Random Adventure Generator

Theme	Espionage
	Espionage adventures are active, grim scenarios involving spying and perhaps other cloak-and-dagger deeds such as assassination or rescue.
Goal	Settle a Debt
	A player character may find himself in the position of needing to settle a debt. He could gamble away all his money and need to raise some more to repay the gambling house before its enforcers come for him. On a more personal level, the character may need to settle a debt of either money or honor that he owes to an NPC.
Story Hook	Mystery Woman
	Create an NPC "mystery woman" sure to be fascinating to your hero and have her keep appearing inexplicably in his life. As he becomes interested and investigates her, he keeps stumbling across the villain's plans and becomes inextricably mired in the plot. (For female player-characters, the Mystery Man is just as useful.)
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	Bloody Battle
	This is the best Climax for an adventure involving the clash of mighty armies -- or for any adventure where, toward the end, the Master Villain and a large body of minions confront the heroes and their own troops. This finale is characterized by a monstrous clash between the two forces, with the heroes chewing through the enemy ranks to get at the Master Villain and his elite guards. It's strenuous, exciting, and classically simple.
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	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	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	Advance Agent
	This villain is the vanguard of some sort of invastion; often, he is trying to open up a portal to a dimension full of trapped demons and evil gods.
Minor Villain I	Snivelling Vizier
	The Vizier is a throne-room villain. Functionally, he's rather like the Hard-Eyed Advisor, offering tactics and advice to his master; but he's an ooily, sleazy, cowardly sycophant. He's usually brilliant in his field of advice but has no combat abilities.
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 taken one of the heroes down with him.
Ally/Neutral	Gibbering Madman
	Some poor wretch blundered into part of the master villain's plan and saw too much. What he saw drove him crazy. He gibber and jabbers, occassionally uttering clues about what he's seen, but just isn't coherent. He knows enough that the heroes will need to take him along to comment on what they're encountering, though, so he can't just be met and forgotten.
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	Lying Accuser
	A captured thief may accuse the character of putting him up to the theft; an abandoned mother may accuse the hero of fathering the child; a reputable witness (working for the Master Villain) may accuse the hero of a murder or robbery. The hero shouldn't know what he's accused of until he's hauled in by the authorities.
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	Comet's Progress
	Events during the adventure may be enlivened by a large and menacing comet which appears in the night sky for several days during the scenario; the locals take it for an omen of doom. The comet may be the result of magic being used by the Master Villain, or the comet's appearance can pertain to an old legend involving the Master Villain.
Secret Weakness	Love
	The Master Villain possesses the "weakness" of genuine affection or love -- probably for some NPC, though it could be very intriguing if the object of his affections is a player-character. The heroes can then defeat the villain by holding his loved one hostage, or proving that his loved one will be seriously harmed, betrayed, or killed if the villain keeps up with his activity.
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	Saving Quandry
	Finally, another classic quandry puts the heroes in the position of choosing between a grand opportunity to hurt the Master Villain -- or saving the lives of a number of individuals.
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 is Related to Hero
	In this very irritating complication, one of the heroes discovers that the Master Villain is related to him. The villain might be his long-lost father or twin; perhaps this relative is not long-lost after all, but has secretly been a Master Villain for years, and only now has the hero discovered it.

Based upon tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.