A common NPC in RPG’s, table top and video game both, is the “quest giver.” There’s that old platitude of, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” So why is the quest giver not just taking care of this problem themselves?  I use this question as a prompt for creating adventures and world building in my campaigns.

Your campaign needs significant events that player characters hear about but aren’t involved in. This makes your campaign setting feel “lived in.” Presumably, if you start a campaign with low level characters then there are high level NPC’s in your setting. What are they doing? Slaying dragons? Leading armies? Delving the deepest levels of awful dungeons? They probably aren’t interested in mugging some kobolds for their copper pieces, which is where your PC’s come in.

Make your setting more interesting by deciding what the major NPC’s in the neighborhood are up to. This gives you a list of possible adventures because once you understand the goals of major NPC’s you can easily extrapolate that they may require the services of “subcontractors” to perform certain tasks for a variety of reasons.

• The task is below the status of the quest giver
• Dangerous (villagers need a monster killed)
• Disgusting (go into the sewers and kill big rats)
• False flag operation (framing Guilder for the kidnap and murder of the princess)
• Busy dealing with bigger problems and needs to delegate
• Needs a special set of services that the PC’s happen to have

These are just a couple of ideas. Don’t hand out a quest because you need something for your players to do this week. Have a reason the quest giver isn’t doing the job themselves.