Oversee
The PCs are placed in charge of a large operation (a trading company, a feudal barony, the CIA) and must, despite lack of experience in such things, make it work and thrive.
Twist: The PCs must succeed without violence, or with special discretion.
Deadline
Somebody has tinkered with Things Man Ought Not, or opened a portal to the Mean People Dimension, cracked a wall at the state prison, or summoned an ancient Babylonian god into a penthouse. Before the PCs can even think of confronting the source of the trouble, they must deal with the waves of trouble already released by it: monsters, old foes out for vengeance, curious aliens who think cars/citizens/McDonald’s hamburgers resemble food, and so forth.A close cousin to this plot is the basic “somebody has traveled into the past and messed with our reality” story.
Twist: The PCs can’t simply take the released badness to the mat; they have to collect it and shove it back into the source before the adventure can really end.
Ruination
A town, castle, starship, outpost, or other civilized construct is lying in ruins. Very recently, it was just dandy. The PCs must enter the ruins, explore them, and find out what happened.
Twist: There is another group of PC-like characters “competing” on the same adventure, possibly with very different goals for the outcome.
Rescue
A person (church group, nation, galaxy) is in a hazardous situation they can’t survive without rescue. The PCs are on the job. In some scenarios, the hook is as simple as a distant yell or crackly distress signal.
Twist: The threat isn’t villain-oriented at all; it’s a natural disaster, nuclear meltdown, or disease outbreak.
Rescue
A person (church group, nation, galaxy) is in a hazardous situation they can’t survive without rescue. The PCs are on the job. In some scenarios, the hook is as simple as a distant yell or crackly distress signal.
Twist: The “victim” doesn’t realize that he needs rescuing; he thinks he’s doing something reasonable and/or safe.
Foxhunt
The PCs are on a hunting expedition, to capture or kill and elusive and prized creature. They must deal with its environment, its own ability to evade them, and possibly its ability to fight them.
Twist: The victims are really villains and the villains are really victims.
Mercenary
The PCs are treasure-hunters, who have caught wind of a treasure-laden ruin. They go to explore it, and must deal with its supernatural denizens to win the treasure and get out alive.
Twist: The treasure isn’t in a ruin, but in a wilderness or even hidden somewhere “civilized.”
Escort
The PCs have a valuable object or person, which needs to be taken to a safe place or to its rightful owner, etc. They must undertake a dangerous journey in which one or more factions (and chance and misfortune) try to deprive them of the thing in their care.
Twist: The PCs must protect the target without the target knowing about it.
Hazard
The PCs must travel through a hazardous area, and get through without being killed, robbed, humiliated, debased, diseased, or educated by whatever is there. The troubles they encounter are rarely personal in nature – the place itself is the “villain” of the adventure.
Twist: The PCs aren’t asked to solve the problem, just to render aid against a backdrop of larger trouble: get in a shipment of supplies, sneak out a patient that needs medical help, or so on.
Discovery
The PCs, while traveling or exploring, come across a hornet’s nest of bad guys, preparing for Big Badness. They must either find some way to get word to the good guys, or sneak in and disable the place themselves, or a combination of both.
Twist: The PCs must figure out how to use local resources in order to defend themselves or have a chance against the inhabitants.
Created by using : Tablesmith
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