Video games have objectives. These objectives tend to boil down to about six basic goals, and several variations and modifiers. These are those objectives.
Common objectives include:
- Escape, or get to the exit. ("Escape from the prison.", "Find a way through the tunnel.")
- Go to point A. ("Get to the chopper!", "Find Roger and tell him about the crashed chopper.")
- Go to point A, and interact with X in particular manner. ("Plant a bomb on the structural support", "Listen in on the conversation between villains, making sure not to alert them to your presence.")
- Kill X. ("Kill the Dragon!")
- Kill everything in X. ("Remove all the monsters in that cave")
- Kill every X in Y. ("Kill all the Giant Flaming Heads in this dungeon.")
- Kill or defeat X in a particular way. ("Take Roger down non-lethally"; "Kill The Dragon with his own poison, so that his death looks like an accident.")
- Kill a certain amount of X without getting hit. ("Kill 3 enemies without dying.")
- Kill [number] X. ("Kill 20 Zombies, and get back to me.")
- Find X and bring it to Y. ("Find a purification potion and use it on the cursed altar")
- Bring me X Ys. ("Bring me 20 Bear Asses.")
- Kill X, and bring me his Y. ("Kill the Dragon, and bring me his head.")
- Carry/transport X to deliver it to Y in Z. ("Take this letter and bring it to the King of the Undead in the Forbidden Kingdom")
- Escort X to Y. ("Escort me back to town.", "Escort Roger through the maze so he can unlock the door.")
- Solve a puzzle. ("Find a way through this Block Puzzle", "Find your way through the unlit caves.")
- Deal with an Unexpected Gameplay Change. ("Escape on the mine carts!", "Win a Cupid Doll from the Archery Booth.")
- Survive until X happens.
- Survive for X amount of time.
- Don't let Party Member X die. ("Protect Lucia", "Make sure Hal has at least half of his HP after the fight.")
- Obtain the legendary X.
- Collect the Y pieces of X.
- Pull the sword of X out of the stone.
- Collect every item of type X.
- Rescue X. ("Rescue Alice")
- Rescue every X in Y. ("Rescue all the villagers in the Dungeon")
Common modifiers (may be stacked):
- Protect X. ("Don't let Roger die!", "Don't let the building collapse!")
- Don't take damage. (Do we really need to provide an example?)
- Don't do X. ("Don't fall into a hole.")
- Don't alert X. ("Don't alert the guards.")
- Don't kill X. ("Take Roger down non-lethally.", "Avoid shooting the hostages.")
- Don't use X. ("Don't use guns", "don't Heal Thyself")
- Do any of the above, to multiple targets. ("Plant bombs on the eight structural supports.")
- Do any of the above, to X of Y possible targets. ("Kill eight of the 12 Giant Flaming Heads.")
- Do any of the above, to a particular sequence of targets. ("Place the crystals in their matching altars in the order of the rainbow.")
- Do any of the above, at a particular time. ("Shoot the Giant Mook in between his opening the door and his going through it.")
- Do any of the above, in a particular amount of time. ("The tower is rigged to blow in five minutes; escape before then!")
- Do any combination of the above...
- in any order. ("I'll tell you about Roger if you kill the Dragon and rescue the Princess.")
- in a particular order. ("If you don't kill the Dragon first, he'll kill you when you try to rescue the Princess.")
Rewards include, but are not limited to:
- Scoring Points
- Experience Points
- Gold
- Equipment
- Plot Coupons or other plot advancement.
- New Class
- New Character
- New Area
- Bragging Rights Reward - Often awarded for completing "bonus" objectives.
- A secret ending
- New gameplay feature (e.g. Harder Than Hard, Boss Rush)
- Information regarding what you have to do to actually get something.
Compare Stock Video Game Puzzle. See also Variable Player Goals.
