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Singing Tulip
262ceb
I think when it comes to mechanics in quests there are three basic types: simple, intuitive and complex.
Simple quests have pared-down mechanics, you control only one or two characters with only a few things they can do at any one time, often in an rpg-esque system where a character basically has a "menu" of basic abilities or qualities, a simple health stat and maybe a mana stat and/or an inventory with one or two items. Usually these things are put right up "on screen" as a little menu or bars and everyone gets it pretty easily right away.
Intuitive quests work on the idea that what the characters can do is basically the same as they could do in "real life", they may be freeform or have mechanics underneath that are explained but ultimately the audience can just suggest what would be a good idea in "real life" and it will probably play out as they expect. Fantasy or sci-fi elements that make things diverge from realism are kept simple or explained/established gradually. The majority of quests are mostly intuitive quests, I think.
Complex quests, finally, have in-depth systems for abilities and actions that the readers will not be expected to be familiar with intuitively, such as complicated magic powers or characters with alien natures. In order not to front-load a big boring infodump, these quests need some sort of intro sequence or tutorial where the things the audience needs to know are revealed a few pieces at a time. It will also help a great deal to have some sort of tutorial instructor character who can interact with the audience to clarify details and answer questions. This can be tricky if the audience will keep interacting with the people they are revealing their ignorance to and will need to be taken as some sort of authority afterwards, so there needs to be some reason the characters keep listening to them: often, it's just that the characters are stuck with the audience and have no choice but to listen, which is the case in most "the suggestions are the character's own thoughts" setups, but there are other ways to achieve this.
Quests don't need to fit into these three categories neatly (a lot of simple quests, for example, "evolve" into intuitive or complex quests) but generally lean towards one of them.
Silken Vale was a complex quest, and had the misfortune of its mechanics mostly being established in info blocks; it didn't have much of a mechanical intro or tutorial and the interaction point between the suggesters and the audience was one in which it was entirely possible for the characters to lose patience with and outright ignore the suggesters. Still, people seemed to be interested enough in the quest and the setting on its own merit to go through the info blocks, so the lack of a tutorial wasn't really so much of a problem. My ability to speculate on its failure is limited but if I had to make some untrustworthy guesses I would say the method of "control" was quite restrictive (only able to talk to one character at a time, possibility that said character wouldn't listen, possibility other characters wouldn't listen to that character on top of that) and didn't let the suggestors feel that they had much positive influence. Also the intro ended up feeling a little dull. With the top-down perspective and all the complex mechanics the quest seemed built for tactical combat but we started off just wandering around picking up all our characters and talking, which IS the natural way for a detective/investigation quest to start, don't get me wrong, but for that it needed a different presentation for those parts of the quest. It should have had shots of the environment and of the characters' body language and other atmospheric stuff to sell the mystery fantasy, the audience needed to feel the sense and desire to explore the setting and the characters and uncover the secrets that had been promised by the quest's story. The "mood" wasn't there. The top-down battlemap perspective made things seem simple and straightforward and clearly laid out and that didn't fit the premise of a fantasy murder mystery at all, really. It wasn't unsalvageable, though.
King of Pentacles I think has a better chance. It leans closest to being a simple quest by the above categories but pushes a bit beyond that by the quantity of the characters to control and the "stats" and abilities being hidden. If it were to be theoretically redone I would start with a simpler and faster intro encounter to give a chance for the mechanics to be explored/explained more quickly (for example, instead of facing the heroes right away maybe we start with a scene of only one or two of the tax collectors guarding their stuff in a town at night while the others are sleeping, and facing off against one or two bandits; or perhaps one or two tax collectors scouting ahead of the group along the road and fighting just one of the heroes). You could also have put in some sort of "tutorial narrator" who could comment on the fight while it was happening, like maybe the queen herself watching by magic, or some nearby wanderer, or perhaps a veteran but invalid tax collector character who can only sit and shout orders at the others, or something like that. I would also (and this could still be done) just put up a straight gamey "UI" or a stat screen shown at the start of each round, where we can see the characters' health and morale as bars as well as their condition and maybe a little list of their special qualities and their "level" to show how powerful they are.
I do want to see more!
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