I would want to be one of those random village NPCs that just smiles and says, "Hello!". Like a medieval Wal-Mart greeter.
Adventuring is a long and difficult road. Smiles are proven to be infectious and brighten up people's day. If that's all I can contribute to the quest than so be it 🙂
"I hear there's some guy going from town to town, killing every living creature he comes across, all to become strong enough to defeat Darklady Serapi. What happened to good old fashioned diplomacy, huh?"
"There's a bat near the cave that's adopted a bunch of robins. Together, they protect small animals from dangerous predators. They're stronger than they look!"
"Legend speaks of a cave with a powerful hidden weapon that only reveals itself to someone who defeats exactly 108 monsters in each area in the world in a very specific order. The order of which has been lost to time."
I only ever talk about domestic tasks or politics. So I'm not sure if I'd talk about how the [local main quest] is making it hard to do the chores, or expropriative anarchy. Probably depends on if I saw the dude that just broke into my house break all my pots and riffle through my dresser.
I'll paint a picture. You go into a house where a bunch of kids path around in a circle, in the middle of the circle is a woman. When you talk to her she says "I need help! Where's my lazy husband?"
You go around the back of the house and there's a dude just chilling back there. When you talk to him he says "Don't tell my wife."
"Have you heard the prophecy? Evil will return and an unlikely hero will rise up and save the world. This might sound weird but... I think I might be the hero!"