Running a home brew where my pcs are going to be stuck in a city where they need to take odd jobs off a bulletin board which will eventually lead to a story, but I'm having trouble coming up with things that aren't pretty much a fetch quest.
Some locales in the city - the Duke's palace/personal grounds, the town Square, the restaurant district (the Duke is a foodie), the slums (complete with thieves guild), sewers that are constantly shifting like a labyrinth (to stop people from using them as thieves guild hq), the mansion of a family of undead and miles of peat surrounding that they manufacture into wildfire, and a school for magically cursed children (with a bunch of magic shops around it).
What I'm looking for are just suggestions of things the PCs can do - like some of the odd jobs I already have is judging a food contest, added security at a party the Duke is throwing, or catching a known member of the thieves guild
Running a home brew where my pcs are going to be stuck in a city where they need to take odd jobs off a bulletin board which will eventually lead to a story, but I'm having trouble coming up with things that aren't pretty much a fetch quest.
Some locales in the city - the Duke's palace/personal grounds, the town Square, the restaurant district (the Duke is a foodie), the slums (complete with thieves guild), sewers that are constantly shifting like a labyrinth (to stop people from using them as thieves guild hq), the mansion of a family of undead and miles of peat surrounding that they manufacture into wildfire, and a school for magically cursed children (with a bunch of magic shops around it).
What I'm looking for are just suggestions of things the PCs can do - like some of the odd jobs I already have is judging a food contest, added security at a party the Duke is throwing, or catching a known member of the thieves guild
You could also approach these from another angle -- if there are any NPCs or locations that will become important later, have them involved in these odd jobs so that the party will know who they are/have some familiarity with them before they become important to the bigger story
For example, if you plan on having the party go into the sewers at some point down the road, maybe the wizard responsible for maintaining them sends them to a specific section to remove a "blockage" (which could be a creature, some magic phenomenon, whatever) that's preventing that area from shifting around. The "back door" the wizard tells them about so they can exit after they're done could prove to be very useful information later...
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
bodyguarding (everyone likes escort missions more than fetch quests, right?)
guarding a specific location
guard a specific event
deliver a thing
deliver a thing, but they're supposed to fail (object is planned by the sender to be stolen/ taken by force en route. the fun here is that the pcs will prove to be too capable)
deliver a thing, but they're the fall guys (the object is switched out at the initial handoff, so they're the suspects)
deliver a thing, but they're the fall guys (the object is illegal, and they're intercepted by law enforcement)
a weird activity that will make sense later (something that attracts attention, they later find out it was to cover a robbery nearby)
a weird activity that will remain weird
as you can see from the delivery ideas, you can always spice up a job by adding complications. (if you're bodyguarding somebody, they may wish to escape their guards, etc.)
and, of course, they should sometimes get jobs where nothing untoward happens at all
First session of 5e I DM'd, I ran a maritime, or riverine(?) rescue. Characters had become entangled in refugee flotilla that a pirate cutter literally cut through, destroying a raft. PCs got used to DC checks on skills and abilities as they performed rescue swimming, etc.
For established characters, the party could be a sort of First Watch/First Responders group, perhaps doing a waterborne rescue, or maybe construction collapsed somewhere and workers need aid, lots of accidents can happen in a city. Rescue squad!
IIRC Rime of the Frostmaiden give some random tasks that are more "life in the cold north" style tasks more than adventures and side quests at some point, designed to develop NPC relations etc.
Ooh, probate or determiners of provenance when there's a contested estate or allegations of forgery.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Glad to help. You could also set one up as a scavenger hunt (maybe don't call it that)...like maybe you're gathering ingredients for something....or you are the test group for an actual scavenger hunt to see how good it is and how long it takes. They just don't tell you till afterwards that was what you were doing. And maybe you keep the items Aas a reward plus some gold
A dwarf is trying to run a restaurant in the town, however, the food there sucks. All the food is super bland because the dwarf doesn't understand the human diet, so he doesn't add stuff like salt (because it would be weird for humans to eat rocks) or spices (they might kill the human with their spiciness). The PCs have to help the dwarf with their restaurant before the critics come.
In the campaign we are currently running, one of the players decided to get a job in the marketplace.
She got a job in a humble kebab shop. Her boss didn't pay her well and was handing out meat that tasted really good but was also kind of "suspicious." Her job was to slice the meat, and she had to get faster and faster. She had to roll for dexterity and so on.
In the end, our group decided to go to the marketplace and saw her handing out kebabs to every civilian around her. As our group got to the shop, things got weird because our Halfling Paladin wanted to know what kind of meat this is, and the boss of the kebab shop threatened us. In the end, we left the place, but maybe out of this situation, someone could run a side quest where the players have to find out what kind of meat this is and stumble into a rabbit hole, facing some kind of mafia.
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Somewhere between Chilled DM and a psychopathic Player.
"I'm riped apart between someone who wants to inflict good on the poor and someone who just wants to burn it all down. It scares me I don't know myself anymore. But what scares me the most is...that I don't know which side I love the most."
-Skar (my problem Child....and the problem child of my DM...and my group)
In the campaign we are currently running, one of the players decided to get a job in the marketplace.
She got a job in a humble kebab shop. Her boss didn't pay her well and was handing out meat that tasted really good but was also kind of "suspicious." Her job was to slice the meat, and she had to get faster and faster. She had to roll for dexterity and so on.
In the end, our group decided to go to the marketplace and saw her handing out kebabs to every civilian around her. As our group got to the shop, things got weird because our Halfling Paladin wanted to know what kind of meat this is, and the boss of the kebab shop threatened us. In the end, we left the place, but maybe out of this situation, someone could run a side quest where the players have to find out what kind of meat this is and stumble into a rabbit hole, facing some kind of mafia.
I read this post and for a second wasn't sure if this was the "Odd Jobs for PCs" thread or the "If a druid wild shapes into a cow and you carve chunks of meat off it, what happens?" thread
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Somewhere between Chilled DM and a psychopathic Player.
"I'm riped apart between someone who wants to inflict good on the poor and someone who just wants to burn it all down. It scares me I don't know myself anymore. But what scares me the most is...that I don't know which side I love the most."
-Skar (my problem Child....and the problem child of my DM...and my group)
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Running a home brew where my pcs are going to be stuck in a city where they need to take odd jobs off a bulletin board which will eventually lead to a story, but I'm having trouble coming up with things that aren't pretty much a fetch quest.
Some locales in the city - the Duke's palace/personal grounds, the town Square, the restaurant district (the Duke is a foodie), the slums (complete with thieves guild), sewers that are constantly shifting like a labyrinth (to stop people from using them as thieves guild hq), the mansion of a family of undead and miles of peat surrounding that they manufacture into wildfire, and a school for magically cursed children (with a bunch of magic shops around it).
What I'm looking for are just suggestions of things the PCs can do - like some of the odd jobs I already have is judging a food contest, added security at a party the Duke is throwing, or catching a known member of the thieves guild
1: finding a pet
2: finding stolen goods
3: rescuing a kidnapped someone
4: delivering a package
5: finding obscure components for a witch/druid/warlock/alchemist whatever.
6: hunting/catching an unusual beast to be the centrepiece of your duke's party.
Thank you!
You could also approach these from another angle -- if there are any NPCs or locations that will become important later, have them involved in these odd jobs so that the party will know who they are/have some familiarity with them before they become important to the bigger story
For example, if you plan on having the party go into the sewers at some point down the road, maybe the wizard responsible for maintaining them sends them to a specific section to remove a "blockage" (which could be a creature, some magic phenomenon, whatever) that's preventing that area from shifting around. The "back door" the wizard tells them about so they can exit after they're done could prove to be very useful information later...
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Killing rats.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
ideas that aren't fetch quests:
as you can see from the delivery ideas, you can always spice up a job by adding complications. (if you're bodyguarding somebody, they may wish to escape their guards, etc.)
and, of course, they should sometimes get jobs where nothing untoward happens at all
I like to offer my players a chance to guard something. A caravan making an out and back gives them a chance for XP and for a small lore dump.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Split up jobs at a tavern across the party: bouncer, entertainment, healer (tavern brawl), etc.
Or they are hired to steal back something that was stolen without getting caught. Or to break in to return an item or exchange an item with a fake.
Retrieve lost dog (turns out to be a blink dog) or cat (a tressym) alive and unharmed.
They are hired to catch an arsonist (who is secretly is using a familiar and dragonbreath spell).
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
First session of 5e I DM'd, I ran a maritime, or riverine(?) rescue. Characters had become entangled in refugee flotilla that a pirate cutter literally cut through, destroying a raft. PCs got used to DC checks on skills and abilities as they performed rescue swimming, etc.
For established characters, the party could be a sort of First Watch/First Responders group, perhaps doing a waterborne rescue, or maybe construction collapsed somewhere and workers need aid, lots of accidents can happen in a city. Rescue squad!
IIRC Rime of the Frostmaiden give some random tasks that are more "life in the cold north" style tasks more than adventures and side quests at some point, designed to develop NPC relations etc.
Ooh, probate or determiners of provenance when there's a contested estate or allegations of forgery.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Investigative quest for someone wealthy-involving personal drama with some other family. Typical noble nonsense, but pays well
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
These are all awesome ideas. Thank you so much everyone!
Glad to help. You could also set one up as a scavenger hunt (maybe don't call it that)...like maybe you're gathering ingredients for something....or you are the test group for an actual scavenger hunt to see how good it is and how long it takes. They just don't tell you till afterwards that was what you were doing. And maybe you keep the items Aas a reward plus some gold
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
A dwarf is trying to run a restaurant in the town, however, the food there sucks. All the food is super bland because the dwarf doesn't understand the human diet, so he doesn't add stuff like salt (because it would be weird for humans to eat rocks) or spices (they might kill the human with their spiciness). The PCs have to help the dwarf with their restaurant before the critics come.
In the campaign we are currently running, one of the players decided to get a job in the marketplace.
She got a job in a humble kebab shop. Her boss didn't pay her well and was handing out meat that tasted really good but was also kind of "suspicious." Her job was to slice the meat, and she had to get faster and faster. She had to roll for dexterity and so on.
In the end, our group decided to go to the marketplace and saw her handing out kebabs to every civilian around her. As our group got to the shop, things got weird because our Halfling Paladin wanted to know what kind of meat this is, and the boss of the kebab shop threatened us. In the end, we left the place, but maybe out of this situation, someone could run a side quest where the players have to find out what kind of meat this is and stumble into a rabbit hole, facing some kind of mafia.
Somewhere between Chilled DM and a psychopathic Player.
"I'm riped apart between someone who wants to inflict good on the poor and someone who just wants to burn it all down. It scares me I don't know myself anymore. But what scares me the most is...that I don't know which side I love the most."
-Skar (my problem Child....and the problem child of my DM...and my group)
I read this post and for a second wasn't sure if this was the "Odd Jobs for PCs" thread or the "If a druid wild shapes into a cow and you carve chunks of meat off it, what happens?" thread
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I'm not sure if that's a good or bad sign :D
Somewhere between Chilled DM and a psychopathic Player.
"I'm riped apart between someone who wants to inflict good on the poor and someone who just wants to burn it all down. It scares me I don't know myself anymore. But what scares me the most is...that I don't know which side I love the most."
-Skar (my problem Child....and the problem child of my DM...and my group)