This guest article by is written Cireon, our lord and saviour from Clan Quest. This article was written before the requirements were finalized.

The trimmed Quest Point Cape has been a subject of discussion ever since the introduction of the Capes of Distinction. Every time the Capes of Distinction receive an update — whether that be a graphical overhaul or the introduction of Master Skill Capes — the discussion starts again. Currently the discussion is reaching its climax since Jagex is talking with the community (version 2) about introducing a Quest Point Master Cape. The cape will be more prestigious than a normal Quest Point Cape and will require the completion of all post-quest and lore content to get in addition to finishing all quests of course.

Quest Point Master Cape Mockup by Halfingr

The initial list of requirements resulted in a lot of criticism from the community. Requirements included unlocking all spells at the Livid Farm and catching 4,000 chompy birds, turning the Quest Point Master Cape into another grindy cape. The feedback was very mixed and for a moment it looked liked the update was to be held back indefinitely, but Mod Manti kept gathering feedback and as the moment of writing, a set of guidelines for the requirements is being developed and the release of the Quest Point Master Cape appears to be very likely after all.

The guidelines for the cape as of August 8th are as follows (detailed requirements may be found in the forum post):

We will ask you to complete all quests, miniquests, unabridged sagas and story-oriented content. Story-oriented content is defined as:

• Content that rewards the player with lore (memorium crystals in Elf City)
• Content that asks the player to participate in story-rich content (Court Cases, Player-Owned Ports)
• Content that asks the player to play expanded versions of content that featured in a quest (Temple Trekking)
• We will not include content that has a light narrative theme, rather than deep story or connections to a quest. For example, Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza and Livid Farm have some backstory, but are not integral to RuneScape’s storyline.

We will ask you to gain story-oriented unique items. These are defined as:

• Titles, as long as they show off a story accomplishment (Vyrelord/Annihilator).
• Items, cosmetic or otherwise, significant to the storyline (gilded cabbage, Crest of Seren).
• Journals and other books

The Master Quest cape is not:

• A taskmaster cape.
• A music cape.
• A requirement for the Completionist/Trimmed Completionist cape (just like any other master cape, other than Dungeoneering).
• A completionist cape – the requirements may and will clash but that is unavoidable.
• An overly RNG-based cape. I.e. Anything similar to champion scrolls’ drop rate.

Note: As of publication Jagex has released a second version of the Quest Point Master Cape discussion thread.

Based on feedback, Jagex has also decided to make an exception for the Dungeoneering Journals and chompy bird kills, because while they do fit within the requirements, they are still very grindy and are therefore left out to make the cape more focussed on the exploring factor.

Is this really the Quest Point Master Cape we have been waiting for? Let’s go back at the roots of questing and see what the Quest Point Master Cape should be about.

Questing has always stood apart from skilling and killing. In the early days of Runescape, questing was about exploration and solving puzzles. Where these days quests commonly take place in small or even instanced areas, older quests had the adventurer travelling all over the world without much to go on. We see this return in some of the latest quests, but over the years, updates in which exploration plays an important role have become more and more scarce. Part of the reason for this is that the current world has become very saturated. Instead of adding new areas, Jagex fills the areas we already know by heart with more and more content.

So what is the essence of questing? What is it that made me turn to questing more than any other part of the game? It is the feeling of exploration. That first time you enter the game and visit new places. Do you remember how it felt when you first hit the shores of Crandor to kill Elvarg? Or what about going through the Underground Pass, to find the elven lands at the other side of the mountains? Or maybe you are just interested in figuring out the story behind a character you always saw when running by. All these experiences together form questing. To me owning a Quest Point Cape means you took the effort of exploring, finding out the stories in the vast fantasy world Runescape has created.

It is only natural that the Quest Point Master Cape expands on this idea. Over the years Jagex has released many miniquests and pieces of content that delve deeper into the stories behind the world of Gielinor, but were never big enough to make it into a main update. Many players do not know of the existence of much of the additional lore and content Runescape has to offer. Characters might have additional dialogue options after you finished a quest, and there might be an NPC somewhere that has a small task for you for a little reward. It is this content that makes Runescape come alive and really shows the effort the developers have put in creating a consistent, dynamic and thus interesting world to play in.

The Quest Point Master Cape should encourage people to go back to areas they haven’t visited in a while and talk to some characters to find out more. The cape should require players to find out more about the ongoing story of Gielinor (and other worlds). The Quest Point Master Cape should not be created from a completionist’s perspective, but from an explorer’s perspective. It should not be about grinding, it should be about finding those pieces of content that have been forgotten or were never even known. It should award the player for being curious, for letting the xp gains be what they are for some time and just enjoying the world around them. There is always a push for new content, but I am sure many people have yet to enjoy many pieces of content that are just a few steps away.

So now that we know what role the Quest Point Master Cape should fulfil, we can take another look at the guidelines. Do they indeed fill that role of encouraging and awarding people for exploration? I think it is in there: the points under story-based content sound very reasonable to me, but then there are the requirements to finish Temple Trekking, unlock the Firemaker’s Outfit from the circus, and light the entire Beacon Network. Oh yes, they are post-quest content and it is interesting to visit them again after the quest just to see they are permanent content, but especially the Temple Trekking requirement doesn’t really feel like exploring to me. Other post-quest tasks are unlocking the full power of the Ivandis Flail, delivering Chimp Ices, catching Thalassus ten more times… It is interesting to see how these requirements requiring the player to do something repeatedly. Is this really about exploring? Or are we seeing the completionist’s attitude slipping in here?

On the other hand, there are some requirements Jagex is not sure about of including. Most notably these include visiting all fairy ring locations and meeting Philipe at all locations. Aren’t these exactly what exploring is all about? It makes more sense to include these requirements than spending some frustrating hours levelling up Smiddi or running all across Gielinor to deliver diabetes to the king of the monkeys.

I have explained my own reasoning behind the requirements, but to understand the list of requirements as it looks right now, we have to look at Jagex’s motives. Jagex has said they want to cape to be prestigious and show dedication, so of course we can’t make the requirements trivial to get. If we look at all the post-quest content in existence though, finishing all of that is already a pretty hefty task. Do we really need to make the cape more prestigious by adding grinding requirements to it? I have heard many people say they will never go for Trimmed Completionist’s, because grinding is not what they want to spend their time on. Adding requirements that do take a lot of grinding will only scare people away from going out there and see what the world has to offer.

Of course, the guidelines and requirements are not fixed yet, and as of now I have mixed feelings. The things I would want from a Quest Point Master Cape are definitely in there, but I also feel the completionist mindset is becoming part of the requirement and that is something that should be prevented at all costs. Quest Point Master Cape holders should not have to wait for every update to say what kind of requirement (read: titles) Jagex has come up with this time around. The Quest Point Master Cape should represent the essence of questing, and I think that is what Jagex should recognise first and foremost, before finalising the design of this cape.

Even then, the requirement list looks very promising and I have high hopes that before the designed is finished further amendments will be made to make this become a very interesting cape. With only a relatively small update, Jagex is spotlighting many hours of content most players will not have finished, and hopefully it will encourage people to go back and find out why Runescape is such a special game.