Buy Me a CoffeeRandom Adventure Generator
| Theme | Comedy |
| This adventure is fun for fun's sake. Its basic purpose is to provide humorous entertainment with a minimum of actual danger or tragedy. | |
| 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 | Hero Offended |
| Someone greatly offends the hero, so much so that he'll pursue his offender right into the adventure. (Note that this usually means that the offender is a minion of the Master Villain. You'll have to decide whether the minion offended the hero precisely to bring him into the adventure or just as a side-effect of his ordinary villain activities.) | |
| Plot | A-B-C Quest |
| This is an epic sort of plot. In it, the heros are given (or undertake) a task to perform: The taking of a city, the rescue of an innocent, the destruction of a monster, the creation of a magical item, the defeat of a Master Villain, etc. But the path to victory is not a simple one. To get to their goal, Event A, they find that they must first accomplish some other task -- Event B. But when they undertake the task of accomplishing Event B, they find that they must first accomplish Event C. This goes on for several encounters, until the heroes accomplish all the obstacle events which prevent them from returning to Event A, their original goal. | |
| 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 | Shacktown of the Oppressed |
| Part of the action centers around the tenements or shacks of the worst part of town; perhaps an allied NPC lives here or the characters are fugitives hiding out in the nasty part of town. | |
| Specific Setting II | 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. | |
| 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 | Single-Minded Soldier |
| This most trustworthy of villain minions is the experienced, competent, persistent soldier -- a field-trained officer who serves the villain with military precision. He is usually encountered in the field as leader of the villain's field operations. He is not encountered directly until the middle of or the latter part of the adventure; until then, the heroes encounter only his subordinates. | |
| 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 | Talkative Barkeep |
| This classic encounter is the garrulous innkeeper who has information the characters want; trouble is, they'll have to bribe him to get it, or agree to stay at his inn, or buy a lavish meal, or listen to his incessant stories about his career in the army, or whatever. | |
| Monster Encounter | Reconaissance Monster |
| At some point in the adventure, the Master Villain will become aware of the heroes' activities against him. If he has magical abilities or a magical servant, he will send some sort of quiet, clever monster to spy on the heroes. The heroes should have an opportunity to realize they're being spied upon, leading them to a mad scrable as they try to capture or destroy the spy. | |
| Character Encounter | Belligerent Soldier |
| The billigerent one has just had his ears pinned back by his commanding officer and is anxious to take it out on some hapless civilian. If this is a city gate, he claims that the hero's papers are wrong or that he recognizes the hero from descriptions of a wanted criminal; if this is the streets, he insults the hero's lack of military bearing, pretty looks, clothes, smell, companion, or whatever it takes to provoke a reaction. | |
| Deathtrap | Mutually Assured Destruction |
| In this very nasty deathtrap, the heroes are bound up in such a manner that any one of them may get free of his bonds -- but when he does, all his friends perish. Obviously, the heroes' task is to find some way for everyone to get out alive. Perhaps an intricate series of cooperative rope-cutting will defuse the trap; perhaps a coordinated maneuver will get everyone free as the trap is being sprung. | |
| Chase | Aerial |
| The heroes could be riding pegasi or friendly griffons or allied great eagles; the villains could be carried aloft by gargoyles or demons. The prospect of taking a mile-long fall if one's mount is hit is a very daunting and challenging one for the hero. | |
| 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 Hurting the Villain |
| For some reason, the heroes cannot afford to fight the villain directly. For instance, what if a demon possesses the body of the child of one of the characters, or a very important child spoken of in prophecy, one without whom the world will perish? | |
| Moral Quandry | Friend Quandry |
| At a critical point in the story, one of the campaign's NPCs makes an impossible demand of one of the heroes. | |
| 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.