Hunting Marks?

[Zilant]

I recently started DMing again for a goup of three people. 2 of the poeple have played before but only with me. The other is compleately new to the game entirely.
Since I am still a novice DM and I also want to easy my new player into the game little by little I have been trying to think of simple quests and stories to have my party go on.

One of the ideas I was tossing around is having a series of quests based on hunting certain monsters. Sort of like the Mark hunting in FFXII.

So starting when they reach lvl 4 they will find a notice on the local job board in the pub and it will send them to someone who wants to them to find and capture/kill some strange creature.
For example, they might be asked by a merchant to go kill a minotaur and collect it's solid gold-tipped horn. To get to the monster you have to travel to a labrynth and traverse it's puzzles and traps.

I guess my reasons for making this thread is to get some input on this idea.
Things I could do to improve? Suggestions? Comments? Ideas?
Heads up letting me know this idea is crap?

What does the playground think?

I'm not sure it matters but my party currently consists of
A Human Fighter (the new player)
A Dwarf Cleric
An Elf Rogue

[Kelb_Panthera]

Do any of your players have a mechanical way to find a creature? Ranks in Survival or gather info? The track feat? If the answer is "no" you should probably make sure your wanted posters include a line that gives a known or common location to find that creature. Also, don't make them do too many of these. They'll get old quick unless the creatures are particularly dangerous, and that could lead to a TPK.

[Cespenar]

-You can throw in some fluff to make those side quests a bit more interesting. For example, the players can find journals in the labyrinth hinting that the minotaur was once a human, cursed by some god or ancient power to become the monster that he is now, which could put some empathy in the equation, making a final confrontation that could go in different ways.

-Also, you could introduce the players to a special blacksmith NPC, who makes weapons and armor out of exotic monster parts. For example, you bring one of the minotaur's horns to your employer, but take the second for yourself, and the blacksmith crafts it into an unique bow or dagger or something. That way, not only there would be the joy of extra loot (:smallbiggrin:), but also a memento of a cool sidequest that they would remember even later on.

[Zilant]

Hm, I didn't think about Survival or Gether Information. I'm fairly certain that one of the PC's has gather info but I don't think anyone has Survival.
maybe I'll only do the marks every so often.

I really like the idea of having the slain enemies used as gear. I think my group would love that. In our first session my cleric decided to take the helm of a slain goblin cheif as a memento.

[Kol Korran]

some ideas:
- to get the Egg of a baby Roc, when the Roc is far too dangerous for them. the idea will be to sneak successfully into it's territory, and be able to get away with the egg (which needs to be kept reasonably warm, is a bit fragile, and about the size of a... dwarf?) while the angry mother looks for it.

- The Manticore of the spiked hills have resumed terrorizing the caravans again. seek it out and bring it's tail. the hills are said to be haunted at dark, with shadowy fey lurking about, tricking travelers.

- the goblins of the sayugen swamp have become bold, making raids, but they are uncustomarily fierce. what force drives them? ( pair of Barghests?)