I've been playing WoW since release day (bought it at midnight to be exact), and recently I've thought to try and take some concepts from WoW and push them over to D&D; specifically, what makes WoW adventures fun and easy to complete?

Perhaps the simplest and most striking difference between D&D and WoW is in adventure structure. First off, adventures or quests — with rare execeptions — all have clear, predefined objectives that allow people to know exactly what is going on at any given time. This cuts out time spent wandering around, not quite sure what the quest is really about. Secondly, because the objectives are clear, and because they are usually very simple, they tend to be completed quickly. By breaking the adventures down into small quests, World of Warcraft allows a player to make progress quickly, have their rewards to be handed out frequently, and to see their XP gain very quickly. Lastly, because longer "adventures" are broken down into simple quests, the parts of quests begin to fit into similar categories. Begin able to recognize the category of a quest, and to predict how events will transpire gives the player a sense of understanding, and pacing. It also gives them confidence to predict the outcome of a quest, because they know when they get the 10th item of 10 needed, that something good will happen.

Designing a WoW Quest

When trying to design World of Warcraft styled quests for D&D, its probably most useful to start out with a list of quest categories, since quest creation is basically picking something from the list and customizing it to your campaign. I've compiled a list of quest types below with names of my own invention. This list might not be exhaustive, and new expansions might introduce new quest types, but its fit everything I've seen so far and that I can see in the future. Once you've picked a Quest Type, you can pick a twist if you want, head on to the reward section, and finish it up with a hook.

Quest Types

Garbage collection – gather things from people, places, etc. Example: “I'm very busy, but I need some spell components. Why don't you go collect ten pounds of bat guano for me, and bring me four small candles and a tiny silver bell. If you do I'll pay you 20 gold.”

Click Stuff – interact with items, such as breaking something, changing settings, or investigating. Example: “Now take those components and put them into the four barrels in my attic.”

Theft – getting one particular item from somewhere or something. Example: “Good work, these help a lot. My spell has hit a snag though. I thought I had a good crystal ball here, but mine is cracked. I talked with the local glassblower, and he says that a group of bandits stole his latest shipment. I've heard they have a warehouse near here, and I'd like you to go and get me a crystal ball.”

Killing Spree – killing a number of people of a certain type. Example: “Now that you've gotten me a crystal ball I can go back to work. I'm rather irritated that I had to wait at all though. Perhaps you should teach the bandits a lesson by giving five of their best men a good thrashing.”

Assassination – killing specific people. Example: “Your attacks must have shaken up the bandits, as their leader has come into town to try and parley with the mayor. He is staying at their warehouse, go and kill him as an example to the bandits.”

Escort – keep someone or some group of people alive for a while, the two types for this are the moving and stationary escorts, stationary being more of a defending type of quest. Example: “Thank you for freeing me from the bandit leader, please help me escape this dungeon and the town.”

Delivery – bring something to some one. Example: “I'm safely outside the walls, here take this ring to the wizard, he will know what it means.”

Chatting – talk to some one. Example: “This is a elven ring of friendship, but I don't know what it signifies. Go and talk to my friend the elf and ask him if he knows what it means.”

Exploration – go discover a location. Example: “Yes I do know what it means, she left you a reward outside of town. Go and find the Stillwater Pound: she left it under a rock by the north side.”

Quest Twists

Quest twists are the variations on these base types, usually designed to increase difficulty, change circumstance, or allow new possibilities. Perhaps the most interesting twist isn't really one at all, but the use of an "Unknown" reward or item. Either the quest asks you to collect an item without identifying what it is, or the quest giver doesn't say what the reward is for the quest.

(Repeatable) – applied to any one quest type, but make it possible to complete the quest more then once. Usually garbage collection or killing spree. Example: “Now that you've shaken up the bandits, I think its time to be rid of them completely. I'll pay you 10g for each bandit uniform you bring in.”

(Elite) – You face tougher then normal opponents. This is often used with either an assassination mission, with the target being an (Elite), or with (Dungeon) quests involving particularly rough parts of the world. Example: "The barbarian warlord Kagaroth leads the army. Strike him down."

(Dungeon) - you are interring a “dungeon”, this being an area of multiple encounters without much hope of rest. The best example of this is locations or dungeons of legendary difficulty, such as the Temple of Elemental Evil. Example: "Enter the sunken dungeon and defeat four of the hags that inhabit it."

(Timed) – You have a certain amount of time to accomplish a certain goal. This is often used with delivery or chatting quests. Example: "Take this potion to my friend before he dies, you have 2 days."

(Chain) – the quest begins another quest, usually linked together with better rewards at the end. This is also usually 3 quests or more, but for D&D this could be just 2 linked quests. Example: The quests listed as example for the normal quests were a chain of quests, although a particularly long one.

Rewards

With the exception of quest in a chain, WoW quests almost always give an item or cash handout at the end, and without exception they have some sort of experience reward. While some DMs might not want to be handing out rewards every ten minutes, it might be best to think of it as a chance to increase balance, rather then just give out money. D&D has "average" treasure values for certain challenge ratings, and 3.X D&D assumes players are getting this amount. Unfortunately, if your players are battling monsters that don't carry treasure, you have to plan to hand out extra treasure to make up for it. Quest rewards are great because they allow you to maintain average per-encounter treasure rates on a much more frequent basis. If the quest is to kill things that drop no loot, or to gather items that might be worth something to sell independently, then give more as a reward. If the party is killing humanoids with lots of cash, give a small reward, or a single specific one.

White bonus experience handouts aren't really necessary in D&D, since most quests involve a lot of slaying, D&D players are usually very comfortable with the idea of "quest completion" XP. If you want you could give something like a 50 XP bonus for completing a quest, or simply hold the XP gained while completing the quest until it is "turned in".

The Hook

The last consideration is who or what starts the quest. Often this is a person, but sometimes its an object that starts a quest. Some good examples of this in WoW are a distress beacon that asks you to find the original unit, a hide that looks good enough to be taken in for a reward, and journals that might be of interest to certain people. My personal favorite example is an animated head dropped as loot that has you collect its full corpse and bury him inside a castle. The important thing to remember with WoW hooks are that they are obvious... NPCs have golden exclamation points over their heads and quest items are label "Quest Item"; keep hooks obvious so player's don't stumble around trying to figure out how to start it.

Using these principles you can devise a whole campaign arc with mini adventures and side quests in simple parts. Add in some random encounters to help round out XP for level gain, and it forms up rather nicely. I've built up an example sketch of quests and rewards, including expected XP for a few of the quests.

Example Level 1 Quests

Goblin Magic (killing spree): Kill 10 goblin adepts in the eastern wood, and bring back their leader's amulet as proof. Reward: 50g and a Masterwork weapon. Estimated XP: 10x CR 1/3 = 1000xp/4 = 250xp.

Diseased Wolves (garbage collection, repeatable): Collect 10 diseased wolf hides and bring them to me. Reward: An Everburning Torch or 3x Potions of Cure Light Wounds. Estimated XP: 10x CR 1 X1/2 = 1,500xp/4 = 375xp.

Scouting Orc Activity (exploration, orcs chain part 1): We've heard that orcs have set up a timbering facility in the eastern woods, find it for us. Reward: 250g. Estimated XP: 3x CR 1 = 900/4 + 200/4 adhoc = 275xp

Random Encounter: 1X Giant Owl CR3 = 900xp/4 = 125xp

Example Level 2 Quests

Destroy Their Tools (click stuff, orcs chain part 2): Sneak into the cave at the center of the orc camp and destroy 10 of their lumbering tools. Reward: Elven Chainmail or Cloak of Elvenkind.

Cleansing the Cavern (escort, cleansing chain part 1): Escort me to heart of the Cursed Chamber, so that I might cleanse the alter there and end its evil. Reward: 200g.

Set Me Free (garbage collection, orcs chain part 3): The orcs have trapped me down here, please find the key, I think I saw an orc with a red hat have it last. Set me free!

Take Me Home Orcs (escort, orcs chain part 4): Now that I'm free, I need to get out of here, please help get me home.

Ring of Trust (delivery, orcs chain part 5): Thank you for bringing me home, here take this ring as a token of my appreciation. Reward: Ring of Protection +1.

Example Level 3 Quests

Defend Me (escort, cleansing chain part 2): Now that I've begun to cleanse the alter, the evil creatures of the area will try and attack us, defend me until the spell is complete. Reward: +1 Heavy Mace or +1 Breastplate

Delve Into Shadowdeep (garbage collection, elite dungeon): I need you to delve into Shadowdeep dungeon and bring me back 10 Cursed Amulets. Reward: 500g and choice of Gloves of Dexterity +2 or Lazorite Spellbook, containing 0-2 level spells.

Save my Daughter (chat, elite timed dungeon): My daughter has been captured by The Damned Queen of Shadowdeep. I think that she is going to be turned into a new Damned Queen on the night of the full moon, and thats only 3 days away! Please save her and I'll give you my family heirloom. Reward: +1 flaming longsword.