A few days ago I was wondering if I would run out of on-level adventures, having seen several quest givers in the Stormreach Marketplace with the icon that indicated that those adventures had to be unlocked via the DDO store. Having now reached level 4 I can say that (so far) I'm far from running out of quests. I haven't even exhausted the level 2 adventures, let alone the level 3s or above.
I've descended into the sewers again – unsurprisingly an adventure called The Butcher's Path was very hack 'n slash, though still with some exploration – and fought zombies in a hidden library. An adventure that sent me into a multi-level basement to kill a giant spider turned out to be as much about exploring my surroundings and avoiding traps as it was about actually killing monsters. I've also ventured out of the city a couple of times to explore the Cerulean Hills when I felt like a change of scenery. I think I saw a quest giver out there, so I'll have to go back and take a closer look at that.
I've also yet to return to the hobgoblin town where I met my first demise, and seeing as I'm now the right level (and not likely to run out of arrows again) I should do that too.
In a lot of MMOs the levelling experience is mostly a case of travelling to a new quest hub and running through the quests in and around that one area before moving on to the next. The episodic nature of DDO's adventures means that there's a lot more choice on offer – I can go back down to the sewers and smash kobolds until I've spoken to everyone who wants me to smash kobolds... but I don't have to. I can back out into the hills... or explore a crypt... or take another run at the hobgoblins...
Then there's that guy in the harbor. I think he wants me to go and fight pirates. That sounds interesting too.
Being able to pick and choose like this, according to what I'm in the mood for at any particular time, is turning out to be one of the strengths of DDO. I don't feel like I'm locked into fighting one particular enemy type, in one particular environment, for an indeterminately long time before I'm allowed to move on, and it means my question is no longer will there be enough available adventures for me to level with, but rather which, of all that is available, will I choose to do next?
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