Kill, Loot, Repeat

There's a particular type of quest chain in MMOs that used to be fairly common but is less often seen now. You'd be sent into the Lair of the Groks with instructions to kill 10 Peevish Groks. Only while you're killing Peevish Groks you also aggro Angry Groks, and it seems like there's more of them around than there are Peevish Groks, so by the time you return to the quest giver having killed 10 Peevish Groks you've also killed 15 Angry Groks, as well as a few Furious Groks who were also wandering around.

"Well done, adventurer. With the number of Peevish Groks reduced we can start to target the more dangerous enemies. Go now and kill 10 Angry Groks."

"Actually I've already killed 10 Angry Groks.  15 actually."

"Really?"

"Yeah, It's pretty crowded in there and I kept running into them so..."

"Well I didn't ask you to kill Angry Groks so they don't count. Now go forth and kill 10 Angry Groks."

So back you go to kill 10 Angry Groks, and while you're doing that you kill some more Peevish Groks because they're still around, and a few more Furious Groks and... you know where this is going, right?

"Well done, adventurer. Now that we have slain many of the Angry Groks the way is clear to attack the Furious Groks.."

"Yeah, yeah. Let me guess – after I kill them you're going to send me back in there again to kill Warlord RageGrok the Unreasonable, right?"

"Indeed, adventurer, once his guards are slain..."

"Only I already ran into him."

"Oh?"

"I've got his severed head in my backpack if you want to see it."

"Adventurer, do you want this quest or not?"

There's good reasons why this very old school quest design isn't used so often nowadays, though it does still show up from time to time. There's a version of it in use in Tangleroot Gorge, but it's actually rather well done.

Initially the repeated expeditions into the hobgoblin fortress do feel a little lazy, but it doesn't take long to see that some thought has gone into making it interesting. The non-linear layout of the complex allows you to move quickly by areas that have been explored during previous incursions and the enemies that you encounter change up from one time to the next as the hobgoblins react to your repeated attacks on their lair. Specific named enemies stay dead so you're not doing those fights over and over, and new side-quest objectives keep things fresh even in the areas you've been to before.

Above all the feel of it, of a sprawling dungeon that takes multiple forays to clear, is absolutely classic D&D.