Recently, a series of postings on the boards suggested some confusion about clichéd plotlines for D&D adventures (The Black Hole at Paizo one - if only I knew how to do that nifty hyperlink thing... grrr). I had the idea that some of us might like to post our ideas on what a clichéd adventure might consist of. I’ve come up with an initial list of fifteen to add to or discuss:
1. A githyanki loses his silver sword and comes looking for it.
2. Drow doing anything on or near the surface, especially in the sunlight.
3. A mysterious werewolf attack on a peasant or government official.
4. Some paladin falls from grace and becomes a blackguard, sparking the adventure.
5. Evil weapons possessing their masters.
6. Kidnappings and rescuing of victims kidnapped (i.e. rescuing the princess).
7. Going after a dragon’s treasure hoard.
8. Any item lost/retrieved by an iconic deity, demon prince, angel, etc that has suddenly resurfaced.
9. Necromancers.
10. The local thief’s guild steals something and the party has to retrieve it from them.
11. Traveling to the Lower Planes to rescue an NPC or a PC.
12. Anything revolving around Unicorn parts. . . blood, hides, the horn, whatever.
13. Having to solve a murder that leads to a greater conspiracy.
14. A bunch of kobolds, goblins, gnolls, orcs, etc who follow a charismatic leader who isn’t of their own race, and seem happy to serve as fodder in his/her mad designs.
15. A long lost gem, crystal, stone, or similar artifact reactivates itself, to cause mayhem, desecration, or any kind of pestilence.
Let me know if you disagree with any I’ve come up with so far. They’re just my personal opinion, and subject to debate. . .
- Chris
Like I mentioned on the Black Hole thread, I would LOVE to see a 'Rescue the Princess from the Evil Dragon' adventure, done well of course.
Many of the other ideas above have seen the light of D&D publishing, and yet I'm struggling to find an adventure based around a kidnapped Princess and Evil Dragon scenario...
Creative Director
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The cool thing about this list is that, while I agree that everything on it is a cliche, it also almost reads like a table of contents for a complilation of Dungeon adventures. Hell... I've personally greenlit a huge pile of adventures that use these exact plotlines. How did these adventures make it past the Cliche Hurdle and get accepted? Read on...
Death of Lashimire: 1. A githyanki loses his silver sword and comes looking for it.
This one had some really cool map turnovers by the author, dovetailed nicely into the 3.5 psionics handbook release, and had a lot of really interesting traps. Additionally, while the silver sword theft is what set up the events in the adventure, it wasn't the focus of the adventure from the PCs' viewpoint.
Wrath of the Abyss 2. Drow doing anything on or near the surface, especially in the sunlight.
Nostalgia factor won the day here. Plus, it gave me the chance to get Wayne to paint us a really awesome cover.
Fiend's Embrace 8. Any item lost/retrieved by an iconic deity, demon prince, angel, etc that has suddenly resurfaced.
This got in for 3 reasons. The editorial staff are suckers for demon princes, and (more importantly) it let us prime the way for some big Iggwilv stuff we'll be doing later in the year. And the artifact that resurfaces was cool and new.
The Styes 13. Having to solve a murder that leads to a greater conspiracy.
This one got in on the sheer imaginative power of the locations and the fact that it tied in nicely to the release of Lords of Madness.
Throne of Iuz 14. A bunch of kobolds, goblins, gnolls, orcs, etc who follow a charismatic leader who isn’t of their own race, and seem happy to serve as fodder in his/her mad designs.
How could I say no to King Bog? Plus... it was interesting to see how the game handles hordes of high level orcs.
It also should be noted that several of these adventures were from authors I'd worked with a lot over the last few years, and the fact that I knew them and trusted them to be able to do something new with the cliches is perhaps the main reason they got accepted. If Stephen King contacted me and wanted to write an adventure about saving a princess from a dragon, I'd greenlight it immediately (well... imeediately after I woke up from the fit such an event would hurl me into).
There's other examples as well. In fact, if anone out there thinks that one of the adventures we've published recently is centered around a tired old cliche, post here and I'll do my best to explain how that adventure's initial proposal got by the Cliche Hurdle.
Yeah, it would be hard to avoid using any element from this list. I think every one of my submissions has something, and (as Amber said on the other post) if you get too funky, you're not dealing with fantasy anymore. . .
It actually made me think of a few more (based on... uh, submissions o' mine still unsubmitted):
16. A Wizard's experiement goes terribly wrong, and the PCs have to deal with the aftermath.
17. A blighter takes over an area, and does all kinds of naughty stuff to it.
18. Mind Flayers are conducting slaving raids, eating brains, aquiring mind controlled servants, etc.
There are probably hundreds of them. :)
Someone innocent-seeming (or really noble, like a paladin) hires the PCs to stop mysterious animal kilings and in the end it's the innocent person doing it!! As a lycanthrope!! Gosh, no one saw that coming!
Also, pirate captains who are seawolves.
Pretty much anything with pirates is cliche, actually.
Except if they're half-dragon pirate succubi who can command dire rats with their singing.
Especially if they're half dragon, female drow succubi and they're painted by Wayne Reynolds.
Mrrrr-row!
I think that J.J. makes the point - the game in general has been around long enough that most long-time players have seen just about all common (and logical) plot hooks, to the point that they're all mostly cliche; I imagine that's how a cop or fireman would feel (oh, joy, we have to go fight a fire today...what a rush.)
The trick for the DM is to find the unique and interesting variations of cliche' themes and keep the interest of the players with atmosphere, character/NPC development and interesting plot changes.
My recent first submission was originally drafted from a decades-old module written by a friend as a typical "rescue so-and-so's daughter" story; I rewrote it expressly to avoid File 13 on that merit, and is (IMHO) an interesting twist from the typical 'save the girl' plot - but its roots are very cliche'.
M
This is good stuff. It's obvious from James' post that luck and timing has a lot to do with it. Of course, the adventure needs to be good, too!
Here's a couple more I've seen countless times in and outside of the pages of Dungeon...
19. A dying man stumbles and falls at the feet of the PCs with a letter clenched in his fist.
20. The PCs receive a note pleading for help (see above)
21. Any adventure that starts in the common room of an inn.
Why has nobody done:
22. Destroy the evil artifact.
With the plethora of new artifacts in 3.5 this horrible cliched adventure should become a dime a dozen you'd think....
Though what's worse:
23. A man approaches you in a tavern and asks you to destroy an evil artifact.
I think it's quite obvious that what we need is a horde of evil orc cultist/necromancers and drow led by a red dracolich sorcerer who are going to summon a demon lord and a tarrasque by sacrificing a princess to the dracolich and simultaneously destroying a powerful good relic.
The PCs learn about the adventure when a dying pirate captain seawolf stumbles up to them in the common room of a tavern and hands them a letter about it.
-Amber S.
Edit: And the dracolich is being controlled by an intelligent unicorn's horn that has just been stolen by the local thieves' guild. Yes I know dracoliches are immune to mind-influenceing effects, but what're you gonna do.
Throne of Iuz 14. A bunch of kobolds, goblins, gnolls, orcs, etc who follow a charismatic leader who isn’t of their own race, and seem happy to serve as fodder in his/her mad designs.
How could I say no to King Bog? Plus... it was interesting to see how the game handles hordes of high level orcs.
Throne of Iuz also qualifies under number 12, too. Because the Orc leader had a stash of unicorn goodies.
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Maybe I like cliche, but it seems that the #1 most cliche plot is:
A party of heroes is required to prevent something bad from happening, and in the course of the adventure they will pick up dozens of items worth more than a typical hamlet generates in a year.
Of course, you get rid of that, and most people won't think it is D&D anymore.
22. Destroy the evil artifact.
It all depends on how it is done though. I ran an entire campaign based on collecting 100 adult red dragon skulls under which the said artifact was to be burried and thus destroyed.
Low level characters did spelunking and bartering to find existing skulls, while as they got higher in level they actively went Dragon Hunting.
It was a fun campaign because it allowed PCs to specialize in fighting a specific foe, and then let me introduce some other foes like the Demon disguised as a red dragon, and the Brass dragon that was mistakenly described to the party as red. And turned out not to be a communist at all... Ha ha he he...um... Ok that one was just for me. This would be great in 3.5 because it would bring a bunch of prestuige classes focused on dragon hunting into play.
Anyway, the party didn't even know why their benifactor was having them collect the skulls until they reached 8th level or so.
The thing about a cliche adventure is running it in a way that is not cliche.
ASEO out
Also, pirate captains who are seawolves.
One of the many reasons that I was glad that Seawolves did not appear in my MM, and, to my knowledge, have not returned.
... Please tell me they stayed gone...
I don't have any problem with cliches. Neither do my players. Give us good adventures with well designed locations, traps, NPC's and monsters, and we're all good to go.
I've only found maybe a half dozen adventures in Dungeon that I didn't like and even then I was really only nit-picking.
I've subscribed off and on since the beginning and I plan to stay subscribed now that 3.5 has rejuvenated our whole group's gaming.