Buy Me a CoffeeRandom Adventure Generator
| 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 | Explore a New Area |
| The heroes are hired or convinced to enter an unmapped area and explore it. They may be making a map; they may be trying to find someone who disappeared into this area in the past; they may be following legends that tell of treasure in the unexplored interior. | |
| 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 | 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 | Prevented Deed |
| Here, the heroes have been defeated -- captured by the Master Villain, or so thoroughly cut up by his minions that all believe them to be dead. And the heroes have learned, from the bragging of the villain, loose talk of his minions, or examination of clues, what is the crucial event of his master plan. In any case, the battered and bruised heroes must race to this site and have their final confrontation with the villain, bursting in on him and his minions just as the knife or final word or key is poised, and prevent the awful deed from taking place -- and, incidentally, defeat the master villain and minions who beat them previously. | |
| 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 | Caves of Magical Folk |
| These can be either beautiful, glittering homes of gorgeous magical peoples, or the dank and terrifying lairs of horrible monsters. | |
| 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 | Ravager |
| This Master Villain is like the Destroyer, except that he terrorizes a very limited area -- such as a village, island, castle, or clan stronghold. (He may want to destroy the whole world but be trapped where he is; perhaps his efforts to free himself constitute the adventure's plot.) He stays in his area and terrorizes whatever comes into it. | |
| Minor Villain I | Avenger |
| This character is much like the Master Villain of the same name, but he's not in charge of all this villainy, and he's definitely an enemy of one of the player-characters. You'll have to decide who he is and why he hates one of the heroes; he could be anything from a recurring villain to someone who simply lost a fight to the hero once. | |
| 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 | Villain Ally |
| For some reason, the heroes find themselves in the company of a villain. Perhaps he's a minion of this adventure's master villain; he may be guiding the heroes to wherever they must leave a ransom, or, if the master villain is forcing the heroes to perform some mission, this villain ally is along to make sure they do it right. Whatever the reason, he's competent, unpredictable, and out for himself. | |
| Monster Encounter | Assassin Monster |
| This mosnter, at some time in the adventure, is sent by the Master Villain to attack one or more heroes when they're at their most vulnerable -- asleep, enjoying themselves, etc. Usually, the Assassin Monster attacks, but the hero, though injured, is able to hold it off long enough for his friends to respond to his shouts. The Assassin Monster is usually killed by his friends, who can then speculate on who sent it and why. | |
| Character Encounter | Mean Drunk |
| The Mean Drunk works much like the Belligerent Soldier except that he's not as tough, is of course drunk, and is usually accompanied by other Mean Drunks. | |
| 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 | 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 | 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 | 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.