I think Xavier who randomly pops up in the Pass of Despair is great. Some of my characters pass their frequently for loot and xp to Wharftown and vice-versa to Cordor and it makes the journey interesting.

I asked IG around this and it seems that NPC is a guy who was leftover from a previous quest because he drops a shield that is treated as a quest item by the vendors. Personally, I think more of this around non-quest mob areas would be nice. Maybe give a little insight to the story on their location or add some flavor to the Amia storyline(s).

First time I ran into him I wondered what it was and had to scroll through the log to see because he spawned by my badger and the little tore him apart! I agree, random encounters with local in game flavour are great. Whenever I walk that way now I pause when the yellow text appears to tell me something had been there. heh

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When it rains, look for rainbows.
When it's dark, look for stars.

Agreed. I thought the same thing the other day. I had been hunting the roads, joined up with a fellow adventurer. Shortly thereafter we spawn Xavier. It spurred some interesting RP between the two of us. Random encounters beyond the randomly generated dungeon bosses would be awesome.

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Celadur, Thelis Longwind, Falenor the Blue, Kyljun Thuun

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^That stuff though.

We can always benefit from making our server a little less predictable. Heck, why not a wandering Boss or two. And I've always loved the idea of enemy adventuring parties. History will show the most dangerous creature in all the Realms is not some ancient dragon or fell demon, but the Adventurer that goes looking for them.

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Random quest spawns might be an interesting idea too... for example:

You encounter a randomly-spawned patrol from Kohl somewhere along the roads of the isle. The patrol leader gives you a bounty notice, which then causes a chance of a spawn like Xavier happening for you in certain areas (the spawn will not happen for people without the notice). You kill the spawn, and can then turn in proof of the kill and the bounty notice for some item or other reward. Not sure how feasible it is from a coding standpoint, but it would give a greater incentive for people to hoof it instead of constantly portaling around. Stuff like this would also give a greater immersive sense of an area being controlled/patrolled by the local powers that be.

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Named Most Influential Character, Amia Awards 2011

Random mini-quest was one of the things I wanted to see happen in Inns. I think it would be doable. It's essentially making a Templar/Witch Hunter/Etc job that can be activated by anyone. It wouldn't have to be limited killing a creature, though. "Find my son! He was last seen in [the Nomad]." "Can you ask this girl/boy out for me? I'm too shy! She lives in [Wharftown]." That sort of quest gives people something to do, a reason to search around towns, and yet more avenues to advance their character than the one-and-done quests we have.

This is all expanding beyond the original suggestion, though.

Start small. Making new mini-bosses should be easy enough. Let's see if we can do something as simple as spawn non-hostile NPCs in a few areas. A merchant connected to random-ly generated loot lootbin for the appropriate areas +0, +1, +2, and so on.

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