| Theme | Espionage |
| Espionage adventures are active, grim scenarios involving spying
and perhaps other cloak-and-dagger deeds such as assassination or
rescue. |
| Goal | Survive Environment |
| The characters could end up in a hostile environment which they
must cross -- a desert, a jungle, or other hostile setting. In
the course of the adventure they'll need to find food and water,
resist the elements, and perhaps fight off attacks of the
natives. |
| Story Hook | Not in Kansas |
| The PCs are minding their own business and find themselves
transported to a strange place. They must figure out where they
are, why they are there, and how to escape. |
| 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 | On the Road |
| Most of the adventure takes place on the road, as the heroes are
travelling from place to place. This is especially good for
adventures where heroes are investigating a wide-ranging mystery,
are part of a caravan, or are being pursued by loathesome
villains. |
| Specific Setting I | Ruins |
| These can be the ruins of some ancient civilization, an
abandoned temple or castle, incomprehensible blocks of stone
arranged by ancient gods, etc. They can be magical or normal,
inhabited by normal animals or by monsters, centers of magic or
just tumbled-down buildings. |
| Specific Setting II | Lost City |
| This is the remnant of some lost civilization or expedition,
still thriving in some forgotten corner of the world. Remnants of
lost civilizations can even inhabit cavern systems beneath
campaign cities, preying on the above-worlders for their goods,
slaves, and sacrifices. |
| Master Villain | Lovable Rogue |
| This Master Villain isn't really evil -- he's just chaotic and
fun. Cheerful bandits in the forest who rob from the rich and
give to the poor, singing and rope-swinging pirate kings, and
romantic, sophisticated duellists all belong to the category of
the Lovable Rogue. Often, the Rogue will not be behind the
nastiness the heroes are encountering; he may be in competition
with them for the prize they're seeking. Often the heroes and the
Rogue (and his minions) will have to team up to succeed at their
task. Just as often, the Rogue will try to get away with the
whole treasure. |
| 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 | Hard-Eyed Advisor |
| This is the sort of villain whom the heroes see in the Master
Villain's throne room. He's hard-eyed and scary; life means
nothing to him and he enjoys killing. He's also a good advisor to
his master. |
| Ally/Neutral | Obsequious Merchant |
| This fellow is the owner of the caravan the heroes are
protecting, or the merchant the heroes encounter when they
desperately need to buy something. He is oily, ever-flattering,
overly agreeable, and is a sharp bargainer; the heroes will not
find him willing to give them a sale price. |
| 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 | Truthful Accuser |
| This encounter is like the Lying Accuser except that the accuser
is telling the truth. Dig through your characters' pasts, uncover
a misdeed or two, and, when the heroes are at a critical point in
their adventure, confront them with someone they actually have
wronged. This person has found them and appealed to sympathetic
local authorities. The heroes will have to make good or have the
authorities on their backs for some time to come. |
| 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 | 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 | Secret Embarrassment |
| Finally, the villain may have some aberration or secret shame
that will force him to flee when he is confronted with it. It
could be something as simple as the fact that his nose is too
big, or that he is a small and nebbishly wizard pretending to be
some vast, powerful demonic power. When his shame is revealed, he
is too humiliated to continue; this is a good option for comedy
adventures. |
| Special Condition | Coping with a Curse |
| The curse might be making the hero progressively uglier, might be
draining out his life-force (he's losing experience which will be
retruned if he succeeds), or might be making him progressively
insane. Each day, as he sees his reflection in a mirror or pond
or fountain, he'll know himself to be less than he used to be. |
| 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 | 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. |
Based upon tables from the
Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.