Old Faithful quest tool

The Old Faithful
This is a tool for the QM to use at any time that should guarantee entertainment at a low cost of effort and progress the quest in some way. The tenants are:
1. It must be forced onto the players by the QM
2. It demands a response and entails a consequence
3. It must have incentive to engage with
4. It must be worth doing (this comes from Character, World, Plot, or Entertainment)
5. It should not stress the QM to produce
6. It should be resolvable in a short span of time (1-5 updates)

Examples include:
Enemy Encounter: A squad of goons kick in the door, a swarm of zombies appear, an ambush of orcs or goblins. This is forced onto the players and demands response lest the players be killed, robbed, or otherwise. The incentive is the usual benefit for xp and gold, but may be increased by attaching some benefit or reward to slaying the leader or fighting the body; such as intel on the body, extra gold or a magic item, learning techniques or powers, etc. For worth doing it is contextual, but may rely heavily on the loops for engaging (combat, social, stealth, etc) being themselves entertaining, or otherwise tying them into the world or plot. Having the leader be a character is also useful, or tying them to another character as a faction. The group should not be too large as to pose significant threat, or should be able to retreat, surrender, or be defeated at once so as to keep things short. Enemies should come from an easy statblock.

Rival Villains Appear: Team Rocket, Bulk and Skull, Mr Crocker. These are character focused foils that attack or harass the player. They inject themselves into a situation and demand action from the players to stop or else they will cause a negative consequence for the MCs or the world. They are often associated with an ongoing event, location, or secondary character, are often comedic or pathetic and engage with the players on their level or below (like a schoolyard play). They may have some benefit to dealing with them like xp or improving relations with another person. Once they are foiled, blocked, or hurt, they often leave at speed. Rivals should be easily repeatable and need little prep.

Challenge Test: A challenge or test is posed by a mentor of considerably higher skill or power. This is forced on the players, refusing it will incite consequence from the mentor or may simply require them to still act in order to escape. Completing the test should have an incentive of gold, xp, upgrades, or knowledge, only on success. Worth doing may tie the test to the context of what is going on, and dangling the incentive early can tie it to the plot or world fairly easily. Having the mentor be a character known or related to the MC or another is a good way of characterizing them in, as well as what reason they may be mentoring or posing the test. The test should not be overly long, 1-3 actions maybe, to keep things succinct. Test itself should be generated through simple categories or solutions.

Lootbug: A high-incentive enemy appears and attempts to escape if engaged. While this violates 2 partially, it does entail a consequence (did not get big reward) due to the massively high incentive of gold or exp. Thus opting to not engage is probably not sensible. It is forced into the world and very worth doing. Its not inherently character, world, plot, or entertainment but could be tied to them, world most easily. The bug should be able to escape or die within a few actions, but partial hits may give rewards so incentive remains even if complete success could not be achieved. Loot bug should not be complex statblock.

Crisis: A crisis or dangerous situation occurs threatening someone that will lead to disaster if not stopped. Very heroic-oriented, incentive inherent in doing a good deed and getting accolades. The situation is forced and being passive will entail a bad outcome for the victim. Other than heroism, incentive may be given through xp for succeeding, gold for a reward, information if related. Worth doing could be related to an ongoing plot or villain, the victim is a character, or the disaster is relevant to the world. Disaster should not be lengthy or sizable to deal with, and should not require a lot of detail to produce or resolve, or play to a character's niche or role.

Opportunity: A situation presents itself to the character that is fleeting but may be exploited for personal gain. More villain-oriented, incentive in personal gain and exploiting others. Situation is forced, but not required to engage, however lost incentive similar to Lootbug. Incentive is more plain through gaining money, exp, information, items, etc from the opportunity. Worth doing may be the victim is related to a character, the opportunity spawns from the world, or doing it progresses the plot. Opportunity should be brief, understood, simple to engage with and short enough to fit in a scene.

Player Tax: A bad situation is inflicted on the players that causes them penalty if they do not react. The players get stolen from, accused, accosted, harrassed, etc. Have a brief window of time to mitigate the effects or reverse them back onto the afflictor. Distinguished by challenge by not being a test; can walk away but will entail accepting the crisis threats. Players may detect crisis before it happens, during, or afterwards and still resolve it. Incentive is more to avoid danger, but may get bonus if resolved such as taking all of thiefs money. So use sparingly. Worth doing can relate to character accuses you, tied to faction in the world, or is part of the ongoing plot or area. Situation should be brief, dangers clear, options available, and resolution quick to do.

Question Posed: A question or request is posed of the character that must be met with a response. Could be a flirt, an ultimatum, a hypothetical, a plea, etc but is requested of someone else to the character to do, say, share, accept, refuse, or perform something; a persuasion. It must demand a response, silence is its own response with consequence. Incentive must have character benefits, increase relationship, or rewards for answering well. Must be worth answering; further's a characters development or relationship, builds the world and setting, or furthers the progression of plot. Question should be clear, consequential, make sense for the asker, and answerable easily. May ask for further details first to build clarity towards an answer. Resolution can lead to longer stuff as consequence, but question should be quickly resolvable.

Cant see a way to do:
- exploration based idea: throwing them into a location will take too long to resolve. If shorter, its a Challenge Test
- navigation based idea: similar reasons
- barrier/environment/getting lost: GM has no control to end the situation where it doesnt feel contrived, or where the players cant just wait it out.
- Creature/Harassment: Already covered by enemy, villains, crises, opportunities.
- Trap: Hard to resolve without being contrived. Covered otherwise by crisis or tax.
- Temptation: Covered by lootbug and opportunities.
- Environment: Similar to location-based, but could be sudden crisis (thunderstorm you have to endure).