Cloak And Dagger Quests

[Bonadrag]

I have a player who doesn't really enjoy the standard dungeon crawls, but flourishes in the roleplay / NPC interaction aspects of the game. I was thinking about having a side quest that'd be more mystery/ drama driven for them to take lead on. Anyone have suggestion for premade quests of this type or just good story hooks they've used?

This quest is a good example, I'm just upset I couldn't find more like it.

FREE Original Adventure: Sheep's Clothing

 

[domino]

I don't know if you could base a major story around it, but I've always been fond of the idea of the evil vizier/advisor/minster who is definitely evil, but also actually loyal to the (good(ish)) king. He's your stereotypical bad guy, but also wants to protect the king and country, he just does it by, say, mercilessly stamping out rebels, and their families, and their village. He holds people hostage to ensure the loyalties of their family, etc...

He may or may not wind up as a villain, but it's not going to be the expected backstabbing the king to take power that causes the problem. Would make for a decent flourish (as you said) to put on an NPC.

 

[Gilladian]

Without knowing the situation of the Pc it is hard to suggest too much, but if these are to be side-quests, they probably need to be fairly short.

I'd do things like: have a slightly bumbling courtier ask the hero to assist him in courting a lovely lady. You can either spin it Cyrano de Bergerac style, or make it a Romeo and Juliet situation, or just let it work out fairly easily. In fact, you could have the PC end up with a "rep" for romance, and use all three or more scenarios at various times.

Maybe one courtier or city councilman or whoever is trying to ruin another. He or she could hire the PC to spy on the other, or steal something from them to apply blackmail, or hide something on their person or in their belongings to get them in trouble, etc... Maybe a whole series of building action where the PC has to decide which side he's on at some point.

 

[Tovec]

I don't know if you could base a major story around it, but I've always been fond of the idea of the evil vizier/advisor/minster who is definitely evil, but also actually loyal to the (good(ish)) king. He's your stereotypical bad guy, but also wants to protect the king and country, he just does it by, say, mercilessly stamping out rebels, and their families, and their village. He holds people hostage to ensure the loyalties of their family, etc...

He may or may not wind up as a villain, but it's not going to be the expected backstabbing the king to take power that causes the problem. Would make for a decent flourish (as you said) to put on an NPC.

I have a kingdom that kind of works in the reverse of the original concept. I have an evil (and often replaceable) king, evil kingdom and (usually LN but goodish) adviser. The adviser is utterly loyal and wouldn't do anything against the king but in this kingdom no one would believe it.

 

[Jimlock]

A nice trick is to put a player(s) in a situation where he has to keep something secret from the rest of the player(s). I've tested this both as player and a DM, and it has always worked for the best. It allows for very interesting dialogues/confrontations between the players and makes things very personal, to a point where the players realize they are also a piece of the same puzzle they are trying to solve.

Don't do something that leaves some players out of the intrigue. While one or more players may be directly involved in some scheme, and are likely to be more interested, find a way to mix it up and somehow, get everyone involved.. In the end, even your hack'n'slashers are gonna enjoy this, even if you cannot see it now.

Even if your NPCs have great depth and even if you roleplay them really well, it doesn't really work if you do not involve your players directly by using their background/personalities/achievements/perspectives/goals.
The adventuring party that goes from town to town so as to solve the local problems can always be fun, but in the long run RPs lose interest.
CSI is good...but Fringe is much better...

(i'm not a huge fun of the series mentioned above....just trying to make a point as far as the protagonists' involvement in the story is concerned)