30 DnD Side Quest Ideas to Expand Your Campaign

Every dungeon master knows that feeling. Maybe you need a breather from the main quest to get ahead of your players. Or maybe your players are craving something different. 

Side quests are the perfect solution, offering variety without derailing your carefully-crafted campaign. Whether you're looking to fill time between major story beats, pause the main quest while a player is out, or explore corners of your world that don't fit the main narrative, a side quest can transform a standard session into an unforgettable one.

Why Add a Side Quest?

Manage pacing for your main campaign 

Side quests give you time to plan the next phase. After an intense boss battle or dramatic reveal, your players (and you!) need time to figure out what’s next. A lighter side quest lets everyone recharge while keeping sessions going. Or, if your main story is moving too slowly, an urgent side quest can be the plot twist that injects energy back into your sessions.

Weave in character backstory and growth arcs 

Your fighter's estranged brother, your cleric's lost mentor, your rogue's unsettled debt—side quests are ideal vehicles to explore individual character stories. These personal moments create memories, and give quieter players their time to shine.

Side quests can also be a wonderful way to let characters level up, if they’re not quite ready for the next big boss fight or challenge yet. 

Adjust the tone of the campaign 

Running a grim dark fantasy but want to celebrate the holidays? Insert a festive side quest. Need comic relief after a heartbreaking story arc? Side quests let you modulate tone without compromising your main narrative's integrity.

🎲 Urban Side Quest Ideas

Is your party based out of a city? Here are a few urban side quests you can consider. Roll a d6 to choose one at random:

1. The Merchant's Dilemma: A shopkeeper is being extorted by a local gang, but the gang's leader is actually funding an orphanage with the protection money. Do the players stop him—or join him? Can they find a third option?
   
   
2. Sewer Infestation: Something strange is breeding in the city's underbelly. What starts as pest control becomes a rescue mission when the party discovers a colony of displaced kobolds fleeing an even greater threat.
   
   
3. The Phantom Playwright: Performances at the grand theater are being sabotaged. Investigation reveals a ghostly actor seeking one final standing ovation for their unfinished masterpiece.
   
   
4. Festival Chaos: The annual harvest festival is in jeopardy when key supplies go missing. The party must navigate rival merchants, pickpockets, and bureaucratic red tape to save the celebration.
   
   
5. The Poisoner's Apprentice: A string of mysterious illnesses affects only the city's elite. The culprit is a healer's assistant seeking revenge for their mentor's wrongful execution, but they're targeting both guilty and innocent alike.
   
   
6. Gargoyle Guardian: A centuries-old gargoyle has awakened and is "protecting" a city block with excessive zeal, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. The party must convince it the war it was guarding against ended long ago.

🎲 Wilderness Side Quest Ideas

Out in the wilds? Here are a few side quests that reward your intrepid explorers with XP opportunity! Roll a d6 to choose one at random:

1. The Lonely Lighthouse: A coastal beacon has gone dark, threatening ships navigating treacherous waters. Inside, the keeper has been driven mad by a cursed artifact they refuse to abandon.
   
   
2. Bridge Troll Negotiations: A troll demands payment to cross their bridge, but they're actually collecting tolls to repair infrastructure the local lord neglects. The party must decide between "solving" the problem violently or addressing the root cause.
   
   
3. The Wandering Grove: A sacred forest has begun moving, displacing villages in its path. The dryads and awakened shrubs are fleeing from loggers and need help finding a new, permanent home.
   
   
4. Beast Migration Mystery: Normally docile creatures are stampeding through settled lands. Tracking them to their origin reveals a mining operation has disturbed an ancient evil.
   
   
5. The Singing Stones: Standing stones in a remote meadow have begun humming ominously. Local druids are too frightened to investigate, but the phenomenon is actually the stones trying to warn of an impending natural disaster.
   
   
6. Hermit's Illness: A reclusive ranger who has guided the party before is deathly ill. The cure requires rare ingredients from dangerous locations, and time is running out.

🎲 Character-Based Side Quest Ideas

Ready to give a player who loves roleplay her time to shine? Is there a character who rarely gets the spotlight? Roll a d6 to choose one at random:

1. Redemption Letter: The party must deliver a message to someone the character wronged years ago, forcing them to confront their past mistakes and growth.
   
   
2. The Mentor's Test: A character's former teacher appears with a challenge that tests not their combat prowess but their wisdom and moral development.
   
   
3. Family Reunion Gone Wrong: A character's relative arrives asking for help with a problem that's far more complicated than initially presented, revealing uncomfortable family secrets.
   
   
4. The Rival's Request: A character's old competitor needs help, creating tension between pride and compassion. Working together reveals unexpected common ground.
   
   
5. Lost Heirloom: An item precious to a character's family has appeared in a merchant's stall. Tracking its journey reveals a thief who needed the money for their sick child and exposes the character's family's complicated past.
   
   
6. The Doppelganger Dilemma: Someone claiming to be a character's long-lost sibling appears with knowledge only family would have. Are they genuine, a shapeshifter, or a victim of false memories implanted by magic?

🎲 Setting-Based or Thematic Side Quest Ideas

Need to deepen your setting, highlight some of your favorite bits of worldbuilding, or foreshadow the themes you’ll be exploring in the main quest? Roll a d6 to choose one at random:

1. Echoes of War: In a region scarred by past conflict, the party discovers a cache of powerful weapons. Do they destroy them, turn them over to authorities, or keep them despite knowing their dark history?
   
   
2. The Last of Its Kind: The party encounters the final specimen of an extinct magical creature. Their choices regarding its fate ripple through the ecosystem and local culture.
   
   
3. Time Loop Tavern: A small inn is trapped in a repeating day. The party must uncover what event needs to occur (or be prevented) to break the cycle.
   
   
4. Diplomatic Dinner: In a campaign focused on political intrigue, the party must navigate a formal banquet where every conversation could shift alliances and the wrong fork could start a war.
   
   
5. The Shifting Border: A magical boundary between two kingdoms moves daily, and families are being separated by the unpredictable barrier. Investigation reveals two feuding arch-mages who've forgotten why they're even fighting.
   
   
6. Holy Day Heist: During a religious festival where theft is considered impossible due to divine protection, something valuable goes missing from a temple. The thief must be either extraordinarily bold or blessed by another deity entirely.

🎲 Wild Card Random Side Quests

Let the dice be your collaborator! When you need something completely unexpected, roll a d6:

1. The Sentient Sword Therapy: A legendary weapon in the party's possession is having an existential crisis and refuses to function until someone listens to its centuries of trauma and helps it find new purpose.
   
   
2. Culinary Catastrophe: A prestigious cooking competition needs last-minute judges, but the ingredients are exotic reagents and the resulting recipes are using magic in increasingly dangerous ways. The party must survive judging while preventing kitchen disasters.
   
   
3. The Library of Living Books: Books in an ancient repository have gained sentience and are feuding with each other. The party must mediate between genres, reunite separated volumes, and stop a romance novel from literally consuming a history text.
   
   
4. Backwards Day Curse: The party wakes up to find they're living a day in reverse. Every 60 minutes, the clocktower chimes the previous hour. They must identify what they'll do at "the beginning" of the day to prevent a disaster they witnessed at "the end."
   
   
5. The Tax Collector's Tragedy: A hapless bureaucrat is being hunted by the criminal they've been assigned to audit. The party must protect them while helping them complete their paperwork, because the real villain is the corrupt official who assigned this suicide mission.
   
   
6. Musical Chairs Apocalypse: A bard's experimental spell has caused everyone in a town to compulsively swap jobs every hour. The blacksmith is now baking bread, the mayor is shoeing horses, and chaos reigns. The party must break the enchantment before sunset when the swaps become permanent.

Ready to Build Your Perfect Campaign?

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