Buy Me a CoffeeRandom 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 | Encounter Old Villain |
| If your campaign has a villain who shows up again and again to bedevil the heroes, then this is an episode featuring that villain. You might wish to roll once again on this section to see what the villain's goal is. | |
| Story Hook | Better Late than Never |
| Some bad guys have arrived and done some bad guy things. The PCs were none the wiser. The bad guys have now made good their escape, and the PCs have caught wind of it in time to chase them down before they make it back to their lair, their home nation, behind enemy lines, etc. | |
| Plot | Series of Villains |
| This is a very dramatic plot, and very well-suited to oriental campaigns. In it, the heroes have undertaken a quest, usually the finding and defeat of the Master Villain. They may have to travel to his citadel, or head off in another direction to find some artifact capable of defeating him, or run away from pursuing villains until they can figure out what's going on. All along their route, they are set upon by villains -- each villain has a name and distinct personality, and each encounter is life-or-death for the heroes and villains; the villain never escapes to safety if the tide turns against him, he fights unto death. | |
| Climax | Chase to Ground |
| First, you have the Heroes Chasing the Villain. The villain, after a series of encounters with the heroes, is running to safety, to some place where he can acquire more power, or to somehwere he can accomplish some dread purpose such as assassination or mass murder. The heroes chase him, have to deal with the obstacles he leaves behind, and finally catch up to him before or just as he reaches his goal. Here, we have the final duel between the villains forces and the heroes. Second, you have the Villain Chasing the Heroes. Often, in a story like this, the heroes have found out how to defeat the villain -- such as getting to a particular temple and conducting a particular ritual. The villain chases them all through their quest, catching up to them just as they're commenciing their ritual; they must, with heroic effort, conclude the ritual while suffering his attacks. Third, you have the Master Villain's Sudden Escape Attempt. This takes place in adventures where the Master Villain's identity is unknown until the end. His identity is revealed and he makes a sudden bolt for freedom; the heroes give chase. This usually results in a dangerous foot-chase through nasty terrain -- such as across rooftops, through the dungeons, or across an active battlefield. | |
| 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 | Legendary Forest |
| This classic adventure site is the sometimes dark and fearsom, sometimes light and cheerful, always magical and incomprehensible forest inhabited by the oldest elven trives and most terrifying monsters. | |
| Specific Setting II | Temple/Church |
| This can be either the church of some lofty and good diety, or the dark and grisly temple of some horrid deity (doubtless filled with evil soldiers and monsters), or even the temple that the madman villain has dedicated to himself for when he becomes a god. | |
| 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 | 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. | |
| Minor Villain II | 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. | |
| 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 | Loving Deceiver |
| One of the player-characters, specifically one of the better-looking ones, attracts the attentions of a very attractive local of the opposite sex. This local person, encountered in unthreatening surroundings, invites the hero off to a liason away from his friends and other people. Of course, this person is a human-appearing monster of some sort; once alone with the character, he/she will attack the character with monstrous intent. | |
| Character Encounter | Old Friend at the Wrong Time |
| When the heroes are trying to sneak through a guardpost, citadel, or city where they can't afford to be recognized, one of the characters' old friends recognizes him and loudly renews their acquaintance in full view of the guards looking for the characters. This usually leads to an exciting chase as the heroes must escape. | |
| Deathtrap | Stampede |
| Should the heroes ever cross plains or prairies, their villainous enemies may wish to stampede a herd of large animals at them. Alternatively, beasts in the forest may be stampeded by fires set by the villains; in this case, it will not be one sort of animal charging through, but a mixture of terrified forest animals, from the smallest fox-cub to the largest bear. | |
| Chase | Special Terrain |
| You can make any chase more memorable by having it take place in a setting to which it is utterly unsuited. For instance, horse chases are fine and dramatic when they take place through the forest, out in the open plains, or along a road -- but they become diabolical when they take place inside the Royal Palace or in dangerous, labrynthine, treacherous catacombs. | |
| Omen/Prophesy | Reincarnation |
| The hero, seeing the portrait of some long-dead nobleman, may be surprised to see his own face staring back at him. All evidence points to the fact that our hero is the reincarnation of this person, and the Master Villain may desire to destroy any trace of that nobleman's existence. Just as appropriately, this long-dead nobleman may have died after making some important choice -- such as choosing love over career or career over friends; and the choice he faced is identical to the one the hero now faces. Will our hero defy the prophecy and choose as he did in a previous life, or will he choose the other option and see what happens? | |
| 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 | Coping with a Curse |
| The curse might be making the hero progressively uglier, might be draining out his life-force (he's losing experience which will be retruned if he succeeds), or might be making him progressively insane. Each day, as he sees his reflection in a mirror or pond or fountain, he'll know himself to be less than he used to be. | |
| Moral Quandry | Ally Quandry |
| You set up the situation so that the heroes have a good chance at defeating the Master Villain if they get the aid of two specific individuals, probably experts in fields relating to the villains' activities. But the two experts hate one another and refuse to work together, even if it costs them their world. | |
| 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.