@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 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.
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
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
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nice advice, I kinda liked the roll table and decided to try it out myself, I got Defend Quest, Legend, Long, and a difficulty of 12 So what I came up with was an ancient ruined keep deep in the woods away from civilization, within the keep there is a cipher, upon the cipher being read out loud there is an ominous bell that toll's and upon further investigation the group finds out that not only has this ruined keep been repaired as if it were brand new, but it is also under siege by an array of spirits, each day that passes the difficulty grows fighting difficult spirits, on the final day should they come out on top and defeat the powerful enemy at the end the room where the cipher was is filled with a hoard of riches and upon reading the cipher once more they earn a small replica of the keep which will create a spiritual fortress almost similar to Instant Fortress (however not quite as exploitable).... I like it
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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).
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.
I’m doing very last minute planning for my session tomorrow and my god did this come in handy. Thank you for making this type of content Runesmith you come in clutch all the time
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.
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.
That was actually useful. It provided me with a template with which I will write a simple C program to generate quests for me, maybe even read from a file to collect lore elements to weave into said quests...
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
@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...
I actually like this, even if the rolls ended up going badly. Is there a way you could put the table in written form in like the description or something?
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 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
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. 😅)
@@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)
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.
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.
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
I actually have a good side quest for that first one you rolled... Omen: Celestial Confluence. Two (or more) celestial bodies are coming into alignment as they do only once every hundred years (or so). This opens a dungeon that can only be explored for the length of the confluence, and within are said to be marvelous riches. Only [legendary explorer] has made it out alive, and (s)he spoke of an incredible amount of wealth within. Catch: the dungeon has no living monsters, but is absolutely littered with traps, including how long it's open for. Arcana ~15-20 to identify that the confluence only lasts for ten minutes. Three main trap rooms, a couple of side rooms that are small hoards of neat things but are themselves also trapped, and a big main hoard room that isnt. 100 rounds to get in, get your stuff, and get out.
What about doing sidequests that are more focused on roleplay? It's hard to come up with stuff off the top of my head, but maybe a regular NPC in your campaign announces they're getting married and your party gets roped into helping them set it all up? I'm still pretty new to DnD so I don't know how often stuff like that happens, but I'm curious how those sorts of sidequests might wind up happening.
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
When you did Fetch, Omen, Very Short, Pretty Tough - the first thing I thought of for some reason was the sword in the stone. Something that's been around for a long time, and only requires simple action, but is very difficult to accomplish because of some reason. Can take this premise & modify it - crops are dying & pulling the sword from the cursed well is fabled to restore the lands with bountiful harvest. Is the well really cursed? Does something bad live down there? What happened to those who tried before?
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)
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.
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 got an idea for some side quests where you have to steal an item then investigate to find the item to give it back, then be asked by the original item holder to get some other things for him, but it turns out he's evil or something & you have to go to the person that wanted you to steal the item to help you stop the evil guy.
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)
I usually make six side quests per main village. And most of them run either, retrieve lost x, which ends up being in some sort of accult use or strange thing that is actually evil and has huge detriment if returned. Or if the item is incredibly valuable, there may be a chance the party might take the item instead of completing the quest, which then gains them infamy if the quest giver ever see's them with their lost item. There is also destroy monster x quests, that could lead through epic hunts, and allow players to gain something from harvesting from kills and not just, kill monsters and gain rewards. Maybe have a leather/clothing worker in the quest village, and the pelts or skins the players bring back can be turned into other goods. I've also done material requests, that lead into huge monster encounters, splitting a new quest in with the material search. Let's say, you're tasked with go finding Ore to improve the blacksmiths store, but you happen upon lost trapped dwarven miners along the way. Saving the dwarves is a bonus to the questline. for if the party never finds them, no harm comes from it because that wasn't their original quest. And maybe have one of the dwarves be a relative to the blacksmith, and the players get a discount for saving the dwarves. They get the encounters in the mine, get the ore, hand in the quest and possibly have the players see not only world building improvements that their putting effort into, but improving shops and businesses garners better magical items.
Combo quest- kill the target, then investigate the murder of said target
That's actually not bad -- you stealthily break-in, find body, then got caught.
Now, prove your innocence
Tutamten or murder someone and frame the most annoying NPC you can find.
Hmmmm must have been the wind.
58 stabwounds to back and slit throat? Weird suicide.
Reminds me of the dragonborn paladin with a noble background who saves herself from herself.
Crazy prophet: "THE END OF DAYS IS COMING." Literally 2 seconds later a demon appears, "I WARNED YOU!!!"
Oh no, I can hear only the voice as the broken sword of warning from that PuffinForest video.
"Something baaaaad might happen today"
@@21austro98
(Trips on a loose cobblestone running to ring the bell)
@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?
Congratulations, your comment has been screenshotted so that I can use this idea in my upcoming massive journey.
LOTR is just a very long legendary delivery quest
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.
@@shorebreakers96 sounds like if lord of the rings was more realistic tbh.
@@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.
@@shorebreakers96 Wtf how did Pippin survived he's such a clumsy guy
@@queruba. excuse pippen is amazing
An escort quest only your escorting an ancient gold dragon that pretends to be a small child.
@Remy B Damn you Sara Oakhart!!!
I've been in that situation except she was a young seemingly unimportant peasant girl.
I think the witcher show stole your idea somewhat
THAT'S PERFECT
Damn that horned demon sounded actually fun
Diego Intriago shiiiit right man sounds fun
Yep, I'm taking that.
John Ogbu same
Yeah at high levels that sound great especially if everyone is getting a little bored that’ll wake em up
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
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 actually really like the hang quest idea.
I was the 69th like of this comment .-. XD
AMAZING
Your table just needs to be d100, add a reasonable range to each entry for averages' sake, and not include the player-hater results.
It was funny AND helpful
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.
Hay, my cat fell into the lost mines of phandelver, weird right? better get him back for me.
Love it.
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!
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
Sounds more like an entire campain then a sidequest
basically a campaign in a campaign
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.
At least it isn't a WILD goose chase
Expecting awakened pig.
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.
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.
NPC: *immediately gets stabbed*
Npc: *cough* you.. still haven’t gotten the flower... *dies*
*QUEST FAILED: A Favor For A Flower*
What the favor was? We’ll never know now…
> *"Don't use this table, it's terrible"*
> *Comes up with original and creative quests*
🤔
K thx
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
I tend to come up with quest off the top of my head. My crews have always been pretty random. But luckily so am i 😆
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.
Dude, that omen fetch quest, the horned devil one? I wanna put that in my game now. That's pretty epic.
Thanks for it
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.
Nice advice, I kinda liked the roll table and decided to try it out myself, I got
Defend Quest, Legend, Long, and a difficulty of 12
So what I came up with was an ancient ruined keep deep in the woods away from civilization, within the keep there is a cipher, upon the cipher being read out loud there is an ominous bell that toll's and upon further investigation the group finds out that not only has this ruined keep been repaired as if it were brand new, but it is also under siege by an array of spirits, each day that passes the difficulty grows fighting difficult spirits, on the final day should they come out on top and defeat the powerful enemy at the end the room where the cipher was is filled with a hoard of riches and upon reading the cipher once more they earn a small replica of the keep which will create a spiritual fortress almost similar to Instant Fortress (however not quite as exploitable).... I like it
"My first roll was a one...cause that's just how I go about things" yep we all know the power of the Nat 1 buddy
Rolling up ability scores and getting ones and twos every time
Ah yes... may the chance be with you
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.
quick note don't use game's workshop dice they are proven to roll 1's ~27% of the time iirc.
What I rolled on here
Fetch quest
Legend
Very long
Difficulty 15
Thanks for the generator man.
5 seconds ago. WHAT?
@@kc-ip2vc Your reply shows as being 3 hours ago, yet the parent comment shows at being only two hours ago... time fuckery right here.
@@undvined ahh the wizard used time change again
Now go find the master sword. as a side quest.
@@Runesmith Tower of the gods, I wonder how long it'd take players ta get through that.
Ah windwaker.
how did a declawed cat get up the tree? Don't cats use claws to climb trees?
PoTato Head PokéMario it was an investigation mission all along
Someone put it there.
@@ComputerWizard SCOUNDREL
It levitated, but can only do that once per day. It's not really a cat, but the Polymorph is still active.
maybe its not a cat, just a dragon with alzheimers that changed himself to a cat and forgot
The second one could've just been an H.P. lovecraft story
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.
That's what I was thinking when I was watching the video lol
I've made my own side quest starting with a man yelling "Has anyone seen Gavin?"
Ahh hag items. Often cursed, always weird, very debatable in their usefulness, and a hell of a lot of fun
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.
Video: a supreme healing potion
Me: well damn now Supreme make clothes AND potions?
SHEESH
I feel like "Investegation quests" is a little specific, probably would've just called it "puzzle quests".
This actually helped me with inspiration for my main quest and my side quests. Thanks man.
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.
How the f#ck
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.
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.
Alright, time to design quests for my players exclusively by rolling on this table.
"The Baba Yaga Express"
omg I'm dying
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.
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
This is absolutely amazing! And helpful! I love your humor, and that I actually can better my campaigns with your tips and knowledge. Thank you!
4:10 Love the Angel Oak tree! That thing is awe-inspiring.
Thank you for this video!! I've been having one heck of a time trying to come up with fun and interesting side quests. You're a life saver!
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.
@@geckgeck8616 Truth. Also, the charts are there for new DMs to learn the mad skills us old folks have gained.
Very good production value, clear audio! Also, good content keep it up dude
I ended up taking notes on this and I am adding it to my DM tool kit binder. Wonderful video, and great tips to make better quests. Thanks!
Thank you, this comes in handy. A+ video my sweet angel.
I was hit in miss this video at first, but when you made the actual side quests you got me hooked
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).
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.
Okay, for real. I needed to make a sidequest by tomorrow and this came up! Thank you, Runesmith
That example of a 16-20 difficulty side quest is awesome and I will use it.
thanks for categorizing quests in a way that makes them easier to navigate.
This is great. I am working on a top view rpg with my kids and this will be a great way to have them help me write side quests. Thank you.
5:01 I could not stop laughing for five minutes. I then immediately subscribed
I really enjoyed the first side quest you came up with, sounds like great fun and a real challenge
"The Spice Girls"
A name for a bunch of hags that will now make me laugh like a idiot. Brilliant.
I’m doing very last minute planning for my session tomorrow and my god did this come in handy. Thank you for making this type of content Runesmith you come in clutch all the time
I love the DR 2 Postman quote to represent your idea of the Delivery Quest. It
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 just love when i designed the quest to take 5 minutes but the dies and my players poor choices keep it almost an hour and half long.
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.
That was actually useful. It provided me with a template with which I will write a simple C program to generate quests for me, maybe even read from a file to collect lore elements to weave into said quests...
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.
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.
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.
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
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
Your self-depreciation is funny, especially when you come up with cool stuff like those two quests. It sounds like a useful generator/template.
Congratz I'm steal your Ring the Bell Quest. Its kinda great for my small video game.
I'm using this horned devil quest in my session today, thank you.
Instructions not clear, Inflated Snek of Flying gave me a belly ache. XD
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.
Perfect I'll give this quest to my PC's
i just saw that screenshot from the Game Grumps, and let me just say, i enjoyed that thoroughly.
omg this was so helpful im gm in my campaign and it was getting so boring now i have some side that can make it more intresting
25 gold to carry a time-bomb baby through hell??? What a deal! Sign my party up!
The quest is easy. Kill the child, get to minimum safe distance for the bomb, duck.
@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...
I actually like this, even if the rolls ended up going badly. Is there a way you could put the table in written form in like the description or something?
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.
Good ole escort missions
There's no reason nobody would ever hate those ahahahaha *crosses that off the list and just adds kill quest twice*
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
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. 😅)
4:35 Ironically, I'm writing a sidequest in which my characters will be escorting a child made of spiders through a giant forest.
And why, do you think, would someone escort a child made out of spiders?
@@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)
10:06 For an Investigation quest, I’d recommend a “Ghost Story” theme.
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.
I rolled a Collection Quest from a Questboard, it's going to take very long and has the difficulty of 20.
I know what I'm doing for my campaign
I love the Dr references XD especially specifically using Game grumps whole ordeal with Viki XD
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.
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
Just out of spite I will use both of those quests in my next game. (Thank you so much, amazing video)
I actually have a good side quest for that first one you rolled...
Omen: Celestial Confluence. Two (or more) celestial bodies are coming into alignment as they do only once every hundred years (or so). This opens a dungeon that can only be explored for the length of the confluence, and within are said to be marvelous riches. Only [legendary explorer] has made it out alive, and (s)he spoke of an incredible amount of wealth within.
Catch: the dungeon has no living monsters, but is absolutely littered with traps, including how long it's open for. Arcana ~15-20 to identify that the confluence only lasts for ten minutes.
Three main trap rooms, a couple of side rooms that are small hoards of neat things but are themselves also trapped, and a big main hoard room that isnt. 100 rounds to get in, get your stuff, and get out.
Cool video dude!
What about doing sidequests that are more focused on roleplay?
It's hard to come up with stuff off the top of my head, but maybe a regular NPC in your campaign announces they're getting married and your party gets roped into helping them set it all up?
I'm still pretty new to DnD so I don't know how often stuff like that happens, but I'm curious how those sorts of sidequests might wind up happening.
I mean, the details are kinda messy but I love the setup of ringing a bell to ward off an insurmountable demon threat
Kill quest
Omen
Short time
20
So I just made it an elder good sighting, thank God for vorpal blade
Nice template for a sandwich.
Really helpful!
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
When you did Fetch, Omen, Very Short, Pretty Tough - the first thing I thought of for some reason was the sword in the stone. Something that's been around for a long time, and only requires simple action, but is very difficult to accomplish because of some reason.
Can take this premise & modify it - crops are dying & pulling the sword from the cursed well is fabled to restore the lands with bountiful harvest. Is the well really cursed? Does something bad live down there? What happened to those who tried before?
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)
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.
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.
7:36 And there it is. Oh look, I rolled a 1 on my Wisdom save.
Your videos are amazing! Thank you!
I was about to run a side quest heavy campaign, thanks for the help dadi
I got an idea for some side quests where you have to steal an item then investigate to find the item to give it back, then be asked by the original item holder to get some other things for him, but it turns out he's evil or something & you have to go to the person that wanted you to steal the item to help you stop the evil guy.
I loved that first roll
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)
25 gold, i've would done it for 10
I usually make six side quests per main village. And most of them run either, retrieve lost x, which ends up being in some sort of accult use or strange thing that is actually evil and has huge detriment if returned. Or if the item is incredibly valuable, there may be a chance the party might take the item instead of completing the quest, which then gains them infamy if the quest giver ever see's them with their lost item. There is also destroy monster x quests, that could lead through epic hunts, and allow players to gain something from harvesting from kills and not just, kill monsters and gain rewards. Maybe have a leather/clothing worker in the quest village, and the pelts or skins the players bring back can be turned into other goods.
I've also done material requests, that lead into huge monster encounters, splitting a new quest in with the material search. Let's say, you're tasked with go finding Ore to improve the blacksmiths store, but you happen upon lost trapped dwarven miners along the way. Saving the dwarves is a bonus to the questline. for if the party never finds them, no harm comes from it because that wasn't their original quest. And maybe have one of the dwarves be a relative to the blacksmith, and the players get a discount for saving the dwarves. They get the encounters in the mine, get the ore, hand in the quest and possibly have the players see not only world building improvements that their putting effort into, but improving shops and businesses garners better magical items.