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Random Adventure Generator

Romance
Theme
This sort of adventure (rarely played, but worthwhile anyway) has as its central plot the romance between two
characters, usually a player-character and an NPC.

Explore a New Area

Goal
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
Story Hook
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.

Accumulation of Elements
Plot
In this sort of plot, the heroes have to go from place to place -- perhaps covering very little area like a city,
perhaps 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.

Scattered Duels
Climax
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.

Exotic Distant Land

General Setting
The adventure will take the heroes to some fascinating and exotic distant country, where they'll have to cope
with new customs, monsters unfamiliar to them, and very colorful NPC encounters; choose one of the more
fascinating foreign lands from your campaign world.

Temple/Church
Specific Setting I
This can be either the church of some lofty and good diety, or the dark and grisly temple of some horrid deity
(doubtless filled with evil soldiers and monsters), or even the temple that the madman villain has dedicated to
himself for when he becomes a god.

Lost City
Specific Setting II
This is the remnant of some lost civilization or expedition, still thriving in some forgotten corner of the world.
Remnants of lost civilizations can even inhabit cavern systems beneath campaign cities, preying on the above-
worlders for their goods, slaves, and sacrifices.

Zealot
Master Villain
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.

Snivelling Vizier
Minor Villain I
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.

Single-Minded Soldier
Minor Villain II
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.

Hero Worshipper
Ally/Neutral
Some youth -- an urchin, a brother or sister of one of the heroes, or a child run away from home -- hooks up
with the heroes, following them wherever they go, being admiring, talking to everyone (neutrals and villains
included) about how wonderful and powerful the heroes are.

Terrain Monster
Monster Encounter
Don't forget the simple run-in with the animal belonging to the terrain where the heroes are: Every type of
wilderness has its predators and big, nasty herbivores.

Seducer
Character Encounter
One of the characters is invited to a romantic liaison with an attractive local. This local can just be interested in
a brief tryst, could fall madly in love with the hero and follow the hero through the rest of the adventure, could

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be a Loving Deceiver monster encounter, could be a thief and rob the hero blind, or could be a spy or assassin
working for the Master Villain.

Rock and a Hard Place

Deathtrap
This trap starts out as an Animal Pit, Pit and the Pendulum, or Tomb Deathtrap, but an obvious escape suggests
itself very early on. Trouble is, it leads into even worse danger. The hole out of the animal pit may lead to the lair
of an even worse animal; it may lead through a succession of dangers (collapsing old catacombs, into an
underground river, into a den of zombies) before the heroes reach the light.

Special Terrain
Chase
You can make any chase more memorable by having it take place in a setting to which it is utterly unsuited. For
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.

Element
Secret Weakness
The Master Villain can be banished, dispelled, killed, or otherwise defeated by some of element or item. The
Master Villain tries to get rid of all the examples of this element in his vicinity; he doesn't let his minions carry it
or bring it into his presence. But he's not stupid; he doesn't announce to the world what his weakness is. He
tries to hide his concern within another command. If he's allergic to red roses, for instance, he orders all
"things of beauty" destroyed within miles of his abode.

Time Limit
Special Condition
Finally, the most obvious condition to place on an adventure is to give it a time limit. If the Master Villain is
going to conclude his evil spell in only three days, and his citadel is three hard days' riding away, then the heroes
are 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.

Friend Quandry
Moral Quandry
At a critical point in the story, one of the campaign's NPCs makes an impossible demand of one of the heroes.

False Path to the Artifact

Red Herring
Once again, if the heroes have had too easy a time finding the artifact capable of destroying the villain, give
them 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.

Based upon tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.

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