MacGyver set and banking quest

Everybody has feature ideas, come share yours!
Post Reply
jspad
Regular Poster
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:39 am

MacGyver set and banking quest

Post by jspad »

The coat hanger is cool for its simplicity. I propose a MacGyver set that makes good use of seemingly simple items:

- coat hanger: right hand, as in game!
- cardboard box: headgear, increases chance of enemy missing (see post on pseudo-metropolis pseudo-robot quest for use in quest and alternative uses).
- bodywear: drop paper clips lots and early. use combine to make a paper clip vest out of 20 paper clips. should add defense & attack (spiky parts)
- left hand: slippery-sticky shield made in true MacGyver style. combine disposable slicer and cardboard box = sheet of cardboard (base shield). combine sheet of cardboard with greasy confectionary = sticky shield that now sticks to your forearm without the need for a handle. combine sticky shield with degunker or jelly = slippery-sticky shield. it is sticky on the inside and thus attaches nicely to your forearm yet slippery on the outside and thus deflects enemies' attacts easily. should add defense & critical hit (?), Merlin knows best how to balance.
- accessory: swiss army knife. should add chance to find rare items hence valuable to pack rats/advanced players. could also be used to transform stuff, like useless knickknack to useful knickknack or could be used once a day to take out the toothpick that removes fullness by 7 to make space for another spost. could also be used as right hand weapon when small blade is taken out. taking out small blade and combining it with the stick could make an extended saw that helps acquiring the top from the fake plastic tree. what we need that for? only Merlin knows.
more importantly: the swiss army knife has a 4 digit number embossed (and a label of the bank if we want to be spoilerish), which will be important later.

ok, now the quest:
the quest master should be away for a few days/levels when he hasn't got any quests anyway. maybe could have left a message that he's on vacation. when he's back he tell's you that he's made a nice trip to the Cayman Islands ... to go ... swimming. his original plans didn't work out so he went to ... Switzerland. And because he liked it so much, he opened a numbered account there. anyway, while he was away, he found this package at the front of his door with all that sequentially numbered money bills (say, 1M depending on when the quest happens) in it that he ... won in the lottery.
anyway, he wants you to go to the bank and deposit it and do it quick. how? he suspects he's gotten a "bug" on Cayman Island so he rushes away and leaves you to figure it out yourself. the QM could also just hand over the swiss army knife instead, but that would be a bit too spoilery. he could, however, mention very early in the game that he lost it and suddenly grab it from you and thank you for returning it when you come back after you completed the quest and tell him how you did it.

data-wisey, the QM's money could be separated from the players account but still shown as added in the stats. here's why: the money given by the quest master should be a significant amount (or have other special features like increasing chances at the casino) so that the player is tempted to spend it on holiday island/the market/skills. or the user fights money-draining monsters to gain XP. tax monster would be best of course. in any case: the system would notice that the quest master's money has been spent (always use that first) and when trying to finally deposit for the quest, you have to spend 4$ or so for each dollar of the quest master (after all, he said you should do it quick).

how you deposit: the 4 digit number from the swiss army knife should be the code that opens the QM's numbered account. in order for that to happen, it would be good to introduce a password query at the first time you visit the bank to set an atm code. any combination (even none, so users don't have to remember anything extra) is fine and unlocks your account to deposit your money. however, the number on the swiss army knife unlocks that special account of the quest master. if the knife is used for other things as suggested above, it should drop more than once but rather rarely. if internally a random 4-digit number on the knife would be generated for each character used, this would make the item also rather untradeable because you would be able to trade it but unable to deposit money in the QM's account.

if swiss army knife generally helps with finding rare stuff: that also speaks for it being a very rare item itself.

finally: once deposited, the QM thanks you (maybe takes your/his knife) and rewards with XP/lots of money.

so much for know. let me know what you think. cheers, jspad.
User avatar
Mad Merlin
Site Admin
Posts: 752
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2005 10:41 pm
Contact:

Post by Mad Merlin »

Generally I like it, but I think the knife/bank thing is a little too convoluted.

What I think would be more straightforward and also more evil would be to have the Quest Master entrust the player with a large sum of gold which the player then has to hand off to a shady character who is occasionally found wandering around City Hall. This forces the player to wander around City Hall (the home of the Tax Monster) with a lot of gold on hand in search of the shady character. If you meet the shady character and don't have enough gold (or if you take too long), he demands more as interest, but refuses to take the partial sum you already have. Additionally, the Quest Master could refuse to give out additional quests until you complete this one, to remove the temptation of just pocketing the gold and never handing it off.
Post Reply