Buy Me a CoffeeRandom Adventure Generator
| Theme | Mystery |
| Here, the characters are presented with a mystery -- often a murder -- and have to find out who did what to whom. | |
| Goal | Gain Power |
| The heroes are on this adventure to gain personal or political power for themselves. They may be looking for an artifact or weapon, or are performing a mission for someone who will reward them with political power (a higher social rank or lands, for instance). If the characters are doing someone else's bidding, you might want to roll again on this section to see what goal the patron will have assigned to the characters. | |
| Story Hook | Old Friend |
| Another classic story hook is the Old Friend, the childhood friend of our hero, who shows up in one of several ways to drag the hero into the story. | |
| Plot | Event |
| For this plot, choose some sort of event -- a tournament, a holiday, a celebration called by the king, a masked ball, or whatever -- and set the commencement of the Master Villain's plan against that backdrop. | |
| Climax | Bloody Battle |
| This is the best Climax for an adventure involving the clash of mighty armies -- or for any adventure where, toward the end, the Master Villain and a large body of minions confront the heroes and their own troops. This finale is characterized by a monstrous clash between the two forces, with the heroes chewing through the enemy ranks to get at the Master Villain and his elite guards. It's strenuous, exciting, and classically simple. | |
| 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 | Laboratory |
| This can be alchemical lab of a friendly wizard, or the horrible experimental chamber of the villain where new monsters are created and relased upon the world. | |
| Specific Setting II | Tavern/Inn |
| This is a classic fantasy setting, the residence of travelling heroes and the home of the tavern brawl. | |
| Master Villain | Advance Agent |
| This villain is the vanguard of some sort of invastion; often, he is trying to open up a portal to a dimension full of trapped demons and evil gods. | |
| Minor Villain I | 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. | |
| Minor Villain II | Moronic Muscleman |
| This fellow is a huge, powerful monster of a fighter. His job is to smash anything the villain tells him to smash. He does that very well, but don't ask him to do any thinking; he has no time for such brainy stuff. | |
| Ally/Neutral | Grumpy Old Professional |
| Again, the heroes need an expert in a certain field -- this time a craft or art, such as blacksmithing, engineering, horse-training, or whatever. The only or best professional they can find is an aged expert. He's grumpy, cranky, and sharp-tongued; he constantly complains about the food, the weather, his companions, the decline in skill of his co-workers since he was a young man, the road conditions, the rotten pay he's receiving, and so on. | |
| Monster Encounter | Terrain Monster |
| Don't forget the simple run-in with the animal belonging to the terrain where the heroes are: Every type of wilderness has its predators and big, nasty herbivores. | |
| Character Encounter | Thief |
| At some point in their adventure, the heroes have a run-in with thieves. | |
| 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 | Totem Animal |
| If a hero has an animal which is his totem, he may see the animal engaged in a fight to the death with another animal -- one which, coincidentally, is the totem of one of the villains. How his totem defeats the other -- or is defeated by it -- gives the hero some clues as how to fight his actual opponent when the time comes. | |
| 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 | 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 | 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 | 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.