1. Open your Monster Manual (or equivalent tome) to a random page
2. Open your Dungeon Masters Guide (or equal) to a random page
3. Come up with a scenario idea that links the random monster to the GM advice
4. Add it as a comment!
Here’s mine, to start the ball rolling, using 4e D&D.
Monster Manual page 86 (I pick the Dragonborn Gladiator) and DMG page 132, which talks about published adventures and how to start a campaign.
The players are approached by an aged Dragonborn who tosses a old arena trophy belt on the table. He growls, “Just found out that’s a fake. It wasn’t a month ago, not before my old sparring partner turned up. If you want a job, find him and bring my real belt back. If yer can switch this one for the real one without his knowing, do that. If not, make sure he’s not alive to swindle me again. You choose. His name? Balgron the Fat.”
Cue Keep in Shadowfell……..
Monster Manual page 161, Wild Hunt Hounds and DMG page 43, which talks about Cover.
The players traipse through a dark wood, on their way to retrieve the Magic MacGuffin Sword. The naturally perceptive among them hear rustling around them, then they’re attacked by wild hunt hounds, who rush out of the bushes, bite at the adventurers as they pass, then slip straight back into the bushes. The hounds continue this tactic until more than half of their number have been killed, then they retreat.
Odd behavior for hounds. If curious, the adventurers can track the beasts back to the local lord’s castle, but he’s out traveling. And the hounds’ pens have been tampered with….
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This is a bit of a cheat but:
This scenario requires that the PC’s have some valuable item (Such as a Ring of Wizardry) that they did NOT find in a long forgotten dungeon (or create themselves). They may have bought it, been given it, stolen it or seized it in battle, but it has to be something that’s been around civilization recently, and that the PC’s don’t know the recent history of.
An Invisible Stalker attempts to rob a (PC) magic-user of his Ring of Wizardry. If the PC’s catch and defeat the Stalker, it will admit that it was sent by one Regulus Arcamis, a nearby magic-user, to take the ring. If the Stalker succeeds it immediately takes the ring to Arcamis and returns to it’s own plane. If the PC’s bother to check, Arcamis has a reputation as an honest dealer in magical items. The PC’s may even have bought the ring from Arcamis some time ago.
What’s going on: Arcamis was robbed about three weeks ago. His Ring of Wizardry was stolen. He didn’t have time to pursue the matter himself, but wasn’t willing to let such a valued item slip away. He summoned the Invisible Stalker and commanded it: “I’ve been robbed. Find my Ring of Wizardry and return it to me intact.” The stalker had little luck tracking down the thief and after a couple of weeks became bored and frustrated. It reasoned that it wasn’t strictly required to find the same ring that was stolen. Any Ring of Wizardry that Arcamis had owned would do. It returned to Arcamis’ tower, riffled through his records, and found the sales slip for a Ring of Wizardry that he sold some time ago. That ring proved easier to trace down, – to the PC’s. The Invisible Stalker planned to be back on the Elemental Plane of Air before Arcamis noticed the switch.
The PC’s may simply kill Arcamis without asking any questions. Fair enough – Regulus Arcamis is a fairly tough wizard and should make a good fight of it. And of course he’ll leave behind a few friends who’ll want to have a good talk to the PC’s later.
If the PC’s come looking for an explanation, Arcamis will be embarrassed and in a conciliatory mood. He also still wants someone to find his own Ring of Wizardry, which is somewhat more powerful then the one he sold the PC’s. Also, why was he too busy to look into the theft himself? The PC’s may walk right into the middle of some new mess.
The reason this is a cheat is because the DMG page I turned to described magic items. I picked Ring of Wizardry, but anything could work within the limitations of the first paragraph above. I came up with the idea within seconds of reading the Invisible Stalker description, which I figure was the point of the exercise.
From the 1979 DMG p132, & the 1979 MM p55. (Incidentally, the frontspiece of that Monster Manual says 4th edition, August, 1979
@Sean Cheating works too :D Lovely stuff, thanks!