Adventure #292

Theme

Goal

Story Hook

Plot

Climax

General Setting

Specific Setting I

Specific Setting
II

Master Villain

Minor Villain I

Minor Villain II

Ally/Neutral
Monster
Encounter

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.
Protect Endangered NPC(s)
One or more NPCs are in danger, and the characters must protect them. They might be doing this for a reward, or
because one or more of the NPCs is a friend or relative of the character. You need to decide what the characters are
protecting the NPCs from. The NPC might be a wealthy or powerful person being sought by assassins or
kidnappers. The NPC might be a whole village of peasants who are being terrorized by a bandit chieftan.
Missing Memories
One or more of the PCs wakes up with no memory of the recent past, and now they find themselves in some kind
of trouble they don't understand. The PCs must find the reason for the memory lapse, and solve any problems they
uncover in the meantime.
Accumulation of Elements
In this sort of plot, the heroes have to go from place to place -- perhaps covering very little area like a city, perhaps
roaming the known world -- and accumulate elements to be used against the Master Villain. These elements may
be clues, pieces of an artifact, evidence, or allies.
Divine Retribution
Here, the heroes' goal has been to alert the gods that the Master Villain threatens them or their plans; in the last
scenes of the adventure, as our heroes face an overwhelming enemy force, the gods bring down their divine
retribution on the villain, causing a massive earthquake, tidal wave, lightning storm, or flood of monsters. This is
all well and good, but the heroes are too close and must escape the fringe effects of this awesome disaster. A
variant on this is the Natural Disaster. No gods are actually involved, but the Master Villain has been tampering
with the delicate forces of nature. He may, for instance, have been powering his master spell with the energies of a
volcano. When the heroes attack the scene of his spellcasting, the spell goes out of control and so does the volcano.
The villain is consumed in the eruption and the heroes must escape or be consumed themselves.
Hero's Home Town
The action takes the heroes back to the home territory of one of them. Note that this usually means that this hero's
family or old friends are deeply involved in the adventure.
Demi-human Community
In wilderness areas, this will be a large community of demi-humans -- elves, dwarves, halflings, whatever -- or
intelligent nonhumans such as orcs. If your action is taking place in a city, this could be a hidden community (such
as a secret underground dwarf community) or a section of the city inhabited mostly by demi-humans.
Ruins
These can be the ruins of some ancient civilization, an abandoned temple or castle, incomprehensible blocks of
stone arranged by ancient gods, etc. They can be magical or normal, inhabited by normal animals or by monsters,
centers of magic or just tumbled-down buildings.
Organizer
This Master Villain is the head of the local criminal syndicate -- the Thieve's Guild or slaver ring, for instance.
He's cold-hearted and unsympathetic, and human life means nothing to him. He employs assassins and musclemen
against the heroes, and can only be reasoned with when it's going to profit him more to cooperate with the heroes
than kill them.
Single-Minded Soldier
This most trustworthy of villain minions is the experienced, competent, persistent soldier -- a field-trained officer
who serves the villain with military precision. He is usually encountered in the field as leader of the villain's field
operations. He is not encountered directly until the middle of or the latter part of the adventure; until then, the
heroes encounter only his subordinates.
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.
Inquisitive Chronicler
This character is a historian who wishes to accompany the heroes to record their exploits. He constantly pries into
the heroes' backgrounds, asking questions that are none of his business, as the adventure continues.
Powerful Tester
Here, some powerful, intelligent monster with shapechanging ability turns into a human form. When the heroes

encounter him, he is in need of help or having trouble. He also obviously can't reward the heroes for their help, and
will only serve to slow the heroes down from their quest. If the heroes help him anyway, the Powerful Tester
reveals himself in his true form and offers to aid the heroes in their quest.
Bureaucrat
Character
Some time in their adventure, the heroes must deal with the local government and run into that most horrible of
Encounter
nuisance monsters, the bureaucrat and his red-tape dispenser. The heroes don't have the right forms. When they
have the right forms, they forgot to fill them out in triplicate. And so on.
Avalanche
This is an outdoors trap. Some time when the heroes are in a narrow canyon or gorge, or are on a snow-covered
Deathtrap
mountain, their enemies can arrange to dump an avalanche upon them (rocks and boulders in the first instance,
snow in the second).
Horseback
Chase
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.
Innocent Fulfills Prophecy
Omen/Prophesy An innocent could fulfill a prophecy -- one which endangers his/her life. This innocent might, for instance, be the
one who is supposed to slay the king, but is not a mighty adventurer able to protect himself from the king; the
heroes may find themselves sheltering and helping this poor dupe.
Love
The Master Villain possesses the "weakness" of genuine affection or love -- probably for some NPC, though it
Secret Weakness 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.
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
Special
to conclude his evil spell in only three days, and his citadel is three hard days' riding away, then the heroes are
Condition
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.
Respect Quandry
This is much like the Ally Quandry, only at a greater distance. The heroes have been utilizing the aid of two (or
Moral Quandry 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.
False Path to the Artifact
Once again, if the heroes have had too easy a time finding the artifact capable of destroying the villain, give them
Red Herring trouble this way: When they get to the place where the artifact is supposed to be contained, they find the coffer or
chamber or whatever empty, obviously looted by robbers, who have scrawled such remarks as "Kelrog was here!"
upon the walls.
Villain Accompanies Party
In this distressing situation, the Master Villain, in disguise or his secret identity, accompanies the heroes for much
of their quest. He gets to know them, learns their strengths and weaknesses, learns their plans, and just as soon as
Cruel Trick
it's most efficient for him, he thwarts their current plans and leaves. Alternatively, the Master Villain might be with
the heroes all along, up to the very end; the heroes know that one of their companions is the villain, and the whole
thrust of the story is finding out who he is. This is the whole purpose of most Mystery-type adventures.

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