GMs, What Plots do you use a lot?

Tinker Gnome

Adventurer
By this I mean, do you find yourself using a certain type of plot a lot. Such as "Strange creatures from beyond time itself are invading" or "A Noble plots to overthrow the King". Also, are there any monster types you like to use a lot? I myself find I tend to use Undead a lot. For plots, I find I tend to use, "There is someone manipulating everything that has been going on for the past milennia, or even longer".

I find I tend to stay away from plots involving the concepts of "Destiny" or "Fate".
 

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Excellent questions! :)

*have an XP*

Hmm. I'm very fond of "X is invading from another plane, you have to stop him" with sub-adventures of "You must find artifact Y in this burial mound to stop X!"

I love using orcs and gnolls and minions of Iuz. Over and over and over again. Oh, and undead. Especially if the party lacks a cleric.

Cheers!
 

I tend to use "this place is abandoned and lost for centuries for a reason." Be careful of what you release." a fair bit.

I also use "the plot hook is the symptom and not the problem" situations a fair bit. I suppose an alternative title would be "things aren't what they seem."

I try to introduce "you can right this ancient wrong" situations. Sometimes the players notice, but usually they get distracted by something shiny and don't follow through.

As for monster types, I don't think I have a particular favourite. Pretty much everything exists somewhere. What the PCs find depends on where they go.
 

I almost always have mystery plots with lots of clue-searching, NPC questioning, information gathering, etc.

As such a fair number of my plotlines deal with things that have been in motion for quite sometime and is now beginning to reach its moment of action. Thus there is lots of groundwork for clues and information gathering but as the plot continues a sense of urgency and tension as things countdown to zero-hour.

So any variation of that I have used in abundance. It usually also follows along with, "everything is not as it seems", "look below the surface", the "real world is not what you know". That kind of thing, conspiracy theories and all that.
 

I really like undead, humanoids of varied and exotic types, plants/oozes/insects, and fey type things. Although I also like far realms stuff too, but rarely get the opportunity to use. Mystery, horror, and high flying action are big on my list of styles.

There is one specific plot (details the same) I've used twice for two different groups. Beyond that, it depends on the campaign, because some campaigns just don't work that way, and some groups have different motivations.

One notion I like (to which I used a lot in my last campaign) is the repercussions of player actions leading to further adventure. "You stop X, but the thing X was keeping in check is now unchecked" or "You stop X, but now there are after-effects of what X was doing" (for instance, bad guys opening up a rift to another plane, PCs may stop it, but some inhabitants manage to escape out the rift during the battle, and cause trouble later.)

I am a big fan of player decisive goals. Players going forward and furthering their goals. I like currying favor and trading favors, and that sort of nationbuilding.

A particular campaign idea I like a lot is "Players are in charge of something". I've ran a colony situation twice now. Or a campaign where the party is actively trying to make the world a better place, and choose which direction to go, what threat to tackle. I also like themed campaigns - a Detective game, a Thief's Guild campaign, a game where everyone is traveling gypsy con artists, etc. It gives me direction.

I avoid "Fate/Destiny", "Save the World" stuff (compared to, say, saving the town) and I dislike unmotivated "We just wander around and hope random adventure hooks unrelated to anything else falls on us" rather than pursuing certain things.
 


I'm a big sucker for shapeshifters manipulating events behind the scenes. I also lean towards adventures revolving around secrets and old decisions coming back to bite you.

Oh, yeah. And that ghoul fixation.
 

Oh, yeah. And that ghoul fixation.
My particular monster fixation when it comes to plots would probably be intelligent spirits (of all kinds), devils and aberrations. They are all ones that can really get nasty and cunning with weaving conspiracy theories, eldritch horror, and lots of deceit. Plus just ordinary humans are good too at this.
 


As a DM, I've often focused on site based adventures where the dungeon/lost city/whatever that the PCs are induced to explore is the resting place of Very Bad Things just waiting to be released. Demons, undead, horrors from the Far Realms, it doesn't matter. So long as it has a good reason for being there, and keeps the players on their toes. With that come the evil cultists, secret societies, and other such things that keep a campaign world from getting dull.

Things I avoid: any adventure which begins with "After the PCs are captured by...". My players would invariably rather have their characters fight to the death armed only with a barrel top and a pointy stick than surrender to a lowly NPC, no matter how nasty.
 

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