UncleBourbon

My hope for the great optional dungeon would be that you may assemble a sort of expedition to follow a couple floors behind you to go into it, and you would try to convince people from all over (some recommending/helping others, some less popular) and that they couldn't really trade for you, but maybe help heal/break up the hack and slash. But I also think most of members would demand a portion of the treasure and such. I think this would also play into the difficulty aspect - make it so each additional NPC of the expedition takes a share of the rewards, and that this increases by each member of the trek. Maybe there is an NPC who knows how to activated/create some manner of teleporter to take you back through the dungeon, but s/he is hard/expensive to recruit, or maybe only recruitable if you do something - and even then, it only works so many floors in, or perhaps they can only build or activate one of them on the way down, making you decide which floor to place it on. I think these NPCs should have very limited trading ability - mostly barter or something for a fixed stock of goods that is being depleted. Perhaps there are certain chests or holdings of goods only made apparent once you beat the final boss of the dungeon or something, and it is that reward which the expeditioneers take a part of. This means a greater chance for the best loot if you go through and clear it yourself, and then later hire NPCs to dig and secure it, but also much harder. Basically, this means a temporary camp, with limited goods and possibly some mini-quests a couple floors above you at all times. Maybe randomly occuring waves of enemies appearing if you rest for too long, or something. The supply chain for this expedition would assumedly be carried down with the individuals. Clearly, I favor the idea of an extended journey into this dungeon - I'm a fan of dungeon crawls. In most of the pen and paper crawls I've been part of, if we get to a stopping point/end of session, the DM is reasonable and basically allows us to clear a room, set up watch, maybe barricade/bar a door, and get some uncomfortable rest.

I'm a fan of partial randomness, probably from my background in later edition D&D. What I mean is that you have a skill level, but also a dice roll. So say you've devoted a couple of years to carpentry - enough to make a meager living. Well, building a birdhouse should be a simple matter - assuming it is a simple birdhouse. In several of the table top games I played in, the DM was very creative on things like this. (Granted, crafting is a good bit different from persuasion and such, but I'll get back to it in a second). So a simple birdhouse is a simple matter and as such the DM generally would say "well, I'll let you roll to build it, and have a ten or so chance of failure, or double the time and get it done certainly," but maybe the apprentice carpenter wants to try to make a very elaborate birdhouse complete with a bird feeder and a bird bath. Well, that increases the difficulty, so it adds a significant element of failure again. Getting back to persuasion, I think certain levels of charisma/skills should unlock certain options/trees, but that it should likely be a matter of gradation. That is, there are a series of possible outcomes from trying to persuade someone. An example which comes to mind is trying to convince a merchant to give some of his wares to the local guards to help defend the town from an oncoming invasion. If you're a real smooth talker, you may have access to a really daring option like trying to get him to not only hand over the gear, but perhaps his bodyguard and/or his smuggled-in narcotics to be used as poison agents. Otherwise, the standard tree might have a complete failure response along the lines of "no way and I going to just hand this stuff over - I'll never see it again, and I'll not only be stuck in this battleground, but be broke" which is possible only with a really low roll and skill/bonus total. A soft failure would be the merchant offering significant discounts/kit deals to the guardsmen, and an intriuiged but unconvinced might be him telling you to go convince an old, retired veteran NPC to rejoin the guard or something and he'd help. Maybe a soft success of him giving his surplus stock over, and a strong success of him handing over his best pieces (with receipts and promises of repayment, of course). I would also like to see things like a hidden, running fame/renown score being taken into account and perhaps an order of things making the more optimal outcomes more likely. And example here would be getting the aforementioned veteran back into the guard would help persuade the merchant, but if you manage to persuade the merchant first you could more easily convince the veteran. Likewise, I think there should be negatives such as an old mage who had bad run-ins with the veteran and frequently overcharged by the merchant making success more difficult and vice-versa. Of course, this makes VERY complicated dialogue trees and checks. Having a DM on hand who is in real-time generating the responses is a far easier solution, but also a far bit more difficult to replicate. Basically, what I suggest means something like two or three options in approaches (good/lawful/peaceful and the opposite, or perhaps just friendly/not so) and multiple levels of success on each of those... So in game? I'd like this sort of system for companion quests, if they exist, and maybe major storyline NPCs. For example, I'd like companion influence losses to be partially avoidable through smooth talking or exhibiting of sufficient skills. But most lesser NPCs I think should be easily persuaded via fame/money and any activities you've partaken of which immediately impacts them. For instance, if you walk into a small village and get into an argument with a guy walking out of a bar, and end up killing him, his brother might refuse to do business with you - even if you convince him the guy was the aggressor, he should say something like "Yeah, he was a lousy, stupid drunk, but he was family all the same, and I don't deal with the killers of my kin." Of course, this depends on the supposed family relationship and such...