Roads and towns: town tales, notice boards, standing, factions and road encounters

Open it from the game menu: Quests, then Roads and towns. It is also in the Life plus category. Chat commands: /roads opens it, /today shows everything waiting for you today, /nextgoal tells you your next goal, /noticeboard opens the board of the town you are in, /encounters the road menu, /factions and /journey.

Today and my next goal

One page with everything the game has for you today: your next goal first, then the server event, daily tasks, missions, notices, town tales, personal requests, road encounters, the weekly journey and the town project. Choose Guide me to my next goal and a beacon leads you there when it is on your map; on another map you are told which crossing to take or that you must fly from the Skyport.

Town tales

Eight stories told by people in the towns, six steps each, on many maps: The Ferryman's Bell, Gold Creek Fever, The Healer's Remedy, The Light Beyond the Docks, The Juggler's Lost Song, The Silent Bell of Fjordheim, The Storyteller's Debt and The Warden's Watch. A step asks you to talk to someone, bring them something you gathered, caught, mined or cooked, work, hunt, search a place by following a beacon, or travel. Walk up to a person and press shift and enter; tale steps appear at the top of their menu. Twice in every tale you choose. The second choice decides the ending and the title you earn, the first adds its own closing line, and each choice is remembered by a town or a faction. Two tales open with standing: The Silent Bell of Fjordheim needs Visitor with the Wayfarers, The Storyteller's Debt needs Visitor with the Traders.

Notice boards

Twelve towns have a notice board: the Village, Middle Valley, Palmera Bay, Carnival Bay, Frontier Town, Copper Hills, Port Solenne, Fjordheim, Marrakai Medina, Glacier Station, Sakura Valley and the Tea Highlands. Open it anywhere on that town's map with /noticeboard. Every board has five new notices each day, the same for everyone: a supply request, a hunting bounty, a lost thing to find, a letter to carry to another town, and a group notice. You may carry three at a time and finish six a day. Hand a notice in at the board of the town that posted it; letters are delivered at the board of the town they are addressed to. A group notice shares its progress with every player who took the same notice and stands within twenty five squares, and pays half again when you finish it together.

Standing

Every notice, tale step, personal request and lost parcel raises your standing in that town. Visitor (100): its notices pay ten per cent more. Friend (500): a trusted notice with better pay, and notices pay twenty per cent more. Trusted (1500): a weekly gift from the town at its board. Honoured (4000): the gift doubles, and a title. Legend (10000): a title and a shield. The town of the week counts standing half again.

Factions

The Rangers' Lodge (Warden Oskar, Middle Valley), the Traders' Guild (Molly, the Village) and the Wayfarers' Society (Argus, the Village) remember what you do on the roads. Friend opens a daily faction contract at any notice board, Trusted a weekly faction gift. From Visitor with the Traders, road caravans sell to you fifteen per cent cheaper.

Personal requests

Everyone you can talk to asks for something different each day: fish, herbs, ore, cooked meals, honey and more. Choose Ask if they need a hand. One request per person per day, four a day in all. Pays points, friendship hearts and standing.

Road encounters

While you travel outdoors you may hear something by the road: a lost traveller, an injured coyote, a stranded driver, a merchant caravan, a storyteller, a dropped parcel, a hunter in trouble, a pilgrim, a runaway horse, a piece of an old map, or a runner with a bet. Walk to the sound and press shift and enter. Every one has choices: walk the traveller to a crossing, bandage the animal, push the van, buy and sell at the caravan, follow the storyteller's secret to a hidden cache, return the parcel to its town, race the runner. Three map pieces make a treasure map. Anyone standing near you shares the reward. At most eight a day and the first five pay; switch them off in /encounters if you prefer quiet roads.

The weekly journey and the town project

The weekly journey asks for notices in three towns, three road encounters, one tale step and one personal request, and pays a satchel with 2000 points, a life pack and standing with every faction. Finish two notices together with other players for the fellowship bonus. Each week one town has a project, for example mending the village well with stone. Everyone brings materials at that town's board; when it is finished, everyone who brought at least ten is paid, online or not, and the town's notices pay a quarter more the next week.

Points from Roads and towns are limited to 3000 a day. Anything over is kept for you and paid on a later day.