RPG Story Ideas

RPG Story Ideas: 30 adventure ideas

Padlock: keep a part. Arrows: change only that part.

• Who is askinglocksmith who opened a door and wishes otherwise
• The jobplant a boundary marker where no one has stood before
• Whereat a jousting ground where the judges are statues
• The complicationeveryone in town has the same alibi
• The rewardsnowshoes carved to fit every member

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1. A locksmith who opened a door and wishes otherwise asks the party to plant a boundary marker where no one has stood before at a jousting ground where the judges are statues. The complication: everyone in town has the same alibi. The reward, if they succeed: snowshoes carved to fit every member.
2. A caretaker whose churchyard gate will not stay shut asks the party to recover a mayor's chain of office before the parade in a kingdom where it is always the same afternoon. The complication: half the route crosses the land of a giant who naps lightly. The reward, if they succeed: the right to name the mountain.
3. A mining union locked out of its own asteroid asks the party to recover a mayor's chain of office before the parade in a market where spells are sold by weight. The complication: the only key is baked inside one of forty loaves. The reward, if they succeed: a year of free repairs from the best smith in the land.
4. A mapmaker paid by the mile and deeply in debt asks the party to follow a river back to wherever it begins in a mine the miners sealed and will not discuss. The complication: the only spare part is on display in a museum. The reward, if they succeed: twelve months of fuel on someone else's account.
5. A retired android who wants its memories back asks the party to identify a stranger who has everyone's trust at a wizards' college during exam week. The complication: spells fizzle near anyone hiding a secret. The reward, if they succeed: the truth about one party member's family.
6. A fortune teller whose cards have all turned up blank asks the party to spend one night and write down everything that moves in a valley the snow has skipped for a century. The complication: footprints appear in fresh dust ahead of the party. The reward, if they succeed: a griffin's promise of one rescue, any time.
7. A guild of locksmiths robbed for the first time ever asks the party to repair a robot that insists it is not broken at a crossroads where a lantern waits each midnight. The complication: the patron left out the one detail that matters. The reward, if they succeed: a lamp that glows brighter when hope runs low.
8. A clockmaker baffled by forty timepieces halting together asks the party to spend one night and write down everything that moves at a station hotel whose guests all missed the same train. The complication: a very big animal trails the party and minds its manners. The reward, if they succeed: snowshoes carved to fit every member.
9. A lamplighter who sees who walks the streets before dawn asks the party to rebuild a rope bridge before the caravan arrives on a mountain with a door halfway up. The complication: nobody local will stay past sunset, or say why. The reward, if they succeed: an engine upgrade that came with no manual.
10. An elderly dragon who will not admit to failing eyesight asks the party to count their own shadows and explain the extra one in a vault sealed before its builders had finished. The complication: an earlier party left notes that end mid-sentence. The reward, if they succeed: a flock of geese that will follow them anywhere.
11. A ghost who cannot recall what was left undone asks the party to count their own shadows and explain the extra one at a town hall with a sealed basement. The complication: dawn comes an hour later every morning. The reward, if they succeed: an heirloom the family is glad to see leave.
12. A night watch captain two days from retirement asks the party to find fresh water for a stranded camp on a lane the mapmakers keep leaving off. The complication: a rival party was hired for the same job at half the fee. The reward, if they succeed: a flock of geese that will follow them anywhere.
13. A medium who has stopped getting answers asks the party to host a dinner where half the guests are ghosts at a wizards' college during exam week. The complication: the only key is baked inside one of forty loaves. The reward, if they succeed: a map to something better than gold.
14. A mayor who would rather this stayed quiet asks the party to audit a set of accounts that are far too perfect in a playroom where the toys change places after dark. The complication: two ghosts tell the story and neither version agrees. The reward, if they succeed: a telescope that looks one day into the past.
15. A doubting professor who has run out of explanations asks the party to track a white stag without harming it at a river crossing that is never in the same place. The complication: the only spare part is on display in a museum. The reward, if they succeed: first pick of everything in the lost property room.
16. A medium who has stopped getting answers asks the party to haul a piano to wherever its buyer has moved to beneath a castle built on an older castle. The complication: a very big animal trails the party and minds its manners. The reward, if they succeed: a griffin's promise of one rescue, any time.
17. A clockmaker baffled by forty timepieces halting together asks the party to keep a nervous witness safe until the hearing inside a starship that was grown, not built. The complication: an earlier party left notes that end mid-sentence. The reward, if they succeed: a single wish, with a lawyer to word it.
18. A tracker puzzled by a trail that begins mid-meadow asks the party to find fresh water for a stranded camp in a house where the doorbell is rung from indoors. The complication: the party's translator is improvising. The reward, if they succeed: a portrait of the party, painted by nobody.
19. A terraforming engineer whose rain will not stop asks the party to lose a contest on purpose without the judges noticing at a theater between the matinee and the evening show. The complication: someone in the party sent a message nobody admits to. The reward, if they succeed: a final note from a great-grandparent, unsealed at last.
20. A tracker puzzled by a trail that begins mid-meadow asks the party to learn who paints a red door on every house by night in a market square on the night before the fair. The complication: spells fizzle near anyone hiding a secret. The reward, if they succeed: a share of a caravan's profits for a year.
21. A guild of locksmiths robbed for the first time ever asks the party to umpire a shouting match between rival phantoms in a village that votes on everything, loudly. The complication: a rival party was hired for the same job at half the fee. The reward, if they succeed: snowshoes carved to fit every member.
22. A botanist seeking a flower that blooms once in a lifetime asks the party to trace a forged invitation to its printer beneath a castle built on an older castle. The complication: the haunting is friendly and the neighbors are not. The reward, if they succeed: snowshoes carved to fit every member.
23. A terraforming engineer whose rain will not stop asks the party to learn why the birds have stopped migrating at a wizards' college during exam week. The complication: two of the suspects are the same person. The reward, if they succeed: snowshoes carved to fit every member.
24. A botanist seeking a flower that blooms once in a lifetime asks the party to learn why the birds have stopped migrating in a spire whose staircase is longer on the way up. The complication: the clue everyone needs is somebody's family secret. The reward, if they succeed: the truth about one party member's family.
25. A shepherd whose flock walked uphill and did not stop asks the party to wake a sleeping giant gently in an orbital junkyard run by its own robots. The complication: an old prophecy names the party, with one name misspelled. The reward, if they succeed: first claim on a valley nobody has farmed.
26. A goblin innkeeper with a respectable name to protect asks the party to hunt down a book that hides from readers in a playroom where the toys change places after dark. The complication: nothing strange happens at all, which worries everyone. The reward, if they succeed: a hand-drawn map with the party's route in gold ink.
27. A librarian whose returned books come back annotated asks the party to finish a letter a ghost began a century ago on a plateau reachable by one ladder. The complication: another crew set out earlier with better mules. The reward, if they succeed: a grateful spirit as a doorkeeper.
28. A guild of locksmiths robbed for the first time ever asks the party to identify a stranger who has everyone's trust on a moon where one crater is always in shade. The complication: the local watch wants the credit and none of the work. The reward, if they succeed: citizenship on a world with real weather.
29. A tracker puzzled by a trail that begins mid-meadow asks the party to wake one sleeper out of ten thousand, the right one on a glacier that groans at night like a ship. The complication: the treasure is alive and has opinions about being moved. The reward, if they succeed: a secondhand ship with a paid-up berth.
30. A banker missing nothing except the vault door asks the party to steal back a crown before anyone learns it was gone inside a starship that was grown, not built. The complication: the treasure is alive and has opinions about being moved. The reward, if they succeed: a lamp that glows brighter when hope runs low.