ADVENTURE DESIGN IN WANDERING HEROES OF OGRE GATE

Here is a glimpse of the adventure design section of the rules: 

DESIGNING ADVENTURES

There are countless ways to design adventures and any one of them can work for Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate. Much of this is dependent upon your GMing style and the playstyle of your group. What follows is advice based on how we ran Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate.

It is all about where you begin. We’ve simplified and focused on three areas you can focus on: Villains, Location and Conflict.

Start with the Villain

This approach works well in horror campaigns but we found it useful in creating adventures for wuxia style play. At the heart of such an adventure is the threat, which emanates from your villain. If you make a villain with clearly defined motives and a strong personality, the adventure itself falls into place quite easily.

A good villain is compelling, being both repulsive and attractive at the same time. This isn’t physical repulsion or beauty (though it can be). Rather the villain ought to be repulsive in an area of behavior and belief, something that can frighten your PCs or stir them action. It can help to balance this with redeeming features, something that makes their time in the campaign memorable. They do not need to be sympathetic (though they can be). They just need to be something your players can fear and respect at the same time. You can have a villain who is wholly evil, shows no mercy to the innocent, and is consumed by selfishness, but perhaps she is intelligent or a skilled and passionate musician. No matter how evil your villain, it should be possible to have a conversation with her.

For your villain be sure to create a background, goals that fit the background and a personality that is easy to get into during play. In order for your villain to be gameable, you want the villains goals to potentially intersect with the party, hopefully causing a threat to their interests or a person/place they would naturally be inclined to defend (including themselves). This could be anything from the villain bullying a town of innocent people to a villain who steals money or relics from the players’ sect.

While it is usually best to create your villain whole cloth, feel free to roll on the ADVENTURE TABLES below if you need. Simply roll for each one (VILLAIN IDENITTY, VILLAIN GOAL, and VILLAIN PERSONALITY). You may want to roll more than once on the Personality table.

AVDENTURE TABLE: VILLAIN IDENITY
Roll d10	Result
1	A sect leader
2	A general
3	A Respected Scholar or Priest
4	A reputable leader
5	A sifu
6	An envious brother or sister
7	A wealthy aristocrat or merchant
8	A bandit leader
9	A lone martial hero or villain
10	A Roll on Villain II

AVDENTURE TABLE: VILLAIN IDENTITY II
Roll d10	Result
1	A servant or eunuch
2	An imperial official
3	A musician or artist
4	A sorcerer
5	A great martial hero or villain
6	A great sect leader
7	A great sifu
8	A doctor
9	A band of great heroes or villains
10	A being or thing from another world

AVDENTURE TABLE: VILLAIN GOAL
Roll d10	Result
1	To exploit defenseless community
2	To possess a person who loves another
3	To possess a powerful artifact or weapon
4	To possess a secret manual
5	To trick a person or family out of great wealth
6	To poison an enemy
7	To befriend and then betray over a grudge
8	To settle a grudge with a person
9	To settle a grudge with a community
10	Roll on Villain Goal II

AVDENTURE TABLE: VILLAIN GOAL II
Roll d10	Result
1	To command a criminal organization and grow wealthy
2	To achieve the objectives of a former master
3	To massacre a large number of people
4	Become the greatest martial artist in the world
5	To improve a family member’s standing in society
6	To eliminate a threat or problem once and for all
7	To complete a great work of art, engineering,etc.
8	Kill an important leader
9	To control a city
10	To rule the martial world

AVDENTURE TABLE: VILLAIN PERSONALITY
Roll d10	Result
1	Cruel
2	Aggressive
3	Intelligent
4	Artistic
5	Rude
6	Hedonist
7	Crazy
8	Vengeful
9	Hypocritical
10	Roll on Villain Personality II

AVDENTURE TABLE: VILLAIN PERSONALITY II
Roll d10	Result
1	Kind
2	Calm
3	Stupid
4	Scholarly
5	Polite
6	Ascetic
7	Inflexible
8	Merciful
9	Truthful
10	Roll on Villain Personality II