Unboring quest-givers: More than notice boards
The tavern is mostly quiet. Apart from a few labourers drinking away their pay, there’s a mysterious old man sitting in the corner with a hood over his head. With one hand, he plays with an enchanted dagger. With another, he beckons you over.
But you can’t go to see him because you’re already asleep.
There’s nothing wrong with the classic trope of the Strider/Aragon figure in the tavern, dealing out quests. Nothing except for how boring it is. The usual way will do in a pinch but, after you run a few campaigns, the classics become dated, fast.
The people giving quests can be more than notice boards. In fact, if they’re just going to be looking for adventurers to go on quests for them, replace them with notice boards. You might as well at that point.
But, again, that’s boring. Let’s make them unboring.
“5 stars – would tell them about the ancient evil again”
A group of strangers wander into town.
They get to talking with the sheriff, who tells them about the orc marauders troubling these lands.
The party asks where the orc chieftain lives. The sheriff laughs in their face.
Would the sheriff trust this essential job to a group of strangers he knows nothing about? Maybe, if he has no other options. He doesn’t know if they’re competent or trustworthy, and he needs a group that’s both.
He can’t reveal too much in case they’re spies or their bungling alerts the orcs to what he knows.
Instead, he gives them smaller jobs.
Take out the goblin camp that’s allied with the orcs.
Find the blacksmith selling the orcs their weapons.
Deliver a letter to the mayor of another town, asking for help.
Only once they’ve proven themselves do they get the whereabouts of the orc chieftain.
There are a few advantages to this.
Firstly, it tells the players that the world doesn’t revolve around their characters. NPCs will make sensible decisions in their best interests. They’re not there to satisfy their need for loot and XP.
Secondly, it allows the GM to introduce some stakes and tension. Maybe the sheriff sends a famous adventuring party after the orc chieftain. Everyone in town gushes over this other party, buying them drinks and singing their praises.
When that party fails, it establishes the orcs as a real threat. It also gives the players the chance to win some glory – by succeeding where the popular party failed.
Thirdly, it takes a series of random encounters and strings them into a mini-campaign. The orc chieftain might be an encounter for 4th-level PCs. Getting from Level 1 to 4 involves working against the orcs by gathering intel, sabotaging supplies and eliminating allies.
Then, when they face the orc chieftain, it’s a lot more meaningful.
Fourthly, sufficiently creative players might tell the sheriff where to shove his intel. Then the players can either go after the orcs in their own way or go after a completely different quest. Either way, they’re off your rails and seizing the initiative.
The challenge with this? Giving the players a goal (stop the orcs!) but preventing them from going after it (but you’re too low level, lol!) can be considered bad form. Make sure the quests they can go on aren’t pointless busywork.
Directionless, definition-free drama
A typical quest might be:
The Academy’s priceless artefact was stolen by bandits. Go get it back!
That quest is incredibly well-defined. The players know what to do, for whom and why.
Consider an alternative situation.
The PCs take out a bandit camp – or come across one that was recently destroyed. They find a magical artefact in the wreckage.
The wizard identifies it as a demon beacon carrying the insignia of the local military. Demon beacons open a portal through which demons pour. After an hour, the portal closes and the demons are banished.
It’s a dangerous weapon. Demons kill without discrimination. On the other hand, using it can save lives by sterilising an enemy town without risking any soldiers.
What do the adventurers do? They could return the beacon to the military, destroy it or use it. Any of those choices makes sense and any will involve a quest in itself.
But notice how the GM isn’t telling them what to do. No NPC is commissioning them here. The players are free to decide what’s best.
Move the quest-giver off-screen
Instead of beginning the session in the tavern, where a mysterious old man etc, etc, why not move all that into the backstory?
Begin the session on the road.
A minor advantage is it frees up game time from all the boring, typical cruft.
A major advantage is you can tailor the quest with your players. You can discuss with them what they want and what would hook their PC in.
Obviously you don’t give them the whole quest up front – just how it begins.
There’s a lot to be said for moving the focus off the PCs – to putting them in a world that lives and breathes without them.
If you like that sort of thing, you’ll love Footprints. It shows you how to easily craft societies that rise and fall before they even arrive on the scene.
You can find it here: