I decided to creep outside my normal haunts at the lore forum because I got into a...um, let's call it interesting, debate with somebody outside the forums about of course, Skyrim's radiant quest system. Out of morbid curiosity, I decided to try and gauge where the community stands on the issue.

As we all know, Skyrim has this thing called Radiant quests, which basically amount to fetch quests in a randomized dungeon gauged towards finding a luffa somebody dropped or killing whatever bandit/creature thing happens to be living there. I stated that due to its presence, the vast majority of quests and what could have been more interesting quest lines ended up getting swamped in a mire of the same ol routine that almost everyone in the province without exception seems to give you. I said that this bloated Skyrim's quest log and could have been ditched for more interesting quest lines like those of Oblivion or Morrowind, where the other person said that this isn't a issue because these types of quests would exist regardless of whether or not it had a funny name to it. My issue was that while grinding quests are okay, the sheer amount of them Skyrim had was far too high, and we lost what could've been a rather interesting treck through Skyrim for a gimmick that barely works.

But I want to see what the community thinks, so you guys know the drill.

Like many things in Skyrim, the Radiant Quest system was an amazing inclusion which fell flat on execution. The overall lack of variety made them quickly colapse into the realm of monotony, and the disappointingly generic objectives failed to capture any of the character of guilds or holds. That said, the Radiant placement of some objectives did make it so we weren't entirely sure where we would find what from one playthough to another (forgefingers Gauntlets, Merodia's Beacon, etc) which offered a little bit of much needed variety.

They weren't up to Daggerfall's level, but they were certianly a step in the right direction.

That was my feeling as well. I wish there were more radient quests that could be accessed at the beginning of the guild quest lines, rather than making you wait until you were leader of the guild. Also, some of the radient quests, like the books for the Arcaneum, were horribly bugged.

I do like the idea of radient guild quests though, so I hope they don't abandon them completely in the next game.

I like it the Radiant Quest System, reminds me a bit on how most quests in Arena and Daggerfall worked, so it was nice to see Bethesda return to their roots in that regard. I wouldn't say it's working perfectly, but I'm still pleased they gave it a chance, and hopefully the next game will use it better.