As a player I don’t like the side quests.. I just get bored because why would a cleric want to tag along into a dungeon for a special dagger when the next plot agenda item involves getting new rituals? Meh. I like DMing more. haha

I think the key thing to note was that the idea of these side-quests should be 1-2 encounters each max. The idea would be, a simple skill challenge plus a 1 room encounter would work best. The idea being, making the acquisition of the item interesting but not overbearing.

Of course, some players love a long drawn out quest for the items but I would leave that for Artifacts that become major plot elements at best. Crafting quests seem interesting but I tend to find I barely have enough time to get the party going to derail things for several sessions so the shaman can get his +1 Totem. Of course, some players like that sort of thing, so your mileage may vary.

Re-naming the items to give them an “proper” identity is also a sure-fire way to build history and add flavour above what is already available.

I use wish-lists as the primary grounds for my item distribution, but have also found a
satisfying method for my players:

Crafting items with components from defeated monsters.

Right now the barbarian in the party is busy hunting down and gathering the pelts of big cats in order to craft his “cathide” armor. (or maybe “kittenhide” as we jokingly refer to it).
The druid keeps collecting the fangs and claws of defeated beasts to craft his next totem and/or necklace.
That possessed giant bunny they defeated? – Its massive foot is now a Lucky Charm swinging around the ranger’s throat.

I sometimes let the killing blow dealt to a particularly powerful magical monster to transfer some properties to the weapon.
As the aforementioned barbarian killed a young white dragon, its cold power transferred, making his great sword a +1 frost weapon. (or as we called it, his “Really Cool Great Sword” – “The world’s most dangerous beer cooler, in the hands of the world’s most dangerous drunk”)

In this way you give the characters more of a sense of history for their items, in a similar way to the side-quest, but in a way that might be more of a surprise to your players, and also to yourself

My battle cleric just recovered his mentor’s bastard sword Stormbringer after 9 levels of adventuring.

Richard

I’m currently running the Scales of War campaign and so fitting in these encounters might be slighter harder. I’ll need to drop encounters in the book to fit in the side missions or maybe place the items in more interesting and fitting locations.

Another thing I’ve been thinking of doing is actually naming the items more often. Things like, a +2 Flaming Shortsword, I might call “The Shadow of Autumn”, to make them a little more interesting and unique then just “It’s a +2 sword”.

Another idea, that an associate DM came up with was putting an Arcana check to identify items to put some mystery back into the items. In some sense, it doesn’t work with the Wish List system, but it’s a nifty idea, if you ask me. The DC was 15 + 1/2 Item Level and if you missed, you knew what the bonus of the item was. (+1 Sword, +2 Totem, etc) You just didn’t know or benefited from any Properties or Abilities on the weapon.

Works better when we get some strange unknown items that are magical. (Like some adventures like to drop on you) Compared to your wish list items. The players can get the items identified back at town fairly easily. So the worst that would happen is that the player wouldn’t get the use of the item’s encounter/daily power till after the dungeon/encounters.

Over all, You’ve given me something to think about.