Quests and adventures!

[ISL]

Hey there!

May I ask you to sit back and imagine that there's a d&d session coming up next week, in which you will participate as... the dungeon master!

You want the party impressed, so you sit down with a notebook/notepad to write whatever ideas of quests, stories, or any other interesting adventures that would happen to your player party down on the list.

What are the most interesting ideas that you'd like to share?



Here's some of my examples:
1. A mysterious voice calls out to the party, begging for the heroes to help them. Upon finding the person in distress it appears to be a... talking skeleton head.

Spoiler

The skull pretends to be a legendary ruler in the past who was cursed to live his miserable existance in the form of an undying talking head. He asks the party members to lift his curse by... seeking out his skeletal body somewhere among the remainings of his countless servants which literally cover the whole surrounding area...

Who cursed the guy? What has he done to be damned like that? What kind of a ruler he was? Is he even telling the truth? After all, does it really worth it to help him?
It's up to the party to decide.

2. Traveling accross the lands, the party members stumble upon a refugee camp that has recently been raided by bandits. A child reaches out to the party, telling that they've lost all of their friends and relatives during the recent raid, and asking the adventurers party if they could come along with them.

Spoiler

In case the party accepts to take a child on their adventures, the kid will show some useful and nimble skills at first, proving to be of use for the party. However, an unnatural series of disasters and bad luck shall soon follow the heroes wherever they'd go.

As the story goes on, the party members realize that those weren't just a bunch of bandits who attacked the 'refugee camp', but a zealous order of the inquisition, who've been rumored to be a little too cruel and to some extend - insane. Another series of rumors reaches the ears of the heroes, claiming that the refugee camp they've recently been into turned out to be an occult organization which worships something sinister and dark, and that's why they were pursued by the inquisition.

The party is left to choose which rumors to believe, and also to decide what to do with the child. (Assuming that they don't actually know if the bad luck was connected to the kid or not)

3. After completing yet another ordinary quest, the party returns to the town expecting to be bathed in glory and recognition... only to find out that there's another group of adventurers which is taking credits AND REWARDS for everything that the player party has done.

Spoiler

Confronting the false party would prove to be absolutely pointless, and worse, the other party already managed to earn the peoples' favor and trust, thus turning them against the real party and convincing that it were the players who were impostors and not them. Eventually, someone suggests that the dispute should be resolved by a competition between the two parties.

The thing is, the members of the false party actually end up having more positive features and skill advantages over the members of the real party, thus managing to beat the players in everything they would think they do best. The party's warrior is beaten by his analogue from the false party, the wizard ends up being outmatched by the skill of the opposing one, etc.
The real quest here, however, is to find the flaws that the imposters have, seek out their negative features and achieve victory through playing on them. (or forget about the rewards and just run the hell out of town... something that the true imposters would do, ain't it?)

4. After clearing their first dungeon/completing their first epic quest, the party members are granted with all sorts of valuable and fabulous loot for them. One of the party members, however, is rewarded with a phat legendary weapon (which should make everyone else a little jealous). That weapon wins them a couple of battles and secures the success of a few encounters for the party.
However...

Spoiler

... the item appears to be an actual living being... not just any being... but a demon, a REALLY powerful one. The item starts to provide its owner with an increasing array of negative traits, while at the same time, increasing its own power and destructiveness. At some point, the demon starts to occasionally take control over its owner, or interract with the surrounding environment or even with the nearby characters (including NPCs and other players...)

An important thing is, should the other party members convince the lucky owner of this awfully brilliant item to get rid of it, or if the situation becomes so bad that the owner decides to do it themself... the item will actually come back to its owner the next time they rest. Any attempt to destroy it would result in the powerful demon being released in his true form.
So the owner, as well as all other players, are left to fight the legendary demonic boss... or to look for another way around... (OR to accept the devilish item as it is, because it provides way too much power and stats. Perhaps, one could learn to bend the demon's power to their own will?)

5. The rumors spread, that a renowned prophet had a vision about the party of the heroes, and that now he is seeking to meet with them in order to lead them to their 'Greater Destiny' (which sounds like the beginning of an epic questline). Not so soon after the prophet finds the party, the rumors of him looking for them still keep going around...

Spoiler

The prophet leads players to fabulous loot and treasures, and among them, the parts of an ancient artifact that is unknown to the players. But sometimes, the prophet tells the players to do things which are rather suspicious. The party members are forced to steal from holy places, ravage homes of the innocent, and occasionally cover up their trails (not something that a heroic party lead by a legendary prophet should do either).

For some reason, the rumors of a legendary prophet seeking for a party of heroes still appear all around the lands.

That's all.



So now, I encourage everyone to share their own ideas of the interesting quests and adventures here.
Thoughts and opinions about the given stories are also welcome
I hope that these stories could be adapted to fit into WC3 maps and mostly campaigns.

 

[Veritas 117]

These are pretty good. I am always looking for new ideas and ways to implement them into my campaign.

One I am working on right now keeps evolving as I work on it.

You find someone in a town looking at a statue and if you talk to him he tells you about an ancient warrior that rumor has it is buried nearby in a hidden tomb. He gives you a book that has more information about the ancient hero including a mysterious message about the statues missing eyes.
You can now find a key that opens a house. Inside the house is a slot on the wall that fits a lever. If you search the house you find the lever and it opens a secret back room that has some stairs leading down. If you go down to the basement you find a hole smashed in the wall that leads to an underground tunnel. The tunnel has its own challenges and you have to find a way to demolish a wall of rocks to find the first of the two missing eyes.

Once you find both of the eyes the hidden tomb is opened and you are able to fight the ancient warrior as a test of strength to determine if you are worthy of wielding his legendary hammer.


This all started as a boss fight and the part with the house and basement, but has evolved to merge them together in a secret quest chain. I love stuff like this that involves following clues and discovering secrets.

 

[ISL]

Mystery, deceits, and a little twist every here and there is the flavor that I use to turn the basic and 'ordinary' story lines into something more.

And actually, some of the quests that I've written here are the adapted pieces of the stories from my own campaign

For example, 4 and 5 are from my story for the orc campaign. A shaman (white) sets out to find a powerful orcish chieftain to fulfill his vision. His choice falls upon one of the main heroes of the campaign, so the rumors quickly spread across the orcish steppes. The chieftain then spends days awaiting in his tribal tent, waiting for the shaman to come and bring him his promise of power.
Finally, a (black) shaman walks in, asking for the chieftain to follow him on his path of destiny. The cheiftain agrees.
As the end result, he was lead through the path of ruin and destruction, and then is rewarded with a demonic axe that corrupts him forever.

However, I needed more of those side quests to spice up the main story with occasional adventures, so I started this thread.

 

[cleavinghammer]

A quest where the very first map has a minor sidequest (kill X rats) that gets caught up in the main plot (the last of the rats is positioned so you can't get to him without triggering the map victory, and at some point you revisit the map and the quest giver asks "So you're a great hero now, destined for fame and glory, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders... very nice, but did you kill all the rats yet?" And when you finally kill the rat, the quest is finally marked as completed.

Ghostly sidequest: You aid a questgiver in laying ghosts to rest only to discover s/he was also a ghost.

Babysitting: You are tasked with aiding the son of a lord prove himself a man by killing horrible monsters. The catch, of course, is that the kid is as useful in battle as a hammer made of soap and bolts if he takes a single hit (becomes neutral and invulnerable and runs back to the nearest safe point). The options are to either continue the long slog through the cave having to get the kid back every single time (and you have to keep him in range of the heroes) or fake his killing a monster. And when you get back it turns out it was a ploy by the villain to get rid of the kid and execute the heroes for it.

 

[Lordlycan]

Hiding away a refugee and later on in the story you have to figure you where he went because it turns out she took your keys.

Choice of convincing someone to divorce vs killing the husband.

A sidequest where it's up to you to make sure two characters never meet. But both are your heroes and they have to keep apart 1000 AoE at all times of they go at eachother throaths. But it never goes on completion until the very last level when you sort out their shit and end their vendetta. But they show up on various place in your levels. And it takes a certain type of cycle to go through your levels in order to complete it. And perhaps killing your own unit in some levels to ensure they don't meet even though it requires you to use your altar several times.

Earthquake you have time to safe 3 out of 7 villages and over the course of the next level you lose access to some of the unit types you failed to save. But in a longer run you find other refugees from locations much further from your hometown that share similar skillets and do get to regain them for the ultimate last battle.

 

[ISL]

A quest where the very first map has a minor sidequest (kill X rats) that gets caught up in the main plot (the last of the rats is positioned so you can't get to him without triggering the map victory, and at some point you revisit the map and the quest giver asks "So you're a great hero now, destined for fame and glory, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders... very nice, but did you kill all the rats yet?" And when you finally kill the rat, the quest is finally marked as completed.

Ghostly sidequest: You aid a questgiver in laying ghosts to rest only to discover s/he was also a ghost.

Babysitting: You are tasked with aiding the son of a lord prove himself a man by killing horrible monsters. The catch, of course, is that the kid is as useful in battle as a hammer made of soap and bolts if he takes a single hit (becomes neutral and invulnerable and runs back to the nearest safe point). The options are to either continue the long slog through the cave having to get the kid back every single time (and you have to keep him in range of the heroes) or fake his killing a monster. And when you get back it turns out it was a ploy by the villain to get rid of the kid and execute the heroes for it.

1. Quite interesting if you imagine the player running back and forth during the first mission, then ranting about that one sidequest that persists in their quest log throughout the whole game.
I'm afraid that such things can break the player's immersion into the story, which is terrible if you want it to be nice and epic. However, the idea of the callback between the very first and the very last missions is genuinely nice.

2. It's a little bit cliché, but it could be changed into another interesting idea...
Thanks.

3. Realistically, no lord would want his son to go killing random monsters unless it's a real dissapointment for the family, and if it's not their only successor.
That's the point, isn't it?

Hiding away a refugee and later on in the story you have to figure you where he went because it turns out she took your keys.

Choice of convincing someone to divorce vs killing the husband.

A sidequest where it's up to you to make sure two characters never meet. But both are your heroes and they have to keep apart 1000 AoE at all times of they go at eachother throaths. But it never goes on completion until the very last level when you sort out their shit and end their vendetta. But they show up on various place in your levels. And it takes a certain type of cycle to go through your levels in order to complete it. And perhaps killing your own unit in some levels to ensure they don't meet even though it requires you to use your altar several times.

Earthquake you have time to safe 3 out of 7 villages and over the course of the next level you lose access to some of the unit types you failed to save. But in a longer run you find other refugees from locations much further from your hometown that share similar skillets and do get to regain them for the ultimate last battle.

1. Helping people who would put a knife in your back later on? Noted.

3. That one is rather... ugh... Unique.

4. I'd put such quest in a campaign where the character loses everything and everyone they had in the very first mission, and then tries to recover all of it as the story goes on.
I'd deffinetly keep the choice of whom to save and whom to lose, but I'd also replace the earthquake and those villages with something entirely else.

 

[Lordlycan]

you could also opt to not give them back 1 or 2 units that would actually make it a real choice :'D

 

[cleavinghammer]

Maybe have some unusual choice rewarded.

For example, you rescue an NPC's dog deep in enemy territory (as in, behind two bases, three dragons and a bandit camp). If you do this, the quest giver gives you 1 gold, but returns as a stupidly powerful hero in the last mission.

Or an optional condition where for plot reasons you fail if you build [any/ any more than] X units (flyers, siege...) but can rescue some around the map. If you do so, the next mission gives you a bunch of those units for free.

Shrines: Every map contains a well-hidden shrine that can be visited. Doing so grants progressively better improvements to stats and spells.

 

[Lordlycan]

Not allowing any flying units on a map. Then by doing quests you get "allies" that only have 1 scout tower but this will grant you vision of the oncoming hordes locations that are so large that you can't really stretch your army to thin.

 

[ISL]

Maybe have some unusual choice rewarded.

That might be interesting, but it's rewarding the player for questionable actions and bad decisions...

Shrines: Every map contains a well-hidden shrine that can be visited. Doing so grants progressively better improvements to stats and spells.

I have kinda the same thing going for my own campaign
They are nto hidden though. They are a part of the gameplay mechanics so there's quite a bunch of them.

Not allowing any flying units on a map. Then by doing quests you get "allies" that only have 1 scout tower but this will grant you vision of the oncoming hordes locations that are so large that you can't really stretch your army to thin.

Kind of... too specific.
But completing a sidequest that gives you vision in a mission where you have to seek the entire map for something is a nice idea.

 

[cleavinghammer]

The idea is that you deliberately make this level hard in order to make the next level easier (or make this one easier, making that one harder).

For example, a level where a gnoll camp keeps spawning attack waves because you scared away the game in the region. If you kill them, that's one less threat to worry about, but they return in the next mission having allied with your enemies. If you left them alone, they show up in the next mission as hostile but they only attack the enemy.

Two levels in different locations that share a unit cap (for example, 5 siege units). The more you build in the first, the less you can build in the next (so build 3 in the first map, you can only build 2 in the second).

 

[ISL]

For example, a level where a gnoll camp keeps spawning attack waves because you scared away the game in the region. If you kill them, that's one less threat to worry about, but they return in the next mission having allied with your enemies. If you left them alone, they show up in the next mission as hostile but they only attack the enemy.

That is much better
Consequences to the player's activity - or inactivity - can make the flow of the whole campaign better if done right.