Adventure #229

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

Espionage
Espionage adventures are active, grim scenarios involving spying and perhaps other cloak-and-dagger deeds such as
assassination or rescue.
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.
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.
Event
For this plot, choose some sort of event -- a tournament, a holiday, a celebration called by the king, a masked ball, or
whatever -- and set the commencement of the Master Villain's plan against that backdrop.
Scattered Duels
In this climax, the heroes have gotten to the end of their quest -- they may have broken into, sneaked into, or
escaped from imprisonment within the villain's citadel, or have marched into the little town where the villain is
holed up -- and they become separated. You can separate them by having traps and tricks break the party apart, by
having them see two or three things they must resolve (such as danger to innocents or the appearance of minion
villains) pop up simultaneously; they'll have to run in all directions at the same time or suffer failure. Once the party
is broken down into bite-sized chunks, you confront each individual or small group with the enemy or enemies he
most deserves to face -- his personal enemy, the monster which defeated him before, etc. -- for a grand series of
climactic duels.
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.
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.
Classic Dungeon
This would be the standard monster-filled labyrinth; perhaps it's a nesting ground for the master villain's monster
troops.
Destroyer
This villain is like the Corruptor, except that he likes destroying instead of corrupting. He operates like the
Conqueror, moving in his armies -- often nonhuman or monstrous armies -- and destroying everything in sight.
Again, the Destroyer could easily be an evil god or demon, meaning the heroes wil have to find his weakness in
order to thwart his current plan.
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.
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.
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.
Blackmailer

Encounter

If the party is pulling a scam, this person knows it and can tell the potential victim; if they're wanted by the
authorities, he's willing to alert the authorities that they're here; if they're hiding out from the Master Villain, he's
going to tell said villain that they're here; he may have kidnapped one of their favorite NPCs and be holding him for
ransom; and so on.
Animal Pit
This is a classic trap of the adventure genre: The heroes (perhaps just one hero) are dropped into a pit filled with
Deathtrap
dangerous animals -- snakes, lions, bears, whatever. They must either fight the beasts or delay them until they can
escape -- climb back out, open a secret door, break down a wall, have a rope lowered by friends above, etc.
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.
Innocent Fulfills Prophecy
Omen/Prophesy An innocent could fulfill a prophecy -- one which endangers his/her life. This innocent might, for instance, be the
one who is supposed to slay the king, but is not a mighty adventurer able to protect himself from the king; the heroes
may find themselves sheltering and helping this poor dupe.
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.
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.
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.
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.