Have a Plot? Need a Plot? Want a Hook?

[Legacy_TSMDude]

               Adventure and campain plots for DMs to use.

• An alchemist hires the party to recover a shipment of supplies that was hijacked enroute. If he doesn't get them back, he faces bankruptcy.
• Caught while stealing from a mage, the thief in the party is sent on a geas, to steal an artifact from a colleague as punishment.
• You are assigned to protect a person, but aren't to let them know you're protecting them. Defer to them in all things, but don't let them know you're deferring to them.
• An obscure sect of a dark church is seeking the eight necessary parts/items used in summoning a sleeping demon. It just so happens that one of the PCs inherited one of the items (it should be something innocuous like a simple pendant with inscriptions) from a dead relative.
• The party uncovers a plot to replace high-ranking officials with exact look alikes (shapechangers). Nice little conspiracy theory action. Which one of your trusted patrons is really an evil doppleganger? Who can you trust? Who will believe you? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone ISN'T out to get you.
• The party is hired by the local Mage Guild to find and capture (and/or kill) a renegade wizard who is breaking Guild laws (selling magic items to criminals, assassinating the previous Guild Master, attempting to assassinate the current Guild Master, etc.). Local law enforcement is not involved because the Guild likes to solve its problems internally.
• There's a battle going on between a good lich and one or more evil liches. The players have to protect a town that's caught in the crossfire. The lich need not even appear in the campaign; you could just have dark noxious clouds blotting out the sun, undead armies marching back and forth, dragons eating the livestock, and other bits of large-scale magical fallout. Or, if you want to bring the lich in personally, you could send the party on a quest to plead with the lich to stop the war, or to fight elsewhere.
• PCs get caught in a hole (old castle, cave?) with overwhelming numbers against them. They have some warning and a time period when they will be relieved, if they can hold on. Idea is that PCs improvise with what is around and hold out for siege. Turns the DMing on its head. They have a plan of defenses, not the DM, and DM leads his baddies against it. Players spring their surprises in traps etc. Must have a map agreement on what can be done in time available. Players tend to cheat outrageously, but great fun for all concerned, with a change of pace for both DM and players.
• Rancher / Farmer hires the party to catch or kill goblins who are stealing cattle -- then they are hired by the town sheriff to stamp out the goblins at their lair.
  
  Plot 10: Here's a bunch of REAL short descriptions of adventure ideas that work well in a city: Second-story jobs; picking a pocket and finding a map; searching the tunnels under the city for a tomb or catacombs; competing with the Thieves' Guild; smuggling arms into the city; spying on foreign officials; helping an orphan fight against cruel thugs; racing another party in a city wide search for a magical artifact; investigating a corrupt church; wooing a noble lady; searching for your weapons instructor, who has been abducted by a rival; trying to get apprenticed to a truly weird mage; etc.
• Invert the "bad-lich-turns-out-to-be-good" idea: A really sinister lich would probably love to have people convinced that he's just a kindly, helpful old gent. Suppose one such lich has been working hard on his image for a century or two ...he saves people from natural disasters (which he created himself), gives out magical gifts (which are cursed in some unobvious way), kisses babies, the whole shebang. The players come to suspect him of actually being evil ("Hey ...two centuries old? That's before Third Edition came out! He must be evil!") and have to stop him. But first, they have to convince the locals, who love the old guy, that they've been wrong about him all this time. ("Gandalf? The old coot with the fireworks? Evil? Get outta here.")
• Go to kill the evil lich, get captured and put at his/its mercy only to have it ask "Why are you bothering me?" Apparently it was/is a good wizard who got kind of absent-minded as he died and sort of drifted off into lich-dom without noticing. Since he's quite powerful, none of the various local monsters that he's geased into serving him have given him any trouble, nor have they pointed out the problem of his lichdom... Play the lich as an absent-minded old british gentleman, sort of surprised that anybody would want to kill him, and having considerable trouble grasping the idea that he's a lich. A few accidental pats on the back while the players are held by some sort of spell should be amusing. P.S. If you can't figure out how to set things up so a lich can capture and hold helpless a bunch of PCs, SHAME on you! Liches are something like 30th level Magic Users/Clerics, not to mention the hordes of followers, servants, summoned monsters, and demons, and elementals, and the like...
• A caravan is traveling through the desert. The party is hired to capture a man who is in the caravan, and it must be done quietly, so that nobody else knows. They are given the man's name, and the fact that he is a mage, but no other information about him. The catch is that the caravan consists of ten wagons, with at least thirty or forty guards.
• One of the PC's falls in love with a woman who happens to be a witch ...perhaps she is allied with a group working against the PCs?
• The PCs are sent with an ambassador to another country to protect him and do his bidding. There may be some espionage, rescuing, downright bullying, etc. Could make a nice medieval, special operations background.
• After a rash of thefts from wizards in the Guild, the PCs are hired to catch the perpetrators. They could be other mages, three dozen halfling thieves, demons, or even time travelers. PCs need to figure out who might get hit next, how to catch the criminals, who they are, etc.
• After a fight where all the PC's seemingly died or are captured, they wake up to the crack of a whip, as they have been sold into slavery onboard a galley. They have no equipment, they have to work to exhaustion, they get very little food, but if they play well, they might be able to escape.
• The Queen's beau (a very handsome knight-errant or something) is missing, and he was last seen in a tavern at the edge of town. The PC's are the people who were determined to have useful information, after a lengthy interview/screening by the Queen's Marshall-General, etc. They set out to find him, since it is thought he is in grave danger.
• The party wakes up around a table with wine goblets near at hand. They discover that they have forgotten everything they did over the past two weeks. Apparently, as they uncover clues, they were hired by someone to do a job, and when the job was finished the person invited them to dinner. Interesting events abound as the party attempts to piece together the events of the last fortnight...
• Bonecrusher (an Orc, now a Giant Orc Chieftain) has found the Gauntlet of Grummsh (an orcish Artifact), and is kicking some serious butt, raising an orc army and is about to invade the country to, er, root, pape, and lillage the area (he's powerful, but he's still an orc.) Of course, the destruction of this gauntlet is very important to the players. Bonecrusher could be considered the Guardian of the Gauntlet, and destroying it *will* bring curses from Grummsh onto the party.
• Four dragons (one blue and three greens) have banded together to increase their wealth. They (gasp) spent it on various magical weapons and defenses and then attacked and took over a port city. Now they've removed all laws, taxing everything. All the good folk have escaped, and some are running a resistance force. Of course, there's a catch. The blue dragon's been possessed by an evil outsider, and is opening a gate...
• A young drow got 'left behind' after a raid to the surface. He is a mid-level fighter, slightly lower-level magic user. Maybe give him a few pet large spiders for some extra challenge. He could take over a farm house (or two) with charm spells (maybe even charm a few of the animals). He could try and trick the party into finding the entrance to the drow realm for him (or maybe kill some inconvenient big thing). Anyway, as there's only one drow, a party of four or five lower level characters wouldn't really be in too great a danger.
• In a cave, in an incredibly cold pool of water, is a large round white stone (about 3 or 4 feet in diameter). It feels to all the world like marble, and radiates magic. It's actually a white dragon egg. It stays in stasis, just hours from hatching, until it's heated up... to just about room temperature. Then it hatches. If your players are like mine, they'll take a big white magic rock without thinking twice; it should then hatch at exactly the worst time. My players made it all the way back to their ship, and put it in the hold, before it hatched. Great fun.
• The PCs, from time to time, run across a particular ship full of really stupid sailors; out in the middle of the ocean and their sails are on fire, etc...
• "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing": A demon (e.g. Cambion demon) has taken the shape of a respected member of the community (using polymorph self) and, masking his true alignment, shape and abilities, is slowly spreading death and terror in the city. The PC's are hired (as special agents by ??) to find the perpetrator and capture/kill them before it gets even more out of control. The demon is able to change shape easily, and hence occasionally changes to take the form of one of its victims to throw off the scent. Its sole purpose is to cause disruption and Chaos (or was it brought here by someone for other reasons and escaped or was turned loose ?).
• In a big classy town that the PC's have reason to go to every once in a while, (I have it set in a city near a paladin training center) is an even classier restaurant called Chez Ralph. It's about as nice a restaurant as you could possibly have. Waiters check on you every minute or so, there's a string quartet playing in the background, and glasses of water ("Mineral water, imported from halfway around the world" is what they tell you, and they're telling the truth) cost around 20 gp. Besides being a wonderful place to have players dump some cash, it's also Soap Opera City. The strangest people show up there, at the same time the PCs are there - but since nobody wants to make a scene, the whole feeling is very tense. Old girlfriends, major enemies, spies, polymorphed dragons, you name it, end up eating there - and usually with each other. This requires a lot of continuity in the game. Most games couldn't support the type of background and tension Chez Ralph requires. You need long-term NPC's that the PCs have come to hate - and put them here, where you just can't DO anything about them!
• "Tower Snatch": A mage returns home after 1 year away and finds that someone has taken over his tower in the city. He wants it back and hires the PCs to reclaim it. He can supply maps etc. of what it was like when he owned it (but someone may have moved "Walls of Stone" and placed whole new trap areas etc.). The PC's can keep anything in the tower which is not specifically his (of course he can claim anything interesting and they won't know) and a cash reward. No-one knows who has it but he suspects someone respected in the community, hence the attack must be done fairly quietly so as not to warn the current possessor (the mage can prove that he is the owner however, he is not setting them up - unless you want this to happen). The tower is appropriately trapped and guarded, mostly with the expectation of killing the mage who owns it when he tries to return. The guards and traps are there to kill (not capture) anyone breaking in. City guards etc. will not take sides unless the conflict ends up outside the tower.
• This is a nonlinear adventure, good as a sideline for whenever the PC's happen to be home. The PC's are based in a large city. The city is basically composed of three sectors. Two of which are virtually lawless and the other is extremely well controlled. The law portion is extending outward and slowly taking over the other two sections. A faction war is taking place in the city. There are two opposing forces at war with each other (it could be a peasant/slave revolt, or a religious purge, or a supernatural invasion, or whatever.) The war expands steadily, more and more groups getting dragged into it and being forced to choose sides. An interesting twist would be for 2 groups that 2 different PC's belong to, be on different sides. Great chance for roleplaying here! The war could develop while the PCs are away, and upon return they get the opportunity to jump in. Think of it, the politics! The adventure! The intrigue! The danger! The chance to be hunted by one of the most powerful groups in the city/county/country/kingdom!
• The group has come to a city of which half has been taken over by orcs. The humans still control the other half. This stalemate has lasted for approximately 2 weeks with occasional border penetrations by each side into the opposing half (guerilla raids, party loves 'em, 2sp/head!). But things have changed for the better/worse. An army from the north, in an attempt to make good on the city/kingdom's problems, has sailed into town. They wiped out the mercenaries guild (the only opposing force), and stated that all people were now citizens of the new empire and they would be rid of the orc menace within two weeks. Everyone has been drafted into the militia. What is really bizarre about the army is that it consists of all sorts of races (human, elf, 1/2 elf, etc), all speak a common tongue, they are VERY well organized yet are individuals. (Everyone has personal weapons, armor, etc.) The party can decide what to do. They may not like the idea of being drafted into the militia to be used as fodder (for an empire they don't belong to), to rid the town (that they are only visiting) of the menace. However, it WILL provide for some good roleplaying trying to explain to the new invaders why the group should (or rather wants) to remain together. The plus is that after the orcs are gone, the militia will be disbanded (or so the invaders say) and the members will be free to go on their way as citizens of the new empire (more lands to visit). The other bonus is that the party may be able to get ahold of a little of the recaptured territory.
• Acquainted With the Night" A group of players *start* by discovering that one of their friends has been bitten by a vampire. They follow through the entire process, possibly killing their friend once he/she has risen again, probably hunting down the vampire that bit their friend. Happy ending. Then the vampire community seeks retribution. Yes, it was clumsy of the vampire to get caught, but it's not the place of the herd to exact justice on the vampires. The complexity of this scenario depends upon how you imagine the entire supernatural community. One possible idea is that vampires -- the cool manipulative Undead -- just don't exist. Vampires are mindless creatures which reek of clotted blood and which fixate on their families because those are the strongest memories left. A vampire is what happens to someone who dies of a ghoul-bite. (Doesn't happen often because ghouls don't usually bite live people. NOTE: these are obviously not _Vampire: The Masquerade_ ghouls.) The image of the vampire is the result of a plot between the ghouls and the werewolves: they wanted a patently false, supernatural image that would distract attention from themselves. In this case, the PCs are under attack because they have a sample vampire to look at and modern science may discover the connection. If you're running _Vampire: The Masquerade_, then the PCs are initiated by a Sire for their own protection. The Sire has some long- standing grievance against the Sire of the clumsy vampire, or has some ideological conflict with those who would kill the PCs.
• Rescue the good dragon from the evil princess

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Aleron]

               Some rather silly ones, but also some that might work rather well. Thanks for sharing! '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TSMDude]

               

• Furred snake attacks are on the rise in logging camps, and the Timber Guild is hiring mercenaries for protection.
  Appeals to the PCs’ sense of adventure and reward
  
• Snow elf hunting parties come closer to town than before, and the town’s lord wants to know why.
  Appeals to the PCs’ role as protectors (assuming they have an interest in keeping the locals safe)
  
• Someone’s been digging up the local graveyard, and the town is panicked over rumours of the undead.
  Appeals to the PCs’ role as protectors (as above) as well as their desire to solve a mystery
  
• A party of dwarves shows up searching for the Zombie Hammer, and they seek the aid of adventurers.
  Appeals to the PCs’ desire for wealth and power, and potential alliance with the dwarves
  
• The king sends word that the last logging shipment was never received, and the Timber Guild launches an investigation.
  Appeals to the PCs’ loyalty to the king
  
• Snake fur pelts have become stylish, and the demand for them amongst the rich is rising.
  Appeals to the PCs’ desire for wealth
  
• The tattooed body of a stranger is discovered just outside the town’s walls, and the local lord wants to know who he is and how he died.
  Appeals to the PCs’ role as protectors, and possible revenge (perhaps they were friends with the deceased)
  
• Logging manifests written in the script of a rival foreign kingdom are found in the local tavern, and suspicions abound over who wrote them.
  Appeals to the PCs’ loyalty to the king, desire to solve a mystery, and possible desire for reward

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TSMDude]

               

• Your party is sent to kill an evil Duke/King/Emperor etc.
• In a village near a mountain, people have disappeared when being near the mountains too long. All that has been found is their possessions and spear-like markings in the ground. Later the adventurers discover it is kruthiks.
• Captured by bandits
• Drugged and put on boat in middle of Ocean
• Trapped on island with monsters and little food or water
• Dungeon Brawl
• Maze or obstacle course
• Leader of an army
• Soldier of an army
• Hired as a mercenary
• Spy for an army
• Part of an exploration team
• Plain old surviving (who knows? bandits, highwaymen, monsters, women, etc.)
• Portal from one plane has been opened, and elemental monsters are invading a peaceful land
• Priest is kidnapped by opposing clerics
• Cult becomes angry with rival gang and attacks them
• Mysterious mound threatens military base
• Rival country threatens war, peace must be obtained
• Wizard hires you to retrieve magical artifacts from ruins of ancient city
• Locals hear chants in nearby ruins
• Undead threaten cities across the nation
• Queer lightning storm wipes out an entire city- king orders you to investigate
• Encrypted stone tablet is discovered during an archaeological expedition
• Several major politicians have been assassinated
• Large gang/terrorist organization wages war against a local city
• Barbaric humanoid tribes threaten supply post which boast majority of country's natural resources
• Arena match/duel
• You must battle your companions, as only one of you can survive
• Dragon blood is needed to cure a plague, and your group is sent to collect some
• A powerful bard hires your party to retrieve a fabled magical instrument from a dead wizard's coffin
• A huge drought arises, and you must travel to the Water Plane and battle elementals in order to direct a flow into the drying world
• Breaking into a dungeon/room/fortress etc to rescue or capture a person or artifact
• The PCs must solve a mystery
• Characters must escort a dignitary
• A nation's enemies have a secret base that must be found
• PCs are teleported to an odd place and must find where they are and how to escape
• Must solve a mystery Sherlock Homes style
• Characters are imprisoned and must escape
• Ship PCs are riding in is hijacked
• Safari: PCs must hunt down a creature
• Mysteriously, an entire city has lost its inhabitants overnight
• PCs must be counterspies and seek enemy agents
• Players compete in a sport/competition/game
• PCs must chase escaping bandits through the countryside
• A discovery of a portal to another plane leads to an exploration party
• A group of Doppelgangers have assassinated the town council, and have assumed their identities.
• A beholder is constructing a garden of statues using townsfolk.
• A Lich is raising a massive undead army.
• A group of Yuan-Ti have been sacrificing to Merrshaulk.
• A wizard has been kidnapped and his book of immortality is hidden in his tower, and wanted by rival guilds
• A group of warriors has challenged the party to a match, to prove which team is more "Heroic".
• A thief has stolen one of the player's main piece of equipment (spell book, sword, divine focus, etc.).
• Demons are appearing all over the kingdom. Why?
• A Giant believes that all humans exist for his dining pleasure.
• A half-dragon is found lying in the road, nearly dead.
• A man with one eye is being hanged for "looking sinister."
• A wizard has declared himself ruler of all he surveys (most of everywhere).
• The well has turned black.
• A party member picks up the sands of time
• Party members find a chained and punished god in an ancient, forgotten temple.
• Catacombs have opened beneath the city, and are guarded by ancient undead who let no one pass .
• The sacred spear of Lesh has gone missing.
• There is a black cloaked man in a tavern, though he is dead. Everybody says they saw him walk in just fine.
• An ogre regards a female party member as "The perfect mate."
• A corrupt noble attempts to open an adventurer's union to keep an eye on all the adventurers in the world.
• Lances (without horses) have become the new preferred fighting style of the king, and thus the nobles. What caused this sudden change in the king's attitude?
• A psion believes that a PC is his long lost brother.
• An angel begs for help from an evil party member
• A god's weapon has fallen to earth, now there is a race to obtain it.
• Suddenly an entire country turns blue.
• A party member discovers a Great sword made of red metal that has the properties of adamantine, mithril, silver, and cold iron, but can be wielded in one hand as if it were a longsword. What is it?
• A party member's armor comes to life and tries to leave.
• A tribe of trolls is trying to make peace with a nearby village.
• The devil overlord of a justly ruled town is looking for a mate.
• The PCs meet several groups of travelers all headed in the same direction, claiming to be going to something called "The Games."
• An earthquake that leaves magical glowing fissures in the ground shakes directly beneath a kingdom's capital.
• A previously righteous and good god suddenly calls genocide on all that are not his followers.
• A paladin is after a party member because of a case of mistaken identity
• An area has an uprising of half-dragon animals. Where are they coming from?
• A human craftsman has invented something called a gun, using black powder from the dwarves (Mage's for Forgotten Realms) as a propulsion system. how will this affect the campaign?
• Everybody who buys a charm from a certain vendor begins experiencing the effects of an odd curse that causes a physical aspect to change (Blue skin, men growing breasts, hair turning green, etc.). So far, no REALLY bad effects have happened, but how long will that keep up?
• Red and gold half-Dragons are killing everything from paladins to assassins. Whose side are they on?
• Smuggle these barrels of moonshine into that city.
• We need the Demon-Slaying Sword if we are to overcome the oncoming siege. Travel to that indifferent neighboring country and negotiate with their Shogun for a loan of the sword.
• In slaying his greatest enemy, the barbarian himself dies. They both meet again in the afterlife, where they end up engaging in the ultimate cage match. No weapons, no armor, no magic, just hand-to-hand combat. Winner gets to live again, loser gets their soul destroyed.
• A member of a party of adventurers is on the run from the law but the Duke has asked to see the party. The adventurer is welcome but the guards do not know this and the character must be sneaked in to the city.
• An organization is attempting to capture demons and use their power for evil
• A hero of destiny fulfills prophecy and is fated to save the world with miraculous deeds, but dies abruptly and prematurely- the characters (and the rest of the world) have to buckle down and face dark days on their own merits.
• Facing a pack of werewolves becomes a grueling all-nighter (game time) as they use hit-and-run tactics trying to lure characters away from the group to gang up on them (perhaps the party is 'hold up' in a remote cabin or makeshift fort in some ruins)- add helpless NPC's to protect for added flavor.
• Book passage on a ghost ship; at night the crew turn into ghouls and kill each other (and anyone else unfortunate enough to be aboard)- below decks, it gets worse..
• A ring of regeneration is a great find!, until the character realizes what it is turning him/her into.. one hp at a time.. can the party do what it takes to remove the curse in time?
• The party has gone through a time portal sending them to the 21st century with all the creatures from their time somewhat evolved in some way. How do they adapt?
• All who come in contact with the waters of a holy water fountain rot and eventually become zombies.
• A mysterious goblin raids town at night, striking and seemingly vanishing without a trace. Is it a ghost or goblin?
• A druid is accused of killing other druids.
• You find a new race and the king orders you to capture a being.
• A Hidden Pathway in an Abandoned house just outside Capital City leading to a lair of with a portal connected to the lair or a terrible demon, the demon keeps "Slave Girls" who a friend or the party is, dispatching because the "Slave Girls" are demons with a jinx over the room.
• Barbarian is offered a slave girl as a reward for a quest well done. Paladin finds this morally reprehensible and demands to let her go. FUNTIME!
• Your party finds a dog that can smell treasure.
• Your party finds themselves in the setting of a popular movie or TV show (For example: Pirates of the Caribbean, Xena, etc). The DM's job is to try to cleverly disguise the setting and see how long it takes for the party members to figure it out. Introduce them to main characters without revealing their names at first and leave clues in the form of references to the movie or show.
• Your party and some others are raiding a city they are captured and forced to entertain the king in the gladiator arena.
• A close friend of the party has been kidnapped.
• A large tribe of orcs are planning a raid on the Elvin capital.
• A wizard summons a demon but it back fires and possesses him.
• The world is hit by an asteroid that mutates anyone that touches it.
• A god comes to earth to destroy the humans after creating them.
• A large egg of some sort is discovered and the orcs are coming for it. Will the players try to hatch it?
• A thick plague inducing fog is slowly covering the countryside.
• A paladin goes mad, turning evil while still thinking he's good.
• All the players are shrunk by an evil wizard and have to find a way to reverse the spell.
• An illusion of peace and tranquility is projected over a town. The players must escape the illusion and see what's really happening.
• The god of time punishes a town/city/village for disgraceful worship, making everything happen out of sequence.
• The player is bit by a were-creature early on in the levels but doesn't say anything until it's too late.
• All the local wild life is killing people, are the druid societies to blame?
• NPC clones of players are appearing in strange places doing bad things. Later on they meet and battle to the death!
• Everyone is turned into monsters by some evil bastard and the players are run out of town.
• The players are framed for a genocide they didn't cause.
• While crossing a sea, the boat is sank by a monster of some variety. The players are saved by merfolk but trapped on an deserted island miles from other useful people.
• A dragon takes the players to feed her wyrmling on a tall mountain.
• The players are sucked into a war filled alternate universe by a crappy portal spell.
• The players complete a mission but their employer doesn't want to pay them.
• players are captured and thrown into a portal, where they find ancient plane traveling devices, and they can explore plane after plane and world after world. Fighting evils that you through at them and getting themselves stuck in political and magical situations.
• Monsters are attacking the castle! Kill all the monsters to prevent them from destroying the castle.You lose when a monster reaches the castle.
• A large rock worm is attacking a large city, the PC must kill the rock worm before the city goes under
• A time warp descends upon an isolated village, setting everyone and everything back a century into the past.
• Several of the king’s tax collectors have disappeared after traveling to a particularly dangerous area.
• A good cleric tries to establish a temple to his god in a hostile city, hoping to gradually convert the populace.
• Suspicion arises that the inhabitants of a town are gradually being replaced by doppelgangers.
• A powerful wizard has created a castle filled with monsters, traps and treasure, as a way to test the skills of brave adventurers.
• The animals in a particular area are becoming monstrous mutations.
• Ships are disappearing within a five-mile radius of ocean.
• A phantom river barge sails past a small town once per month, leaving malevolent, supernatural occurrences in its wake.
• A local ruler is suspected of making a pact with a powerful devil or demon.
• The Assassin’s Guild is planning to kill the mayor.
• A witch’s curse is causing farmers’ crops and livestock to die.
• A mysterious curse is settling on town after town, making all good magic ineffective, while doubling the power of evil magic.
• A diabolical band of clerics is robbing graves at a large cemetery, and creating an army of undead creatures.
• A secret vigilante society is inflicting barbaric punishments on “evil-doers.”
• A wealthy merchant hires adventurers to capture a young Pegasus from a nest atop a towering mountain spire, so that he can train the animal as a flying mount.
• The daughter of a good nobleman has run off with a seedy, disreputable commoner.
• A small community of neutrally-aligned orcs tries to convince inhabitants of a nearby town that they mean them no harm.
• A once-good cleric is suspected of secretly worshiping an evil god.
• A powerful bandit leader, about to be hanged for his crimes, is sprung from jail by his cohorts.
• Kobolds occupy an abandoned diamond mine, using it as a base from which to launch raids on human settlements.
• A sorceress has lost her unique familiar, and all efforts so far to reveal the creature’s whereabouts have been fruitless.
• Adventurers are sent to deliver the ransom for a noblewoman, who is being held by a gang of brigands.
• The king’s ambassador has disappeared while en route to a hostile country, and is suspected of being a traitor.
• A megalomaniacal duke has sent his minions in search of a weapon that would make him nearly invincible.
• Hellwasp swarms have been appearing on the outskirts of town, stinging people to death.
• Statues in a large cemetery come to life at night.
• The king, a just, good ruler, is somehow being manipulated by his new adviser.
• A series of murders are being committed with the MO of an executed killer.
• Clerics are stymied as to how to remove a bizarre desecration that has fallen on a good temple.
• Strange, glowing runes appear on the door of the town hall, forming a riddle.
• Townsfolk are somehow being shrunk to six inches in height, and authorities can’t figure out why.
• A local farmer is suspected of breeding hell hounds, after several of the beasts were spotted killing cattle of other farmers.
• A kraken is destroying ships trying to enter or leave a city’s port.
• Someone has uncorked a decanter of endless water, and has placed the item somewhere in the hills above a small valley, where it is flooding a small town.
• An undersea city, covered by a huge dome, is discovered.
• A huge maelstrom near a rocky coast sucks ships into another plane of existence.
• Adventurers are hired as marshals to escort a powerful, evil fighter back to the city, where he is to stand trial.
• Magical droughts are descending upon an increasing number of communities.
• A basilisk is wandering out of a nearby forest, turning people and livestock to stone.
• The king sends a group of adventurers to parlay with an adjacent kingdom contemplating war.
• Villagers are fed up with the mischief being caused by a band of sprites.
• Dryads fight to preserve their forest against an encroaching human settlement.
• Messengers must travel through a haunted swamp to deliver a timely warning to the queen.
• Members of a coven have infiltrated the city’s populace, and are working their black magic.
• A rakshasa is loose in the city, and even the most powerful divination spells are unable to reveal his identity.
• A dire bear, possessed of unnatural intelligence, is devouring inhabitants of a rural village.
• Strange lights flickering over a marsh at night may be will-o’-wisps.
• Something is endowing area livestock with both human intelligence and the power of speech.
• A magical fire in town resists all efforts to extinguish it.
• An ancient artifact must be retrieved from the bottom of the sea.
• A druid is framing a werewolf by committing crimes while wildshaped as a wolf.
• A group of gypsies curse a man, who attacks the gypsies as revenge.
• A silver mine appears haunted by ghosts- objects seem to move themselves. It turns out it's a lycanthrope priest using animate objects to destroy the silver mine.
• One PC is being hunted by a ruthless killer that destroyed everyone else in their home village and sees the PC as unfinished business.
• Local bandits are far too well informed about trade caravans. A trade post keeper is suspected of being an informant.
• A small town is being raided every few weeks by an unusually well organized group of goblins and hobgoblins. Turns out that a group of Blue's (Psionic goblins from Expanded Psionics Handbook) are ordering these raids to draw out and eliminate the best soldiers and adventurer's in the land before unleashing a massive army of goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, ogres and trolls.
• A Merchant comes to the PCs wanting them to retrieve a chest that was stolen by bandits allied with a dragon. when the PCs find the dragon, he tells them that the Merchant had been trading baby dragon skin. The PCs can then chose between the Dragon and the Merchant.
• The PCs are assisted by a vampire-slaying organization, and are led to a tavern to track down a suspected vampire. However, little do they know that every single person in the tavern is a vampire!
• Strange lights appear on a local river at night. Are they will'o'wisps? No, they're just big fireflies. The PCs, though, have no idea. Good for installing humor or realism into a campaign.
• Adventurers come across a metal cave with strange artifacts. This is actually an alien ship, crashed here. How will the strange technology affect the world?
• A popular adventuring site turns out to be a humble, peaceful civilization of Drow and goblins, cultivating giant rats. It's up to the PCs to stop reckless adventurers from destroying the civilization.
• A cursed wand of awakening has an inverted affect- reducing intelligent life into feral states.
• A present to the King/High Priest/Grand Archmage/etc. is actually an explosive trap, which must be stopped before it is opened.
• An insane wizard is using baleful polymorph to change everyone into chickens.
• A Horizon Walker has seen all of the world that he wishes to see, and is going to commit suicide.
• The local bard's lyrics hint at his family being held hostage.
• An evil spell removes Common from public speak, forcing everyone to speak indigenous tongues.
• Suddenly, everyone is arbitrarily divided into two groups- plainly identifiable, thanks to magic, but physically indistinct.
• A wizard's magic staff is lost in a magnetic cave. No metal equipment can be worn within.
• An evil adventuring party decides to loot villages and castles, killing livestock, dwarves, and many law-abiding citizens. Their only goal is to gain money and treasure.
• you come into a cave that warps you to a past time.
• A merchant sells and incomplete artifact to the adventurers. Upon completion of the artifact a NPC is released from imprisonment and becomes an arch enemy to the players.
• while traveling by boat you are shipwrecked in a strange land on the coast of a capital city that was recently destroyed. A nearly completed museum gives clues about the history and culture of the city but are there any clues as to what transpired recently and destroyed the city? (fresh haunts occur often in places of recent tragedy)
• while exploring your party finds a statue with a cloth sack tied over one hand. removing the cloth exposes a magic arm guard/ring/scepter/symbol. the item may be cursed or exert its will on someone in order to further its own ends.
• a young gnome/pixie/sprite/imp/satyr/halfling must prank the adventurers to be accepted by or meet the dare of a peer group and the adventurers may not realize it is classic scenario of peer pressure
• a magic ring is found that offers complete immunity to an element, but any party member within a certain range experiences temporary random alterations in there own magic items
• a naga asks for help returning a burdensome but powerful magical dagger to its rightful place so he/she can continue to guard it
• a philosophically reflective Kou-Toa (actually a absentminded, polymorphed alchemist who miss-mixed a potion) discusses the importance of identity with a treant and a djinn because he must convince them to relinquish a reagent he needs to regain his natural shape. The treant does not relate well and is even suspicious that he may have been insulted, and the djinn thinks it would be best if he turned the alchemist insubstantial like himself so he could more readily change shape since he seems to go through so much trouble and time collecting reagents anyway. The alchemist just wants to be "normal" again, for good grief...
• an animated object (candelabra/mop/dancing fire poker/hall tree/shovel/rope) has been secretly stowing away in the parties supplies or following the party. It can scratch out words in common. Who knows what the objects agenda is. It may be friendly, lonely, and/or just hitching a ride. Or it could be a spy or assassin...
• a large treant and mummy walk hand in hand under the moonlight. "Uuuuugh." "There, there. Go back to bed." The treat will explain that the mummy guards a nearby tomb, but has become more senile as the years have past. Part of the tomb collapsed so the mummy could not make his rounds to check the back entrance of the tomb without coming out of the tomb. But he loses his way a lot of the time. Will the party investigate this tomb?
• a house in the middle of the woods, a welcome mat that closes the door behind the adventurers. a magical carpet traps people and uses them as quests in his horrid game show to entertain other evil sentient magic items and uses the bones to create furniture. He likes to suffocate contestants that lose and enjoys saying "And that's a wrap!" when he does it. "I walked all over that one." (He usually asks questions about monsters that require a knowledge check)
• a metallic dragon and chromatic dragon collide overhead and fall to the ground by the party while they are traveling in the wilderness. The metallic dragon and chromatic dragon ignore the party for two rounds and then one dragon tries to bribe the party to her side, then the other dragon counter bribes. Who will you fight for?
• a kobold throws a rock at a party member (improvised weapon) and tries to lure the party into an ambush where lots of kobolds have rocks (improvised weapons). these hungry kobolds might continue to harass and stalk the party
• a party member trips over a small metal figurine of a halfling soldier. This magic item causes an illusionary phantom battalion of 1000 halfling soldiers to appear in the world wherever they put the metal figure on a map. These phantom soldiers can do no harm but will charge into battle if commanded to by the possessor of the figuring. This can be used to intimidate cities or armies in upper level campaigns. This power should be a daily power and destroys the map. (Maps could be hard to come by and expensive too.)
• a water elemental demands you drop a gold coin in the creek or river in order to be allowed to cross a bridge
• a prideful half-orc is challenged by his friends to arm wrestle your strongest party member. from the looks of things they aren't giving you a choice, and they are forcing a wager. Hope you win.
• A traveling monk wishes to camp with your party for the night trusting in safety in numbers, in exchange he has offered to cook for your party. He brings news from the place(s) you are heading to. (He can cure some diseases and ailments, a helping hand if the PCs party is getting ragged and drug down by afflictions.)
• Early in your game add a NPC that has a hidden secret (he or she is from the past) later in it have the party find a hole in the ground and the NPC will coax them in, in the hole is they NPC's arch enemy, it could be a ageless evil mage, a druid frozen in time, or even Mephastopolies chained down for the remainder of time, any how, the enemy will of sent the NPC into the future to try and break the bonds that keep them captive, but the time has run out, a battle is on hand, have the NPC release their true powers for this battle, lvl them up a tad, after all they are an ancient being.
• your party has once been the elite task force for the king only to find out information from a duke you were sent to kill that the king is working with the forces of the underdark to gather shards of an crystal that the kings former dark master was trapped in now you must run as outlaws and try to stop the greater evil from rising again.
• A gang of monks attempts to knock the party out and tie them up.
• A wyvern has made the city gatehouse its home. A seige is on the horizon, and the gatehouse must be made operational as soon as possible!
• A skilled warrior teams up with the party, but a recurring memory disorder leads her to wake up one day believing she has been captured.
• Distinct armor recently looted by the party turns out to have once belonged to the father of a local hero, who identifies it and confronts the party.
• A Powerful Arachnomancer attempts to conquer the land with spider minions, and the party is sent to kill him.
• A cabal of powerful golem-builders has sent a messenger that if the kingdom does not submit to their demands, they will unleash powerful collosi upon the kingdom.
• A Centaur stampede! Run for your life!
• Commoners dissapear and reappear naked in a nearby corn field, with a weird tattoo on ther backs. At night, tattooed peope turn to dire animals of the aggresive kind. A PC dissapears one night, only to reappear tatooed and with no memory of what happened.
• House animals and small critters seem to be suffering mistaken identity, since dogs start to chase mice, pidgeons try to swim, and snakes turn friendly towards humans. The problem escalades when horses start trying to fly. Could this get worse?
• A strange man in a dark cloak spawns around the city at different times of the day, sacrificing people as his only way of gaining experience. He sets traps, enslaves minions and scars the world with fear.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TSMDude]

                Happy gaming.

1. A time warp descends upon an isolated village, setting everyone and everything back a century into the past.
2. Several of the king’s tax collectors have disappeared after traveling to a particularly dangerous area.
3. A good cleric tries to establish a temple to his god in a hostile city, hoping to gradually convert the populace.
4. Suspicion arises that the inhabitants of a town are gradually being replaced by doppelgangers.
5. A powerful wizard has created a castle filled with monsters, traps and treasure, as a way to test the skills of brave adventurers.
6. The animals in a particular area are becoming monstrous mutations.
7. Ships are disappearing within a five-mile radius of ocean.
8. A phantom river barge sails past a small town once per month, leaving malevolent, supernatural occurrences in its wake.
9. A local ruler is suspected of making a pact with a powerful devil or demon.
10. The Assassin’s Guild is planning to kill the mayor.
11. A witch’s curse is causing farmers’ crops and livestock to die.
12. A mysterious curse is settling on town after town, making all good magic ineffective, while doubling the power of evil magic.
13. A diabolical band of clerics is robbing graves at a large cemetery, and creating an army of undead creatures.
14. A secret vigilante society is inflicting barbaric punishments on “evil-doers.”
15. A wealthy merchant hires adventurers to capture a young pegasus from a nest atop a towering mountain spire, so that he can train the animal as a flying mount.
16. The daughter of a good nobleman has run off with a seedy, disreputable commoner.
17. A small community of neutrally-aligned orcs tries to convince inhabitants of a nearby town that they mean them no harm.
18. A once-good cleric is suspected of secretly worshipping an evil god.
19. A powerful bandit leader, about to be hanged for his crimes, is sprung from jail by his cohorts.
20. Kobolds occupy an abandoned diamond mine, using it as a base from which to launch raids on human settlements.
21. A sorceress has lost her unique familiar, and all efforts so far to reveal the creature’s whereabouts have been fruitless.
22. Adventurers are sent to deliver the ransom for a noblewoman, who is being held by a gang of brigands.
23. The king’s ambassador has disappeared while en route to a hostile country, and is suspected of being a traitor.
24. A megalomaniacal duke has sent his minions in search of a weapon that would make him nearly invincible.
25. Hellwasp swarms have been appearing on the outskirts of town, stinging people to death.
26. Statues in a large cemetery come to life at night.
27. The king, a just, good ruler, is somehow being manipulated by his new advisor.
28. A series of murders are being committed with the MO of an executed killer.
29. Clerics are stymied as to how to remove a bizarre desecration that has fallen on a good temple.
30. Strange, glowing runes appear on the door of the town hall, forming a riddle.
31. Townsfolk are somehow being shrunk to six inches in height, and authorities can’t figure out why.
32. A local farmer is suspected of breeding hell hounds, after several of the beasts were spotted killing cattle of other farmers.
33. A kraken is destroying ships trying to enter or leave a city’s port.
34. Someone has uncorked a decanter of endless water, and has placed the item somewhere in the hills above a small valley, where it is flooding a small town.
35. An undersea city, covered by a huge dome, is discovered.
36. A huge maelstrom near a rocky coast sucks ships into another plane of existence.
37. Adventurers are hired as marshals to escort a powerful, evil fighter back to the city, where he is to stand trial.
38. Magical droughts are descending upon an increasing number of communities.
39. A basilisk is wandering out of a nearby forest, turning people and livestock to stone.
40. The king sends a group of adventurers to parlay with an adjacent kingdom contemplating war.
41. Villagers are fed up with the mischief being caused by a band of sprites.
42. Dryads fight to preserve their forest against an encroaching human settlement.
43. Messengers must travel through a haunted swamp to deliver a timely warning to the queen.
44. Members of a coven have infiltrated the city’s populace, and are working their black magic.
45. A rakshasa is loose in the city, and even the most powerful divination spells are unable to reveal his identity.
46. A dire bear, possessed of unnatural intelligence, is devouring inhabitants of a rural village.
47. Strange lights flickering over a marsh at night may be will-o’-wisps.
48. Something is endowing area livestock with both human intelligence and the power of speech.
49. A magical fire in town resists all efforts to extinguish it.
50. An ancient artifact must be retrieved from the bottom of the sea.


               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TSMDude]

               The 36 Basic Plots
To show that adventures and games with at least a loose plot are indeed a good thing I present the following. It's based on a couple of things I've had floating on the HD for some time and haven't looked at again until recently and decided to put them together.
Assuming an rpg is at least in some part like a story, what are the different structural parts of the story and how do they work in the rpg?

• Plot - Basic form of the story, including major & minor incidents and encounters. The GM decides this though he obviously must work off the attempted actions and their results by the PC's.
• Theme and strategy - How will the PCs go about solving their problems?
• Character - The GM provides characterization for everything but the PC's though players are still providing the bulk of it.
• Dialogue - Again mostly the players but the DM is Everything the PC's are not.
• Setting - Virtually entirely the GM's bailiwick unless he allows the players some input.

Obviously the GM's only jobs aren't limited to setting and character. Plot is important if you want to give the setting somewhere to go. Theme and strategy then are needed if you want that direction to have some sense of purpose rather than being mindless meandering. Dialogue goes hand in hand with character but is influenced by plot events and appropriateness to the setting.
These are things that are used in constructing stories, but even if you don't believe that a good RPG is or needs to be "storytelling" it's apparent that these elements are highly useful to a DM. The 36 dramatic plots seem to be fairly universal in that stories can be boiled down to these essential elements. Using these in providing the basis for your adventures as well as for the campaign overall should yield results that will astound you and your players.
I've also realized that these make GREAT sources of ideas for starting a campaign.
Each plot type is given a name and then main characters or elements of it are in parenthesis followed by a brief example.

• Petition/Supplication (A persecutor, the petitioner, an Authority who is petitioned) A village is being run by an incompetent &/or domineering mayor so the people ask the king to remove him. The PC's could be citizens in the village, assigned the task of arresting the mayor or verifying the story for the king, or interested observers who take it upon themselves to see to it the mayor is deposed.
• Deliverance (Victims, Source of Threat, Rescuer) A VERY common RPG plot where a town is threatened by Orc hordes and the PC's must rescue them. But what if roles are juggled a bit? How about if the Orcs are threatened by the PC's and are "rescued" by an ally of the orcs? What if the PC's are the ones who need rescuing?
• Revenge (Avenger, Criminal) A PC seeks revenge upon an NPC or powerful monster for a wrong done to him; a PC is the object of revenge by someone or something which survives an attack by him; the PC's are caught up in someone else's plot for revenge.
• Vengeance by Family upon Family (Avenging Kinsman, Guilty Kinsman, Relative) Hatfield vs. McCoy? Capulet vs. Montague? That's Romeo and Juliet for the heathens out there though R&J also clearly falls under #28 & #29. But then that shows how plots can be combined. That story also provides all kinds of places for the PC's to fit in. They need not be standing in as Romeo or Juliet but could be friends or members of either of their families.
• Pursuit (Fugitive, Pursuer) Can you say "The Fugitive"? How about "Les Miserables"?
• Victim of Cruelty or Misfortune (Victim, Source of Cruelty or misfortune) A common theme for Greek tragedy with Fate being a common source for somebody's woes. Oedipus Rex springs to mind as fitting this mold as does the plot of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
• Disaster (Vanquished Power, Victorious Power or Messenger) I guess "disaster" put me in mind of Irwin Allen movies but it fits. Take his classic disaster movie Towering Inferno. The fire is in a sense the power that gets vanquished with Steve McQueen's fire Chief being one part of the victorious power and the messenger who brings up the moral of the story.
• Revolt (Tyrant, Conspirator(s)) Star Wars? American Revolution? French Revolution? Russian Revolution? I would HIGHLY recommend looking into the American Revolution as a source here.
• Daring Enterprise (Bold Leader, Goal, Adversary) Must be THE most common plot for D&D. PC's boldly go to the dungeon to defeat monsters &/or retrieve a specific treasure.
• Abduction (Abductor, Abducted, Guardian) Another well-known D&D plot better known as "Save the Princess/Prince". See below, however on matters of scale.
• Enigma (Interrogator, Seeker, Problem) Common plot with the PC's as investigators of mysteries.
• Obtaining (Two or more Opposing Parties, Object, maybe an Arbitrator) Less common I think because there's a tendency to think of the only opposition to the PC's being deadly opposition when a competitive arrangement can be more interesting. A good template that springs to mind is from Raider of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones (the obvious PC stand-in) competes with Belloq, the French archeologist. I'm thinking of a campaign where the PC's form a party that is continually competing against a rival group of adventurers for the prime dungeons to loot. Over the course of the campaign it escalates with their opposition becoming more ruthless or associating with powers even less scrupulous than they.
• Familial Hatred (Two Family Members who hate each other) A good basis for events directly related (no pun) to a PC or PC's being involved in the consequences of such events.
• Familial Rivalry (Preferred Kinsman, Rejected Kinsman, Object) Similar to #13 but often with no less dire consequences. Another Shakespeare example - the daughters of King Lear fighting over who should inherit the land.
• Murderous Adultery (Two Adulterers, the Betrayed) Extremely common in movies but I've never seen anything approaching it in an RPG although the adventure fodder from it can be very fertile. Even more so as the adulterers involved are more powerful.
• Madness (Madman, Victim) The limit of involvement of madness seems to be a few isolated sages, the stereotypical mad wizard, and the relationship between madness and alignment. Literature and plays (mostly classical stuff) are good sources for game ideas involving madness. Greek tragedy and Shakespeare used it often. I'd say it's fallen out of use in modern times though, or at least it's use has changed with the advent of medicine and psychology.
• Fatal Imprudence (Imprudent person, Victim or lost object) Generally involved on a more interpersonal scale as when a young boy is careless with matches and burns down his house. However, I think another example might be Custer's Last Stand where his ignorance &/or arrogance led to a massacre of his troops.
• Involuntary Crimes of Love (Lover, Beloved, Revealer) Note that this is actions other than adultery committed out of love. Maybe something like a brother murdering his sister's boyfriend because he doesn't think him worthy of her and is seen in the act by a blackmailer. Another possibility: a businessman who commits crimes to save his business and a loyal employee who wrestles with the choice of turning in his admired employer versus his civil duty.
• Kinsman Kills Unrecognized Kinsman (Killer, Unrecognized Victim, Revealer) Shakespeare used this sort of theme frequently as he used the device of people in disguise a LOT.
• Self Sacrifice for an Ideal (Hero, Ideal, Person or Thing Sacrificed) This is good for more than LG or Paladin types to be involved in as they are not the only type of characters who would have such deeply held beliefs. They're just the most obvious association.
• Self Sacrifice for Kindred (Hero, Kinsman, Person or Thing Sacrificed) Now this is a rare one as its impact seldom rises above the interpersonal level. The first example that comes to mind is a child who sacrifices their own dreams and desires in order to provide for an ill parent or sibling.
• All Sacrificed for Passion (Lover, Object of Passion, Person or Thing Sacrificed) Not an overly common archetype but seen often enough in teen movies. For example, a geek who sells a prized collection in order to pay for something to win the affection of a girl he is infatuated with.
• Sacrifice of Loved Ones (Hero, Beloved Victim, Need for Sacrifice) The first thing that comes to mind here is from the Bible where God tests Abraham's faith and obedience by commanding him to sacrifice his son which God prevents at the last moment when he is about to follow through.
• Rivalry Between Superior and Inferior (Superior, Inferior, Object) This is not necessarily indicating a personal relationship but possibly competitive standing or public perception of it. I'm thinking of all what is now an established genre in movies of the underdog team (generally sports teams) of misfits winning out over their rivals who are usually painted as obnoxious and arrogant.
• Adultery (Deceived Spouse, Two Adulterers) Simple - Arthur, Guenivere, and Lancelot. This personal betrayal leads to the downfall of Camelot and similar circumstances could occur in a campaign.
• Crimes of Love (Lover, Beloved, theme of Dissolution) Indicates a situation where love is dissolved or destroyed because the actions of one are unacceptable to the other(s) though those actions are not directly related to the relationship. Example: a businessman ruthlessly crushes his competition and his behavior causes his wife to leave him.
• Discovery of Dishonor of a Loved One (Discoverer, Guilty One) Examples: A girl learns her best friend and schoolmate has cheated on a test. A noble learns his brother has fathered a child out of wedlock that will scandalize the family and lead to disfavor at court.
• Obstacles to Love (Two Lovers, Obstacle) So common it's barely worth providing examples. Name any 5-hankie weeper of your choice and if it's not about the disease-of-the-week it'll be about two lovers driven apart by obstacles or overcoming those obstacles to join or remain together.
• An Enemy Loved (Beloved Enemy, Lover, Hater) Romeo & Juliet. Enemy Mine.
• Ambition (An Ambitious Person, Coveted Thing, Adversary) A general archetype that covers a lot of ground. Could be as low-key as someone overcoming shyness to win his girls heart, or as sweeping as the Red Wizards trying to take over the world and being opposed by the Harpers.
• Conflict with a God (Mortal, Immortal) How often do you hear of a PC being in conflict with HIS deity? Something to think about.
• Mistaken Jealousy (Jealous One, Object of Jealousy, Supposed Accomplice, Author of Mistake) More Shakespearean themes.
• Faulty Judgement (Mistaken One, Victim of Mistake, Author of Mistake, Guilty Person) Example: Andy's prize widget is stolen. Bob has always been jealous of Andy's widget so Andy assumes it was him. It is ultimately revealed, however, that Carl borrowed Andy's widget to show to the widget prize committee so that Andy could be justly rewarded.
• Remorse (Culprit, Victim, Interrogator) I like a good story of redemption. Try The Shawshank Redemption on for size.
• Recovery of a Lost One (Seeker, One Found) Could be Lassie looking for Timmy in the woods or the PC's returning the Black Skull of Death to the Keepers of Dangerous Things.
• Loss of Loved Ones (Kinsman Slain, Kinsman Witness, Executioner) Would seem to often be used in conjunction with other plot types like Revenge or Madness but it would start with this.

NOTE WELL: The plots noted above need not directly involve the PC's but can be the instigation in what the PC's are doing. Groups or institutions can substitute in most cases for individuals. Objects do not have to be persons or physical items but could be ideals like justice or integrity. Victims can also be persons, items, or ideals.
Too often RPG scenarios are VERY limited in variety. Daring Enterprises, Enigmas, an Abduction or two, and stereotype Ambition plots are all too often the extent of even a good DM's storylines. If you find yourself continually choosing from such a limited field try this. Divide the plots into 6 groups of 6 each and use 2d6 to select one randomly. No matter what it is, whether it immediately appeals to you or not figure out a way to MAKE it appealing to you. Brainstorm a few possible details with or without the PC's yet factored in. Once you have a combination that might at least fit into your campaign figure out where the PC's will come in either as a group or individually.
Now, whether you use it or not you're at least exercising your imagination in new directions. Keep working on randomly selected plots in this way until you get one that you'd actually like to include in the game. Don't throw away whatever work you've done on the others. Keep it tucked in a folder somewhere and drag it out once in a while. Go over them again, listing new possible angles, changes you'd make in light of campaign events, or if you're ever desperate - just polishing them up and adding details so you've got something to run.
Never throw resource material like this away. Even if it doesn't work now it might work at a later date because it'll be a new campaign, or simply new PC's or whatever.
I also wanted to say a few words about scale. That is, you can take these plots and change them radically by altering the scale on which they are occurring or over which they have influence. I tried to provide some sense of that variety of scale in my examples but try thinking in these terms:

• Interpersonal - The plot type is occurring between two people or maybe just a few more. E.g., a baker's assistants, two sisters, a pair of strangers on a train. This tends to require direct, personal involvement of at least one of the PC's in order to fit plots of this scale in a meaningful way into the campaign.
• Household/Family - the situation affects several people or occurs within a relatively insulated environment. This might mean an office full of workers, an extended family with aunts, uncles, & cousins, or the inhabitants of a single castle. At this scale it's both easier to involve more PC's on a personal level with the core of the plot and at the same time to begin to allow them to be involved instead on the periphery of the plot rather than at the core.
• Neighborhood - At this scale you could be talking in terms of a large apartment building, rival gangs and their territory, or neighboring farms. Some of the plot types become easier to fit in at a larger scale such as this or only become possible at all. Vengeance by Family on another Family being one such. The PC's can now fit in quite easily at either the core or the periphery of events. Perhaps even just dealing with the consequences of the events.
• City - More variety in the plots becomes possible and the cast of potential participants in the resolution of the plot becomes quite large as well. Complication of the plots can lead in more directions and even to other quite separate plots. We could be talking anywhere from a Nowhere, USA (pop 50 and falling) or Gotham City as well so the possible range of this scale is quite wide and the consequences are accordingly as varied. The PC's are probably more likely to be involved at the periphery of plots at this scale although that depends on the specific plot and the nature of the campaign itself.
• Nation
• World
• Interplanar

Okay, you can see where I was going with this. One back-alley prostitute killing a thief is an event on an interpersonal scale. Maybe one of the PC's knew either the prostitute or the thief. Was the thief carrying something the PC's will need? Is the prostitute actually an assassin in disguise? Did the two know each other? Were they members of the same family? Were they from different rival families or organizations? Now we're on a household scale.
What if the thief was killed because he was operating in the wrong part of town belonging to a different thieves guild and the disguised prostitute was an enforcer? We're looking at a neighborhood level of scale.
Suppose, however that the assassination was part of an ongoing campaign to rid the town of all thieves by any means necessary? City scale. The object stolen by the thief might have been a scroll of ancient text that describes the secret location of the Tomb of the First King which holds a sword said to be destined to conquer the world. The consequences of this simple, otherwise non-noteworthy murder could be far-reaching indeed but at what level will the PC's be involved in it? How much will they know? That's what I mean when talking about the scale applied to the plots.
Once you've assigned some details to the archetype of the plot you often have all the framework you need and further specific events start writing themselves.