So thought I would set up a thread for people to post interesting encounter or adventure ideas.
Note this is not about long term campaigns, but more those side quest ideas that you put through your world to help give it life and let the characters have other things to do then just hunt down he BBEG.
Here are 3 I have run that worked well, and yes you may well see some inspiration from stage, screen or books here :).
NPC who doesn't see the point of going on has taken out an assassin contract on his own life as his murder will allow a large settlement to pay off his debts and help his parents and sister. However in between setting up the contract and now he has met someone and fallen in love and no longer want's to die, the problem is the contract can't be cancelled as the balance won't be paid until he is dead and he has no idea who the assassin is or when they will strike, I added a side issue to this that the NPC owed money to a criminal and so the party also had to resolve that debt.
2 lovers from warring families have escaped and gone on the run, each family hires the characters independently to track down the pair, and return them both each family want's their own child back, and the other families child (to hold for ransom, ensure some deal is completed, hold them hostage or just punish them for "corrupting' there own child). Things are complicated by the fact other parties are hunting the 2 either to gain the bounty on offer, or to try and kidnap them for there own aims. The players have a multiple of options here, they can play the 2 families against one another to up the price, help the 2 lovers escape and hide, help convince the families to stop the war and instead combine in happiness. This idea could be made wider by having the 2 be an elf and a dwarf, or 2 dwarven families where the grudge is long, or an elf and a drow, and so on.
Village is being terrorised by some unknown force. In reality a wild magic sorceror child is coming into their magic, scared, hiding and not understanding what is happening. The villiage is convinced it is a witch and is hunting down any lead. If the party don't find the child in time there is a possibility someone might be burnt at the stake.
An art gallery is expected to be attacked by worshippers of a destruction god while it's closed up for the night. The party is tasked with defending the priceless art pieces within, and the cultists prioritize those over enemy combatants when possible. They've got an afternoon to prepare. When I ran it, I put the gallery on a boat, docked at the harbor, and gave the cultists an air elemental that can throw PCs off the side. Good times.
In my recently started campaign, the level 2 party of six were going down a rutted dirt road when a scarecrow attacked from the field side of the path, and two more jumped in from the forest side of the path. Scarecrows are great low level monsters if you don't want to use undead.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I'm working on a campaign centered around evil carnivales. It starts out in the PC's home town, where every summer the same traveling carnivale shows up for the midsummer festival. This year, the carnivale did not show up. But, about two weeks after the midsummer festival, another carnivale shows up. This one does not have all of the bright colors and engaging personalities of the regular carnivale. The tents and costumes are all shades of gray, with most of carnies talking in monotones and being fairly boring people. Towns people who stay late at the carnivale don't return home until the next morning, and then, they go around trying to get other people to come visit the carnivale that night. Like the carnies, they speak in a monotone.
The carnivale is controlled by an evil wizard who has created a device that casts mass suggestion on people. The wizard is not present at this carnivale, but, has a minion as the ring master. While trying to destroy the mass suggestion device, the party will come upon evidence that other carnivales are also going around and hypnotizing people. The Big Bad is trying to build an army of hypnotized people to create an empire, figuring that soldiers will have trouble attacking their fellow citizens are attacking them, particularly if they know they are mind controlled.
I'm still working on some of the details, but, I figure each carnivale will be controlled by a different individual (e.g., ring master, animal tamer, fortune teller, tight rope walker, worker helps set up the carnivale, etc.) and each carnivale will have a different device that creates the mass suggestion spell (spinning prize wheel, hall of mirrors, ferris wheel type ride, fortune teller's cards, etc.).
I'm still figuring out the end game, and, trying to figure out how to do this without boring the players to death (oh, god, not another carnivale) or making the steps they must take to defeat each carnivale easily predictable.
A tribe of goblins has been forced out of their mountain cave home by a larger force of Orcs, or Bugbears, or a dragon etc.
They have settled nearby a town, and the mayor/lord of the town has called for heroes to help take care of the goblins.
Once the party accept this quest, they quickly realise they literally have to take care of the goblin refugees, by helping them build homes, set up water wells, plant crops.
Once complete, things start to go wrong - the wells get poisoned, the crops get destroyed, fires break out in homes at night. The goblins think it is whoever drove them from the mountains, but it is actually bigots from the nearby town that don't want the goblins settling so close.
The characters could confront the bigots, clear the enemies from the goblins home, or try to mediate a truce between the town and the goblins.
The bride and groom are scheduled to be married soon. The groom and the wedding party (PS"s) do the bachelor party. Groom gets very ill the next day, but seems ok. On the day of the wedding the groom doesn't show. PC's know he is in love with the bride, so probably not cold feet. PC's need to investigate for missing groom.
Groom has been taken by the bride to be's mother as she doesn't think that groom is good enough for her.
Here's a sidequest I wrote for my party that I slotted into Hoard of the Dragon Queen...
The party is invited to attend a high class ball but they know that the person running the ball is paranoid, and doesn't allow anyone to attend with weapons or spellcasting focuses on them... the players then have to decide if they want to risk sneaking in supplies and armor, or if they'd rather just willingly enter without their defenses.
To the surprise of no one, a group of assassins have infiltrated the Ball, intent on kidnapping the host and forcing her to open up her safe before killing her. The idea was to basically build an NPC party of opponents, then place the party in a situation where they won't have their equipment handy. It led to some pretty creative choices, since aside from the Cleric, nobody had their spellcasting focuses and had to improvise with the stuff they could grab in the moment. It was basically the only time the specific Material components of spells actually came up. The Wizard, for example, used the stem of a wine glass and a fur cape to cast Lightning Bolt, and the Bard had to grab an instrument from the band to use as a spellcasting focus. The Ranger didn't have their bow and arrow, and had to rely on cutlery and eventually grab a decorative weapon to use.
One of my favorite opens to use in a new campaign is the “Usual Suspects” where all the players have been put in jail for one reason or another and that’s how the party forms.
So, knowing that my players know I like using it, instead of them making bail or getting released because of a misunderstanding, I made the first adventure take place entirely in the jail. The players were stuck in their cells when a zombie outbreak happened. To raise the stakes. I also added a flood. So they had to break out of jail with no tools, weapons, or spell components. The flooding was mainly there to put a timetable in to keep them trying things. So it became an escape room situation fairly quickly.
Another one an NPC the characters know well suddenly announces they are getting married to a strange person, the person is isolating them from friends and family.
In reality the person is a hag who has charmed the NPC, every night she absorbs part of his life force once they are married she will fully extract all his life and move on having gained all his wealth.
I'm currently trying to find a way to do a scenario based on the Red Harvest/Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars template, where the PCs have to play two warring sides (neither of whom are the "good guys" in any real sense) off against each other to survive
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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)
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So thought I would set up a thread for people to post interesting encounter or adventure ideas.
Note this is not about long term campaigns, but more those side quest ideas that you put through your world to help give it life and let the characters have other things to do then just hunt down he BBEG.
Here are 3 I have run that worked well, and yes you may well see some inspiration from stage, screen or books here :).
NPC who doesn't see the point of going on has taken out an assassin contract on his own life as his murder will allow a large settlement to pay off his debts and help his parents and sister. However in between setting up the contract and now he has met someone and fallen in love and no longer want's to die, the problem is the contract can't be cancelled as the balance won't be paid until he is dead and he has no idea who the assassin is or when they will strike, I added a side issue to this that the NPC owed money to a criminal and so the party also had to resolve that debt.
2 lovers from warring families have escaped and gone on the run, each family hires the characters independently to track down the pair, and return them both each family want's their own child back, and the other families child (to hold for ransom, ensure some deal is completed, hold them hostage or just punish them for "corrupting' there own child). Things are complicated by the fact other parties are hunting the 2 either to gain the bounty on offer, or to try and kidnap them for there own aims. The players have a multiple of options here, they can play the 2 families against one another to up the price, help the 2 lovers escape and hide, help convince the families to stop the war and instead combine in happiness. This idea could be made wider by having the 2 be an elf and a dwarf, or 2 dwarven families where the grudge is long, or an elf and a drow, and so on.
Village is being terrorised by some unknown force. In reality a wild magic sorceror child is coming into their magic, scared, hiding and not understanding what is happening. The villiage is convinced it is a witch and is hunting down any lead. If the party don't find the child in time there is a possibility someone might be burnt at the stake.
An art gallery is expected to be attacked by worshippers of a destruction god while it's closed up for the night. The party is tasked with defending the priceless art pieces within, and the cultists prioritize those over enemy combatants when possible. They've got an afternoon to prepare. When I ran it, I put the gallery on a boat, docked at the harbor, and gave the cultists an air elemental that can throw PCs off the side. Good times.
In my recently started campaign, the level 2 party of six were going down a rutted dirt road when a scarecrow attacked from the field side of the path, and two more jumped in from the forest side of the path. Scarecrows are great low level monsters if you don't want to use undead.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I'm working on a campaign centered around evil carnivales. It starts out in the PC's home town, where every summer the same traveling carnivale shows up for the midsummer festival. This year, the carnivale did not show up. But, about two weeks after the midsummer festival, another carnivale shows up. This one does not have all of the bright colors and engaging personalities of the regular carnivale. The tents and costumes are all shades of gray, with most of carnies talking in monotones and being fairly boring people. Towns people who stay late at the carnivale don't return home until the next morning, and then, they go around trying to get other people to come visit the carnivale that night. Like the carnies, they speak in a monotone.
The carnivale is controlled by an evil wizard who has created a device that casts mass suggestion on people. The wizard is not present at this carnivale, but, has a minion as the ring master. While trying to destroy the mass suggestion device, the party will come upon evidence that other carnivales are also going around and hypnotizing people. The Big Bad is trying to build an army of hypnotized people to create an empire, figuring that soldiers will have trouble attacking their fellow citizens are attacking them, particularly if they know they are mind controlled.
I'm still working on some of the details, but, I figure each carnivale will be controlled by a different individual (e.g., ring master, animal tamer, fortune teller, tight rope walker, worker helps set up the carnivale, etc.) and each carnivale will have a different device that creates the mass suggestion spell (spinning prize wheel, hall of mirrors, ferris wheel type ride, fortune teller's cards, etc.).
I'm still figuring out the end game, and, trying to figure out how to do this without boring the players to death (oh, god, not another carnivale) or making the steps they must take to defeat each carnivale easily predictable.
A tribe of goblins has been forced out of their mountain cave home by a larger force of Orcs, or Bugbears, or a dragon etc.
They have settled nearby a town, and the mayor/lord of the town has called for heroes to help take care of the goblins.
Once the party accept this quest, they quickly realise they literally have to take care of the goblin refugees, by helping them build homes, set up water wells, plant crops.
Once complete, things start to go wrong - the wells get poisoned, the crops get destroyed, fires break out in homes at night. The goblins think it is whoever drove them from the mountains, but it is actually bigots from the nearby town that don't want the goblins settling so close.
The characters could confront the bigots, clear the enemies from the goblins home, or try to mediate a truce between the town and the goblins.
Save the dragon from the terrible princess. I'm all about the classics.
The bride and groom are scheduled to be married soon. The groom and the wedding party (PS"s) do the bachelor party. Groom gets very ill the next day, but seems ok. On the day of the wedding the groom doesn't show. PC's know he is in love with the bride, so probably not cold feet. PC's need to investigate for missing groom.
Groom has been taken by the bride to be's mother as she doesn't think that groom is good enough for her.
Here's a sidequest I wrote for my party that I slotted into Hoard of the Dragon Queen...
The party is invited to attend a high class ball but they know that the person running the ball is paranoid, and doesn't allow anyone to attend with weapons or spellcasting focuses on them... the players then have to decide if they want to risk sneaking in supplies and armor, or if they'd rather just willingly enter without their defenses.
To the surprise of no one, a group of assassins have infiltrated the Ball, intent on kidnapping the host and forcing her to open up her safe before killing her. The idea was to basically build an NPC party of opponents, then place the party in a situation where they won't have their equipment handy. It led to some pretty creative choices, since aside from the Cleric, nobody had their spellcasting focuses and had to improvise with the stuff they could grab in the moment. It was basically the only time the specific Material components of spells actually came up. The Wizard, for example, used the stem of a wine glass and a fur cape to cast Lightning Bolt, and the Bard had to grab an instrument from the band to use as a spellcasting focus. The Ranger didn't have their bow and arrow, and had to rely on cutlery and eventually grab a decorative weapon to use.
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One of my favorite opens to use in a new campaign is the “Usual Suspects” where all the players have been put in jail for one reason or another and that’s how the party forms.
So, knowing that my players know I like using it, instead of them making bail or getting released because of a misunderstanding, I made the first adventure take place entirely in the jail. The players were stuck in their cells when a zombie outbreak happened. To raise the stakes. I also added a flood. So they had to break out of jail with no tools, weapons, or spell components. The flooding was mainly there to put a timetable in to keep them trying things. So it became an escape room situation fairly quickly.
Another one an NPC the characters know well suddenly announces they are getting married to a strange person, the person is isolating them from friends and family.
In reality the person is a hag who has charmed the NPC, every night she absorbs part of his life force once they are married she will fully extract all his life and move on having gained all his wealth.
I'm currently trying to find a way to do a scenario based on the Red Harvest/Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars template, where the PCs have to play two warring sides (neither of whom are the "good guys" in any real sense) off against each other to survive
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)