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Random Adventure Generator

Comedy
Theme
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 Power
Goal
The heroes are on this adventure to gain personal or political power for themselves. They may be looking for an
artifact or weapon, or are performing a mission for someone who will reward them with political power (a
higher social rank or lands, for instance). If the characters are doing someone else's bidding, you might want to
roll again on this section to see what goal the patron will have assigned to the characters.

Grim Necessity
Story Hook
If the hero doesn't involve himself with this adventure, he's going to find himself suffering or dead -- period.
That's the hook to bring him into the adventure... but you have to determine why he'll suffer or die if he doesn't
become involved.

Event
Plot
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
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.

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.

Demi-human Community
Specific Setting I
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.

Demi-human Community
Specific Setting II
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.

Ravager
Master Villain
This Master Villain is like the Destroyer, except that he terrorizes a very limited area -- such as a village, island,
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.

Misguided Moralist
Minor Villain I
This fellow has been convinced that only by helping the villain achieve the Master Plan can he improve the
world. He tends to be encountered all through the adventure's plot, usually escaping from the heroes and
taunting them for their wrong thinking. Fortunately, he's no more effective as a villain than he is as a thinker.

Snivelling Vizier
Minor Villain II
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.

Gibbering Madman
Ally/Neutral
Some poor wretch blundered into part of the master villain's plan and saw too much. What he saw drove him
crazy. He gibber and jabbers, occassionally uttering clues about what he's seen, but just isn't coherent. He
knows enough that the heroes will need to take him along to comment on what they're encountering, though,
so he can't just be met and forgotten.

Ravager
Monster Encounter
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.

Bandit Gang
Character Encounter

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29/11/23, 20:56 donjon; Random Adventure Generator

When the heroes are en route from one place to another, have them run across one of the local bandit gangs.
The bandits are faster and far more numerous than the heroes. But the bandits stay back. Basically, they're
bandits who admire courage and prowess, and the bandit leader will challenge one or all of the heroes to a test
of bravery or ability -- such as a horserace, a duel, a wrestling match, a joust, an arm-wrestling match where
scorpions sting the loser, etc.

Avalanche
Deathtrap
This is an outdoors trap. Some time when the heroes are in a narrow canyon or gorge, or are on a snow-covered
mountain, their enemies can arrange to dump an avalanche upon them (rocks and boulders in the first
instance, snow in the second).

Aerial
Chase
The heroes could be riding pegasi or friendly griffons or allied great eagles; the villains could be carried aloft by
gargoyles or demons. The prospect of taking a mile-long fall if one's mount is hit is a very daunting and
challenging one for the hero.

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
Secret Weakness
Finally, the villain may have some aberration or secret shame that will force him to flee when he is confronted
with 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.

Omnipresent Observer
Special Condition
If a wizard, demigod or god has forced the heroes to undertake this quest, he may be with them continually -- in
spirit. He can't help them, but does magically watch everything they do. And when they do something he
doesn't like, he tells them about it -- loudly and nastily. (This is distressing when they're trying to break into a
fortress or sneak through enemy lines.)

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.

Lying Rumor
Red Herring
This is the worst and most useful type of red herring -- the interesting rumor which just happens to be false. In
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 upon tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc.

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