Fetch Quests

The fetch quest is a staple of RPGs. It's a bit tired, but I think it can still be done well, especially if used sparingly.

Of course, your fetch quest should be interesting and should relate to the story you and the players are trying to tell. A quest in which PCs wander into a random forest, fight mindless owlbears, and wander out with some ingredient or other is probably not as interesting as one that involves the PCs' backgrounds or established elements of the campaign.

Perhaps the antagonist is after the same ingredient. Maybe some potential allies with knowledge about the greater events of the campaign live near the ingredient. Or it could be that the location itself is one the PCs have visited before or will have to visit again in dealing with the primary story of the campaign.

So, with that in mind, here are some fantasy ingredients and some interesting-sounding locations.

Missing Ingredient

1. Blue moon lotus
2. Necrotic cave moss
3. Mountain slug slime (1d4+1 slugs' worth)
4. Blackwater swamp gas
5. Eye of flying newt
6. 3d6 silver acorns
7. Unicorn tail hair
8. Basilisk egg

Interesting Location

1. Smiling Peaks
2. Jagged Sea
3. Fletcher's Keep
4. Sea of Fallen Leaves
5. Tomb of Knives
6. Great Green Wall
7. Stygian Depths
8. Darkened City
9. Melted Spire
10. Pit of Fiery Stars

Note: The fun part of using tables like these is trying to make sense of the results. Say you roll a 7 for the missing ingredient and a 10 for the interesting location. Now you not only have to decide what the Pit of Fiery Stars is, but also why there might be unicorn tail hairs there. Do unicorns live there? Were unicorns trapped there in the past? Is it the home of a legendary warrior with a unicorn-hair plume on her helmet or of an infamous sorcerer who collects unicorn hair to weave into his magical tapestries?