The Side Quest, yay or nay?

[KingOfChaos]

How often do you, as a DM, create side quests that have nothing to really do with the main adventure concept? For instance, the PCs may meet up with a beaten older man on the road to the Tyrant's city whom they plan on infiltrating, but the old man tells them a sad story of how a band of hobgoblins had ravaged his wagon and then kidnapped his daughter. In tears, he asks them to help him find her before they move on.

While interesting this has nothing to do with the adventure theme as a whole, but could be a refreshing change from the 'major' plotline that PCs have been following for weeks. Do you add a lot of these? Do you like it when your DM does? I know Ariadne likes them and I was planning on adding some into my all wizard IRC campaign, Webs of Deceit.

Fact is, unless the adventure is a timed race against complete annihilation, side quests can add a lot of realism to the adventure as the PCs meet up with 'real people with real problems'. Also, I think a little of Diablo and Diablo II has rubbed off on me Without side quests, those games would be nothing but meaningless dungeon crawls

 

[Crothian]

I love side quests as long as it truely is the characters choice to do it or not. Many DM's seem to force the side quest, but I perfer to let the players choose what they want to do.

 

[Zerakon]

As a DM, I always try to include "side quests" in my adventures. Sometimes, these side treks will be introductions to a longer adventure in the future. Often times, these quests will be too difficult for the party to completely solve and should be a test of the PCs' common sense. For example, perhaps the dungeon with the goblin slavers has a lower level with undead that are simply out of the PCs league and the party should be smart enough to stick to their main game plan. Maybe they'll remember this place and come back and clear out the undead when they are strong enough, but not for now...

By including side quests and having some of them be "unsolvable," I think your world will seem more realistic and fun. To me, campaigns in which the party constantly runs into problems that it can solve seem unrealistic and less fun than the campaign in which the PCs have to make smart decisions about what to tackle and when.

--Zerakon the Game Mage

 

[Mark]

Aside from the fun they can be, they're particularly useful in the most recent edition if a party has fallen just short of leveling up. If you've got a tough adventure pre-planned for their next level and they aren't quite ready for it, a side trek does the trick.

 

[Buttercup]

I like side quests, because I think they make the campaign world seem more real. The downside is that having side quests ready is a great deal more work for the DM. I've got all sorts of stuff written up that I've never used, because the PCs chose to do something else.

 

[Gnarlo]

I like side quests, because I think they make the campaign world seem more real. The downside is that having side quests ready is a great deal more work for the DM. I've got all sorts of stuff written up that I've never used, because the PCs chose to do something else.

Love 'em as well; and the stuff they end up not getting around to in the main quest usually becomes a future side quest, with the serial numbers filed off.

/gnarlo!

 

[fba827]

I like side quests, because I think they make the campaign world seem more real. The downside is that having side quests ready is a great deal more work for the DM. I've got all sorts of stuff written up that I've never used, because the PCs chose to do something else.

I was going to say what Buttercup said but then Buttercup stole the words from my brain so I will just quote Buttercup instead.

That's my thoughts on the topic as well.



(I was purposely avoiding gender-specific pronouns (ie he or she) since, I don't know Buttercup and didn't want to offend - hence the awkwardness of the above sentence)

 

[Buttercup]

(I was purposely avoiding gender-specific pronouns (ie he or she) since, I don't know Buttercup and didn't want to offend - hence the awkwardness of the above sentence)

Um, look at my picture.
<-------Over there. Do I look like a guy?

 

[Emiricol]

Lol @ Buttercup

I love side quests as well. I use them mainly as a way to further develop a cool location or NPC, or to profile some interesting thing that happened in the past timeline of my world.

Of course, with T13K, the timeline is huge, the world is huge... I'll never run out of people, places and events to develop

 

[Starman]

Um, look at my picture.
<-------Over there. Do I look like a guy?

Hopefully it was something simple such as having avatars turned off.

Although, there is Buttercup from Princess Bride who was a female...

Starman