The life of a Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition DM is rarely easy. As well as being an arbiter, a referee, a narrator, and (sometimes) a voice actor, you also need to be a storyteller. Unless they’re running one of D&D 5e‘s premade campaigns, a DM needs to constantly come up with fresh ideas for their adventuring parties.

Sometimes, this is easy. Prospective stories seem to flow from all around. The party’s actions in one adventure lead naturally into the next. The way forward is clear. This isn’t always the case.

Many D&D 5e DMs know the feeling well of staring at a blank document (or sheet of paper), willing themselves to come up with something for their party to do.

Inspiration is fickle and not always readily available (unless there’s a Bard in the party). However, there are ways DMs can come up with fresh D&D 5e quest ideas, even when their mental coffers are running a little low.

Flip the Script on a Previous Quest

There is no harm in reusing your old work as a D&D 5e DM. If players haven’t seen or experienced something, you can make your life significantly easier by throwing it at them again later down the line.

Sometimes, you can take a slightly more esoteric approach to this. Look at the quests you’ve run in the past. Chances are, some of them are just as interesting if you flip the script and put the players in the opposite position.

Have the party previously defended a heroic monastery from a siege? This time, create a more sinister church (perhaps to one of D&D 5e‘s evil gods) and have someone recruit the PCs to help breach it.

If your D&D 5e players have previously assassinated a morally ambiguous noble, have an equally ambiguous one hire them as bodyguards.

If they’ve attacked, put them on defence. If they’ve investigated, have them clear their names. If they’ve infiltrated an area, have them smuggle something (or someone) out.

If you choose this style of D&D 5e quest with players who did the original, it can be very interesting to see if they pick up on the similarities. If you’ve run the two with different parties, all the less chance someone notices and calls you out on it.

Read the Player Characters’ Backstories

Not all D&D 5e characters go for lengthy or in-depth backstories. Some people really do just pick up a sword and decide they want to be a hero. However, plenty of players do enjoy writing epic (and often tragic) origins for their characters.

These can be a wealth of D&D 5e quest hooks for adventures, even if you’re not looking to make a full story arc out of it. Backstories will have NPCs, events, locations, or even objects that might be the perfect focal point for a new adventure.

This guarantees at least one player will buy into your D&D 5e quest idea. It can be great fun for players and DMs alike to take a more collaborative approach with storylines.

Even better, this opens the door to many potential follow-ups further down the line. If inspiration for D&D 5e quests is a regular issue, this could lead to an entire story arc where you get to slightly rest your brain muscles.

Have a Man Come Through a Door with a Gun

This isn’t just advice for D&D 5e quest ideas. This is prime writing advice for anyone who finds themselves stuck. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand (it could also be a woman with a sword, a non-binary individual with a maul, or a dragon with claws).

Notably, this isn’t my invention. It’s well-known as Chandler’s Law after pulp fiction legend Raymond Chandler. D&D takes more than a little inspiration from pulp storytelling. Why not use one of its best storytelling shortcuts to keep things going?

Once you have someone bursting into the room (a tavern, it will likely be a tavern) with a weapon, that opens up plenty of potential inspiration. Who is this person? Who do they serve? Are they here to attack the player characters? Probably.

Answering these questions can easily flesh out an entire D&D 5e adventure for DMs. Suddenly, somebody in the area wants someone (probably the player characters) dead. Stopping this, finding out more, and counterattacking are all valid adventure paths.

It also has the added benefit of probably kicking things off with a combat encounter. This is a great way to start a D&D 5e adventure premise that forces the players to pay attention from the off.

Set Two NPCs Against Each Other

Ideally, your D&D 5e world has more than just the player characters walking through a void with the occasional dragon. It should have a reasonable roster of NPCs for the DM to draw on.

These aren’t just here for your players to forget their names and try to buy magic items. These NPCs can provide a wealth of D&D 5e adventure ideas. This is especially true if you send two (or more) of them to war with one another.

Find some reason for two previously established NPCs to be in conflict. Are they ideological enemies? Have they had some sort of business dealing go south? Do they work for wider factions? Is one of them being misled? Has one of them broken bad and turned evil?

If both of the NPCs in question are sympathetic, then this D&D 5e quest hook can force the PCs to make some difficult moral decisions. Alternatively, it can be a useful way to tie up the loose end of a villain from fifteen sessions ago the players forgot to kill.

Borrow Liberally from Other Fiction

Nothing is original. Not really. This gives any D&D 5e DM free rein to crib, borrow, and steal from pretty much any fiction that takes their fancy.

Movies, novels, video games, TV series, anime, and more are all full of concepts, story hooks, characters, artifacts, and more that an enterprising DM can make off with. None of it’s nailed down, it’s all yours.

Is there a villain you like from [insert media here]? Put somebody like them in a D&D 5e adventure and have the players try and stop them. Does one storyline, moment, or even aesthetic choice spark something in you? Time to make an adventure.

I have, in moments of limited inspiration, borrowed ideas from Critical Role, Deltora Quest, Alan Wake, Moana, and many other sources. You don’t need to do a deep dive and make sure you’re lorefully and thematically accurate, I promise the original author isn’t going to hunt you down.

It is worth putting your own spin on whatever you crib for your own D&D 5e quest ideas. It makes it feel significantly less dishonest and means your players will have less chance of recognising it.

Even if you have to edit it thoroughly, however, there is always inspiration around. Pretty much anything you enjoy watching, reading, or playing has something that can make for a fantastic D&D 5e adventure hook.

These have been five ways DMs can still make adventures for their D&D 5e groups when they have a bit of Writer’s Block. What are your favourite ways to get the information flowing? Let me know! As always, please do like this article and check out other Artificial Twenty content.

If your adventures are flowing, but you’re struggling to fill them with engaging conflict, check out ‘Five Ways to Spice Up D&D 5e Combat‘.

Alternatively, if you want to avoid killing your players’ hype for the adventures ahead of them, check out my how-not-to guide: ‘Five Ways to Make a D&D 5e Villain Overstay Their Welcome‘.