Quest Design

[eagerowl]

Hmmm, I actually dislike the idea of programmed "titles" given by quests, I think you should earn them instead through your interactions with the actual teachers. Yes, it's way harder than a quest, but much more fulfilling when you realize they care about you (or at least remember you...). However, if it's not visible to the teachers, why not? And perhaps we the staff could add on points ourselves when we tag along with you, when you're attempting to put dungbombs in all of the Toilets of Hogwarts.
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Nierfenhimer wrote:

RON: Ooh, ooh, what're we gonna do tonight Harry?!
HARRY: The same thing we do every night Ron...
RON: Ooh!! I LOVE watching cherry struedel dance in tophats!!!
HARRY: NO, you ninny! TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!

[Beutiful_Liz]

yeah i agree that titles shouldnt be given through quests, however keep in mind that the more quests you do the more knowledge/useful stuff you gain which will no doubt aid you in your reputation and abilities and possibly increase your chances of getting noticed. after all teachers are going to choose someone who they know is capable therefore it is important to balance the rp with actually gaining the knowledge and experience necessary to exceed in the game.
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It's phonetic spelling people!!! be-utiful! Believe it or not i am not entirely mentally incompetent.

[hollywoody1221]

Ok, this is my first quest on P.L., so any suggestions would be good.

Quest: Quintaped Cloak

Level: Medium

This quest takes place after you have graduated Hogwarts and are attempting to get a job at Twillfit and Tatting's. You interview with Mr. Twillfit and he seems impressed with your abilities as a garment maker, but needs to be shown that you can collect the garments you will need in order to give you a job.

When Mr. Twillfit tells you the name of the species you will be collecting, you have to ask him again, because you have never heard of it before. He writes it down on a piece of parchment and when you bring it to your face, it legibly reads 'Quintnaped fur'.

You visit the shop of Obscurus Books in Diagon Alley, and are greeted by a secretary, and you ask if they have a book on 'Quintapeds'. She gazes at you for no more than a second, and then goes off and returns with a book titled 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', written by Newt Scamanader.

You return to your appartment, and start thumbing through the index until you find an entry marked 'Quintaped, 285 (see also 'Macboon'). You quickly scan the pages until you find page 285, where there is a long entry on 'The Ferocious Quintaped'.

You find that a legend states that the Quintaped was created when the McCliverts and MacBoon clans starting fighting, ending when the McCliverts transfigured the entire clan into large, hairy creatures that look like five-legged spiders. With further investigation you discover that the only known Quintapeds in existence can be found on the Isle of Drear, Scotland, but you also find that the island is Unplottable.

You apparate into Scotland, unwavered by the danger you will be facing in the near future. You find a small boat, and start sailing around the small isles near Scotland.

After nearly a week of sailing, you dejectedly land on a small, rocky island and open your map to find where you are. Your map cannot detect you, however, so you assume that you are on Drear.

However, with the mad haste you made getting to Scotland, you did not come up with a plan of how to get the pelts of over ten quintapeds. You realized that you could not simply approach them and ask for their furs, so you realizd that the only spell you could use was a severing charm, effectively removing the fur from the quintapeds.

You silently creep into the nests where the quintapeds rest, and cast a powerful stupefy on the Quintaped nest, and then cast a severing charm on the fur of the Quintaped. You attempt to carry the fur, but it is very dense and heavy. You then cast a featherweight charm on the fur, and apparate back into Diagon Alley, where you return to Twillfit and Tatting's and show him the spoils of your success. He rewards you by hiring you, and giving you a bonus for bringing him the fur of a dangerous species.

[Onlaum]

Quest for Powdered Moonstone
(Moonstone is used in the Draught of Peace, this quest requires you to be kind to someone, what better ingredient as the reward?)
St. Mungo's Quest:

While visting St. Mungo's (whether a different quest led here, visiting a sick friend, or just wandered in) you pass a weary NPC Healer sitting in the hallway at a desk. She is slumped over a large text book, screwed up bits of parchment and broken quills scattered over the desk and on the floor. As you walk past she raises her head (Short, sleek blond hair barely frames her crescent moon face. Her cerulean eyes are a brilliant mix of intelligence and near exhaustion as she looks up at you.

Her sharp features soften as she smiles and with a blend of wistfullness and hopelessness in her voice she says, "You don't know me, but if I don't recharge soon this whole project is doomed. Would you mind terribly getting me a cup of Pepperup Potion?"

If you agree, her head thumps back on the desk with a grateful murmur and a smile. (If you say no she mutters, "You won't be the last..." and slumps back on the desk with no smile.)

(This next part is based on the hope the player would think to go to the Tea Room for refreshment, if not, other NPCs could direct player to the 'Pepperup Potion expert, Healer Imajica.)

You walk to the 5th floor Tea Room (You either know this from the books or read it on the sign when you walk into St. Mungo's Lobby.) and ask the kindly grey haired wizard behind the service counter for Pepperup Potion. His pale yellow robes twitch merrily as he laughs. His gravelly voice rolls over you as he says, "We have tea and biscuits, my friend, we leave the healing to the Healers!" He begins to turn away to help the next customer.

If you ask him where you might be able to find some Pepperup Potion, he directs you to the Second Floor to speak to Healer Imajica. If you don't ask where it is you can explore the Hospital and other NPCs could direct you to the same place.

You find Healer Imajica and, after verifying your story via a messenger portrait and muttering "That Jynx, she works herself silly for those Aurors," she hands you the smoking goblet of Pepperup Potion. You make your way back to the sleeping Healer and give her the Potion. In return, she gives you a small phial of powered moonstone.

(*This is my first quest and I appreciate any and all feedback. ~*She taps the toe of one pink, well-worn Chuck Taylor All-Star shoe into the ground as a small blush kisses her apple cheeks*~ Thank you.*)

[Beutiful_Liz]

hey just read it. I think you are off to a great start, let me ask you though what level of difficulty are you aiming for this quest. I always ask myself this before i start a quest and then while im editing, i find it really helps me decide how much help a player needs. '

I really enjoyed the overall plot and descriptions you used in your quest i could definitely see this or quests like this in the mud. A few suggestions though remember that st mungos will have many actual players there working as healers. That said there will also be several npc's that will be planted in there as well as just about every location so possibly someone at the information desk or in some of the staff offices would be a good place for the npcs to tell someone where to find what they need.

However i personally feel this could be a very cool intermediate quest that being the case here is what i would suggest. Cut loose the other npc healers and stick with the main line you had. The man in the tea room tells you that you would need to talk to a healer for one. you ask who. and he says that he would reccomend talking to healer imajica because shes in charge of keeping stock of potions and ingredients at the hospital. Now i would reccomend for finding the healer that either one asking at the information desk and being told what floor and wing to find the healer (and then the player follows the hospital signs etc to that specific floor and wing until they see the healer. Also besides that maybe their could be a ranting healer somewhere complaining about being tired because everytime he needs supplies he needs to travel across the whole hospital to the 3rd floor (or wherever) just so he can get what he needs. i personally like this because it requires their player to think a little more, however the choice is up to the writer i think you have a lot of potential keep up the good work

[robertusrex]

Name: Lighting Candles?
Level: Beginner?
You Need: Incendio - It occurs once you have learnt this spell in Charms.
Aim: Some Slytherins have been extinguishing the candles in the Great Hall. You are required to find out how to re-light them and then do it!
Description: A Ravenclaw student walks up to you:
'Have you heard? Some Slytherin students have been putting out the candles in the Great Hall. The teacher's are going mad. They've stopped the students but don't know how to relight the candles. They asked me to find out. Can you help me?'
'Sorry, I don't know how to do it. But I could check Hogwarts a History for you.'
The player then has to go to the Library and find Hogwarts: A History. It reads:
The floating candles in the Great Hall are one of the best sights in wizardry. They have been in place above the tables since the founding. Due to their magical properties they rarely have to be replaced and in fact this has only occured three times in the history of Hogwarts. After the leaving feast each year the current headmaster extinguished the candles. They are then lit again, using the Incendio charm, at the beginning of the next school term.
You can then return to the Great Hall and cast it upon all the candles, relighting them.

My first quest idea, I've got a few more that I'll type up gradually before the weekend.

[Noon]

Er, I don't see any reason for the teacher or headmaster to not remeber how to light the candles. I mean, if every year they have to be lit up again, then the staff would know, wouldn't they?

Ti keep the quest simple, but more "realist", here's a proposition: some Slytherins have stolen the candles and the teachers can't find them. They have the culprits, but they won't talk and Veritaserum is off-limits...

The Slytherins have hide them in the Room of Requirement: though by now I think everybody knows of it, you still can't open it as long as someone is inside. So, teachers are llooking for a way to get the person out.

Lighitng a fire with incendio against the RoR door would make the room hot and full of smoke, forcing the person out, without damaging the building (contrary to the fire in book 7).

What do you think?
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To know thy enemy and to know yourself... for they are often the same.

[robertusrex]

Yeah, to be honest, it didn't quite make sense myself. I made it up whilst half asleep. Maybe edit it to make it some prefects trying to relight it? Or scrap it entirely? I don't care. I'll post another idea tommorow though. Hopefully it will be better.

[Noon]

Please don't feel put down or anything. We really appreciate any effort to help, and would love to see more quests ideas, even half-fprmed ones: this is a forum, thus not meant to simply display submissions, but also to discuss them and see if together we can take them up a notch.

[Salazar]

Out of curiosity, is the “actual” MUD work done on a forum as well? Or do you sit in your solitary damp caves communicating only by e-mail *cough* , sorry Owl.

Incidently, curiosity might get the better of me soon and force me to apply for a real position. I'm getting kind of sick of Azkaban.
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My narcissism is exceeded only by my sexiness.

I am Gabriel Wandsworth , bartender at the Leprechaun's Coinpurse

[Noon]

Not really the thread for this, but... We have a special part of the forums to interact (the Writing Services have a forum all to themselves), we have "reunions" on the Mud or some kind of intant messenger. We also use mps on the forums and on the Mud. And of course, if you're actualy connected to the Mud at the same time, we can chat.

Apart from the reunions, we mostly don't have real-time discussions, but leave a message and get answers later on. For everything writing-related (WS/Building) we have a system of editing, which means all submissions by staff are reviewed, mispelling, grammars errors, and writing mistakes are either corrected or suggestions for improvement given.

So, in a way, we sit in our dark, dank caves, because we're all over the world; but, no, we don't just produced a text and never know about its reception. In fact, Builders implement themselves their texts on the Mud.

As for Building, right now the Hogwarts Grounds are finished, so that only leaves Azkaban to build... Calliope is almost done with the Forest, it should be open as soon as she can get on the Mud. Although, honestly, it's a completely different experience to write here onthe forums and on the Mud: you not only get to see where the real exits are, you actually see what the room next door is (corridor or cell), or even, if it's been written, you can write some continuity in...

Now, for quest, here's a small one:
- A wizard in a painting looks disconsolately at his broken watch. When you stare long enough, his mood swings to anger: "Stop staring and give me a hand!".
- You have to track a watchmaker and through dialogue, have him go and give a clock's hand to the first wizard.

[Anonymously Curious]

I suppose I'll post this under this account, though I was meaning to make a new account, but whatever.

About quests -

I've played a couple muds before, and one thing that always bugged me was how the quests just didn't seem to fit in very well. Mostly it was because was a quests could be done again and again, so it seemed unreal.

For instance:
- One quest might involve finding an item that an NPC lost and returning it to the NPC, who would then thank you profusely and give you some gold/money for your efforts. But it would be a recurring quest, so when you pass by the area later, the NPC again pleads for you to find his or her missing item, even though you -already found it-. You think "Oh boy, he's lost it again," and move on. But then when you pass by 20 more times and the NPC asks you 20 more times to find his item, it really begins to set in to your subconscious that this is not a real world, but actually a programmed world - and so, detracts from the game experience. But of course if you need the gold, you keep going back to find the missing item all 20 times to get the gold from the quest, though you only needed to solve the quest 1 time.

- Similar situations might occur for NPCs who are sick and need some sort of medicine. They just seem to keep getting the same illness over and over again. Or, someone who needs something delivered to another person. Or, finding a particular book for an NPC: come on, why does the NPC need to read the same book twice? Or, a highly unique situation, like summoning a spirit from the depths of a sea in order to save a village from eternal damnation, or something like that. That would obviously be a very advanced quest, and difficult to figure out. But it should have a high reward, too, and then if it's a recurring quest, people who have already figured it out would be compelled to do it again for the high reward. Then the person's character has summoned a spirit from the depths of the sea... twice, for the same purpose. Not very realistic, if you ask me. Countless other situations just don't make sense in a coherent world if they exist as recurring situations.

Other qualms I have had with quests on other muds:
- They are distinctly single-player. If multiple players collaborate on them at all, they tend to shift into OOC-talk. See suggestion (8) at the bottom!
- If you need to talk to an NPC to get something, some people just go up and blurt out random words to NPCs, trying to see if the NPC will respond or not. Like this: "Quest. Task. Locket. Daughter." I guess there's really no way to stop that, since NPCs are coded that way, and it's hard to code them otherwise. You'd just have to get players who care about the quality of the world; ones who will treat the NPC like a normal human being, and speak to it in complete sentences.
- People will sometimes do quests which are completely against their characters' supposed alignment, just to get the reward.

But I think the hugest detriment to roleplay is, by far, the recurrence of the quests.

The purpose of these recurring quests is so that many players can have a lot of experiences solving quests, but the builders and designers don't have to keep designing new quests. What a waste of the creativity that went into designing the quest if it just happened once, for only a single player! I know of some muds that do have "events", which are non-recurring quests, but they are of a much huger scale, guided by the immortals, and not very frequent. (Basically when the immortals feel like doing exciting things, I suppose.) Those muds have multitudes of smaller, more everyday recurring quests.

So for practicality's sake, I assume that PL will have recurring quests, because it is really the best way to provide a huge quantity of quests without the staff continuously writing all those unique quests for each player.

Here are some suggestions for the creation of these recurring quests which would make them more realistic than usual, and so, don't detract from the coherency of the magical world.

(1) Write quests about situations which do recur, naturally. For instance, consider that plant which grows only on the full moon. (I can't remember its name... it might be used in the Wolfsbane potion. Moonwort or something, but that's not it. It might grow in the Forbidden Forest, if I remember correctly.) This being a rare plant, the Herbology and Potions professors will always be wanting a new harvest of it when the full moon comes around. So it's not going to seem out of place if you've already went and harvested the plant before, and then the Herbology prof asks you to do it again. (But of course, the profs won't be wanting you to go in the Forbidden Forest as a student - so maybe there'll be a detention involved if you don't do the part of the quest which covers the fact that you went in to the forest. But I digress - I'm trying to post about quests, not design one!)

(2) Code the quests so that a player can only do them once. Then they can be recurring for all the players who haven't done it yet, but not for players who -have- completed it. The only flaw would be if a player who has already done the quest sees another player doing the quest.

(3) Make a quest which recurs at random intervals... shouldn't be too hard to code. That will keep players from figuring out the rate of recurrence, and then sitting around the starting point of the quest, watching their clock, saying to themselves "8 more minutes till I can do this quest again and get more of its reward!"

(4) Make the rewards of some quests be something that will only benefit you once - ie, knowledge. Knowledge about the game, the chance to hear an interesting story, knowledge of a spell incantation - that sort of thing. That's sort of a variation on suggestion (2), but it works on its own, not with extra coding.

(5) Make lots of quests, with lots of variety, which I'm sure you're doing. I don't mind how long it takes the MUD to open. Well, maybe I do if it takes 100 years, but you get what I mean...

(6) Give a single NPC multiple quests to participate in. Then it won't seem as if the NPC perpetually needs the same task to be done.

(7) Create two quests that are cyclic. In other words, quest A would lead to quest B, but then performing quest B would involve undoing something from quest A. This would give quest A an excuse to be repeated, without making it unrealistic, as in suggestion (1). Quests A and B might be opposing each other, but they don't have to be.
An example: Quest A is to help a prisoner escape from Azkaban. This should be an extremely hard quest, because, as we know, Azkaban is extremely well guarded. Quest B is to help the Ministry for Magic recapture the prisoner, and return him or her to Azkaban. So quest B could not occur until quest A has happened. Then, quest A could not be repeated until the prisoner is returned.
To add flavor: there are a wide range of prisoners in Azkaban (NPC prisoners, I mean), each with his or her own reason for wanting to escape. The player doing quest A could choose which prisoner to liberate, based on the player's character's goals and values. Additionally, a second player could come along and do the same quest, but liberate a different prisoner. Then the Ministry for Magic would be on the lookout for 2 prisoners - and it would take 2 more quests to get both prisoners back! Etc, etc. Also, perhaps a section of the first quest would be to get the dementors out of the way, so that the prisoners would have the presence of mind to tell you their reasons for getting out. If you don't do that part, and liberate a random prisoner, you might find out later that you accidentally liberated a prisoner who has opposite goals than you! Oops! That should give your roleplay an interesting twist! You might be able to find out from hearsay which prisoner you would be wanting to liberate, but then, unless you get the prisoner's cell number, all the prisoners would look the same - clothed in rags and curled up in a corner mumbling to themselves and covered in grime - so you wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Okay, now I'm really off track, but that would be a neat quest.

Here are some other suggestions to make quests more interesting or realistic, though not related to the problem of recurrence:

(8) Multiplayer quests! This is, afterall, an mud - a multiuser game - and one that focuses very highly on roleplaying, from the looks of it. In order for the quest to work, it would need multiple people doing things simultaneously in different places. There could then be different rewards for each player - reward A for player A, reward B for player B. Or, perhaps there could be a situation where it just takes more manpower to do a task: for instance, stunning a dragon. (Recall that it took multiple wizards to do the trick in book 4.) Anyway, this kind of quest would unite questing with roleplay, because you need to be roleplaying with the other users while you're doing the quest. I'm very surprised that I've never come upon a MUD which does this - surely there are some out there, but none that I know of. Then again, a MUD which has this kind of quest would have to focus on roleplay a lot. Of course, people can always collaborate on figuring out normal quests, but here I'm talking about quests that actually require multiple players to be performing it.

(9) Connecting quests together, or having them affect a lot of things in the game, is always fun. Suggestion (7) is an example of connecting quests together in a specific manner so that they have an excuse to recur. But there are other ways to connect quests together: ie, the reward of one quest might be used to perform a totally different quest (but it doesn't have to be; it could also just be kept by the player). Or, a quest might be needed to access a certain area (think Chamber of Secrets, Gringotts, etc) where other quests are started. Or, nested quests: while you're doing one quest, and need something from an NPC in order to do it, the NPC sends you on a totally different quest before he or she will help you. For example, orc91's quest at the beginning of this thread has that in it (though I wouldn't consider that as two seperate quests).

(10) Requiring certain skills or attributes to perform a quest: knowing certain spells, having a certain amount of will or power, having a certain status in society, that sort of thing. If you've done half the quest and then realize you can't because you don't know the spell... too bad! But you can always come back once you have the power to do the quest.

(11) Player-run quests. I read elsewhere that teachers in Hogwarts will be both NPCs and real people. So if you need to ask the Ancient Runes prof for translation in order to complete a quest, you can either ask the NPC prof for the information, or ask the player prof, who will either be told in advance, or will know where to look it up in a book. Or a line comes up on the player prof's screen saying, "Your vast knowlege of runes makes you remember that the translation is: Blah blah blah." Wouldn't that be fun! Of course, people would be more compelled to go to the player profs, because it would be easier to get the info from them than from the NPC profs (where you'd have to word it correctly in order for the NPC to understand you, because the NPC is only coded, not player-controlled.) Like suggestion (8), this would get people to roleplay more. For instance, the player prof could ask the person for the reason behind his query. Then if the player prof didn't agree with the motive (ie if it was in order to perform Dark magic), then he or she might refuse to give away the information. And interesting roleplay ensues! Of course, the person could always be... misleading, shall we say, though obviously there are risks involved with lying to one's professor. But perhaps the player professor is secretly a Dark wizard or witch, and would actually be obliged to help you, or even get in on the action. Oh dear, I'm rambling more. You get the point: roleplay = fun and good.

(12) Give multiple ways to solve a quest. Then people could do the quest a second time and still get something new from it. Or, a choice that the player makes in the quest affects the outcome.


Most MUDs don't mind the unrealistic nature of their quests, because they're the hack-and-slash kind of MUD, and roleplaying isn't their priority. The reason I am posting this is because PL seems to put much value on realism (within the canon HP world), roleplay, and coherency of the world. I'm sure everyone would agree that quests provide a richness to the world which PL certainly does not want to miss out on (hence this thread!), yet, there are also a lot of ways that quests can just mess up the atmosphere and dynamic of the game.

Also, if all the builders and designers have already taken all this into account, that's awesome and I certainly don't want to to be belaboring the point. These are just suggestions I'm throwing out into the playing field, and I'm not sure if they've already been considered. In fact, many quests which have been posted in this thread employ what I've talked about - like the connectedness of quests, and needing to know things like spells beforehand, and others. Hopefully some of this post will be of some use and will get people thinking of more ways to enhance questing in PL.

[Greg House]

please, someone give this person a medal or something for writing the longest and one of the most useful posts on this forum!
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"one small feel for a man, one giant ass for the mankind"

[robertusrex]

Here are the quest ideas I promised. I apologise if they are badly written.

A Charming Book:
You need to buy a book for Charms.
It is only in a second hand bookshop in Hogsmeade (Libros Books is in Building Submissions forum, Suggestions topic)
You don't have enough money on you but the shop owner tells you he will swap it for a chocolate frog card.
You don't have the card so you exit the shop.
Outside the shop is a first year student. He has arranged to meet some friends at the Three Broomsticks but is lost. Can you help him?
You show him to the Three Broomsticks.
He thanks you for your kindness and gives you a chocolate frog card for your trouble 'I have two of this one, you may as well have it.'
You take the card back to the shop owner and he gives you the book.

A Shrinking Problem:
You need to find the various ingredients to prepare a Shrinking Solution in your next Potions lesson.
Ingredients: Caterpillar, Daisy roots, Leech juice, Rat spleen, Shrivelfig.
Caterpillar - You go to the Lake. Some students are sitting there fishing. You ask them if they have any caterpillars their fishing equipment to use as bait. They do and they give you it for free.
Daisy Rots - You can pick these from the flowerbeds near the greenhouses. If a teacher sees you however you are caught and punished (House Points removed)
Leech Juice - You go to the Hospital Wing where they keep leeches for sucking blood. This is because the matron believes fervently in old remedies. You ask her for some and she gives you a small vial of it.
Rat Spleen - You go to the apothecaries in Hogsmeade where you can buy it for a small price.
Shrivelfig - You go to the Greenhouses and ask Professor Sprout if you can have some. She says yes, as long as you help her to re-pot some Mandrakes first. You help her with the re-potting then are given the Shrivelfig.
The order of the above does not matter. You could get the Daisy roots before the caterpillar, for example.
You can finally return to Potions class. It appears that you are the only person to have got all the ingredients for which you are given some house points.

Trophy Time:
The bookshop owner (Libros Books) is writing a history of quidditch at hogwarts. He doesn't have the full information as to who won the House Cup in a particular year and who got Chaser of the Season in another.
He asks you to look in the Hogwarts trophy room to find out.
You first have to go to your dormitory to collect ink and parchment from your school bag to write the answer down on.
You can then proceed to the trophy room.
I suggest that the list is made automatically 'Here is the Quidditch Cup, and here is the Chaser of the Season trophy'
You can then return to the bookshop and present the owner with the list. This might earn you a chocolate frog card, or possibly a book that is needed for another challenge.

Any rooms you need writing from the above, just ask.

Cheers,
Robert.

[Noon]

Thanks all fr the subimmisons and ideas!

Robertusrex, I like your ideas, they're neat quests.

Anonylously Curious, let me address some of your remarks, but first, if youaren't already, you really should consider a career in game deisgn or level design: it's the people you think up the quests, levels and gameplays in a game, mostly computer or video games.

About the coding of quests, I'm not entirely sure what's been decided around here (I'm on the Building team, not really the Design one). However, I'll answer as one who just compelted an intership in level/game design ().

Yes, recurring quest are a roleplay bane, and when their reward's money, it can also unbalance the game's economy: all a player has to do to get gold is do the quest over and over again, instead of getting a job like the others players.

When reward are monetary, it should be designed thus:
- either it's a very-low level, recurring quest (e.g. de-Gnoming a flower patch in the Grounds, and the gain is very small. That way, any new character can get a bit of money to start off; however, once the character get to a certain level, the monetary gain with this quest would be so puny, it's not interesting again.
- if the sum is of any importance (given the minimal level to do the quest), then it should happen only once. I.e. either the quest is a one-time thing, or the NPC doesn't give any more money.

This brings us back to the question of recurrence. I don't think it's difficult to code them to not be recurring. The NPC would have several dialogues: the first time you speak to them, since you have never completed the quest they ask for your assistance; if you speak to them while completing the quest, they would thank and urge you forward. If you talk to them while bringing the object, they will thank you, give your reward. If you talk to them afterwards, they'll just thank you. That means the character has tags about every quests (hasn't begun it, is doing it, has finished it), with the NPC having corresponding triggers (if quest not begun, dialogue 1; if quest ongoing, dialogue 2; if quset ongoing and PC has object "thingy", then dialogue 3; if quest finished, then dialogue 4).

The only issues with that would be the number of tags requested, the coding of an appropriate tool to implement the diverse dialogues and their relevant tag; then, the PC would have lots of tags on it, which could be a lot of data, both to the server and the player's comp...

Some other way to avoid to many "I've lost the book "this-or-that" from the same NPC, would be to have a list of possible things they've lost. When the quest starts, one of the lost objects is selected at random. You'll eventually get the same quest twice, but they'll be different quests too from the same NPC, with different ways of solving depending of the object. There I'm elaborating a bit on your (6) suggestion.

You've addressed two others things:
- Random words to get the NPC to react. It may be able to code that, if a PC says in a row three words (not sentences) that do not trigger an event, then something unpleasant happen. You can justify it at least in Hogwarts as a spell from a teacher to encourga true communication between people, just not "yes" and "no". Of course, some people will go around, say two random words, then a sentence, then two random words again... But it'll ask a bit more effort.
- multiple-player quests. Not easy... in MMO, apart from events, the only multiplayers quests revolve on a minimal amount of people being in a given room to trigger something. In a MUD, we can't even use what I've seen in some MMO, that is, a sudoku (players have Or maybe we can, but that'll demand some more thinking. At least one multiple-players quest will be implemented: the House Cup! plus, the Quidditch Cup, of course.

Hope this gives you more to think about and come up with more ideas!