cool idea! perfect for when not everyone can make it to game night and just crafty enough for it to create some good "in jokes" to make those who couldn't make fishing night wonder what the heck went on!
My players love these cozy break episodes, and they are my absolute weakness. You're a godsend, my man. For anyone looking for alternative rules, use all the quest prep as laid out in the video, then adjust the fishing minigame they play based on how much prep they did. First player to catch 3, wins [Maybe Radolf gets a score of 5:50 and David 4:45?] Full Prep Activities: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Two Prep: Stardew Valley One Prep: Sega Bass Pro Fishing Zero Prep: Sonic Adventure 1
If you bring Big the Cat into your DnD game, your players will NEVER forgive you! That's awesome, and glad I could help! Always happy to see your comments!
I like this kind of side quest, as it is one the party can get involved with on downtime, when they have just gone through some crazy stuff and want to chill a little and they can gain advantages depending on how much time they want to invest in this. Plus it can be funny to see what crazy plans they'll come up with.
Oh, I LOVE this. My "Broken Chain" island-hopping campaign has included a lot of fishing on the side, and even during the main questline. I made my own fishing rules (and video) quite a while back to ensure I had some concrete mechanics to use during these tasks. Early on the players participated in a local fishing contest to catch a specific fish, a sea serpent's silverfish, in which one of the players won a special fishing pole known as Pike's Steel Angler. And in our most recent adventure they went fishing in the Abyss to catch some fiendishly tasty morsels for a hezrou fish fry. I'm definitely going to incorporate some of these story aspects and game mechanics into upcoming fishing quests, although I'll need to hurry. The party is about to hit level 8 and the campaign is likely to come to a close shortly after level 10. Thanks again for the Quick Quest!
That is VERY cool, sounds like a really fun campaign for you and your players! The Hezrou fish fry in particular is a really fun idea! Glad I could give some inspiration, though it sounds like you’re well on your way to wrapping an awesome campaign!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT I think one of the most important aspects to making fishing more fun as side quests and downtime activities is just to come up with a variety of fish for the party to catch depending on their roll. I rank them as common/uncommon/scarce/rare/exotic and divide them between freshwater, saltwater, and running water. Of course, I had to come up with a new set when the party got to the Heaving Hills in the Abyss, adding fiendish piranhas, froghemoth tads, chuul prawns, vampire eels, and ghost anglerfish, but any new region can have its own specialty fish. Giving the fish some mechanical benefits also helps. I've tied in fishing and cooking a lot in my campaign (I was a big fan of fishing and cooking quests in World of Warcraft). This also lets your party use some tool proficiencies that might not show up as often in-game (I did a cooking video, too, for anyone interested in those rules). The point is, putting a little effort into highlighting secondary aspects of your players' characters will let them do some amazing and inventive things at the gaming table outside of the all-too-common combat encounters that the game generally focuses on.
@@TheBardsCollegeYT The fishing chart is shown in the video (although I misspelled Redear as Readear), but I'm also working on a written version of the combined fishing and cooking rules in a Google Doc which I will share once it's complete and polished up a bit.
I don't know if you know this, but this sidequest would slot beautifully into the midgard setting from kobold press. In the Northlands section, there is a kingdom of bearfolk ruled by an archfey called the "bear king" who, once a year, organizes a contest of fishing as the spring melts the river which bring a bounty of salmon, with human and bearfolk alike competing in the fishing contest. I was on the fence on how to manage the contest and this video was incredibly helpful
the title of this adventure made me think of the runescape quest of the same name, and got me thinking about ways to implement similar ideas to this quest. the two main parts of the quest are acquiring a specific rare bait which will let you catch a specific large fish, and sabotaging another competitor who is guaranteed to win if you don't sabotage him. the first part is pretty easy to make into a large variety of mini-quests, but the easiest way is probably to just give a survival check to find an extra-large, extra-juicy worm that will entice fish better than any other. the second part is a bit more free-form and you touched on it in the video, but i think something less evil like getting a rival super drunk the night before so they're still sleeping or hung-over by the time the contest starts. but in the runescape quest the main rival is not-so-secretly a vampire who you have to hide some garlic near to throw him off. obviously dnd vampires work by very different rules and if the party finds out there's a vampire in town they're probably going to forget about the fishing contest and try to kill the vampire, but i still think there's something to use there (like, for example, the rival is a sunlight-sensitive species and the party can poke some holes in their parasol)
Love the ideas and the Runescape call-out, I think there are lots of ways you could flesh it out and turn it into a longer quest! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
I love the concept of a fishing contest for D&D. My players enjoy non combat encounters, so contests and festivals are good ways to add to the story. I remember seeing fishing tables in Ghosts of Saltmarsh and one of the books in the Spelljammer box set. But those focus on the type of fish caught. I think having separate categories for different types of fish could allow the players to each compete and win without necessarily competing against each other. They still can if they want to enter different categories. It also allows multiple players to win at the competition.
Different fish categories is a great idea! I love the idea of the party trying to sweep the whole competition and help each other win each category, thanks for the suggestion!
I considered running a session like this before, but with the condition of every single competitor using blatantly unfair tactics. A locathah arranging for their friends to be fished up at a designated location, a plasmoid with dozens of fishing poles each in a pseudopod, a druid that transforms into their own catch, etc.
I love using concepts like this for filler, when I'm missing too many of the regular players to move forward with the primary storyline. As long as a couple players show up, we're definitely going to do SOMETHING. In this case, "filler" shouldn't be considered a pejorative. It's the literal "something is better than nothing."
I've been thinking of doing a kind of similar cabbage gathering contest(inspired by both Konosuba and Avatar the last airbender) and all I can suggest is depending on the party maybe you could want to add an optional slight of hand check at the end if they want to swap their competitions fish with their own, if they think they caught something slightly smaller
Icewind Dale, Season 10 of Adventure League, and I think Call of the Netherdeep had some fishing contests. To make it better give a luck point if someone has the sailor background. Evil DM. If you have 2 or more Nobles in your group give them an unlucky point. AKA you demand a reroll.
Inspired by "Shadow of the Dragon Queen?" I'm currently playing that campaign as my first game and was lucky enough to catch the legendary fish Benebog. Awesome experience from my first game! I like How much more you enhance the simple concept provided.
It's actually not, but I'll take that to mean I'm on the same level as professional writers! Glad you're enjoying your first game! I hope you keep having a great time!
First video of yours I stumbled on thanks to the Algorithm. Will be checking out Feys and Fishing since Fey shenanigans have been a concern/thorn for my players since they started.
cool idea! perfect for when not everyone can make it to game night and just crafty enough for it to create some good "in jokes" to make those who couldn't make fishing night wonder what the heck went on!
Thanks, glad you like the idea!
My players love these cozy break episodes, and they are my absolute weakness. You're a godsend, my man.
For anyone looking for alternative rules, use all the quest prep as laid out in the video, then adjust the fishing minigame they play based on how much prep they did. First player to catch 3, wins [Maybe Radolf gets a score of 5:50 and David 4:45?]
Full Prep Activities: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Two Prep: Stardew Valley
One Prep: Sega Bass Pro Fishing
Zero Prep: Sonic Adventure 1
If you bring Big the Cat into your DnD game, your players will NEVER forgive you! That's awesome, and glad I could help! Always happy to see your comments!
I like this kind of side quest, as it is one the party can get involved with on downtime, when they have just gone through some crazy stuff and want to chill a little and they can gain advantages depending on how much time they want to invest in this. Plus it can be funny to see what crazy plans they'll come up with.
Thanks, I’m glad you like it! Some of the best moments are often ones where your party can just goof off for a bit and do something fun!
Oh, I LOVE this. My "Broken Chain" island-hopping campaign has included a lot of fishing on the side, and even during the main questline. I made my own fishing rules (and video) quite a while back to ensure I had some concrete mechanics to use during these tasks. Early on the players participated in a local fishing contest to catch a specific fish, a sea serpent's silverfish, in which one of the players won a special fishing pole known as Pike's Steel Angler. And in our most recent adventure they went fishing in the Abyss to catch some fiendishly tasty morsels for a hezrou fish fry. I'm definitely going to incorporate some of these story aspects and game mechanics into upcoming fishing quests, although I'll need to hurry. The party is about to hit level 8 and the campaign is likely to come to a close shortly after level 10. Thanks again for the Quick Quest!
That is VERY cool, sounds like a really fun campaign for you and your players! The Hezrou fish fry in particular is a really fun idea! Glad I could give some inspiration, though it sounds like you’re well on your way to wrapping an awesome campaign!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT I think one of the most important aspects to making fishing more fun as side quests and downtime activities is just to come up with a variety of fish for the party to catch depending on their roll. I rank them as common/uncommon/scarce/rare/exotic and divide them between freshwater, saltwater, and running water. Of course, I had to come up with a new set when the party got to the Heaving Hills in the Abyss, adding fiendish piranhas, froghemoth tads, chuul prawns, vampire eels, and ghost anglerfish, but any new region can have its own specialty fish.
Giving the fish some mechanical benefits also helps. I've tied in fishing and cooking a lot in my campaign (I was a big fan of fishing and cooking quests in World of Warcraft). This also lets your party use some tool proficiencies that might not show up as often in-game (I did a cooking video, too, for anyone interested in those rules).
The point is, putting a little effort into highlighting secondary aspects of your players' characters will let them do some amazing and inventive things at the gaming table outside of the all-too-common combat encounters that the game generally focuses on.
That’s awesome, I’m sure a lot of folks would love to see your fishing tables if you ever post them somewhere!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT The fishing chart is shown in the video (although I misspelled Redear as Readear), but I'm also working on a written version of the combined fishing and cooking rules in a Google Doc which I will share once it's complete and polished up a bit.
@@davidwatches Gotcha, thanks for putting it out there!
I don't know if you know this, but this sidequest would slot beautifully into the midgard setting from kobold press. In the Northlands section, there is a kingdom of bearfolk ruled by an archfey called the "bear king" who, once a year, organizes a contest of fishing as the spring melts the river which bring a bounty of salmon, with human and bearfolk alike competing in the fishing contest. I was on the fence on how to manage the contest and this video was incredibly helpful
Woah, that’s awesome! I haven’t read up on that before, sounds very fun though. Glad my contest could help you flesh it out!
the title of this adventure made me think of the runescape quest of the same name, and got me thinking about ways to implement similar ideas to this quest. the two main parts of the quest are acquiring a specific rare bait which will let you catch a specific large fish, and sabotaging another competitor who is guaranteed to win if you don't sabotage him.
the first part is pretty easy to make into a large variety of mini-quests, but the easiest way is probably to just give a survival check to find an extra-large, extra-juicy worm that will entice fish better than any other.
the second part is a bit more free-form and you touched on it in the video, but i think something less evil like getting a rival super drunk the night before so they're still sleeping or hung-over by the time the contest starts. but in the runescape quest the main rival is not-so-secretly a vampire who you have to hide some garlic near to throw him off. obviously dnd vampires work by very different rules and if the party finds out there's a vampire in town they're probably going to forget about the fishing contest and try to kill the vampire, but i still think there's something to use there (like, for example, the rival is a sunlight-sensitive species and the party can poke some holes in their parasol)
Love the ideas and the Runescape call-out, I think there are lots of ways you could flesh it out and turn it into a longer quest! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
I love the concept of a fishing contest for D&D. My players enjoy non combat encounters, so contests and festivals are good ways to add to the story.
I remember seeing fishing tables in Ghosts of Saltmarsh and one of the books in the Spelljammer box set. But those focus on the type of fish caught.
I think having separate categories for different types of fish could allow the players to each compete and win without necessarily competing against each other. They still can if they want to enter different categories. It also allows multiple players to win at the competition.
Different fish categories is a great idea! I love the idea of the party trying to sweep the whole competition and help each other win each category, thanks for the suggestion!
I considered running a session like this before, but with the condition of every single competitor using blatantly unfair tactics. A locathah arranging for their friends to be fished up at a designated location, a plasmoid with dozens of fishing poles each in a pseudopod, a druid that transforms into their own catch, etc.
That's really funny, I think that would be so much for the party to figure out all of these strategies and come up with some broken ones of their own!
I love using concepts like this for filler, when I'm missing too many of the regular players to move forward with the primary storyline.
As long as a couple players show up, we're definitely going to do SOMETHING. In this case, "filler" shouldn't be considered a pejorative. It's the literal "something is better than nothing."
100%, sometimes you need those fun, “side” sessions to kill time while still enjoying the game! Glad you like the idea!
This is perfect thank you I have two players who are constantly fishing every single time to get down time this is perfect for them 👍
That’s awesome, glad I could help! I hope they enjoy it!
Phenomenal video! A ton of great ideas in here for a neat little side quest!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate that!
"I didn't stutter, I said I cast FIREBALL at the fish!!!"
😆
That’s one way to do it! You’ll catch something, hopefully a fish!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT hopefully enough of a fish to prove I caught it and to out do the other contestants.
If you cast it just right, you can get a fish AND not have to worry about the other contestants anymore!
I've been thinking of doing a kind of similar cabbage gathering contest(inspired by both Konosuba and Avatar the last airbender) and all I can suggest is depending on the party maybe you could want to add an optional slight of hand check at the end if they want to swap their competitions fish with their own, if they think they caught something slightly smaller
I’m always down for adding cheating mechanics! Thanks for the suggestion!
Sounds like great fun! Thank you.
No problem, thanks for watching!
Icewind Dale, Season 10 of Adventure League, and I think Call of the Netherdeep had some fishing contests.
To make it better give a luck point if someone has the sailor background. Evil DM. If you have 2 or more Nobles in your group give them an unlucky point. AKA you demand a reroll.
I like the idea of a luck point for the Sailor background, very cool!
🥳🫂👍🏿
Awesome - love a good skill challenge ❤
Me too! Fun way to mix things up at the table!
Perfect for my Ghosts of Saltmarsh game, thanks!
No problem, thanks for watching! I’m glad it’s useful!
Inspired by "Shadow of the Dragon Queen?" I'm currently playing that campaign as my first game and was lucky enough to catch the legendary fish Benebog. Awesome experience from my first game! I like How much more you enhance the simple concept provided.
It's actually not, but I'll take that to mean I'm on the same level as professional writers! Glad you're enjoying your first game! I hope you keep having a great time!
First video of yours I stumbled on thanks to the Algorithm. Will be checking out Feys and Fishing since Fey shenanigans have been a concern/thorn for my players since they started.
Glad you enjoyed this one, hope you like that video as well! I’m a big fan of any fey-related shenanigans!
this reminds me of the great grog games quest on the dms guild. I like contests.
thank you for the video. (:
Might have to look that one up! Thanks!
@@TheBardsCollegeYT it is a good one. I ran it for my players they enjoyed it and now own a deed to a tavern. (:
Nice, sounds like a fun adventure!
Great idea
Thank you! Glad you’re a fan!
Good stuff
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Interesting
Thanks! Glad you think so!
who dey ;)
Who Dey! Next year is our year!