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The Big List of RPG Plots PDF
The Big List of RPG Plots PDF
The Big List of RPG Plots PDF
BIG LIST
trivia . . . my collection of
RPG plots, in abstract
form. I built this by exam-
The
ining the premises of hun-
dreds of published adventures for all
systems (including those systems
dear and departed from print), trying
to boil them down to common
denominators. The results are pre-
sented here: arbitrary, and sometimes
redundant. Nevertheless, I turn to
A GMs Aid by S. John Ross
Version two of RPG Plots
this list when Im stuck for a fresh
premise for next weeks session of my
campaign, whatever that campaign
might happen to be about at the
Any Old Port the PCs). If the bad guys cross the
adventures finish line (cross the
county line, make the warp jump,
time. It helps me keep from falling
into thematic ruts (my least favorite
in a Storm etc.) theres no way to pursue them
beyond it.
kind). With any luck, it might serve
The PCs are seeking shelter from the
a similar function for you.
elements or some other threat, and
come across a place to hole up. They Blackmail
Note: The plots are arranged in
find that they have stumbled across
alphabetical order by title. Since Usually through trickery (but some-
something dangerous, secret, or
the titles are arbitrary, this serves times by digging into the PCs past),
supernatural, and must then deal
no useful function at all. And if an antagonist has something to hold
with it in order to enjoy a little rest.
you want shakespearean five-act over the heads of the PCs and make
hoozits, plot trees, Man Versus them jump. This could be any kind of
Common Twists & Themes: The
Himself and other Serious Literary threat from physical to social, but it
shelter contains the cause of the
Bunkum, try Writers Digest. This depends on the villain having some-
threat the PCs were trying to avoid.
aint Oxford, baby. thing - even if its information - that
The shelter houses a Hidden Base
(q.v.). The PCs must not only strug- others dont have. Now, he is pulling
the strings of the PCs, telling them
Handy Tip!
gle for shelter, they must struggle to
survive. The place is a legitimate to do things they dont want to. The
shelter of some kind, but the PCs PCs must end the cycle of blackmail,
are not welcome, and must win deprive the villain of his edge, and
hearts or minds to earn their bed for keep him temporarily satisfied while
Dont Panic. A lot of GMs come to
the night. doing it.
the Big List only once theyve
begun to panic. Dont crucify
Common Twists & Themes: The
yourself just yet! In particular,
dont fuss too much over plot, as Better Late adventure hook involves the PCs
many GMs do. All of the plots doing the villain a good turn, which
here can provide a tried-and-true, Than Never allows him to take advantage of them
(very cynical!). To succeed, the PCs
simple structure, and structure is
all you need a plot for in a role- Some bad guys have arrived and done must contact other folks that are also
playing game. Remember to play some bad guy things. The PCs were being used. The PCs arent the vic-
to the strengths of the medium none the wiser. The bad guys have tims at all, but somebody they care
most all of which are about char- now made good their escape, and the about/are charged to protect, is.
acter, not plot. Only in an RPG can PCs have caught wind of it in time to
you experience a fictional charac-
ter on a personal, first-hand level.
chase them down before they make it
back to their lair, their home nation,
Breaking and
Outline your adventures to make
the most of that. Any plot that
behind enemy lines, etc.
Entering
contains more than a basic struc- Common Twists & Themes: The bad
ture is more likely to pull attention Mission objective: enter the danger-
guys escaped by stealing a con-
away from character, and thats ous place, and retrieve the vital din-
veyance that the PCs know better
burning the bridge for firewood. gus or valuable person. Overcome the
than they do. The bad guys duck
All you need to do is be ready to areas defenses to do so.
down a metaphorical (or literal) side-
roll with the curves and have fun
road, trying to hide or blend into an
hamming it up. Relax. Game. Common Twists & Themes: The goal
environment (often one hostile to
is not to extract a thing, but to
destroy a thing or interfere with a
process (kill the force-screen genera-
Copyright 1999, 2002 by S. John Ross. The
Handy Tip stopped already, and youve
strayed into the Boring Legalese Zone! Aieee!
1 tor, assassinate the evil king, stop
the spell from being cast, wreck the
invasion plans, close the portal). The
Dont Eat The
Handy Tip!
goal has moved. The goal is informa-
tion, which must be broadcast or
otherwise released from the area as Purple Ones
soon as it is found. The job must be
done without alerting anyone. The The PCs are stranded in a strange Double up. A nice basic method
PCs dont know the place is danger- place, and must survive by finding is the chameleon game, where
ous. The PCs must replace the thing food and shelter, and then worry an adventure presents itself as
with another thing. about getting back home. one type of story in the hook
layer but reveals itself as some-
thing else. Sometimes, the switch
Capture the Flag Common Twists & Themes: The PCs
must survive only for a short period
is innocent and natural Dont
Eat the Purple Ones, for example,
of time, until help arrives, the ship makes a good hook for Running
The PCs must secure a military target and/or radio is repaired, or some
for the good guys. There are bad guys the Gauntlet, and Most Peculiar,
such thing (in repair scenarios, Momma is a logical lead for
there that prefer not to be secured. sometimes the PCs must discover
The fundamental tactical scenario. Pandoras Box. Sometimes, the
some fact about the local environ- switch is something more sinister
ment that will make such repairs or deliberate, with NPCs selling
Common Twists & Themes: The PCs possible). the adventure as one thing when
must assemble and/or train a force to
its really another. This can still be
do the job with them. The PCs are
working with flawed intelligence and Elementary, My innocent, in its way, if the NPCs
have been duped themselves, or
the target zone isnt as described.
The PCs must coordinate their own
efforts with an ally group (possibly
Dear Watson if theyre just desperate for help
and worried that nobody will be
eager to tackle the real problem.
putting aside rivalries to do so). The A crime or atrocity has been commit-
target zone includes a population of ted; the PCs must solve it. They must
innocent people, fragile goods, or interview witnesses (and prevent
some other precious thing that must- them from being killed), gather clues
nt be harmed in the crossfire. (and prevent them from being stolen factions (and chance and misfortune)
or ruined). They must then assemble try to deprive them of the thing in
Hidden Base I Beg Your get gets itself in trouble and the
PCs must decide whether to break
the no-contact rule in order to
The PCs, while traveling or exploring,
Pardon? mount a rescue.
come across a hornets nest of bad
guys, preparing for Big Badness. They
must either find some way to get
The PCs are minding their own busi-
ness when they are attacked or Manhunt
word to the good guys, or sneak in threatened. They dont know why.
They must solve the mystery of their Someone is gone: theyve run away,
and disable the place themselves, or gotten lost, or simply havent called
a combination of both. attackers motives, and in the mean-
time fend off more attacks. They home in a while. Somebody misses
must put two and two together to them or needs them returned. The
Common Twists & Themes: The PCs PCs are called in to find them and
deal with the problem.
must figure out how to use local bring them back.
resources in order to defend them-
selves or have a chance against Common Twists & Themes: The PCs
have something that the bad guys Common Twists & Themes: The tar-
the inhabitants. get has been kidnapped (possibly to
want - but they dont necessarily
realize it. The bad guys are out for specifically lure the PCs). The target
How Much For revenge for a dead compatriot from
a previous adventure. The bad guys
is dangerous and escaped from a
facility designed to protect the pub-
Just The Dingus? have mistaken the PCs for some-
body else.
lic. The target is valuable and
escaped from a place designed to
keep him safe, cozy, and convenient-
Within a defined area, something ly handy. The target has a reason for
important and valuable exists. The
PCs (or their employers) want it, but
so do one or more other groups. The
3 leaving that the PCs will sympathize
with. The target has stumbled across
Most Peculiar, help someone in trouble. They were
brought there by accident, as a by-
Handy Tip!
product of something strange and
Momma secret. Some of the PCs enemies were
transported along with them (or sep-
Something both bad and inexplicable arately), and now they have a new
Double up, part two: Some very is happening (racial tension is being battleground, and innocents to con-
satisfying adventures weave two fired up in town, all the power is vince which guys are the good guys.
separate (or thematically-relat- out, the beer supply is drained, its
ed) plots together. An easy way
to make this work is to make
snowing in July, Voyager still has
fans, hordes of aliens are eating all Ounces of
one plot physical and the other
plot personal. That way just one
the cheese), and a lot of people are
very troubled by it. The PCs must Prevention
of the plots puts demand on the track the phenomenon to its source,
PCs location, while the other and stop it. A villain or organization is getting
one can tag along anywhere. ready to do something bad, and the
For example: the PCs are hired Common Twists & Themes: The PCs PCs have received a tip-off of some
to escort a prince to a summit so are somehow unwittingly responsible sort. They must investigate to find
he can appear before the mass- for the whole thing. What seems to out more about the caper, and then
es and end a war (a physical be a problem of one nature (techno- act to prevent it.
and simple example of Escort logical, personal, biological, chemi-
Service), but on the way, they cal, magical, political, etc) is actually Common Twists & Themes: The ini-
realize that the poor guy is suici- a problem of an alternate one. tial tip-off was a red herring meant
dal because state obligations to distract the PCs from the actual
have ruined his love life, and
must prevent his self-destruction
by either fixing the problem or
No One Has Soiled caper. There are two simultaneous
Bad Things on the way, and no
apparent way to both of them how
convincing him to shoulder the
burden (a personal and
The Bridge to choose?
metaphorical example of
Ounces of Prevention).
The PCs are assigned to guard a sin-
gle vital spot (anything from a Pandoras Box
mountain pass to a solar system)
from impending or possible attack. Somebody has tinkered with Things
They must plan their defensive strat- Man Ought Not, or opened a portal to
egy, set up watches, set traps, and so the Mean People Dimension, cracked
on, and then deal with the enemy a wall at the state prison, or sum-
another adventure (either as protago-
when it arrives. moned an ancient Babylonian god
nist or victim), which the PCs must
into a penthouse. Before the PCs can
then undertake themselves. The miss-
Common Twists & Themes: The even think of confronting the source
ing person is an entire expedition
intelligence the PCs was given turns of the trouble, they must deal with
or pilgrimage of some kind. The tar-
out to be faulty, but acting on the the waves of trouble already released
get isnt a runaway or missing/lost
new information could result in by it: monsters, old foes out for
theyre just someone that the PCs
greater danger - but so could not act- vengeance, curious aliens who think
have been hired to track down (pos-
ing on it, and the PCs must choose or cars/citizens/McDonalds hamburgers
sibly under false pretenses).
create a compromise. The PCs learn resemble food, and so forth.
4
Quest For the to win; they just wish to prevent the
Common Twists & Themes: The PCs which case the PCs must both play be the only voice of reason to still
must not harm the perpetrator(s); National Geographic and simultane- the religious fervor, racial prejudice,
they must be bagged alive and well. ously try to escape with their skin, anti-monster sentiment, or whatever
The bad guys have prepared some- sanity, and credit rating) or the place else is the source of conflict.
thing dangerous and hidden as itself is very valuable and wonderful,
insurance if they are captured. The and something else there is keen on Common Twists & Themes: The PCs
bad guy is a monster or dangerous making sure the PCs dont let anyone find themselves on the receiving end
animal (or an intelligent creature else know. Other potential conflicts of the adventure. Take any of the
that everybody thinks is a monster involve damage to the PCs con- plots here and reverse them, placing
or animal). The bad guy is a veyance or communication equip- the PCs in the position where NPCs
respected public figure, superior offi- ment, in which case this becomes (often the villain, fugitive, etcetera)
cer, or someone else abusing their Dont Eat the Purple Ones. normally are. Instead of hunting,
authority, and the PCs might meet they must be hunted. Instead of fix-
hostility from normally-helpful quar-
ters who dont accept that the bad Were On The ing, they must avoid getting fixed
themselves (ow). Alternately, leave a
guy is bad. A balance of power per-
petuates the trouble, and the PCs Outside Looking In classic plot intact but turn the twists
upside down, making them twistier
must choose sides to tip the balance (or refreshingly untwisty).
and fix things. The trouble is diplo- Any of the basic plots in this list can
matic or political, and the PCs must be reengineered with the PCs on the
Dedicated!
make peace, not war. outside of it. Either the PCs are
accompanying other characters in the
Creativity. Unbound.
6 enjoyable game.