#StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
| Theme | Action/Adventure |
| This is the most common and straightforward sort of adventure there is. In the Action/Adventure scenario, you present your characters with a task and then confront them with obstacles to overcome in order to accomplish the task successfully. | |
| Goal | Clear Name |
| The name of one of the characters or an NPC has been sullied and the characters must clear it. The characters must find out a) why the name has been smeared, b) who is responsible, and c) why the responsible party is doing it; then they must find evidence to convince everyone they're telling the truth. | |
| 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 | Accumulation of Elements |
| In this sort of plot, the heroes have to go from place to place -- perhaps covering very little area like a city, perhaps roaming the known world -- and accumulate elements to be used against the Master Villain. These elements may be clues, pieces of an artifact, evidence, or allies. | |
| 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 | Cosmopolitan City |
| Most of the story takes place in a large, sophisticated city; center the villain's plot and activities around that city. This setting is best suited to adventures involving more people than monsters; most of your villains should be human or demi-human. | |
| Specific Setting I | Demi-human Community |
| In wilderness areas, this will be a large community of demi-humans -- elves, dwarves, halflings, whatever -- or intelligent nonhumans such as orcs. If your action is taking place in a city, this could be a hidden community (such as a secret underground dwarf community) or a section of the city inhabited mostly by demi-humans. | |
| 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 | Agent Provocateur |
| This Master Villain is a clever spy who inflitrates an organization, order, or army, and tries to effect its destruction by getting it to perform actions which will cause others to oppose it directly. The identity of this Master Villain is usually a closely-guarded secret; the heroes will encounter his cover identity, but will not suspect that he's responsible for all this chaos until they start adding up clues. Females in this role can be very, very effective. | |
| Minor Villain I | Lovable Rogue |
| This character is like the Master Villain of the same name, except that he has no minions of his own and serves at someone else's bidding. However, he's very independent, not always working in his employer's best interests; he often makes fun of the Master Villain's pretensions and may suffer that villain's retaliation because of it. | |
| Minor Villain II | Inquisitor |
| This villain is the one who interrogates the heroes and NPCs captured by the villains. He accompanies the other Minor Villain out into the field and works on anyone captured; he enjoys inflicting pain and suffering. | |
| Ally/Neutral | Gibbering Madman |
| Some poor wretch blundered into part of the master villain's plan and saw too much. What he saw drove him crazy. He gibber and jabbers, occassionally uttering clues about what he's seen, but just isn't coherent. He knows enough that the heroes will need to take him along to comment on what they're encountering, though, so he can't just be met and forgotten. | |
| Monster Encounter | King Beast |
| At some point in their adventure, the heroes run across a King Beast -- some enormous, intelligent monster (which speaks the Common tongue) which is the leader of its species. Perhaps it needs help; if the heroes help it they'll earn themselves a favor which the King Beast will repay at some later time in the adventure. Perhaps the heroes are in deadly danger and need help; the King Beast can be persuaded to help, but only in return for a deed or favor in the future. | |
| Character Encounter | Blackmailer |
| If the party is pulling a scam, this person knows it and can tell the potential victim; if they're wanted by the authorities, he's willing to alert the authorities that they're here; if they're hiding out from the Master Villain, he's going to tell said villain that they're here; he may have kidnapped one of their favorite NPCs and be holding him for ransom; and so on. | |
| Deathtrap | Animal Pit |
| This is a classic trap of the adventure genre: The heroes (perhaps just one hero) are dropped into a pit filled with dangerous animals -- snakes, lions, bears, whatever. They must either fight the beasts or delay them until they can escape -- climb back out, open a secret door, break down a wall, have a rope lowered by friends above, etc. | |
| Chase | Footrace |
| The chase involves the characters on foot, probably through such terrain as city streets or the corridors of a palace. One hero may realize that the's being pursued by a party of enemies and choose to run for it; the heroes may have caught up to the Master Villain, prompting him to run for his life. | |
| Omen/Prophesy | Birthmark |
| One of the heroes has a birthmark that pertains to the adventure in some way. He may have a birthmark identical to some NPC -- for instance, some person endangered by the Master Villain. This mystery can give the hero his reason to become involved. Alternatively, his birthmark may mark him as a hero fulfilling 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 | No Lawbreaking |
| For some reason, at one point in the story, the heroes cannot allow themselves to break the law -- even when it would help them greatly to do so. For instance, the heroes may be asking for the help of a king whose word is law and whose power is immense. When they arrive for their audience, an emissary of the Master Villain is making a similar plea for help. If the heroes attack and kill that emissary, they will lose any chance at the king's help -- in fact, he may order their execution. | |
| 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 | Wanted by the Law |
| One final complication, one which occurs pretty frequently, is when the heroes are wanted by the law. When they're wanted by the law, they have to travel in secret and very limited in the resources they can acquire. |
Based upon tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.