Adventure Ideas Needed

[JNAProductions]

So, I'm rapidly learning I'm not the best DM at winging stuff. I need to do more prep work, and while my players are having fun, I'd like them to have more.

As such, I'd like to write out an actual adventure path. But I'm drawing a blank at square one, the general concept. Any help would be appreciated.

[gloryblaze]

Dungeoncrawler: An earthquake causes a sinkhole to open up in the town square of Shaka Shaka Gnar Gnar, the capitol city of a tropical island nation near a volcano. Explorers who delve into the hole discover an ancient city that was buried by a volcanic eruption many centuries ago, still preserved in ash deep underground. A group of intrepid archaeologists and anthropologists are summoned to map and survey the lost city, but as they delve deeper into the underground labyrinth, they discover that they are not alone - an ancient and powerful Primordial/Elder Elemental with power over earth and fire is sealed beneath the old city, and the quake has caused it to begin to wake from its slumber. The players must use their archaeological know-how to unearth the secrets of a ritual used by the ancient civilization to seal away the primordial, searching every nook and cranny of the buried ciity for the needed components and for hints on how to perform the ritual. All the while, they must contend with local fauna, such as gelatinous cubes, purple worms, and umber hulks, while also avoiding powerful creatures of evil earth and fire that have been drawn to the site by the stirring primordial. They may even have to negotiate with a red dragon who's claimed an important ritual component as part of its hoard and a minotaur warlord who seeks to turn the underground labyrinth into a headquarters of a cult of Baphomet.

Intrigue: After a demonic incursion into the material plans only narrowly beaten back by adventurers occurs, diabolical cults began openly proselytizing and attempting to convert the people of a nation to the worship of devils, claiming that they are the heroes holding back demonic forces and that they require more souls as reinforcements lest the demons gain access to the material plane once more. The government of the nation is worryingly open to the idea, so a church official tasks a small group of spies to infiltrate the diabolical church and learn its true intentions. The players must deftly insert themselves into the inner workings of a nefarious cult and learn of an international conspiracy to bring many powerful nations under diabolical control, then destroy the cult from the inside out.

Swashbuckling: A cloud giant princess is kidnapped from her floating castle by a ragtag group of sky pirates lead by the Dread Pirate Nobeard Blackstache. The cloud giant king blames a neighboring human kingdom for the crime, as the king's men have failed to capture and execute Blackstache on multiple occasions in the past. As a show of good faith to prevent hostilities between the kingdoms, the human king assembles a suicide squad of dashing rogues, each the master of a particular set of skills, to retrieve the giant princess or die trying. Aboard a rickety loaner aishirp from the king's navy, the players must hunt down the Dread Pirate aboard his sky-galleon The Poisoned Pomade, following the clues he leaves behind at each of his raid sites, delving into dungeons and seducing busty tavern maids to collect every scrap of evidence or wild rumor that might point them to the pirate's secret sky lair.

War: When the Aie Empire invades the Kingdom of Bii, the king turns to his longtime allies in the Western Sea Mercantile Republic. However, the newly elected head of the republic refuses to offer aid to the kingdom, and instead betrays Bii and sides with the Empire in the hopes of expanding the Republic's territory. Faced with war on two fronts, the prince of Bii must assemble a small group of trusted retainers and fight his way through enemy territory to the the distant but powerful magocracy of Dei to seek help from the mighty archmage Merlock the Magnificent, who is the prince's uncle.

[JNAProductions]

-Snipped For Length-

Those are some neat ideas! Thanks Glory!

[brian 333]

Create a nemesis for your PCs. Then build your world around her plots to foil them.

A low level cleric is turning the village's dearly departed into skeletons and zombies while recruiting villagers to her evil faith. The villagers are unaware that she is the cause of the undead they pay her to eliminate, and believe she is a hero. One villager knows better, having spied upon her unholy rites, and recruits the PCs to eliminate her. Success by the PCs forces the necromancer to flee and plot REVENGE,


A hoodwinker is using various scams to trick people into giving him money. One scam is to offer the victim a chance to buy a special ruby the size of a songbird egg, (which he does not have.) He begins by presenting fake jewelry as if it were real, (and he will act surprised and outraged that he had been cheated if called out for it.) Once he has a gullible mark, he will mention the jewel, then let the buyer's greed lure him to the meeting the hoodwinker arranges to buy the jewel. His accomplices will then mug the victim on his way to the meeting and take his money. Exposing the fraud is sufficient grounds for the hoodwinker to seek REVENGE!


The shrine of a retired but politically connected paladin has been desecrated and for whatever reason the paladin believes the PCs did it. She begins by trying to have the PCs arrested for desecratipn of a holy site, and continues by bullying local businesses who do business with them. If the PCs do prove their innocence he will assume they faked their evidence and blame them for the humiliation from the public reaction to his false accusations, for which he will want REVE... JUSTICE! Yeah, justice.

Focusing on the character rather than the environment allows you to world-build around the quest, rather than requiring a complete campaign setting, because the story is not location-specific. Suppose, for example, your PCs are run out of town by the pissed paladin. As a worldbuilder in training, you haven't got any out-of-town yet. But you do have a story: your paladin's shrine was desecrated. By whom? Perhaps your paladin chases them out of town and right into the arms of the real desecrators? They could recruit the PCs, try to scam or rob them, or wave in passing on the road.

The thing about character-driven plots that makes them so interesting to administer is that they are maleable. A dungeon crawl has a grid-map with numbered rooms and lettered traps with complete descriptions of what is there. These are static unless the PCs come in and do something to change them, like carry off the gold. Character-driven plots revolve around the antagonist(s), and develop as the game progresses.

Everyone who runs a particular dungeon will encounter trap 1a in the entrance chamber, but not everyone in a criminal investigation will think to ask the right question of the right character at the right moment. As DM you have the opportunity to shape the campaign to react to your players' actions. This goes from minor details, like offering other ways for your investigator to acquire a necessary clue, to major ones, like needing a deity of anarchy to oppose your paladin's deity of civilization.

Shaping your adventure to suit is also extremely helpful for those game sessions when you have a well developed campaign in mind and give the players a map of your carefully crafted kingdom, only to have one of them point to an obscure corner of the map and ask, "What's over here?"

[BerzerkerUnit]

You can follow an "actual play thread" here or on RPG.net and just lift what you like.

Here's one I just started, it's very basic since I'm playtesting a bunch of stuff.

The Sojourn Adventures (https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?831083-5e-The-Sojourn-Adventures)

I wouldn't get all caught up in world building until you're comfortable running, that way you can really build the narrative around your PCs rather than shoehorning them into some prefab epic. Introduce a lot of villains and NPCs and let them decide who their foil is.

[Gorum]

So, I'm rapidly learning I'm not the best DM at winging stuff. I need to do more prep work, and while my players are having fun, I'd like them to have more.

As such, I'd like to write out an actual adventure path. But I'm drawing a blank at square one, the general concept. Any help would be appreciated.

Group level?
Game? (I'll assume DnD)
Whereabouts?

[Dragon's Blood Ale]
A local bar in the slums is rising in prominence quickly, and a local NPC invites the PCs over. The house offers them the local specialty drink, Dragon's Blood Ale. PCs who drink it make a Fort or Will save, failing gives minor but appreciable buffs (temporary HP works well here, but a slight bonus to Charisma / Strength). This save can be failed willingly.

Those who fail the save must drink the beverage every day. Failure to do so cause the target to be fatigued / lose 1 healing surge / cause Constitution damage that cannot be healed.

Meanwhile, a local almost religious organization wants to have the bar closed for its highly negative effects on the population and the local society and are urging both heroes to infiltrate for information and local government for funds and action.

The ale is enchanted to act like a drug. The bar's employee are working for a local Blue Dragon. The Blue Dragon is (for now) unaware of a rival in town. The local almost religious organization is actually a cult of a Green Dragon aware of the Blue's influence and trying to root him out.


[Prison of Ages]
Local Dwarven City has earthquakes and suffers from slightly but steadily increasing volcanic activity. A dwarf whose ancestry visibly differs from the main population (uncommon hair color, facial features that differs, clothing that is poor yet different...) claims a great catastrophe is about to happen and that is about to escape.

When PCs pay attention to the dwarf, he claims he comes from a secluded fortification deeper into the earth. There is a prison built for enemies of this plane of existence, back when the Material Plane had an open conflict with Fire Plane / Elemental chaos. A very powerful creature is kept there in what was a marvel of runic holding and lost dwarven technology. But the place was taken by assault, and the fire creatures plan to unleash [Insert mission's BBEG], Fire Plane/Elemental Cgaos general's, into the world.

When PCs arrive, the place has been overran. Some survivors of these strange dwarves who commit ed an eternal oath in protecting this fortification can be found, but none are able to help in retaking the installation. When the PCs storm the place, feel free to have puzzle doors with fiery passages as alternatives, hidden weaponry designed to harm fire creatures, and a lot of difficult terrain.

When the PCs arrive in the last room, the prison of [Insert mission's BBEG], have a dwarf there trying to hold off a Magma dragon or equivalent monster of a hard, but manageable level for the PCs. The Dwarf is trying to re-infuse runes of holding. The place is collapsing however. Make the room 16 x16 and divide it in 2x2 squares. Have the runes to be reinforced on the sides of the room, in safe alcoves. As [Insert mission's BBEG] try to bash its way out, the room is collapsing. each turn, design at random (roll 1d8 x2 to determine a place) a square that will collapse. Exactly one turn later have that square burst, and become lava.

Now the PCs have a a choice.

> Kill the dragon. This will enrage [Insert mission's BBEG] which will burst out in order to kill the PCs. Have a chase through the dungeon.

> Fend off the dragon and help the Rune Master. This will make the combat especially difficult as PCs must survive the map and the dragon's attack WHILE they try to hasten the process.


[I]Note: Ths worked REALLY well with Magma Dragons for PCs around level 8. But you could have a Balor, Elemental or high level Anti-Paladin of fire and destruction and get similar results.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Adventure Title: Titanfall

The local bigwig/King has a problem only the PCs can solve: 20 Gargantuan Giants made of stone and long forgotten magic have reawakened and are wandering the land, causing devastation wherever they go. The players will be tasked with putting them down again.

TWIST: The Giants are actually just animalistic, not malevolent in nature and most of the damages have been caused by mistake or by the king's previous adventurers trying and failing to kill the things.

DOUBLE TWIST: The King was the one who woke them up in an attempt to harness their power in a bid to conquer more land.

The players are free to kill the giants, put them back to sleep by finding a set of lost artifacts, or harness their power and conquer the world. On the way several organizations will cross the players' paths: an order dedicated to slaying the Giants, an order dedicated to safeguarding the lost artifacts, an adventuring guild dedicated to stealing the artifacts and selling them to the highest bidder, an order dedicated to studying the giants and keeping them safe from the players, an organization who emulate the Giant's destructive power, the rival kingdoms looking to do unto the King what he tried to do to them by harnessing the giants, and so on, and so forth.

[Clodix367]

An underground labyrinth has been discovered under the city. Black market trades and other shady dealings happen here but th he real catch is the gladiatorial combat arena near the center of the labyrinth. Fights are conducted by the overseer of the labryth which has been rumored to possibly be a vampire teaching his students dark arts to perfect their martial arts.

This idea can also come in another Flãvor if you play up the gladiators as lucha wrestlers and base the vampire lord off of wcw legend, Lucha Underground announcer, and current developmental trainer Vampiro

[brian 333]

An underground labyrinth has been discovered under the city. Black market trades and other shady dealings happen here but th he real catch is the gladiatorial combat arena near the center of the labyrinth. Fights are conducted by the overseer of the labryth which has been rumored to possibly be a vampire teaching his students dark arts to perfect their martial arts.

This idea can also come in another Flãvor if you play up the gladiators as lucha wrestlers and base the vampire lord off of wcw legend, Lucha Underground announcer, and current developmental trainer Vampiro

Daylight cannot kill these vampires, but if you remove his mask he turns to dust.

The underground labyrinth can be the top floor of an infinite dungeon which goes wider as one goes deeper. The 1st.ed. DMG had a random dungeon generator that tended to grow in all directions. My own labyrinth is built from it in many places.

[Clodix367]

daylight cannot kill these vampires, but if you remove his mask he turns to dust.


this is the best idea

[Crisis21]

Don't forget to plunder whatever backstory your players provided for their characters if you need ideas.

[brian 333]

When in doubt about what comes next, insert a side quest. Side quests are useful for when a key player misses a game session too.

Since my background in gaming was of tactical battle simulation games, I liked to present tactical puzzles from time to time. I would design them ahead of time and when a random encounter was generated or when gameplay devolved into Hulk vs. discussions, I'd whip one out.


The Roadblock

Someone has built a barrier across a road and they guard it. The players must figure out how to get around or through it. The good thing about this is that it can be put anywhere and it can be manned by anyone. Suppose you create a barrier created by hobgoblins. The same stats give you elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, etc. if you just alter the description. You will already have determined the enemy tactics and rolled out the hit points, so you are free to roleplay your monsters rather than spend fifteen minutes rolling monster HP.


The Distraction

A fugitive encounters the party, claiming his pursuers are homicidal maniacs trying to murder him. He will attempt to flee.

The pursuers, when they arrive, immediately accuse the party of aiding the fugitive, and the issue will not be resolved short of the party defeating them or going with them to their village judge.


The Chapel On The Hill

Just at the edge of viewing range a broken building of some sort creates a striking image of sunlight and shadow, prompting the party to take a closer look. Is it abandoned? Is it occupied by monsters? Does a forgotten treasure lie hid within?

This kind of adventure can be linked to your story, (a sword of dragon slaying found in the temple might prove potent against the Kobold Nobility who guard the big treasure, for example.) It can also be a pointless, but fun, waste of the character's time.

Which brings back a memory of the song of Aster, the Side-Questing Knight. He keeps accomplishing great deeds but never gets to rescue the princess. (It was a bunch of limericks jointly created by a group of players long ago.)

The primary idea being, a sidequest can be fun, and injected almost anywhere in a story. Prepare a few and keep them on file for a moment in which you need more time before you can continue with the main story.