So I am making my own campaign and I'd like the side quests to help brings some humor & fun to the campaign, my group seems to like that type of stuff. One of the humorous quests I've come up with is a Twliight spoof where a vampire and werewolf are fighting over a slightly attractive depressed girl. Obviously, I didn't have to think too hard to get there, but I thought I would just see if there are any other ideas for a good laugh. **It does NOT have to be vampire themed- I can always change or just make it an all out side quest**
I love throwing super mundane things at my players sometimes. Lost pet, fix a roof, grocery shopping...add enthusiastic quest givers with more money then sense and a few fun complications and it can be a fun role playing session.
My campaign world includes an unscrupulous merchant, think Diskworlds Dibblers or Del Trotter from Only Fools and Horses. Some of his products are low power magic items that come with unintended side effects, giving some of these items to npcs can cause all sorts of commotion and chaos.
In a recent session a wizard used an item obtained from this merchant to animate several gargoyles to assist with mundane tasks, only to find out he had no control over them at all. As he tried to quietly leave the area the party finished off the rampaging gargoyles, half killed him, then gave chase. Finding him at home cowering under his desk and utterly incomprehensible other than muttering the name of the merchant, suddenly the party were far less hostile, in one players words "he's a victim". After calming him down a bit the party get the full story.
This merchant is going to be a regular source of mayhem for at least as long as the party leave him to his own devices, someone who has to live in the lake because the ring of water breathing lets them ONLY breathe underwater, a ring of comprehend languages that allows a character to speak one or more rare languages but strips their ability to use the common ones...
Or building on the rats in the cellar cliche... and I am starting to give myself ideas. Say small items have been rearranged into some sort of short message "help" being the obvious choice, then it turns out the rats are possessed by, or have been transformed from humanoids/fey/celestials/fiends. The party could even find themselves transformed and need to figure out how to escape.
One of my favourites that I torture my group with is this: I have a recurring NPC named Drya that they really like. But, the main NPC is also my bad guy, and he wants her dead, so every time she pops up, they have to hide her from him and this leads to some ridiculous things (such as my bard flirting with Dante to distract him or Drya hiding behind a dragon and Dante rolling a NAT 1 for perception). But this NPC has her own agenda, and so she's trying to do something unrelated and they often end up helping her with whatever it is so that she can leave and stay alive. (In all honesty, she could SO take Dante in a fight, but they don't need to know that).
A wealthy women needs help finding her lost dog, that ran off during a picnic.
The dog is a hellhound, but she wants the dog back alive, so the party needs too figure out how too get it back, because the hound only trusts the woman that gave the quest.
You could do the whole dragon-in-a-box route of you really want to annoy your players. Have them clean out a basement and find a chest. They open it, and a dragon comes out. Brilliant, yet it works every time! My source: (The great... Puffin Forest)
"...the ring of water breathing lets them ONLY breathe underwater, a ring of comprehend languages that allows a character to speak one or more rare languages but strips their ability to use the common ones..."
Heh...a Ring of Narcolepsy.
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If you can't understand it, it's intuitively obvious.
A town is suddenly taken with a rash of lycanthropy, as residents are turning into were-moose. An alchemist who lives upriver is working on a draught to turn his pet Moose into his talking best buddy, and dumping his failed experiments into the river.
Start a rumor about a "killer magical axe." If your party likes loot, they will try to obtain it. Build a short adventure around obtaining this magical axe, which is part of a hag or other obviously evil NPC's treasure trove. Once they get the axe, it turns out to be a literal singing guitar that attracts humans from up to 300 feet away and make them want to possess the guitar for themselves.
Another idea: while the party is resting at their favorite inn, have a person leave a baby outside. Once the party investigates, it becomes apparent that the infant has an uncanny resemblance to one of the male party members. Pretty soon there is a rumor going around that said PC is the father. Hijinx of misunderstanding and random cuteness ensue.
A cute, humorous monster character, like a Kobold, asking the adventurers to protect him from the big, scary knight who keeps trying to kill him could make a fun sidequest.
Edit: did not realize original post was so old! Oh well, maybe I'll inspire someone. :-)
I don't run a serious game because half of the fun in my D&D games is riffing with my friends so here are some tips. Can you tell us about the sense of humor, shared experiences, and interests of the party? Are you all from the same town or area? Local stuff can go far. I'm in San Diego and introducing Zonis, what we call the super ratchet, drunk, obnoxious vacationers from Arizona helped get the party on board real quick. Here are some other quick tips off the dome anyway:
Incorporating elements into the world make it easier. Do orcs have a predilection for finding junk and trying to sell it? Do they envy dwarven beer, maybe they desire a notable keg. Maybe there's an influx of counterfeit goods, maybe it's K2 which is inherently amusing. Are there strange festival rituals?
What about the political landscape of the world and the mission critical npcs? Is there a historical source you can use? Hapsburg Jaw and other characteristics are pretty good for this sort of thing. Also the non indigenous, Western European imposed King of Greece Alexander died after one of the monkeys in his menagerie bit him and gave him some sort of monkey disease medicine couldn't deal with in 1920.
Take something bizarre or absurd from current events or some sort of interest you have in common makes it much easier. For example, currently using the Cult of Tek as an enemy that has taken over the trade city of San Frangellico and plans to overthrow--re: disrupt--the world by making a plot with an evil god because they think feudalism isn't as efficient at exploiting the peasantry. Based in Mercury Valley, they are trying to grasp for unheralded amounts of power.
Introducing sports and sport-related aspects can add levity--village football, polo, calcio storico (using this one at the moment in my current campaign), and tennis are all examples of medieval-renaissance sports. Sport has a lot of angles to it--most traditionally, it involves local pride which can be a big deal for questgivers. There might also be gambling. They might have to fix a game for a questgiver, or foil attempts to fix a game. Are performance enhancing drugs a thing? Should they procure them for a team or thwart another team's attempts to use PED's?
Anyway, will try to post more but I actually have to finish up prepping for my next session a few hours from now ha.
I found this free adventure, Into the Feywild (https://www.patreon.com/posts/into-feywild-100-6755905) to be pretty funny. Plenty enough quirky characters and silly situations to play with. The structure is nice too such that you can pick and choose pieces of it pretty easily to run as one-shots. They should be pretty easily adaptable to various campaign settings too.
I’ve had this idea where the adventurers show up in a town. Standard missing equipment, food raids from creatures, and the noble’s lady ring has gone missing. Any route they follow ends up to tunnels and caves below the town where two factions of kobolds are at war. Romeo and Juliet Story ensues (Romeo stole the ring to propose).
I’ve done it once and after the eye rolls once they figured it out, they got into it. It was really fun to see if and when the party pieces it together. Depending on how quickly they get there they can intervene the couple dying and stop the fight, or if they are too late, play up the drama and they have to pick a side and join the kobold war, etc.
King needs a party to find an obscure ingredient for a potion that he needs to "help" him sire an heir. Obviously it's a very sensitive issue and all hush hush.
Love triangle murder mysteries can be fun.
The cook at the annual feast for whatever has run out of wild goat and they need 10 before the weekend.
A cult that worships rats wants the player to head into the sewers of the largest city close by and feed them with potent cookies. Upon arrival the rats have build a world of their own you can imagine a small 'rat' world. Can change rats to any small animal. A mad man is poisening the local water systems with laughing fluids. Fighting the outbreak of any hilarious disease can be made into fun as long at it's not offensive. A dillusional man, thinks he's the most powerful wizard, has them sent of to some grand quest, only to find out the man is absolutely crazy and they find a hilarious display instead.
Really like this thread, some good ideas in here!
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So I am making my own campaign and I'd like the side quests to help brings some humor & fun to the campaign, my group seems to like that type of stuff. One of the humorous quests I've come up with is a Twliight spoof where a vampire and werewolf are fighting over a slightly attractive depressed girl. Obviously, I didn't have to think too hard to get there, but I thought I would just see if there are any other ideas for a good laugh. **It does NOT have to be vampire themed- I can always change or just make it an all out side quest**
Thanks in advance
A couple of half ideas:
A hag is jealous of the beauty of a young woman and the woman has found shelter with 7 stout halflings.
An NPC is cursed to make a WIS save every minute or fall unconscious for a minute.
This made me think of the long told:
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I love throwing super mundane things at my players sometimes. Lost pet, fix a roof, grocery shopping...add enthusiastic quest givers with more money then sense and a few fun complications and it can be a fun role playing session.
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
My campaign world includes an unscrupulous merchant, think Diskworlds Dibblers or Del Trotter from Only Fools and Horses. Some of his products are low power magic items that come with unintended side effects, giving some of these items to npcs can cause all sorts of commotion and chaos.
In a recent session a wizard used an item obtained from this merchant to animate several gargoyles to assist with mundane tasks, only to find out he had no control over them at all. As he tried to quietly leave the area the party finished off the rampaging gargoyles, half killed him, then gave chase. Finding him at home cowering under his desk and utterly incomprehensible other than muttering the name of the merchant, suddenly the party were far less hostile, in one players words "he's a victim". After calming him down a bit the party get the full story.
This merchant is going to be a regular source of mayhem for at least as long as the party leave him to his own devices, someone who has to live in the lake because the ring of water breathing lets them ONLY breathe underwater, a ring of comprehend languages that allows a character to speak one or more rare languages but strips their ability to use the common ones...
Or building on the rats in the cellar cliche... and I am starting to give myself ideas. Say small items have been rearranged into some sort of short message "help" being the obvious choice, then it turns out the rats are possessed by, or have been transformed from humanoids/fey/celestials/fiends. The party could even find themselves transformed and need to figure out how to escape.
One of my favourites that I torture my group with is this: I have a recurring NPC named Drya that they really like. But, the main NPC is also my bad guy, and he wants her dead, so every time she pops up, they have to hide her from him and this leads to some ridiculous things (such as my bard flirting with Dante to distract him or Drya hiding behind a dragon and Dante rolling a NAT 1 for perception). But this NPC has her own agenda, and so she's trying to do something unrelated and they often end up helping her with whatever it is so that she can leave and stay alive. (In all honesty, she could SO take Dante in a fight, but they don't need to know that).
Well I have this one that is odd.
A wealthy women needs help finding her lost dog, that ran off during a picnic.
The dog is a hellhound, but she wants the dog back alive, so the party needs too figure out how too get it back, because the hound only trusts the woman that gave the quest.
Current game- Pelegos: Coastal Chaos
Game world- Pelegos, homebrew
Role- Player
Players- (Me) Druid/bard : Flower, Dancer of Curses ------- Fighter/rouge : Blackshanks, ruffian --------Sorcereress - Melenie, prodigy
You could do the whole dragon-in-a-box route of you really want to annoy your players. Have them clean out a basement and find a chest. They open it, and a dragon comes out. Brilliant, yet it works every time! My source: (The great... Puffin Forest)
it's been a long time...
"...the ring of water breathing lets them ONLY breathe underwater, a ring of comprehend languages that allows a character to speak one or more rare languages but strips their ability to use the common ones..."
Heh...a Ring of Narcolepsy.
If you can't understand it, it's intuitively obvious.
Sinnikal
Thanks very helpful used in my campaign
A town is suddenly taken with a rash of lycanthropy, as residents are turning into were-moose. An alchemist who lives upriver is working on a draught to turn his pet Moose into his talking best buddy, and dumping his failed experiments into the river.
"To die would be an awfully big adventure"
Start a rumor about a "killer magical axe." If your party likes loot, they will try to obtain it. Build a short adventure around obtaining this magical axe, which is part of a hag or other obviously evil NPC's treasure trove. Once they get the axe, it turns out to be a literal singing guitar that attracts humans from up to 300 feet away and make them want to possess the guitar for themselves.
Another idea: while the party is resting at their favorite inn, have a person leave a baby outside. Once the party investigates, it becomes apparent that the infant has an uncanny resemblance to one of the male party members. Pretty soon there is a rumor going around that said PC is the father. Hijinx of misunderstanding and random cuteness ensue.
Arrow of Conscientious Objection, Compass of Destiny, Dagger of Monster Calling, Ring of Gaseous Form (Cursed): A few items I've copied over from old Dragon Magazines, or inspired by other works. While not side quests, in and of themselves, they could create a side quest to get rid of them.
A cute, humorous monster character, like a Kobold, asking the adventurers to protect him from the big, scary knight who keeps trying to kill him could make a fun sidequest.
Edit: did not realize original post was so old! Oh well, maybe I'll inspire someone. :-)
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I don't run a serious game because half of the fun in my D&D games is riffing with my friends so here are some tips. Can you tell us about the sense of humor, shared experiences, and interests of the party? Are you all from the same town or area? Local stuff can go far. I'm in San Diego and introducing Zonis, what we call the super ratchet, drunk, obnoxious vacationers from Arizona helped get the party on board real quick. Here are some other quick tips off the dome anyway:
Incorporating elements into the world make it easier. Do orcs have a predilection for finding junk and trying to sell it? Do they envy dwarven beer, maybe they desire a notable keg. Maybe there's an influx of counterfeit goods, maybe it's K2 which is inherently amusing. Are there strange festival rituals?
What about the political landscape of the world and the mission critical npcs? Is there a historical source you can use? Hapsburg Jaw and other characteristics are pretty good for this sort of thing. Also the non indigenous, Western European imposed King of Greece Alexander died after one of the monkeys in his menagerie bit him and gave him some sort of monkey disease medicine couldn't deal with in 1920.
Take something bizarre or absurd from current events or some sort of interest you have in common makes it much easier. For example, currently using the Cult of Tek as an enemy that has taken over the trade city of San Frangellico and plans to overthrow--re: disrupt--the world by making a plot with an evil god because they think feudalism isn't as efficient at exploiting the peasantry. Based in Mercury Valley, they are trying to grasp for unheralded amounts of power.
Introducing sports and sport-related aspects can add levity--village football, polo, calcio storico (using this one at the moment in my current campaign), and tennis are all examples of medieval-renaissance sports. Sport has a lot of angles to it--most traditionally, it involves local pride which can be a big deal for questgivers. There might also be gambling. They might have to fix a game for a questgiver, or foil attempts to fix a game. Are performance enhancing drugs a thing? Should they procure them for a team or thwart another team's attempts to use PED's?
Anyway, will try to post more but I actually have to finish up prepping for my next session a few hours from now ha.
I found this free adventure, Into the Feywild (https://www.patreon.com/posts/into-feywild-100-6755905) to be pretty funny. Plenty enough quirky characters and silly situations to play with. The structure is nice too such that you can pick and choose pieces of it pretty easily to run as one-shots. They should be pretty easily adaptable to various campaign settings too.
I’ve had this idea where the adventurers show up in a town. Standard missing equipment, food raids from creatures, and the noble’s lady ring has gone missing. Any route they follow ends up to tunnels and caves below the town where two factions of kobolds are at war. Romeo and Juliet Story ensues (Romeo stole the ring to propose).
I’ve done it once and after the eye rolls once they figured it out, they got into it. It was really fun to see if and when the party pieces it together. Depending on how quickly they get there they can intervene the couple dying and stop the fight, or if they are too late, play up the drama and they have to pick a side and join the kobold war, etc.
King needs a party to find an obscure ingredient for a potion that he needs to "help" him sire an heir. Obviously it's a very sensitive issue and all hush hush.
Love triangle murder mysteries can be fun.
The cook at the annual feast for whatever has run out of wild goat and they need 10 before the weekend.
the king need you to find a doctor to remove his 2 lower ribs for reasons he will not disclose
A cult that worships rats wants the player to head into the sewers of the largest city close by and feed them with potent cookies. Upon arrival the rats have build a world of their own you can imagine a small 'rat' world. Can change rats to any small animal.
A mad man is poisening the local water systems with laughing fluids. Fighting the outbreak of any hilarious disease can be made into fun as long at it's not offensive.
A dillusional man, thinks he's the most powerful wizard, has them sent of to some grand quest, only to find out the man is absolutely crazy and they find a hilarious display instead.
Really like this thread, some good ideas in here!