The Chronicles of Spellborn official site has been updated with another edition of their weekly gamedesign dev journal.  This week's topics are Quest Chains and Side Quests.

Stirring the soup that is the Deadspell Storm invariably creates a few conflicts. We've talked about the various factions and High Houses already and it's not hard to imagine that they can all provide an impulse to the overall history of the Enclave of the Five Sacrifices. These impulses are captured in Quest Chains and Side Stories and put you at the centre of these events.

Of course they are just two names for very wildly accepted concepts. The Quest Chains are the main hooks. These span multiple level-ranges and tell of the more profound events happening within the Red Rim and bring a conclusion to the first part of the Chronicles of Spellborn; they form the spine of the game.
Side Stories provide more colour and details; they are small chains focussing on everyday life. They can still have some profound events within them but they are less likely to be earth-shattering (hmm, shouldn't that be shard-shattering?) events that impact the Enclave as a whole. They fill in the gaps in the story and deepen certain aspects.

Read the full article here.