I have been running my homebrew of Morvia since 1987 and have run a huge amount of adventures, both published and homemade. With my current group I started off with a story that had a pretty clear goal, a well defined bad guy and some good adventures to act as stepping stones along the way, not unlike the APs. However the group decided to take an unforeseen left turn and the adventure has adopted a more sandbox feel, and I must admit, it has rejuvenated my desire to GM even more.
I have been scouring the internet for good encounter ideas, however wherever I go, all I find are simple lists of monster encounters arranged by CR and location type. However when I say I'm looking for encounter ideas, what I mean are short side treks or mini adventures that may involve a short dungeon crawl, or perhaps a request for help from a local NPC. Also, I don't want them to be within a specific CR range. Although my group is currently CR 6, I want a good collection of mini adventures that can be randomly rolled. It doesn't matter if the quest I roll is CR 1 or CR 20. It will be up to the PCs to decided if they want to pursue the adventure.
Does anyone know if such a database exists? If not, does anyone want to contribute to some ideas? Perhaps a short line or two? I'm not looking for any long term quests or multi-level adventures. It also doesn't have to be a monster encounter. Things as simple as a fallen tree in the road could suffice as well. Thanks
The "Five Room Dungeon" is a neat little technique to get some side adventures going.
I'm not a huge fan of many in their database (not playtested or well-thought-out) but there are some gems.
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/5-room-dungeons/
The outline is an excellent way to brainstorm side-treks.
1) A bag is spotted laying beside the road. Upon closer inspection, it contains a severed head.
2) Thick, [insert strange color here] smoke is seen rising from the woods.
3) A sinkhole drops the group into an ancient underground cavern/temple/city.
4) The sound of a baby crying nearby.
5) The party encounters an archaeological team/dig with some interesting/strange discoveries.
6) A trail of copper/silver/gold/platinum coins leads into a cave.
7) Some kind of natural disaster threatens to destroy a village the party is staying overnight in. Flood, volcano, etc.
8) A crazy hermit with riddles - a "treasure map" as a reward.
9) A teenage girl with sad eyes joins the party.(She is a phantom hitchhiker. Her body is 75% real. The party is heading for a bandit ambush, which killed her entire family. If the adventurers defeat the bandits and find her remains, she will realize she died and become a petitioner.)