Adventure #219

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Palace of the King
The heroes could be here for many, many different reasons: Trying to get a favor from the ruler, part of some
nobleman's retinue, members of the palace guard, sneaking in to save the ruler from assassins, sneaking in to
assassinate the ruler, thrown into the dungeon for crimes they did or didn't commit, etc.
Madman's Fortress
This is the citadel of a major enemy: Strong, unassailable, filled with soldiers and monsters, lined with secret
passages and deathtraps; not a wholesome place for adventurers to spend their time.
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.
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.
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.
Government Observer
For some reason, the heroes' ruler wants one of his own people accompanying them. Whatever the reason, the
heroes are now stuck with a haughty, self-important royal observer, an expert in (probably) military tactics or
espionage. He continually offers unwanted advice and tends to get the heroes into trouble by pulling rank whenever
he's not satisfied.
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.

Seducer
One of the characters is invited to a romantic liaison with an attractive local. This local can just be interested in a
Character
brief tryst, could fall madly in love with the hero and follow the hero through the rest of the adventure, could be a
Encounter
Loving Deceiver monster encounter, could be a thief and rob the hero blind, or could be a spy or assassin working
for the Master Villain.
Coliseum
If it's appropriate, you can have the heroes captured by the local authorities -- particularly when they're in an exotic
Deathtrap
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.)
Special Terrain
You can make any chase more memorable by having it take place in a setting to which it is utterly unsuited. For
Chase
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.
Hero Fulfills Prophecy
Omen/Prophesy 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.
Holy Symbol
The villain may have the traditional weakness to a specific holy symbol -- but don't choose just an ordinary one. It
Secret Weakness may be a holly symbol no longer used by the church, or may be some forgotten variation of the current symbol. (For
instance, the cross may not work, but a variation -- such as the Roman cross -- might; alternatively, it might have to
be a holy symbol which has undergone some unfamiliar ritual.)
Stolen Identities
This
option requires that the Master Villain be of godlike power oor possess some sort of artifact. Once the Master
Special
Villain
realizes that the heroes are on his tail, he uses his powers or artifact and steals the heroes' identities. One day
Condition
they wake up -- and no one knows who they are. They retain their memories of themselves and each other, but no
one else does. (The villain knows them, though.)
Friend Quandry
Moral Quandry
At a critical point in the story, one of the campaign's NPCs makes an impossible demand of one of the heroes.
Lying Rumor
Red Herring 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.
Heroes Must Work with Villain
If they have to work for the villain, it's due to some hold he has over them -- probably, he's kidnapped one of their
Cruel Trick NPCs and will kill this person if his demands aren't met. Put the heroes through the encounter where they have to do
something they are loathe to do, such as sack and pillage a temple, before they have the opportunity to retrieve their
friend.