One of my tables is headed by a brand new DM who always goes that extra step in crafting engaging content for us. In our last session, he managed to convert the most bog-standard quest in TTRPGs from a placeholder into a few twists and a weighty party choice: the “Missing Villager” quest.
Our party encountered a despondent women in our first village who told us about her daughter: missing and alone in the dangerous forest. Thinking that we would knock out a rote side-quest on the way to our next objective, we agreed to lend a hand. The woman’s husband was the local Sherriff, who was elevated to this position due to his willingness to enforce the town’s well-being with his own hands and steel.
We tracked the daughter’s path in the forest and found out from nearby wildlife that she had disappeared in the direction of a group of large brutish creatures – clearly a monster abduction. Our characters entered the site with our steel out and fists up to find…a giggling girl playing hide-and-go-seek with Orcs?
It turns out that these Orcs were nonviolent nomads who had set up camp outside of town before being visited by the missing girl, who routinely explored the forest to get away from her parents’ loud marital differences. We convinced the precocious little dame that her that her long stay had made her parents worried to tears, and she agreed to part ways with the Orcs to rejoin her family.
On the way back we were confronted by her father, a stern elven ranger. He was ready to fight to save his daughter from our clutches before we convinced him that we were there to help. Our party and the child tried to spin a tale to cover up the existence of these Orcs from the town and let them leave peaceably, but the ranger had himself come from their recently-vacated camp and used his skills to ascertain that his daughter had spent time there. After the mother’s arrival, we were asked to escort the young lass home so that the parents could track down the “Orc threat” and “do what must be done.”
Our party tried to stand up for the Orcs to prevent a slaughter, which caused these inflexible parents to pull out their blades and brandish their magics. Do we engage these villagers and potentially alienate the entire town while making this child an orphan? Do we acquiesce and allow them to slaughter the innocent Orcs to preserve our own haven? I did not expect this level of nuance and decision-making from the most basic quest template in TTRPGs!
Kudos to our GM for his thoughtful spin on a weary quest trope!
submitted by /u/Cats_Cameras
[link] [comments]
r/DnD One of my tables is headed by a brand new DM who always goes that extra step in crafting engaging content for us. In our last session, he managed to convert the most bog-standard quest in TTRPGs from a placeholder into a few twists and a weighty party choice: the “Missing Villager” quest. Our party encountered a despondent women in our first village who told us about her daughter: missing and alone in the dangerous forest. Thinking that we would knock out a rote side-quest on the way to our next objective, we agreed to lend a hand. The woman’s husband was the local Sherriff, who was elevated to this position due to his willingness to enforce the town’s well-being with his own hands and steel. We tracked the daughter’s path in the forest and found out from nearby wildlife that she had disappeared in the direction of a group of large brutish creatures – clearly a monster abduction. Our characters entered the site with our steel out and fists up to find…a giggling girl playing hide-and-go-seek with Orcs? It turns out that these Orcs were nonviolent nomads who had set up camp outside of town before being visited by the missing girl, who routinely explored the forest to get away from her parents’ loud marital differences. We convinced the precocious little dame that her that her long stay had made her parents worried to tears, and she agreed to part ways with the Orcs to rejoin her family. On the way back we were confronted by her father, a stern elven ranger. He was ready to fight to save his daughter from our clutches before we convinced him that we were there to help. Our party and the child tried to spin a tale to cover up the existence of these Orcs from the town and let them leave peaceably, but the ranger had himself come from their recently-vacated camp and used his skills to ascertain that his daughter had spent time there. After the mother’s arrival, we were asked to escort the young lass home so that the parents could track down the “Orc threat” and “do what must be done.” Our party tried to stand up for the Orcs to prevent a slaughter, which caused these inflexible parents to pull out their blades and brandish their magics. Do we engage these villagers and potentially alienate the entire town while making this child an orphan? Do we acquiesce and allow them to slaughter the innocent Orcs to preserve our own haven? I did not expect this level of nuance and decision-making from the most basic quest template in TTRPGs! Kudos to our GM for his thoughtful spin on a weary quest trope! submitted by /u/Cats_Cameras [link] [comments]
One of my tables is headed by a brand new DM who always goes that extra step in crafting engaging content for us. In our last session, he managed to convert the most bog-standard quest in TTRPGs from a placeholder into a few twists and a weighty party choice: the “Missing Villager” quest.
Our party encountered a despondent women in our first village who told us about her daughter: missing and alone in the dangerous forest. Thinking that we would knock out a rote side-quest on the way to our next objective, we agreed to lend a hand. The woman’s husband was the local Sherriff, who was elevated to this position due to his willingness to enforce the town’s well-being with his own hands and steel.
We tracked the daughter’s path in the forest and found out from nearby wildlife that she had disappeared in the direction of a group of large brutish creatures – clearly a monster abduction. Our characters entered the site with our steel out and fists up to find…a giggling girl playing hide-and-go-seek with Orcs?
It turns out that these Orcs were nonviolent nomads who had set up camp outside of town before being visited by the missing girl, who routinely explored the forest to get away from her parents’ loud marital differences. We convinced the precocious little dame that her that her long stay had made her parents worried to tears, and she agreed to part ways with the Orcs to rejoin her family.
On the way back we were confronted by her father, a stern elven ranger. He was ready to fight to save his daughter from our clutches before we convinced him that we were there to help. Our party and the child tried to spin a tale to cover up the existence of these Orcs from the town and let them leave peaceably, but the ranger had himself come from their recently-vacated camp and used his skills to ascertain that his daughter had spent time there. After the mother’s arrival, we were asked to escort the young lass home so that the parents could track down the “Orc threat” and “do what must be done.”
Our party tried to stand up for the Orcs to prevent a slaughter, which caused these inflexible parents to pull out their blades and brandish their magics. Do we engage these villagers and potentially alienate the entire town while making this child an orphan? Do we acquiesce and allow them to slaughter the innocent Orcs to preserve our own haven? I did not expect this level of nuance and decision-making from the most basic quest template in TTRPGs!
Kudos to our GM for his thoughtful spin on a weary quest trope!
submitted by /u/Cats_Cameras
[link] [comments]