I suggest that a new quest or two are added that have completely random monster spawns. To my knowledge the current system has quests that have a specific monster theme: chosen, ettercaps, trolls, etc. This is to the extent that OOC that is entirely how players refer to the quests, "Sorry I ran gnolls earlier today..."

I suggest adding some new quests where either 1) every room contains a random monster spawn or 2) a theme is randomly generated when you enter the quest area.

An example of the first could be a quest exploring the ruins of a wizard's lair. The wizard kept a zoo of all sorts of magical beasts that have since escaped and now roam the dungeons. You can't be sure what is around each corner.

An example of the second could be a mysterious cave out in the Underdark known to hold something of value (eg. mineable ore). However, the cave makes a nice refuge for Underdark creatures and you never know which ones have taken up residence this time. There the theme would be consistent, but you wouldn't know what it was until you walked into the QA.

I think that both of these types of quests would be a lot of fun since they'd have an element of surprise for the player that quickly fades with the current quests since the become rather predictable.

...why not go a step further, and make it a quest which sends you into random dungeons? Not the same dungeon each time you do it... Maybe some sort of "explore down this river" or "down these tunnles" quest?

These both fall under things that were planned addons for EFUQS (the quest system). However, it's a major addition and lack of time has prevented us from doing many things we'd like to see.

I have to say that this is in fact a very good idea. I would even be satisfied if ..for example the quest giver said something like a group of "monsters", or "fiends" have done such-and-such. Which would leave it open to the players to find out the real threat, and if the monsters could change randomly I really think that would be fantastic for multiple reasons.

I'm not trying to be a smartass or anything, but is it really that hard or difficult to throw in something similar to the way CoA had Nada's I think? Where either beetles, rats, or spiders would spawn in at random.

Honestly, if you want random encounters, go exploring outside of the city.

The mines on the outskirts have some pretty damn random spawns. Everything from rats to Hook Horrors to Earth Elementals to Orog Trackers!

Quests usually seem to center on a theme, yes, but since when do monster races ever get along?

"Hey lets go fight the Drow/Gnoll/SlimeOoze quest!"

Underdark races rarely get along amongst their own race, let alone with other races.

I didn't mean for all of these different races to intermingle, but for one set race to generate at random at the start of the quest. For instance your first time doing that quest -behind door number one is a set of bugbears, and out in the main room are three or so more bugbears. Another time through the quest there are Gnolls in varying numbers to replace what previously were bugbears. Doing this would switch things up for sure, and generally make things more interesting. As stated it may also get rid of the idiotic way people title every quest by it's species name "let's do clowns"," let's do gnolls."

Alright in that case I can deal with the quest changing like that: the species changes upon acceptance of the quest.

That would be acceptable.