D&D 5E Adventure seeds that are not quests

[Libramarian]

What are some things for PCs to do that don't involve an NPC telling or asking them to do something?

Searching for magic items
Searching for new spells
Searching for treasure for its own sake or for XP
Killing monsters for its own sake or for XP
Spell research
Saving to buy high quality equipment
Saving to buy magic items
Saving to buy new spells
Saving to buy/commission a house/stronghold
Hiring and outfitting henchmen
Alchemy
Crafting
Archaelogy
Setting tourism
Finding and destroying a monster lair to make travel in an area safer
Pickpocketing NPCs
Seducing NPCs
Double-crossing NPCs
Making charitable donations
Religious pilgrimage

Any other ideas?

 

[Lanefan]

Simple answer:

Curiosity.

You-as-DM just narrate some features (ruins, caves, an island, whatever) that the PCs either see now or have prior knowledge of, and throw a bit of mystery around them. If the so-called brave adventureres are as bravely adventuring as they claim, they'll want to investigate and dig in to said mysteries...and away you go.

Lan-"blank bits on the map are another curiosity-raiser"-efan

 

[Soul Stigma]

All kinds of things. Walking through a town/city, someone runs into one of the characters while running by them, followed by someone shouting "Stop, thief!" from the direction the runner originated.

One easy example of one method: observation. Things happen in the world and there's nothing stopping the PCs from experiencing them first hand rather than second, if you see what I mean.


Sent from my iPhone using EN World

 

[Yaarel]

What are some things for PCs to do that don't involve an NPC telling or asking them to do something?

Searching for magic items
Searching for new spells
Searching for treasure for its own sake or for XP
Killing monsters for its own sake or for XP
Spell research
Saving to buy high quality equipment
Saving to buy magic items
Saving to buy new spells
Saving to buy/commission a house/stronghold
Hiring and outfitting henchmen
Alchemy
Crafting
Archaelogy
Setting tourism
Finding and destroying a monster lair to make travel in an area safer
Pickpocketing NPCs
Seducing NPCs
Double-crossing NPCs
Making charitable donations
Religious pilgrimage

Any other ideas?

The list above seems more like ‘downtime seeds’ as opposed to ‘adventure seeds’.

At least in D&D, ‘adventure’ almost always means combat.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Finding the NPC

 

[Eltab]

What are some things for PCs to do that don't involve an NPC telling or asking them to do something?

Finding and destroying a monster lair to make travel in an area safer

Finding and destroying a monster, in order to clean out its lair and move in.

 

[aco175]

I find that a lot of groups I played with need quests to help direct them to the fun. Some are able to develop their own story and some sit and wait until the story comes to them.

I would think that a seed is something in the world like a library. Some would come upon it and be all set to go in a research an enemy lair, spell, ancient text, etc... Others would need a sign on the door listing prices for research, and history of enemy lairs.

 

[Lanefan]

I find that a lot of groups I played with need quests to help direct them to the fun. Some are able to develop their own story and some sit and wait until the story comes to them.

I would think that a seed is something in the world like a library. Some would come upon it and be all set to go in a research an enemy lair, spell, ancient text, etc... Others would need a sign on the door listing prices for research, and history of enemy lairs.

While still others sometimes need a great big neon sign with flashing arrows: "ENEMY LAIR HERE!"

 

[Lehrbuch]

What are some things for PCs to do that don't involve an NPC telling or asking them to do something?

Two main strategies, I think:

One is to encourage the players to create PCs who have their own goals (which might develop and change over time as the PCs achieve things). And then, as DM, let the PCs act on those goals and achieve things. If you do this, then there's no problem with the PCs idly waiting around for NPCs to give them quests, as the PCs already have their own thing to do.

The other strategy is to have NPCs do things that the PCs have to respond to. The most obvious is for NPCs to attack the PCs, but it could be more subtle, such as a city council increasing taxation when passing through the city gates, or an arch-mage casting some sort of aura-spell that accidentally (or deliberately) affects all spell-casters in the kingdom, or whatever. The point is that if NPCs do things that direct affect/annoy the PCs then the players will eventually organise themselves to investigate, without needing a quest handed out to them.

Too often DMs actively prevent these strategies. The first is prevented by the DM being afraid to give the players control over what the PCs are going to do. The second is prevented by the DM making the mistake of having the direct victims of antagonist NPCs be other NPCs (rather than the PCs being the direct victim).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You could always try to come up with stuff from the PC's backgrounds.

Or perhaps they just get caught up in local events- a riot, a pirate or bandit raid, a raucous wedding party, "Hell night", a gang war, etc.

See also the adventure hooks thread in my sig.