I actually once did a What if LOTR campaign, basically having my PC joining the Fellowship and starting form the postulat : After Rivendell, anything is up to the players and rolls. They managed to get to the Moria, and out of it with several changes : Gandalf died on the spot (no epic fight), the Balrog was banished but not dead. Merry was dead, Boromir had suffer mortal wounds and was in resting. After that they went to Lorien, things going about same length however, Boromir was left on the Lorien for healing. I will not give the full campaign but they managed to bring the Ring to mount doom, but with hefty losses (in the end i think only Sam, Pippin, Boromir, Legolas and Gimly were alive. Galadriel had been defeated, Saruman cleansed, Denethor alive, Faramir dead, Eowyn dead, Elrond dead, All the Nazgul banished, Theoden alive Eomer ALive, oh and only one pc of the original first five was alive) Twas a lot of fun.
@@ActualDragonTears Yeah, it was a bit of the point of this Campaign. A bit like : I give the Fellowship 5 more heros, who know the world a bit and are not complet hobbits, but in return i take off the plot armor.
@some kinda guy I mean, demons are technically worse if they just show up, so it's entirely possible he did mean a demon... So technically nothing inaccurate about that statement?
I think the soothsayer should have been talking about it for weeks but nobody cared but now he's telling people there is a demon and fire and where it is before it happens
Typical side quest: hey guys, my cat run away in a hole in Waterdeep, can you go get it? It's nothing big, just some cavern, I think it's called dungeon of the mad wizard, or of the crazy mage, something like that. Should take a few hours top. Offer 50 golds.
dlollolb 50 gold? If I remember correctly the DMG says that guards for a keep cost 30 gold a month. That better be a real fluffy cat to be worth almost months payments.
I have been creating sessions on whims for my group lately. They got a book titled Mayard the Sane (sequel to the incomprehensible tome Mayard the Mad) that gave them a bunch of exploration locales I had to create and put on my map, including "Duuskenheim" or the Dark World, or the Underrealms. - The latest session was a fight against demons, a dragon and an assassin with poisons during a ritual to heal the mind of a dwarf who is the key to an unknown dungeon containing an item known as 'The Darkfire Helm'. No idea what it does.
@@2MeterLP The salary of a guard in Waterdeep is 6 gold a month, if I recall correctly. So that person could hire 8 guards for that money for a month. That is ineed a very expensive cat.
@@mennograafmans1595 6G a month for guard work seems kinda low. Where did you get that number? P.159 of the PHB gives 2 silver a day for untrained hirelings (2G/day for skilled hirelings), guards arent usually untrained and its somewhat dangerous work, so Id pay them higher than unskilled but maybe less than the 2G/day of skilled hirelings. Maybe a gold a day.
bit of feed back Runesmith, the transitions are a bit fast for the info you put on screen. just a few seconds more means I can read more relaxed without having to rewind the video and breaking the pace of the narative. Great stuff for the rest!
A long side quest I want to send my players on (if they choose to go), is to search for a town's beloved pig, Porkchop, who's gone missing. It'll be a super long quest as the pig always manages to be a little ways ahead of them after they reach the last place. The catch? In an accident at a mages' college, a mishap with an experimental spell left him with a permanent (until dispelled) slow-acting polymorph spell that never takes full effect at once, turning most, but not all of Porkchop into a goose at any given time. It's a goose chase. Kinda.
Its like the tracks go over this way but some dmn goose ruined the trail waliking all over it. Can't igure out where he went after the geese must have scared him off.
To be fair tho it sounded like a lot of work to cram something into his rolls - if you're using the table you probably want to make things easier, not challenge yourself
Nate Kite I mean it seems like the table would make it easier. I am great at coming up with ideas if I have a lot of prompting even if that prompting seems ridiculous. But if I don’t have as much it becomes a lot more difficult.
@@Vearru this is the ironic part about creativity. If you don't limit your options, you might end up lost, or over loaded with possibility. Creativity better shines through if you work within constraints, even self imposed ones.
As the DM I roll 1s about a fifth of the time when I have monsters attacking, but when its other stuff I roll great, my players basically talk about how all the creatures they fight are wall lickers :( I even introduced a crit fail table during session 1 that we implemented in the game, my players have rolled a total of like 5 rolls on it, while the creatures have rolled so many times its just sad really :( especially I then roll that they while fighting throw their weapon like 15 feet away.
What I rolled: Combo Quest->Combo Quest+Combo Quest-> Kill, Escort, Investigate, Fetch The other rolls were Legend, Very long, Difficulty 20 So apparently we have a new campaign mission now to kill the BBEG's 'Dragon' npc, escort the captured princess, investigate her disappearance and then Fetch the princess again over the course of the adventure in order to earn the kings favor and retrieve the magical artifact needed to slay the BBEG. Apparently the forces of hell themselves will hamper them every step of the way. Neat. Thanks Runesmith :3
I tend to overthink the visuals when I make my video, and come up with them after I'm done writing and recording. For these more informational vids directed at being more helpful than funny, I'll try to keep the text more detailed and up longer (as opposed to pictures and the such) from now on. -Feedback has been taken
I couldn’t pay attention to the second half this video I was laughing so hard over the baby with the bomb and the seven depths of hell and the 25 gold it was hilarious. Thank you so much for this video.
HEY I think somehing that could really help with this is collapsing the difficulty variability, by basing it off of the parties level. 1-4 would result in an encounter 2cr or lower than their level, 5-10 a cr lower or equal, 11-15 a cr higher or equal, and finally 16-20 2cr +. In my experience this keeps the game flowing but still keeps it challenging.
NPC: Hey. Go to the top of that mountain over there, pick a flower and bring it back to me. Player: What? Why? NPC: I'll give you five gold. Player: That's it!? No way. Why would I do that? NPC: You're not going to do it? But think of all the content you might be missing! Player: ... NPC: But I suppose you could just let this quest go... uncompleted. Player: uugh. Fine, ok. Whatever. NPC: And make it snappy bitch boi.
One side quest I ran for my D&D that was basically the “one small favor” quest from runinacape. The reward was a key ring that would turn a key into a master key that will unlock any lock except the original lock that the key was made for. They had too find out on their own. It also talked and the key ring was a dick.
Take it one step further: on the main quest, you come across a town that has a bandit problem. The leader of said bandits, if the quest isn't done, uncovers an ancient artifact that invests him with great power and he becomes the bbeg of the next campaign.
I ran a campaign that was essentially all side quests. Pure sandbox campaign with a town "job board" rumors and other sources for adventure hooks. The players got to discuss which to do and some that they skipped just went away. Others, the rumors said the problem was worse. Any adventure they skipped either was solved by someone else (just disappeared) or "aged" and gained difficulty. One time they went out and found another party walking out of the dungeon with the loot....
I never roll for world events or quests I just do what is fun. Not that rolling isn’t fun but I have more confidence in my ability to handcraft than make RNG tables.
I typically agree but sometimes its fun to start off this way and then continually tweak the quest possibly until its unrecognizable. It can get things flowing in unexpected directions and often allows you to apply your expertise to a situation outside of your normal design.
Those were good example quests! I especially liked the first one, it was exciting, seemed difficult, and had a clear goal. Well done for the interesting roll.
4:12 This is super random, but I totally know this tree! It's in the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans! I grew up there and we'd go to that zoo all the time. I remember climbing all over that thing.
I dont want to be a spoilsport, but it is actually the Angel Oak Tree on Johns Island, South Carolina. You cant climb on this one, but that doesnt take away how majestic the thing is. If ever in the area, I highly recommend checking it out, it is breath-taking. I like to swing by whenever I need a break from reality.
I have a "guide" He is...well the guide and your main NPC that gives you the bigger quests.... He's also like bloody Nurse Joy, he's in either a tavern, library, or town hall in every other town so you don't gotta BLOODY WALK ACROSS THE ENTIRE KINGDOM TO FIND HIM
4:07 i actually DID have a find the missing cat quest and it WAS in a tree... but it was in a boggy swamp and it had 3 shambling mounds below that tree... for a group of two level 6 characters.
Just stumbled on this a year down the line, so let's try the generator and see if it checks out: 5: Collect 5: Omen 2: Average 2: Really easy The characters come to town and rest. During their sleep, one PC (someone who maybe has a nice backstory but has been a little quiet lately) is visited by something akin to a banshee in a dream. This is mentioned to a local the next day, they go: "Oh, that time already?" They tell tale of Hairy Marge, a local legend that visits one person at the turn of the season/lunar month/etc. Her appearence is an omen: someone close to you will die if she is not appeased by sundown of that following day. Fortunately, she is easy to appease. She likes a particular type of berry, which grows abundantly to the south of the town. Simply pluck a handful of these, take them to a relevant shrine, and the omen will be negated. Might take an hour or two, tops. Slight complication in that it takes you away from where you planned to go for main quest, but maybe when you're out there you meet random NPC who tries to give info/fast talk a few coin out of you, etc etc. ....this is quite neat. I found it sufficiently inspirational.
Best side quest reward: Everyone in the party suddenly and inexplicably learns Sticks to Snakes. Even if they're not spellcasters. Why? I 'unno... to mess with their heads.
The pigments are amazing Runesmith think about if you paint a landscape in a demiplane room then reapply a new coat at the limit of the scape created, then proceed to do so on each wall in 360 degrees. Food for thought (it would fit the gold worth requirement for the pigments).
Maybe something to spice things up, I was thinking about the random encounters in RDR2. For example, you find someone who got bitten by a snake, if you either suck the venom or use some medicine you save their ass, and later on they may pay you by buying you some stuff at the local store.
@some kinda guy Alternatively, find a portal to the nine hells that you can quickly close, toss in the baby and SLAM THE DOOR. The villager never said anything about bringing it BACK...
For a quest, in a Mother Game setting (low fantasy or just urban fantasy, etc.) Old Lady is sitting outside, on her porch weaving some baskets, with a side quest option on her head. if you talk to her, she gives you a friendly smile and asks you how your day is going? then she asks if you are willing to take her small slip of paper, go to several shops to buy her the grocery and yarn supplies needed, should you accept, she gives you 50 coins to do so, which should give you the exact amount needed to do her task. She tells you that she'll leave her door open so that you can come in once you collected some groceries and the art supplies needed, you would have to go to her house and enter inside. Inside, she's currently working on making dinner, and cooking up a fresh meal for her high school grandson (who's upstairs studying). On one of the tables in the living room, she has some unfinished baskets that she was weaving, and a small portable loom with a unfinished but very colorful scarf? turns out, her child, (grandson's parents) is out on a honeymoonish date, and she's been looking after her grandson for a few days (in total supposed to be two weeks) alone. So she's very busy in making sure he's well fed and doing well in school, so she hadn't had much time to pick up fresh grocery and was hoping that someone would be willing to help her (you know, like the good old days) Also in her spare time, she's weaving a lot of baskets to also deliver food to the homeless and the unfinished loom is actually because she wanted to make a scarf for her grandson, knowing that she would breathe her last and wanted to make sure he will have something to remember her by. However, due to spending more time in doing chores (so that her grandson can study for his finals) and looking after some of the poor on the streets, she has less time to gather supplies and finish her surprise present for him. She grants you a cup of cookies (13 cookies) and some one of her woven baskets of fruits and vegetables (4 fruits, 3 vegetables) and is now one of your friends
Fun Fact The tree at 4:10 it's a very famous oak tree called the "Oak of the Witches" here in Tuscany in Italy. It's a century's old oak tree, right around the corner from my house in the middle of Nothing Tuscany. I recognized it immediatly
I’m running a campaign where the party is slowly making their way through the world to a destination, so I integrated side quests into the story, for example the party wasn’t allowed to enter a town, but the high lord told them that if they retrieved all the stolen jewellery from a kobald cave they would be given refuge, but the side quest wasn’t as easy as they thought (dragon)
DM Tips: The Hidden Railroad: If you fleshed out an encounter for your Party do not force the party to go there, rather make the boss fight appear whereever they go. For example. If you have this epic boss battle with [insert anything] Make multiple starts to the encounter. For example if your party can decide either to go through a forest or a mountain path make the same encounter for both ways, but in a reasonable way. The Party will not know that this encounter was unavoidable that way and doesnt feel forced into something.
My party got a side quest to escort a local lord, who was the target of a thieves guild to kill due to his crackdown on crime, through a wilderness area to a mining outpost, then protect him while he made a speech and inspected the mines. The party wizard decided to enchant everyone earpieces, the Monk was proficient in sewing tools and made everyone suits, and the Artificer armored a carriage. They also kept referring to the lord as “Mr. Lord” and used the line “Mr. Lord get down” more than once. On the strategic side, I have never seen them more coordinated and they used actual VIP protection tactics like making perimeters, and even sent a decoy horse forward at one point to trigger traps. Yea they became the secret service.
Sidequest idea: The chicken round There are 500 chickens scattered through the farm, the town and the surrounding forest and you need to return them back to the comicly large chicken coop. the farmer will reward you with 1sp per chicken returned, the party dosent need to collect evry single chicken but they do have to collect as many chickens as possible, fairly tricky scince to grab a single chicken requires a dc15 sleight of hand check. here are a few ideas for chicken locations •Cock fight- 2 roosters are fighting eachother in the streets gaining a crowd of hens and humanoids alike •Fast reflexes- 3 foxes are attacking 7 chickens in the forest, they will flee if they drop to half health or if they manage to snatch 2 chickens •It knows- a chicken is in the kitchen of a nearby tavern is just staring quietly at a chicken body that was about to be choped up •Danglebird- a chicken was caught in a snare trap in the woods with a wolf below attempting to jump to catch it •Good parenting- a chicken is having a fight with a pigeon on the windmill because the chicken is trying to incubate the pigeon's eggs •Poor peter- a guard is being harassed by a band of chickens and can't do much about it besides tolerating the birds •Drunken clucker- the party hears a shrieking cluck coming from the basement of the tavern, it turns out somehow a chicken found it's way there and was simply gorging itself on the ale barrel it opened and getting absolutely hammered
You could add that certain rolls on the table impose a modifier to the following rolls. For example, if the reason is "Omen" that could add +1 to the time table, +3 to difficulty, or some such. Your model isn't broken, simply incomplete.
Usually, for quests I don't give my players one option of completion. To explain let's say the players find a note and an item. The note says that said item was to be delivered to X for a handsome reward of Gold. The location is usually not too far away like 1 or 2 towns away. On the journey, they find bandits that are willing to trade for said item in exchange for another favour. The players now have two option they can either get gold or item and most often need time to think so they tell the bandits to wait and meet them in town 1. In town 1 while making up a decision they are approached by a group of Paladins looking for the item that appears to be a relic of their religion and they are a part of a major faction and is willing to take the item in turn for a favour. Now the players have 3 choices and depending on what choice has very different consequences. They ignore the bandits they might get vengeful, They ignore the paladins and it could bite the party in the ass while encountering the faction later on etc.
P.S never go by complete chance when it comes to sidequests. Get some inspiration from the table and be creative with your shit and adapt it to the players.
11:04, hey, I have that exact same mortar and pestle! As for investigate quests, I start at the crime itself. Who did what, why, who knew, what witnesses know, then mix it up such as witnesses who have ulterior motives who will demand money or favors or give purposefully wrong answers or be unhelpful, or even false witnesses. Then come up with several ways they might find clues to these connections, then who would give the quest, why, then reward, and that's it: let the player figure out the rest because they will ALWAYS throw your best laid plans for a loop. As for inspiration, find some random, interesting stories or people. For example, in my homebrew campaign that started in what is basically Midgar from Final Fantasy VII, a homeless man asked my players to find out what happened to his friend, promising he has a nice little nest egg tucked away as a reward. They did NOT use any of the methods of investigating I had planned out, and after a lot shorter time than I planned, they discovered the friend was just one of MANY transients and other people who will not be missed who were used as living, breathing growing tanks by this government funded pharmaceutical companyfor these artificial parasites that, when matured, produce a potent medicine that's important for the people and the economy, but outside of HUMAN hosts (or elf or orc, et cetera) they don't work. This was inspired by the classic Noir film Soylent Green. What do they do with this information? I leave that entirely up to them. When they return to the hobo, he reveals he was once the founder and executive of one of the top Fortune 500 companies, but severe depression, as well as guilt for some of the things he's done as a cut throat executive, drove him to throw it all away. But he's still a significant share holder, and will give the party whatever he feels is appropriate for however much effort they put into this investigation and double that amount, because he has no need for his BILLIONS of PLATINUM! This guy was inspired by Howard Hughes, with a whole lot of changes but still HH served as the initial inspiration.
I like the idea that the soothsayer promises thousands of gold to get the party to help, then puts it on a noble/town official to cough up the goods, since aforementioned soothsayer was screaming in an alley for a reason.
I really like your videos. I’m a semi experienced DM, playing consistently every week for almost two years. I like how your videos can help everyone. It seems like most DM tips videos are specifically for brand new DMs. Thank you, very cool.
Tip about the tables, have each entry on the table be more than one number, and have the more common ones be a wider range. Like 1-4 for easy, 5-7 for medium, 8-9 fpr hard and 10 for deadly on a d10.
@@mrflip-flop3198 Well, its one of the party member's children, having been possessed by a spider spirit. (The spirit is actually benevolent and saved her from dying alone in the woods, but now she has the spiritual equivalent of diabetes and needs a doctor)
I also like to turn simple sidequests into fullsized epic quests. So party arrives into small, nearly ruined village, with a single dozen of people living there. They are almost starving and its autumn now. Their lord died from plague 3 years ago and taxpayers werent even coming to this place as it was not worth of expenses. When villagers tried to go to the nearest city (2 weeks of bold march) they met kobolds that closed the roads, and outnumbering them vastly. Everytime peasants tried to escape the kobolds appeared closing the path, and not a single person that tried to escape alone probably didnt make it. To make things worse every season kobolds attack the village, and always in the days or from side noone is prepared. They cause commotion, take a few people away and leave. So party arrives 3 days after last raid and takes the quest from village elder to find the taken people and cull some of the kobold population on the way. Totemic barbarian notices a lone raven on the top of the church, after attempts to talk with it he realizes that something is wrong with it, tried and failed to catch it. Party finds the natural caves, and after dozens of kobolds and cave creatures killed there are no traces of kidnapped people. Puzzled and sad they return. Priest hints that there is a lords manor nearby that was struck with plague, but the disease should not be dangerous after these years. No other people agree to go there, as they are superstitious. Our druid grows suspicious of priest and busts into his small church, finds a secreft passage into old crypt and finds out the freshly dug tunnel into room dug under cemetry with coffins crashed under. The shadow of the deceased lords wife raised corpses and party fights with them. When they return they question the priest infront of all, and he tells in tears that lords wife, who was rumored to be a witch, took control over him. He cries and confesses, then begs party to check the lords manor noone have visited after lord got sick. Priest personally attended to him and it was a miracle granted by his goddess that he got healed from it. So party arrives and finds the manor with previous undead inhabitants - a whole lot of em. Almost dead, they defeat the lords ghost and check the surroundings. They found a shard from crystal ball his wife used, and saw that lord walked downstairs, sick and weak, saw something so scary that made him passed out. Party arrives back at early morning and see all villagers crowding near church. Someone killed one of the peasants, a carpenter, who was really grumpy and rude (but unlike his words he was helpful to everyone) and small girl witnessed a teen boy near the corpse at night behind the church. After investigation it turned out that it was priest who: 1. Arrived to this distant village and appointed as priest by his clergy after previous one died. 2. Despite disrespect from locals, tried to find himself a couple. 3. Got rejected twice, second time it was a set up cruel joke. 4. When new lord bought the feud rights and settled, fell in love with his young wife. 5. It was not one-sided, and lord found out about it. Priest got beaten up by his henchmen a few times. 6. Bought a book from southern trader that got lost and arrived to this village to resupply. 7. Learned about southern rituals and necromancy from it, the trader was selling the items of the executed criminals. 8. Contacted plague-like disease on swamps he was often visiting for herbs and insects. 9. Feeling worse and worse, decided to become a lesser lich. 10. Makes it out with lords maid in next couple months, secretly puts his bloody rags into walls, rubs his spit into lords clothing, bedsheets and furniture whenever possible. 11. Insists to quarantine the manor with all servants and guards when people get sick, lord listens. 12. Kills the son of the captain of the guard that was sent into the city for help, ambushing him on the road. 13. “Tries” to heal everyone. Speeds up the process instead. 14. Turns the downstairs into his necromancy practice place when servants and guards died off. 15. Pushes lord down the stairs and tortures him for a long time. Managed to tie his soul to mortal realm as ghost. 16. Does the same to lords wife but in the crypts extension he dug himself at night in a year. Loves her with twisted love, promises to resurrect her when becomes a lesser lich. 17. Also experiments on wild animals he finds along the way. Made a few undead puppet crows he could scout with around. 18. Scares and intimidates the wandering tribe of kobolds with his new powers and strikes the deal with them. They take some food in raids, dont kill everyone right away, instead kidnap people for priest, and he tells them when and where to strike. 19. Starts the long ritual and collects bodies and souls of killing the kidnapped. 20. Decides to send party into manor full of uncontrolled undeads as it arrives and interferes with his plans killing off the kobolds, then ruining his work in crypt. 21. Kills the carpenter as his ritual had to continue. Goes against the boy that merely witnessed him in the dark by accident killing the carpenter. Players defeated the priest and now on the quest escorting the dozen of poor peasants to nearest city through swampy forest. They could have stopped anytime, specifically on “Defeat the kobolds” task, as they were rewarded with last bit of gold and some food scraps peasants could give. But they didnt and were happy to uncover the secret and story of this damned village.
Yo I loved the vid but could you keep the text on the screen a bit longer so we can read it? I'm too busy laughing half the time to read it all in the time it's up. As I said, loved the vid anyways. :D
Dice dungeons recently put out a product to aide with coming up with side quests; Notice Board. It's a deck of 35 cards each with a different contracts anonymous NPCs put up. I think it's genius, and it's like $15.
1. Type of Quest - Kill Quest - Delivery Quest - Escort Quest - Collection Quest - Investigation Quest - Defensive Quest - Combo Quest (combination of the above) 2. How was the quest acquired and why is it necessary - Quest Board - NPC - Appease powerful creature - Optional part of main quest 3:12 - Omens and Legends 3. Length 3:29 - Minutes - Hours - Days - Weeks 4. Difficulty 4:07 - No challenge - Easy - Medium - Hard
There is another sort of sidequest: buried treasure. The PCs find a map, or get told about it by an NPC (who for whatever reason decided not to take advantage of it themselves), leading to a spot where a cache of treasure is hidden. This sort of thing isn't as uncommon in Real Life as you'd think, actually. One of the biggest things various cunning-folk were hired for was to cast spells that would locate hidden treasure (or at least that's what they'd claim they could do). It can even work for small quantities of money or valuable objects like gems, art objects, or trade goods (crates of salt crystals, barrels of foreign spices, or bundles of silk). It just matters that someone, somewhere got them, and then hid them for reasons (not strong enough to haul, fearful of getting robbed mid-transit, fear it might be burgled from their home, etc). Seeking wealth is a venerable and valid goal for adventurers unto itself (no matter alignment or mission, everyone could use wealth to achieve the ends or aid their endeavors), so the players don't need much extra reason to follow the lead. And the DM could throw whatever threat they liked between the PCs and the treasure; it might even be that whatever peril impedes the PCs is the exact reason why the original hiders of the treasure didn't come back for it. Moreover, being pointed towards hidden treasure can be part of a reward from a different quest. Like, a sufficiently grateful NPC could tell the PCs about a cache of gems they hid, if the NPC otherwise has no reward to give. Or the PCs could find a treasure map on the person or possessions of some antagonist. Alternatively, the treasure (or potential for treasure) could be out in the open (more or less), to be found at a location, that other folks in the region are simply too scared (or incompetent, or dead) to collect on. Like the abandoned mansion of a dead artist, whose collection could be quite valuable (it's just a shame that many of his art pieces are magic and come to life to attack intruders).
Something that I do for my Sidequests: I use RPGs (Primarily The Witcher but also other Fantasy RPGs) and use similar Consturcts. SO a Fetchquest is never just a fetchquest, and a Killquest is never just a Killquest. Also, just for the luls I Roll a 2d100 at the end of every siedequest and if they are both 1s then a Creature with a Challengeraiting of 3 over the main enemy of the quest will appear (It of course has to be a Creature that lives in the Biome, would make no sense for a Frostgiant to appear on a Volcano). So yeah, if you want to bring some more excitement to the Table do that. It has happened 4 times so far and we are about to get into the sixth session of the campaign! (To be fair, they really accept almost every sidequest that gets thrown their way, I have made them less frequent now)
Sounds like a job for a series of tables, each categorizing what you've described here. I'd go the combo route since that allows a more interesting mashup, especially when tied with PCs' backgrounds and goals.
I really want to do one of those mystery quests for my table. I feel like it's always the best place to put in a False Hydra. Those things are so interesting
5:03 Assuming 5e, this quest would be possible for a high level party. First, cast *lesser restoration* or spend 5 hit points of a paladin's Lay on Hands feature to cure the black hole disease the newborn has. If that fails, try *remove curse* or *greater restoration*. The bomb can be neutralised by removing the tape, putting it in a bag of holding and making sure no one is close to it. If all goes to plan, the bomb will explode inside the harmless demiplane of the bag and the bag will tear, sending the contents to the Astral Plane. Make sure to take your gold out first. After using *plane shift* to go to the Nine Hells, cast *flesh to stone* on the newborn, giving it resistance to all damage. Also *death ward* and *protection from evil and good*, to be safe. Then give the newborn to the party's monk, who then runs through a single battlefield while spamming Dodge and Dash. Once the field has been crossed, the quest is technically complete. The wizard casts *sending* to inform the old lady the quest is done so that the members of the party who remained on the Material Plane can collect the reward. There is, of course, no answer because the only who stayed behind was the rogue who stabbed the old lady, took the reward and spent it on mead as soon as the others disappeared.
We had an interesting one, if it counts.. In World of Darkness, whilst investigating a cult, we found a wounded werewolf the cult had been using for spell energy. After some light intra-pack bickering, we hauled him out of the building to safety before continuing our fight and partially burning the house down. He later turned up missing, but we'd done the right thing. ... Fast forward a month IRL and a few in game .. guess who turns out to be a useful contact and ally? We just hadn't known at the time.. if we'd not saved him, his pack would probably not have welcomed us and we'd have had a harder time winning them over. Also, he's given us a new side quest.. goodness knows where *that's* going to go!
Don't forget the Research Quest! 😋 It's like Collection and Fetch but more about making sure to remember what you see rather than physically possessing it. It works great for Artificers, Wizards, Clerics, and even Druids!
My favorite side quests are Hunts. Taking down a big bad monster/creature is so much fun to me. (Big reason I love Final Fantasy XII and Monster Hunter. 😅)
For my side quests I'm having a Lizardfolk hunter giving hunts on weird monsters and they'll be able to either tame or kill it. If they kill it the Lizardfolk will make them a cool rate piece of gear
I have a very shady illegal yet snarky merchant give out quests for the group to fetch dangerous artifacts. The pay is great, but the retrievals, starting out on the "normal" side of things, slowly turn into "evil" territory. I mean, first was just "grab and go, kill some bones" but it evolved into accidentally watching an adventurer drown while trying to save him because you activated the reveal mechanism of the artifact while he was locked inside of the room. The adventurer eventually was able to see who activated it, due to magic stone one-way-to-two-way-window-walls or some bullshit I made up on the spot to make them feel more uncomfortable while they're watching someone die. The room entirely filled up and stayed like that for 15 minutes before coming back down. Before he drowned he tried to open a massive vertical display case, that just revealed itself as the room filled up, thinking his last hope might be in there, but it was locked with a magical lock that requires submersion in water for an extended period of time before opening. Once the water level came back down because of drains, the door opened to the chamber. The lock on the case had been opened, revealing a set of unique armour and an ancient magic furnace "for the ordinary magician" (which they came for). The thing with the set of armour is that it was developed for aquatic combat. The helmet would allow you to breath underwater. They didn't take the armour. Merchant of course "didn't" know about the terrible things they had to do for the artifacts. (wasn't the BBEG nor related to them, she was "just" a "wizard" with an "obsession" for "magical artifacts" who "just so happens" to sell "legal" goods that "weren't outlawed where she came from" and bags of devouring advertised as pocket guillotines. She's expensive but sells some cool stuff. Also likes scrying.)
Quest idea: someone in town knows a hermit who lives in the forest nearby. The someone is the quest giver. Quest giver is busy today and want you to go on their behalf. You’ll probably have to deliver something, like a nice pie or a book.
