Buy Me a CoffeeRandom Adventure Generator
| Theme | Horror |
| This type of adventure is designed to scare both the characters and the players. Just having a monster attack is not enough for a horror theme; the monster must first frighten the characters. | |
| Goal | Explore a New Area |
| The heroes are hired or convinced to enter an unmapped area and explore it. They may be making a map; they may be trying to find someone who disappeared into this area in the past; they may be following legends that tell of treasure in the unexplored interior. | |
| Story Hook | Missing Memories |
| One or more of the PCs wakes up with no memory of the recent past, and now they find themselves in some kind of trouble they don't understand. The PCs must find the reason for the memory lapse, and solve any problems they uncover in the meantime. | |
| 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 | Hero's Home Town |
| The action takes the heroes back to the home territory of one of them. Note that this usually means that this hero's family or old friends are deeply involved in the adventure. | |
| Specific Setting I | 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. | |
| Specific Setting II | Caves of Magical Folk |
| These can be either beautiful, glittering homes of gorgeous magical peoples, or the dank and terrifying lairs of horrible monsters. | |
| Master Villain | Corruptor |
| The Corruptor is the villain who wants to make something nasty out of something that is currently nice. He may be working on a small scale -- i.e., wish to corrupt one character or a few characters, particularly PCs and their favorite NPCs. Alternatively, he may be a big-scale villain trying to change an entire city or nation into a jaded, debased pit of sin, hatred and death. | |
| Minor Villain I | Corrupted Hero |
| This villain was once a hero, possibly one known to the players. He was seduced by the dark side of the dungeon master. Because of his own weakness, or of a curse, he has become a villain, a pawn of the Master Villain. | |
| Minor Villain II | Misguided Moralist |
| This fellow has been convinced that only by helping the villain achieve the Master Plan can he improve the world. He tends to be encountered all through the adventure's plot, usually escaping from the heroes and taunting them for their wrong thinking. Fortunately, he's no more effective as a villain than he is as a thinker. | |
| Ally/Neutral | Childhood Friend with a Dark Secret |
| One of the heroes is accompanied by one of his childhood friends... but said friend now has a Dark Secret. He does strange and mysterious things (sneaks off to send messages, or behaves strangely around certain NPCs, or is scared to death of certain harmless animals or situations) and will not explain why to his PC friend until late in the story. | |
| Monster Encounter | Assassin Monster |
| This mosnter, at some time in the adventure, is sent by the Master Villain to attack one or more heroes when they're at their most vulnerable -- asleep, enjoying themselves, etc. Usually, the Assassin Monster attacks, but the hero, though injured, is able to hold it off long enough for his friends to respond to his shouts. The Assassin Monster is usually killed by his friends, who can then speculate on who sent it and why. | |
| 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 | Coliseum |
| If it's appropriate, you can have the heroes captured by the local authorities -- particularly when they're in an exotic land, lost world, or whatever -- and have them armed with gladiatorial gear and dropped into a coliseum for the entertainment of the locals. (Note that this works much better with fighting-type heroes than spellcasters.) | |
| Chase | Special Terrain |
| You can make any chase more memorable by having it take place in a setting to which it is utterly unsuited. For instance, horse chases are fine and dramatic when they take place through the forest, out in the open plains, or along a road -- but they become diabolical when they take place inside the Royal Palace or in dangerous, labrynthine, treacherous catacombs. | |
| Omen/Prophesy | Hero Fulfills Prophecy |
| This is the most useful sort of prophecy. In the early part of the adventure, one of the heroes discovers that he fulfills some ancient prophecy. | |
| 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 | Stolen Identities |
| This option requires that the Master Villain be of godlike power oor possess some sort of artifact. Once the Master Villain realizes that the heroes are on his tail, he uses his powers or artifact and steals the heroes' identities. One day they wake up -- and no one knows who they are. They retain their memories of themselves and each other, but no one else does. (The villain knows them, though.) | |
| Moral Quandry | Honor Quandry |
| You want to use this on the character with the most strongly developed sense of personal honor -- someone who has lived all his life by a strict code. Toward the end of the adventure, this character realizes that the best way to defeat the Master Villain is a violation of that code. For instance, the character might be a paladin, who discovers that the only possible way for the heroes to defeat the Master Villain is to sneak up on him and stab him in the back. | |
| Red Herring | Artifact that Doesn't Work |
| Often, epic quests against powerful Master Villains require that the heroes find some legendary artifact, the only object which can defeat the villain. If your heroes have had no trouble getting to the artifact -- they've effortlessly sliced through every obstacle you've put in their path and are confidently advancing on the resting place of the magical item -- you can have it not work. | |
| Cruel Trick | Villain is Related to Hero |
| In this very irritating complication, one of the heroes discovers that the Master Villain is related to him. The villain might be his long-lost father or twin; perhaps this relative is not long-lost after all, but has secretly been a Master Villain for years, and only now has the hero discovered it. |
Based upon tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.