D&D General Examples of "Core" D&D Adventure Themes?

[J.Quondam]

The old standby:
The innkeeper has a basement infested with rats! So he tasks the PCs to go downstairs, round them up, and shave them bald for some unspeakable reason.

 

[Ancalagon]

You get a dungeon map from a retired/ing adventurer:

 

[aco175]

You get a dungeon map from a retired/ing adventurer:

This is good for a base adventure, but masterclass is that a dragon plants maps to lure adventurers to his lair, bringing all their magic.

 

[Faolyn]

Have you seen the Big List of RPG Plots?

 

[CleverNickName]

Have you seen the Big List of RPG Plots?

For some reason, my McAfee Anti-Virus browser extension blocked that link. Is everything copasetic?

 

[J.Quondam]

For some reason, my McAfee Anti-Virus browser extension blocked that link. Is everything copasetic?

It's a web archive link, to a pretty bare-bones webpage with no apparent trackers or anything. Just double-checked, and my ublock doesn't flag anything suspicious. I clicked through and did a print page to PDF, no problems.

 

[Faolyn]

For some reason, my McAfee Anti-Virus browser extension blocked that link. Is everything copasetic?

Eep! Well, it's also available on DriveThruRPG and TVTropes.

 

[Lanefan]

You find a map!

• It shows the location of an uncharted island, go chart it!

In Jack Sparrow voice: "If it's an uncharted island, how did it get on the map?"

More seriously, this points to a trope I've used for parties just starting out:

There's an old cleaned-out dungeon at location x. To practice your field skills, go explore it and come back with a map of it.

 

[Yora]

There are no overdone ideas. Only uninspired executions.

The thing with D&D is that it has gone through a dozen iterations that want to be completely different things at different times, while still maintaining that it's all still D&D. Many shallow and nonsensical looking ideas appear that way when applied to a different style of game or campaign than the one that made them entertaining classics.

 

[Lyxen]

While certainly different, I would not call them completely different. We have been able to play more or less in the same styles (the ones that we prefer) for more than 35-40 years whatever the edition. Some were easier to use than others, some steered our game in particular directions, but it was still unmistakeable D&D.

But this might be because we have a heavily story-oriented roleplaying mode, I understand that if you play more technically (which is as good a style if you prefer it), the editions of the game seem more different to you.