wwhat are some good ideas for D&D-type game adventures?

Question

I needs ideas for artifacts, dungeons, plots, NPCs, towns, poisons, potions, etc...anything that you think will help.

Answer 1

Well,

One of the most intriguing ways to make D&D type adventures (especially with artifacts) is to make the plot have things happening even when your players' characters aren't around.

Examples might be:

An invading army that is getting closer to where your characters are going (impending confrontation)

A NPC that you interacted with before who is sent off to deliver a message, retrieve an antidote for poison, scout out that attacking army, etc... who WILL return, but later after things outside your players' characters environment have changed.

An Artifact that alerts someone following you where you are or what you're doing each time you use it. (Or, it can change things in the world, like creating rifts where monsters can pour in or with each use, it makes an area of the world dead to magic) so that eventually you are faced with a problem that wasn't an original part of the campaign.

In terms of artifacts, an easy way is to have an artifact that does something a spell already does that is beyond the normal capabilities of the person using it. (i.e.- a 6th level spell once per week that a 3rd level mage could use) This accelerates the rate at which experience is earned, can allow your player characters a little more leeway with their situations, and can make the game a little more fun. Also, you can curse artifacts.

This can get fun when you make the user obsessed with using the artifact, so that when they lose it (and I'm sure you can find a way for them to lose it) they have to break with the party to find it or they have to direct the party to go after it, or you have to find a way to break the curse... etc.

Creative poisons are easy - think of something that would cripple a character and make it happen to them slowly.

Examples might be - the poison makes you age backwards one year every week -- have this happen to your second youngest party member (and if age is a requirement for any of their abilities, it could wreak havoc with those as well)
OR - the poison makes you magically impotent, reducing your level by one each week or day, or month, or however slowly or quickly you want, which would do nothing to a barbarian but would cripple a mage.

Or, the poison could give you muscle spasms when you're excited, so that every time you get into a battle you have a lower chance to hit, drop your weapon, randomly cast the wrong spell, etc.

POTIONS -- Always have them do two things - one thing that they are supposed to do, and something that can't be figured out with an identify spell, like you can't eat while you have the potion in your system or the effect immediately wears off, or that you begin to glow (which may seem like a bonus in a dungeon, but prevents you from sneaking up on anyone) or that the experience you earn while it's in your system is doubled (or cut in half). not all side effects should be negative, and every once in a while, your potions should be PERMANENT!!

In terms of towns, pick up any of the books by Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan or Anne McCaffrey and read the descriptions there. They are very detailed and also will help with characterization of the fringe characters in any campaigns you may make.

NPCs - ALWAYS MAKE THEM NECESSARY TO THE PLOT - figure out a plot hole and find character attributes that would fix it. Give a NPC those traits and introduce them to the story.

Lastly, DUNGEONS.

Don't just make a dungeon an objective unless it's something like a demon's catacombs or the root of a town's infestation problem or something like that. It's much better to have it be like an action sequence in the middle of the movie to break up the plot. When the dungeon part is over, your players will want another one. It will also refresh their outlook on their objectives. You may also randomly throw them an artifact or piece of information crucial to the plot while they're in the dungeon.

Make it the only accessible entrance to a giant castle or a shortcut past a certain death, or have there be a portal deep in the bottom that takes them to the other world that they can't get to by conventional means.

And, unless you want to make complex puzzles or have your player characters waste a lot of time running around in empty dungeons, make some of the doors magic doors that whisk you away to another part of the dungeon so that it becomes incredibly difficult to map or put locking one-way doors in it so that unless they fight all the way through them and go back around to the entrance they came in, they are blocked off from whole portions of the dungeon after everything meaningful has been done there.

I hope this has been helpful.

If you're looking for anything more specific, you can email me through my yahoo answers page.

Answer 2

There are a great many things that you can utilize for D&D adventures. For starters, you should have A DM manual, player manual, monster manual and an active imagination.

Quests can arise from anything like eliminating a dragon, clearing out an infested castle, recovering lost treasure. These adventures are time tested and can be broken down into mini adventures spanning a course of time.

Have your players start out doing 1 quest and based on how they do (especially if developing prowess) have them approached by an NPC to handle another situation. You could have 1 PC inadvertently offend a Guild and the ensuing conflicts afterwards can provide great experience and wealth.

Create minor skirmishes, in which the PC's must decide whether to side with the aggressors or the defenders or remain neutral and risk offending everyone. Perhaps there's an evil mage enslaving a town or a group of towns and your PC's have been hired to eliminate him/her. Infested woods, Drow elf invasions, monsters using psionics are all equally good.

Just review your manuals so that you can reward appropriately and utilize monsters common too a particular area. Use your dice wisely for creating random encounters especially with "rare" monsters and treasure.

Answer 3

Artifact: Fire proof leather armor
Dungeon: 5 levels deep. Hidden entrance in city. Exits out of
well in nearby pasture
NPC: high elf, personality: gets into anything your into and
wants to talk about it, easily impressed
Town: A tree town with ropes as transportation. Everyone is
used to it so no-one slips. Might be hairy for a new-comer.
Potions: Potion of heroism (raises ability scores)

Get writing some loose notes and have fun puting it together with some maps and a caligraphy pen for a specific folder sealed with a wax insignia.

Answer 4

Just look through modern fiction for some good results. Just be careful that your source doesn't get recognized.

You could to a LOTR rip-off, but instead of having the chracters trying to destroy an artifact, make them try to stop it! Maybe the artifact is a good one and evil characters are trying to destroy it, maybe good characters are trying to destroy an evil one, but it is needed for something vital, or its destruction would have unforseen consequences only your Players know about.

Try rescuing a princess, excpet she doesn't want to be rescued! Maybe she likes it where she is, or something is going on a home she doesn't want to be part of. Have the players rescue a fake, then have to expose the fake without looking like idiots themselves. Make the players BE fakes, and replace a ruler temporarily while the rest of the party searches for the original.

Answer 5

I have been Dming scince 1975. I have years worth of dungions, city's, NPC's. Here is a few good villians that can spice up your game.
Malak the Necromancer.
St 9 Dx 16 Cn 12 Int 18 Wis 14 Char 6. You can play with the stats if you wish. He is 5'7" or 1.78 meters. He has black hair that is very sparce. He tends to disguise himself by adding hair and hight. He is thin, gaunt, and has a skeletal face. (Due to channiling Negitive energy.) He is 14th level and has the spells acordingly. However if you want to play with his level you can. He has several magic items. He has the horn of the Necromiconis. It is a horn carved from a dragon lich. It looks like a dragon horn guilded with gold and gems. The gems have different things that adds to the powers of the horn. The horn when blown by a wizard raises 1d8 zombies or 1d10 skeletons. When the red gem is pushed when played it calls 1d3 vampires for 1 turn. They speak common. If green gem is pushed you summon a Lich to serve 1d6+level of caster rounds. It must be paid after summoning. It may require a bane of the caster.
If both red and green are pushed at the same time the dragon Lich is called. You decide what happens.
Malak also has a small keep that has several powerful undead and some flesh golems protecting it.
Malak has a ring of regeneration, Back pack of holding, Ring of protection +5. He shares the keep with the dragon lich. so come up with treasure for that. The necromancer is actually a servent of the dragon lich and has a vast number of other magic items at his disposal. If you need more Ideas feel free to write me. My email is [e-mail] I also have several years of magic spells and magic items for all classes.
I have the full states of Malak if you want.

Answer 6

you could start at your house and go around your town and you need to get out the dungeon you start in before it collapses and meet tree gnomes but if you use my idea then you must name one tree gnome bwadwy