doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I mean, there are degrees of frequency of use.
D&D General Travel In Medieval Europe
Hussar
Legend
It's interesting to think about the issue of resources. @clearstream and @pemerton both mention the notion of these side quests using a different resource management scheme than the main quest. But, I think that that isn't really the main issue. Resource management is important, but, the resource that is at stake here is out of game real world play time.
If you're like me and you run a three or four hour long session, spending two or three hours on some side-quest usually isn't really what the players signed up for. Particularly if that side-quest isn't forwarding anything and isn't really any real source of in game reward. Once in a while might be fun and fine, but, by and large, if the players are traveling to Point B to deal with That Really Important Problem, then spending significant amounts of time not dealing with that isn't very appealing.
So, I think it really behooves the DM to think about time management. If your side quest is an eight encounter dungeon, that's not a side quest - that's a full on quest. That's going to take at least an entire session to resolve, and probably more than one. Given the choice, the players aren't going to engage with that because it's too much of a time sink for something that they have largely no reason to do.
When creating these side treks, keep encounters to a minimum - 1 or maybe 2. Make it worth the player's while that if they are going to spend their real world time doing it, it has to be fun enough that they actually want to do it. And, don't try to force it. Keep it much lighter and more fun. Let the party curb stomp something to show how badass they are. It's perfectly fine to have a very low risk combat followed by a bit of light exposition. Something that eats up 30 minutes of table time at the most.
If you're like me and you run a three or four hour long session, spending two or three hours on some side-quest usually isn't really what the players signed up for. Particularly if that side-quest isn't forwarding anything and isn't really any real source of in game reward. Once in a while might be fun and fine, but, by and large, if the players are traveling to Point B to deal with That Really Important Problem, then spending significant amounts of time not dealing with that isn't very appealing.
So, I think it really behooves the DM to think about time management. If your side quest is an eight encounter dungeon, that's not a side quest - that's a full on quest. That's going to take at least an entire session to resolve, and probably more than one. Given the choice, the players aren't going to engage with that because it's too much of a time sink for something that they have largely no reason to do.
When creating these side treks, keep encounters to a minimum - 1 or maybe 2. Make it worth the player's while that if they are going to spend their real world time doing it, it has to be fun enough that they actually want to do it. And, don't try to force it. Keep it much lighter and more fun. Let the party curb stomp something to show how badass they are. It's perfectly fine to have a very low risk combat followed by a bit of light exposition. Something that eats up 30 minutes of table time at the most.
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