| Theme | Espionage |
| Espionage adventures are active, grim scenarios involving spying
and perhaps other cloak-and-dagger deeds such as assassination or
rescue. |
| Goal | Rescue NPC(s) |
| The characters must rescue one or more kidnapped NPCs, probably
from the stronghold of the kidnapper. Obviously, they must get to
said stronghold, break in, rescue the kidnappee, break out, and
escape back to safety; this usually requires careful and clever
planning and a large dose of luck. |
| Story Hook | Old Enemy |
| This is a straightforward story hook; the hero learns that his
oldest enemy is back and is very active in the campaign, up to
something. The hero will naturally want to investigate and will
walk right into the story. |
| Plot | Geographic Progression |
| This is the simplest sort of adventure plot. The heroes have an
area to investigate or travel through; they have encounters based
on where they are. For instance, the traditional dungeon, where
monsters are tied to specific rooms or areas. Or, if the heroes
are travelling along a narrow valley or through an enchanted
forest, they might suffer ambushes and other encounters fixed to
various points along their travel plan. The plot, then, is
getting to the villain by surviving the intervening obstacle
encounters. |
| Climax | Throne Room Duel |
| This is set up much like the Scattered Duels, except that you
don't separate the heroes. It's harder to control whom fights who
in this situation... but if it doesn't matter who has the final
duel with the Master Villain, this is a classic climax choice. |
| General Setting | Under the Ground |
| In this variety of adventure, the heroes descend into vast cavern
networks beneath the earth's crust. There, they can encounter
bizarre races and primitive tribes, hitherto-unknown monsters and
strange landscapes. |
| Specific Setting I | Caves of Magical Folk |
| These can be either beautiful, glittering homes of gorgeous
magical peoples, or the dank and terrifying lairs of horrible
monsters. |
| Specific Setting II | Mansion of a Lord |
| This can be the home of a villain -- the characters may have to
break in and rescue someone or steal evidence, or break out if
they've been captured -- or of a heroic ally, in which case it
may be used as the headquarters for the heroes' plans and
activities. |
| Master Villain | Avenger |
| This villain seeks to avenge some wrong he thinks he's suffered.
He may be right; he may have suffered a wrong, and this makes him
a little more sympathetic than villains who are purely evil. The
Avenger uses his organization -- thugs and bribed officials -- to
get at the one who wronged him, and will want either to duel
(singly) the one who wronged him, or to put the wrongdoer in a
deathtrap. |
| Minor Villain I | Single-Minded Soldier |
| This most trustworthy of villain minions is the experienced,
competent, persistent soldier -- a field-trained officer who
serves the villain with military precision. He is usually
encountered in the field as leader of the villain's field
operations. He is not encountered directly until the middle of or
the latter part of the adventure; until then, the heroes
encounter only his subordinates. |
| Minor Villain II | Childhood Friend with a Dark Secret |
| This Minor Villain is like the character of the same name from
the Allies and Neutrals section. However, the heroes find out
early on that he's really working for the Master Villain. He may
not wish to be helping the villains; his family may be held
hostage, or he may just be too frightened of the villain or
otherwise weak-willed to refuse. Alternatively, he could actually
be evil now. |
| Ally/Neutral | Inquisitive Chronicler |
| This character is a historian who wishes to accompany the heroes
to record their exploits. He constantly pries into the heroes'
backgrounds, asking questions that are none of his business, as
the adventure continues. |
| Monster Encounter | Nocturnal Predator |
| This is a classic monster encounter; the arrival of a hungry
carnivore in the middle of the night. Usually, this attack
happens to heroes camping between villages or out in the deep
wilderness; a wild animal, attracted by food odors (from the
heroes' campfire or from the heroes themselves) sneaks in for a
bite. |
| Character Encounter | New Enemy |
| In the course of his ordinary activies, one of the heroes can
make a New Enemy. Hurrying along the street, he can bump into a
disagreeable fighter for whom an apology isn't enough; in a
tavern, he can make some innocuous remark that you deliberately
have the irritable fellow misconstrue as an insult. The New Enemy
will only exchange heated words with the hero at this point, but
will appear again later in the adventure and will eventually have
to fight the hero. |
| Deathtrap | Pit and the Pendulum |
| Actually, we're applying this term to any of many time-delay
deathtraps. In this sort of trap, the villains capture the heroes
and place them in a trap which will soon kill them -- it operates
on a delay, often based on a timing device or a burning fuse. |
| Chase | Aerial |
| The heroes could be riding pegasi or friendly griffons or allied
great eagles; the villains could be carried aloft by gargoyles or
demons. The prospect of taking a mile-long fall if one's mount is
hit is a very daunting and challenging one for the hero. |
| Omen/Prophesy | Fortune Teller Predicts Doom |
| This is an ominous encounter: A fortune-teller predicts doom for
one of the heroes, or for some community menaced by the Master
Villain. Shortly after, some calamity should befall the hero: He
can be attacked by an assassin, be in a building when it is
struck by fire or an earthquake, or suffer other danger.
Investigation of the events can then point the heroes toward the
Master Villain as the event's instigator. |
| Secret Weakness | Lack of Familiarity |
| The Master Villain, if he comes from the past or another
dimension, or belongs to an alien race, might be sufficiently
unfamiliar with this world that he essentially defeats himself.
How? By making incorrect guesses about human behaviour. One
classic error involves underestimating the human capacity for
self-sacrifice. |
| Special Condition | No Hurting the Villain |
| For some reason, the heroes cannot afford to fight the villain
directly. For instance, what if a demon possesses the body of the
child of one of the characters, or a very important child spoken
of in prophecy, one without whom the world will perish? |
| Moral Quandry | Ally Quandry |
| You set up the situation so that the heroes have a good chance at
defeating the Master Villain if they get the aid of two specific
individuals, probably experts in fields relating to the villains'
activities. But the two experts hate one another and refuse to
work together, even if it costs them their world. |
| Red Herring | Lying Rumor |
| This is the worst and most useful type of red herring -- the
interesting rumor which just happens to be false. In adventures
of this sort, the best Lying Rumor concerns the Master Villain;
it gives the heroes some "important" information about him which
later turns out to be useless. |
| Cruel Trick | Mission is a Ruse |
| In the course of their adventuring, the heroes discover they have
been tricked into performing a mission which helps the Master
Villain. |