D&D: Five Adventure Archetypes to Fill a Campaign
Making some adventures? You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time—these five adventure archetypes can help.
Prepping adventures and stringing them together is one of the core responsibilities of the Dungeon Master—along with trying to wrangle the schedule of 3-6+ adults of varying degrees of responsibility in 2024. But prepping adventures can be an easy thing, when you know that at the core, all you really need is a big, general idea of what your quest is.
The specifics, of course, make all the difference. But once you have the big ideas down, the broadest strokes, then you can get to all the fun of the whos, whats, whens, and wheres.
Fetch Quest
Perhaps one of the most common adventure archetypes out there, a fetch quest is exactly what the name suggests. An NPC, who needs something, for some reason, sends the PCs to go fetch. Whether you’re retrieving a lost artifact, a secret treasure, or even just a love letter that was mistakenly sent somewhere, Fetch Quests are the backbone of RPGs, both the tabletop and video game varieties.
Rescue Mission
Sometimes, NPCs get in danger. Kittens get stuck in dungeons, princesses get kidnapped by tortles, the list goes on. But when you’re in trouble, you don’t call DW, instead, you send the PCs on a Rescue Mission. These often involving going into someplace dangerous – either because it’s actively hostile because it’s on fire or something, or because it’s full of creatures who are actively hostile. There’s a ton of fun to be had with a good, heroic Rescue Mission.
Explore the Space
We don’t often associate “going off into the unknown” with fantasy—that tends to be more Sci-Fi’s bag, baby. But, some of the best moments in fantasy stories come from heroes traveling into trackless wilderness, delving into ancient, heretofore unexplored ruins, or otherwise boldly going where no one has gone before. At least not recently. A great adventure concept, this can include trailblazing and mapmaking too.
Slay (the) Queen
There are lots of abilities in D&D that make you good at killing someone. And sometimes, one person/dragon/demigod needs killing more than most. Adventures to go find and kill someone—or something powerful, are often the heart of a longer campaign. It all depends on how many steps you have in between finding them and actually slaying them.
Ye Olde Shoppe Episode
Finally, the old DM standby—the shopping trip. This is an adventure, often in both roleplaying and character exploration, as well as figuring out what kinds of things the PCs are into. All you have to do is come up with an interesting NPC or two, have a good catalogue of items, and you’re good to go!
Happy adventuring!
