D&D 5E The things you can have your players do around adventures

[GreenTengu]

Well, I wouldn't really call them "monsters" if you properly flesh them out and give them actual cultures, personalities and general free thought and free will...

But you can pretty much take any of the humanoid or fey that are listed as "Lawful Evil" and any other humanoid or fey that is listed as "Chaotic Evil" and, so long as they inhabit the same environment, you can be pretty certain they will be in conflict.

Hobgoblins vs. Orcs is an easy one to do and the PCs can really take either side with there being no real "right" choice and you needn't much more justification for them to go to war beyond simply both wanting to prove their combat superiority and each other being better challenges than the weak humans and halflings about.
Kobolds vs. Gnolls could be done with the Kobolds being such underdogs that it is hard not to pull for them.
Drow vs. Rakshasa fighting over some powerful artifact is possible, though the MM gives such different power levels for the two that it will require considerable work.

 

[aco175]

I would just be careful how often you use this. I think it may lead to players feeling a bit like add-ons to the DM story or quest of others and not their own. Be careful the weasel or angel does not become the powerful DM-NPC.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6814107]Shrapp Hamnier[/MENTION]

Adventurers could empathize more for a cyclops and his giant goats.

He is not the brightest and those wily goats keep slipping away from under his one eye.

And, as cyclopses are wont to do, he knows the best way to keep his giant goats in line...

...Is to head-butt them and show them who is boss.

If only a tricksy halfling hadn't slipped a ring of the ram on the goat's horn, a parting gift to the cyclops who held him captive one afternoon.

The poor cyclops. These giant goats are running roughshod all over him.

If only a kindly elven cleric or druid had a cure for his headache.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Given that humans have been coming up with thousands of ingenious pretexts to attack and kill each other for millennia, I'm not sure you need the feud to be between different monsters.

Like others have suggested, I would be wary of hitting this too often; unless it's a cage fight and the PCs' mission is to pick a fight with the winner, I'm not sure what involvement it leaves for your players.

Of course, if you use the conflict as a background for an adventure or as tension in negotiations (like the Enterprise having to escort Klingons in Star Trek VI or really any other situation that requires characters to approach longtime enemies with diplomacy and decorum), you have the basis for memorable encounters. "Sit and watch the god-beings smack each other" is dull; "negotiate a truce between the fire giants and the red dragons" becomes the stuff of legend.

 

[akr71]

A war between rival crime families or thieves guilds.

 

[Soul Stigma]

Good point, I added a piece about how the players should be able to involve themselves somehow rather than just being spectators.



Nice, but this seems difficult to stumble into by accident.

Not at all. From my campaign: some mines closed down because miners went missing. Town guards were sent to investigate but did not return. PCs hired to investigate the problem. They find a newly excavated tunnel that broke through a man-made wall on the other side. Signs of struggle, dried blood, crossbow bolts.

Miners (and now PCs) stumbled into Drow-controlled section of a dungeon being contested against a bunch of goblins. Markings on walls, planted skulls of either fallen goblins or drow indicated who was in control of what area.

 

[iserith]

Here's another scenario that might work for this topic. Adhomina's strawmen and forum troll attack the noble NPC Semanticus and the PCs are on defense. This is all while they have to manage a serious debate as part of a social interaction challenge. The PCs are secondary targets at best.

 

[Shrapp Hamnier]

[MENTION=6814107]Shrapp Hamnier[/MENTION]

Adventurers could empathize more for a cyclops and his giant goats.

He is not the brightest and those wily goats keep slipping away from under his one eye.

And, as cyclopses are wont to do, he knows the best way to keep his giant goats in line...

...Is to head-butt them and show them who is boss.

If only a tricksy halfling hadn't slipped a ring of the ram on the goat's horn, a parting gift to the cyclops who held him captive one afternoon.

The poor cyclops. These giant goats are running roughshod all over him.

If only a kindly elven cleric or druid had a cure for his headache.

I wish I could give exp and laugh

 

[Caliban]

There is always the classic three way feud between the Githyanki, Githzerai, and the Mind Flayers.

 

[Shrapp Hamnier]

I would just be careful how often you use this. I think it may lead to players feeling a bit like add-ons to the DM story or quest of others and not their own. Be careful the weasel or angel does not become the powerful DM-NPC.

Like others have suggested, I would be wary of hitting this too often...

I was probably not as clear as I thought I was. If the battle they join has super powerful beings, the battle of the titans would not even be mentioned (except may as a combat hazrd "everyone must try to get out of the way as they do X") while the party focuses solely on the minions. And the idea of this is to add a couple extra things to use in random encounters aside from "x atacked your camp", these are supposed to be super quick.

I've completely redone the first post in hopes that I'm more clear now.