What do you always use?

[haakon1]

I've never thought about this. Distinctive features that seem normal to me (and therefore recur) are:

The Black Sheep Bad Guy. A member of an intelligent evil monster species who's not actually evil, and may be useful to the party. Often, it's possible to make peace with a mildly evil tribe of humanoids. For example, Meepo became King of his tribe is now at peace with the hoo-mans.

The Recurring Minor Bad Guy. Among the masses of enemies mowed down, one somehow survives and prospers. And keeps showing up. He usually becomes good at running away. Currently, a Hobgoblin who's worked his way up to F2 status.

Traditional Monsters. Wolves, werewolves, ghosts, orcs, etc. are more common than Chaos Beasts and so on.

Friendly NPCs, friendly home ground. Generally, when PC's are home, they don't have anything to worry about, and the NPC's are genuinely helpful once the PC's build a relationship with them.

GI's. Often, there's a back drop of war. Often, the PC's work for the government, tangentially supporting the war effort.

History, Geography, Politics, and References to Famous Stuff. I run Greyhawk. There will be references to the Twin Cataclysms, Witch-Queen Iggwilv and the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Mordenkainen, the Siege of Westkeep, the destruction of the Great Kingdom by Ivid the Undying, etc. Mostly, this sort of stuff is found in dungeon dressing, or by exploring dusty libraries, or from old NPC's.

The Keep on the Borderlands. There's almost always a place resembling the Keep on the Borderlands, or a visit to the actual one.

Castles. The PC's will usually have to defend or storm a castle or similar fortification, at some point.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

Moral Dilemma
Actually I had a few too many of these in a row and my players got antsy, so I've had to scale back.

Unpleasant Good Guy
The good NPC that the party wants help from who IS a good guy, but is just an . Generally the party suspects that he's really a villain, but no, he's just a jerk.

Lone Kobold in a Room
Less a plot element and more a psych out. At some point, the party will be in a dungeon, and come upon a very plain looking room. A kobold stands in the middle of the room. Just a kobold. A particularly stupid kobold. Just stands there. So they stare at it for awhile. Sometimes try to talk to it. Eventually attack it. Being an ordinary kobold, it dies. But they're STILL worried, because that can't be all there is to it, right? It's gotta be a trap, or a more powerful monster, or SOMETHING. It can't JUST be a kobold!

It's just a kobold.

The best part? ALL MY PLAYERS KNOW I DO THIS! I've got some Noobs to pull it on in this campaign, but 4 of 7 players have experienced the Lone Kobold, and most of them know the explaination behind it. But it still works EVERY time! Because what if THIS time, it's NOT just a kobold?

 

[orklord]

Events:

I routinely introduce major plot elements at parties. Its such an easy and acceptable way to get together a bunch of characters and make them talk to each other and pretend to get along. Plus, I can throw in music and nobody complains.

NPCs:

In my World of Darkness days (late 90s to early 00s), I used a pair of NPCs named Osprey and Stone in several different campaigns in different timelines and settings.

I frequently design a suppporting NPC who joins the party. I often use the NPC like a Greek Choir (to give resonance to party actions or consequences and to foreshadow upcoming events) or just to have a chance to mock play with the group instead of always standing apart as the GM (I know, its awful, isn't it?).

 

[ExploderWizard]

Wererats. ]These guys will show up at some point.

 

[Oryan77]

Is there anything that you always (or just about) implement in every single one of your campaigns/adventures/characters?

Player characters. No matter what, people show up and start playing characters in my game. I have plenty of NPCs to play with, why do I need PCs there to ruin the fun?

I've really only played one campaign that's been ongoing now for 7 years. I can't really think of anything that I do every single time for any situation.

 

[Sammael]

Shades of gray. It makes it more interesting when it's not readily apparent which side the PCs will aid.

Further along that line, sympathetic monsters and good guy jerks.

Evil elves is also another theme I've tried to include into each campaign ever since I read Pratchett's Lords and Ladies.

Both good and evil dragons have to appear at least once per campaign, as does at least one major dungeon. I don't like running dungeons, as they take too much prep work and the PCs typically waltz through without exploring even 1/4 of the dungeon, but I feel that a a game of Dungeons and Dragons must include both.

Since I typically run Forgotten Realms, there is one published NPC that just has to make an appearance - Halaster Blackcloak. He's utterly insane and can be incredibly dangerous, but mostly, he's there for comic relief. There's just something about a high-level NPC who wants the party to bring him... apple pie. Not a powerful artifact or portal key or dangerous monster. Just apple pie.

Death Knights. There's just something about the death knight that I've always found fascinating.

Avatars and assorted divine omens. Avatars typically only appear at high levels, so I'm less tempted to use them as deus ex machinas, but divine omens (usually prophetic dreams and such) are common enough.

Red Wizards of Thay are among my favorite villains, and I try to work them into every campaign - not necessarily as adversaries.

Helpful devils will aid the party at times, requiring nothing more but a simple signature here... and here... and this is your copy, good sir. Then, when the party next encounters demons, they smell the stench of Baator on a PC and want to tear him limb from limb, even if they wouldn't normally be aggressive.

Two things I'd always wanted to use but haven't really had the chance are the slaadi and the genies. I think I'll manage to work both into my current campaign.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Evil halflings (frequently psionic) I always see them as sympathetic, and having good reasons for evil acts (necromancy, treason, canabalism, bodysnatching, sacrificing dragonborn, unleashing an army of dead...) yes that's six different NPCs, in five campaigns. I recently realized that my current "evilhalfling" is actually a gnome.

Giant Bugs. I just like them.

Magic Fountains: they have a set pattern, there is always a random chance (save, 50%, etc) that they will screw the drinker. otherwise they provide some type of permanent advantage. +1 to ac, +1 to a saves, +1 to ability score etc.
One player was 0-5 for successfully using magic fountains.

Family Issues: your mom turns out to be a sea hag, or the high priestess of an evil cult. Your dad built the seven pillared hall. Even being an orphan is no defense. You might end up accidentally sleeping with a sister, or having to track down your parent's murders.

 

[fba827]

multiple factions: there is just never one bad guy with one agenda, it's always at least 3 groups of villians with conflicting agendas,at least 2 of which are more morally grey than the others which are more black/white "good vs bad"

Undead minions (specifically skeletons) used on a recurring basis for one faction: Not so much because there needs to be skeletons, but rather because they offer mindless/easy targets where the -players- and characters don't need to fret over whether to imprison them or kill them ... less morale conflict and more straightforward fight (the other factions will generally have more morale conflict, so one faction being more straightforward as killable allows some change of pace).

 

[Stormonu]

Adventures

Beware the mists. You're going to Ravenloft somewhere around 5th-8th level.

Situations

Too much booze at the local tavern ends in the characters engaged in a drunken fight - divested of armor and weapons and stumbling from inebriation - against humanoid raiders.

Monsters

Undead and Dragons. One of the two is behind whatever world-shaking event is going to show up in the campaign.

It's not what you think

At some point, some seemingly low-powered NPC turns out to be a critical focus point of the campaign. The first meeting they tend to forget about, but the NPC's name keeps coming up wherever they go, until eventually they find out some mind-shattering secret in how the NPC has been involved in all the party's woes up until this point ... and they struggle to remember where they first met the NPC and where he said he was going/living.

 

[jdrakeh]

I really like the Magic Jar spell and variants thereof. Whenever I run D&D, I find a way to work it in. In modern-ish horror games, I always work in cultists.