Adventure #195

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

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.
Gain Money
The heroes are intent on acquiring a fee or treasure. If it's a fee, you may wish to roll again on this page to learn the
patron's goal. If it's a treasure, pay attention to the Settings section, which will dictate where the treasure is, if not
who owns it.
Mystery Woman
Create an NPC "mystery woman" sure to be fascinating to your hero and have her keep appearing inexplicably in 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.)
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.
Chase to Ground
First, you have the Heroes Chasing the Villain. The villain, after a series of encounters with the heroes, is running to
safety, to some place where he can acquire more power, or to somehwere he can accomplish some dread purpose
such as assassination or mass murder. The heroes chase him, have to deal with the obstacles he leaves behind, and
finally catch up to him before or just as he reaches his goal. Here, we have the final duel between the villains forces
and the heroes. Second, you have the Villain Chasing the Heroes. Often, in a story like this, the heroes have found
out how to defeat the villain -- such as getting to a particular temple and conducting a particular ritual. The villain
chases them all through their quest, catching up to them just as they're commenciing their ritual; they must, with
heroic effort, conclude the ritual while suffering his attacks. Third, you have the Master Villain's Sudden Escape
Attempt. This takes place in adventures where the Master Villain's identity is unknown until the end. His identity is
revealed and he makes a sudden bolt for freedom; the heroes give chase. This usually results in a dangerous footchase through nasty terrain -- such as across rooftops, through the dungeons, or across an active battlefield.
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.
Caves of Magical Folk
These can be either beautiful, glittering homes of gorgeous magical peoples, or the dank and terrifying lairs of
horrible monsters.
Classic Dungeon
This would be the standard monster-filled labyrinth; perhaps it's a nesting ground for the master villain's monster
troops.
Organizer
This Master Villain is the head of the local criminal syndicate -- the Thieve's Guild or slaver ring, for instance. He's
cold-hearted and unsympathetic, and human life means nothing to him. He employs assassins and musclemen
against the heroes, and can only be reasoned with when it's going to profit him more to cooperate with the heroes
than kill them.
Snivelling Vizier
The Vizier is a throne-room villain. Functionally, he's rather like the Hard-Eyed Advisor, offering tactics and advice
to his master; but he's an ooily, sleazy, cowardly sycophant. He's usually brilliant in his field of advice but has no
combat abilities.
Moronic Muscleman
This fellow is a huge, powerful monster of a fighter. His job is to smash anything the villain tells him to smash. He
does that very well, but don't ask him to do any thinking; he has no time for such brainy stuff.
Villain Ally
For some reason, the heroes find themselves in the company of a villain. Perhaps he's a minion of this adventure's
master villain; he may be guiding the heroes to wherever they must leave a ransom, or, if the master villain is
forcing the heroes to perform some mission, this villain ally is along to make sure they do it right. Whatever the
reason, he's competent, unpredictable, and out for himself.
Stampede
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
not be one sort of animal charging through, but a mixture of terrified forest animals, from the smallest fox-cub to the
largest bear.
Old Friend at the Wrong Time
Character
When the heroes are trying to sneak through a guardpost, citadel, or city where they can't afford to be recognized,
Encounter
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.
Avalanche
This is an outdoors trap. Some time when the heroes are in a narrow canyon or gorge, or are on a snow-covered
Deathtrap
mountain, their enemies can arrange to dump an avalanche upon them (rocks and boulders in the first instance, snow
in the second).
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.
Reincarnation
The hero, seeing the portrait of some long-dead nobleman, may be surprised to see his own face staring back at him.
All evidence points to the fact that our hero is the reincarnation of this person, and the Master Villain may desire to
Omen/Prophesy destroy any trace of that nobleman's existence. Just as appropriately, this long-dead nobleman may have died after
making some important choice -- such as choosing love over career or career over friends; and the choice he faced is
identical to the one the hero now faces. Will our hero defy the prophecy and choose as he did in a previous life, or
will he choose the other option and see what happens?
Love
The Master Villain possesses the "weakness" of genuine affection or love -- probably for some NPC, though it could
Secret Weakness be very intriguing if the object of his affections is a player-character. The heroes can then defeat the villain by
holding his loved one hostage, or proving that his loved one will be seriously harmed, betrayed, or killed if the
villain keeps up with his activity.
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.
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.