Adventure #66

Espionage
Espionage adventures are active, grim scenarios involving spying and perhaps other cloak-and-dagger deeds such
as assassination or rescue.
Escape
Early in the adventure, the heroes are captured. The remainder of the adventure consists of them learning enough
Goal
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.
Mystery Woman
Create an NPC "mystery woman" sure to be fascinating to your hero and have her keep appearing inexplicably in
Story Hook
his life. As he becomes interested and investigates her, he keeps stumbling across the villain's plans and becomes
inextricably mired in the plot. (For female player-characters, the Mystery Man is just as useful.)
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
Plot
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.
Bloody Battle
This is the best Climax for an adventure involving the clash of mighty armies -- or for any adventure where,
Climax
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.
On the Road
General Setting Most of the adventure takes place on the road, as the heroes are travelling from place to place. This is especially
good for adventures where heroes are investigating a wide-ranging mystery, are part of a caravan, or are being
pursued by loathesome villains.
Magical Lake
Specific Setting I This is the acquatic equivalent of the Legendary Forest, here beautiful and glistening, there treacherous and
dangerous, filled with water-breathing magical folk.
Demi-human Community
Specific Setting In wilderness areas, this will be a large community of demi-humans -- elves, dwarves, halflings, whatever -- or
II
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.
Ravager
This Master Villain is like the Destroyer, except that he terrorizes a very limited area -- such as a village, island,
Master Villain
castle, or clan stronghold. (He may want to destroy the whole world but be trapped where he is; perhaps his efforts
to free himself constitute the adventure's plot.) He stays in his area and terrorizes whatever comes into it.
Mistress with a Heart of Gold
Minor Villain I This character is much like the "Lover or Daughter of Villain" type of Mystery Woman from the Story Hooks
section. In this case, she usually accompanies the Master Villain, but sometimes goes on missions of her own,
where she runs into and develops affection for one of the player-characters.
Chief Assassin
Minor Villain II 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.
Grumpy Old Professional
Again, the heroes need an expert in a certain field -- this time a craft or art, such as blacksmithing, engineering,
Ally/Neutral
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
co-workers since he was a young man, the road conditions, the rotten pay he's receiving, and so on.
Ravager
Monster
This is another classic monster encounter; the monster which is bedeviling a community or local area and will
Encounter
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.
Thief
Character
Encounter
At some point in their adventure, the heroes have a run-in with thieves.
Stampede
Deathtrap
Should the heroes ever cross plains or prairies, their villainous enemies may wish to stampede a herd of large
animals at them. Alternatively, beasts in the forest may be stampeded by fires set by the villains; in this case, it will
Theme

not be one sort of animal charging through, but a mixture of terrified forest animals, from the smallest fox-cub to
the largest bear.
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.
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
Condition
going 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
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.
Lying Rumor
This is the worst and most useful type of red herring -- the interesting rumor which just happens to be false. In
Red Herring
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.
Based on tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.