Adventure #184

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

Character
Encounter

Horror
This type of adventure is designed to scare both the characters and the players. Just having a monster attack is not
enough for a horror theme; the monster must first frighten the characters.
Survive Environment
The characters could end up in a hostile environment which they must cross -- a desert, a jungle, or other hostile
setting. In the course of the adventure they'll need to find food and water, resist the elements, and perhaps fight off
attacks of the natives.
Legend and Rumor
In this classic story hook, the hero stumbles across some new or long-forgotten knowledge that promises great
treasure or gain.
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.
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.
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.
Classic Dungeon
This would be the standard monster-filled labyrinth; perhaps it's a nesting ground for the master villain's monster
troops.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Inquisitive Official
Some local authority has noticed the characters' presence and it makes her curious. She snoops around asking

questions all the time. She may be a city guardsman or special agent of the ruler, but (functionally) she's a police
lieutenant, asking the rong questions at the wrong time; the heroes have to work around her, sneaking where
normally they'd be able to work in the open.
Rock and a Hard Place
This trap starts out as an Animal Pit, Pit and the Pendulum, or Tomb Deathtrap, but an obvious escape suggests
Deathtrap
itself very early on. Trouble is, it leads into even worse danger. The hole out of the animal pit may lead to the lair of
an even worse animal; it may lead through a succession of dangers (collapsing old catacombs, into an underground
river, into a den of zombies) before the heroes reach the light.
Endurance
The Endurance Chase is not some sort of climactic chase -- it's a rugged, tiring, persistent pursuit that tests the
Chase
characters to their limits. In this chase, the heroes and villains are pursuing one another across a lot of territory and
they're not catching up with one another very fast. This may be a horseback pursuit across a hundred miles of
savannah, a camel chase across several days' worth of desert, or a chase across arctic tundra.
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.)
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 going
Condition
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.
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
Moral Quandry
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.
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.
Wanted by the Law
Cruel Trick One final complication, one which occurs pretty frequently, is when the heroes are wanted by the law. When they're
wanted by the law, they have to travel in secret and very limited in the resources they can acquire.