Conspiracy quest please

[Cultist]

In Arcanum, we could participate in a long conspiracy quest with all the best cliches, rich but vulnearable bankers, breeding their own half-ogre bodyguards on a hidden island laboratory, disappearing people, lying journalists and so on.

 

Could we please have it again. Tinfoil hats was not popular back then, but surely PE world could have its share of paranoia and people, using "magical mind-reading protector"...from some local metal foil of course.

But major quest like we had in Arcanum could would be best. Sadly, players could not solve that quest completely, as all clues you get back from the island disappear along with the journalist and all you got is strange explanation from gnome banker agent later on. I think this time Obsidian could create a truly complete quest. Becaue, you know...

[Karranthain]

Sadly, players could not solve that quest completely, as all clues you get back from the island disappear along with the journalist and all you got is strange explanation from gnome banker agent later on. I think this time Obsidian could create a truly complete quest. Becaue, you know...

 

That was the idea, actually. It's one of the things that made that quest so memorable, in my opinion

Edited October 29, 2012 by Karranthain

[Cryticus]

Sadly, players could not solve that quest completely, as all clues you get back from the island disappear along with the journalist and all you got is strange explanation from gnome banker agent later on. I think this time Obsidian could create a truly complete quest. Becaue, you know...

 

That was the idea, actually. It's one of the things that made that quest so memorable, in my opinion

 

I must agree, the fact that we coudn't exposed the truth was the best decision they could make, this was one of things that actually change it from just another mystery to something orginal, in the end only you knew the truth nobody will ever belivie you and conspiracy is still going, it shows that your character is just a part of the world, and world do on center around him.

That said I would like to see another quest like that, maybe not about conspiracy theory but something that spans whole game world

[Vandoon]

I must say I did enjoy arcanum and those sort of things in games make it special.

[evdk]

In Arcanum, we could participate in a long conspiracy quest with all the best cliches, rich but vulnearable bankers, breeding their own half-ogre bodyguards on a hidden island laboratory, disappearing people, lying journalists and so on.

 

Could we please have it again. Tinfoil hats was not popular back then, but surely PE world could have its share of paranoia and people, using "magical mind-reading protector"...from some local metal foil of course.

But major quest like we had in Arcanum could would be best. Sadly, players could not solve that quest completely, as all clues you get back from the island disappear along with the journalist and all you got is strange explanation from gnome banker agent later on. I think this time Obsidian could create a truly complete quest. Becaue, you know...

That was a complete quest. Because, you know, conspiracy.

[SunBroSolaire]

Never played Arcanum, but this sounds rad. I love the conspiracy stuff in Deus Ex and Alpha Protocol, and any game quest where I wonder whether I should trust the people giving me instructions. It would be neat if there was some side quests like this that were really well hidden, so most people would be totally oblivious first time through.

[quechn1tlan]

When I thought about what PE plot could be, i actually thought that a conspiracy is a damn fine way to spin the story's wheels.

 

Taking what we already know and extrapolating from there we could get something like: You are some poor schmuck who happend to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. You witness some sort of event that you shouldn't have(Well, I'm not writing a script here, just some general thoughts). As a plain old nobody you make a poker face, turn around and try to leave quietly. You are however unsuccesfull, though you are oblivious to that. Upon arriving home you are greeted by assasins, guards, deamons or whatever. They try to kill you but for some bizzare reason you survive. Let's say your soul helped you or something. You go into hiding.

 

Soon you meet a deranged knight who tried to tell everyone that the world is not what it seems and for that have been thrown out. Later - an old monk who had some crisis of faith and now lives on the street in a box. You start travelling together: maybe you all were trying to get some money by working a night shift at a watehouse. You start talking and knight's ramblings persuade you to either leave the country or try to find who's behind your troubles. During your travels you meet a priestess theologist, a gnome detective, a necromancer mage and a dwarven ranger trapped in a city. Maybe some other characters.

 

With troubles, blood and sweat you start, maybe unwittingly at first, unravel the mystery behind it all, piece by piece. Finally you uncover that your whole life was a lie. The nature of gods, magic and power is not what it appers to be (proving poor knight correct). Let's say the world is governed by a secret society that have been spinning lies for millenia. They made up deities and their power for reasons like: not letting people realize that all wonders and powers and magic are not granted by some divine force, but an extension of their own souls. And\or that the concept of gods is just a ruse, a social experiment aimed at mind control by making lots of people beleive certain things. With that knowledge "the enemies" then would proceed to rule the world unopposed.

 

Something like that. And the CE of the game should come with a customizable tinfoil hat of course. I like conspiracies.

[JFSOCC]

I'd enjoy it if I could be an unwitting part of some devious scheme.

That's easy to butcher, though, writing a quest like that requires finesse.

But it'd be interesting to suddenly be approached by guards and arrested, and if you come quietly and decide not to break out of prison, you get to hear the case against you.

 

"Were you there?"

well, yes, uhh...

"what where you doing there?"

well it had been infested by poisonous creatures...

"So you admit that you exterminated the snakes which were being used for the anti-venom program?"

 

Something along those lines at least. and taking into account that your party might avoid this because the information was available in the game world (even if not obvious)

[Amentep]

I'm all for complex, well thought out quests. So if they've got a good way to do a complex, well thought out conspiracy quest - go for it.

[Darth Trethon]

Any amazing story should have a plot twist that the player never sees coming....something so surprising, shocking and amazing in a good way that makes sense and is coherent with the plot that it forces you to essentially reset all your beliefs about the characters and factions you've dealt with and sort of leave you in a no-man's-land where you just stop, stare in disbelief but pleasantly amazed, maybe reload a previous save to replay the scene to ensure your mind wasn't playing tricks on you and then just ask yourself "well, what the hell am I supposed to do now?" Then you continue playing but a bit more slowly as you rationalize what happened, consider your options and the confront the issue and all related to it in the game in a new light.

 

So you might almost say that every great story not only can have but should have some amount of conspiracy tied into it....something that makes perfect sense and in hindsight you probably should have seen coming but at the same time so carefully planned out and hidden by the protagonists and/or antagonists that no reasonable person would have thought of and if it had occurred to them they'd have dismissed it as crazy.

 

So yes they should have conspiracy on an epic scale as part of the main story....and it has to be awesome.

Edited October 29, 2012 by Darth Trethon