Adventure #147

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

Mystery
Here, the characters are presented with a mystery -- often a murder -- and have to find out who did what to whom.
Thwart Monstrous Plan
This is a classic fantasy-adventure plot: The characters learn of some horrible plan made by a monstrous enemy, and
must thwart it before the kingdom is lost or the world is destroyed. This is an epic goal, and usually requires that the
characters go to all sorts of places, rounding up allies and artifacts, before being strong enough to face their enemy.
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.
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.
Bloody Battle
This is the best Climax for an adventure involving the clash of mighty armies -- or for any adventure where, toward
the end, the Master Villain and a large body of minions confront the heroes and their own troops. This finale is
characterized by a monstrous clash between the two forces, with the heroes chewing through the enemy ranks to get
at the Master Villain and his elite guards. It's strenuous, exciting, and classically simple.
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.
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.
Laboratory
This can be alchemical lab of a friendly wizard, or the horrible experimental chamber of the villain where new
monsters are created and relased upon the world.
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.
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.
Grumpy Old Professional
Again, the heroes need an expert in a certain field -- this time a craft or art, such as blacksmithing, engineering,
horse-training, or whatever. The only or best professional they can find is an aged expert. He's grumpy, cranky, and
sharp-tongued; he constantly complains about the food, the weather, his companions, the decline in skill of his coworkers since he was a young man, the road conditions, the rotten pay he's receiving, and so on.
Nocturnal Predator
This is a classic monster encounter; the arrival of a hungry carnivore in the middle of the night. Usually, this attack
happens to heroes camping between villages or out in the deep wilderness; a wild animal, attracted by food odors
(from the heroes' campfire or from the heroes themselves) sneaks in for a bite.
New Enemy

Encounter

In the course of his ordinary activies, one of the heroes can make a New Enemy. Hurrying along the street, he can
bump into a disagreeable fighter for whom an apology isn't enough; in a tavern, he can make some innocuous
remark that you deliberately have the irritable fellow misconstrue as an insult. The New Enemy will only exchange
heated words with the hero at this point, but will appear again later in the adventure and will eventually have to fight
the hero.
Framed
One or more of the heroes is accused and convicted of a capital crime -- one for which the mandatory punishment is
Deathtrap
death. The heroes must escape or die, and they're escaping from the well-built, well-protected prison of the local
authorities.
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.)
No Weapons Allowed
Special
At some point in the story, the heroes must surrender their weapons. Perhaps they're visiting some quarter of the city
Condition
where weapons are not allowed; or a particularly peace-loving temple. In any case, once they're there, they are
attacked by enemies belonging to the Master Villain.
Honor Quandry
You want to use this on the character with the most strongly developed sense of personal honor -- someone who has
Moral Quandry 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.
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.
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.