challenges would the Character face?
• Do they have any allies to assist them?
• What enemies or forces are hindering them?
• What will they do if they fail the Quest?

Expectations

Dangers

When there is grave danger expected, such as risk of death or grievous injury, the Questmaster will always warn you preemptively of grave dangers ahead of the Quest, but not necessarily during the Quest itself.

You should always approach great dangers with caution and respect, or risk getting consequences. We do not trivialize permanent deaths nor grave injuries. You cannot be "permakilled by surprise". A Quest that will guarantee to permakill your Character due to its danger will usually be denied, unless your goal is to closure your Character.

It is also important to remember that Epic Characters, due to Epic Consequences, are a lot more at risk of danger than non-Epic Characters. This does not mean, however, that non-Epic Characters cannot risk grievous injury or permadeath, just that it is much more unlikely to happen, such as incredibly dangerous, risky and thoughtless actions.

Success

WIP

A Quest can almost always succeed to a degree, but there is always temperance in how much a Character can succeed.

• Successes cannot greatly alter the canon of Planescape, as we rely on the consistency of the canon to have the Persistent World function properly.
• Depending on the severity and scope of the Quest, you can expect various things.

Failure

WIP 

Failing a Quest is not an Out-of-Character failure, the OOC goal is to portray a story. It is all a process of the Hero's Journey. Regardless of whether they are victorious or not, a Character will be changed, for better or worse, as the narrative progresses. A Character is changed by a Quest, especially from more demanding ones. Quests are intended to allow the Player to put their Character into situations where they can affect the Verse and be affected in return. Most Quests will follow the Hero's Journey in some form or shape; rarely will some not follow this, but usually for good reasons. The Questmasters, leading the narrative of the Quest, will strive to challenge your Character without making absolute barriers. Absolute barriers are very rare, but they do exist, such as facing extremely dangerous beings, attempting to perform something that is innately dangerous, and so forth.

In-Character Limitations of Power

It is very important to remember the Power Scaling on SPL, respecting the scope of how powerful a Character can be and what they can do, so the balance and nuance of Power is respected.

Half-Level Rule

Your Character is narratively half of their Mechanical level.

This means that a level 20 Wizard is actually a level 10 Wizard, while the highest an Epic Character can go mechanically is level 30, the narrative maximum is actually level 15.

1st Corollary: Creatures on SPL are mechanically generally double their in-book Challenge Rating.

What beings you can summon, what beings your character could ally or conflict with, what beings they will generally be able to commonly or rarely see, this is all affected by the Power Scaling. This is almost always true, but for narrative purposes it can be shifted (eg. a wolf is infected with a magical plague, making it incredibly dangerous; a powerful being requests the Planeswalkers' aid by proxy, etc). You should be aware of this when requesting a Quest involving powerful beings, and should watch out that the scope isn't too grand at times. If you are uncertain about it, you can always ask a Questmaster about power scope.

In general, a Character will almost* never interact with a Deity or Deity-like beings directly, instead usually through Divine Agents. (*Epic Clerics undergoing an Ascension Quest is a plausible but extremely rare exception, but Ascension Quests are outside of the scope of this page.)

A Character will also extremely rarely interact with solars, pitfiends, balors and such. Usually it will go through interaction with lesser beings.

2nd Corollary: Magical items aren't as powerful ICly as they are numerically.

A +5 Armor isn't truly +5, it might be +2 or +3. A +6 Weapon against Evil might not actually be able to pierce a fiend's natural protection, being actually +3, etc.

3rd Corollary: ICly, spells, powers and abilities you could cast are limited by your IC level rather than your mechanical.

This will be elaborated upon below.

PnP Spells, Powers and Abilities

D&D features over a thousand spells, and even more so powers and abilities. NWN does not have the capacity to portray and feature all of them, but through RP, many of them can be portrayed. We generally call these 'RP Spells' or 'PNP Spells'.

Magic offers a variety of effects and capabilities, offering unique capabilities of Diviners, the innate tie of a Druid to Nature, the sacred bond of a Cleric to a Deity, and so many more. Still, the use of Magic in D&D has always presented a complicated topic, one that should be directly addressed before requesting to cast a PnP Spell.

When seeking to cast a Spell from PnP, you should always ask yourself, as a Player and Roleplayer who is participating in a collaborative story, these questions:

1. Is this creating Roleplay, or solving Roleplay?
2. Does this contibute to the Story in a good way?, or even worse, Is it potentially ruining it?

Questmasters are aware of the fact that Players aren't omnipotent and omniscient, and design Stories in such a way that a task can be achieved, or some other solution if not the task directly.

An example would be, a group of Planeswalkers are following the trail of a werewolf in a forest, but the werewolf is too sneaky for the Planeswalkers' sense to discover them. The DM presents a solution, seeking the aid of a Ranger. Potential PnP Spell solutions would be casting:

Speak with Plants to inquire with the nearby Trees if they've seen something, which might lead them on a minisubplot of getting the Trees to help them find the Werewolf's Lair. Speak with Animals to get the local birds to spill the beans, but the birds might deceptively lead them on a trail of attacking a human hunter who's bird hunting instead. Persistent Image to make a false camp to lure in the Werewolf...

... and so much more. This illustrates great potential and a great issue with PnP Spells. The QM is force to prepare for over a thousand possibilities, straining the limits of improvisation and preparation, and often times creating potential for a significantly branching story that might lose scope and become (OOCly) chaotic. On the good side, this can allow a DM to create a rich, complex world of magic and wonder if given the ample time, opportunity and creativity to do so, while enriching the Player with further agency, even if the end goal might be the same.

A faulty example of applying PnP Spells would be Scrying, not Divination itself, but rather how most Players approach it, merely casting a Spell and expecting to know the position of someone or something. This approach usually attempts to solve RP rather than create it. However, Scrying can be used in a fitting, creative way where good RP opportunities are made. Look for real life examples of the origins of Divination. Ominous portents displayed during a seance; an incense-induced euphoric vision of strange sights in a dim temple; a hand shaking in a bloodied pool, visions of the way out of Carceri in the pool of blood spilled from what was once a trusted comrade, and so much more.

Another would be blatantly attempting to contradict the nature of an event through magic. Having an acidic rain in a strange Prime countered by a single Control Weather spell will only cause the QM to have to create an unnecessarily complex reasoning for it to be so, or blatantly dismantle an Event. This tends to force QMs to have to use antimagic areas or other restrictions to negate magic, which can be frustrating for both parties.

Mainline Rules

Some of the Spells can have nuance depending on the storyline and the DM/QM holding the event, but some are axiomatic and almost always restricted:

Regeneration and standard healing effects do not regrow missing body parts that are lost in DM events; they simply 'closes the wound'. More powerful means must be sought out to regrow missing limbs.

The spell True Resurrection cannot be cast by any PC regardless of level. A complex DM event and extreme costs are required for the spell.

True Seeing on Sigil Planar Legends does not reveal the true form of shapeshifted characters or races. It provides +25 Spot, See Invisibility, and Ultravision. For an actual effect, please see Paths Become Unknown.