Adventure #149

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

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.
Explore a New Area
The heroes are hired or convinced to enter an unmapped area and explore it. They may be making a map; they may
be trying to find someone who disappeared into this area in the past; they may be following legends that tell of
treasure in the unexplored interior.
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.
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.
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.
Cosmopolitan City
Most of the story takes place in a large, sophisticated city; center the villain's plot and activities around that city.
This setting is best suited to adventures involving more people than monsters; most of your villains should be human
or demi-human.
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.
Military Encampment
This is best used in an episode involving warfare; it could be the good-guy army's encampment, from which the
heroes launch their adventures, or the villains' encampment, in which case the heroes might have to sneak in on a
mission or escape from it if they're captured.
Zealot
This villain is like the Conqueror, but he's not trying to conquer to own; he's trying to purge the world of something
he feels is pure evil (another religion, a human, demi-human, or nonhuman race of sentient beings, a custom). He
operates just like the Conqueror, enslaving or killing all those who belong to the "wrong" race or philosophy.
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.
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.
Obsequious Merchant
This fellow is the owner of the caravan the heroes are protecting, or the merchant the heroes encounter when they
desperately need to buy something. He is oily, ever-flattering, overly agreeable, and is a sharp bargainer; the heroes
will not find him willing to give them a sale price.
Foreshadowing Monster
With this monster encounter, combat may not be necessary. This monster encounter exists to alert the characters to
the fact that something unusual is going on, a foreshadowing of their upcoming conflicts with the Master Villain.
Old Friend at the Wrong Time

Encounter

When the heroes are trying to sneak through a guardpost, citadel, or city where they can't afford to be recognized,
one of the characters' old friends recognizes him and loudly renews their acquaintance in full view of the guards
looking for the characters. This usually leads to an exciting chase as the heroes must escape.
Pit and the Pendulum
Actually, we're applying this term to any of many time-delay deathtraps. In this sort of trap, the villains capture the
Deathtrap
heroes and place them in a trap which will soon kill them -- it operates on a delay, often based on a timing device or
a burning fuse.
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.
Saving Quandry
Moral Quandry Finally, another classic quandry puts the heroes in the position of choosing between a grand opportunity to hurt the
Master Villain -- or saving the lives of a number of individuals.
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.