In Oblivion, the "quest" I enjoyed more than most was The Horror of Dive Rock. In this "quest" you go up to Dive Rock, and find an empty tent and a fire burning. Next to the fire is a journal, where a man tells the story of his journey with his wife to try and find and kill the "Uderfrykte Matron". After reading the journal, and maneuvering around the mountainous terrain, you run into the Uderfrykte Matron, and try to kill it.

This quest never shows up in the journal, it all happens on it's own. You don't have to read the journal, and you don't have to go after the monster. However, if you do read the journal, it still doesn't go in your journal, and you get no help finding the monster. This sort of free-form quest is exactly what needs to happen a LOT more in future TES games. While there wasn't much to this quest, it is still one of my favorites, if not simply for the fact that you do it all on your own.

Please, let Skyrim be full of quests like these!

This is the first thing that popped into my mind when I read your title. I couldn't agree more. I can definitely understand how having a lacking journal can cause frustration, but it's quests like these that really immerse you in the game, no matter how small.

I've heard and read of that quest many times but never tried it. While the example you just gave sounds very promising, i fear i would simply miss out on way too many quests if it wasn't from the journal. Some of them would simpley disappear in the fog of unsolved quests... then again, i could always just buy the official guide again. :shrug:

Agreed, or the Forlorn watch Man was probably one of my favorites. How it all starts as a rumor, you go around asking for it and then Oh [censored]! It's real. I looove quests that lead you into them through rumors or books. Though books are really very interesting because it's a living piece of the lore in addition to the whole world already being that.

This is very understandable. Most of these quests would probably stick to the format of find/read something, follow it up to X event close by, and then the quest is over. However, if it were a longer quest, I would LOVE to be able to write your own entries into your journal. I mean, isn't that what a journal is for?

They could keep their usual journal tabs, but just add one more that you could manipulate however you want. Just put Notepad into the game, and there you go! It's so simple, I hope Bethesda comes through.

If not, I'm sure a modder could make easy work of that. Are there any mods that add custom journal-entries into Oblivion?

Did anyone find the Quest in the Isle's. I think two wood/high elf's secluded themselves in a cave. You found journal scraps as you advance and eventually find a dead girls body. Which reveals more secrets. Then you find the male, who attacks you on sight and has around 2k gold and lot's of rare items?

I did not, but it sounds amazing! Thanks for the heads-up.

Indeed. That would be a wonderful addition and really add something from a roleplaying perspective. :thumbsup:

I would like to have the start of such quests written down, or I'd simply miss most of them. But yea, these kind of quests really help alot with immersion

I could try and find the cave again if you like?

Yeah, I want plenty of these, but I also want plenty of marked quests... About 150+ is nice

Sure, that'd be great!


Oh, I definitely don't want them to reduce the number of marked quests, I'd just like to see a HUGE increase in unmarked quests. Something where about 80% are marked, 20% are unmarked would be nice.

Not sure wether this ought to be in a thread for itself or not, but it's still quest relating so I'll try here...

Am I the only one who actually likes also having random quests once in a while? It probably wouldn't work properly with "finding a journal somewhere"-quests (I also second having more of these quests though! They are very charming...), but for example in Fighters Guild quests. I always thought it was really strange how you in Morrowind and Oblivion alike would have a quest to go kill a big rat, and you get a promotion. I wouldn't mind having some pre-determined quests with a bit of storyline-value for the guild, but also having to do some quests randomly generated depending on your rank in the guild maybe. Like keeping the quests that are already in Oblivion (for example), and then adding a number of randomly generated "kill the group of ogres in cave X because they are bothering a local farmer"-quests. Thoughts?

(By the way: Yaay first forum post!)

My worry is that I could forget about it and miss out on a quest. What I would like is having some kind of tasks (maybe not the best name) mechanic. Like a post-it. It reminds you about that task you could do and maybe where you got it from but nothing else, it's up to you to find clues to lead you to the ending of that task. Then when you finish it it gets flagged as finished task. Kinda like a quest but with only the first and the after-completion stages and no map-marker.

Or give the me ability to write down notes in my journal myself. That would be even better I think.

Exactly. That should be added without a doubt. I mean, how hard would it be for them to basically copy/paste the coding for a program such as Notepad into the game?

I agree. We need more quests that are free form with no journal help at all, period.

I have a mod for Oblivion that lets you write in books; if Skyrim had this, you could have these kinds of quests and the player could be responsible for putting the info into his book/journal himself.

Failing that, if a quest is started from a book or note, the player can just pick it up and look at it as and when he needs to.