I'm going to second Beyond the Wall, especially the several scenario packs and threat packs. Threat fronts are similar to what was described above - some group that has a plan, you can try to thwart them early on, but if you leave it too late and do nothing to investigate or hinder them, they'll grow more powerful and closer to their goal.
Structuring a Quest Based Sandbox
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
To be fair, the bear-pelt quest isn't just a fetch quest; it requires some good killin' too. And info gathering (where is that bear den, anyway?). And shopping (what kind of armor is best used for fighting bears, or maybe we should invest in poison for arrows?). And drama (oh Nardgar, you took a mortal wound from the bear! Is it too late for us to consummate our love?). Not to mention the broader implications of getting into Temba Wide-Arm's good graces, who can now saw lumber properly since those bears are thinned out, and incorporate the party into the sinister machinations of the lumber-milling guild...
LordEntrails
Hero
Personally before you worry about quests, I would setup some events and factions (groups). Maybe the Harpers and the Black Network are active in the area. Maybe you have some elf / gnome tensions in business. Perhaps it's the old families and the recent newcomers. Perhaps its all of them. Then give yourself a paragraph of what each group wants (status quo, land rights, money, etc)
Once you have that, your quests will flow pretty easily as well as you will be able to have each faction dynamic and affected by the results of each quest. And it allows quests to not have to be things the party "wins", you can have degrees of success as well as no right/wrong solutions.
Once you have that, your quests will flow pretty easily as well as you will be able to have each faction dynamic and affected by the results of each quest. And it allows quests to not have to be things the party "wins", you can have degrees of success as well as no right/wrong solutions.
I've been brainstorming how to run a similar campaign. My approach involves stealing from 13th Age and Dungeon World to co-author the sandbox elements with the players.
First, I create multiple factions.
Second, I instruct players to select a faction with which they have a positive relationship. Then select a faction for a negative relationship. And finally a faction with which they have a conflicted relationship.
Third, I use the factions selected by the players to fill in the sandbox with allies, enemies, locations, artifacts, conflict, and adventure. As a result, I don't need to sell players on engaging with quests because the quests are composed of elements that the players selected or even created.
Finally, I create fronts for each faction to show how their plans advance and change the world if the players don't take action.
Hope that's helpful.
First, I create multiple factions.
Second, I instruct players to select a faction with which they have a positive relationship. Then select a faction for a negative relationship. And finally a faction with which they have a conflicted relationship.
Third, I use the factions selected by the players to fill in the sandbox with allies, enemies, locations, artifacts, conflict, and adventure. As a result, I don't need to sell players on engaging with quests because the quests are composed of elements that the players selected or even created.
Finally, I create fronts for each faction to show how their plans advance and change the world if the players don't take action.
Hope that's helpful.
Following on from my recommendation for Beyond the Wall and the scenario and threat packs, I just discovered they realeased a new one on pdf that contains all the other scenario and threat packs, with some new ones too, and it's available for PWYW on drivethru: Beyond the Wall - Dangers Near and Far - Flatland Games | Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures | DriveThruRPG.com
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
There's a disconnect here.
You say...
Both the examples in the first post are fetch quests: the first, to fetch the jewelry box; the second, to fetch the daughter.
The challenge will be to come up with adventures that are neither fetch quests nor tied to a bigger plot; and in that I wish you well.
The only thing I can suggest is that somehow adventure comes to them, but you can only do that a very few times before it gets stale.
You say...
...but then in your next post you say...
...this.
Both the examples in the first post are fetch quests: the first, to fetch the jewelry box; the second, to fetch the daughter.
The challenge will be to come up with adventures that are neither fetch quests nor tied to a bigger plot; and in that I wish you well.
The only thing I can suggest is that somehow adventure comes to them, but you can only do that a very few times before it gets stale.
I was refering specifically to the kind of mundane, tedious quests you find in bad MMOs. Every quest is a fetch quest or a kill quest or a accomp0any quest. It's how you package it. See: Witcher 3 versus WoW.
Non-fetch quests - draw a map of an area for the local commander; investigate an unexplained phenomena in the woods, find the source of the rot in the woods and eliminate it, guard a caravan of precious macguffins to the big city, explain why the sign of the black goat is being scrawled on doors all over town, test the veracity of a local legend that says a strange tower appears in the hills every 10 years on a particular night, clear out some monsters and reclaim a manor house that has been overrun by the woods - you clean you own it, engage in a battle of wits with another party of adventurers that are in town for unknown reasons.
That's what I have off the top of my head anyway. It's no more immersion breaking than an episodic show IMO. You can do the long arcs with NPCs and village happenings - pepper the game with disputes, marriages, feuds, elections, divorces and all that jazz to bring the village to life. The more engaged the players are in the village, the less prompting they'll need to work to solve the villages problems when they come up.
That's what I have off the top of my head anyway. It's no more immersion breaking than an episodic show IMO. You can do the long arcs with NPCs and village happenings - pepper the game with disputes, marriages, feuds, elections, divorces and all that jazz to bring the village to life. The more engaged the players are in the village, the less prompting they'll need to work to solve the villages problems when they come up.
Razjah
Explorer
Have you seen Matt Colville's advice on sandboxing?
The biggest thing I have done in past games set up like this is to apply pressure. Let player know there are consequences. The faun may take the daughter into the feywild and if she eats there, she will remained trapped by the faerie courts. The abandoned house won't remain abandoned and the box is used by a necromancer or cult to summon and bind the spirit of Lady Filigree's ancestor. The bears attack a goblin warren and now the area has roving bands of the remnants of the goblin tribe.
If you want to have a good sandbox the players need choices that matter. What things need the highest priority, what can they do now? Then everything they didn't tackle ratchets up a bit in danger. The clock is always ticking.
The biggest thing I have done in past games set up like this is to apply pressure. Let player know there are consequences. The faun may take the daughter into the feywild and if she eats there, she will remained trapped by the faerie courts. The abandoned house won't remain abandoned and the box is used by a necromancer or cult to summon and bind the spirit of Lady Filigree's ancestor. The bears attack a goblin warren and now the area has roving bands of the remnants of the goblin tribe.
If you want to have a good sandbox the players need choices that matter. What things need the highest priority, what can they do now? Then everything they didn't tackle ratchets up a bit in danger. The clock is always ticking.
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