Helping a brand new settlement

[Pinjata]

Somehow (don't ask) my PCs have joined a group of pioneers, whose goal is to set up a new village in badlands. I need to come up with some neat small quests for them (they are lvl 1, D&D 5e). I came up with ankheg infestation and wolf raids plus bandit raids. What else threatens a small community?

thanks

[Koo Rehtorb]

Social migration.

[BlizzardSucks80]

Preston Garvey Says: "I just got word that another settlement needs your help"

[Epimethee]

Their main concern will be the managing of their ressources: the wolf is dangerous because he kill the sheep and so on.
You have well covered this part but you may also want some more casual events, a fire after a lightning, some annoying critter, a strange disease on the crops... Each of those events could be more or less connected with something more sinister. You could for example tie a little campaign with some Dryad or even a Green Hag (maybe not at first Level though). An evil druide may be a future recurring vilain.

Then your colony must grow to survive: you need to have wood for your houses, you Need place for your fields and so on. To gain that you have to change your surrounding, disturbing the inhabitants. The animals are usefull at low level for casual encounter but a colony of pests like kobold or gobelins is a well regarded classic. You should start thinking about others intelligent neighbours. Some should be friendly. Your players should have an impact on those relations. They will prove crucial for your survival.

Fey peoples are generally great encounters. Some are dangerous, some are annoying,?some are helpfull, it offers you a lot of options.

Then it depends of what your players want: if they really want to play the colons, the parhfinder Kingmaker campaign may be usefull as it is the Main Argument.

[Mordar]

Exploration is a good option too - in general, starvation, thirst and disease are the biggest threats they face, not goblins. So identifying territory as scouts would probably be their best active role...and along the way they can discover "communities" in the region (that can be adversarial like goblins, neutral like wood folk, or friendly like trade-hungry dwarves). Exploration can also open up some dungeon delve kinds of adventures that plug in any old where.

- M

[JoeJ]

Some warlord they've never heard of is demanding the settlement pay taxes. Preferably with an army much too big for the PCs to simply kill, so they have to reach some kind of compromise about the amount of taxes and what level of protection the warlord gives them in return.

[Epimethee]

Exploration is a good option too - in general, starvation, thirst and disease are the biggest threats they face, not goblins. So identifying territory as scouts would probably be their best active role...and along the way they can discover "communities" in the region (that can be adversarial like goblins, neutral like wood folk, or friendly like trade-hungry dwarves). Exploration can also open up some dungeon delve kinds of adventures that plug in any old where.

- M

Yeah, my post was unclear: i second you and intentef by mentiononing goblins some kind of intelligent neighbour in competition for the ressources. I agree with your examples but, as i tried to say before, you have multiple solutions dealing with them and even against classic foes the players should have multiple solutions to make their survival possible.

[Kaptin Keen]

Badlands settlements are one of my favourite things. They get into all sorts of trouble. Elves, centaur, gnolls, bugbears, goblins, all the evil and/or untamed races. Also, where many races compete there may be many old battlefields, burial sites or holy places, all sources of yet more trouble - undead, spirit guardians, angry druids, and so on.

Also, make them picks sides: Ally with the bugbears against the elves, for instance. I mean, no sane sentient would want elves for a neighbor, right?

[The Fury]

Maybe it's not a super-exciting threat, but starvation and food shortages were pretty common problems for new settlements. Like if the crop yield too small or there was a blight or something.

This could potentially be solved by trying to find a similar plant that's native to the region and trying to grow that, or maybe questing for an artifact that allows a spell like Plant Growth to be cast.

The outbreak of a disease is similarly plausible and could be solved in similar way: Quest for an item that can cure the problem.

[Jay R]

Why did the river just dry up?

Is the nearby grove where you plan to get firewood protected by treants?

Do the docile, friendly duckbunnies eat all young crops?

Is the settlement downwind of a forest fire?

Do they discover rich mineral deposits before they are large enough to defend themselves?

Is there a nearby cave that, unknown to all, leads directly to the underground?

Is their location going to interfere with an established smuggling route?

Are they prepared for the semi-annual velociraptor migrations?

[Beleriphon]

As dumb as it sounds look at Mass Effect Andromeda for some inspiration. The entire point of the game is that we have colonists on hostile worlds, with potentially hostile locals, some potentially helpful locals, and general missions like find out why that giant ancient architecture is doing weird things like making monsters attack us.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

The rich mineral deposits are one of many great ideas.

Imagine robber barons showing up to "buy" the fledgling mine or any of the sorts of underwold figures who show up. Even a few dozen unruly drunk miners present a problem. Imagine a couple of them are pursued by a greater evil.

The King wants to federalize the area?