Search and Rescue Quest: an NPC has been taken, or has gotten trapped or lost, and the party is required to go rescue said NPC. Can include elements of mystery.
One of my favorite "quests" to give my players is sort of a variant of the "solve a mystery" - I like to make my players go EXPLORE something with the added task of writing down what they find. As a kid I always thought being an explorer would be really cool, so now I make my players do that lol. I just sent them on a mission for a mercenary group who wants to set up a new outpost in the desert but who doesn't have time/capacity to send their own guys to go scout a good location. My players took mapmaking supplies, mapped out the desert, located a tall mesa with natural fluting/tunnels and vegetation around it (indicating water), and they even discovered what monsters were located there and recorded their numbers. They even found a secret broken-down supply road that the mercs could use to keep their traveling low-key. They reported back all their findings to the group and the merc leader was so impressed he tipped them extra and asked them to help with he initial clearing of the monsters and laying out construction of the base. Of course, my players are... duplicitous. So if they DO end up doing that, they'll probably also sell the base's blueprints to a rival merc group or the thieves' guild as pretty premium information. But it was a cool quest, and it gave everyone a chance to show off their skills a little even though the combat was super minimal.
I feel like sidequests are the perfect time to give out unique abilities. Something more meaningful than gold but not as powerful as a level up. In a campaign I play my monk character revisited his monastery, and with his thief rogue abilities he managed to give the grandmaster a run for her money when it came to bouncing across the monastery during a test of what he had learned since leaving. Because of that, my DM gave him a small skill. It lets him add his wisdom modifier to his initiative and he gets a 10ft boost to movement speed at the start of combat. Something movement related to match my clever use of Second Story Work to keep up with a much higher level monk. The warlock gained deeper insight to her patron thanks to the monastery's archives, our ranger and her panther honed their tracking skills even more by helping the students search the surrounding area for dangers, etc.
One creative side quest my players liked is a guarding quest. Similar-ish to the escort quest, my players needed to act as security for a tavern during a special event. My players enjoyed it a lot as they acted as cliche body guards with ear pieces in communicating to each other. Lots of fun and lots of laughs with some good action too. One thing that made this side quest particularly difficult is that there were people attempting to crash the party, but the players had to shut them down without causing a huge scene, thereby ruining the event.
I'm very glad to have found Master the Dungeon! Each video I've watched has had excellent ideas and concepts to aid in DMing. Keep up the excellent work!
There is this one campaign _(that I'm getting back to it with my players after the biggest hiatus and the most outrageous retcon)_ where I've spent most of my energy trying to boot the characters out of the city. They however sunk their "mind-teeth" into a possibly devil infested mine sidequest I threw to kill time. If I had my share of experience then, I'd probably assign some narrative technique that would require them to leave the city after dealing with the rumours, if that was still my objective.
Remember, PC actions (or inaction) have consequences. As they complete local objectives and gain power (or levels), things can tend to become pastoral or even boring. As the DM, you have the power to move the party's cheese 🧀.
@@Jeffs40K that would annoy them. They have to leave voluntarily. Hear this, the mines have a second exit to the other side of the mountain, there is a demon infested fortress there, the source of the infestation. They will have to climb up the fortress and through an open portal and culminate this with an epic boss fight in hell itself. This is now an invasion of hell and the fortress is their hub.
An 8th category could be when a business owner hires the party to sabotage a rival - setting fire to his shop, framing him for a crime, etc. It would be sort of the opposite of solving a mystery.
There's also the bakery quest, where the players just decide to set up a bakery :P Though I guess it could also be described as a series of small fetch and/or delivery quests
As an aside, I'd like to bring up Matt Coleville's Downtime Video, where he goes into hiatuses from D&D and each player having their own adventures adjacent to the plot. This is always a way to do sidequests! Can't get the whole group together? Do a sidequest! Hanging out with part of the group doing something else and feel like playing a little D&D? Sidequest! Find a really neat looking one-shot adventure and just want to run through it with a friend you have over? Sidequest it! Give 'em a sidequest sidekick!
Amping up CR on side quests can be good as well though: PCs are generally more willing to run away from optional content if it gets too difficult. You can play more of the risk/reward aspect of choosing how far to delve into the "dungeon" rather than assuming they have to complete everything.
I found your channel by chance, but I absolutely love your smooth delivery, punchy advice, and minimalist animation style. It all comes together to create a uniquely easy-to-follow experience that's just a joy to engage with. Thanks for all your hard work!
I think side quests are a great idea to present when game day comes and one or two (Or more in some cases) people can't show up, and a weakened party really can't continue with the main story (Too dangerous for a boss fight, or something like that). But those who did show up really want to play, those smaller scoped game ideas are now front and center in my book.
Yeah, in my group (lvl4) we got 1 paladin, 2 warlocks, 1 barbarian, 1 monk, 1 cleric/fighter and 1 wizard. We ended our last session at the doors to the mid campaign boss and by the next sessions (with zero heads up) only the Barbarian, 1 warlock and the wizard. The warlock had pretty low base HP (18 total) and had to reclass into a ranged warlock, the Wizard being the class cannon but without the cannon all his dmg spells are cantrips and just about everything else is a utility spell (I'm surprised he still lives), and the Barbarian was very stonky but also a dmg spung since he went totom warrior and found a ring that reduces all dmg(but psychic) by half, so as long as he's raging he takes 1/4 of the dng. Very useful. I ended up throwing a magic ward that stopped them from continuing, so they had to explore to find the source of the ward to disenchant.
You can also have defend quests. Protect a person or object against an invading force. The fail condition is the item or person being captured or destroyed. Killing all attackers isn't necessary, as you can hide the goal or create impassible terrain like, destroying the only bridge to town.
One thing I would do is to make are multi-act quests, where you unlock more of the side quest after you complete more of the main story. For example: Act 1- A Merchant approaches the party asking for help clearing out a mine of bandits they recently acquired for a good deal, and in compensation they will be made partners in the mine (or maybe given the controlling amount of shares of the mine if they manage to convince the Merchant) and will acquire some money during downtime. Act 2- After completing more of the main quest the Merchant will contact the players and say that some creatures from a cavern they broke into have taken over the mine and that they need help clearing it out so the miners will return to work. After they clear it out they may find an ancient temple which will increase passive income as you'll be having people investing in the mine to study the temple. Act 3- after a while loner the Merchant contacts the players telling them that the scholars have discovered a passage into the temple and they request your presence to help with the investigation into the unknown depths of the structure. This is where you'd have your big final boss for the side quest, perhapse a dragon or something else that when the players defeat will increase the renown of the mine increasing investors and will also get some good loot at the end as well.
I'm a new DM, or I feel like one at least. I've been doing it for 2 or 3 years but we meet infrequently and I've only run modules so far. However my intention has always been to transition to a homebrew world when A) we ran out of content we were interested in, and B) my players and I were experienced enough with the system and game design to do it ourselves. I would say that this channel is my favorite resource for trying to figure out how to actually run my campaign. It breaks material down into manageable chunks, the examples are clear but nonspecific enough to be widely applicable, and it gives me a lot of inspiration. Because of how well defined each topic is brought up in the video too, it's very easy to jot down notes on what the basic points were for if I want to look at it later. It's really helpful to use a mixture of stuff like this, and other media. It's like instructions on how to make something from scratch, vs reverse engineering. Examining why I like (or don't like!) certain pieces of media or plot beats is really helpful. I'm very comfortable with stories, but less so with mechanics and game design, so looking at more interactive media like video games is also really helpful for me, asking myself why a certain game was fun. For instance, I know I struggle to get really engaged in a game if it doesn't have a great story and a lot of lore, but I also have been looking at combat and exploration and such. For instance, I really like how the Legend of Zelda series does combat (I'm mostly talking pre BotW, like from OOT to SS). While you *can* just whale on enemies, typically every opponent has a trick. You get more powerful weapons, typically, but you also gain experience in terms of knowledge, like 'oh my sword isn't effective against this enemy' or 'I have to get it to drop its guard to expose a weak point and bombs or fire is great for that' or 'I have to hit all three heads at once or else it won't die'. And how enemies that were initially bosses or mini bosses eventually just became stronger normal enemies (like lizalfos in Skyward Sword), because it showed really well how you'd increased in strength and skill both. I also really liked the note about lessening the enemy count. I was the first DM at our table, but we have another DM too so we can both get to be both DMs and players. The way their book does encounters is baffling. The enemy headcount is radiant based on how many players are in the party, which has led to us having like 30 enemies sometimes (5 per player plus 5, in one case). I feel like if the book wanted to give a break to smaller parties by decreasing enemy count, that's fine, but I feel like instead of adding more enemies to up the CR, they should've added one or two heavy hitters instead. My book just has fixed encounters and it's much quicker and snappier, not to mention a huge relief for the DM's workload. It also keeps players more engaged. My party would way rather fight like... 4 goblins and two ogres, than they would 15 goblins (idk if that CR is equivalent, but you get my example). They're going to see 15 goblins as a chore and the combat will take approximately one eternity. They're going to see two ogres as a threat and have to choose whether to target the big dangerous melee enemies, or the scattered weaker enemies harrying them from afar with arrows. It introduces more variety, and it feels more suspense filled and dangerous. It forces them to work as a team and prioritize. At higher levels, when they have stuff like multiple attacks per turn or great AOE, I can see putting in a larger number of weaker enemies and running them like a swarm to make large scale combat a little easier. So keeping the scale of enemies smaller for brief side quests is great advice.
How's your homebrew coming along? Also if you like this content I'd recommend angrygm blog. It's all about how to dm well, whether it's homebrew or modules
Something I like to throw in as a sidequest thing is a Monster Hunter type guild. A guild that the party is free to visit at any time of their choosing that will assign them a bounty to undertake (after they have proven their mettle in battle, so the guild can more accurately assess the threat level they're capable of handling). Start small and work your way up to big and dangerous game. Put a time limit on it for added difficulty and include a pretty shiny at the end that makes it worth their while. I generally make the shiny reward a bit better than what they're used to getting, so they're more tempted to do it, but it is still optional. And because it's a guild that has many chapters spread across the world, I can set them up in every important city they happen to go to. And if they ever get tired of all the killing and just want to do something fun and lighthearted, have the next town they go to hold a festival of some kind. Or maybe a fair or circus came to town. Throw in some minigames and watch your party have fun. Rewards for this would be minor, since you'd mostly be playing for the nice change of pace and a different atmosphere, but you can get very creative with this too. Hold several events in the fair: Archery contest, apple bobbing, pie eating, barrel rolling, arm wrestling, make your own potion stands where they pick their own ingredients from a list of approved items (so nobody gets poisoned by accident) and see what kind of potion comes out when you mix them together, fortune telling. You know the deal. They can be a fun distraction thing for inbetween sessions too.
a couple of quest types i find quite interesting, although they understandably don't happen as often, are: Siege quests: The party is sent to assist in capturing and holding a location, such as a bandit camp. kind of similar to a fetch quest, but with its own limitations, such as the fact that the target cannot move, so the only option is to somehow eliminate the hostiles guarding it, which are likely to be numerous, but also likely not expecting to be under attack at their own home Defense quests: very similar, but from the other side: the party is sent to defend a location that is under attack, or expected to be under attack. somewhat similar to escort quests, but with the same limitations: the target cannot be moved. although this time, it potentially has the advantage of likely being able to set up your battle arena how you want, something that just does not happen for the players that often.
I used your Fey patron example as a mystery quest, one of the players hears some noise in the room of the inn keeper's daughter, the player investigates and discovers a woman squatted on the window frame, stealing some energy (dreams) from the daughters head, just before disappearing in a cloud of butterflies the player notice her face, she hadn't have a good night sleep in months...
I have had the problem with to many side quests where the players don't know what to do, partly because they don't want to miss any side quests, they want the items, gold, and so on and so the plot or main story has a few difficulties to move on, guess it's based on the players.
Giving players too much to do at once should probably be avoided. Lots of players can't handle more than 3 choices. We typically focus on 2 or 3 really detailed side quests at a time and see if our players bite.
have the Sidequest given to the adventurers be from the Evil Villian who is Plotting their Demise or trying to get them out of the picture, say to attack the town they are staying in.
That's a great point, @Master. B1-9 (old Mystara super combo of adventures) is a good example of your point: they provide 3 branches and even a flowchart (literally) in the module to make things extra clear.
If you have to come up on the spot with an idea for a side quest, you can always say the origin of the problem is in another city. This will let you delay the completion of the side quest (even while the players may actively solve it in a session, the existence of the problem may be known for some time), giving you enough time to create a quest and even add a bit of flavor when visiting other places. For instance, if the store is understocked, the owner may say "the caravans say X city is stockpiling, we don't know why". This will make the players debate about going to that city, and when they eventually go (even for other things, forgetting about the quest), you can say "you notice there are more trade caravans than normal" and when looking at the castle, barracks or other public buildings, "there are crates and barrels everywhere, and a general sense that something big's going to happen".
Creature count is a huge factor in long combat encounters. I ran an encounter with 30ish 1hp goblins. If your players dont have sleep or something its gonna be a slog.
This was very well done. Very useful insight, and referential info. I subbed and added this vid into my D&D worldbuilding playlist. When I get the time I'm excited to check out the entire channel. Thank You!
A lot of good stuff here! I personally make some side quests very long, but only allow leads to be given in pieces as they progress the main quest. That way what they have access to may last a session or two, but won’t be fully completed for a quite some time as they piece together more of the story every few sessions. These side stories usually aren’t directly connected to the main plot, but I often use them to help develop a PC backstory and development if it isn’t connected to the main story already. I also tend to make them potentially as lethal as the main quest. My players love that though and it may not be for every table.
What about backstory related side Quest? To be specific, I’m talking about something similar to paralogues and Gaiden chapters in fire emblem, a side Quest focused on a certain character or item, meant to wrap up a character or elaborate on some lore that might otherwise feel a little forced, which could work once you reach the late to endgame of a longer campaign, like maybe a character out for revenge finally finds the person responsible or the party learns about a weapon or item that could make the final few sessions a little easier or allow the party to possibly achieve a Different outcome than They May have expected.
What you describe is the "Lore Quest", where the purpose of the quest is to reveal information that adds depth to the game world, and even the main plot. Flashbacks and PC backstory resolutions are common tropes that go along with "Lore Quests".
I love using side quests to add lore or context to people, places, or things or even add optional knowledge to the main quest. Further understanding as to why someone is doung something may open a path that the players had never considered.
Personally, I always get very invested in the main plot, especially because lately, most of my games have been about world ending events or immediate problems that have to solved, and I find in these cases that side quests are hard to make and go through, because us (the players) feel like there is something urgent we have to do first and we don't have time to deviate from the main campaign, lest the world end or the npc we have to save be killed.
That's a great point. Couldn't the DM, in that case, make a result / outcome / deliverable / learning / item of the side quest help (maybe a lot!) save the NPC's life (the NPC from the main quest)? For instance, as a result of the side quest (which one might argue would no longer be so "side" anymore), the party nowv has allies or a new means of transportation or new items (or any combination of those) which would make them faster, more powerful, knowledgeable, and, therefore, more likely to save the main plot NPC or prevent the end of the world. How about that?
Is "escape/infiltrate" a quest type, such as breaking out of jail or sneaking into an enemy's castle? Or is that simply a method of achieving the goal rather than the goal itself?
Good point! In B1-9 there is a prison escape adventure. The adventures had been captured in the previous adventure. I hope you can find food for thought there.
We had a side quest in my first campaign that was really cute and fun. It was a two-parter split into two days. We needed to go kill a giant that was taking livestock from the town. As an Alchemist I came up with the idea of putting it to sleep so we could execute it while it slumbers. I needed some particular herbs to do so know and considering the size of the giant I needed plenty of ingredients. The mayor of the town enlisted some children who spent their free time roaming the country side to look for the ingredients, because they were important to the plot I lied and said if they picked the herbs they would die, just mark the location so the experts can handle it. In reality the children were in no danger. They ran about playing and gathered the various locations of the herbs I needed. I spent the rest of that session gathering up materials to finish the concoction. The rest of the party got gear ready and consulted with the rest of the town for the rituals they use to appease the giant. The next day (and session) we reconvened and planned to let the children have some fun while they guide us to the location. We traveled far distances using a magical canoe (long story) so we asked the rogue if they had any pirate stuffs in their disguise kit. We dressed up like pirates and the kids were excited to see a real pirate ship! Brought them aboard and we sailed the high seas of the green grasslands to the destinations of the herbs. I taught them how to properly gather the herbs (after all you can have fun education). Getting all of the marked herbs took the majority of the day. I spent the night brewing the sleeping agent and we used the carcass from a yeti (found in a separate side quest stored in out bag of holding) as the tribute for the giant and the delivery device for the sleep poison. We hauled it off to the giant's lair and hid. The giant took the bait and miraculously (by 3 points) failed the CON save. Now that the giant was asleep we moved in to attack. The wizard had an idea to use the giant axe heads we took from a swinging axe trap we destroyed back in a different dungeon (my party was a bunch of hoarders) and wanted to let gravity do the work. As an alchemist artificier I happened to know the Enlarge/Reduce spell. I enlarged the axe head while the wizard holding onto it used fly three times, went into the sky 90 feet and dropped it onto the giant. With rather lucky rolls it managed to hit, crit, surprise and one shot the giant. I was expecting a decapitation but the DM had it explode all over the local area. The axe head was badly bent and lodged into the cliff face due to the force of the explosion while the rogue and I were coated in giant blood and guts. Really fun side quest we had especially since it was our first campaign.
When managing the flow of improv / combat while in a side quest, remember that your players are doing this specifically to take a break - if they wanted to rush from A to B, they'd be doing the main plot. So, allow tangents and diversions and generally a moderate shift in tone from your "main campaign" settings. This can be humorous, but it doesn't have to be - they can be mysterious, or even scary, as the "token zombie episode" of any adventure TV show will demonstrate.
Sidequests are a menace.If the main plot doesn't have enough urgency to make people bypass Sidequests then it isn't important enough. Sidequests must be linked to The main quest and serve to advance it. Player walking in to their own Sidequests is the ideal, that means they are motivated to do things on their own initiative. Lost a pot? Lady, we're hunting the Dragon that threatens the land, we have no time for such trivia.
Missed category; the "Tower Defense" quest, where PCs need to defend a stationary location from attackers. For instance, during downtime in my Iron Gods campaign for Pathfinder, the PCs had to defend the town of Torch from a raid of Technic League enforcers after one of the PCs beat the life out of their tax collectors.
Capture quest. In my dnd home brew world. I have a trader who likes to find and domesticate monsters. So he has them either capture one or steal an egg… so in all I guess a fetch quest but more to it
Though side plots can feel a bit filler if they are not given the same care in their crafting that the rest of the game can, it is typically a good idea to have a few generic side quest that can be easily socketed in when needed; easily repaintable to fit any scenario. Also never be afraid to tell your players you don't have something planned, the players aren't going to fault you for stopping the game and saying "So I don't have anything exciting for you guys, so if this is something that interest you, can we just skip this scene and continue on; then next session do a quick montage of you preparing to head out and remembering the job." You can also there then work out the details of what the players want to do, like if they want to fight monsters or just explore; maybe have the bard roll charisma right there before everyone leaves for the day to see if he manages to up the reward. Players can have a lot of fun if you occasionally let them behind the curtain and play around in the workshop (also makes your work easier)
I was about to say the 8th type of quest is intel quests where you go gather information. Then I realized it is a fetch quest that the players have to remember the item instead of listing an actual item on a sheet
I am a strong believer in getting more XP and rewards from completing quests than in defeating enemies. It should be around 60/40. Getting a large XP for completing a quest and getting that shiny new artifact/armor/weapon/renown keeps players interested in doing side quests.
Fantastic video. I am curious about...dangerous side quests, though. Is that different enough to be not a side quest? An ancient red dragon, potentially nastier than the BBEG, who is an option to be dealt with by the PCs? Or something like the Weapon superbosses from FF7. Entirely optional, but kill them to get a bigger boost for when confronting the BBEG (in the form of gear).
I feel like side quests should feel as realistic and involved as the main quest, regardless of the game im playing, say if i get tasked with figuring out the grave robberies in a town and i just ignore it for the sake of chasing squirrels or whatever, the next time i get to that city it should be overrun with undead. This makes the world feel more alive, because the necromancer wont stop his plot to take the city just because the guys that should stop him failed to arrive on schedule.
So, I'm not as experienced in this idea, but would like opinions on the thought: using a side quest as a way to spend a session when a player can't make it, rather than pushing forward with the main quest without them. Specifically, if the story is in mid-action and the next week a player has to bow out (and it isn't going to be an ongoing absence), have the remaining players play a one session side quest that is in a "flashback" of sorts to when they group had downtime and have this be separate from the main story but with possible future story potential. I think this can work as long as the rewards are minimal so the missing player doesn't get slighted and doesn't alter the current ongoing story (no leveling up, adding new items to a fight mid-way through, hold major reveals or rewards). Am I off on this idea or is it an idea I can add to my tool box in the future?
I am confused what a lore quest is. Wouldn’t lore be something you would get in drips and drabs from any quest? What makes a lore quest different from the other 6? Do you or anyone have an example? I would love to learn this!
See the problem with so many Dms nowadays is they think there is a main quest. There isn't. Let your world be explored by the players. They will show you what they like. Let the world react to what your players are doing.
@burneraccount zombie invasion? haha, no. That is a Mary Sue DM Let the players explore the world and allow the world to react to the players. Forcing the players to react to your zombie invasion is the direct opposite of that.
@burneraccount If that's the case, there is zero way *a* group of adventures are going to be able to overcome all the necromancers in the world all working as one..🙄 Congratulations you destroyed your own campaign before it even started.🙄 What you seem to misunderstand is while the world is a living breathing entity. There is no main quest to do. Do you have dozens of "world ending things" all happening at the same time?
@burneraccount Yawn. World altering threats are not needed to have an awesome campaign. World Altering Threat campaigns are never about the players and their characters. What they are about is the DM and their supposedly 'awesome' campaign. I found out a long time ago that players remembrance of a campaign vs to the DMs remembrance are completely different. The players never get to see the complete picture, unless at the end the DM blurts everything out. Since they can't see the big picture what they see is the short chunks of actual play... Think about that for a minute. Once you understand that, these supposed World-Altering Threat campaign become nothing more than what they truly are DM Mary Sue campaigns. I run my 'campaigns' in short chunks of 3-12 sessions. Each chunk has a definite conclusion. Allowing players a sense of accomplishment if they choose no to continue the 'campaign'.
@burneraccount Minority? And you would know this how? You know what I bet you still use XP. If you want epic fantasy why in the world are you playing D&D for? The are plenty of other systems out there that do epic fantasy way better. What you are running are Mary Sue campaigns. You can plop 4-6 new players or characters every session and not miss a beat, because the characters and/or players are not important to the Mary Sue Campaign.
@burneraccount This seems a stark contrast to your disagreement with my assertion that there is no main quest. Never force players to play *your* campaign. That doesn't mean you as DM cannot put constraints on what you are willing to run.
A player can't make a session? Their character has fallen into a coma/sick... Sides quest... Something to save them before it's too late...I see at least 3 of the list that could be used.
Dose romance/friendship count? Because one of my players wants to get to know one of my npcs that they help them a lot and repay them with kindness. The reward is like how you get certain boon with that particular partner in fallout 4 games. Since half of my players like dating simulator games
My players recently took out the BBEG (2 years after the game started), the story is not over yet though because the BBEG will resurrect after a certain amount of time, now that the group has been persuing main story stuff for so long, what kind of other adventures can I introduce before the BBEG story gets started again? The group has been so focused on the BBEG I feel like I have forgotten how to run different types of encounters. I do have some character background story arcs I could get into but I do not know what to do in between that. Any advice is appreciated and this vid definitely gave me a good set of guidelines, really glad I found this channel.
I run a living world style of campaign and thus there are no 'side quests' in the normal sense. There are a lot of small jobs that have only minor effects on the world, but even they change the landscape in small ways. Because I tend towards world building as my main interest, I have many different quests and small jobs just lying around and waiting to be discovered. Since the quests themselves are based on the world itself and not the party, there is no reason to scale them. Larger and harder quests tend to have stories told about them, Wyvern Peak is famous for the stories of a giant wyvern queen at the top for instance. This is a quest that involve wyverns no matter what level the party is, if they go too soon they will likely die, too late and it will not be a challenge. The key is having your rumours and stories floating around and letting the PCs decide what they wish to try. The major disadvantage is the amount of prep work involved for this, I like that sort of thing but many DMs do not. I see my world as a place where I can reuse everything for other groups and have multiple campaigns go in different directions based on player preference. Because I will be using many things multiple times I don't feel the work is wasted. For a more basic approach that other DMs can use I suggest creating side quest templates. What I mean by that is have a map, have an encounter style for the map but when populating it do so 3-5 times with different levels of challenges. An example would be a cave system. Lay it out as a populated base for an organised group and then you can populate it with things like Goblins/Kobolds for low levels, replace them with Bandits/Orcs/Hobgoblins for mid-low levels, go up to Gnolls/Bugbears/hidden military unit for mid levels. Not all organised groups will be humanoid of course, making the cave system a Wolf/Bear/other social animal den is another choice. Now your 1 map and side quest can be used at multiple stages of the game where it seems right and should your PCs pass it up the first time, it can still be used later. I would not recommend reusing the same template too often as the players will notice if you do, but having 5-10 templates ready to go gives you side quest options for the entire campaign. Some types of encounters can be reused and it's fine if they seem similar. Merchant escorts for instance are likely to be the same no matter the level with only the dangers being different and the players will expect them to be, so reuse with impunity.
This channel is very underrated.
It will grow with time. Time is good
More like on the rise
Agreed
Underrated is an understatement
I've been playing (after a decade long hiatus) for eighteen months. Just found this channel last week and I've been binging. Great content.
Search and Rescue Quest: an NPC has been taken, or has gotten trapped or lost, and the party is required to go rescue said NPC. Can include elements of mystery.
Mystery -> fetch -> escort
This channel condenses stuff into a few minutes that would take other channels half an hour to explain
All killer, no filler.
One of my favorite "quests" to give my players is sort of a variant of the "solve a mystery" - I like to make my players go EXPLORE something with the added task of writing down what they find. As a kid I always thought being an explorer would be really cool, so now I make my players do that lol.
I just sent them on a mission for a mercenary group who wants to set up a new outpost in the desert but who doesn't have time/capacity to send their own guys to go scout a good location. My players took mapmaking supplies, mapped out the desert, located a tall mesa with natural fluting/tunnels and vegetation around it (indicating water), and they even discovered what monsters were located there and recorded their numbers. They even found a secret broken-down supply road that the mercs could use to keep their traveling low-key.
They reported back all their findings to the group and the merc leader was so impressed he tipped them extra and asked them to help with he initial clearing of the monsters and laying out construction of the base.
Of course, my players are... duplicitous. So if they DO end up doing that, they'll probably also sell the base's blueprints to a rival merc group or the thieves' guild as pretty premium information. But it was a cool quest, and it gave everyone a chance to show off their skills a little even though the combat was super minimal.
I feel like sidequests are the perfect time to give out unique abilities. Something more meaningful than gold but not as powerful as a level up. In a campaign I play my monk character revisited his monastery, and with his thief rogue abilities he managed to give the grandmaster a run for her money when it came to bouncing across the monastery during a test of what he had learned since leaving.
Because of that, my DM gave him a small skill. It lets him add his wisdom modifier to his initiative and he gets a 10ft boost to movement speed at the start of combat. Something movement related to match my clever use of Second Story Work to keep up with a much higher level monk. The warlock gained deeper insight to her patron thanks to the monastery's archives, our ranger and her panther honed their tracking skills even more by helping the students search the surrounding area for dangers, etc.
Sounds amazing and compelling!
One creative side quest my players liked is a guarding quest. Similar-ish to the escort quest, my players needed to act as security for a tavern during a special event. My players enjoyed it a lot as they acted as cliche body guards with ear pieces in communicating to each other. Lots of fun and lots of laughs with some good action too.
One thing that made this side quest particularly difficult is that there were people attempting to crash the party, but the players had to shut them down without causing a huge scene, thereby ruining the event.
5:37 - THERE'S A MISSING DOG, STOP THE PLOT, WE HAVE TO HELP.
I'm very glad to have found Master the Dungeon! Each video I've watched has had excellent ideas and concepts to aid in DMing. Keep up the excellent work!
Welcome to the channel, we're happy to have you!
Capture Quest: the party are sent to deal with a bounty, but the target is needed alive.
Version of Kill
@@Jeffs40K Nah, version of fetch
@@sinisternorimaki nah version of kill and fetch
Fetch and Escort
Fetch -> Kill (self-interrupted) -> Escort
There is this one campaign
_(that I'm getting back to it with my players after the biggest hiatus and the most outrageous retcon)_
where I've spent most of my energy trying to boot the characters out of the city.
They however sunk their "mind-teeth" into a possibly devil infested mine sidequest I threw to kill time.
If I had my share of experience then, I'd probably assign some narrative technique that would require them to leave the city after dealing with the rumours, if that was still my objective.
And that's where good NPCs come into play. They're wonderful quest givers and lots of players will literally go to the ends of the earth to help them.
@@masterthedungeon Yes! Interesting and memorable NPCs are the flavor of a quest or campaign.
Remember, PC actions (or inaction) have consequences. As they complete local objectives and gain power (or levels), things can tend to become pastoral or even boring. As the DM, you have the power to move the party's cheese 🧀.
They go to sleep and when they wake there far away if they return the city is locked down with Plague or has Vanished.
@@Jeffs40K that would annoy them. They have to leave voluntarily. Hear this, the mines have a second exit to the other side of the mountain, there is a demon infested fortress there, the source of the infestation. They will have to climb up the fortress and through an open portal and culminate this with an epic boss fight in hell itself. This is now an invasion of hell and the fortress is their hub.
An 8th category could be when a business owner hires the party to sabotage a rival - setting fire to his shop, framing him for a crime, etc. It would be sort of the opposite of solving a mystery.
Push-the-Button
There's also the bakery quest, where the players just decide to set up a bakery :P
Though I guess it could also be described as a series of small fetch and/or delivery quests
Defend quest: a location is about to get atacked by something and you need to prepare
As an aside, I'd like to bring up Matt Coleville's Downtime Video, where he goes into hiatuses from D&D and each player having their own adventures adjacent to the plot. This is always a way to do sidequests!
Can't get the whole group together? Do a sidequest!
Hanging out with part of the group doing something else and feel like playing a little D&D? Sidequest!
Find a really neat looking one-shot adventure and just want to run through it with a friend you have over? Sidequest it! Give 'em a sidequest sidekick!
Coleville is bae.
Amping up CR on side quests can be good as well though: PCs are generally more willing to run away from optional content if it gets too difficult. You can play more of the risk/reward aspect of choosing how far to delve into the "dungeon" rather than assuming they have to complete everything.
Escape quests. Leave the place you are in, while something tries to stop you.
I found your channel by chance, but I absolutely love your smooth delivery, punchy advice, and minimalist animation style.
It all comes together to create a uniquely easy-to-follow experience that's just a joy to engage with. Thanks for all your hard work!
I think side quests are a great idea to present when game day comes and one or two (Or more in some cases) people can't show up, and a weakened party really can't continue with the main story (Too dangerous for a boss fight, or something like that). But those who did show up really want to play, those smaller scoped game ideas are now front and center in my book.
Yeah, in my group (lvl4) we got 1 paladin, 2 warlocks, 1 barbarian, 1 monk, 1 cleric/fighter and 1 wizard. We ended our last session at the doors to the mid campaign boss and by the next sessions (with zero heads up) only the Barbarian, 1 warlock and the wizard.
The warlock had pretty low base HP (18 total) and had to reclass into a ranged warlock, the Wizard being the class cannon but without the cannon all his dmg spells are cantrips and just about everything else is a utility spell (I'm surprised he still lives), and the Barbarian was very stonky but also a dmg spung since he went totom warrior and found a ring that reduces all dmg(but psychic) by half, so as long as he's raging he takes 1/4 of the dng. Very useful.
I ended up throwing a magic ward that stopped them from continuing, so they had to explore to find the source of the ward to disenchant.
I agree with most of what was said. The partial railroading main story is still railroading
Instead create several overarching timelines.
You can also have defend quests. Protect a person or object against an invading force. The fail condition is the item or person being captured or destroyed. Killing all attackers isn't necessary, as you can hide the goal or create impassible terrain like, destroying the only bridge to town.
Great stuff as always. Thank you!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
One thing I would do is to make are multi-act quests, where you unlock more of the side quest after you complete more of the main story. For example:
Act 1- A Merchant approaches the party asking for help clearing out a mine of bandits they recently acquired for a good deal, and in compensation they will be made partners in the mine (or maybe given the controlling amount of shares of the mine if they manage to convince the Merchant) and will acquire some money during downtime.
Act 2- After completing more of the main quest the Merchant will contact the players and say that some creatures from a cavern they broke into have taken over the mine and that they need help clearing it out so the miners will return to work. After they clear it out they may find an ancient temple which will increase passive income as you'll be having people investing in the mine to study the temple.
Act 3- after a while loner the Merchant contacts the players telling them that the scholars have discovered a passage into the temple and they request your presence to help with the investigation into the unknown depths of the structure. This is where you'd have your big final boss for the side quest, perhapse a dragon or something else that when the players defeat will increase the renown of the mine increasing investors and will also get some good loot at the end as well.
I'm a new DM, or I feel like one at least. I've been doing it for 2 or 3 years but we meet infrequently and I've only run modules so far. However my intention has always been to transition to a homebrew world when A) we ran out of content we were interested in, and B) my players and I were experienced enough with the system and game design to do it ourselves. I would say that this channel is my favorite resource for trying to figure out how to actually run my campaign. It breaks material down into manageable chunks, the examples are clear but nonspecific enough to be widely applicable, and it gives me a lot of inspiration. Because of how well defined each topic is brought up in the video too, it's very easy to jot down notes on what the basic points were for if I want to look at it later.
It's really helpful to use a mixture of stuff like this, and other media. It's like instructions on how to make something from scratch, vs reverse engineering. Examining why I like (or don't like!) certain pieces of media or plot beats is really helpful. I'm very comfortable with stories, but less so with mechanics and game design, so looking at more interactive media like video games is also really helpful for me, asking myself why a certain game was fun. For instance, I know I struggle to get really engaged in a game if it doesn't have a great story and a lot of lore, but I also have been looking at combat and exploration and such. For instance, I really like how the Legend of Zelda series does combat (I'm mostly talking pre BotW, like from OOT to SS). While you *can* just whale on enemies, typically every opponent has a trick. You get more powerful weapons, typically, but you also gain experience in terms of knowledge, like 'oh my sword isn't effective against this enemy' or 'I have to get it to drop its guard to expose a weak point and bombs or fire is great for that' or 'I have to hit all three heads at once or else it won't die'. And how enemies that were initially bosses or mini bosses eventually just became stronger normal enemies (like lizalfos in Skyward Sword), because it showed really well how you'd increased in strength and skill both.
I also really liked the note about lessening the enemy count. I was the first DM at our table, but we have another DM too so we can both get to be both DMs and players. The way their book does encounters is baffling. The enemy headcount is radiant based on how many players are in the party, which has led to us having like 30 enemies sometimes (5 per player plus 5, in one case). I feel like if the book wanted to give a break to smaller parties by decreasing enemy count, that's fine, but I feel like instead of adding more enemies to up the CR, they should've added one or two heavy hitters instead. My book just has fixed encounters and it's much quicker and snappier, not to mention a huge relief for the DM's workload. It also keeps players more engaged. My party would way rather fight like... 4 goblins and two ogres, than they would 15 goblins (idk if that CR is equivalent, but you get my example). They're going to see 15 goblins as a chore and the combat will take approximately one eternity. They're going to see two ogres as a threat and have to choose whether to target the big dangerous melee enemies, or the scattered weaker enemies harrying them from afar with arrows. It introduces more variety, and it feels more suspense filled and dangerous. It forces them to work as a team and prioritize. At higher levels, when they have stuff like multiple attacks per turn or great AOE, I can see putting in a larger number of weaker enemies and running them like a swarm to make large scale combat a little easier. So keeping the scale of enemies smaller for brief side quests is great advice.
How's your homebrew coming along?
Also if you like this content I'd recommend angrygm blog. It's all about how to dm well, whether it's homebrew or modules
Something I like to throw in as a sidequest thing is a Monster Hunter type guild. A guild that the party is free to visit at any time of their choosing that will assign them a bounty to undertake (after they have proven their mettle in battle, so the guild can more accurately assess the threat level they're capable of handling). Start small and work your way up to big and dangerous game. Put a time limit on it for added difficulty and include a pretty shiny at the end that makes it worth their while. I generally make the shiny reward a bit better than what they're used to getting, so they're more tempted to do it, but it is still optional. And because it's a guild that has many chapters spread across the world, I can set them up in every important city they happen to go to.
And if they ever get tired of all the killing and just want to do something fun and lighthearted, have the next town they go to hold a festival of some kind. Or maybe a fair or circus came to town. Throw in some minigames and watch your party have fun. Rewards for this would be minor, since you'd mostly be playing for the nice change of pace and a different atmosphere, but you can get very creative with this too. Hold several events in the fair: Archery contest, apple bobbing, pie eating, barrel rolling, arm wrestling, make your own potion stands where they pick their own ingredients from a list of approved items (so nobody gets poisoned by accident) and see what kind of potion comes out when you mix them together, fortune telling. You know the deal. They can be a fun distraction thing for inbetween sessions too.
I think this channel is one of the most useful I found
a couple of quest types i find quite interesting, although they understandably don't happen as often, are:
Siege quests: The party is sent to assist in capturing and holding a location, such as a bandit camp. kind of similar to a fetch quest, but with its own limitations, such as the fact that the target cannot move, so the only option is to somehow eliminate the hostiles guarding it, which are likely to be numerous, but also likely not expecting to be under attack at their own home
Defense quests: very similar, but from the other side: the party is sent to defend a location that is under attack, or expected to be under attack. somewhat similar to escort quests, but with the same limitations: the target cannot be moved. although this time, it potentially has the advantage of likely being able to set up your battle arena how you want, something that just does not happen for the players that often.
I like your ideas!
"The Dungeon Minister" YT channel has a couple of videos on your second idea.
I used your Fey patron example as a mystery quest, one of the players hears some noise in the room of the inn keeper's daughter, the player investigates and discovers a woman squatted on the window frame, stealing some energy (dreams) from the daughters head, just before disappearing in a cloud of butterflies the player notice her face, she hadn't have a good night sleep in months...
Love how you made it your own! The butterflies sound like a beautiful touch.
I have had the problem with to many side quests where the players don't know what to do, partly because they don't want to miss any side quests, they want the items, gold, and so on and so the plot or main story has a few difficulties to move on, guess it's based on the players.
Giving players too much to do at once should probably be avoided. Lots of players can't handle more than 3 choices. We typically focus on 2 or 3 really detailed side quests at a time and see if our players bite.
have the Sidequest given to the adventurers be from the Evil Villian who is Plotting their Demise or trying to get them out of the picture, say to attack the town they are staying in.
That's a great point, @Master. B1-9 (old Mystara super combo of adventures) is a good example of your point: they provide 3 branches and even a flowchart (literally) in the module to make things extra clear.
If you have to come up on the spot with an idea for a side quest, you can always say the origin of the problem is in another city. This will let you delay the completion of the side quest (even while the players may actively solve it in a session, the existence of the problem may be known for some time), giving you enough time to create a quest and even add a bit of flavor when visiting other places.
For instance, if the store is understocked, the owner may say "the caravans say X city is stockpiling, we don't know why". This will make the players debate about going to that city, and when they eventually go (even for other things, forgetting about the quest), you can say "you notice there are more trade caravans than normal" and when looking at the castle, barracks or other public buildings, "there are crates and barrels everywhere, and a general sense that something big's going to happen".
This is the first video of yours Ive found and have to say, you Ma'am have earned a subscriber
Creature count is a huge factor in long combat encounters. I ran an encounter with 30ish 1hp goblins. If your players dont have sleep or something its gonna be a slog.
or fireball ❤
This was very well done. Very useful insight, and referential info. I subbed and added this vid into my D&D worldbuilding playlist. When I get the time I'm excited to check out the entire channel. Thank You!
A lot of good stuff here!
I personally make some side quests very long, but only allow leads to be given in pieces as they progress the main quest. That way what they have access to may last a session or two, but won’t be fully completed for a quite some time as they piece together more of the story every few sessions. These side stories usually aren’t directly connected to the main plot, but I often use them to help develop a PC backstory and development if it isn’t connected to the main story already. I also tend to make them potentially as lethal as the main quest. My players love that though and it may not be for every table.
Oh my god; I’m so glad I stumbled upon your channel!! Love the videos :)
What about backstory related side Quest? To be specific, I’m talking about something similar to paralogues and Gaiden chapters in fire emblem, a side Quest focused on a certain character or item, meant to wrap up a character or elaborate on some lore that might otherwise feel a little forced, which could work once you reach the late to endgame of a longer campaign, like maybe a character out for revenge finally finds the person responsible or the party learns about a weapon or item that could make the final few sessions a little easier or allow the party to possibly achieve a Different outcome than They May have expected.
What you describe is the "Lore Quest", where the purpose of the quest is to reveal information that adds depth to the game world, and even the main plot. Flashbacks and PC backstory resolutions are common tropes that go along with "Lore Quests".
In my campaign, every action they take effects the ending including side quests
I love how you explain things!
It's 2023 this creator is awesome
Thanks for the video. I like these ideas and always a fan of aide quests
I love using side quests to add lore or context to people, places, or things or even add optional knowledge to the main quest. Further understanding as to why someone is doung something may open a path that the players had never considered.
Excellent, thank you
Personally, I always get very invested in the main plot, especially because lately, most of my games have been about world ending events or immediate problems that have to solved, and I find in these cases that side quests are hard to make and go through, because us (the players) feel like there is something urgent we have to do first and we don't have time to deviate from the main campaign, lest the world end or the npc we have to save be killed.
That's a great point. Couldn't the DM, in that case, make a result / outcome / deliverable / learning / item of the side quest help (maybe a lot!) save the NPC's life (the NPC from the main quest)?
For instance, as a result of the side quest (which one might argue would no longer be so "side" anymore), the party nowv has allies or a new means of transportation or new items (or any combination of those) which would make them faster, more powerful, knowledgeable, and, therefore, more likely to save the main plot NPC or prevent the end of the world. How about that?
Sounds like an issue to be discussed with the DM and the group.
Also, who is to say that a side quest is unrelated to the main plot?
I like side quests that provide even more depth to the main story. Like the witcher. That serve not just a loot or rank upgrade.
as a dm i once had a side quest to wake up a sleeping giant
Is "escape/infiltrate" a quest type, such as breaking out of jail or sneaking into an enemy's castle? Or is that simply a method of achieving the goal rather than the goal itself?
Good point!
In B1-9 there is a prison escape adventure. The adventures had been captured in the previous adventure.
I hope you can find food for thought there.
Give us videos on all of these seven types of quests!!!! Please!
We had a side quest in my first campaign that was really cute and fun. It was a two-parter split into two days. We needed to go kill a giant that was taking livestock from the town. As an Alchemist I came up with the idea of putting it to sleep so we could execute it while it slumbers. I needed some particular herbs to do so know and considering the size of the giant I needed plenty of ingredients. The mayor of the town enlisted some children who spent their free time roaming the country side to look for the ingredients, because they were important to the plot I lied and said if they picked the herbs they would die, just mark the location so the experts can handle it. In reality the children were in no danger. They ran about playing and gathered the various locations of the herbs I needed. I spent the rest of that session gathering up materials to finish the concoction. The rest of the party got gear ready and consulted with the rest of the town for the rituals they use to appease the giant.
The next day (and session) we reconvened and planned to let the children have some fun while they guide us to the location. We traveled far distances using a magical canoe (long story) so we asked the rogue if they had any pirate stuffs in their disguise kit. We dressed up like pirates and the kids were excited to see a real pirate ship! Brought them aboard and we sailed the high seas of the green grasslands to the destinations of the herbs. I taught them how to properly gather the herbs (after all you can have fun education). Getting all of the marked herbs took the majority of the day. I spent the night brewing the sleeping agent and we used the carcass from a yeti (found in a separate side quest stored in out bag of holding) as the tribute for the giant and the delivery device for the sleep poison. We hauled it off to the giant's lair and hid. The giant took the bait and miraculously (by 3 points) failed the CON save.
Now that the giant was asleep we moved in to attack. The wizard had an idea to use the giant axe heads we took from a swinging axe trap we destroyed back in a different dungeon (my party was a bunch of hoarders) and wanted to let gravity do the work. As an alchemist artificier I happened to know the Enlarge/Reduce spell. I enlarged the axe head while the wizard holding onto it used fly three times, went into the sky 90 feet and dropped it onto the giant. With rather lucky rolls it managed to hit, crit, surprise and one shot the giant. I was expecting a decapitation but the DM had it explode all over the local area. The axe head was badly bent and lodged into the cliff face due to the force of the explosion while the rogue and I were coated in giant blood and guts. Really fun side quest we had especially since it was our first campaign.
This has helped me loads, thanks so much ❤
Excellent video: the content, narration, also great visually. Thanks and congrats! 😀
Thanks for the content.
When managing the flow of improv / combat while in a side quest, remember that your players are doing this specifically to take a break - if they wanted to rush from A to B, they'd be doing the main plot. So, allow tangents and diversions and generally a moderate shift in tone from your "main campaign" settings. This can be humorous, but it doesn't have to be - they can be mysterious, or even scary, as the "token zombie episode" of any adventure TV show will demonstrate.
Thankyou for your work. Love your channel.
Sidequests are a menace.If the main plot doesn't have enough urgency to make people bypass Sidequests then it isn't important enough.
Sidequests must be linked to The main quest and serve to advance it.
Player walking in to their own Sidequests is the ideal, that means they are motivated to do things on their own initiative.
Lost a pot? Lady, we're hunting the Dragon that threatens the land, we have no time for such trivia.
What type of side quest would you consider a murder mystery?
Missed category; the "Tower Defense" quest, where PCs need to defend a stationary location from attackers. For instance, during downtime in my Iron Gods campaign for Pathfinder, the PCs had to defend the town of Torch from a raid of Technic League enforcers after one of the PCs beat the life out of their tax collectors.
I love it but I wish the background music was quieter
Capture quest. In my dnd home brew world. I have a trader who likes to find and domesticate monsters. So he has them either capture one or steal an egg… so in all I guess a fetch quest but more to it
Though side plots can feel a bit filler if they are not given the same care in their crafting that the rest of the game can, it is typically a good idea to have a few generic side quest that can be easily socketed in when needed; easily repaintable to fit any scenario.
Also never be afraid to tell your players you don't have something planned, the players aren't going to fault you for stopping the game and saying "So I don't have anything exciting for you guys, so if this is something that interest you, can we just skip this scene and continue on; then next session do a quick montage of you preparing to head out and remembering the job."
You can also there then work out the details of what the players want to do, like if they want to fight monsters or just explore; maybe have the bard roll charisma right there before everyone leaves for the day to see if he manages to up the reward. Players can have a lot of fun if you occasionally let them behind the curtain and play around in the workshop (also makes your work easier)
I was about to say the 8th type of quest is intel quests where you go gather information. Then I realized it is a fetch quest that the players have to remember the item instead of listing an actual item on a sheet
Mystery Quest: A countess has been drowned in the same well as her mother and grandmother. The only clue found was a card from a Gypsy’s tarot deck.
Hey, cool video! I wonder, what's the name of the waltz music used in the background? Thanks~
I hope the kids from 6:30 are okay.
I need more info on a "push the button" kind of quest. It's hard to apply it to any other scenarios than the one you mentioned.
Use a side quest to get the party to look at or investigate a minor NPC that leads back to the main plot.
I am a strong believer in getting more XP and rewards from completing quests than in defeating enemies. It should be around 60/40. Getting a large XP for completing a quest and getting that shiny new artifact/armor/weapon/renown keeps players interested in doing side quests.
Fantastic video. I am curious about...dangerous side quests, though. Is that different enough to be not a side quest? An ancient red dragon, potentially nastier than the BBEG, who is an option to be dealt with by the PCs? Or something like the Weapon superbosses from FF7. Entirely optional, but kill them to get a bigger boost for when confronting the BBEG (in the form of gear).
What about survive quests? The can be considered a limited escort quest.
Befriend the bloodrager: when you originally was sent to kill him.
I feel like side quests should feel as realistic and involved as the main quest, regardless of the game im playing, say if i get tasked with figuring out the grave robberies in a town and i just ignore it for the sake of chasing squirrels or whatever, the next time i get to that city it should be overrun with undead.
This makes the world feel more alive, because the necromancer wont stop his plot to take the city just because the guys that should stop him failed to arrive on schedule.
So, I'm not as experienced in this idea, but would like opinions on the thought: using a side quest as a way to spend a session when a player can't make it, rather than pushing forward with the main quest without them. Specifically, if the story is in mid-action and the next week a player has to bow out (and it isn't going to be an ongoing absence), have the remaining players play a one session side quest that is in a "flashback" of sorts to when they group had downtime and have this be separate from the main story but with possible future story potential. I think this can work as long as the rewards are minimal so the missing player doesn't get slighted and doesn't alter the current ongoing story (no leveling up, adding new items to a fight mid-way through, hold major reveals or rewards).
Am I off on this idea or is it an idea I can add to my tool box in the future?
Couple of quest Types you missed, diplomatic quest, intrigue quests, deception based quests
Ahh helpfull
I don't start with a main plot line. My game tends to be all side quests or one shot adventures. A plot and a big bad might develop over time.
Nothing is a side quest if there is no main plot!
Love ur content, hey im making an open world campaign, could you give me some tips?
What is an example of how a Lore Quest might go?
I'm good at starting and improvising on the spot,, buy ending something is difficult for me
I am confused what a lore quest is. Wouldn’t lore be something you would get in drips and drabs from any quest? What makes a lore quest different from the other 6? Do you or anyone have an example? I would love to learn this!
Could I ask what the song at the beginning is called? •v•
Squirrel!
2:00 what is that music in background
Background music??
Location quest. Go find a hidden Location or missing person
backstory quests
See the problem with so many Dms nowadays is they think there is a main quest.
There isn't.
Let your world be explored by the players. They will show you what they like.
Let the world react to what your players are doing.
@burneraccount zombie invasion? haha, no.
That is a Mary Sue DM
Let the players explore the world and allow the world to react to the players.
Forcing the players to react to your zombie invasion is the direct opposite of that.
@burneraccount If that's the case, there is zero way *a* group of adventures are going to be able to overcome all the necromancers in the world all working as one..🙄
Congratulations you destroyed your own campaign before it even started.🙄
What you seem to misunderstand is while the world is a living breathing entity. There is no main quest to do. Do you have dozens of "world ending things" all happening at the same time?
@burneraccount Yawn.
World altering threats are not needed to have an awesome campaign.
World Altering Threat campaigns are never about the players and their characters. What they are about is the DM and their supposedly 'awesome' campaign.
I found out a long time ago that players remembrance of a campaign vs to the DMs remembrance are completely different. The players never get to see the complete picture, unless at the end the DM blurts everything out. Since they can't see the big picture what they see is the short chunks of actual play... Think about that for a minute.
Once you understand that, these supposed World-Altering Threat campaign become nothing more than what they truly are DM Mary Sue campaigns.
I run my 'campaigns' in short chunks of 3-12 sessions. Each chunk has a definite conclusion. Allowing players a sense of accomplishment if they choose no to continue the 'campaign'.
@burneraccount Minority? And you would know this how?
You know what I bet you still use XP.
If you want epic fantasy why in the world are you playing D&D for? The are plenty of other systems out there that do epic fantasy way better.
What you are running are Mary Sue campaigns. You can plop 4-6 new players or characters every session and not miss a beat, because the characters and/or players are not important to the Mary Sue Campaign.
@burneraccount This seems a stark contrast to your disagreement with my assertion that there is no main quest.
Never force players to play *your* campaign.
That doesn't mean you as DM cannot put constraints on what you are willing to run.
A player can't make a session? Their character has fallen into a coma/sick... Sides quest... Something to save them before it's too late...I see at least 3 of the list that could be used.
I have 9 players help
Dose romance/friendship count? Because one of my players wants to get to know one of my npcs that they help them a lot and repay them with kindness. The reward is like how you get certain boon with that particular partner in fallout 4 games. Since half of my players like dating simulator games
it's not a sidequest, it's a date
My players recently took out the BBEG (2 years after the game started), the story is not over yet though because the BBEG will resurrect after a certain amount of time, now that the group has been persuing main story stuff for so long, what kind of other adventures can I introduce before the BBEG story gets started again? The group has been so focused on the BBEG I feel like I have forgotten how to run different types of encounters. I do have some character background story arcs I could get into but I do not know what to do in between that.
Any advice is appreciated and this vid definitely gave me a good set of guidelines, really glad I found this channel.
I run a living world style of campaign and thus there are no 'side quests' in the normal sense. There are a lot of small jobs that have only minor effects on the world, but even they change the landscape in small ways. Because I tend towards world building as my main interest, I have many different quests and small jobs just lying around and waiting to be discovered.
Since the quests themselves are based on the world itself and not the party, there is no reason to scale them. Larger and harder quests tend to have stories told about them, Wyvern Peak is famous for the stories of a giant wyvern queen at the top for instance. This is a quest that involve wyverns no matter what level the party is, if they go too soon they will likely die, too late and it will not be a challenge. The key is having your rumours and stories floating around and letting the PCs decide what they wish to try.
The major disadvantage is the amount of prep work involved for this, I like that sort of thing but many DMs do not. I see my world as a place where I can reuse everything for other groups and have multiple campaigns go in different directions based on player preference. Because I will be using many things multiple times I don't feel the work is wasted.
For a more basic approach that other DMs can use I suggest creating side quest templates. What I mean by that is have a map, have an encounter style for the map but when populating it do so 3-5 times with different levels of challenges. An example would be a cave system. Lay it out as a populated base for an organised group and then you can populate it with things like Goblins/Kobolds for low levels, replace them with Bandits/Orcs/Hobgoblins for mid-low levels, go up to Gnolls/Bugbears/hidden military unit for mid levels. Not all organised groups will be humanoid of course, making the cave system a Wolf/Bear/other social animal den is another choice.
Now your 1 map and side quest can be used at multiple stages of the game where it seems right and should your PCs pass it up the first time, it can still be used later. I would not recommend reusing the same template too often as the players will notice if you do, but having 5-10 templates ready to go gives you side quest options for the entire campaign. Some types of encounters can be reused and it's fine if they seem similar. Merchant escorts for instance are likely to be the same no matter the level with only the dangers being different and the players will expect them to be, so reuse with impunity.