D&D 5E Adventure seeds that are not quests

[hastur_nz]

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.

This is the main one I try and use, in preference to the PC-Game style, "talk to NPC, get Quest". When we say NPC, it could be people, organisations, monsters, or whatever - the key point being there's one or more sources of Conflict, which the PC's i.e. Players feel motivated to do Something about, without someone having to explicitly spell it out as a Quest.

I'm running SKT, which is full of stupid "quests", but I choose to run it differently... For example, if Giants are trashing the local villages, what do the PC's do about it? Do they wait until some NPC gives them a specific Quest to go to some place and find the McGuffin, or are they hearing about the troubles and sufficiently motivated to come up with some Action(s) themselves? For example, do the PC's know any of the victims? Are they part of Organisations that care? Did they have a Vision that helps leads them to troubles? They need some reason to Care, then they should take the bait, without need for an explicit Quest.

It's only a subtle difference, but it helps cultivate Player Agency, or at the very least the perception of that, which is all you really need for a far more satisfying experience.

 

[Libramarian]

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

Good point. There's no reason a map has to have the same level of detail everywhere.

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.

*nods* I like it.

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.

While I think there are differences among groups and players in this respect, I think much of the time players just don't have enough information. I think a common DMing instinct ( I suffer from this myself) is to make these non-quest activities too layered. E.g. you want the PCs to search for alchemical or crafting ingredients, but first they have to find the recipes. Maybe they even have to find a trainer or something first. You want players to research new spells, but the spell research rules are in the DMG so ostensibly you wait until they declare that they want to do some spell research before breaking out these rules. Etc.

 

[iserith]

Avenge the death of their parents. Because most adventurers appear to be orphans whose parents met an untimely end at the hand of goblins, orcs, or some faceless evil or another.

Seriously though, background and personal characteristics (traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws) should point to some goals.

 

[Schmoe]

A few others:

Escaping a disaster
Thwarting impending "bad stuff"
Recovering goods stolen from the PCs
Avoiding a oppressive regime
Reacting to a great social injustice
Righting the wrongs of a tyrant

 

[akr71]

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

Yes, I've found that this is not only easy inspiration for me in terms of a story hook, but generally has quicker 'buy-in' from the characters because it hits on a personal level.

 

[Lehrbuch]

... I think much of the time players just don't have enough information. I think a common DMing instinct ( I suffer from this myself) is to make these non-quest activities too layered. E.g. you want the PCs to search for alchemical or crafting ingredients, but first they have to find the recipes. Maybe they even have to find a trainer or something first...

I agree. This is an easy trap for the DM to fall into. If you place too many hurdles in the way of PCs achieving their own goals, then you end up effectively training your players to not bother having PC goals.

This doesn't mean that everything the PCs want to do should be trivial and straight-forward. However, if the PCs have a goal, and have a plausible plan on how to achieve it, then most of the time it should work. That way you train your players that it is OK to act on their own ideas and own goals. Players/PCs are very Pavlovian!