How To Make Sidequests More Interesting

Quests are the lifeblood of any good RPG, nearly every game I’ve ever played has had them. Side quests are the ones that don’t progress the main story, but exist as their own standalone activities. They’re entirely optional, and when done right add a ton to a game.

I’ve played games in the past where the side quests were my main focus. I can barely remember the main plot, but could rattle off my top 10 side quests with ease.

The problem that often happens with this side content is that it lacks the gravity of the main quest, and this can lead it to feeling dull and uninteresting. Pair that with the repetitive nature many quests have, I’m looking at you 50th fetch quest, and side quests often get a bad name.

That doesn’t have to be the case though. Today, I wanted to look at sidequests, and specifically look at a few ways to make them more interesting. Most of these will work whether you’re a DM running a tabletop game or a game designer building the next MMORPG, but some might work better than others in certain mediums. I’ll try to call out some instances of that, but use your best judgment and realize that some of these will work much better than others for your unique situation.

Vary The Types

First off, it’s important to have some variety in the types of quests you’re giving your players. If every quest is to go kill X of these monsters or find Y items then your players are going to be bored pretty quickly.

Adding some variety is a good way to help keep your players focused and keep them from getting bored. There are a lot of different quest types out there, and I like to have a few ideas planned for each. That way, I can make sure my players encounter a good variety of different styles of quest.

There’s only so many different types of quests though, and it’s inevitable that you’ll reuse them. That’s what the rest of the items on this are for. Varying the quests doesn’t really work on its own, so be sure to pair it with the below tips so that the 5th fetch quest your players do is distinguishable from the 13th.

Give The Quest a Story

Every quest should have a story no matter how small. Not every story needs to be world shaking though. A child that lost her cat she’s had for years is a story that helps flesh out the quest a bit more than just finding a missing cat. Not everything has to be a grandiose save-the-world story for it to be interesting.

The second key here is that the story makes sense for the world and the person telling it. If the same little girl starts talking about how the cat helped her during her time on the frontlines of a war then that doesn’t really make sense. If a grizzled veteran tells the same story, now you’ve got something.

A good story adds a lot of depth to a quest and gives it context to why you’re doing it. This helps your players become more invested and immersed in the world you’re building. The real world doesn’t have people just standing around handing out quests, there’s always a reason, even if that reason is mundane.

Tie Them Into The Lore

While you can’t always do this, when you can it really helps build an immersive world. Fetching a book from a crypt is boring. Fetching a scroll from the crypt of a long dead king you’ve seen immortalized as statues all throughout the kingdom is much more interesting. They’re essentially the same quest, but one is tied to the history and lore of your world.

Even small details can make a world of difference. Maybe the quest takes you to the former home of the first town mayor, or to a stable that’s bred the fastest horses for generations. Tying in these small bits of history helps your characters both explore the world and feel immersed in it.

Try to stay consistent with it though. I’ve been called out before for contradicting my history, your players will notice those small details.

Provide Different Methods Of Resolution

This one helps build that immersion and gives your players the important aspect of choice. Most quests I build all have different ways to resolve them, and I try to present these choices to the players in a realistic manner.

In many cases, these are pretty apparent. For example, they can either negotiate or kill the bandit group. In either case, the bandit problem is gone, but the players feel like they had some agency in how it was done.

This can end up being cumbersome if you’re trying to come up with a dozen ways to complete a quest, so I generally settle on 2-4. This provides enough options for the player without requiring a ton of extra work to flesh out.

This is also one that is often easier to pull off when considering a tabletop setting. Oftentimes the players come up with solutions that I never considered, and solve the problem in a unique way. Don’t push against this (in most cases), let them have their win, especially if the quest in question isn’t that important for the overall story.

That’s not to say you can’t use this technique when building a game. Tons of great games have lots of elements of choice built into their quests. You just don’t get that spontaneous decision making you get a table, for better or worse.

Make Living Quests

Another thing I like to incorporate into my quest design is the concept of “living quests”. This is the idea that anything the player does doesn’t happen in a bubble and has the ability to influence outside events.

These don’t have to be big things either, small callbacks to previous events are often easy to implement while having a big effect. Maybe a town patron remembers the player's help and buys them a round at the tavern a few months later. Small things like this help the world feel alive and give the impression that the world continues on, with or without the players.

When you come up with your sidequests, think of how the world might be affected afterwards, however small. This is also a good place to tie in the varied resolutions mentioned above. Depending on the choices the players make the world may wind up looking very different.

To help with this, we put together our campaign and world building software Worlds Crafter. It’s a full solution that lets you track and link the various entities in your world together. That way, you always remember what the players did and who they interacted with. Had to plug it… that will be the only time this article though!

Create Quest Chains

Quest chains are another way to keep players engaged and tell a story. That last bit is important here, a good quest chain has a story and a reason the players want to keep going. You don’t want to just give them a series of random quests from the same guy and call it chain. Create a reason why the quest chain exists, and how quest giver(s) change as the series goes on.

Length is also an important factor to consider when planning out a quest chain. All lengths, from short to long, can work, but the longer you make them the more work you need to put in. A long quest chain can often end up feeling like the main quest at times, which can be a fantastic thing. A long quest chain is super satisfying to move through, but requires much more work than a 3-5 quest chain. Keep that in mind when planning out your game.

Impose Requirements

This is more of a long term play, but one way to generate interest in the future is to tease higher level content in front of your players. I’m sure we’ve all had those moments in games where we end up somewhere too high level too soon and get beat. We then resolve to come back later when we’re stronger and get our revenge.

This is essentially the same idea, tease the players early to get them excited for later. It’s important to be clear here that the players aren’t strong enough yet, but one day they will be. This builds some anticipation, and turns doing the quest into sort of a reward in its own right. It also provides a long term goal for the players, which can help keep them motivated to continue on.

Sometimes Less Is More

Lastly, it’s important to not go overboard on sidequests. Less is often more here, and it’s usually better to have a handful of really good quests than a lot of sub-par ones.

This is really a call you need to make as the designer of your game. You want to make sure that a player always has enough to do, but also that the quality of that content remains high.

Quest Accepted?

Hopefully the above has been helpful and has better equipped you to plan out your own quests. If you have any questions we’re happy to answer them. We’re always in our Discord, so jump in and come say hi!

Now get out there, and get questing!