As ForeverDM(tm), I like to treat my players by asking them flat

>>52563265
Have the magical king of hedgehogs come to them with a request to drive evil giants out of their ancestral home.. a group of orcs that have invaded the lost valley in the mountains where magical talking hedgehogs live in huts carved into trees stumps and tiny caves.

For their help the players get magic Shoes of Speed and the service of the hedgehogs, should they need help in the future.

>>52563265
How do you avoid the problem of them whining and bitching when they get what they asked for and it turns out it isn't what they wanted?

>>52563440
That's literally only happened once, so far. But when it did, I told them after the game: "You didn't specify you wanted a FRIENDLY encounter with a troll." After that first little wrinkle all the players learned how to better phrase their requests.

>>52563469
I'm not even talking about trolling them (ha!) like that. I'm talking about bizarre or misapprehended requests.

A while back, I got some buddies to ask me to run a semi-hard sci fi, investigation heavy game. I provided this. After months of play, they managed to track down what was going on, and informed the appropriate authorities. I was going to narrate how they won and the baddies all got arrested, but nooooo, they HAD to be in on the kill. So they show up at these guys headquarters, along the actual military police going to be doing the arrest.

And this was again, a semi-realistic homebrew. The characters were kind of private eyes, and what combat specialization they had was in the very strictly enforced no-weapons zones of interstellar transport; they were best with their fists and improvising weapons out of things allowed on the ships. They were fucking furious that a bunch of genetically engineered soldiers with rifles could mow down bad guys way faster and easier than they could. What the players ask for, at least in my experience, is only casually connected with what they want.

Fae hedgehogs are irked. Elves suddenly have problems with poked feet... And asses. Shenanigans ensue.

>>52563611
I understand now. But I think I would have simply asked them "You should have asked for a good combat encounter as well then."

>>52563265
Have them track down a wizard that's polymorphing people into animals to teach them a lesson merlin style. The party could start the quest by meeting someone who has been turned into a hedgehog because of their "prickly" personality and inability to trust others. Bonus points if you can get the idea across the people would be better for it if they just paid attention to their lessons. Make it possible to just talk the wizard down and explain the immorality of turning a cowardly guard into a rabbit and then not helping as he gets eaten by something much larger. Tracking a wizard through the woods could have plenty of fun for a ranger or druid, you can always have some monsters attack to provide combat, and you have the issue of talking to the wizard and the polymorphed people. If she wants to see a hedgehog, make the polymorphed hedgehog come along with the party whether they cure him or not. Maybe make the wizard a special item that makes his polymorphs immune to the break curse spell so they can't instantly solve the problem.

>>52563366
10/10

>>52563366

My players know that I am a retro gamer, but they are terrible at spotting any pop culture references I drop.

I am going to steal and use this in my next campaign.

>>52563265
In order to win the aid of an organization of cavalry warriors, you must slay a hedgehog with your naked ass.