Alright, so I'm DMing a game that revolves around the PCs eventually breaking into the BBEG's mighty fortress and killing him. That might sound boring, but I'm intentionally watering down the plot to its extremely barest bones, so have faith that it isn't that bland at heart.
Anyways, that's intended to be some big, high level dungeon crawl thing; as a DM I need to successfully bring them to that level with scheduled reinforcement through smaller goalposts and rewards, ultimately leading up to the final climactic encounter! Or, so I hope. See, in the past I've done what many of you may already be familiar with: the fetch-quest. For those who don't know, the fetch-quest is exactly as it sounds: "You must collect X items before you can enter the castle," or something akin to that. Now, I love that sort of thing... perhaps a little too much. I've most recently (in another campaign) had them gather 5 artifacts of power before the evil enemy cult could, providing an excellent 'race-aganst-the-clock!' feel, and it was great. BUT, I'd like to sport a little more originality in my latest endeavor, and I seem to be stuck in the mindset of fetch-quests. I was wondering if any of you would be so kind as to help me branch out and learn/try some different methods.
Now, I'm not actually trying to discard the idea of going around gathering artifact easter eggs or something; in fact, I've even been trying to think of a way to involve a sort of 'fetch-quest' anyways, just disguising it well enough so as not to make it immediately apparent that it really is one. I mean, my plot at its bare bones is clearly a worn and unoriginal one, but when I sprinkle the plot back in it's something my players and I really enjoy. I think the same could be said of a fetch-quest... if I could figure out to properly orchestrate one, or maybe even just think of something entirely different altogether! So anyways, I ask if anyone has any advice or suggestions for this sort of thing.
Thanks for any help! I really appreciate it.
Forgive me while I make MMORPG references...
If you look at quests in online games they can most often be grouped into a small number of types:
Collection: Gather objects from the landscape, or the corpses of your foes
The Fed-Ex: Take a object to/from one person/place to another
Kill: Kill either a number of foes, or some named guy
These are the essence of quests, bare bones that can be fleshed out to make stories. There are also sub categories, like the "rescue and/or escort guy from point a to b" is a subset of the Fed-Ex. (with a little killing)
You have a Big Bad holed up in his fort. Does he have minions out running errands for him? Lieutenants stirring up trouble? Sounds like a couple of kill quests. If he needs bits & bobs for his evil plans? Collect them before he gets them.
These can be strung together. You kill a gobin, find an odd gem. Take it to a local sage. He tells you to go to the wizard the next town over, he knows more. Turns out they are found in a local mine, and can be used to blot out the sun. Go to mine, kill the gobos and right hand man of the Big Bad. Now you are high enough level to storm the keep.
I know this sounds like basic stuff, but hopefully it's useful. I know there is a Game Master's Guide out there that probably has a lot more useful tips...
My first big campaign was, at its core, a "build up until you're strong enough, locate the bad guy's stronghold, assault it!" type campaign. (It spanned 20+ levels and a world war, but if you want to get to its core...)
Just before the battle where the PCs went to go bang on the bad guys' doors, however, the PCs decided to eliminate all of the BBEG's lieutenants in one masterful fell stroke. (Sort of inspired by the last episode of Angel. You should look to unconventional - ie, non-fantasy - sources for inspiration.) The PCs made small groups - some went alone - and basically challenged/hunted down each of the lieutenants and killed them all to a man. (One of the PCs had actually been a double agent working for the bad guys, but then betrayed his masters after the bad guys turned out to deploy a weapon that destroyed an entire country's ecosystem, so that's how I gave them all the information about the bad guys' organization and their leadership/location.)
You can try something similar with your group!
And I highly recommend looking outside of fantasy for your adventure ideas. Here's an interesting thought experiment: In the next 24 hours, pick an episode from a television series you enjoy and make an effort to convert that episode into a Pathfinder adventure.
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There are also some variations of the above quests many of which revolve around stopping someone from Collection, fed-ex, and/or killing.
RPGs can have more abstract and less discrete quests. A few examples:
The players have responsiblity over some area (fort, village, forest etc) and some creatures are breaching the peace. It must be investigated and stopped. Now the motivations of the creatures breaching the peace can inform a resolution. Maybe the orcs are being driven from their lands by tribes of vicious hobgoblins and ogres. If the characters can push back the hobogobs and ogres then the orcs will leave peacably. Maybe the orcs think the lands are easy pickings, so the characters have to push back and try to militarize the area until the threat passes.
A mystery (great at low levels) be it murder, theft, arson or any other crime. Works great if pulled on someone or something the characters (and players) care about.
Gathering intelligence about a large threat for a power in the area (duke, king, local lord).
A journey through an abstract world. I had a DM who had our characters summoned into the lands of the fairy seasons. Each season (spring, summer, fall winter) was a country. The fairy king of fall asked us to defend his realm from an attack by winter. Winter's aggression was represented by a giant ice dragon (literally made of ice) who we had to defeat or bring to heel.
Find your way home. The PCs attack a BBEG who is much to powerful, but he is also busy so he uses something to hurl the characters through space and/or planes. The new location can be an abstract world or just a foreign country. (sounds a little fed ex).
Diplomacy. Make some allies for your king (lord etc). Danger on the way leads to battles and treachery by enemy powers makes for interesting fights and social interactions.
Take any concept and you can adapt its core idea for pathfinder.