What was your favorite side quest?

[Castellanox7]

Afternoon all!

I've posted/lurked a bit in the D&D4e forums, and have started to collect ideas for creating a campaign.

At one point in time, I'm debating about having some sort of "sandbox chapter" in this campaign. In this section, the PC's can go off and do a number of side-quests that would affect the outcome of the final battles.

My question is this, as players, what was your favorite (preferably one-to-three encounter) side quest? This could come from any RPG, whether it be tabletop, MMO or console/PC. I already have the following ideas (and a copy of Dungeon Delve):

• Cleansing and rededicating a temple
• Reclaiming an outpost, overrun by orcs/etc.
• Skill challenge: Playing messenger
• Skill challenge: Scouting and infiltration (ties into final battle)
• Investigation of increased murders around the docks (anyone remember BG:II? )

Thanks everyone, hope you had a great weekend!
-CastX7

 

[kitsune9]

I had a paladin who needed to atone for some misdeeds. His mission was to accomplish a cleric to deal with a group of cultists and slavers that he needed to eradicate. Well, we got off the docks, got attacked, and got our butts handed to us. But we were captured alive and I had to escape, find my other companions to free the captured cleric. In all, we still ended up completely failing at our task. Fun side adventure though.

 

[Loonook]

Personally I like a side quest to be nice, neat, and have no effect on the main game if possible (unless there comes a point where as a DM you can throw a tie-in). The rededication of a temple seems silly and contrived, but could work... It just doesn't get the players involved too much.

Usually I used side-quests in the past to let a player DM something and let me have some time off or when I don't have a quorum of players. There may not be an enormous amount of XP, or even items available, but they provide hooks, or even some new NPCs that can be useful. One shots I have run included:

- A chase across multiple states with a group of werewolves on motorcycles and a van trying to abduct two of the players as they went cross-country to Carnytowns in Florida looking for a half-demon who might have lore Regarding the Fall. (Urban Arcana)

- A dream-state battle against an old foe occurs in a small village. Turns out the location had a natural Oneiromancer in residence who was starting to gain power and influence due to the waxing of the Shadow into the Realm. The child was escorted to a local mage's circle to be trained... Where the players placed him right into the hands of their main antagonist's puppet master who had befriended them. The game ran on 'years' based on semesters with leveling and other events off-screen, including the last session where the kid came back to haunt them.

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Those are the only ones I could think of off the top in my addled state. Use episodic thriller shows and you can never go wrong .

Slainte,

-Loonook.