Planning an Adventure: The 11 Adventure Types

Adventure stories share a basic structure: the heroes and villains are thrown into conflict over some goal. There are only a few archetypal goals.

Stop Something

1. Slay a Monster or Villain

The heroes must hunt down and stop an outlaw, monster, evil spirit, evil overlord, etc. wreaking havoc on the innocent public. While the heroes are mostly chasing the monster, in the end the heroes usually get close enough that the monster turns on them and makes them the target.

You will need:

A monster or villain
A reason to go after the monster or villain
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
A location for the final showdown
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way, apart from the monster or villain

The search is typically a series of failed close encounters with the monster, each of which is actually a little success, providing the next clue or taking out the outlaws one-by-one. It typically involves canvassing the area for information, tracking the monster thru a wilderness, finding victims other clues, and having battles with henchmen or which the villain escapes from.

Gnolls have crossed the River Minduin from the great plains and seized a manor and its village.
The Death Knight’s identity is unknown, but his crimes are well-known. He kidnaps gentlewomen for ransom, seizes trade wagons, and kills bounty hunters who try to stop him. His secret: he is actually twin sisters who wear identical armor and spend time in town disguised as ordinary gentlewomen.
A young blue dragon has roosted atop Mount Shanda in an abandoned monastery and terrorizes the shepherds and merchants in the valleys below.
The Tome of the Damned appears as a normal book until opened, when it begins to drive the reader to madness, then it disappears only to reappear on someone else’s shelf. Destroy it!

2. Destroy a Project

The heroes must find and destroy an organization’s ceremony, ritual, construction project, etc. Sometimes in such a conflict, the villain has some sort of deadline to meet, or it must be destroyed before being completed and used, so time becomes a critical factor.

You will need:

A project
A reason to go after the project
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
A location where the project is being worked on
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way

The villains are those people directly involved in the project. The early confrontations tend to be encounters with guards, agents, and spies, rather than the villain himself. Only the later confrontations involve the real villain and his closest henchmen.

The wizard Faulcon de Squaune has a tower in the forest, a magic cauldron, and an evil plan to bend people to his will….
The “fungal doom” is turning people evil in Dunkley. This potion will save them, if you can get them to drink it.
Lord Galvey and his cruel knights have begun seizing merchant wagons whole. Surely the baron will brand them all outlaws and allow you to hunt them if you give him evidence.
The army of Pigga the Conquerix is marching toward Valgate Bridge—the only bridge for miles. Destroying it would hold her army off for days and give the king time to rally his knights, but it’s currently held by her champions.

3. Best a Rival in a Contest

The heroes must compete in some contest, either natural or artificial, against rivals trying to achieve the same goal. The contest is often an actual game or competition such as a duel to the death, trial by combat, or some other grim contest. But it can also be the natural result of trying to reach the same goal at the same time.

You will need:

A contest
A reason to win the contest
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
A location where the contest takes place or ends
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way

The villains in such a conflict are usually the rivals themselves but may be the rivals’ boss or a third party who dislikes the heroes and forces them to compete.

Represent the baron in the Tournament of Champions, which is rarely lethal (normally).
The queen wishes to know what secret is guarded by the Pass of Ancients on Mount Dulimba. The first to return with a report will receive her prize.
Race to the unguarded treasure of a dragon that was killed in flight.
The first of the legendary Heartstones of Hogmar Ironborne has been found by Asivaxis the Sphinx. If she gets the other two, she’ll take the kingdom.

Find Something

4. Retrieve a Thing

The heroes must try to find and retrieve an object or creature. The subject could be something lost or something new that is needed for a project (ceremony, ritual, spell, etc.).

You will need:

An object to retrieve
A reason to retrieve the object
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
A location where the thing can be found
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way

Setting such adventures in foreign lands, where the authorities are not sympathetic helps to make sure the heroes act alone—and provides opportunities to make trouble for them whenever things get boring.

Track down a stolen magic amulet for the Mages’ Guild. Is it still in the city? Or is it on its way to the evil sorcerer’s tower? Or is it there already?
Find the Sword of Werewolf Slaying where it was laid: in the tomb of Sir Sonimar, which first you must locate.
Go to the land of Hwan al-Jan and bring back a silver serpent for the king’s menagerie.
The baroness can be cured by a potion made from lindolberries, but this time of year, they only grow on the southern slope of the Mangol Mountains.

5. Rescue a Person

The heroes must try to find and rescue a person. The subject could be a kidnap victim or anyone else who might get trapped, lost, captured, or imprisoned. The villain should usually have a strong reason for wanting to keep the person alive (at least if the person is in the villain’s clutches), but perhaps not strong enough that he is willing to let the person live in freedom. Perhaps the person has knowledge the villain wants or needs; or the person will become valuable later as pawn, bargaining chip…or human sacrifice.

You will need:

An object to retrieve
A reason to retrieve the object
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
A location where the person can be found
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way

The merchant Cleol and his wife and son were captured by a pair of ogres on the road; free them!
Rescue a missing princess from the Black Knight, who wants her to marry him.
Find the center of the Labyrinth of Madness and rescue your countrymen from the minotaur.
Break into the king’s prison and free Dorjean, the Baron Velseur, before his scheduled execution.

6. Explore a Place

The heroes must explore some strange and dangerous place or spy on some foreign land or secretive organization and report back on what they find without making a bloody mess. The locations chosen for confrontations and other dramatic scenes need to be breathtaking, harrowing, dangerous, and alien. It may even require disguises to infiltrate the foreign land.

You will need:

A location to explore or spy on
A reason to explore the place
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way

The villains are often of the impersonal as well as personal sort: the forces of nature and the perils of weather and wilderness and/or the perils of foreign cities, dangerous people, and so on. There may even be a backstabbing member of the heroes’ team, such as the retainer of the leader who hired the heroes, motivated by fear, greed, or—in the case of spying—divided loyalty.

Journey over the mountains at the edge of the realm and map and report on the other side.
Disguise yourselves as Vlacavians and spy on the foreign city of Vlacow.
The Brambly Swamp has never been properly explored by anyone Count Valk has employed before or, indeed, anyone at all.
Polymorph into merfolk to infiltrate the Sunken City of Skolatoa.

7. Solve a Mystery

The heroes need to figure out who or what caused a crime (or terrible accident). The scene will usually need to be investigated, clues uncovered, witnesses questioned, and suspects interrogated. The need to find a criminal can be heightened by confining the heroes and innocents with the perpetrator in an enclosed location such as a secluded mansion, ship at sea, or tiny tropical island.

You will need:

A mystery to solve
A reason to solve the mystery
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
A location where the mystery takes place
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way

The villain of such an adventure is usually the perpetrator himself or herself. The villain tries to throw the investigators off track, mislead and misguide, and—if possible—do away with the evidence, the witnesses, the investigators, or all three.

Your cleric is asked solve the gruesome murder of Lady Hopweil. Was it a family member? A friend? A servant? A stranger? Suicide? (Don’t be ridiculous, you fool; it wasn’t suicide.)
A book of magic believed to hold the cure to the count’s madness is stolen from the tower of the wizard-sage Mondais. Only a few people could have done it….
You are asked to discreetly determine who among the baron’s advisors is a foreign spy.
The abbess has determined these “wolf attacks” don’t really seem to be the work of a wild animal but a deliberate man. Is he out for revenge or searching for something?

Protect Something

8. Deliver a Person or Thing

The heroes must guard and keep a person or object safe from people who would want to kill or capture them or it while traveling somewhere. Typically, they must protect the target of some madman or organization because the subject would ruin the villain’s plan.

You will need:

A person or object to deliver
A reason to deliver the person or object
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
A location to travel thru and to
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way

Sometimes the item in question is simply treasure or merchandise, perhaps something fragile or dangerous or having an undesirable effect on the bearer.

You are hired to protect a merchant and his load of glassware bound for a nearby city.
You volunteer to deliver the new heir to the Barony of Colver, traveling to meet with the king to assert his birthright.
The sacred remains of the Bishop of Whalk should be delivered to the monks of Mun post haste, before the old gal starts to attract carrion eaters.
The high priest needs someone to deliver the ancient artifact to its new home in the nearly completed temple over the mountain.

9. Defend a Place or Project

The heroes must watch over a project or place and protect it from destruction, sabotage, etc. until the end date. These stories mostly take place in one location, where there is opportunity for tense drama of people confined together, secrets hidden and discovered, and loyalties being questioned.

You will need:

A location or location of the project to defend
A reason to defend the place or project
A treasure to recover or be rewarded with
Who/what is going to try to do the capturing or destroying

The villains of such stories are usually political enemies (domestic or foreign). Efforts to destroy the project may come from within (sabotage) or from outside (assault)—or both!

Your liege lady’s manor house is put under siege by orcs from the wild lands.
The local noble’s plans to go to war are threatened by the rival’s spies.
Your home city is threatened by sinister mercenaries and enchanters of the Holdfire Company. Who is behind it?
A new abbey’s construction is halted by a strange outbreak of ghouls and other undead.

Escape Something

10. Elude Capture or Murder

The heroes are being chased, sought, or hunted by some person, people, organization, or monster. Villains in these stories tend to be organized groups, often semi-official organizations, often secret and/or foreign, and always more powerful than the heroes would voluntarily go after. They want to capture or kill the heroes because they know too much—or at least the heavies think they do.

You will need:

A means to capture or kill the heroes
A reason the heroes are the target of capture or death
A location or series of locations
Who/what is going to try to capture or kill the heroes

Other, more monstrous villains may simply want the hero’s special blood or brain or even just revenge. The authorities may be convinced the heroes themselves are a menace, whether through mistaken identity or misinformation from the villain, which may make the authorities a secondary villain.

While doing some monster hunting, you are mistaken for poachers by the sheriff’s men.
It’s a grand day at sea until foreign pirates target your little cog—you have no archers.
The ring you found in the bishop’s tomb is beautiful, but why are there such strange sounds in the night?
Your refusal to sell your enchanted axe may have something to do with the black-clad strangers who have been following you.

11. Escape Captivity or Disaster

The heroes need to try to escape a disaster or captivity. Location is highly important. The heroes will normally struggle primarily against the imprisonment or disaster, but there may be villains on the inside with the heroes as well as on the outside working against them. They may be selfish fellow survivors who complain, hoard resources, and try to leave others behind. But the villains could also be people on the outside who don’t care to ever see the heroes again and try to foil their efforts.

You will need:

A type of captivity or disaster to befall the heroes
A reason the heroes got captured or became part of the disaster
A location to escape from
Who/what is going to stand in the heroes’ way

While a disaster story generally begins with the characters going to a place where the disaster occurs and simply being present as the walls crumble or ship springs a leak, a captivity story begins with the entrapment of the heroes by heavies. Some players would rather their characters die than be taken captive, for some reason, so this may require drugging or enchanting the characters or confronting them with overwhelming force and authority.

You wake up the morning after the baron’s delightful ball chained up in the baron’s dungeon.
This decrepit manor house wasn’t built to withstand an onslaught of orcs, but help is on the way, if you can just hold out long enough.
It’s All-Souls Eve, but all soulless corpses seem to have risen out of the grave in this city and come to destroy the living.
It was a terrible storm at sea, but this little island will support you… for now.

Bonus: Complications

One way to spice up an adventure is by mixing two conflicts. These come in two principal forms. Since there are 11 types of adventures, you might roll 1d12 to pick one and, on a 12, add a complication by rolling again. The second type is real goal of a bait-and-switch or the other goal of the double-trouble.

Bait & Switch

The heroes start out trying to resolve one conflict only to find that things are not what they seem, and they must actually resolve a different conflict.

Your job escorting the king’s envoy on a vital diplomatic mission seemed easy enough until the envoy died. Perhaps his clothes fit the bard?
An important official has gone missing in the wilds of the Rouncial countryside. If you can find her (doppelganger), it shouldn’t be too difficult bringing her (it) back.
A foreign merchant (spy) will pay dearly to have his little daughter (target) back. You can snatch her from where she’s being held at the estate of Lord and Lady Humbleruck (her real parents).

Double Trouble

The heroes find that two fairly minor conflicts occur at the same time, and their obvious resolutions interfere with each other.

You manage to get into the evil sorcerer’s castle in the sky and get him in a corner, but his wife just raised the point that this castle only floats so long as he lives….
The river overflowed its banks in the night and is starting to flood the whole city. And you don’t have a boat. And you’re supposed to be guarding the duchess’ jewels. And you’ve just spotted a giant octopus.