Quest structure — 6 region-linear sagas, 15 main + 3 hidden per region

D-024: Quest structure — 6 region-linear sagas, 15 main + 3 hidden per region

Pick 12 from the 2026-05-21 vision verification session. D-016 ratified the count (108 total quests, ~75% of progression); D-024 ratifies the shape (6 × 18 distribution, per-region linear chain, off-spine hidden). The existing data layer already partially encodes this: QuestSchema carries regionId + prerequisites: QuestIdSchema[], and shipped quests 001-006 all region.plenny with linear chain (Q006 → Q005 → Q004 → … → Q001). D-024 ratifies the pattern that’s already emerging.

1. Distribution = 6 × 18 = 108

Per region	Count	`QuestType`	Discoverability
Main quests	15	`story`	Always-visible; appear in chain order
Hidden quests	3	`hidden`	Gated; appear only when discovery conditions met
Region total	18
Game total	108 (6×18)	90 main + 18 hidden	Matches D-016

The 90:18 split is the formal version of pick 12’s “90 main + 18 hidden ≈ 108”. Each region carries the same shape — no asymmetry (no region richer than another). Preserves the 5×6 design lattice (D-019 §Reasoning) at the quest layer.

D-016 design-gap interaction: D-016 ratified “~20% gap by design” via keystone-skip tuning (skipping keystones is the canonical inaccessibility surface). D-024 opens a second skip axis — hidden-quest-skip. A Walker who clears all 90 main + all 36 keystones but skips all 18 hidden lands 90 + 36 = 126 / 144 = 87.5% reach, a ~12.5% gap from hidden-skip alone. The full 20% gap operates per-surface — hidden-skip contributes ~12.5%, keystone-skip contributes the remainder. Joint distribution math (which combinations of skip surfaces a typical Walker actually exercises) is B-level for mechanics-designer to verify before Phase 13 keystone authoring locks. D-016’s upper bound (full clear = 144/144 = 100%) is preserved.

2. Per-region structure = strict linear chain + 3 off-spine hidden

Main quests within a region are strictly linear. Quest N+1 has Quest N as its sole QuestType: story prerequisite. The chain enforces narrative arc per region — classic RPG flow, the “saga” framing of pick 12. This is already the pattern in shipped quests 001-006 (Plenny chain: Q001 → Q002 → … → Q006).

Hidden quests are off-spine. A hidden quest’s prerequisites may chain to:

A specific main quest reaching a specific beat (e.g. “you completed Q005 with the Akademia-aligned choice”)
A keystone unlock (per D-014 §2)
A faction reputation tier (per D-014 §3 — reaching tier-N with a faction unlocks that faction’s hidden quest in this region)
A class identity (per D-019 — e.g. only Pieczętarz Walkers see the Akademia archive hidden quest)
A discovery action (e.g. “you reached the back-room of the Pierwsze Biuro” — geofence-via-quest-state, NOT raw geofence per D-020 §2)

Hidden quests do NOT chain to other hidden quests. Each hidden quest is a stand-alone discovery from main-chain progression + faction/keystone/class state.

3. Cross-region order = Plenny canonical first; remaining 5 player-choice

Plenny is the canonical starting region. Kartograf starts in Plenny (class.cartographer.startRegionId = region.plenny); the other 4 classes’ starting clusters are TBA per D-019 §3 (W-level, mechanics-designer). Regardless of class starting cluster, the first completed region saga is canonically Plenny’s — non-Kartograf Walkers traverse to Plenny early in their arc. The Walker may start a non-Plenny saga in parallel once they leave Plenny (no hard gate), but Plenny saga completion is the canonical anchor.

Remaining 5 regions are player-choice order. After Plenny, the Walker may take Frostlands, Mglica, Targosie, Beber, Łuk Przejścia in any order. There is NO canonical second region. This is the “PoE-style replayability via faction reputation choices across regions” of pick 12 — different orderings produce different faction-rep accumulation, which unlocks different hidden quests in subsequent regions.

4. Replayability = faction-rep-driven hidden-quest variance, NOT quest re-completion

Completed quests do NOT replay. Each quest is a one-time editorial commit (D-013 grammar): once written, written. Replayability emerges from:

Cross-playthrough faction choices. A new Walker who plays Frostlands second instead of fifth accumulates different faction rep entering Mglica, unlocking different hidden quests there.
Class identity. A Pieczętarz Walker sees a different hidden-quest set than a Tropiciel Walker, per D-019 class-faction binding.
Endgame rejestry (D-023). Post-~144-pt allocation, rejestry provide repeatable run content. D-023 owns the replay loop; D-024’s “no quest re-completion” preserves quest narrative integrity by leaving repetition to rejestry.

Quest completion is therefore a legacy event: once a region’s 15 main + (some / all / no) 3 hidden are complete, that region’s saga is closed for that Walker. New playthroughs (new Walker, different class, different region order) produce different completions.

5. Region Q001 = `regionId`-anchored to the region’s primary faction

Per D-019 §2 + D-013 §Five-stances, each region has a canonical primary faction. The region’s Q001 issuer is canonically anchored to that faction. Worked examples:

Region	Primary faction	Region Q001 issuer
Plenny	Cech (Walker’s meta-faction; home guild)	Cech (Bertranda)
Frostlands	Akademia (`Pieczętarnia Mroza`)	Akademia is the saga focus; first-quest issuer TBA at Frostlands Q001 authorship — the shipped Q002 is Cech-courier-issued per the institutional-commission pattern, but Q001 itself is unwritten
Mglica	Bractwo (pilgrimage routes)	Bractwo
Targosie	Wolnokupiectwo	Wolnokupiectwo
Beber	Dziki Trakt	Dziki Trakt
`Łuk Przejścia`	Mixed — cross-faction bridge region	TBA, narrative-designer W-level (the bridge is canonically cross-faction; explicit pick may stay TBA until that region’s saga is authored)

NOT a hard schema rule (a region’s Q001 doesn’t have to be issued by its primary faction). It IS the canonical pattern. Quests Q002-Q015 of a region may freely cross factions within the region’s prose.

What D-024 does NOT decide (delegated)

Specific quest content per region (90 main + 18 hidden) — W-level (narrative-designer, per-quest dispatch).
Quest difficulty curve across the 15-main-per-region chain — B-level (mechanics-designer; energy cost per quest beat, encounter density, etc.).
Hidden quest discovery surface (how the player learns a hidden quest exists) — ui-designer + narrative-designer joint.
Whether some hidden quests are class-specific — B-level (mechanics-designer + narrative-designer; default assumption: yes for class-flavoured factions).
Reward variance across main vs hidden quests — B-level (D-016 says flat 1pt per quest; B-level adds cosmetic / faction-rep / material variance on top).
Whether region order is strictly player-choice after Plenny or recommended (UI suggests next region based on prior choices) — ui-designer call.
Re-playability of completed quests (new-game-plus mechanic) — out of scope; explicitly NOT addressed. Future D-decision if desired.
Łuk Przejścia primary faction / Q001 issuer — narrative-designer W-level.
Interaction with D-025 multiplayer (do co-op Walkers share a quest chain? branch? mirror?) — deferred to D-025 ratification.
D-013 v2.0 four-Spisy arc integration with quest chain (do later regions’ main quests touch the missing Spisy?) — open D-level, deferred until v2.0 gameplay scope authored.

Rejected alternatives

Fully non-linear quests per region (any quest available at any time within a region). Rejected — kills classic RPG narrative arc, contradicts pick 12’s “regional sagas” framing, removes the prerequisites-chain pattern shipped quests 001-006 already encode.
Single global linear chain (no per-region split). Rejected — kills regional identity, doesn’t match the 6-region lattice, forces a global gating order that defeats player-choice-across-regions design.
More hidden quests (e.g. 50:50 main:hidden split). Rejected — breaks D-016’s 108-quest math (a Walker missing all hidden = ~54+36 = 62% reach, well below D-016’s 80% intent), under-uses the main-arc surface narrative-designer is authoring.
No hidden quests (108 all main, linear). Rejected — kills replayability surface, contradicts D-014 §2 keystone-gated paths, removes faction-rep-driven cross-region variance pick 12 specifies.
Region order entirely procedural / random. Rejected — Plenny anchor is already shipped (cartographer.ts:114); breaking it requires migrating D-019 class-start system + retroactively un-authoring Quest 001. Plenny-first is the lowest-cost-to-preserve anchor.

Reasoning

D-024 is the structural closure of D-016’s 108-quest math. D-016 ratified the count; D-024 ratifies the shape. The 6 × 18 distribution is the only shape that honors the 6-region lattice, matches pick 12’s split, aligns with the prerequisites-chain pattern shipped quests already follow, preserves the 5×6 design space (D-019), and leaves room for class identity (D-019) and faction reputation (D-014 §3) to drive hidden-quest variance.

Plenny-first / others-open is the minimum-canon-violation reading of pick 12. Plenny is already canonical via cartographer.ts start region, Quest 001 placement, Pierwsze Biuro framing. Locking a canonical second region would over-constrain narrative-designer; leaving all 6 unordered would force re-author of Quest 001’s “Walker enters Plenny” framing.

The “no quest re-completion” call is load-bearing for narrative integrity. D-013’s editorial-commit grammar treats each quest as a one-time write. Allowing replay would either require retconning (“the Spis forgets the page”) or trivializing (“you replay for the loot”). Cleaner answer: leave repetition to rejestry (D-023) where the lore explicitly supports it.

Source: pick 12 from ops/memory/vision-qa-2026-05-21.md. Triage by game-director (2026-05-21 session). Pre-ratification recon per [[feedback-decide-triage-recon]] confirmed QuestSchema already carries the structural slots (regionId, prerequisites: QuestIdSchema[], QuestType enum with story + hidden); shipped quests 001-006 already follow the per-region linear chain pattern D-024 ratifies. No schema work needed.