At its heart, fantasy adventure is about exploration and discovery of secrets. The heroes should be looking not just for treasure and glory but for answers. It’s okay if some adventures are straightforward action: help fight off raiders, go slay that troll. Others can be full-on mysteries: who killed the heir of Willowford Manor? But most can be in between: explore the old ruins and figure out what’s up.

Figure out What’s Going on

The first question in most adventures is what exactly the situation is. Was there a monster attack? A mysterious fire? Murder? Theft? Strange writing in the sky? There may be a simple answer at first that later becomes more complicated. Why is this happening? Was the monster awakened? Summoned? Is the cult planning something? Working with someone else?

Determine the Culprit

Whether it’s a murder mystery or a monster attack, a central question in the adventure might be just to figure out who the villains are. If it’s a monster attack, that might be the first answer they get. If it’s a murder mystery, that’s probably the final answer.

Find the Lair

Even if bad guys are known, it’s probably necessary to find them in order to avenge their victims. This may involve treating the scene of a monster attack like a crime scene and looking for clues about who the bad guys are and where they went. Or it may require a general search of the area (a hex crawl) to find a hideout, camp, or cave lair. Tracks or clues might even lead the heroes back to town, where the bad guys are hiding amongst their potential next victims.

Discover a Weakness

If the villains and their location are known, it may be necessary to figure out a good way to fight them. Perhaps the heroes consult a sage. Will it require fire, silver weapons, or magic? Will a frontal assault work, or will it need to be a stealth mission? Or could it even require some sort of legal action to declare the villain an outlaw first, because it’s an NPC with status?

Figure out What Happened

A big part of any exploration adventure will likely be to figure out what the location was, what it is now, and what happened in between. Do treasures or traps remain from the original inhabitants? Are there new treasures or traps? Are outsiders involved, such as ringleaders directing the villains?

Are there other, larger ramifications? If a cult is trying to summon a demon, what was their purpose? And are there other cells doing the same? If the location is a ruins, what caused its downfall? And what remains of its old inhabitants?

Figure out What Something Does

Perhaps the heroes stumble on a magical or mechanical device. What does it do? And how does it work? Again, they might need to consult a sage. It could be a portal to a far off location or an astrological predictor of the coming of the Dark One. Maybe it’s just a puzzle or predicament that stands in the way of getting the treasure… or escaping the dungeon. Maybe it’s a means the villains used to contact their master elsewhere.

There can be several small mysteries like this in any adventure: traps, secret doors, shortcuts, and so on.