There are countless plots to use to entertain your party as a GM inDungeons & Dragons. There are pre-built adventures aplenty, plus anything you’re able to think of can be homebrewed into an adventure. Sometimes though, you need a little extra time to figure out what the next part of the plot is. For those moments, you’ll definitely want to pull out a red herring.
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These little distractions often pull your characters from the main plot without them realizing it. It can be hard to think of a good red herring, so here are some ideas that may work for you and your party.
10A Mini-Boss
There are a lot of ghouls and goblins to send your players off to fight. It can be fun to throw in a higher-level enemy for them to fight just for fun sometimes. This can range from a homebrew enemy that fits the setting they’re in, to a random enemy from one ofthe core books.
This is doubly crafty to do after your party levels up, as this gives them an excuse for a relaxing and non-plot-oriented combat encounter for them to try out their new abilities. They’ll think the fight is the next step of the plot, just to search for the creature to find no hints at that being the case.
9A Visit From Royalty
Wherever you have your players going on their escapades, people will take notice of their exploits. After a while, those who take notice may even be of high rank in the local or overarching government. Whether they come from a long lineage of rulers, or some lady in a lake gave them a sword, it can be interesting to see how a party reacts to a political leader paying them a visit.
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King, queen, warlord, justiciar, pope, it’s up to you. Your players will think this is the start of their noble quest picking up speed, just for it to be a normal meet-and-greet. Maybe they just want to chat and congratulate the party, or, maybe they have a small task they can help the ruler with.
8Trouble In A Small Village
A classic one, and for good reason. Every village your adventuring party enters into will surely have its own problems to deal with. Why not have an NPC persuade them to lend a hand?
This is infinitely open-ended and can be as serious or non-serious and as short or long as you see fit. This is best done early in-game before the plot really takes form. The party will be looking for any hint of a larger scheme, so you may even play into this and make it seem like a vital task, just for it being recovering some lost sheep or something equally trivial.
7Rivalry Among Adventurers
Whatever drives your party on their adventures is probably a noble and highly important cause. This means they are probably the only adventurers out there. Have your group run into a group of adventuring NPCs that don’t take kindly to competition.
You can build it in a handful of ways: they can be of a higher level and have to be talked down, they could be laughably less experienced, or they could be around the same level, and a fight ensues. Your players may think they are part of some grand dark scheme when really they’re just the jealous type.
6A Pickpocket
Every adventurer loves collecting loot from their various journeys. So, there’s nothing more frustrating than a pair of deft hands running off with your coin purse. This red herring can work at any level; at lower levels, the thief could be no more than a street urchin, but at higher, it could be a deadly member of a reputable thieves' guild. How far you want to take this distraction is up to you. Either way, t’s a quick way to get their attention elsewhere.
Are they caught a couple of streets away? Are the town guards in on it, starting a chain of events due to their corruption? Or is this the first step into an ambush by a clan of assassins? Either way, it won’t culminate in anything to do with the main plot.
5Guilds/Temples/Cults
This is a wide array of groups, but they all fall into the same type of red herring you may employ with your players. All you have to do is introduce your party to this new group. Whether they be good, bad, or somewhere in the middle is up to you. The content of the meeting also changes depending on who they meet. A guild may be looking for new recruits, temples often need work done, and cults usually just want to terrorize things.
This can start from a full-on interaction with a member of the group you have in mind, or you can just drop some lore or rumors about one of the groups and let the party’s curiosity take over from there. Are they god’s chosen ones? Does the cult have worse plans in mind? Will the guild train them to be champions? The red herring here is for you to decide.
4Other Planes
The material plane is probably the larger setting of where your adventure takes place, but there are far more planes than just one. Introducing your players to another plane of existence can be an interesting side quest.
Whether you have a whole side-quest planned out or just want your party to travel there to see what happens, they will probably jump on the opportunity once you give them the means to travel between planes. They’ll think it has something to do with the plot at large; why else would their GM bring the other planes into the forefront?
3An Interesting Individual
The internet is full of memes of players derailing entire games for weeks just to investigate an interesting NPC they saw on their adventures, and they’re all accurate. Why not use this to your advantage? A cool pirate, a weird goblin, or an individual radiating power can grab an entire party’s attention.
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From there, have them interact with the party and have a solid backstory and interesting mannerisms ready for the inevitable conversation. If you really want to get them distracted, have the NPC need help with their problem. One that, of course, doesn’t relate at all to the overall plot.
2Dungeon Diving
Every D&D player loves a good dungeon; it’s even in the name of the game. So why not distract your characters with a brand new one? This could be anything from a cave, fortress, or even ruin.
Put a few traps, enemies, and some loot inside, and you’ll have them forming a line to get in. The best part of this plan is you can make the dungeon as long or as short as you see fit. This means plenty of time to plot out the next hook in their adventure.
1A Locked Door
This one is a rather simple red herring that can be included inany campaign or adventure. Plus, it’s certain to upsetthe rogue in your group. No matter where your party is currently, be it dungeon or city, nothing is as tempting and frustrating as a locked door. Especially a locked door that refuses to open, whether by magical or rogue-ish means.
It’s pretty fun to watch a party get side-tracked on whatever path they were on to find out how to open this door. Especially if you hint at what goodies or important info may be on the other side of said door.
