Give me one-line adventure ideas. Here. Right now.
Any game. Any genre. Whatever.
Make the creative juices flow.
Any fantasy game: If you want to be accepted as leaders of the Thieves Guild, you need to rob the Temple of the Faceless God, guarded by some unspeakable horror.
Where did the halfling hide the idol of the winged Goddess?
PC aboard ship finds crate containing dangerous monster in stasis, with all indication that the stasis will end and the monster will escape before ETA at a safe port.
Local potentate declares delving of famous (and lucrative) dungeon illegal and moves in troops to guard the site.
1) An immortal Rahu-Man seeking the lost Rahu-Women
2) Sleeper TIE-Defender Clone Pilots and staches of TIE-Defenders hidden on a remote agricultural planet.
3) The NGR retakes Berlin from the Brodkil.
4) The TL-Niners try to steal the Cziltang-Brone back from the PCs.
5) The Hydra ate the Champion of Aaqua returning from Pesh, and now sits upon his intelligent Chaos-Dragon-Bane Sword of Order
A huge, menacing giant abruptly dies, his corpse landing in such a way that it dams an important waterway.
Go forth and save the heathens. Build a church on the ancient grounds of their worship...I will send some Papal men@arms for protection...God be with you my son.
In a stone age setting the one with the iron knife rules,"long has the shaman of our village passed his blade down to his disciple...and I just traded some furs for another one..."
Nobody else remembers the block-long bat-winged monster you saw gliding eastwards over town last night.
Third-stringer supervillain takes advantage of a dangerous supervillain's attempt to reform to divert suspicion from his own crimes onto the bigshot.
For some reason, all the clerics have lost their ability to cast spells. What happened?
Upon return from deep..."Hey Doc.,whatcha' make of this strange nodule growing out of my..."
Your sister ran off with the guildmaster's ne'er-do-well nephew, and your mother wants you to get them back before the whole family suffers the sting of shameful notoriety.
After slaying an Undead creature, 'haunted' treasure once belonging to it disappears, leaving the PCs in hot water if they used some of it to pay a wizard/thieves' guild/noble.
The six-fingered man who killed your father is in town, employed by the lord.
Following a strange, partially inaccurate map creates complications when the PCs return from their journey to find themselves travelling through the "inaccuracies."
at last,THE STARS ARE RIGHT...muahahaha...
After buying the baldness cure from the albino, a horn is growing from your forehead.
- Gang hires you as muscle in attempt to steal item from rival gang. You're not told you'll be the suicidal distraction. You're not told the item is a nuke (or sci-fi equivalent).
- No one's willing to sail because of ghost ship haunting the waters. Only a mysterious stranger is willing to hire out his ship.
Last weekend, you died, but other than your corpse being in the tub, absolutely nothing has changed about your daily existence... yet.
PC or PCs start receiving cryptic "instructions" via songs, signs, conversations, etc. that no one else notices.
A powerful band of magicians and their retainers aim to slay an extra-dimensional being, and divide it's power among themselves - want in?
In the course of an unrelated adventure, the PCs accidentally release a powerful but seemingly benign supernatural being.
The PCs wake up in their enemies bodies (after going through a doorway, touching an artifact, sleeping, w/e). What are they going to do? Try to play along to discover as much as they can, and/or try to find a way to get back to their bodies, and/or join in on the Evil™ fun?
Lost contact with Terraforming Operation #324234-2343-B2. All trans-space communications blacked out. Need a recon team to make it there, with possibility for extraction.
Duplicates of the PC party appear in a far-flung location; The players can control these duplicates, too!
Seemingly innocuous NPC employee of the party is revealed to be not quite human at all when he is accidentally killed.
The list of magical ingredients you need to gather includes a "virgin's sigh." What is that and how does one collect it?
Your adventuring party responds to a "help wanted" ad at a local inn, but are turned away after their prospective employer casts Know Alignment.
Quote from: winkingbishop;414960The list of magical ingredients you need to gather includes a "virgin's sigh." What is that and how does one collect it?
(I'm sure there are many who would be interested in testing various theories about that.)
...
On the eve of an important political marriage, a unicorn seems none too fond of the duke's daughter.
A gaunt, faceless killer brings madness to a city and locks it in perpetual midnight - who can stop him?
The beautiful, beloved young queen suddenly attains godlike power and begins to show signs of madness; the party must save her and the world from herself without slaying her.
Quote from: thedungeondelver;414971A gaunt, faceless killer brings madness to a city and locks it in perpetual midnight - who can stop him?
IT WAS ME.
I mean...
Every cat has vanished from the city. What was at first a mere oddity has grown into a swelling rat problem and growing plague threat.
2295 AD - the first manned probe to Gliese 581 finds not the tidally locked marginally habitable world that was expected, but the entire solar system, reformed into a Ringworld - which is now abandoned.
The metahuman cloning reactor in North Korea goes online in 72 hours.
You and the 11 other supervillains must stop it!
All survivors will receive a presidential pardon...
A wealthy collector will pay a handsome sum for a personal item or even just a piece of random trash that's owned by a "celebrity" villain.
Quote from: Cole;414984A wealthy collector will pay a handsome sum for a personal item or even just a piece of random trash that's owned by a "celebrity" villain.
And his name is "The Foxbat"
(Bit of a Hero System/Champions in-joke there)
Awesome stuff, guys.
The World's Greatest Wizard just died. Some say he was slain, others that he gave up on life. It turns out his brain, however, was stolen from his body! What happened? Where is his brain? Why was it stolen? The PCs must investigate (because they knew the wizard, or some relative tries to find people to find out, or there is a reward for the recovery of the brain, etc).
Seven years after the zombie plague, you find an open, unfortified, large city with all the comforts of the pre-apocalypse time up and running!
In the ruins of Post-WWIII America, you find a half-mad scientist with a working laptop computer which he says is capable of launching an ICBM which he can fit with a special device to undo the damage to the ecosphere; the only problem is that the last unfired missiles are 2000 miles away in Montana!
Quote from: thedungeondelver;414985And his name is "The Foxbat"
(Bit of a Hero System/Champions in-joke there)
Haha! I had forgotten Foxbat! I was thinking of this as "the party must steal Saruman's socks" but it's probably a better fit for supers.
Some villagers go to fish, and as they near the beach, they see viking ships approaching.
Quote from: danbuter;415013Some villagers go to fish, and as they near the beach, they see viking ships approaching.
That's a simple adventure "I fill my pants and run!". :p
Quote from: EBM;415111That's a simple adventure "I fill my pants and run!". :p
"I take two levels of monk and run."
The party seeks Wizard X. In the tower is a hulking monstrosity claiming to be X's bound demon. It says X has gone to his library decades ago but hasn't returned, and he's not allowed to go upstairs to investigate. X is nowhere to be found upstairs.
You all gather to attend the reading of the last will of a rich ancestor, who wil give you all his riches if you recover some artifacts he lost some time ago, and are now in dangerous places. When you bring back the artifacts an put them on his grave according to his will, he rises back from the grave as a lich.
The PCs are wrenched from their daily lives to find themselves in a bizarre and magical world, victims of a Summon Heroes spell; they arrive just in time to see the wizard who summoned them eaten by a Beast from Beyond Beyond.
You should take a vote on which looks the best and get someone to write it in the system of their choice!
Jimmy Savile is on the loose again
Teens just entering their growth spurts are being found dead with a specific section of their brains surgically removed.
When one of a group of priests of a very popular cult falls ill, an initiate claims to just now be able to break free from mind control.
A train with several tanker cars of CO2 being shipped for sequestering explodes, in the small valley where priceless artifacts are temporarily on exhibit.
=
An evil wizard/supervillain claims to have developed the cure for a devasting plague, but demands amnesty for his crimes if he is to share it.
In a village far from town, all of the children under age 6 (newborns included) have vanished one night. What has happened and how do the distraught villagers get their children back?
Quote from: jeff37923;415217In a village far from town, all of the children under age 6 (newborns included) have vanished one night. What has happened and how do the distraught villagers get their children back?
The mysterious musician in the funny clothes you hired to get the children back turned out to be the kidnapper and an extra-dimensional horror. Now what?
Quote from: winkingbishop;415220The mysterious musician in the funny clothes you hired to get the children back turned out to be the kidnapper and an extra-dimensional horror. Now what?
While pondering the next step, the PCs are followed and annoyed by a lone housecat - who speaks common once the PCs are away from the villagers and offers a solution (for a price...).
The king has just died, and his heirs are marching through the streets of the capital with their private armies.
A shoddy character is arrested by the town's guards while having a mug at the local inn. Just before the guards get him, he gives the PCs a box made of unknown metal, engraved with strange runes, and asks them to keep it for him, with the strict instruction to not, ever, open the box. What is in the box? Who wants the box? What happens if you open it?
The domed city develops a fatal crack, allowing in the corrosive atmosphere of Ebulas V, while the PCs tramp starfreighter sits on the tarmac of the doomed city's spaceport. The number of refugees clamoring to board -and their desperation- increase by the second.
Your citadel, nestled within a vast coastal redwood forest, is the last refuge for elven kind on this continent. It has taken centuries, but the barbarians have destroyed everything that was magical or beautiful in this realm, and now the smoke of pillage and destruction is a dark smudge across the southern skies of your homeland. Most of your people already turn their weary heads to the last ship waiting at the citadel docks. You and yours, though? Your hearts cry for vengeance. The forest will be watered with the blood of men.
(that was way too many sentences)
Quote from: Tim;415283Your citadel, nestled within a vast coastal redwood forest, is the last refuge for elven kind on this continent. It has taken centuries, but the barbarians have destroyed everything that was magical or beautiful in this realm, and now the smoke of pillage and destruction is a dark smudge across the southern skies of your homeland. Most of your people already turn their weary heads to the last ship waiting at the citadel docks. You and yours, though? Your hearts cry for vengeance. The forest will be watered with the blood of men.
(that was way too many sentences)
"As the last ships leave for the Western Isles, will you remain to defend the last elf citadel from the barbarian hordes?" :)
Quote from: Cole;415294"As the last ships leave for the Western Isles, will you remain to defend the last elf citadel from the barbarian hordes?" :)
Hahah. Perfect.
It's the classic Romeo and Juliet scenario twisted to your setting
(eg. Bloodsucker falls in love with a Chav.)
You're on a cruise when Somalian Pirates take your boat
You find your mentor is in fact a mercenary assasin living under a false ID
(Hey it worked in Spooks. Sort of)
You have to explain to a boatload of screaming Twihards that there is no West Coast of Brazil.
A magician's familiar hires you to avenge the death of his master before the magic that keeps him alive fades away.
After following up on a series of seemingly unrelated crimes, the only common link is that the perpetrators were all recent transplant patients under the care of Doctor Crowe.
Quote from: Levi Kornelsen;414902Nobody else remembers the block-long bat-winged monster you saw gliding eastwards over town last night.
...that was heading towards the Johnson Ranch.
Good thing you're the Town Sherriff and you got Three loyal Deputies and a lazy brother that owes you his life.
- Ed C.
After the polymorphed "frog prince" can't find a candidate to break the spell, he ditches town, amasses a bullywug army and seeks revenge on his ungrateful domain.
-Your (wagon/car/hovercar) has broken down while taking a back roads short cut, now all you have is a lonely lantern by which to guide you by on this starless night.
-A crate/box/package shows up on your doorstep, addressed to the current resident, with a ruined return address, the strange items inside are nothing compared to the accompanying book who's odd scrawlings make no sense.
-Every where you go, work, home, the movies ect; you seem to be followed by a man in a yellow suit. He's never close enough for you to make his features out but his odd style of dress makes him stand out.
Everyone assures you that your home city/country/world is in fact the underworld for deceased souls. Strange, doesn't feel or look like it.
Gravity takes a hike and one of the horizontal cardinal directions is the new Down.
You're at some resort that's winding down for the season when some disaster strikes (avalanch at a ski resort, hurricane/typhoon at a beach/island, flash floods that wipe out roads for other places), bad enough but now people are starting to go missing....
The town's granary burns down, and everyone's gonna starve unless you make some quick cash to buy seedcorn.
Transdimensional Mongrel Mutants' Dinosaur Adventure!!
Quote from: winkingbishop;415339After the polymorphed "frog prince" can't find a candidate to break the spell, he ditches town, amasses a bullywug army and seeks revenge on his ungrateful domain.
Best Bullywug idea, ever. I could see a mini-campaign based around this with a dark fairy-tale sort of vibe. It could be fun to play villagers - or the polymorphed prince's retinue and friends.
You overhear the village idiot trading a cow for some magic beans - but aren't those magic beans awfully tempting to an enterprising bunch like you?
Taking a note from Lonesome Dove, the characters must return their departed friends body to his far away exotic homeland for burial.
Quote from: Tim;415505Taking a note from Lonesome Dove, the characters must return their departed friends body to his far away exotic homeland for burial.
I once played in a campaign where each PC had an oath the others had sworn to uphold - the party cleric/barbarian's was that if he were to die, we had to return his skull to his village shrine.
Quote from: Cole;415509I once played in a campaign where each PC had an oath the others had sworn to uphold - the party cleric/barbarian's was that if he were to die, we had to return his skull to his village shrine.
Awesome. That oath idea sounds like a pretty cool way to set up party cohesion. Was it?
One of the PCs has been infested by parasitic monster eggs - a wizard/scientist assured you the hatching process is not fatal and the monster larvae would be quite valuable.
Quote from: Tim;415511Awesome. That oath idea sounds like a pretty cool way to set up party cohesion. Was it?
It seemed like it would be, but in practice we only played 5 or 6 times before the DM had to move for work reasons. The other oaths were a rescue, a ninja clan vengeance, and...I forget the last one. Might have been a "clear my name." Thing.
The setup had been that we were originally all in prison, and the prison break was likely to get someone killed; the PCs (and a couple NPCs) had a reason to get out more important than survival.
Quote from: Cole;415512One of the PCs has been infested by parasitic monster eggs - a wizard/scientist assured you the hatching process is not fatal and the monster larvae would be quite valuable.
Not sure if its an 'adventure', or not, but that's one hell of a complication! Stolen :)
Quote from: Cole;415514It seemed like it would be, but in practice we only played 5 or 6 times before the DM had to move for work reasons. The other oaths were a rescue, a ninja clan vengeance, and...I forget the last one. Might have been a "clear my name." Thing.
Yeah, I'm betting it would be. I'm firmly of the belief that having those sort of organic -understandable- ties between characters can really make a campaign sing. Probably a topic for another thread, though.
Quote from: Tim;415517Probably a topic for another thread, though.
Feel free to start one!
Another adventure seed:
"The circus has just left town - with the duke's daughter. He might want her back, you'd imagine."
Quote from: winkingbishop;415337After following up on a series of seemingly unrelated crimes, the only common link is that the perpetrators were all recent transplant patients under the care of Doctor Crowe.
Does Doctor Crowe have a hand of glory?
You come home to find your wife shot, your own smoking gun lying 10 feet from her, and can hear sirens in the distance.
You return from abroad to find a doppelganger in your place. He's much better at being you than you ever were.
You're a minor senator. The king has died. A significant factions advocates you to replace him.
The world ended thirteen minutes ago.
Seanchai
You need to hunt a dinosaur in order to get enough met to make the World's Largest Sausage.
Research discovers a (preferably utterly unqualified) PC to be heir to the throne. Most of those in power would likely consider assassinating any such 'surprise heir,' just in case.
A couple just popped into my head:
You're escorting an elderly minor government official on a biological survey of uninteresting sections of the empire/galactic alliance/whatever when a massive anti-matter weapon is used in a terrorist attack against the rest of the government while it is in council and you must now escort the official to a safe haven.
You're playing hide-and-seek with your family and your spot is in the linen closet at the top of the stairs - the kids all shout with glee that they found someone, but it wasn't where you're hiding; their voices all come from down the hall - along with your own voice! The closet door won't open, and no-one outside the closet seems to hear you; when you look out the keyhole you watch your doppelganger descend the stairs, pausing to look over his shoulder directly at you with a maniacal grin on "his" face...
(Sorry, that last one was way too long but it's an idea I've had on my mind for a couple weeks now)
The characters discover that our mundane, workaday world is an aberrant "alternate future" that others are trying to "prevent" from continuing, which while creating a virtual paradise will sentence billions to non-existence.
In the aftermath of a great clash between the Forces of Night and the Forces of Good, a squad of orc soldiers pursues an elven princess and her personal guard. The elves bear an artifact of tremendous renown and power, and any orc who claims it would be instantly catapulted to a high place in the pecking order.
I actually ran this as a Burning Wheel one-shot for a local game day, and it was a blast. The key was in character creation and setting up differing levels of power..for instance, the squad leader was a totally bad-assed fighter that the rank and file goblins didn't have a chance against one-on-one. Other characters included a dire wolf desperate for its freedom and the cruel wolf-handler.
(Inspired by this.) (http://www.boer-goats-farmstay-bed-breakfast.com/goat-king.html)
The PCs must safely transport the Goat King to its annual festival. Complications include goatnapping by rival communities, Lovecraftian cultists who want it for a sacrifice, militant PETA members who want to save the goat from this "indignity", and a celebrity chef who thinks that the Goat King would make a tasty dish.
Terra-formers working on a (supposedly) newly discovered planet have just uncovered artifacts from ancient Greece.
Quote from: winkingbishop;415642Terra-formers working on a (supposedly) newly discovered planet have just uncovered artifacts from ancient Greece.
I commend you, sir.
Tiger-riding apes invade from the jungle. King Primate wields the Bone of Evolution.
After attending a funeral for a childhood friend, the players begin to see the dead friend all over town.
You receive a message or phonecall stating that you will die in seven days, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
"How to Serve Man" is not in fact a cookbook, and you have to repair earth-alien relations, quick, or else it will be!
Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;415496The town's granary burns down, and everyone's gonna starve unless you make some quick cash to buy seedcorn.
:hmm: hey,waitaminut...this sounds sooo familiar...:p
Quote from: Imperator;415562You need to hunt a dinosaur in order to get enough met to make the World's Largest Sausage.
BTW, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs has detailed rules for how much meat you can get off most dinosaurs.
***
A parallel timeline is crossing over with Earth's; you must cross over to the alternate world and destroy it before the two timelines intersect and both are destroyed.
Quote from: Imperator;415562You need to hunt a dinosaur in order to get enough met to make the World's Largest Sausage.
A rumor is making the rounds that the World's Largest Sausage does not contain 100% Grade A Dinosaur Meat and it's
your job to get to the bottom of it!
Quote from: Cole;415719A rumor is making the rounds that the World's Largest Sausage does not contain 100% Grade A Dinosaur Meat and it's your job to get to the bottom of it!
Pesky investigators are on the verge of discovering that the World's Largest Sausage - made by your company, ConGlomSausCo, - does not contain 100% Grade A Dinosaur Meat and it's
your job to stop them from getting to the bottom of it!
Quote from: thedungeondelver;415773Pesky investigators are on the verge of discovering that the World's Largest Sausage - made by your company, ConGlomSausCo, - does not contain 100% Grade A Dinosaur Meat and it's your job to stop them from getting to the bottom of it!
Some evil humans kidnapped your friend and turned him into a giant sausage. Get back the sausage and give it a proper burial.
Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;415791Some evil humans kidnapped your friend and turned him into a giant sausage. Get back the sausage and give it a proper burial.
*sigh*
Sometimes theRPGsite is such a sausage fest.
Bobby Patterson dared all of you to sneak into the old abandoned (house/morgue/factory/asylum) and return with proof of your deed and with Kelly Masterson standing right there you accepted....
Rush Week and you have to complete a scavenger hunt, you have most items on your list but you and your fellow pledges(along with a sister sorority) have to find a few... particular items....
Quote from: Cole;415792*sigh*
Sometimes theRPGsite is such a sausage fest.
Professor Sinister has laced the city's sausage-vending carts with mind control serum. It's lunch rush.
For one day only, the 11th Hour Circus is in town! At sundown, the undead ringmaster unmasks the real freak show.
A Wizard/Telepath uses his powers to switch minds with a party member in a desperate attempt to escape vengeance from beyond the grave.
We're in London during the blitz, and you have discovered evidence in your brother's room that he could be a Nazi agent.
Quote from: Imperator;416045We're in London during the blitz, and you have discovered evidence in your brother's room that he could be a Nazi agent.
...or a vampire cultist. Or both.
From all apparent signs, Larry had stepped off the earth into the unknown. He's been gone now for nearly four weeks. The letter from him yesterday was completely unexpected, then, to say the least.
(Okay, its more than one line but still...)
One line? Fuck that! I'll give you a one-WORD adventure idea: Potatoes.
RPGPundit
"Bitch actually had my money; now if I can just find his head we'll be even."
-or-
It wasn't the blood so much as the paperwork that really got Larry on edge.
Quote from: RPGPundit;416409One line? Fuck that! I'll give you a one-WORD adventure idea: Potatoes.
RPGPundit
Watch out, them potatoes got eyes.
Quote from: Cole;416442Watch out, them potatoes got eyes.
In the Kingdom of the Blind, only those with potatoes can see!
In a small, sub-sector sized cluster, separated from the Arm by an 8 to 12 parsec gulf crossed by only 4 trails, a small band of heroes defends Law & Order based in a fortress astride the only Jump-2 route, travelled heavily by Traders and Raiders.
(Classic Traveller, with ships limited to 5,000 tons)
The Zombies and Robots have teamed up against humanity. Time to save the world with big guns and senseless violence!
After the Awakening, there's so little food left; four delicious, delicious warm fleshed humans are trying to escape the city - you and your brethren must feast on their delicious brains!
Human missionaries in space! If the Garden of Eden was on Earth, did the aliens Fall, too? Did Jesus die for them as well?
"Dude, where's my car?" ;)
- The mysterious, shy, beautiful, Tinker Bell-like little fairy, suffering from memory loss, is revealed at a crucial moment to be the companion fairy of Jason Bourne - relative mental and martial skills included.
- In Dragonlance a groups of gnomes builds a Nautilus-like submarine called "Red November" to escape captivity, and use an artifact of surpassing power as power source for the steam engine - hunt from both sides ensues.
- A powerful God kills another God taking his powers and sending the now overpowerful belivers into an all-conquering crusade. The dead God returns, gets his powers back, and now the crusaders are stranded behind enemy lines without clerics.
Fleeing from the Cylonophile tyranny, the last klingon kosplayer, Koltar, leads rag tag fugitive trekkies on a lonely quest - a shining forum - known as "theRPGsite".
:p
Getting temporarily rid of Thoth, Anubis walks the earth alone, offering people to see how their soul would weight up against a feather if they were to die at the moment. He's trying to help mankind see the error of their ways and improve. Most everyone in the various mythologies want this to stop, each for their own reasons.
The spice must flow.
You and your compatriots, members of a secret sub-sect of Knights-Templar, travel the Mediterranean basin in search of the cursed 30 pieces of silver Judas accepted to betray Jesus. The coins bring their own particular brand of chaos, despair, and destruction wherever they go.
The setting was originally envisioned to be during the crusades, but could just as easily be modern. Inspired by Eco and Saberhagen's "Book of Swords."
Dust bowl, fleeing west, a family leaves all behind in the hope of a new life in California. All is not as it seems on the road....
"Why is it raining holy water?!"
The players stop at a Lake/River to rest and water their horses, while they are there the discover a most extraordinary sword in the lake bearing the mark of a legendary king, shortly thereafter a mounted patrol of forty or so horsemen arrive, the patrol wants to search the players.
Quote from: Nazgul;417924Dust bowl, fleeing west, a family leaves all behind in the hope of a new life in California. All is not as it seems on the road....
..especially when they accidentally take an off-ramp and the sky starts blinking strangely. Then they pull to the side and a very unusual-looking blue pickup truck shows up . In the cargo bed of the truck there are lots of rifles of a type the players have never seen before.
- ED C.