Buy Me a CoffeeRandom Adventure Generator
| Theme | Romance |
| This sort of adventure (rarely played, but worthwhile anyway) has as its central plot the romance between two characters, usually a player-character and an NPC. | |
| Goal | Thwart Monstrous Plan |
| This is a classic fantasy-adventure plot: The characters learn of some horrible plan made by a monstrous enemy, and must thwart it before the kingdom is lost or the world is destroyed. This is an epic goal, and usually requires that the characters go to all sorts of places, rounding up allies and artifacts, before being strong enough to face their enemy. | |
| Story Hook | Dying Delivery |
| On some occassion when the hero is out wandering the streets or is otherwise all alone, a dying man bumbs into him, hands him something, says a few words, and dies. | |
| 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 | Prevented Deed |
| Here, the heroes have been defeated -- captured by the Master Villain, or so thoroughly cut up by his minions that all believe them to be dead. And the heroes have learned, from the bragging of the villain, loose talk of his minions, or examination of clues, what is the crucial event of his master plan. In any case, the battered and bruised heroes must race to this site and have their final confrontation with the villain, bursting in on him and his minions just as the knife or final word or key is poised, and prevent the awful deed from taking place -- and, incidentally, defeat the master villain and minions who beat them previously. | |
| General Setting | On the Sea |
| Most of the action occurs on the sea -- the heroes are shipborne for some reason, docking in lots of ports. Again, this is good for adventures where the heroes are investigating clues left all over the map, are part of some trading enterprise, or are being pursued by villains. | |
| Specific Setting I | Tavern/Inn |
| This is a classic fantasy setting, the residence of travelling heroes and the home of the tavern brawl. | |
| 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 | Ravager |
| This Master Villain is like the Destroyer, except that he terrorizes a very limited area -- such as a village, island, castle, or clan stronghold. (He may want to destroy the whole world but be trapped where he is; perhaps his efforts to free himself constitute the adventure's plot.) He stays in his area and terrorizes whatever comes into it. | |
| Minor Villain I | 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. | |
| Minor Villain II | Coward |
| This character is an ordinary grunt minion of the Master Villain, but he's a coward. He's deathly afraid of the Villain and the heroes. He's best used when you plan to have the heroes captured; by his mannerisms, you can make it clear to them that this fellow is a coward and they will begin to work on him psychologically. | |
| 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 | 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 | Press Gang |
| In any port city, the heroes, in a tavern or hostel, may find themselves set upon by ruffians employed by the city; these ruffians use clubs and strike to subdue. If the heroes fight and beat the ruffians, they find themselves wanted by the law for assaulting officers of the peace. And if they fight and lose, they wake up to find themselves sailors, headed far away from their quest! Now they must decide whether they're going to jump ship, mutiny, or just settle down toa few years of seafaring life. | |
| Deathtrap | Rock and a Hard Place |
| This trap starts out as an Animal Pit, Pit and the Pendulum, or Tomb Deathtrap, but an obvious escape suggests itself very early on. Trouble is, it leads into even worse danger. The hole out of the animal pit may lead to the lair of an even worse animal; it may lead through a succession of dangers (collapsing old catacombs, into an underground river, into a den of zombies) before the heroes reach the light. | |
| Chase | Horseback |
| This is a relatively short chase -- it only needs to go on for a mile or so before even the best horses are winded. If it goes on longer than that, the horses may collapse and perhaps die. | |
| 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 | Element |
| The Master Villain can be banished, dispelled, killed, or otherwise defeated by some of element or item. The Master Villain tries to get rid of all the examples of this element in his vicinity; he doesn't let his minions carry it or bring it into his presence. But he's not stupid; he doesn't announce to the world what his weakness is. He tries to hide his concern within another command. If he's allergic to red roses, for instance, he orders all "things of beauty" destroyed within miles of his abode. | |
| Special Condition | Time Limit |
| Finally, the most obvious condition to place on an adventure is to give it a time limit. If the Master Villain is going to conclude his evil spell in only three days, and his citadel is three hard days' riding away, then the heroes are going to be on the go all throughout the adventure -- with little time to rest, plan, gather allies, or anything except get to where they're going. | |
| Moral Quandry | Respect Quandry |
| This is much like the Ally Quandry, only at a greater distance. The heroes have been utilizing the aid of two (or more) powerful NPC allies. Now, in the course of the adventure, the heroes come across a task which can be accomplished in one of two ways -- say, through military intervention or by esoteric magic. The problem is, the NPC allies are arguing for different choices, and the one whom the heores choose against will no longer aid them. | |
| 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 | Villain Accompanies Party |
| In this distressing situation, the Master Villain, in disguise or his secret identity, accompanies the heroes for much of their quest. He gets to know them, learns their strengths and weaknesses, learns their plans, and just as soon as it's most efficient for him, he thwarts their current plans and leaves. Alternatively, the Master Villain might be with the heroes all along, up to the very end; the heroes know that one of their companions is the villain, and the whole thrust of the story is finding out who he is. This is the whole purpose of most Mystery-type adventures. |
Based upon tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.