The point of an adventure should not merely be to loot a dungeon of its treasures or to find and kill the baroness’s would-be assassin but also to learn something about the world along the way.

Secrets are not only a good way to make adventures more interesting, but a good way to reward characters by making them privy to dark secrets about your campaign world, turning them into fonts of forbidden knowledge that make their players feel savvy and wise.

Categories

1. Why the bad guys are doing what they’re doing.
2. Where the monsters are coming from.
3. Who is supporting the bad guys and why.
4. Why something bad is happening.
5. Why some famous event in the past happened.
6. What happened to some famous hero.
7. What’s up with the gods.
8. What’s in the bowels of the earth.
9. What’s up with the monarch.

1. Why the Bad Guys are Doing What They’re Doing

1. They need a resource for a ritual.
2. They need to cover up a deed that would cause a revolt if made public.
3. Their power is waning, and they need to find a new source of power.
4. They’re gathering resources to raise an army to take over the realm.
5. They’re trying to get revenge for a betrayal.
6. They’re trying to raise their religion up to dominance.

2. Where the Monsters are Coming From

1. They’re coming across the border with the neighboring realm, driven out by mercenaries.
2. They’re coming out of the mountains, driven by giants preparing an invasion.
3. They’re coming up from the deep caverns, driven by unknown horrors.
4. They’re being spawned by some evil project of wizards, witches, or cultists.
5. They’re coming from a fortress they’ve managed to keep hidden.
6. They had a rich year with little internal warfare, so their population is booming.

3. Who is Supporting the Bad Guys & Why

1. Wizards are behind the evil faction, using them to gather arcane components.
2. An evil cult is supporting raids to wreck trade to foment rebellion against the nobility.
3. Fiends are goading monsters into harassing humans to get humans to bow to their will.
4. Evil nobles are using mysterious mercenaries to foment rebellion against the king.
5. Foreigners are trying to get a grip on trade.
6. A cunning monster is making its presence and power known.

4. Why Something Bad is Happening

1. The weather is bad, because an evil cult is wrecking it to gain power amid unrest.
2. Sea monsters are wrecking ships, because the sea god is angry about a failed sacrifice.
3. Bandits and pirates are harassing trade, because the harvest was bad and food is scarce.
4. A drought has struck because a magic item has cursed the land.
5. Foreigners are flooding in, because a tyrant has taken over the neighboring realm.
6. Ancient ur trees dominate the land with towering trunks and vast canopies. Cherished by fae folk and druids, they are connected to each other by their roots. But now a blight has contaminated them, propagated by a cabal of clerics opposed to druids and fae folk.

5. Why Some Famous Event in the Past Happened

1. A natural disaster caused problems that resulted in the event.
2. Nobles or merchants conspired to cause it for selfish reasons.
3. A cabal of sorcerers or priests brought it about by magic.
4. The gods intervened to cause it for their own reasons.
5. An evil overlord engineered it to try to take power.
6. Foolish wizards caused it with their bizarre experiments.

6. What Happened to Some Famous Hero

1. Betrayed by false friends and murdered.
2. Killed in a dungeon, and companions were forced to leave the body.
3. Enchanted (charmed, paralyzed, petrified) by a sorcerer or monster.
4. Learned shocking secrets and became a hermit.
5. Got lost in a wilderness and perished.
6. Become a carousing wastrel.

7. What Remains Unknown About Humanoids

1. Halflings came first among humanoids. Elves and others came later. Humans were created by corrupting them and exaggerating the worst traits of halflings. Elves and dwarves aren’t much better. Monstrous humanoids are further corruptions of those.
2. Dwarves built the ancient stone monuments, standing stones, and such that human druids cherish and imagine are human accomplishments. They retreated underground when humans rose to power thru civilization.
3. Elves and orcs are the same creature, divided into good and evil by an ancient sorcerer.
4. Goblins came first among humanoids. Elves, dwarves, humans, and halflings were created out of them by perfecting different aspects of their being.
5. Up to two thousand years ago, humans were classed among the monstrous humanoids, as they were uncivilized and ate halflings and elves. Due to their short lifespans, humans have forgotten this, and others avoid mentioning it but secretly fear humans degenerating into monsters again.
6. Up to two thousand years ago, dwarves were grouped among the monstrous humanoids, as they were uncivilized and ate humans and elves. Dwarves suppressed and forgot this, but the elves remember.

8. What’s up With the Gods

1. Evil gods give power to their followers but little protection. Good gods give protection but little power. Neutral gods give little of both.
2. A soul can be retrieved from the Underworld by physically journeying there in the deepest caverns, but a fresh body must be available to accept it….
3. The gods get pleasure from their followers bickering and fighting and make many agreements not to promote strife, which they inevitably break.
4. The primary god of the realm, Naril, is dead, killed by the evil god Guzos. Evil priests of Guzos continue to support followers of Naril, because when those followers die, their souls become slaves of Guzos on his dark plane.
5. The gods are not eternal beings but die and are replaced by others who take their name, often wizards who gain long life thru sorcery or liches, who achieve lengthy undeath.
6. The gods are not what people imagine but especially powerful amorphous spirits that randomly cross over to the material plane.

9. What’s in the Bowels of the Earth

1. Eldritch horrors from the dawn of time.
2. The Underworld, where spirits of the dead lie sleeping.
3. A city of dark dwarves.
4. Another world in the hollow earth, lit by a perpetual sun of molten iron.
5. A lost subterranean city.
6. A vast complex of caverns.

10. What’s up with the Monarch

1. Dying.
2. Mad.
3. Plotting against scheming nobles.
4. Weak and dissolute.
5. Kept busy with hobbies by servants so nobles can act independently.
6. Vigorous but distracted by war against neighboring realms.