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 Money |
| The heroes are intent on acquiring a fee or treasure. If it's a fee, you may wish to roll again on this page to learn the patron's goal. If it's a treasure, pay attention to the Settings section, which will dictate where the treasure is, if not who owns it. | |
| Story Hook | Legend and Rumor |
| In this classic story hook, the hero stumbles across some new or long-forgotten knowledge that promises great treasure or gain. | |
| 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 | Scattered Duels |
| In this climax, the heroes have gotten to the end of their quest -- they may have broken into, sneaked into, or escaped from imprisonment within the villain's citadel, or have marched into the little town where the villain is holed up -- and they become separated. You can separate them by having traps and tricks break the party apart, by having them see two or three things they must resolve (such as danger to innocents or the appearance of minion villains) pop up simultaneously; they'll have to run in all directions at the same time or suffer failure. Once the party is broken down into bite-sized chunks, you confront each individual or small group with the enemy or enemies he most deserves to face -- his personal enemy, the monster which defeated him before, etc. -- for a grand series of climactic duels. | |
| 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 | Tavern/Inn |
| This is a classic fantasy setting, the residence of travelling heroes and the home of the tavern brawl. | |
| Specific Setting II | Catacombs |
| These can be catacombs beneath a living city or a ruined one; they can be long-forgotten or still in use. | |
| Master Villain | Destroyer |
| This villain is like the Corruptor, except that he likes destroying instead of corrupting. He operates like the Conqueror, moving in his armies -- often nonhuman or monstrous armies -- and destroying everything in sight. Again, the Destroyer could easily be an evil god or demon, meaning the heroes wil have to find his weakness in order to thwart his current plan. | |
| 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 | Chief Assassin |
| The Chief Assassin is the favorite killer of the Master Villain. The Assassin works mostly in the field, first killing witnesses who might prove harmful to his master, then zeroing in on the player-characters. He usually meets his end before the adventure's climax, but he may take one of the heroes down with him. | |
| Ally/Neutral | Absent-Minded Expert |
| The characters find they need an expert in some fields -- pottery, alchemy, whatever -- but all they can find is a somewhat daffy and absent-minded master of that subject. He's useful when around his subject matter, but otherwise absent-minded, incautions, in frequent need of rescuing, etc. | |
| 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 | Thief |
| At some point in their adventure, the heroes have a run-in with thieves. | |
| Deathtrap | Pit and the Pendulum |
| Actually, we're applying this term to any of many time-delay deathtraps. In this sort of trap, the villains capture the heroes and place them in a trap which will soon kill them -- it operates on a delay, often based on a timing device or a burning fuse. | |
| Chase | Water |
| Don't forget the water chase: Whether it's a battle of seamanship between naval vessels, a chase of rafts toward the inevitable waterfall ahead, a contest of canoeing ability, or a chase between the villain and his giant shark vs. the heroes and their dolphin friends, the water chase can be a distinctive and dramatic one. | |
| 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 | Holy Symbol |
| The villain may have the traditional weakness to a specific holy symbol -- but don't choose just an ordinary one. It may be a holly symbol no longer used by the church, or may be some forgotten variation of the current symbol. (For instance, the cross may not work, but a variation -- such as the Roman cross -- might; alternatively, it might have to be a holy symbol which has undergone some unfamiliar ritual.) | |
| 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 | Loony who Has It Wrong |
| You can have the heroes "aided" by a so-called expert who is actually a lunatic who doesn't know anything about what he's talking about. Once he's led the heroes off to some remote part of the continent, his evasive answers and bizarre behaviour will alert them that he really doesn't know anything about what he's pretended to be an expert on. | |
| Cruel Trick | NPC Turns Traitor |
| He may alert the enemy when the heroes are planning a raid; he may steal the artifact and take it to the villain; he may stab a hero or important NPC in the back (literally) before departing. |
Based upon tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.