Adventurer Economy

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They could become reserve-soldiers or military police, and work for whatever the "kingdom" wants them to work for. Thus you could decide their missions (temporal duty); and on their free-time they can be adventurers.

So, they could help with natural disasters, guard the borders, stop unauthorized parties, collect taxes from troublesome people, guard valuable stuff etc. The advantage here, is that they will receive a standard fee and might have access to privileged information and potential plot-twists.

[Refplace]

Thanks so far, a couple of thoughts.
Its a high fantasy world (Chalice World, see my signature if you want details) and I'm not really looking for mundane tasks the adventurers can do to help the economy. Magic gives the people a very comfortable and safe lifestyle in the cities and inner parts of the Commonwealth or other kingdoms.
What I'm looking for is not the world economy but the adventurer economy. Things players might like to do that could earn money, particularly as adventurers and heroic types. Things that players tend to find fun.

• Message couriers, traveling entertainers are an option.
• Caravan escorts are doable, though I suspect pretty boring for any regular trade routes.
• Monster hunting the random monster (or bandits) that pops up is good.
• Safaris and missions by wealthy patrons sending them off is a good suggestion.
• An adventurer guild can help with offering more choices than the Stranger in the Inn method of quest giving.
• A Privateer option between warring kingdoms is a good idea.
• other ideas?

Primary enemies come under the heading of Squids/TMWNTK/, Evil spirits that possess animals or people and turn them into monsters, and chaos creatures.
Political Intrigue and rivalries are an option but the initial players went more for the typical adventurer type and I am trying to give them more to do.
Eventually they will seek out and find major nests but there not ready for that yet.

[Dalin]

To your excellent list I would add these other things that PCs could plausibly be paid for:

• Bounty hunting, possibly against rival or rogue adventurers.
• Theft: retrieve heirlooms, snatch special ingredients, or just pull off a daring heist.
• Explore/map a wild region or a route past a barrier.
• Investigate anomalies or unusual magical perturbations.
• Quests to other planes/dimensions/worlds. Find a purpose from another option, e.g., "Go to the spirit world and recover my family seal from Dingleberryon."
• Diplomatic mission with dangerous elements. Could just be bodyguards for the NPC diplomat, or a Face type might be the diplomat.
• Elderly client hires group to travel to distant oracle to ask a question and return with answer before he/she dies.
• Espionage, whether political or industrial (“Cross the sea of storms and find out how the Foreignians create their fabulous purple dye.”)
• Kidnapping or rescue missions in dangerous territory.

[khorboth]

What about a long-term sponsorship? Say a noble, merchant company, or... somebody... wanted to be seen as philanthropic? They could outfit a young adventuring company and give them a small stipend. Then, the adventuring company would be obligated to wear the colors of the sponsor and do things "in the name of ____".

It would also be a way of controlling these heavily armed folk who have a tendency to wander about the kingdom, kind of like privateer contracts at sea.

I don't think the idea is fully formed, but there's the kernel of something there.

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Some more possibilities that may work:

• Retrieving stolen goods (personal possessions, trade goods, magic items, livestock, rare magical creatures) from formidable people or beings
• Adventure to an exotic place to discover spices/magical plants/animals/spell ingredients not known before (for cuisine or medicine)
• Discover the reason for a curse and how to lift it
• Find a fickle supernatural being and beseech its help with some problem