Classic Campaigning...

[DmQ]

An old adventuring friend of the PC’s dies mysteriously, and when the PC’s find him they discover a trinket of stunning beauty but no obvious magic quality. Oddly enough, anyone of the PC’s that carries the trinket keeps having strange things happen to them. To include, but not limited to, random falling objects almost killing them. Getting run over by stampeding horses. Having the Inn they are sleeping in burn down. Random NPC’s that otherwise have no evil history trying to murder them.

Over the course of the adventure the PC’s discover that the trinket is actually the key to uncovering an ancient power. Of course, one of the NPC’s that helps them uncover the truth is actually an emissary from an ancient cult that has been tracking the trinket for hundreds of years, and convinces the PC’s to use it with a story that the trinket is some evil holding back a long banished force of good, that if released will bring peace and prosperity to the lands. In reality he/she knows she can not touch the trinket because the curse will affect them ten fold.

Of course they never realize that the trinkets power is actually the key to the quasi-planar prison of the dreaded ancient necromancer of doom. The curse laid upon the trinket was done by the creators to keep the necromancers followers from living long enough to use it. When the PC’s eventually free the necromancer he opens up a portal to some random layer of the abyss and ushers forth an army of undead that begins to ravage the world. The PC’s are shunned and cast off as pariahs blamed for unleashing the ancient evil.

In order to make it right, the PC’s are forced to undo their mistake by taking on an epic adventure that spans the planes and the world ethos, to finely defeat the necromancer/demigod.

I prefer good anti-hero campaigns, they are more plausible then the altruistic cliché’s..

 

[MDSnowman]

Actually, if you wanted a good humor element, you could have a princess that keeps getting captured and the PCs have to keep rescueing her from different captors. From her own castle is always a good one too

This has actually happened in 8-bit theater, Princess Sara, the princess in question got so fed up with how incompenent her captor, Garland, was that she took over the castle and tried to kill the heroes herself. But when they failed (due in large part to Garland lowering the defenseless heroes into a vat of Mountain Dew and not acid) Sara went back with the heroes but now, behind closed doors she is Evil Princess Sara!

 

[Tron]

Have a party from a past campaign return in the form of the BBEGs (Perhaps with a huge undead army at there command). Then have the BBEGs from return (in good form) as the fated heroes who can stop them. Repeat every thousand years.

 

[Cassander]

This has actually happened in 8-bit theater, Princess Sara, the princess in question got so fed up with how incompenent her captor, Garland, was that she took over the castle and tried to kill the heroes herself. But when they failed (due in large part to Garland lowering the defenseless heroes into a vat of Mountain Dew and not acid) Sara went back with the heroes but now, behind closed doors she is Evil Princess Sara!

That's funny.... the princess in one of my campaigns is named Sera... the PCs had to rescue her from a marriage she was being forced into (had to storm a castle Princess Bride style and break up the wedding). And talk about another cliche, the BBEG was the king's advisor, a powerful enchanter. Course now the PCs are WANTED throughout the kingdom (which is expanding) and beyond as kidnappers of the princess

Course I think an adventure where the PCs have to rescue Prince would be good, though it might turn into a lot of humor ala the Prince in Holy Grail. "What, the curtains?"

 

[Peskara]

Scavenger Hunt

You've left out the classic: PCs need to find and assemble all the components for a ritual or artifact that is the only way to stop the BBEG. Or they have to find items of power (one for each PC) that will enable them to fight BBEG.

 

[Horoku]

You've left out the classic: PCs need to find and assemble all the components for a ritual or artifact that is the only way to stop the BBEG. Or they have to find items of power (one for each PC) that will enable them to fight BBEG.

XD
I've done that one so many times, it's scary to think about... let's see... there were the 6 seals of the Hellfire Blade, the 5 points of the Astral Star, the 8 pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom (hoo-hah! Moblin = Hobgoblin, baby!)...
Wow, I'm entrenched in cliche.

 

[pensiv]

The hero is named Ulysses . . .

 

[rbingham2000]

Another one from Willow:

An Evil Overlord is rounding up all the pregnant women of the realm because a prophecy dictates that a first-born child with a special mark will be the key to his downfall, and the Evil Overlord wants to destroy the child as a threat to his rule. One of the midwives doesn't want this to happen, and so she steals the child, escapes with it, and sends it down the river in a good basket.

Guess who gets stuck with the kid.

Guess who has to deal with all those evil bastards sent by the Evil Overlord who are hell-bent on bringing the kid back to the Evil Overlord so he can destroy its soul in a horrible ritual or sacrifice it to his demonic god.

Come on, guess!