I am a fairly new DM and struggling to think of good ways to explore one of my PC backstories, the rest of them I have a decent idea about though.
He is from a Dragonborn tribe that have developed some sort of bland but nutritious food replacement, and after some Gnomes talked him into eating proper food he wants to go and try different foods. So far I have worked in a Gourmet Society type guild who have provided him with a coolbag of holding (bag of holding containing brown mold to freeze things that are kept in it), the guild rewards adventurers who return rare and novel foods to them. But on its own that feels a bit lacking.
My campaign has already had a couple of 'village attacked by evil hoard' encounters, so I would prefer not to fall back on that and I am struggling to come up with a suitable idea. So I would really appreciate a few starting points I can build from.
He could just be a dragonborn on a simple food tour wanting to taste all the new delicacies his palette has never known. If a village is attacked, he could be upset seeing the farmland, ranches and other foodstuffs ran over. I don't think a gourmet society would be all that necessary if it's not implemented yet as that may cause some issues with your other party members if they are not on food based quest. This could just be a personal journey for the dragonborn and being a traveling mercenary to help fund and search for new food could be good enough.
He could be a temporary hire on for one of the npcs your party has to talk to and is tasked with going off with them to ensure a certain task is completed. After a quest or two his services will be done with the npc and if he likes the party he will stick with them.
If a party member is a decent cook you could bring that up to make him a travelling companion willing to protect a food source./He could be an experimental chef bringing a bit of a draconic touch to the table making party members eat his meals hoping to gain approval as he explores his new craft.
Some sort of monster introduction that's based around your current party's objectives. Maybe he could eat that? Maybe (assuming its humanoid) it has decent food he could take from it while helping out the new party.
I would take a prewritten campaign (if you're into that) and add that the giant or dragon or whatever is the big baddy at the end has a very very rare ingredient. A frost giant, with a small patch of arctic berries or somesuch, that the guild has requested he obtain. It's very valuable, worth "X"GP per gram. They'll pay him a good sum if he can retrieve as little as 50 grams and return it in good condition. This way, you're building on his backstory, but it'll also be fun for the rest of the group to wade into a more normal campaign. You might want to add a few more tweaks along the way to keep tying in the food quest along with the prewritten purpose of the quest, but it'd be fun, I think. Maybe even one of the short ones out of Tales from the Yawning Portal.
There are plenty of historical events involving rare foods and spices to inspire you. The America’s were “discovered”in an attempt to find a faster route to India because of the spice trade. EVen if the rest of your party isn’t interested in the allure of a rare ingredient itself I’m sure promised riches and globe (or planar) spanning adventure will interest them. If you’d like something with a bit more intrigue, check out The Great British Tea Heist:
I am a fairly new DM and struggling to think of good ways to explore one of my PC backstories, the rest of them I have a decent idea about though.
He is from a Dragonborn tribe that have developed some sort of bland but nutritious food replacement, and after some Gnomes talked him into eating proper food he wants to go and try different foods. So far I have worked in a Gourmet Society type guild who have provided him with a coolbag of holding (bag of holding containing brown mold to freeze things that are kept in it), the guild rewards adventurers who return rare and novel foods to them. But on its own that feels a bit lacking.
My campaign has already had a couple of 'village attacked by evil hoard' encounters, so I would prefer not to fall back on that and I am struggling to come up with a suitable idea. So I would really appreciate a few starting points I can build from.
He could just be a dragonborn on a simple food tour wanting to taste all the new delicacies his palette has never known. If a village is attacked, he could be upset seeing the farmland, ranches and other foodstuffs ran over. I don't think a gourmet society would be all that necessary if it's not implemented yet as that may cause some issues with your other party members if they are not on food based quest. This could just be a personal journey for the dragonborn and being a traveling mercenary to help fund and search for new food could be good enough.
He could be a temporary hire on for one of the npcs your party has to talk to and is tasked with going off with them to ensure a certain task is completed. After a quest or two his services will be done with the npc and if he likes the party he will stick with them.
If a party member is a decent cook you could bring that up to make him a travelling companion willing to protect a food source./He could be an experimental chef bringing a bit of a draconic touch to the table making party members eat his meals hoping to gain approval as he explores his new craft.
Some sort of monster introduction that's based around your current party's objectives. Maybe he could eat that? Maybe (assuming its humanoid) it has decent food he could take from it while helping out the new party.
I would take a prewritten campaign (if you're into that) and add that the giant or dragon or whatever is the big baddy at the end has a very very rare ingredient. A frost giant, with a small patch of arctic berries or somesuch, that the guild has requested he obtain. It's very valuable, worth "X"GP per gram. They'll pay him a good sum if he can retrieve as little as 50 grams and return it in good condition. This way, you're building on his backstory, but it'll also be fun for the rest of the group to wade into a more normal campaign. You might want to add a few more tweaks along the way to keep tying in the food quest along with the prewritten purpose of the quest, but it'd be fun, I think. Maybe even one of the short ones out of Tales from the Yawning Portal.
There are plenty of historical events involving rare foods and spices to inspire you. The America’s were “discovered”in an attempt to find a faster route to India because of the spice trade. EVen if the rest of your party isn’t interested in the allure of a rare ingredient itself I’m sure promised riches and globe (or planar) spanning adventure will interest them. If you’d like something with a bit more intrigue, check out The Great British Tea Heist:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-british-tea-heist-9866709/