In the chapter Examples of Play you encountered a description of a finished adventure. In this part we will discuss how to create your own adventure. You will also find adventure ideas in the chapter World.

Plot

Every adventure needs a plot - a story that draws the players into the action.

Simple Plots

Here we offer several basic adventure ideas:

— Transporting an item or delivering a message

— Protecting persons and property

— Escort

— Encounter, ambush

— Finding an item or a person

— Disappearing people

— Disappearing things or animals

— Appearing people or things

— Treasure hunt

— Kidnapping

— Killing

— Helping a monster

— Theft and robbery

— Rescuing prisoners

— Escape from captivity

— Fleeing from an enemy

— Uncovering the enemy's plans

— Sabotage

— Exploring unknown places

— Solving a crime

— Solving a mystery

— A wager

— Competition or tournament

— Wandering

— Slander

— Defending a place

— Wrong target

— Surveillance

— Memory loss

Transporting an Item or Delivering a Message

Someone hires the party to transport a certain item or deliver a message to a given place. The difficulty lies either in the danger of the journey, or in the need to hurry. Often someone else is interested in the transported goods and will try to obtain the item, thus depriving the party of its reward and often of their lives as well.

The party must prove its trustworthiness, otherwise no one will entrust it with the task.

Protecting Persons and Property

The party hires itself out as bodyguards or watchmen. Their task may be, for example, guarding a house or a treasure or protecting people from assassins.

Again, the key is to prove their qualities and trustworthiness.

Escort

Someone pays the party to escort and protect him on a dangerous journey. He has various reasons for this:

— enemies are after his life

— he fears robbers, wild beasts, dangerous monsters

— he does not know the way

Encounter, Ambush

The characters have an encounter

— while traveling (in a forest, in the mountains or at sea, too)

— in their sleep

— in a town or village

— elsewhere

with

— other adventurers

— robbers

— priests

— soldiers

— animals

— magical monsters

— inhabitants

whose motives may be

— predatory

— hunger

— political

— commercial (they offer something)

— religious

— racial

— aggressive, as they attack anything that moves

— mistaken - they took the characters for someone else

— none

— other

Finding an Item or a Person

Someone may hire the party to find a certain thing, for example

— stolen property

— a plan of a building or a map

— an antique

— a weapon

— a rare medicine

— an artifact

— a magical item

— a rare ingredient

— something else

or a person who

— got lost

— was kidnapped

— stole something

— owns a rare item

— can give advice

— can help (an assassin, wizard, druid, priest)

Disappearing People

The party is tasked with finding out why people are disappearing. The reasons may vary:

— a monster is devouring them

— they are being killed on the ruler's orders because they discovered his secret

— slavers are abducting them

— a sect of priests is abducting them

— they are joining a secret sect of priests

— they are abducted for experiments (an alchemist, wizard, necromancer)

— there is a magical anomaly in the place (a teleport, a time gate, ...)

— there are ruins in the place (an old cellar, fort, underground), where someone falls in now and then (children at play)

— the abductions are carried out by beings from other worlds (an open gate to the world of demons) - experiments, gathering information for a subsequent invasion

Some of the cases mentioned may involve an accomplice who:

— helps the kidnappers

— sells them information (an innkeeper, a customs officer)

— commands and directs them from a distance

Disappearing Things or Animals

— a new thief or criminal organization has appeared

— a person lost the things / animals but thinks a thief did it

— a sleeping monster has awoken and is eating livestock

— cattle thieves

— someone is stealing beer (food, equipment) from an innkeeper

Appearing People or Things

Solving the mystery of how people from another place or time got to the location (a teleport, a spell, ...)

Treasure Hunt

The characters have heard of a treasure (obtained a map, someone is leading them and so on). For all sorts of motives they try to obtain it - whether for themselves or for someone else.

The first part of a treasure hunt consists of finding the place where it lies; the second part is obtaining it (in castles, caves and similar places, which are often well guarded by living and unliving guardians, traps and other pitfalls).

Kinds of Treasure

Common treasure consists of money, jewelry and other valuables, but also worthless trinkets. Rarer treasure contains magic scrolls or masterwork weapons. The most precious treasures include items of immense value and above all magic weapons or artifacts.

With rare (especially magical) things, the characters may not even recognize what they have found.

Securing the Treasure

Treasure may be protected:

— by nobody knowing about it

— by the inaccessibility of the location

— by spells (offensive spells, illusions)

— by its current owner, for example a wild tribe, a rich owner and so on

— by itself - the treasure is dangerous, for example it can control or enchant whoever takes it

— by traps (poisons, explosives, darts, etc.)

Kidnapping

The party has been hired (or has its own reasons) to capture a living enemy or some monster, usually for a suitable reward. In some cases the prey must first be found or tracked down.

— kidnapping a relative of an enemy (for example for ransom)

— kidnapping an important person

— capturing a rare animal

— capturing a robber chief

Killing

In the same way, the party may be hired to kill a given person or monster.

— killing a dangerous monster

— killing an inconvenient person

— a political assassination

— killing as a warning

Helping a Monster

Not every monster is evil. This one asks the party to protect it from superstitious villagers (it does not want to kill them, it wants to live alongside them), to protect the monster's treasure and so on.

Theft and Robbery

The party may gain property by theft, get hired to steal something, or ambush and rob someone.

— theft in a shop or at a marketplace

— burgling a house

— robbing travelers

— ambushing an important transport (weapons, gold, food)

Rescuing Prisoners

At other times the party is tasked with freeing prisoners who are:

— held in enemy hands

— in prison

— in slavery

— trapped by an accident (for example a cave-in in a mine or a snowstorm in the mountains)

— under a curse

Escape from Captivity

The party may be captured by force or by trickery and dragged off to prison or slavery. It may attempt to escape already on the way or only from the dungeon. Standing in its way will be armed guards, shackles, chains, locked doors and bars, and other obstacles.

Fleeing from an Enemy

The party is fleeing from a lost battle, from captivity, or is being hunted by someone else, usually much stronger. The pursuer is either beyond the party's strength, or all the heroes are exhausted from a previous fight.

Uncovering the Enemy's Plans

The characters may try to find out the intentions of an enemy army or party. They may also try to learn the number of enemies, the deployment of units, the soldiers' armament and much more.

Sabotage

The party may strike at the enemy's weak spot - persuading soldiers, sending false messages, poisoning water and food, eliminating important persons, arson, damaging weapons and so on.

Exploring Unknown Places

The party may come across an unknown place or be hired to explore such a place.

It may be:

— exploring the road or the land where the party has arrived

— scouting the terrain before a battle

— a newly discovered cave, crypt, old castle and so on

— a teleport

— a magical place

— a cursed place

Solving a Crime

The party may be asked to uncover (track down, catch) a criminal. The crime may be of all kinds:

— Theft

— arson

— murder

— mass murder

— poisoning

— kidnapping

— extortion

Solving a Mystery

Something unusual is happening in a certain place (most often an abandoned one):

— strange sounds come from there at night, lights come on and so on

— a well, a spring or a river has dried up

A Wager

The party may make a bet that it will venture to a dangerous, unknown or enchanted place.

Competition or Tournament

The characters take part in an archery contest, an arena match, a knightly tournament and so on. They may travel to these events on purpose or come across them by chance, upon arriving in a town or castle.

Wandering

The characters may have got lost in the wilderness, passed through a teleport or got lost some other way, and are now looking for the way back to civilization.

Slander

A non-player character or a group of persons tries to blacken the name of one of the characters or of another person.

Slander can harm the character (characters) - for example, the town guard may start investigating them, or no one wants to talk to them.

The characters' task is to find out who is spreading the slander and why, stop it and clear their reputation.

Reverse Mission

The characters' task is to blacken the name of a certain person (group of persons) and discredit them in the given location - for example, they may be hired by a merchant who wants to get rid of his competition cleanly.

Defending a Place

The characters are tasked with defending a strategic or otherwise important place, for example:

— a fortress

— a castle

— a bridge

— a village

— a mountain pass

— a harbor

They may be given several soldiers to command.

The attackers outnumber them and the characters must devise a way to hold out.

Wrong Target

Someone mistakes a character (characters) for someone else during a kidnapping, the delivery of a message, an assassination attempt, a money handover, a theft and so on.

Surveillance

The characters are tasked with watching a chosen target - a person, a group of persons or an object - and reporting.

Complication

The person is in (or visits) a dangerous location, associates with dangerous persons and so on.

Further Complication

The characters must not give themselves away. But their target gets into a dangerous situation (is attacked) and the characters must quickly decide whether to help him and ruin their mission, or leave him to his fate.

Memory Loss

A character (or several characters) loses their memory - for example, they wake up in a forest without money or equipment and cannot remember what happened or what is going on.

The cause may be:

— a blow to the head during an ambush

— an innkeeper who robs travelers and gives them a potion of forgetfulness

— an encounter with a spellcasting being that erased the characters' memory because they saw what they should not have

— an enchanted place

More Complex Plots

The theme for an expedition may be:

— Betrayal

— Treasure Hunt Revisited

— Puppeteers

— Prophecy

— Mysterious Phenomenon

— Survival

— War

— Reconciliation

— Escape Revisited

— Upheaval

— The Island

— The Home Place Falls to Ruin

— Clearing a Place

— Establishing Diplomatic or Trade Relations

— Saving the World

— Anything Else

Betrayal

The party has been hired to carry out a certain task (see simple plots), but is led into a trap.

The party then flees either from prison or from a stronger enemy, and later decides to punish the person responsible.

Treasure Hunt Revisited

Great treasures are well hidden and wrapped in many legends, but no useful information. The party may gather information, buy it and then sort through it. Competition from other adventurers who are also seeking the treasure often adds spice.

Puppeteers

The party may offer help to a ruler in his struggle against his neighbor. Murderous attacks are launched on their employer, which the party may or may not fend off. The situation is usually complicated by kidnappings, traitors and bribe-takers. In the background there may be hidden figures - puppeteers with hidden goals behind the mutual hatred of the two rulers, who therefore set them against each other. A puppeteer may act alone or cooperate with a puppeteer on the other side, sometimes acting against him.

The quest is completed by unmasking all the puppeteers.

Prophecy

1. Local Prophecy

According to an ancient prophecy, one of the characters (or even the whole party) can:

— lift a curse from a town (temple, village)

— save a town (person, village, land, world) from ruin (a river is drying up, grain has stopped growing, a great army is about to attack the town)

— defeat a monster

— find a certain artifact or a powerful figure

The coming of a savior has been foretold, and at that time the party appears. Characters who ride into such a place may be the true saviors, or the inhabitants mistakenly take them for the saviors, or the characters merely pose as saviors.

2. Great Prophecy

Prophets begin to appear in the land or across the whole world, foretelling:

— the end of the world

— the extinction of one race or of all humankind

— the coming or departure of the gods

— the coming of an important figure - a unifier or liberator

— calamities (wars, plague, earthquakes, mass madness)

3. Characters may be involved in a prophecy as follows:

— the character was born under a sign that predestines them for the prophecy

— the character is a seer (from time to time they fall into a trance and the prophecy speaks through their voice)

— the character owns an item connected with the prophecy

— the character is a descendant of an important person (a hero, a ruler and so on)

Mysterious Phenomenon

Throughout the land (village, town, barony, principality, kingdom, ...) strange phenomena begin to appear on an enormous scale:

— wells are drying up

— crop failure

— livestock is dying

— unforeseen changes in the weather (snow in summer, swamps appearing)

— plague or another contagion (for example a magical one) is spreading through the land

— swarms of insects appear

— meteors fall from the sky

— people lose the will to live

— people start behaving senselessly aggressively (and afterwards may remember nothing)

— the undead rise or other magical monsters appear

Sometimes several phenomena may appear at once or one after another. Behind them may be:

— mere chance

— a current or a new god

— a mysterious artifact from another world / from ancient times

— a mysterious wanderer who roams the land and causes these misfortunes (and may not even know it himself)

— a connection to a great prophecy

Survival

The party finds itself in a wasteland (fleeing from enemies, shipwrecked on a sea voyage, lost and so on). It loses most (or all) of its equipment. The basic task becomes obtaining food and clean water, finding shelter, and making primitive tools and weapons.

The adventurers' life is made harder by poor food (they find no edible plants or do not know any, they catch little game or cannot process the meat), insects (they sleep badly, are stung and bitten), cold at night (they have neither fire nor blankets), etc.

After they obtain basic equipment, they can try to find civilization (which may take several weeks, and on the way they encounter predatory beasts, etc.)

Note: In this adventure the main role is played by supplementary and nature skills - woodcraft, healing, cooking, blacksmithing, carpentry, pottery, sewing and so on.

War

A war is going on between two neighboring domains or states (for example the characters' homeland and a more powerful neighbor). There may be puppeteers, prophecies, lost artifacts and other factors that will hinder or help the characters in their efforts. At other times the characters need not get involved very deeply - they may simply distinguish themselves in battle or carry out a diversion in the enemy army.

Reconciliation

Hostile clans (houses, baronies, lands, races) have been at war with each other for countless years. The characters' task is to stop the senseless bloodshed, murders, kidnappings, blood feuds and so on. During the task many incidents will occur that make the situation harder (in the background there may be a puppeteer who has his own interests and benefits from the conflict).

Escape Revisited

The party is suddenly attacked by the servants of a powerful being. The attacks keep repeating and the party must flee to survive.

Gradually they learn that the motive is to obtain one member of the party (or an item someone owns) for a special ritual, or to kill (destroy) them, because according to certain signs they may mean the doom of that being (a possible link to the Prophecy scenario).

Upheaval

A group of daredevils is trying to overthrow the ruler (government) of the land. As helpers they find a party, which often has no idea about it, and with its help they spin their webs. Behind the upheaval there are usually several murders, kidnappings and other deeds (e.g. poisons, explosions, counterfeiting money). The party may or may not uncover these intentions, and it is entirely up to it how it acts in the given situation.

The Island

On the way to its task the party sails across the sea. During a storm, however, their ship is wrecked (pirates attack them, the crew mutinies) and they end up on a deserted island.

Here they must rely solely on themselves and have no means, and it is up to them whether they ever make it back to civilization.

They are not alone on the island. They come across primitive natives and a monster the natives consider their god, mysterious ruins of an ancient city with new inhabitants from other worlds and legendary treasures, and a mysterious stranger - a powerful wizard.

The Home Place Falls to Ruin

After a time of wandering the characters return to their home village (town) and discover that things there have changed:

— the region is ruled by a new lord who fleeces his subjects

— the region is occupied by a foreign army (for example from a neighboring domain)

— a dark phenomenon has appeared in the region - for example people are disappearing, monsters are appearing and similar influences that have turned a peaceful place into an unbearable one

The characters begin to search for the cause and for a way to restore the original order.

The person (group) behind the changes notices the characters' activity and starts putting obstacles in their way - sends its forces against them, tries to capture them and so on.

The adventure may end with the characters' victory or with their escape (along with a pursuit), with them returning later to complete the restoration.

Clearing a Place

The characters are tasked with securing a certain place for new settlers (or a new mine). The whole time they will be under pressure from one or more groups:

— the original inhabitants

— persons who have no interest in the colonization taking place

— predatory monsters living in the place

— robbers, bandits or outlaws

They must reach the place, ensure the delivery of supplies, food and material, occupy it and hold it. Then protect the settlers (workers, miners, farmers and so on) from attacks.

Establishing Diplomatic or Trade Relations

The task consists of establishing diplomatic or trade relations with another culture or race. The characters become envoys who must reach the place, avoid getting killed (a foreign race or tribe may be quite hostile), win their trust and establish relations.

Complication

Someone may thwart the characters' efforts, for example by killing someone at the right moment, planting a stolen item in someone's pocket, spreading slander and so on.

Further Complication

The situation may be complicated by their employer (or the other side) breaking the agreement - robbing the other side or attacking it with military force.

The characters will thus again face a task - they may try to calm the situation, punish the side that broke the agreements, etc.

Saving the World

Many beginning GMs make the mistake of giving the characters a quest such as “An evil sorcerer is seeking the seventh part of the most powerful weapon, with which he will rule the world” or “An evil god is about to destroy the whole world and only one weapon in the world can stop him (and it is divided into seven parts)”.

Characters should start dealing with saving the world at a time when killing a dragon is no problem for them and they easily deal with a pack of vampires, for two reasons:

— if the whole world were threatened, several dozen very powerful characters would be found to stand against such a danger

— beginning characters do not have the slightest chance in a battle with a god or a powerful sorcerer (forget the “all-powerful weapon”)

Setting

With regard to the story that is to unfold, the GM chooses the place (the expedition will take place in several locations):

village

town

buildings

— tower

— a castle

— castle

— temple

— smaller building (mill, abandoned house)

— mine

ruins of former buildings

prison

town sewers

natural caves

labyrinth

— garden

— underground

— other

geographic regions

— mountains

— steppe

— tundra

— forest

— deep forest

— tropical forest

— river, lake

— swamp or marsh

— sea

— island

other places

— sea or lake bed

— air

— another planet

— another plane of existence

— another space

Legends

Legends are an integral part of fantasy worlds, as they give them an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. Without legends the world is gray and poor. Every artifact, great treasure, powerful mage or invincible warrior is wrapped in legends. These may be founded, exaggerated or invented:

Founded Legends

Founded legends truthfully describe real events. As a rule the event is fairly recent and the phenomenon described is not much shrouded in mystery. Such legends are more like historical accounts from which information can be drawn.

Exaggerated Legends

Exaggerated legends describe real events, but distort and exaggerate them to a certain degree - the warrior killed a dragon not with one but with twelve heads, the treasure is made of fist-sized rubies and not of a handful of ordinary rubies. These legends are better to tell and make a better impression, but the characters must find the truth in them themselves.

Invented Legends

Invented legends are either events distorted beyond recognition, or are entirely made up. They are often attributed to mysterious or unknown phenomena.

For the characters, invented legends pose more danger than benefit. A party may chase for months after a legendary treasure that never actually existed, but about which a whole range of “guaranteed” stories circulate. At other times invented legends may obscure true tales.