Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112820Do you have NPC's giving out Quests in your campaign?

I play Traveller. So Travellers interact with NPCs that tell them somethings.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112820Do you have NPC's giving out Quests in your campaign?

I mean do they approach the PC's at Taverns?
Do they tell them their woes at the Temple when the PC's go to get healing?
Do you have NPC quest-givers distributing "go-fetch" quests?

I never did in my campaigns & I never realized it was a cliche until I heard about it on the internet about 20 years ago.

Additionally, do you have party randomly meet in Taverns?

I never did that either.

Are you assuming that the NPCs have no connections with the PCs? Quest givers often come from NPCs that have a reason to be communicating their needs to the PCs because of shared bonds. I too avoid NPCs that are dropping jobs into the laps of randos at a tavern, but I frequently use backgrounds (in games like 5e) or membership in organizations (a noble house, guild, corporation, church, social organization or whatever is campaign appropriate) to have appropriate NPCs drop fitting quests.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1112844Are you assuming that the NPCs have no connections with the PCs? Quest givers often come from NPCs that have a reason to be communicating their needs to the PCs because of shared bonds. I too avoid NPCs that are dropping jobs into the laps of randos at a tavern, but I frequently use backgrounds (in games like 5e) or membership in organizations (a noble house, guild, corporation, church, social organization or whatever is campaign appropriate) to have appropriate NPCs drop fitting quests.

Yes I'm talking about generic Dragon Age:Origin style blandness. I assumed it was only an artifact of computer gaming. I am going to be running for new people in a new area just wondered if they are going to expect that kind of hand holding/railroading stranger quests.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112845Yes I'm talking about generic Dragon Age:Origin style blandness. I assumed it was only an artifact of computer gaming. I am going to be running for new people in a new area just wondered if they are going to expect that kind of hand holding/railroading stranger quests.

If the NPC is a total stranger, that's a GM issue; just do a little work and connect the NPC to one or more PCs and the issue is avoided.

Of my 4 current campaigns:

My Primeval Thule campaign started (Jan 2019) with the PCs in a tavern being given a quest, twice - Sunday group by a merchant, Wednesday group by the innkeeper.

My Red Hand of Doom campaign started (August 2019) with the PCs being gathered together & given a quest/mission by the Lord of Brindol.

My Princes of the Apocalypse game started (Jan 2019) with the PCs already together & on a quest, arriving at the tavern.

My Runelords of the Shattered Star game started (November 2015) with the PCs as Pathfinders, at the Pathfinder Lodge being given a mission by the Venture Captain.

So, both taverns & quest givers tend to feature heavily at the start. It's a good way to kick off a campaign. I don't have many quest-giver NPCs *during* the campaign, though.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112845I am going to be running for new people in a new area just wondered if they are going to expect that kind of hand holding/railroading stranger quests.

They are likely to expect some clear options. The way to immediately cure them of find-the-railroad is to start with at least two different & mutually exclusive options. In my Wilderlands campaign, it was rumours of two different Dungeons. But it could equally well be two different would-be quest givers.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112820Do you have NPC's giving out Quests in your campaign?

All the time.

NPCs have a motive. They want something. If they don't have the resources of their own, they will consider asking for the help of those nutters with swords and magic who enjoy risking their lives in monster filled ruins.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112820I mean do they approach the PC's at Taverns?

Depends on the NPC's social status. Lords send servants with personal invites. Most NPCs of power prefer to meet in their own lairs to emphasize their status. NPCs who want to keep their quests more secret might meet in a noisy tavern.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112820Do they tell them their woes at the Temple when the PC's go to get healing?

Often. I have involved gods in my campaigns, much like the Greek Gods. Non-clerics are often members of various temples and being attached to a temple means the temple gets to ask favors and it means you are semi-obligated to the needs of other temple members (of course, depending on the cult's alignment).

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112820Do you have NPC quest-givers distributing "go-fetch" quests?

If that's what's motivating the NPC.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112820Additionally, do you have party randomly meet in Taverns?

Unless the PCs have a regular residence in the region, they are probably staying at an inn and the communal area is usually a tavern, but of course, this depends on the campaign.

Cliches are a cliches for a reason--usually meaning they work.  They are called cliches because they can be over used and abused, thus taking away some of their value.  As with a lot of things in life, the key to good use of cliches is moderation mixed with other things.  

I used a bunch of cliches yesterday, including rumors in a tavern, because I was play testing some rules.  If you want good feedback on how the rules work, make the situation one that the players can navigate with half their brain.  I had other stuff in the situation too, but the players could interact with as little or much of that as they wanted and still make progress.  Contra-wise, a situation that drops the cliches altogether works best when the players have internalized the system.

Quote from: S'mon;1112854My Primeval Thule campaign started (Jan 2019) with the PCs in a tavern being given a quest, twice - Sunday group by a merchant, Wednesday group by the innkeeper.

Are you running two groups in the same campaign world simultaneously? How do they interact with each other in-world?

Where it makes sense.  Parties without enough funds to get a comrade raised can choose to quest instead.  If something is going on in an area the PCs come into and movers and shakers are aware of them, it's likely they'll be approached to see if they can be drawn into (and disrupt to the advantage of one faction or another) the struggles of the area.

The classic "NPC quest" I'd rather not do, but that really depends on how assertive a group of players is in the campaign with their own goals.  The players always, always can say no.  There are no "this is what we're doing tonight" NPC quests.

Quote from: insubordinate polyhedral;1112863Are you running two groups in the same campaign world simultaneously? How do they interact with each other in-world?

Sunday group ran for 10 weekly-ish sessions from January. Wednesday group has run 31 sessions from February and is still going. PCs could move back and forth between the groups, and often did so.

Campaign blog https://simonsprimevalthule.blogspot.com/

They interacted as individual PCs rather than as permanent adventuring parties. There was some tricky timekeeping around the crossovers, with occasional flashbacks & flash forwards to keep the timeline coherent. Still it worked really well.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112820Do you have NPC's giving out Quests in your campaign?

Sometimes.

QuoteI mean do they approach the PC's at Taverns?

Almost never. It's usually the case of the PCs wanting or needing something, and an NPC wanting or needing something in exchange.

QuoteDo they tell them their woes at the Temple when the PC's go to get healing?

I've done something like this. PCs need healing of some sort, but lack the funds for the required donation/purchase of the required items and ingredients for sacrifice and ritual/etc. The high priest might come up with a different arrangement if the PCs can do such-and-such.

QuoteDo you have NPC quest-givers distributing "go-fetch" quests?

Sometimes. This is more common for PCs that have a master/apprentice relationship with an NPC (who probably functions as their trainer when they need to level up). First level magic-user Bocilado wants to advance to 2nd level. His master (a 6th level magic-user) requires him to go such-and-such placed and bring back this-and-that. Perhaps this can even count for part of the training expense.

QuoteAdditionally, do you have party randomly meet in Taverns?

I've done that, but not in a long, long time. These days, I'm more likely to just hand-wave the PCs meeting at the start of a campaign. I'll say something like "We're going to begin play assuming your PCs are already acquainted are have agreed to work together. If the details of that matter to you, feel free to work them out. I'll give you about 5 mins or so if you'd like to that. Otherwise, we'll get going with the game..."

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112824Power, glory, happiness, revenge none of which is gained by hiring complete strangers in tap rooms.

Not true.

Don't think modern day. Think a small medieval town. Everyone knows everyone. Gossip is deadly. Who do you hire when you don't want your neighbors to know everything? Strangers. Dangerous, greedy strangers.

Where do you hire them? In an area of town your neighbors don't visit. That raucous tavern full of strangers, wandering merchants, thieves and assorted scum.

If you could do the job yourself, you would have. If you could hire trusted friends, you would have. If you could hire reputable upstanding citizens, you would have. Welcome to the worst option for desperate men...hiring complete strangers in a tap rooms.

Murder Hobos are nobody's first choice.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112826My players were always very proactive they generated their own plots.

You don't even know how lucky you are.

Proactive players are gold.

Quote from: Kyussopeth;1112845Yes I'm talking about generic Dragon Age:Origin style blandness. I assumed it was only an artifact of computer gaming.

Where do you think cRPGs got these tropes? They stole it from decades of D&D.

As others have mentioned, the key to using tropes and cliches is to make them fresh. Never let them become bland.

Remember the real world doesn't have D&D heroes. However, the D&D worlds have them. Thus, society isn't real world society, but a society where D&D heroes exist and are needed.

Sure, I've done this. It's not a problem, as long as it is something that is happening organically in the campaign world.  What you can't do is just have some rando show up with a quest for no good reason, unless you're playing in a very gonzo type of campaign.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1113513Sure, I've done this. It's not a problem, as long as it is something that is happening organically in the campaign world.  What you can't do is just have some rando show up with a quest for no good reason, unless you're playing in a very gonzo type of campaign.

Gandalf was just that kind of rando.