Adventure #285

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

Comedy
This adventure is fun for fun's sake. Its basic purpose is to provide humorous entertainment with a minimum of
actual danger or tragedy.
Escape
Early in the adventure, the heroes are captured. The remainder of the adventure consists of them learning enough
so that they can escape. They have to get to know their fellow prisoners, learn the prison's routine, inventory their
possessions, acquire other possessions they need, plan an escape, and execute it.
Dying Delivery
On some occassion when the hero is out wandering the streets or is otherwise all alone, a dying man bumbs into
him, hands him something, says a few words, and dies.
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.
Classic Dungeon
This would be the standard monster-filled labyrinth; perhaps it's a nesting ground for the master villain's monster
troops.
Tavern/Inn
This is a classic fantasy setting, the residence of travelling heroes and the home of the tavern brawl.
Corruptor
The Corruptor is the villain who wants to make something nasty out of something that is currently nice. He may be
working on a small scale -- i.e., wish to corrupt one character or a few characters, particularly PCs and their
favorite NPCs. Alternatively, he may be a big-scale villain trying to change an entire city or nation into a jaded,
debased pit of sin, hatred and death.
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.
Hard-Eyed Advisor
This is the sort of villain whom the heroes see in the Master Villain's throne room. He's hard-eyed and scary; life
means nothing to him and he enjoys killing. He's also a good advisor to his master.
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.
Ravager
This is another classic monster encounter; the monster which is bedeviling a community or local area and will
continue to do so unless the heroes destroy or defeat it. Yes, this is similar to the Master Villain of the same name,
but the Ravager usually has no master plan -- it just wants to kill, destroy, or eat.
Bandit Gang
When the heroes are en route from one place to another, have them run across one of the local bandit gangs. The
bandits are faster and far more numerous than the heroes. But the bandits stay back. Basically, they're bandits who
admire courage and prowess, and the bandit leader will challenge one or all of the heroes to a test of bravery or
ability -- such as a horserace, a duel, a wrestling match, a joust, an arm-wrestling match where scorpions sting the
loser, etc.

Mutually Assured Destruction

In this very nasty deathtrap, the heroes are bound up in such a manner that any one of them may get free of his
Deathtrap
bonds -- but when he does, all his friends perish. Obviously, the heroes' task is to find some way for everyone to
get out alive. Perhaps an intricate series of cooperative rope-cutting will defuse the trap; perhaps a coordinated
maneuver will get everyone free as the trap is being sprung.
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.
Secret Embarrassment
Finally, the villain may have some aberration or secret shame that will force him to flee when he is confronted with
Secret Weakness it. It could be something as simple as the fact that his nose is too big, or that he is a small and nebbishly wizard
pretending to be some vast, powerful demonic power. When his shame is revealed, he is too humiliated to
continue; this is a good option for comedy adventures.
Magic Doesn't Work Right
Special
If the adventure is taking place on an alternate plane, then that plane's magic works oddly or not at all. (A
Condition
spellcaster will find that just making himself useful is a challenge when none of his spells works.)
Honor Quandry
You want to use this on the character with the most strongly developed sense of personal honor -- someone who
Moral Quandry has lived all his life by a strict code. Toward the end of the adventure, this character realizes that the best way to
defeat the Master Villain is a violation of that code. For instance, the character might be a paladin, who discovers
that the only possible way for the heroes to defeat the Master Villain is to sneak up on him and stab him in the
back.
Extraneous Details
Red Herring When giving the heroes details on their enemy -- for instance, details they are learning from investigations and
readings -- you can give them just a few details too many. This may prompt the heroes to investigate the "extra"
(i.e., irrelevant) details in addition to the relevant onces, thus losing them valuable time.
NPC Turns Traitor
Cruel Trick
He may alert he enemy when the heroes are planning a raid; he may steal the artifact and take it to the villain; he
may stab a hero or important NPC in the back (literally) before departing.

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