Creating Adventures

Brass Jester

Mongoose
Hello everyone, just gained the Conan RPG and its got me back to Swords and Sorcery RPG'ing in a big way. I've never tired of REH's stories and also did some wargaming in Hyboria way back based on the late Tony Bath's wargames stuff.

Now, what I'd like to share is my system for creating adventures. I've developed this and used it in various forms since 1977.
Basically, it works on a system of keywords rolled randomly, plugged into a matrix to suggest how they interact.

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The centre word is the key 'theme' to the plot. The top words are what caused this to come about. The bottom left word is the likely outcome and the bottom right word is the active element within the plot. However, all the word can interact with each other and even with themselves. Also this is usually what will occur if the PC's do not intervene.
Following is a list of keywords that I have set up for the Conan game. Obviously, you can change or expand these onto other tables as necessary, for example I have all the Eastern Kingdoms on another table to be rolled as necessary.

KEYWORDS
1. City
2. Jungle
3. Mountain
4. Creature
5. Raiders
6. Bandits
7. Picts
8. Hillmen
9. Merchant
10. Trade Goods
11. Betrayal
12. Treachery
13. Message
14. Mistake
15. River
16. Lake
17. Swamp
18. Ruined temple
19. Ruined city
20. Castle
21. Fortress
22. Village
23. Tomb
24. Cave
25. Hidden
26. Sorcerer
27. King
28. Noble
29. Scholar
30. Priest
31. Temple
32. Supernatural
33. Omen
34. Prophecy
35. Tower
36. Army
37. Battle
38. Skirmish
39. War
40. Attack
41. Defend
42. Camp
43. Desert
44. Oasis
45. Tree
46. Forest
47. Hills
48. Island
49. Ship
50. Reavers
51. Ocean
52. Underwater
53. Cavern
54. Sea monster
55. Undead
56. Zombies
57. Vampire
58. Kidnapping
59. Slaves
60. Slave market
61. Weapon
62. Armour
63. Thievery
64. Escape
65. Captured
66. Scroll
67. Book
68. Rare item
69. Quest
70. Horror
71. Insanity
72. Civil war
73. Hyborian kingdoms
74. The Eastern kingdoms
75. Player-characters
76. Non-player characters
77. Event
78. Monument
79. Major event
80. The Black Kingdoms
81. Stygia
82. Magic item
83. Pirate
84. Weather
85. The North
86. Romantic
87. Story twist
88. Unforseen
89. Ambush
90. Colour
91. Jewel
92. Treasure
93. Wealth
94. Power
95. Shrine
96. Statue
97. Reputation
98. Honour
99. Allegiance
00. Child

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I think an example might be in order:-

Ship Colour
Statue
Weather Thievery

Er.... right.(This was rolled as I typed this.)
OK, here goes:
A ship, with the PC's on board, runs into heavy weather. In the hold is a statue of unusual colour [Orichalcum, the fabled metal of lost Atlantis?] The weather is sourcerous in nature and a pirate ship attacks.

A ship, carrying a staue of red gold from the East, goes down in a storm. The merchant hires the PC's to recover the statue; a rival merchant has hired NPC's for the same job.

As you see, the format is versatile. It won't do the job for you; it's supposed to make you think.
Try it out, see what you think. If you do use it and like it, please mention me as the creator.
 
By Crom!
64 views and only one comment! come-on people, give me some feedback here. This system is expandable to the nth degree, but I would like some feedback so that I can work on it. I have a large volume of stuff that I would like to put out under OGL or Superlink but I need comments and opinions.
If you viewed it and decided that it wasn't for you, then why?
If you have used it, then what did you like? Did you like the format/idea; what needed expanding and how,
On the other hand, if you think that I'm wasting my time, then please tell me, and why you think so.
 
Looks pretty neat.
We're knee deep in an adventure at the moment, but after it breaks, I'll give this a try and see how it goes. At first glance it looks to be a great help.
Thanks!
 
I printed this thread yesterday and although I haven't tried it out I am very excited to do so and think this is a great idea. When used it combination with old dungeon/crypt maps or pre-made D&D adventures I can see saving alot of time. Add in NPC cards with stats and you could technically have a big o' adventure with minimal prep that wouldn't necessarily feel rushed. I know this may not be the reason you designed the list (to save prep) but in today’s busy world every good idea saves time/money. I also like your idea of adding the nations of Hyboria to the keyword list.

Thanks for the list! 8)
 
BJ, I printed off your chart and have been trying it out. Fabulous concept!! :p
So far I have the foundation for three "one-off" adventures and a mix of material that I'm developing into a full scale campaign.

Keep up the excellent work. :D
 
Brass Jester said:
By Crom!
64 views and only one comment! come-on people, give me some feedback here. This system is expandable to the nth degree, but I would like some feedback so that I can work on it. I have a large volume of stuff that I would like to put out under OGL or Superlink but I need comments and opinions.
If you viewed it and decided that it wasn't for you, then why?
If you have used it, then what did you like? Did you like the format/idea; what needed expanding and how,
On the other hand, if you think that I'm wasting my time, then please tell me, and why you think so.

Don't take it personally. :wink: Weekends are usually slower on the boards. Less people surfing at work. :twisted: Plus, like at my house, it's harder to type with three kids trying to help...

Anyway, I do think it's a good system. I've already started to work one out for my Star Wars campaign. If/when I get to run Conan, I'll certainly use yours.
 
My apologies to all, perhaps I jumped the gun slightly. Still, glad to know that people like it. I have a slightly more developed system for what goes on 'in-between' games; this is a dice- driven flowchart that presents you with a situation and then allows you to make choices to what action to take . It is not, however, a paragraph game. I'll post it up, but it is quite long.
 
I noticed you used a variety of keywords in your list. Nouns, verbs, races, locations, actions, professions, etc. Did you use any particular formula? Like, 10 races 10 locations, etc.

Also, did you place them according to average number ranges? I forget what the averages are, but I think the middle ranges, like 30's - 70's occur more often than the high/low extremes, IIRC.

I definitely like the idea. It gives you just enough inspiration to get you going, without relying on random dice to set up the story.
 
Darth
I didn't use any particular system, other that word association perhaps. I had a table of 100 slots and filled in slots at a whim, not in any particular order. By word association I mean, my thoughts went along the line of 'mountain, forest, lake, hill, river, desert', 'Tomb, crypt, shrine'. As I said, I've got some sub-tables with the Eastern Kingdoms, the Black Kingdoms etc. on.

Damiller
I'll post it on a new thread. Like this thread, it won't do the job for you, it's designed to make you think
 
Darth Mikey said:
IAlso, did you place them according to average number ranges? I forget what the averages are, but I think the middle ranges, like 30's - 70's occur more often than the high/low extremes, IIRC.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is that? This is a straight percentile roll, right? So everything has an equal chance of being rolled?
 
slaughterj said:
Darth Mikey said:
IAlso, did you place them according to average number ranges? I forget what the averages are, but I think the middle ranges, like 30's - 70's occur more often than the high/low extremes, IIRC.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is that? This is a straight percentile roll, right? So everything has an equal chance of being rolled?

Nope, you are not missing anything.
 
In part I was thinking of the hordes of tables in the original AD&D DMG. However that doesn't apply to this table because the DMG used number ranges and not individual numbers.

I do think I remember hearing somewhere that in a set of say, 100 random numbers, certain numbers are more likely to occur than others.

But probably, I'm just mistaken.

In any event, I finished tweaking the Star Wars version of the table. The first test yielded an ugly scenario involving the Hutts, a Sith holocron, rewards, a weapon and MURDER...
 
I do think I remember hearing somewhere that in a set of say, 100 random numbers, certain numbers are more likely to occur than others.

They do, depending on how many/what type of dice you roll. If you have a straight up 1-100 number generator, you should be good.
 
What I'd suggest is to split them into categories of ten words each and then roll:

'A'
1. Bandits
2. Raiders
3. Picts
4. Hillmen
5. Thieves
6. Supernatural (roll on table 'S')
7. Monster(s) (roll on table 'M')
8. Soldiers
9. Natural disaster
10. roll on table 'B'

You d want to have at least a "someone/something" and then a "cause/motivation" like theft or murder or conquest or enslavement followed by a where (at least one, but sometimes two makes for a travelling adventure).

You get the idea though....
 
This table will save me a lot of time trying to come up with adhoc adventure ideas for my players. Thanks.

I may have a couple of ideas to expand on it. I will let you know. :twisted:
 
The Mutant and Masterminds core rulebook had a brilliant kind of table for this.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the sample PDF that had the information so here it is, directly from the Errata:

Table 9-3: Random Events

d20 Roll
Event Type
1-4 Random crime
5-8 Organized crime
9-11 Terrorism
12-15 Disaster
16-18 Personal trouble
19-20 Crisis!

d20 Roll
Random Crime
1-2 Assassination
3-4 Murder
5-6 Kidnapping
7-8 Theft
9-10 Mugging or Robbery
11-12 Arson
13-14 Vandalism
15-16 Reckless endangerment
17-18 Car chase (involving police)
19-20 Shootout (involving police)

d20 Roll
Organized Crime
1-2 Mob hit or assassination
3-4 Protection racket
5-6 Kidnapping
7-8 Smuggling
9-10 Drug trafficking
11-12 Extortion
13-14 Political corruption
15-16 Hijacking
17-18 Arms dealing
19-20 Turf war between rival gangs

d20 Roll
Terrorism
1-6 Organized crime front (roll on Organized Crime table)
7-10 Bombing
11-14 Hostage situation
15-16 Political assassination
17-18 Political overthrow
19-20 Weapon of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, or biological)

d20 Roll
Disaster
1-2 Earthquake
3-4 Fire
5-6 Tornado
7-8 Hurricane
9-10 Tsunami/flood
11-12 Plague
13-14 Traffic or shipping accident
15-16 Building or bridge collapse
17-18 Chemical spill
19-20 Nuclear meltdown or accident

d20 Roll
Personal Trouble
1-3 Job or financial problems
4-6 Relationship or romantic problems
7-9 Hero's secret identity is threatened
10-12 Hero is vilified in the press
13-15 Villain strikes at a hero (directly or indirectly)
16-18 Hero is framed/set up/mistaken for a villain
19-20 Hero's powers mysterious fade, change, or go out of control

d20 Roll
Crisis!
1-3 Supervillain attempts to conquer the world
4-6 Invasion! (from space, the inner earth, another dimension, etc.)
7-8 Earth becomes a front in an alien or extradimensional war
9-11 Cosmic disaster (asteroid collision, solar flare, worldwide disaster, etc.)
12-14 Monster rampages through the city
15-16 Massive breakout or attack of supervillains
17-18 Item of cosmic power falls into the wrong hands
19-20 Threat to the space-time continuum

If we could structure this great adventure compendium like this, we'd have one mean machine.
 
This is really cool, it reminds me of the Adventure Generator that WOTC had for their Star Wars RPG when it first came out.
 
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