Actually this could be an interesting way to handle secondary goals. When you accept a quest you could have the option to select secondary goals as a bet. If you succeed at these secondary goals you get a bonus to your xp, but if you fail them you loose xp (from the xp you would have got from the quest reward) and if you fail too many, you might not get any xp from the main quest even if you finished it (if you didn't finish the secondary goals).
This way players could choose secondary quests to suit their character class and build and this would give more variety to the main quests, especially when working in a group. If you give quite a few secondary quests to choose from for each quest (say 2 or 3 per class/build) then you can increase the replay value and lower the feeling of grinding somewhat.
It would be nice to see quest objectives that a player could actually fail. In games these days they are often all but handed to you, especially in RPGs.
Actually this could be an interesting way to handle secondary goals. When you accept a quest you could have the option to select secondary goals as a bet. If you succeed at these secondary goals you get a bonus to your xp, but if you fail them you loose xp (from the xp you would have got from the quest reward) and if you fail too many, you might not get any xp from the main quest even if you finished it (if you didn't finish the secondary goals).
This way players could choose secondary quests to suit their character class and build and this would give more variety to the main quests, especially when working in a group. If you give quite a few secondary quests to choose from for each quest (say 2 or 3 per class/build) then you can increase the replay value and lower the feeling of grinding somewhat.
Almost exactly this was done in Fable. When you took a quest you could 'boast' about all the extra stuff you were going to do, and if you succeeded I think you got more gold and fame, and if you failed you lost stuff.
See Din's Curse for quest failure. Imagine Diablo but you're defending the town instead of just shopping there. Timed quests like "Kill Stomp on level 9 before he finishes his summoning altar" will have negative consequences upon failure. With the summoning altar in place, Stomp starts sending numerous assissins into town, permanently killing the residents one by one, including the "if these die, you lose" NPCs. There's still time to right your wrong by quickly finding a way back into town to kill the assassins.
Without a stick, the carrot just looks less appealing.
"Your failure to find the dragon egg last spring had come back to haunt you last winter as it started feeding on your kingdom's cattle. Your failure to kill the dragon last winter has come back to haunt you this spring as it is heading for your castle at this very moment."
You either believe that within your society more individuals are good than evil, and that by protecting the freedom of individuals within that society you will end up with a society that is as fair as possible, or you believe that within your society more individuals are evil than good, and that by limiting the freedom of individuals within that society you will end up with a society that is as fair as possible.
