Procedural quests for a dynamic world

Interesting and procedurally generated quests are something of a holy grail for many roguelike developers. I've also given it some thought and here's a simple idea I came up with.

Basically, if you have a catalogue of possible quests and you have an event based architecture, then each quest type would have it's own saga. That saga would listen to domain events and when the preconditions were right, it would add the quest to a quest giver. By talking to a quest giver the player, or any other actor, could accept the quest. When the saga receives the right domain event, the quest is over and everyone undertaking the event is rewarded or notified as appropriate.

Here's a concrete example I'll call a Lost Heirloom quest.

1. A LostHeirloomSaga subscribes to certain events like PersonMoved (while fleeing or confused) or ItemStolenFromPerson. As a response to those events, it may create a LoseItem command with a reference to the person and item.
2. Some command handler causes the target of the LoseItem command to drop the item (if it wasn't already stolen) and create an ItemLost event with references to the person, the location, the time, the item, and the reason why.
3. The LostHeirloomSaga listens to ItemLost events and when it handles the event, the person who dropped the item is given a LostHeirloomQuest and can ask others to accept it.
4. When the player talks to that person they can accept that quest. The details from the LostItem event can be used to create the quest specific rewards and text. Imagine talking to URIST McURIST the WOODCUTTER when he says "TWO WEEKS ago I was CUTTING WOOD in the DARK FOREST and was attacked by a GIANT BEETLE. While fleeing for my life, I dropped my McURIST FAMLIY WATCH. If you find it and return it, I'll give you my spare WOODCUTTER'S AXE and a PASS TO THE WOODCUTTER'S GUILD."
5. The LostHeirloomSaga also listens to ItemGiven events. When the item that was given matches a lost item and the person it was given to matches the person who lost it, the associated quest is completed and the person who gave the item is rewarded.
6. If a CreatureDied event for the quest giver happened, an ItemDestroyed event for the lost item, or some other quest-canceling event happens, then the LostHeirloomSaga cancels that creature's quest and everything else is cleaned up appropriately.
7. For extra awesomeness, when the saga notices other events related to the item (like ItemSold or ItemPickedUp), it could somehow add details to the world about it. Maybe the town's gossipmonger would tell you rumors about how the local blacksmith found a family watch in the dark forest. You could then talk to the blacksmith to find out what happened to it or you could sneak through his stuff when he's not looking.

Implementing this quest means adding a few classes: a LoseItem command, a method to handle that command, a ItemLost event, a LostHeirloomQuest, and a LostHeirloomSaga. The neat thing is that no existing classes need to be updated except for making sure the quest saga subscribes to the right events - all the logic is contained in the command handler and LostHeirloomSaga. The LostHeirloomSaga can use details of the quest giver to create dynamic and relevant details about what was lost, how it was lost, and when and where it was lost as well as a reward appropriate for the quest giver and the location and value of the lost item.

The real emergent behavior comes from quests that play off of events generated by other quests. If each quest can be ended two or three different ways, each quest directly or indirectly involves affecting the world, and there are multiple actors giving or accepting quests, then a complex chain of events could cause gathering firewood to lead to the downfall of a civilization.

• Perhaps LostHeirloomQuestCompleted events please the god of compassion who may give the quest completer a Help The Townfolk quest.
• Perhaps when a Rescue Princess quest is ended by the princess dying, her family creates a Kill Person quest targeting the killer and a Revenge quest against every group the killer was a member of. When a Rescue Princess quest is ended by the princess returning home, her family rewards whoever escorted her and every group the escort is a member of.
• Perhaps 10 Expand Influence quests must be completed before a size 3 town can become size 4. Whenever an Expand Influence quest is completed, nearby paranoid town mayors become nervous and may create an Attack Town quest or Assassinate Ruler quest targeting their rival neighbors. When an Attack Town quest is completed, the targeted town's mayor can give Strengthen Defenses and retaliatory Attack Town quests. Undertaking either requires buying resources from the market and if a market trader's goods are running low then he could create Gather Resource quests. Of course gathering resources in your neighbor's territory will cause them to hand out quests to get you to stop; by bribery, trade, or sword and shield.

This, right now, is just idle speculation but I think this could be done. By relying on domain events and sagas, new quests can be implemented without muddying up the existing code since it doesn't even need to be touched. By relying on specific details of the people and places creating the events, compelling and believable quests can be generated. And by relying on quests that build on domain events raised as part of attempting other quests, an interdependent and dynamic history following simple laws of cause and effect can be created. I'll have to create a proof of concept some time.