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 | Clear Name |
| The name of one of the characters or an NPC has been sullied and the characters must clear it. The characters must find out a) why the name has been smeared, b) who is responsible, and c) why the responsible party is doing it; then they must find evidence to convince everyone they're telling the truth. | |
| Story Hook | Old Enemy |
| This is a straightforward story hook; the hero learns that his oldest enemy is back and is very active in the campaign, up to something. The hero will naturally want to investigate and will walk right into the story. | |
| 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 | Exotic Distant Land |
| The adventure will take the heroes to some fascinating and exotic distant country, where they'll have to cope with new customs, monsters unfamiliar to them, and very colorful NPC encounters; choose one of the more fascinating foreign lands from your campaign world. | |
| Specific Setting I | Magical Lake |
| This is the acquatic equivalent of the Legendary Forest, here beautiful and glistening, there treacherous and dangerous, filled with water-breathing magical folk. | |
| Specific Setting II | Classic Dungeon |
| This would be the standard monster-filled labyrinth; perhaps it's a nesting ground for the master villain's monster troops. | |
| Master Villain | Zealot |
| This villain is like the Conqueror, but he's not trying to conquer to own; he's trying to purge the world of something he feels is pure evil (another religion, a human, demi-human, or nonhuman race of sentient beings, a custom). He operates just like the Conqueror, enslaving or killing all those who belong to the "wrong" race or philosophy. | |
| Minor Villain I | Corrupted Hero |
| This villain was once a hero, possibly one known to the players. He was seduced by the dark side of the dungeon master. Because of his own weakness, or of a curse, he has become a villain, a pawn of the Master Villain. | |
| 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 | Tragic Fellow Hero |
| The heroes are in the company of some hero well-known to them; he may have been a companion or ally, or they may just know him by reputation. He is a tragic figure; he may have lost his family to the master villain, or lost his properties and titles, or be afflicted with a curse he cannot be rid of, or be committed to a quest he knows will take his life. He's dour, and gloomy, prophesying doom and having no fun at all. | |
| Monster Encounter | Ravager |
| This is another classic monster encounter; the monster which is bedeviling a community or local area and will continue to do so unless the heroes destroy or defeat it. Yes, this is similar to the Master Villain of the same name, but the Ravager usually has no master plan -- it just wants to kill, destroy, or eat. | |
| 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 | Coliseum |
| If it's appropriate, you can have the heroes captured by the local authorities -- particularly when they're in an exotic land, lost world, or whatever -- and have them armed with gladiatorial gear and dropped into a coliseum for the entertainment of the locals. (Note that this works much better with fighting-type heroes than spellcasters.) | |
| 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 | Magic Doesn't Work Right |
| If the adventure is taking place on an alternate plane, then that plane's magic works oddly or not at all. (A spellcaster will find that just making himself useful is a challenge when none of his spells works.) | |
| 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 | 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.