Another book with System quests (called “tasks” here). I do not like them. They are too directly manipulative or too trivial.
Our intrepid hero (from Proving Grounds: Annals of the Runeguard Book 1) is being targeted by a group of thieves. After some escalation, they kill the blacksmith (Gorman) making him armor and steal it. He decides he’s going to get it back and take care of the thieves once and for all.
What should happen next? Why a task, of course!
You have acquired a new Creche task!
Creche Task 05: Bring the Thieves to Justice
Due to your avowed intent to make the thieves pay for their crimes, you have been awarded the following task: bring the thieves to justice.
Main Objective: Recover your stolen goods.
Secondary Objective 1: Find and punish Gorman’s killers.
Secondary Objective 2: Slay Marcos, the Crows gang leader and end their vendetta against you.Rewards: +2 ranks in strength for each objective completed.
Additional requirements: Must be achieved before exiting Creche 1050.
In this case, the System is not manipulating him, but it is adding rewards to what he has already decided to do. Why? Does the System dislike thieves (seems unlikely in context)? Does the System like him (equally unlikely, although not impossible)? Etc…
System Quests just create another level of weirdness that needs to be managed. Especially when one considers all the quests that the reader does NOT see. It’s entirely possible that Marcos got a task that started all this in the first place.
Not only has Marcos not shown up in person, yet, but the book is first person so even if he had gotten a task to rob/kill our intrepid hero, we readers would not be aware of it.
As for the book itself, it’s fine. The characters are a bit weird, but I can’t put my finger on just why. Non-social maybe? Everyone seems rigid? I’m not even sure what that means. It’s the word that pops into my head. Our intrepid hero is very transactional, but that’s not weird; it’s just a thing.
Note to self about book length: Chapter 28 is about halfway through (page 163 of 301). My chapters are longer. I may hit 300 pages, but I’m not going to hit 30 chapters (28 maybe).
