Returning to something that's bubbled up to my consciousness a number of times in the past, I'm wondering what people would recommend in the area of adventure generators. Just today I was thinking that the ideal generator would be something that broke down narrative threads into their smallest elements of the five W's and one H (explanation if you don't know) and offered mechanics for relating them and spinning off. Crimson Cutlass had a pretty nice set of charts for this, but focused on a fairly specific type of adventure (patron-driven missions in early modern Europe). Not sure how easy it would be to generalize it for something more S&S/fantasy/D&D.

(This is a little different from what might be called lists of seeds or plots, which I think of as more completely structured adventure outlines. I don't know if Eureka's 501 Adventure Plots or Roleplaying Tips 100 Encounters & Plots are really like this, but it's the vibe i get from the title.)

And what do you know, today I stopped into a store and saw Matt Finch's Tome of Adventure Design which seems to match the spec pretty well. But I notice that the first two parts of the book are also available separately as the Design Deskbook Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Just volume 1 might suit me just fine since I'm not really interested in monster design. Anybody know what else is in the Tome that I'd be missing out on? (And is that publisher legit? EDIT: Looking some more at the website, I see that it's legit but not really functional.)

Then doing some more research I found discussion here about Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide from TSR. And finally I came across a reference to AEG's Ultimate Toolbox and Toolbox. Not sure if one supersedes the other.

I've never really understood the need for those random table adventure seed generators. I can understand ones that that help you come up with a city or location, but usually plots and such that PCs do are often their own idea. Unless your players want to play as someone else's flunkies.

And for dungeon design, I really like the old Central Casting: Dungeons.

I would use them more for generating "events" or "threads" that are going on within the "world in motion" (as people often call it here). Although yes, in many cases, the idea would be for NPCs to approach the PCs, or for the PCs to be implicated directly in the thread in some other way.

Anyway, I appreciate your opinion, but I'm looking for any feedback from people who do like these sorts of things and have reviewed one or the other among those that have been published.

There was a great swashbuckling adventure generator that I've used a few times. I mentioned in a blog post.

Thanks, I haven't seen that before. Funny, it seems that scenario generators are pretty common in that genre--if you include this example along with Crimson Cutlass and Backswords & Bucklers. (Possibly others that Black Vulmea has dug up.) I wonder if it's because swashbuckling has intrigue and plots (cape & dagger) as a major theme.

I've used Tome of Adventure Design for dungeon/site design, mostly layout and room dressing, and it's worked well for that, although I did have to spend longer than I would have liked on just figuring out the structure of the tables and how they related to each other before starting.

Haven't used the scenario/plot-related portions of the book, but they look like they'd be usable if you're interested in that sort of thing.

I am quite fond of random adventure generators, though lately I've been deliberately avoiding designing adventures as scenarios, and rather dragging my ass back to open-world sandbox design.

But they're great, oracular help when you're in a pinch, even if you already have a functional sandbox.

Quote from: The Butcher;869880I am quite fond of random adventure generators, though lately I've been deliberately avoiding designing adventures as scenarios, and rather dragging my ass back to open-world sandbox design.

But they're great, oracular help when you're in a pinch, even if you already have a fucntional sandbox.

One reason I like tables like that is they nudge you out of habits and patterns. It is the same reason why I like treasure tables. I am inclined toward certain types of treasure as a GM (I just find certain magic items fun while others I haven't really thought about as much). Using tables encourages me to put things in play I might otherwise ignore. Same with adventure design.

Quote from: The Butcher;869880I am quite fond of random adventure generators, though lately I've been deliberately avoiding designing adventures as scenarios, and rather dragging my ass back to open-world sandbox design.

But they're great, oracular help when you're in a pinch, even if you already have a fucntional sandbox.

The way I'm thinking of using them is at least partly as sandbox generators--producing NPCs, motivations, and conflicts. Or for example to flesh out random encounters--you meet a merchant on the road; what is he up to? You rescue a captive from a monster's lair--who were they and what were they doing when they were captured?

There are more general systems for this such as Mythic (the second book has more on generation of backstory and situation) and Levi Lornelson's Microcosm. But those aren't tailored to a particular genre and more freeform.

Quote from: Arminius;869785Thanks, I haven't seen that before. Funny, it seems that scenario generators are pretty common in that genre--if you include this example along with Crimson Cutlass and Backswords & Bucklers. (Possibly others that Black Vulmea has dug up.) I wonder if it's because swashbuckling has intrigue and plots (cape & dagger) as a major theme.

I think it fits well with the a genre where patrons or employers serve to generate a certain amount of the action. Traveler, which uses patrons, also has had a lot of  scenario generators. I've also seen a couple for spy mission games. A mission generator would also work well for playing a small recurring group of soldiers or a naval vessel in a bigger war setting. Something like the old TV shows like  Combat! and the Rat Patrol, shows like Band of Brothers, or the Horatio Hornblower and Aubrey/Maturin type novels.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;869890One reason I like tables like that is they nudge you out of habits and patterns.

Yes. Exactly. Tables can give me a surprise as the GM. And linking together the results of several random occurrences into a coherent theme, plot, or whatever is entertaining for me.

I think I have the patrons book for original Traveller, but I don't recall situations--are you referring to the Mongoose edition?

Quote from: Arminius;869920I think I have the patrons book for original Traveller, but I don't recall situations--are you referring to the Mongoose edition?

Not really. I meant the many collections of plot hooks and patron offers I've seen placed in 6x6 numbered lists for ease of die rolling. Not a generator in the same way that the swashbuckling engine is one though.

Is there a particular example which you could point to? Was this in some of the published books? Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society? Challenge?

Quote from: Arminius;869955Is there a particular example which you could point to? Was this in some of the published books? Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society? Challenge?

I'm pretty sure the Journal is one source. I walked downstairs and looked in The Traveller Book Vol. 1, published 1982 by Games Designer's Workshop which has examples of encounter tables on pages 100-101 for Patrons (two tables) and a rumors matrix (1 table) of those sorts. Those could, and presumably were, used for generating scenarios. I'm sure I've seen other examples, though I can't recall the sources and, no offense intended, but I am far too idle to search for them.

Quote from: Arminius;869742And what do you know, today I stopped into a store and saw Matt Finch's Tome of Adventure Design which seems to match the spec pretty well. But I notice that the first two parts of the book are also available separately as the Design Deskbook Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Just volume 1 might suit me just fine since I'm not really interested in monster design. Anybody know what else is in the Tome that I'd be missing out on? (And is that publisher legit?)

Then doing some more research I found discussion here about Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide from TSR. And finally I came across a reference to AEG's Ultimate Toolbox and Toolbox. Not sure if one supersedes the other.

Ultimate Toolbox is something like twice as large as Toolbox, and does indeed supercede it.

As far as adventure generation, what I like is something in between the 'plot seed table' and just at totally jumbled collection of names and people and things that you then have to put together.
Not that there's anything wrong with either of those, only that the former can be too rigid (and become potentially repetitive), and the latter takes almost as much time as just doing it all yourself.

To me the ideal sort of stuff is what you see in Yoon-Suin or Red Tide.