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Returning 35 results for 'simple staring adventure'.
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Monsters
Mythic Odysseys of Theros
easily manipulated into serving their more forceful brethren. Having purpose forced upon them, these Returned perform simple, artless tasks with middling efficiency. Their one virtue is their
composition and craftsmanship. However, selling a Returned mask isn’t a simple matter of cashing it in for coin. Most people on Theros know the tales of the Returned and want nothing to do with
Monsters
Adventure Atlas: The Mortuary
boxes with simple fittings to elaborate, gilded sarcophagi and reverent, fabric-lined caskets.
Beyond the City of Doors, animated coffins serve similar—albeit less industrial—roles
sardines
3
A groaning mummy
4
A patch of yellow mold (see the Dungeon Master’s Guide)
5
A slumbering vampire spawn
6
A portal to the Path of Graves (detailed in Adventure Atlas: The Mortuary)
Poison, Psychic
Monsters
Mythic Odysseys of Theros
composition and craftsmanship. However, selling a Returned mask isn’t a simple matter of cashing it in for coin. Most people on Theros know the tales of the Returned and want nothing to do with
. Convincing a merchant to buy a Returned mask, or dealing with the ramifications of such a sale, might prove to be an adventure in itself.
Returned Nature. The Returned are undead. They need water
Monsters
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
the start of the grue’s next turn.Fanged and lipless, the ever-grinning, eerily staring grue lopes about on spindly legs and long arms. Bristles and spines project from odd patches of its grayish
a simple or martial weapon or a natural weapon, if it has one. The next creature hit by the touched weapon must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on all ability checks. The
Monsters
Mythic Odysseys of Theros
approximately 100 gp, based on its composition and craftsmanship. However, selling a Returned mask isn’t a simple matter of cashing it in for coin. Most people on Theros know the tales of the
effectively another sapient being’s face. Convincing a merchant to buy a Returned mask, or dealing with the ramifications of such a sale, might prove to be an adventure in itself.
Returned Nature. The
Monsters
Mythic Odysseys of Theros
. However, selling a Returned mask isn’t a simple matter of cashing it in for coin. Most people on Theros know the tales of the Returned and want nothing to do with such cursed relics or with those
a Returned mask, or dealing with the ramifications of such a sale, might prove to be an adventure in itself.
Returned Nature. The Returned are undead. They need water and air but not food or sleep
Tortle
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Species
The Tortle Package
I caught a big fish.
Now I search for a good friend
To share my lunch with.
— Tortle haiku
What many tortles consider a simple life, others might call a life of adventure. Tortles are
feeling homesick. Tortles embrace a simple view of the world. It is a place of wonder, and tortles see beauty in the ordinary. They live for the chance to hear a soft wind blowing through palm trees, to
Elf
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Species
Basic Rules (2014)
enjoy simple yet lovely jewelry.
A Timeless Perspective
Elves can live well over 700 years, giving them a broad perspective on events that might trouble the shorter-lived races more deeply. They are
minstrels, artists, or sages. Human nobles compete for the services of elf instructors to teach swordplay or magic to their children.
Exploration and Adventure
Elves take up adventuring out of wanderlust
Lizardfolk
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Species
Volo's Guide to Monsters
If you’re considering taking a scaled one along on an adventure, remember this important fact. The strange, inhuman glint in its eyes as it looks you over is the same look you might give a
plans, or cultivating other methods to progress beyond their simple existence as hunters and gatherers.
Hapless Soft Ones
At their core, lizardfolk view other humanoids with an indifference verging on
Bugbear
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Species
Volo's Guide to Monsters
crafting simple tools and hunting and gathering food, and gangs sometimes come together peacefully to exchange members and goods between them.
Malevolent Worship of Malign Gods
Bugbears worship two
trophies that honor Hruggek, and their ever-staring eyes are an homage to sleepless Grankhul.
The heads of leaders and mighty opponents are particularly sacred, and offering up such a trophy can provide
Gnome
Legacy
This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.
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Species
Basic Rules (2014)
whenever they can. Their homes are well hidden by both clever construction and simple illusions. Welcome visitors are quickly ushered into the bright, warm burrows. Those who are not welcome are
quick, if dangerous, path to wealth. Regardless of what spurs them to adventure, gnomes who adopt this way of life eke as much enjoyment out of it as they do out of any other activity they undertake
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Journeys through the Radiant Citadel
. Throughout the adventure, highlight how the Feywild has influenced the land, with vegetation and animals demonstrating friendly or capricious behavior, the sun rising amid a psychedelic dawn, or characters
experiencing random instances of good luck. Meanwhile, Far Realm energies manifest as eyes staring from the dark, insidious insects, or misshapen silhouettes looming in the distance. The land’s
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide
, and the opening of a portal to another plane of existence are other situations that could lead to adventure. A simple premise might also boil down to “a magic item that the characters want is hidden
away in a dungeon.” Browsing the magic items in chapter 7 can inspire you to create a simple adventure seed.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide
campaign, refer to the advice in chapter 4. Keep the first adventure relatively short and simple, allowing plenty of time for the characters to get to know each other as the players roleplay. What’s
First Adventure If you’re using a published adventure to launch your campaign, use the character hooks in that adventure to bring the characters from their starting location to the adventure’s action
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Xanathar's Guide to Everything
can be different for each group. For more narrative adventures, try to focus on simple but flexible encounters or events. For instance, an adventure requires the characters to protect a high priest of
Adventure Duration Every adventure in a shared campaign begins and ends in the same play session. (If a group of participants wants to take longer to finish and all are willing to do so, they can
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
Linking Adventures A campaign in the style of an episodic television show rarely needs story links between its adventures. Each adventure features its own villains, and once the characters complete
the adventure, there are typically no loose plot threads. The next adventure presents an altogether different challenge having nothing to do with the adventure that preceded it. As the characters gain
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Adventure Hooks Pulling the characters into this adventure is relatively simple. Aubreck is desperate for help, yet not quite ready to tip his hand. He fears that if he spreads the news of the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tomb of Annihilation Supplement
Tortle Race I caught a big fish.
Now I search for a good friend
To share my lunch with.
— Tortle haiku
What many tortles consider a simple life, others might call a life of adventure
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide
Keeping the Adventure Moving Make sure your players have clear objectives they can pursue at every stage of the adventure. Three simple techniques can ensure that the players understand the task at
the adventure, someone they met along the way, or a character’s contact. When you’re planning an adventure, include NPCs who can fill this role. Evil Intrusion. If things start grinding to a halt, have
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mythic Odysseys of Theros
are dusty and rarely walked, though the windows of dilapidated hovels glimmer with the staring masks of listless Returned. Asphodel is an echo of the grim cities of the Underworld, making it a
tragically ironic home for those who risked so much to escape the land of the dead. Coliseum of the Aphonai Three ancient Returned called the Aphonai rule Asphodel. They wear simple, identical golden masks
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron
windows. Skycoaches work their way through the maze of bridges connecting the massive towers, and up above I can see the burning ring of an elemental airship.
Staring into the sky, I nearly walk into a
made manifest in the great city of Sharn. It’s a place of magic, with skycoaches circling mile-high towers and mystic forges toiling endlessly in the bowels. It’s a place of adventure and intrigue. A
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Simple Traps A simple trap activates and is thereafter harmless or easily avoided. A hidden pit dug at the entrance of a goblin lair, a poison needle that pops from a lock, and a crossbow rigged to
fire when an intruder steps on a pressure plate are all simple traps. Elements of a Simple Trap The description of a simple trap begins with a line that gives the trap’s level and the severity of the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dragon Delves
Running the Adventures later in this introduction).
One-Shot Adventure Maybe you’re normally a player in an ongoing campaign, but you want to try your hand at being the Dungeon Master. Maybe you’re
ready to play. Or maybe your group needs a break or a diversion from the ongoing campaign. In any of these cases, you can pick an adventure from this book and run it.
In an Ongoing Campaign Maybe
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Survivors Terror doesn’t come just for the brave and prepared—often quite the opposite. Some of the most harrowing horror stories involve the least likely heroes, individuals who find their simple
lives transformed into waking nightmares. In most horror adventures, your players will employ familiar, adventure-ready characters. That doesn’t need to be the case, though. Instead, for short, low
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide
Adventure Conflict A premise can be a good starting point, but before you can turn it into an adventure, it needs a conflict worthy of the heroes’ attention. The conflict might be driven by a single
treasure, what conflict awaits the characters when they enter the dungeon? That might be as simple as “hostile monsters want to eat the characters” or “two rival factions of monsters inhabit the dungeon
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide
festivals. The answer to the question “When does this adventure take place?” can be as simple as “in the winter” or “during the fall harvest festival.” Timed Events Extraordinary events coinciding with
certain times of year make for great adventure opportunities. Perhaps a ghostly castle appears on a certain hill on the winter solstice every year, or every thirteenth full moon is blood red and fills
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
Creating a Monster The Monster Manual contains hundreds of ready-to-play monsters, but it doesn’t include every monster that you can imagine. Part of the D&D experience is the simple joy of creating
the concept for your monster. What makes it unique? Where does it live? What role do you want it to serve in your adventure, your campaign, or your world? What does it look like? Does it have any
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War
to provide the paper with tales of your exploits as you search out adventure. Or you might be investigative reporters dedicated to shining the light of truth into the darkness of criminal, political
. The simplest chronicles appear as scrolls nailed to public message boards containing the pertinent news of the week. More ambitious chronicles—including the Aundairian Scroll, the Breland Ledger, and the Sharn Inquisitive—are presented as folded broadsheets nested together to form simple books.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tales from the Yawning Portal
Starting the Story Kicking off a dungeon adventure can be as simple as having a mysterious stranger offer the characters a quest while they are at the Yawning Portal (or some other tavern). This
approach is a cliché, but it is an effective one. Use the following two tables to generate a couple of details, then tailor the particulars of the quest and the quest giver to suit the adventure you plan
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
Foreword A simple question began rattling around in my head over two years ago as I was bidding farewell to Barovia, dragging myself out of the depths of Maelstrom, and planning a yearlong expedition
before work on the adventure was scheduled to begin. Matthew Mercer, whom you might know from the livestreamed show Critical Role, lent us his boundless imagination and helped flesh out the villains and
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
adventure locales. An area that size is likely to have one to three additional settlements as well as the home base, so give thought to them as well.
3. Craft a Starting Adventure A single dungeon
makes a good first adventure for most campaigns. See chapter 3, “Creating Adventures” for guidance.
A home base provides a common starting location for the characters. This starting point might be
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Rrakkma
Appendix 3. Dungeon Master Tips PREPARATORY NOTES. As you’re reading through and/or running this adventure, pay special attention to areas that include creatures, noting whether or not the
area with additional details. It is highly recommended, to get the maximum enjoyment out of this adventure, that you have six players ready to play each of the pregenerated characters. Due to the
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Princes of the Apocalypse
Athas would have looked much like the Forgotten Realms. The four Haunted Keeps described in chapter 3 of this adventure are lonely outposts or ruins scattered throughout the badlands under which Tyar
-Besil lies. Rivergard Keep is admittedly a little problematic in a desert world, but the solution is simple: It lies on the dusty banks of a river long dried up. The Crushing Wave cultists occupying
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Lost Mine of Phandelver
Improvising Ability Checks The adventure often tells you what ability checks characters might try in a certain situation and the Difficulty Class (DC) of those checks. Sometimes adventurers try
things that the adventure can’t possibly anticipate. It’s up to you to decide whether their attempts are successful. If it seems like anyone should have an easy time doing it, don’t ask for an ability
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide
Secrets and Discovery In the course of an adventure, the players and their characters will uncover information that was previously unknown to them. Make sure the information they need to complete the
adventure is obtainable. Don’t hide important secrets or discoveries in places where the characters aren’t likely to uncover them. Make sure they can’t miss an important secret or discovery simply by






