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As an example, here’s the 3rd quest in a series that started with investigation of two missing brothers and a kobold infestation under the sewers of Stormreach. The first two quests had me battle into a kobold stronghold and prison to free one brother and interrogate the kobold leader as to the whereabouts of the other brother. This quest had me breaking into a prison area to find the second brother. Along the way, I had optional parts I did to dispatch the high shaman for the kobolds in the area, free the other human prisoners from their various cells, kill the ogres they had brought in as muscle, save a prisoner from scorpions in a pit, off the kobold interrogator in his torture room, and escaping through the entrance to the prison. In the end the brother I was looking for had already died, but I found a clue on his corpse, that I could take back their cousin who had sent me on the quest which would lead me to the next stage of the quest. Doing this solo as my cleric, I generally chose to carefully fight through the guards and monsters and tried to avoid traps where I could until I found the cell with the brother.. A rogue could have stealthed by most if not all of the guards and found the brother’s corpse and gotten back out undetected. And of course a party could complete it any way they could devise (splitting up into smaller teams to expedite the search of the cells, sending a scout out, mowing down all opposition etc etc)

The quests have DM text that will give you background a information as you play through them (i.e. you might get the message “In the distance hear the thud of something heavy ponderously moving through the darkness and the air has a sickly sweet smell of corruption…”. Some quest have optional areas that may be behind locked doors, or door that are rune locked (need high INT or WIS), barred doors (high STR) or puzzles (moving floor tiles). There are traps and tricks and just like old school D&D, seeing a chest sitting out in the open begging to be opened usually means there’s a trap, triggered mob spawn, locking room, or combination of all three about to hit you.

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DDO looks like it's taking a joyous detour into the fun zone. The key? Basing everything on D&D modules instead of tiresomely generic quests to kill a certain number of whizzywhigs, or collect 8 foozles, or deliver this zingythingy to Ted in Accounting. - IGN

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