The QuatreDan Phenomenon

The QuatreDan Phenomenon

Does anyone remember, or still actively play, the old D&D maps like Neverlax and QuatreDan's? It's a map where most of the players are adventurers, and you'd have a DM who would make quests for the heroes. The DM would place allies or enemies around the map, open up an area, and have the players wander around. It's supposed to play out like a real paper and pencil RPG: you can interact with anyone and anything. You can have meaningful unscripted conversations with NPCs and make active choices this way.

Problem is, the heroes always start in the same town, and all the areas look identical. It always came down to the heroes return to the same town to buy items, so 99% of DMs would simply do the generic "kill this boss / save this maiden, and I'll pay you X gold." Not only did players never learn to roleplay, but they became permanently hired mercenaries; the idea of "Do quest, receive gold" became burned into their brains. For the 1% of DMs who tried to do interactive quests, no matter what they said, the question that popped up from over half the players was "What's the reward?"


Recently I've been working on a map called D&D Crystal (this isn't a plug for my map, it's an honest rant). It's my take on a DM style RPG. However, the DMs have much more power. They essentially make the terrain by laying out the treelines, they can make entire new towns, complete with training rooms, shops, respawn points, they can make huge stashes of gold, they can control friendly and enemy units at the same time, they make waygates anywhere to anywhere, etc, and no memorization is needed; all the commands and units are laid out in a simple clicking interface, and everything is way faster to do than in QuatreDan's.

So quests can be far more involved, even from novice DMs. You can invade the home town and have them seek refuge, you can make them explore to find stashes of gold or new cities and castles, you can make them acquire a magic item or chant a magic phrase or convince an unlikely ally to open a waygate... etc. The heroes are no longer stuck being hired mercenaries; they can be people too.

Do you think people would be elated about freedom of character? Think again. No matter what you do as DM in this map, the only question people ask is "What's the reward?" I call this the QuatreDan phenomenon because it's frightening to what extent the heroes will flat out ignore the storyline and ask for a reward.


I was a hero in a game where another DM set up a spider cave with gold littered about (essentially the Diablo II first quest). He narrated the details of the cave and how its denizens were attacking children at night. The other heroes essentially had to be told "GO TO THE CAVE" before they tried to find it. We finally cleared the cave and returned to town, and the first question everyone asked, in-character game chatting, was "What's the reward?" I couldn't believe it. "Who are you asking?!?" Not only had no one spoken to them, but there wasn't even an NPC in the game yet.

I DMed a quest yesterday where I had a lowly Dwarf telling the heroes about a large stash of gold he'd heard about, protected by some evil hero. "I'm na' strong enough to get it me'self, but ye might be interested... I won' even charge a commission!" Of course, the first question asked is "What's the reward?" I was furious. He's giving them this information for free; if anything they should be paying him! Part way through exploring this same dungeon I had a trail leading off the main path to an allied troll. Do they introduce themselves? Do they attack him? Nope, they ask "Where's our reward?" Would you walk up to someone on the street you've never met and ask "Where's our reward?"

I've gone to drastic measures, such as having the hometown invaded and destroyed by thousands of undead, and making them escape to a friendly night-elf town. You guessed it: "Where's our reward?" Free room and board isn't enough; a successful escape deserves gold! I've had the waygate to home break down, and they'd have to find and convince someone to come activate it. You guessed it: "Where's our reward?" You can't just do us this favor and leave, we want you to pay us too!


This is what I call the QuatreDan phenomenon. It's the mentality that would make a person walk up to someone they've never met and demand a reward, simply for being there at all. These aren't isolated incidents; this happens every single time, without exception, no matter what you do. So my question is, what can I do? I don't care if they don't say anything; I just want them to stop asking for rewards. How do I get the players out of this hired mercenaries mentality?

Most b.netters are stupid. Bane of good maps. Get friends who are good at RP.

Yes, but when people play scripted RPGs, they generally don't just wander around fighting random monsters, they do the quests. They don't expect someone to just hand over a pile of gold for them to do menial tasks; they quest for something meaningful.

Even really good, really interactive roleplayers have this QDND phenomenon. They'll have a very involved conversation with an NPC sometimes, and then ask for a reward. It's from years of playing QDND, they just assume outright that they're hired mercenaries and that's all there is to it.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but praise for QuatreDan and Neverlax. But this map can do much more than simple mercenary quests, and the players don't even seem to want it.