Dialogue is presented in the standard tree form that most RPGs use. It's a simple enough system that works well in most games. Unfortunately, unlike Geneforge or Fallout, there is no skill affecting dialogue. Avernum 3 does allow you to save snippets of dialogue in a note journal that you can access at any time, if you have the foresight to save those notes. Additionally, the information boxes that pop up also allow you to save them for future reference. This is a fairly nice feature for those people who wander around trying to collect quests rather than just get a quest, do it, and find another.

Like most RPGs, quests are handed out by talking to people to get jobs. You're assigned the main job of getting information about the surface and Empire, which is your main task in the beginning of the game. From there, you're free to pick out quests you want to do. On the surface, there are even places you can get courier style jobs, which pay very well if you're willing to do a bit of Fed-Ex travelling. The catch is, those jobs have time limits. If you can't complete these jobs in the time allowed, the courier service is reluctant to allow you back to work.​