In the Advanced Fantasy Referee’s Tome by Old-School Essentials, it lists 10 adventure categories. These are meant to inspire the dungeon master as they come up with adventure ideas.
In this article, I go through those 10 categories and present three adventure ideas for each that you can use as inspiration for your D&D table. That’s 30 adventure ideas for the price of a few minutes of your time.
Feel free to use these adventure ideas as inspiration in your campaign.
1: Banshing an Ancient Evil
The first category is banishing an ancient evil. This can take many forms and is very versatile. Here are three adventure ideas that use this category as inspiration.
The first is simple: kill a lich or vampire or some other powerful being that sows death and destruction. The common thread is it’s ancient. Just being a dragon isn’t enough. The story needs to tie into the ancient past in some way.
Second, prevent the cult of a banished god from completing their efforts to summon that god back into the realm of the living.
Third, and this one’s tied somewhat to the second idea, is the party seeks to destroy an altar to an ancient god. This could be a subset of the second idea.
2: Clearing Ruins
The second category is clearing ruins.
This category doesn’t necessarily have to be about ruins, but it can be about getting rid of unwanted guests in a building or even from a geographical region.
To start, there is a long-abandoned keep, castle, town or temple that must have its current yet uninvited inhabitants evicted. Easy.
Next, we have a haunted mansion. The haunting may be recent or long-established, but either way, the mansion must have its ghosts exorcised.
When I wrote that, the image of a half-orc barbarian in leg-warmers popped into my head. That’s not an image that’s easy to get rid of. My apologies.
The third idea is an abandoned keep has been reclaimed but the surrounding area must be cleared of monsters out to a particular radius before settlers can move back in.
3: Contacting a Lost Civilization
Our third category is contacting a lost civilization.
This category can imply that something lost or ancient is well known, but it’s location wasn’t found until recently. A variation is the party can happen upon the location by accident.
The first adventure idea involves the party finding a cult-like group that got sealed inside a dungeon generations ago. There is likely some change to that group due to their isolation, or the reason for them being locked away in the first place is revealed — likely a dangerous or perhaps even contagious curse.
Second, we are above-ground. A village isolated from society has been discovered in a remote wilderness. This wilderness can be a dense and vast forest, the open steppes, the barren tundra of the far north, or may be in the middle of the desert. The twist is that everyone in the village has become a lycanthrope of an unusual type. Think dangerous rabbits (werehares).
Finally, we go waterborne. A ship long thought sunk has drifted into shallow water just off shore, but the crew has somehow changed. Beware the albatross!
4: Escaping from Captivity
We’re moving onto the fourth category, escaping from captivity.
This can be one of the more intense categories, and is often best reserved for players who are a bit more experienced with the game, but their characters can be practically any level since these adventures rely more on player skill than stats or gear.
The first idea is obvious but harder than it sounds. The entire party has been captured by monsters or an evil NPC and must escape. This often entails getting out of their initial predicament, then finding their gear, then effecting their final escape.
Escaping from captivity can be used quite effectively for a spur-of-the-moment one-shot adventure.
Second, one or more members of the party, but not all, are held captive. The others must infiltrate the prison, either as guards or as other prisoners or through some other means, and then effect the rescue of their comrades.
I used this adventure idea in a campaign a while back and made a video about how it was received. Suffice to say, it was an intense experience.
Video: “It was awesome! Don’t ever do it again.”
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H9RwP3xChI]
Finally, the party are captured but the twist is they must cooperate with an unlikely ally in order to escape, then deal with that ally turning into an enemy at the worst possible moment.
5: Exploring Unknown Territory
Our fifth category, exploring unknown territory, is a classic adventure trope for a reason. It taps directly into one of the three pillars of role-playing games, exploration. But, you can add some twists to it to make it exciting instead of boring.
The first idea is the entrance to a previously unknown dungeon has been found, either by the party, through rumors traded at the tavern, or even by officials in court and the party is hired to explore it.
Next, a castle or temple or some other structure appears overnight where previously none existed. You can tie this into category 3, contacting a lost civilization, or category 1, banishing an ancient evil.
Finally, a portal opens up and what’s on the other side must be explored.
6: Performing a Quest
For the sixth category, we’re talking about what is undoubtedly the most classic adventure type of them all, performing a quest. It arguably can provide the motivation behind every other adventure idea in this video.
We start with the party getting hired to find a valuable item, material, artifact, what have you. It’s easy to create an adventure of this type, and it’s always fun to play.
Next, a lost item must be located and retrieved. This is much the same as the first idea I just described, but it carries with it the added detail that the item was once in possession but is now gone. The reason for that transition is up to you and gives you the option to add variety and context within your existing campaign.
Finally, the party must safely transport a person or object of value.
7: Rescuing Captives
Harking back to category four, escaping from captivity, a variation is rescuing captives. This differs in that the party is intact and attempting to effect the rescue of others.
To start, we have a powerful NPC who hires the party to rescue someone from another powerful NPC or monster.
Next, putting a 180-degree spin on the rescue concept, the party must kidnap someone important.
Finally, the party are hired as bodyguards during a hostage negotiation between two much more powerful NPCs. Things go sour. You know the drill.
8: Scouting an Enemy Outpost
The premise behind the 8th category, scouting an enemy outpost, is that it’s the party against a much larger and more dangerous force. Direct conflict would undoubtely result in a swift TPK (total party kill). The player characters must do something that either gathers information, or provide guerilla-like disruption without being discovered, captured, or killed in the process. Stealth and reconnasaince are the name of the game in this category.
The first adventure idea involves the party sneaking around to infiltrate an enemy force and learning their plans. This can involve retrieving a battle plan or map, or maybe even capturing someone in the know, secreting them away, and then interrogating them.
Next, the party runs across an enemy force that is on the move, and the party must discover their plans and report back to authorities. Maybe they sabotage the enemy before the horde reaches their destination or begins their attack.
Finally, an enemy force is believed to be encamped or marching through some broad area. The party must scout around and locate the enemy, and, if possible, learn their numbers and intent before reporting back.
9: Seeking a Magical Doorway
This category of seeking a magical doorway is a good trope when the campaign needs more mystery and problem-solving than outright combat.
To start, the party must find the location of a rumored portal based on clues they’ve discovered on their own, or by a quest given by a powerful NPC. This adventure can include lots of clue-finding, perhaps contacting powers that have rare information, and so forth.
Next, your adventure might include a portal that has already been found, but the party must figure out how to operate it. (Think about Frodo’s question to Gandalf, “What’s the elvish word for ‘friend’?”) Two more variations include the party figuring out how to disable or destroy it, or simply entering the portal and figuring out where it goes.
Finally, the third adventure idea begins with a one-way portal being found that leads to a distant world, but the return portal must be located.
10: Visiting a Sacred Site
In our final category, visiting a sacred site, the party must travel somewhere exotic and locate some place or person of high value, usually to acquire information or a valuable object.
The classic variation of this is the party must locate and visit a strange or troublesome oracle to obtain valuable information. Hags are great for this because they are very long-lived and know a ton of information, but they always have a price and that price is never pretty or easy (or obvious).
Second, a party member has been cursed and only a particular shrine or holy person can lift it.
Curses make great motivators.
And our thirtieth adventure idea is … a sacred site must be found and some action completed before a deadline expires. The deadline is the key, and you can use real time for this purpose to add tension. The consequence of failing to meet the deadline can mean a party member dies, something valuable self-destructs, or even an entire region suffers something really, really bad. We’re talking plague of frogs kind of $h!t.
Deadlines can also be great motivators.
Mix-and-Match Your Adventure Designs
One of my mantras is that it’s easier to edit than to create, so start with the seed of an idea like the ten adventure categories in Old-School Essentials or several other dungeon master guides through the years, and use that as the foundation of your idea.
Tweak as you go, refine to suit your players and your campaign, and mix it up. When one adventure type is getting stale, switch to something different.
You can also use one category to be the motivation behind another. Going on a quest or a rescue operation is fertile ground for practically every other adventure idea in this video.
