Quests that start in books

[Mordaan]

The addition of more books in the library made me come up with an idea.  How about quests that start in library books?  Not that you can actually be awarded the quest by reading a book, but rather some information in a book that will lead you to a quest.

For example, a passage in a book may read:
"Legend has it that a rare object of great value can be found in <some location>.  There is a kran merchant often on the road to the bronze doors who knows of such an object.  If you come across him, you may want to ask him about <x>."  Then you get the quest when you ask the NPC about x rather than being able to get it the traditional way of "give me a quest".

For all I know this could already be ingame or in the works...I haven't been to the library lately.      But I thought I'd mention that idea here.

[Huget]

  Nice, I like it. It would give some originality to the quest system. Or perhaps (though this would be more for an event) a random note left on the ground with desperate cries for help:  "Mommy?"

[Erisnas]

I think this would be an idea but you would want to make it that they actually have to read the book.  I can easily see how it could turn into, "Know any good quests?"  "Sure! There is a nice NPC by the Bronze Door that will give you one, but make sure you tell him 'about cheese'"  Also, it would become an easy way of choosing what quests you want to do.  Now, quests are based slightly on luck whether or not you get them, which helps spread it out.  It could come very odd if you could always choose the best quest just by typing a few words.
   Other than that I love this idea!  I suppose you could counteract the above by having the book/note drop in odd areas and the quest would require certain knowledge from the book so you would have to have it.  It might be hard to work it into a book though.  It doesn't make as much sense in a book to list a persons exact location all the time (which it would since few NPCs move.)

[Faldor]

Great idea!  I agree with Erisnas that some requirements (such as actually reading the book) would need to be added to keep people from giving quests away too easily.  Perhaps the book(s) could be randomly moved around the library, since people are always perusing the books and never seem to put them back in the correct place (Just ask Lori).  That would add some more randomness also.

I also agree that the books should not give the location of the person, but just give clues as to who you might talk to.  Maybe the clue about the item would be enough to tell you which NPCs might know something about the item you are looking for.  "It is said that a rare crystal...", would lead you to talk to someone with knowledge of Crystals/Gems, or "This food source..." would lead you to a cook or food merchant.

[Eriroley]

There are a handful of quests that currently do not start with "Give me quest" (No, don't bother asking, I'm not going to tell you how to get them.)

Try talking to the NPCs, not only will you probably learn something, but you might also find a quest

[Xolani]

Good Idea . It would be cool to have say a legend or story about a legendary weapon that would be extremly hard to find. Then you could get hints to if it was real and its location from the book. Not enough to find it though, we wouldnt want it to easy by blatently stating it. There may be numerous hints and rumers in the world of Planeshift about these good items or treasure's. I think it would set new meaningto the game and be really neat to set out on a quest that may take very long to find one of these valuable items or treasure. Not only would it encourage reading and learning from all the npc's and books but it would also require a great deal of exploration.