Thematic Contrast
My buddy over at To Be Resolved made a cool post about Treasure Maps from an Older Era. The first section is about maps in ancient languages that can only be translated by monks. The players have to figure out where to find the appropriate monk (which is its own set of problems) and then when they find them the monk needs something. Some of their needs very mundane. Their livestock is missing or they want a snack from outside the hermitage.
I love this! It's an incredibly fun contrast. The person with arcane knowledge needs help with something that anyone else in the world can easily accomplish. Works for any NPC with specialized expertise. The opposite of course is the classic adventuring quest; the regular village has a skeleton problem. This is good too, they work together.
It also relates to one of my favorite methods of assigning vices and flaws. The spooky Whisper's vice is opium and the no-nonsense Cutter's is attending cult meetings of a dead god. The bureaucrat is hiding his psychic daughter from the inquisition and the wizard owes a gambling debt to the mafia.
And locations. Alien parasite eggs in a bathroom. An axe murderer in a church that everyone knows is haunted.
Anyway solid tool in the toolbox but not a lens through which every situation should be looked at. I'm certain this has all been said before but I felt like blogging.