Many game masters complain that there is no variety in the sources of quests in a table top game because most people hyper focus on the various non-player characters (NPCs) they meet in the world. As a bonus post today, I want to talk about alternative sources of player quests and then specifically list the types of quest givers -- both sentient and non-sentient -- that a party of adventurers may find as they play the game.
Now, keep in mind that I personally hate the word "quest". I much prefer the term "goal" simply because if one of my players finds the scroll that an NPC he or she hasn't even met yet is looking for by complete happenstance, they can pick up the scroll and turn it in once they figure out where it's headed later. In this regard, they aren't questing, but rather collecting items of interest and then matching them with the NPCs or other objects that are seeking them. By making your players their own quest givers, they can focus more on solving their character's goals and less on finding that NPC they spoke to that one time.
Traditional NPC quest givers can be broken down into these broad categories:
List of Quest Givers (NPCs)
- Authoritarian NPCs (royals, lords, governors, politicians, police, etc.)
- Merchant NPCs (vendors, salesmen, traders, caravans, suppliers, etc.)
- Fringe NPCs (outcasts, thieves, lepers, Chicken-Littles, mystics, etc.)
- Unionized NPCs (guild leaders, mobsters, scholars, etc.)
- Citizen NPCs (mothers, farmers, craftsmen, robots, etc.)
In my opinion, to keep games fresh and avoid the boredom of gathering up seven quests in a hub, completing them, and then coming back to turn them all in at once, I prefer to sprinkle in a healthy helping of non-NPC locations where someone can find a goal.
List of Quest Givers (Non-NPCs)
- World Objects (a single note in a treasure chest, old maps, name written on a window in blood, message carved in bottom of a drawer, etc.)
- Player Items (singing gemstones, swords with inscriptions, etc.)
- Lore (reading a book and getting a quest from history, etc.)
- Locations (carvings on walls of buildings, abandoned shipments of crates, designs of stained glass windows, etc.)
- Dead Bodies (last words, loot drops from freshly killed enemies, journals on dusty skeletons, etc.)
- Puzzles (the last jigsaw piece is missing, the key breaks and must be mended, etc.)
- Posts (job boards, bounty hunter boards, wanted posters, etc.)
- Necessity (storm rolls in, tsunami, retreat from advancing army, destruction of road or town, etc.)
Hopefully, these lists will give you ideas that will help keep your games fresh and your players enthused about the goals they are looking to achieve.
Got a twist on my ideas or a question you'd like to ask? Add them to the comments below. Feel free to change anything you see here and, if you like this post, share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.