So I’m working on a home brew campaign but the starter mission I planned might be too short and I’m planning on having the story pick up on later sessions. So I was wondering if anyone has any side quests ideas for me I would like to know. Btw the party will be 4 level 1s,a cleric, a warlock, an artificer, and a fighter.
Look into the old modules for 2e, these were short and actually “modular” intended specifically to plug-in however the DM needed. Many of them have been updated to 5e and can be found online.
Thank you but I’m very new to the game so I obviously don’t have 2e books. And I'd have already been searching online if I wanted to do that. Agin thank you but not really what I was looking for. Sorry if this came off as rude I did not intend it that way.
You asked for sudequest ideas. I let you know what my ideas were, how readily available they were, and how easy they would be to find. You don’t want to use them, that’s up to you.
I don’t know quite what you are looking for then, but good luck in yer struggles chummer.
This is just a suggestion. When I need a side quest or something short and I don't want to put too much work into it I've been using DMDave / https://www.patreon.com/dmdave/posts adventures. He has some free adventures at various player levels to test out plus at a cheap Patron, you can get more adventures that you can slot in whenever needed. So far I've been pretty happy with both the output and quality and it's been pretty easy to tailor an adventure to fit in my homebrew campaign.
Check out the free stuff because well...it's free so what do you have to lose?
Level 1 players are squishy, just grab any module book and look at the first 1 or 2 modules so you don't TPK them too early. These will work for LVL-1 and likely get them to LVL-3. Also there is a ton of small adventures you can pull up from different Patreon providers or the Drive-By site. Lots of those work and can be dropped in to any other adventure. Yawning Portal and Mad Mage have low level early adventures can be plugged in as stand alone side quests.
Level 1 players are squishy, just grab any module book and look at the first 1 or 2 modules so you don't TPK them too early. These will work for LVL-1 and likely get them to LVL-3. Also there is a ton of small adventures you can pull up from different Patreon providers or the Drive-By site. Lots of those work and can be dropped in to any other adventure. Yawning Portal and Mad Mage have low level early adventures can be plugged in as stand alone side quests.
That's a good suggestion. I've used Yawning Portal as well starting with 2nd level characters and have success with the adventure book.
Four level one characters. Fighter, Cleric, Warlock, Artificer. Good mix, Fighter main tank, Artificer secondary, Cleric heals, Artificer ans back up, Warlock for ranged blasting. and again, the Artificer has the Warlock's back. Artificers in general seem to be very flexible, I compare them to Bards.
Usually people start out in a Village at that level. Somewhere small, and they deal with the classic "rats in the cellar" kind of quests. Someone needs low challenge rating monsters, typical animals or beasts, cleared out of somewhere. They are eating the farmer's crops, they are after his cattle, they're in the little old lady's house in the cellar and make too much noise.
Some ideas:
Finding a little girl who is lost in the woods
Dealing with a con-man
Keeping vigil over the graveyard and dealing with a zombie or some skeletons
Stopping a small group of thugs trying to rob the someplace.
The main thing to keep in mind is that people usually don't want to spend much time at 1st level. Only a couple sessions is usually enough. People want to see the fun stuff happen, and it takes very little total Experience to get there. Milestone leveling means you just kind of have to guess, but two or three of these little side quests is probably all you need.
At second level it's time to leave the village and head into town. Along the way, there's bandits and packs of wolves, or more minor undead. Once they hit town, they hit the tavern, pick up some rumors and they can start chasing off on the main quest line. Now you start working anything form a character's back story as a side quest. There will be more and tougher monsters, you can start dealing with exportation and long range travel. They hit 3rd level and it's off to a city. Give them some down time to train and get some better gear, maybe buy better armor or pick up magical consumables, maybe even some honest to goodness rare items could be for sale at a high price. They finish off their main quest line, that's the milestone for 4th level.
Now, a lot depends on things specific to your setting. I am going on the general run of a moderate to low magic setting. You need to adjust from there. What constitutes a high price can vary a lot and how easy to get magic items is something you need to consider, so you should talk about all such things in a "session zero" before play actually starts. If play has already started, take the time in your next session to take care of it. If you have any specific house rules that's when you tell people about them. If you want a serious tone, they need to know. If it's all silly fun, same same. Some people prefer to try to use social skills and you need to tell people if that's going to work out well or not. None of the characters are bad for it, but someone ought to be the party "face" the one who does most of the negotiating. Warlocks are based on Charisma, so they can be good at that, but they are often seen as kind of evil, and common folk might be scared of them. That's yet another session zero thing. How do people react to people able to kill your typical Commoner in one hit?
I don’t used published adventures, so I might be wrong, but I think candlekeep and ghosts of saltmarsh both have shorter things you can plug in to larger adventures, rather then a complete campaign.
I don’t used published adventures, so I might be wrong, but I think candlekeep and ghosts of saltmarsh both have shorter things you can plug in to larger adventures, rather then a complete campaign.
Crib ideas from movies, TV shows, and books that you are familiar with. Players won’t often recognize this because of the context change. You’ll be familiar enough that you can roll with the direction players take even if it isn’t what you anticipated. Just have a list of names, locations, and perhaps some level appropriate rewards prepared.
I’ve used story lines from Castle, Ozark, Supernatural, Alice in Wonderland, Star Wars, the Lies of Locke Lamora, etc. This usually works as you have an idea how things would play out regardless of what the players do and you have established personalities to draw upon.
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So I’m working on a home brew campaign but the starter mission I planned might be too short and I’m planning on having the story pick up on later sessions. So I was wondering if anyone has any side quests ideas for me I would like to know. Btw the party will be 4 level 1s,a cleric, a warlock, an artificer, and a fighter.
Mythology Master
Look into the old modules for 2e, these were short and actually “modular” intended specifically to plug-in however the DM needed. Many of them have been updated to 5e and can be found online.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Thank you but I’m very new to the game so I obviously don’t have 2e books. And I'd have already been searching online if I wanted to do that. Agin thank you but not really what I was looking for. Sorry if this came off as rude I did not intend it that way.
Mythology Master
You asked for sudequest ideas. I let you know what my ideas were, how readily available they were, and how easy they would be to find. You don’t want to use them, that’s up to you.
I don’t know quite what you are looking for then, but good luck in yer struggles chummer.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
This is just a suggestion. When I need a side quest or something short and I don't want to put too much work into it I've been using DMDave / https://www.patreon.com/dmdave/posts adventures. He has some free adventures at various player levels to test out plus at a cheap Patron, you can get more adventures that you can slot in whenever needed. So far I've been pretty happy with both the output and quality and it's been pretty easy to tailor an adventure to fit in my homebrew campaign.
Check out the free stuff because well...it's free so what do you have to lose?
Level 1 players are squishy, just grab any module book and look at the first 1 or 2 modules so you don't TPK them too early. These will work for LVL-1 and likely get them to LVL-3. Also there is a ton of small adventures you can pull up from different Patreon providers or the Drive-By site. Lots of those work and can be dropped in to any other adventure. Yawning Portal and Mad Mage have low level early adventures can be plugged in as stand alone side quests.
That's a good suggestion. I've used Yawning Portal as well starting with 2nd level characters and have success with the adventure book.
Four level one characters. Fighter, Cleric, Warlock, Artificer. Good mix, Fighter main tank, Artificer secondary, Cleric heals, Artificer ans back up, Warlock for ranged blasting. and again, the Artificer has the Warlock's back. Artificers in general seem to be very flexible, I compare them to Bards.
Usually people start out in a Village at that level. Somewhere small, and they deal with the classic "rats in the cellar" kind of quests. Someone needs low challenge rating monsters, typical animals or beasts, cleared out of somewhere. They are eating the farmer's crops, they are after his cattle, they're in the little old lady's house in the cellar and make too much noise.
Some ideas:
The main thing to keep in mind is that people usually don't want to spend much time at 1st level. Only a couple sessions is usually enough. People want to see the fun stuff happen, and it takes very little total Experience to get there. Milestone leveling means you just kind of have to guess, but two or three of these little side quests is probably all you need.
At second level it's time to leave the village and head into town. Along the way, there's bandits and packs of wolves, or more minor undead. Once they hit town, they hit the tavern, pick up some rumors and they can start chasing off on the main quest line. Now you start working anything form a character's back story as a side quest. There will be more and tougher monsters, you can start dealing with exportation and long range travel. They hit 3rd level and it's off to a city. Give them some down time to train and get some better gear, maybe buy better armor or pick up magical consumables, maybe even some honest to goodness rare items could be for sale at a high price. They finish off their main quest line, that's the milestone for 4th level.
Now, a lot depends on things specific to your setting. I am going on the general run of a moderate to low magic setting. You need to adjust from there. What constitutes a high price can vary a lot and how easy to get magic items is something you need to consider, so you should talk about all such things in a "session zero" before play actually starts. If play has already started, take the time in your next session to take care of it. If you have any specific house rules that's when you tell people about them. If you want a serious tone, they need to know. If it's all silly fun, same same. Some people prefer to try to use social skills and you need to tell people if that's going to work out well or not. None of the characters are bad for it, but someone ought to be the party "face" the one who does most of the negotiating. Warlocks are based on Charisma, so they can be good at that, but they are often seen as kind of evil, and common folk might be scared of them. That's yet another session zero thing. How do people react to people able to kill your typical Commoner in one hit?
<Insert clever signature here>
I don’t used published adventures, so I might be wrong, but I think candlekeep and ghosts of saltmarsh both have shorter things you can plug in to larger adventures, rather then a complete campaign.
You are correct.
Thanks for all the advice! : )
Mythology Master
Crib ideas from movies, TV shows, and books that you are familiar with. Players won’t often recognize this because of the context change. You’ll be familiar enough that you can roll with the direction players take even if it isn’t what you anticipated. Just have a list of names, locations, and perhaps some level appropriate rewards prepared.
I’ve used story lines from Castle, Ozark, Supernatural, Alice in Wonderland, Star Wars, the Lies of Locke Lamora, etc. This usually works as you have an idea how things would play out regardless of what the players do and you have established personalities to draw upon.