My Best Bank and Casino Robbery Movies to 2013 .. [KH.SH.S ...
My Best Bank and Casino Robbery Movies to 2013 .. [KH.SH.S ...
What's the best casino robbery movie? Yahoo Answers
Best Heist Movies - Casino, Bank Robbery Exciting Films
The Best 25 bank robbery, casino robbery, and heist movies ...
Best Robbery Movies of all time - IMDb
10 best bank robbery movies
Top 5 casino robbery movies to watch - Jet Casino Canada ...
15 Best Heist Movies For Fans Of Money Heist CBR
The 21 Best Heist Movies of All Time - Paste
What is the best opening to a movie? The bank robbery in 'the Dark Knight'? Or maybe the parkour chase in 'Casino Royale'?
Or maybe even the long opening of 'The Departed'? What do you think is the best opening to a movie? An opening that set the perfect tone for the rest of the movie, but was very compelling at the same time. An opening that made you very excited to watch that movie from the starting moments? What made it so good? What is epic? Action packed? Thoughtful? Smart? I want to hear your opinions in the comments. Please and thank you.
[US Promotion] I would like to celebrate Thanksgiving by gifting you all books!
UPDATE: More books added by siffis and West1234567890 further down If are late coming across this post then do not worry you can still message me your email for a book. To celebrate my day off today and Thanksgiving tomorrow I would like to gift my audiobooks. In order to recieve a free audiobook gift just message me any title (below) along with your email address. If you have not recieved a gift before then you will get the audiobook for free. More details here and here. I am in the US market (but I hear from Canada and UK that it still works). Books crossed out are not available. TITLE - AUTHOR (Ordered by author)
21 Days of Meditation - Aaptiv
5K Training - Aaptiv
What Happens Next? Conversations from MARS - Adam Savage
You Ought to Know Adam Wade - Adam Wade
The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146BC - Adrian Goldsworthy
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection - Alexander C. Kane
The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Alix E. Harrow
The Story of Dr. Seuss: Theodore, Ted, Geisel Who? The Story of How Dr. Seuss Grew. - Amba Brown
You Have Arrived at Your Destination: Forward - Amor Towles
A Massacre in Mexico: The True Story Behind the Missing 43 Students - Anabel Hernandez , John Washington - translator
How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps - Andrew Rowe
Randomize: Forward - Andy Weir
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook - Anthony Bourdain
Chaos Monkeys - Revised Edition: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley - Antonio Garcia Martinez
Goodnight Smartphone - Arianna Huffington
Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle , Stephen Fry - introductions
Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons - Ashli St. Armant
The Home Front: Life in America During World War II - Dan Gediman , Martha C. Little
Cut and Run: A Light-Hearted Dark Comedy - Ben Acker , Ben Blacker
A Grown-Up Guide to Dinosaurs: An Audible Original - Ben Garrod
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
Finding Tess: A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America - Beth Macy
Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science - Bill Bryson
The Lost Continent: Travels In Small Town America - Bill Bryson
Billy Kelly: This Is a Family Show! - Billy Kelly
The History of Ancient Egypt - Bob Brier]
Rage - Bob Woodward
Starsight - Brandon Sanderson
Skyward - Brandon Sanderson
Beezer - Brandon T. Snider
The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Smart Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing - Brandon Turner
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are - Brené Brown
Algorithms to Live The Computer Science of Human Decisions - Brian Christian , Tom Griffiths
That Hideous Strength: Ransom Trilogy, Book 3 - C.S. Lewis
Perelandra: Ransom Trilogy, Book 2 - C.S. Lewis
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage - Carl Sagan
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan
Life Ever After - Carla Grauls
Everything is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity - Carlo Rovelli , Simon Carnell - translator , Erica Segre - translator
How to Build Meaningful Relationships Through Conversation - Carol Ann Lloyd]
El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America - Carrie Gibson
The Flying Flamingo Sisters - Carrie Seim
Press Pause: A Young Person's Guide to Managing Life's Challenges - Catherine Singer
Cesar Millan's Guide to Bringing Home a Shelter Dog - Cesar Millan
Cesar Millan's Guide to Audiobooks for Dogs - Cesar Millan
The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder - Charles Graeber
Second Skin: Audible Original Novella - Christian White
Eldest: The Inheritance Cycle, Book 2 - Christopher Paolini
The Space Race: An Audible Original - Colin Brake , Patrick Chapman , Richard Hollingham , Richard Kurti , Sue Nelson , Helen Quigley , Andrew Mark Sewell
Bluebird Memories: A Journey Through Lyrics & Life - Common , Awoye Timpo , NSangou Njikam
Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther - Craig Pittman
The Dead Drink First - Dale Maharidge
House of Teeth - Dan Jolley
Dan Rather: Stories of a Lifetime - Dan Rather
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States - Daniel Immerwahr
The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition - Daniel N. Robinson]
My Lost Family: An Audible Original - Danny Ben-Moshe , Dasha Lisitsina
Body of Proof: An Audible Original - Darrell Brown , Sophie Ellis
Sum: Tales from the Afterlives - David Eagleman
Exploring Metaphysics - David K. Johnson]
Alone with the Stars - David R. Gillham
The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition: Your Journey to Mastery - David Thomas , Andrew Hunt
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II - Denise Kiernan
Heaven's River: Bobiverse, Book 4 - Dennis E. Taylor
All These Worlds: Bobiverse, Book 3 - Dennis E. Taylor
For We Are Many: Bobiverse, Book 2 - Dennis E. Taylor
We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1 - Dennis E. Taylor
Metro 2033 - Dmitry Glukhovsky
The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality - Don Lincoln]
Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Book 2 - Douglas Adams
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - Douglas Adams
Life, the Universe, and Everything: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Book 3 - Douglas Adams
The Case of the Damaged Detective: 5-Minute Sherlock, Book 1 - Drew Hayes
Forging Hephaestus: Villains' Code Series, Book 1 - Drew Hayes
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life - Ed Yong
Mythology - Edith Hamilton
Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa , Charles S. Terry - translator
Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire - Elaine Shannon
The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel - Erin Macdonald]
Junkyard Cats: Shining Smith, Book 1 - Faith Hunter
The Golden Orchard - Flora Ahn
The 3-Day Effect - Florence Williams
Catch Me If You Can - Frank W. Abagnale , Stan Redding
The Panama Papers: How the World's Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money - Frederik Obermaier , Bastian Obermayer
The American Civil War - Gary W. Gallagher]
Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - Gene Kranz
The Creative Thinker's Toolkit - Gerard Puccio]
Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ - Giulia Enders
Burr: A Novel (Narratives of Empire, Book 1) - Gore Vidal
The Getaway - Greer Hendricks , Sarah Pekkanen
The Minuteman - Greg Donahue
Failure Is an Option: An Attempted Memoir - H. Jon Benjamin
The Beautiful Brain: An Audible Original - Hana Walker-Brown
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor: A Novel - Hank Green
Bella Bella - Harvey Fierstein
The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country - Helen Russell
The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander - Homer , Caroline Alexander - translator
H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Omnibus Collection, Volume I: 1917-1926 - Howard Phillips Lovecraft , Finn J.D. John
Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga - Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Casino Royale: James Bond, Book 1 - Ian Fleming
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Malcolm and Me - Ishmael Reed
Peter Pan: An Audible Original Drama - J. M. Barrie
Tell Me Lies - J. P. Pomare
The Return of the King: Book Three in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book One in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Children of Hurin - J. R. R. Tolkien
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Book 2 - J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Book 1 - J.K. Rowling
The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling
The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over - Jack Schafer PhD , Ph.D. Marvin Karlins Ph.D.
Midnight Son - James Dommek Jr. , Josephine Holtzman , Isaac Kestenbaum
The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey - James Lecesne
Break Shot: My First 21 Years: James Taylor - James Taylor
Forget Nothing - Jason Anspach , Michelle C. Meyers
The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies - Jason Fagone
Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple - Jeff Guinn
1066: The Year That Changed Everything - Jennifer Paxton]
Flux - Jeremy Robinson
Space Force - Jeremy Robinson
Infinite - Jeremy Robinson
When You Finish Saving the World - Jesse Eisenberg
The Mystwick School of Musicraft - Jessica Khoury
Call Me God: The Untold Story of the DC Sniper Investigation - Jim Clemente , Tim Clemente , Peter McDonnell
The Wisdom of Wolves: Lessons from the Sawtooth Pack - Jim Dutcher , Jamie Dutcher , James Manfull - contributor , Marc Bekoff - foreword PhD
Escape from Virtual Island: An Audio Comedy - John Lutz
The Men Who Stare at Goats - Jon Ronson
So You've Been Publicly Shamed - Jon Ronson
Frank: The True Story that Inspired the Movie - Jon Ronson
438 Days: An Extraordinary True Story of Survival at Sea - Jonathan Franklin
Carmilla - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things - Josh Clark , Chuck Bryant
Vroom Vroom - Josh Koenigsberg
King of Sting: The Story of Australian Conman Peter Foster: An Audible Original - Justin Armsden , Bronwen Reid , Hamish Macdonald
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - Kai Bird , Martin J. Sherwin
You Can Thank Me Later: A Novella - Kelly Harms
The Vikings - Kenneth W. Harl]
Building a Better Vocabulary - Kevin Flanigan]
More Bedtime Stories for Cynics - Kirsten Kearse , Gretchen Enders , Aparna Nancherla , Cirocco Dunlap , Dave Hill
The Math of Life and Death - Kit Yates
Oz. The Complete Collection - L. Frank Baum
A Murder of Manatees: The Further Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent - Larry Correia
The Half-Life of Marie Curie - Lauren Gunderson
Interview with the Robot - Lee Bacon
The Messengers - Lindsay Joelle
African-American Athletes Who Made History - Louis Moore]
The Real Sherlock: An Audible Original - Lucinda Hawksley
The Devil's Highway: A True Story - Luis Alberto Urrea
It Burns: The Scandal-Plagued Race to Breed the World’s Hottest Chilli, An Audible Original - Marc Fennell
Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius - Marc J. Seifer
The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition - Margaret Atwood , Valerie Martin - essay
Buried Deep - Margot Hunt
Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowden
How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It - Mark Cuban
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Tinaca Jones - Matt Boren
Phreaks - Matthew Derby
Pont Neuf - Max Byrd
Find Another Dream - Maysoon Zayid
One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War - Michael Dobbs
The Entrepreneur's Toolkit - Michael Goldsby]
The Fifth Risk - Michael Lewis
Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il - Michael Malice
Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World - Michael Pollan
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - Michelle McNamara
Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 - Michio Kaku
The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad - Mike Birbiglia , J. Hope Stein
Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues - Molly Harper
Motivational Runs: 3 audio-guided run stories and 6 audio-guided Olympic Interval runs - MoveWith
Half Marathon Training Part 2: To the Finish Line: 6 week training plan with 22 audio-guided runs - MoveWith
Half Marathon Training Part 1: Build Up Your Pace + Endurance: 6 week training plan with 22 audio-guided runs - MoveWith
Emergency Skin: Forward - N. K. Jemisin
Silverswift - Natalie Lloyd
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - but Some Don't - Nate Silver
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman , Terry Pratchett
Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society - Nicholas A. Christakis
American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road - Nick Bilton
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies - Nick Bostrom
Based on a True Story: A Memoir - Norm Macdonald
Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want: Leven Thumps, #3 - Obert Skye
Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra: Leven Thumps, #4 - Obert Skye
Leven Thumps and the Ruins of Alder: Leven Thumps, #5 - Obert Skye
Adulthood Rites: Xenogenesis, Book 2 - Octavia E. Butler
Dawn: Xenogenesis, Book 1 - Octavia E. Butler
Wild Seed - Octavia E. Butler
Kindred - Octavia E. Butler
The Life and Times of Prince Albert - Patrick Allitt]
The Name of the Wind: Kingkiller Chronicle, Book 1 - Patrick Rothfuss
Thinking about Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare - Paul Rosenzweig]
Into the Water: A Novel - Paula Hawkins
The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions - Peter Brannen
Terminus - Peter Clines
The Fold - Peter Clines
14 - Peter Clines
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness - Peter Godfrey-Smith
Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History - Peter Houlahan
Harry Potter: A History of Magic: An Audio Documentary - Pottermore Publishing , Ben Davies
How the Stock Market Works - Ramon P. DeGennaro]
How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems - Randall Munroe
The October Country - Ray Bradbury
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition - Richard Rhodes
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World - Robert Garland]
Treasure Island: An Audible Original Drama - Robert Louis Stevenson , Marty Ross - adaptation
Swan Song - Robert R. McCammon
The Mueller Report: The Findings of the Special Counsel Investigation - Robert S. Mueller III , Special Counsel's Office U.S. Department of Justice
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators - Ronan Farrow
Once More upon a Time: A Novella - Roshani Chokshi
Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of BTK, the Serial Killer Next Door - Roy Wenzl , Tim Potter , L. Kelly , Hurst Laviana
Elizabeth II: Life of a Monarch: An Audible Original - Ruth Cowen
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements - Sam Kean
Bad Luck Charlie: The Dragon Mage, Book 1 - Scott Baron
Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World - Scott McCormick
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are - Seth Stephens-Davidowitz , Steven Pinker - foreword
Sea Wall / A Life - Simon Stephens , Nick Payne
Carnival Row: Tangle in the Dark - Stephanie K. Smith
D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of WW II - Stephen E. Ambrose
The Stand - Stephen King
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World - Steve Brusatte
Foreverywhere - Steve Burns , Steven Drozd , Gabe Soria
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake - Steven Novella , Bob Novella - contributor , Cara Santa Maria - contributor , Jay Novella - contributor , Evan Bernstein - contributor
Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills - Steven Novella]
The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in "Healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain - Steven R. Gundry MD
My Dad the Spy - Stewart Copeland
The Age of Living Machines: How the Convergence of Biology and Engineering Will Build the Next Technology Revolution - Susan Hockfield
Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett
History's Great Military Blunders and the Lessons They Teach - The Great Courses , Gregory S. Aldrete
Great Mythologies of the World - The Great Courses , Grant L. Voth , Julius H. Bailey , Kathryn McClymond , Robert André LaFleur
This American Life - This American Life
Writing Creative Nonfiction - Tilar J J. Mazzeo]
The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon - Todd Zwillich
The Hunt for Red October: A Jack Ryan Novel - Tom Clancy
The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts - Tom Farley , Tanner Colby
A Crazy Inheritance: Ghostsitter 1 - Tommy Krappweis
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah
Thicker than Water - Tyler Shultz
The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World - and Globalization Began - Valerie Hansen
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders - Vincent Bugliosi , Curt Gentry
SmartLess - Will Arnett Jason Bateman Sean Hayes
Climbing with Mollie - William Finnegan
Alien III: An Audible Original Drama - William Gibson
Gump & Co. - Winston Groom
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
siffis has generously offered to include his collection. If you like any of the books below then message directly.
World War Z: The Complete Edition - Max Brooks
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline
Halo: Shadows of Reach - Troy Denning
The Sandman - Neil Gaiman
The Ickabog - J.K. Rowling
The Last Tribe - Brad Manuel
Halo Grassland - Karen Traviss
Halo Evolutions
Halo Fractures
Halo: Mortal Dictata - Karen Traviss
Halo: The Thursday War - Karen Traviss
Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman
Firefly: Big Damn Hero - Jame Lovegrove
After it Happened - Devron C Ford
Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds - Gwenda Bond
Blade Runner - Phillip K Dick
Hell Divers 1
Hell Divers 2: Ghosts
God of War - J.M. Barlog
The Time of Contempt - Andrzej Sapkowski
Blood of Elves - Andrzej Sapkowski
Solar Storms - Nicholas Sansbury
Planetside - Michael Mammay
Season of Storms - Andrzej Sapkowski
Dark Operator - Doc Spears
How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps - Andrew Rowe
Tldr: my wife saw almost 500 new movies this year. Hello movies, it’s been a crazy year hasn’t it... Theaters are closed, production has (for the most part) ground to a halt and what was scheduled for release has moved to a streaming service or was delayed to next year or both. With the initial quarantine back in March starting I decided to take this unprecedented opportunity to give my wife the catch-up she desperately needed since she didn’t watch very many movies growing up. A little backstory, she grew up in a home where many movies were forbidden for religious reasons and as a result just never became a cinephile. She saw many Disney movies and a few random others but missed a vast majority of cinemas best (and worst). On the flip side I grew up near a regular theater and a dollar theater and saw a ton of films as a kid and teen, I’d regularly go on weekends or skip school for a triple feature or catch the last showing of something every night of the week. We’ve been together for almost 11 years now and she would go see anything and everything with me. All the Marvel movies, action comedies, sci fi, animation, whatever... but her movie knowledge is fairly contained within the last decade. So when I got laid off and she began working from home we decided to see how many new movies we could see during this Covid mess. We defined “New” as anything we had both never seen or anything she had never seen and I hadn’t seen in 10+ years since we met. Since mid March we have managed to watch 500 movies and in the process learn a few things about her individual tastes and the kinds of movies we enjoy watching as a couple the most. I’m going to drop a list of everything we saw, after the list I’ll highlight a few hidden gems we both loved... Dr No. - From Russia With Love - Thunderball - You Only Live Twice - Goldfinger - On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - Diamonds Are Forever Never Say Never Again - Live and Let Die - The Man With the Golden Gun - For Your Eyes Only - The Spy Who Loved Me - Moonraker - Octopussy - A View to a Kill - The living Daylights - License to Kill - Goldeneye - Tomorrow Never Dies - The World Is Not Enough - Die Another Day - Casino Royale - Quantum of Solace - Skyfall - Spectre - Enter the Dragon - Way of the Dragon - The Big Boss - Fist of Fury - Game of Death - Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth - Bruce Lee: The Legend - The Birds - Dora and the Lost City of Gold - The Brady Bunch Movie - A Very Brady Sequel - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles - Kingpin - Leave It To Beaver - Speed - Cuban Fury - Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - Weird Science - Keeping Up With the Joneses - Blades of Glory - Zoolander - Semi-Pro - So I Married An Axe Murderer - Disaster Movie - Oceans 11 - Dude, Where’s My Car? - Undercover Brother - Superstar - Zombieland - Men In Black: International - Snatch - Earth Girls Are Easy - Mystery Team - Once Upon A Time In Hollywood - Rush Hour - Miss Congeniality - Pitch Perfect 3 - There’s Something About Mary - Gone in 60 Seconds - Young Frankenstein - 300 - Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse - Wayne’s World - Wayne’s World 2 - Rocketman - Beverly Hills Ninja - Murder on the Orient Express - Friday - 9 to 5 - Drunken Master - The Naked Gun - Baywatch - Forbidden Planet - Baseketball - Hot Shots - Hot Shots: Part Deux - Anchors Aweigh - Mamma Mia - Tommy Boy - Clue - Dumb and Dumber - Monty Python’s Meaning of Life - Monty Python’s Life of Brian - Rango - Sausage Party - Broken Lizard’s Club Dredd - Flintstones - A Knights Tale - Stuck on You - Coneheads - Land of the Lost - Police Academy - Police Academy 2: The First Mission - A Night At the Roxbury - Holmes and Watson - Anchorman - Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues - Talladega Nights: Ballad of Ricky Bobby - Osmosis Jones - Venom - Sherlock Gnomes - Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery - Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me - Austin Powers 3: Goldmember - Mystery Men - Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker - Escape From New York - Escape From LA - Napoleon Dynamite - Total Recall - Major Payne - Mars Attacks - Shaolin Soccer - Let’s Be Cops - The Great Outdoors - Smokey and the Bandit - Smokey and the Bandit - Kicking and Screaming - Kiss Me Kate - The Spy Who Dumped Me - The House - The Wiz - Shaolin vs Lama - Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Kung Fu Gold - Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 - Saturday Night Fever - 48 Hrs - Another 48 Hrs - Enter the Invincible Hero - Ip Man - Shaolin Drunk Fighter - The Great Wall - Smokin’ Aces - Down Periscope - The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear - Hero - The Towering Inferno - The Sitter - Isn’t It Romantic - Jackie Chan’s First Strike - The Dead Don’t Die - Shallow Hal - Kiss of the Dragon - Rapid Fire - The Invincible Armour - Innerspace - Date Movie - The Lost World (1960) - It Came From Outer Space (1953) - The Body Snatcher (1954) - Time Bandits - Bad Times at the El Royale - The Shadow - A Fantastic Fear of Everything - The Ladykillers - Flash Gordon - Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult - Robin Hood (2018) - Enemy of the State - Kill Bill Vol 1 - Kill Bill Vol 2 - Some Like It Hot - She’s Working Her Way Through College - Stir Crazy - Zombieland: Double Tap - Mystery House - Jet Li’s Fearless - Desperado - Ed TV - Ready Player One - Shaolin Kung Fu Mystagogue - Back to the Future - Back to the Future II - Back to the Future III - Tango & Cash - The Burbs - Sherlock Holmes: Terror by Night - Casablanca - Circle of Iron - Beavis and Butt-Head Do America - Missing in Action - Missing in Action 2: The Beginning - National Treasure - Shaolin Fighters Vs Ninja - Fast Times at Ridgemont High - The Running Man - Little Cigars - Legion of Iron - Green Dragon Inn - The Warriors - High Anxiety - Joe Versus the Volcano - Chinese Hercules - Predator - Predator 2 - Coming To America - Legend - Five Kung Fu Daredevil Heroes - Pretty In Pink - Timecop - The Castle of Fu Manchu - Gator - The Mystery of Mr Wong - Robocop - Double Teamed - The Forbidden Kingdom - Sharknado - Sharknado 2: The Second One - Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! - Meatballs - Young Guns - The Addams Family (2019) - I Come In Peace - Masters of the Universe - Conan the Barbarian - Demolition Man - Sudden Death - The Heat - I’m Gonna Git You Sucka - Mortal Kombat - Unleashed - Curse of the Swamp Creature - The Cabinet of Dr Caligari - Messages from Space - John Carpenter’s The Thing - Stroker Ace - Dragnet - Of Cooks and Kung Fu - To Be Or Not To Be - Silver Streak - The Hustle - Sixteen Candles - Young Tiger - The Spy Next Door - Half Baked - Funny Girl - Phase IV - Point Break - Tank Girl - Universal Soldier - Conan the Destroyer - Lethal Weapon - Gojira - The Deadly Silver Spear - Car Wash - Hard Target - Big Trouble in Little China - Blade - Looper - Five Fingers of Steel - Clash of the Titans (1981) - Blade II: Bloodhunt - Showdown in Little Tokyo - Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons - Enter the Fat Dragon - UHF - The Falcon in Danger - Roadhouse - The Falcon Strikes Back - The Falcon and the Co-Eds - The Falcon Out West - Jumanji: The Next Level - Cyborg - Masterminds -?The Falcon in Mexico - The Falcon in Hollywood - The Falcon in San Francisco - Blade: Trinity - The Falcon’s Alibi - The Falcon’s Adventure - Dick Tracy, Detective - The Ape - Big - What We Do In The Shadows - The Departed - Gemini Man - Crippled Avengers - Camp Takota - Dick Tracy vs Cueball - Brightburn - Kickboxer - The Five Venoms - The Weird Man - Hellbound - Assassins Creed - The Flag of Iron - Trolls: World Tour - Masked Avengers - Dick Tracy’s Dilemma - Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome - Upgrade - The Cabin in the Woods - True Lies - The Maltese Falcon - Last Action Hero - Espionage in Tangiers - The Man From U.N.C.L.E - Saving Silverman - Dead End - Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Showtime - The Dark Tower - Tomb Raider - Five Elements Ninjas - Cherry 2000 - Johnny Cool - Freaks - Phantom Raiders - Wonder Park - Running Scared - The Bad News Bears - Cat People - The Happytime Murders - Double Impact - Murder, My Sweet - Tammy and the T-Rex - The House With a Clock in Its Walls - War - Street Fighter - Ex Machina - Attack The Block - The Avenging Eagle - Jexi - Ghost - Bad Girls From Mars - Cook Off! - Alita: Battle Angel - The Blob - Invasion U.S.A. - Journey Into Fear - Sharknado: The Fourth Awakens - Barb Wire - Cloverfield - Searching - Death Warrant - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (‘78) - Critical Condition - Stan & Ollie - Mystery in Mexico - Slaughterhouse Rulez - The Adventures of Prince Achmed - The Crawling Eye - Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - Chinatown - The Fly - Stagecoach - The Replacement Killers - Ishtar - The Jesus Rolls - The Getaway - Sky Murder - Action Jackson - Snake Eyes - Sharknado 5: Global Swarming - The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time - G.I. Joe: The Movie - Bad Boys - Bad Boys II - Bad Boys For Life - Movie Struck - Bohemian Rhapsody - Spies in Disguise - Blacula - Zis Boom Bah - Rock ‘n’ Roll High School - Hong Kong Confidential - Judge Dredd - Dick Tracy (1990) - The Cool and The Crazy - Die Hard - Queen of Outer Space - In Bruges - Armored Car Robbery - Fargo - Not So Dumb - Old Dracula - Creature From the Black Lagoon - The Invisible Man - The Green Slime - Don’t Breathe - Tenet - Vampyr - The Haunting - Scream Blacula Scream - The Monster Squad - The Cat and the Canary - Halloweentown - Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge - Scoob - The Mummy (1959) - A Quiet Place - The Haunted Mansion - Halloweentown High - Mom’s Got A Date With A Vampire - Plan 9 From Outer Space - Trick ‘r’ Treat - Lemora: The Lady Dracula - Under Wraps - The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) - The Mad Monster (1942) - Carnival of Souls - Happy Death Day - The Craft - Scream - Rear Window - Yongary, Monster From the Deep - Snakes On A Plane - Cosmic Monsters - The Comedy of Terrors - Killers From Space - Friday the 13th - House on Haunted Hill - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension - Roald Dahl’s The Witches - The Lost Boys - Attack of the Puppet People - Ready or Not - Return to Halloweentown - Mr. Boogedy - Early Man - Howard the Duck - Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine - Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot - Good Boys - Sky High - We Bare Bears the Movie - Raising Arizona - Book Club - Ferdinand - Police Story - The Wolf of Wall Street - Casino Royale (‘67) - CB4 - Xanadu - Johnny Mnemonic - Slumber Party Massacre - Regular Show: The Movie - Our Man Flint - Psycho - Saturday the 14th - Journey to the Center of Time - Playing With Fire - Stuber - In Like Flint - Bill & Ted Face the Music - The Birdcage - The Big Sleep - Sonic the Hedgehog - Life Stinks - Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs - Happy Death Day 2 U - Freejack - The Brain that Wouldn’t Die - Collision Course - Almost Heroes - The Trouble With Spies - North By Northwest - Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn - The Man Who Knew Too Much - Jingle All the Way - Mexican Spitfire - The 6th Day - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - Deck the Halls - Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town - The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold - The Iron Giant - Elf - It Happened on 5th Avenue - Jack Frost - The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow - The Year Without a Santa Claus - Pinocchio’s Christmas - Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer - The Shop Around The Corner - Snow Day - Frozen 2 - Scrooged - The Polar Express - Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July - Rise of the Guardians - Trapped in Paradise - Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas - Jack Frost (‘98) - Christmas with the Kranks - Nestor, The Long Eared Christmas Donkey - Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch - Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - Wonder Woman 1984 - The Wizard - Small Foot - Mom and Dad Save the World I’ve noticed that my wife seems to prefer old movies to new ones (overall). Some Like It Hot became an instant favorite for her... She also loved seeing things like Freaks or the Hitchcock films that get referenced a lot. She’s like Captain America pointing out all the references she gets now. We also found out she loves James Bond (mostly older ones), she doesn’t hate Will Farrell as much as she thought (or at all really), she loves bad/old/obscure movies, scary movies aren’t as scary as she thought they’d be, and that she’s basically Jennifer Anniston’s character from Office Space with her crazy love for old Kung Fu. As far as random recommendations my wife wanted to shout out all the Falcon films, Our Man Flint and In Like Flint, and Tammy & The T-Rex. I wanted to shout out The Forbidden Kingdom, Dr Goldfoot and The Bikini Girls & Dr Goldfoot and The Girl Bombs, and Old Dracula. If anybody wants to just talk movies I always welcome I can’t wait to expand her movie history in this coming year, there’s always plenty of bad obscure movies but now that she is into it it’s time to bring out the heavy hitters. Godfather, Jaws, Alien, Citizen Cane, Clockwork Orange, 2001 A Space Odyssey and more are still in the pipeline... If you’re still with me here I want to sincerely thank you for reading about our journey this year. I love you movies, and I hope y’all have a wonderfully cinematic 2021.
A Big List of Challenges (Problems/Goals/Complications/Encounters) for your adventure (including Social, Exploration, Stealth, Mystery, and Combat).
Hi! I have compiled a big list of challenges your players can encounter during the adventure.
These challenges can be used as sub-goals the players will need to achieve on the path to their main goal, as obstacles they need to overcome to get what they want.
Most of them can also be used as the primary goal, an idea for the whole adventure (just make the stakes higher, make it important/interesting/exciting to accomplish, make it more difficult, add sub-goals and obstacles players need to get through to achieve it).
Challenges can be mixed and matched. In one adventure, challenge A can be the big primary goal, and challenge B can be a step towards accomplishing this big goal. In another adventure, it can be the other way around. In one adventure, the players need to obtain an item (a powerful weapon) to slay a monster, in another, they need to slay a monster to get their hands on the valuable item. In one adventure they need to rescue someone who has a clue to the mystery, in another they need to solve a mystery to be able to rescue someone.
Use multiple challenges together to add more depth, make the adventure more difficult/interesting, get players to fight on several fronts. Combine challenges to make them complications for each other, or use conflicting challenges that are incompatible with each other to create difficult choices. Players need to protect a person while also being on the run from the law, they need to spy on someone while traveling through the dangerous environment, they need to fight for political power while pretending to be someone they're not, they need to slay a big monster in the middle of the city while protecting people and avoiding collateral damage.
If you find this list useful - please help me to improve and extend it!
Share more challenge ideas, how can these challenge lists can be extended?
What other big challenge categories could I add? Please share a few challenge examples in those categories.
Share interesting examples for each kind of challenge.
Share interesting complications and combinations of challenges.
Share feedback/advice/ideas on improving this project.
Share good resources (books, random tables, articles) I can use to extend this list.
Action/Adventure Challenges
Defeat a villain and his minions.
Defeat a monstecreature/horde.
Obtain a McGuffin (item, vehicle, money, magic artifact, spell, your lost/stolen valuables, etc)
Obtain Information (an ancient book, a piece of gossip, a clue, secret codes, a way to break the curse).
Protect/Escort /Guard a person/creature (a rich merchant, a researcher, a young prince targeted for assassination, a last of its kind monster, tax collector, witness).
Deliver a person (make sure they don't escape).
Rescue a person/creature (rescue a hostage or a kidnapped person, break them out of captivity).
Track, Find, Chase, and Capture/Catch a person/creature/vehicle (a criminal, a runaway, a ship, a lost pet, an escaped experiment, the infected).
Find and save the missing person (lost kid, caravan, courier, spy.
Deliver a valuable/fragile item/cargo and protect it from danger (artwork, cursed artifact, mysterious crate, a treasure map, a message).
Destroy the target (an object, a cursed item, enemy weapon or infrastructure, the enemy base, a piece of blackmail on someone, a source of infection, close a portal).
Sabotage a plan (disrupt a ritual, prevent a prophecy, undermine the invasion, stop villain from achieving their goals).
Capture and secure the base/location (enemy city, friendly city under siege, a building, a military target).
Defend a location (protect a village from monsters, a city from the enemy army, prevent enemies from passing a bridge or a tunnel, protect a crime scene, meeting site, warehouse, protect a ritual to ensure it will get completed).
Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies. Survive under siege, liberate it.
Robbery/Heist (rob a train or a blimp, abduct a person, commandeer a ship, steal diamonds from the casino, steal wand from the mage tower).
Protect many innocent people (save people from a natural disaster for example, release the prisoners/slaves).
Win a competition (Complications: your team is bad, the other side cheats, you can only win by cheating, the event is more deadly than it was supposed to be. You are competing for other purpose than victory, such as to keep another contestant safe, to spy on someone, or to get into the place where the event goes down, to prevent villain from winning, to prove yourself, to impress someone).
Prepare for the mission. Get equipment/supplies/transportation/funding.
Deal with the consequences of a botched/evil magic ritual.
Distract the enemies. Act as bait for the ambush/trap.
Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
Build or repair an object (by collecting McGuffin ingredients).
Perform a Ritual.
Law Enforcement - act as a police for a town.
Intercept a delivery, escort, communications.
Prepare and execute an ambush.
Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard (for dangerous potions).
Exploration Challenges
Survive/avoid environmental dangers (think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable mist, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc).
Overcome environmental obstacles (a river on your way, a closed gate, climbing a mountain, a swamp, quick sand, slipping hazard above the abyss, thin ice, wild magic area. Retrieve an item from the bottom of the lake.).
Travel through multiple locations to reach the target.
Explore the location (to learn about it, to map it, to figure out what happened here. To find bandit camps, enemy encampments, monster nest, a way through, resources).
Find a lost location/person/item/treasure/clues.
Scout for information, survey the location/region (ahead of group, enemy territory, monster infested territory, uncharted wilderness).
Clear location of danger (creatures, traps, haunting ghosts, curses, infestation).
Track something/someone, find a trail.
Deal with a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor).
Survival (without food/water, deal with harsh weather, diseases. Find shelter. Repair a ship or a radio. Find a way to get back home.)
Enter a guarded area (overcome defenses, defeat security, sneak in unseen).
Escape guarded location (break out of prison).
Use environment to your advantage (start an avalanche to block a pass, assume the most optimal position for combat).
Social/Intrigue Challenges
Convince/Persuade a person to do/say/give you what you want.
Intimidate/Manipulate/Blackmail/Force someone to do what you want.
Befriend/Seduce someone, make allies.
Gain confidence or forgiveness of a person who doesn't like you.
Find a non-combat resolution.
Get caught lying/cheating/sneaking, and rectify the situation.
Persuade a group of people (an organization, an angry mob, snobby nobles. Persuade the army to take a route that will slow them down/lead them into an ambush, convince the bandits to raid the enemy, convince farmers to donate food).
Gain social status, power, political influence (prove your worth, gain respect, impress someone, get elected).
Change someone's social status (make them look good/bad, get them elected, overthrow a ruler).
Run a kingdom/village/team/organization/business, lead an army (build a new one, restore the failing one to former glory).
Change the society/group/organization (raise morale, lower the crime, stop witch hunts, deal with corruption).
Gain control over the territory (invade a country or repel the invasion).
Put down or incite rebellion/mutiny/conspiracy.
Negotiate a deal, bargain (political compromise, hostage negotiations, trade information, convince them to sign a document).
Resolve conflict, broker peace, unite rivaling factions, settle dispute.
Establish political/trade relationships .
Navigate a strange culture/customs (without offending anyone).
Cause conflict/rivalry/war, pit people/factions against each other (get enemy minions to mistrust each other).
Deceive a person.
Set someone up, shift the blame to someone else.
Infiltrate a group, conceal your identity (cult, bandits, enemy citadel, thieves guild).
Find the spy/traitomole.
Deal with being blackmailed, spied on, threatened, manipulated.
Deal with a nasty rumor or important information/secrets about yourself being out there.
Defend someone (or yourself) in the court.
Prosecute/judge someone in the court.
Put on a show, entertain.
Redeem or corrupt a person (teach someone a lesson, seduce someone to the dark/light side).
Recruit people to your cause.
Find a way to get someone to owe you a favor, find a way to repay the debt you owe to someone else.
Enforcement - apply pressure to a person to get them to do something or behave in a specific manner, without killing. (Calm down the rowdy gang, collect the debts).
Get enemy soldiers/minions to defect and switch sides.
Create a disinformation/propaganda campaign (feed it to the enemy spy, destroy someone's reputation, saw fear in the hearts of the enemy soldiers).
Perform a con.
Mystery/Investigation Challenges
Investigate a crime (murder, assault, theft, threats, blackmail, destruction of “x”, disappearances, corrupt law enforcer).
Spying/Surveillance, gather information on a person/creature/location without being noticed. (Are they up to something shady, are they who they claim to be, discover their secret techniques, how are they bypassing security, how do they create “x”, involvement in “x”, what secrets are they hiding, where are they hiding “x”, where do they keep disappearing to, enemy troops, ).
Search for clues and put them together to reach a conclusion.
Find and interview witnesses, interrogate suspects.
Figure out what's going on, unravel a plot.
Figure out what happened in this location.
Find evidence (proof of innocence or guilt, expose a corrupt official).
Find out if the person is lying or keeping secrets, and what they are.
Figure out someone's plot/motives.
Figure out who's behind the plot.
Do research (find and read ancient texts, talk to old wise people).
Stealth/Heist Challenges
Steal (or plant) an item/information (modify enemy maps, plant disinformation. Plant clues to frame a person).
Escape from danger (overwhelming force, ambush, pursuit of the law or criminals).
Hide, cover your tracks, lay low.
Sneak through undetected (sneak past enemy lines to deliver a message to allied forces, sneak past the bouncers into a party).
Assassinate stealthily (sneak into the king's chambers, lure them out, use poison, make it look like an accident).
Deal with getting noticed / drawing an unwanted attention.
Clean up evidence (yours, someone else's).
Exchange a real item for a fake or vice versa.
Return a (creature, item) before anyone notices it's missing.
Sabotage (device, ritual) without being noticed.
Smuggle (creature, person, item) into or out of a location.
Security Testing - breach the clients security unnoticed.
Frame a person/group/nation for a crime.
Fake someone's death.
Villain's Moves
Personally confront the players.
Send minions after the players.
Hire a rival team of adventurers or thugs to go after players..
Send an assassin.
Send a spy.
Set a bounty on their heads.
Set a trap.
Setup an ambush.
Take hostages.
Threaten an NPC players like.
Frame players for a crime, declare them traitors/outlaws.
Reveal player's secrets, crimes they have committed.
Bribe the authorities/police to act against players.
Convince authorities/police that players are evil.
Make the public dislike the heroes.
Have a "dead man switch" that will hurt people or destroy something valuable if the villain is killed.
Know some information valuable to the players (like where hostages are kept, where the treasure is hidden), so players can't kill them, and must negotiate.
Set a time-bomb. Something horrible will happen unless players do what they're told.
Possess/blackmail/threaten an innocent person into doing their bidding.
Pretend to be someone else to deceive the players.
Befriend players to use them and betray them later.
Kidnap one of the players.
Join forces with another enemy of the players.
Plant false clues, create decoy trails.
Frame someone else for their crimes.
Kill hero's mentoally.
Cause mistrust, disorder, confusion, infighting among players or general population.
Hire people to commit crimes while pretending to be someone else to create mistrust/conflict among two parties. (Example: the bandits "from another country" attacks "local merchants", Start a plague in an uneducated city and have the "foreign merchant" sell snake oil cures, "native patriot" kills a "alien anarchist, etc.)
Put difficult choices in front of the heroes (like forcing Batman to save one of the ferry boats, to save Harvey Dent or Rachel).
Take away resources from the players (steal their items).
Give people the wrong idea about his powers/weaknesses.
Push player's buttons, play on heroes' flaws, temptations, fears.
Develop a good public image, make friends in the government, be beloved by the public.
Seduce player's allies to the dark side, convince/threaten them into betraying players.
Complications
Do it under time pressure (before the ritual is complete, before people run out of air, before reinforcements arrive, before or during the event, in transit, while you still have the chance).
Do it while competing with the rival team.
Unrelated people are interfering with the objective.
Do it stealthily (don't attract attention, don't leave clues, no witnesses).
Do it while pretending to be someone else.
Do it without revealing that your client is involved.
Prevent collateral damage, protect the innocents who are around.
Avoid violence. Defeat/capture the villain/creature without it being harmed.
Mitigate the risk, there's a high probability of causing a lot of damage if you're not careful.
Two challenges conflict with each other (you must break your stealth to help someone in trouble, capture criminal or save people who are currently in danger).
Difficult choice. Choose lesser of two evils, choose which people to rescue. Requiring personal sacrifice, risk, compromise.
Opportunities that come with a difficulty, cost or have negative consequences.
Resolve moral dilemma (the creature is dangerous but doesn't deserve to die, you're working for a bad guy, both sides of the conflict have valid points, completing a quest will harm people/environment).
Do it with incomplete information.
Do it with limited resources or without preparation.
Do it without access to powers you're used to having (while sick/injured/debilitated, in an area where magic is outlawed/disabled, having lost your equipment).
Locals here are unhelpful/hostile to you. You have low social status.
You can't trust anyone.
Doing it is illegal, or against authorities best interests, or is threatening a powerful group.
There are regulations/restrictions on what you can do hindering your progress.
Do it while being supervised (the media is all over you, a brilliant detective is on your tail, you are under suspicion, the enemy knows you're coming, you have a spy/mole).
Do it despite your flaws/temptations/fears.
It causes conflict/infighting within the team (player characters will have opposite goals/reactions to it).
Do it while working together with antagonist or someone else you don't like.
The side you're working for turns out to be evil.
The villain is someone you know/like/respect.
The villain is a respected public figure, celebrity, is liked by people or has authority over you.
Bad guy has a dead man switch, if he dies the others will suffer or treasure will be lost. Bad guy is the only one who knows the valuable information.
The people you're helping don't want your help.
Vital information turns out to be wrong.
Deal with the betrayal.
Mission has been rigged to fail from the start (PCs may be used as a scapegoat).
Objective is stolen before the PCs arrive.
Objective must be undamaged.
The important item has been transmuted and needs to be changed back, locked in a safe and needs a code to unlock, is a mineral that needs to be refined by a specific process. A book or a message is written in a foreign language that requires a translator.
Only a bad/unpleasant person can provide the item/information/favor you need.
Please leave a comment and contribute to this project! Edit: I've had a few pretty huge epiphanies while writing this post:
Stories are fundamentally about problem solving. Roleplaying is fundamentally about problem solving. This is the fundamental "game loop" of RPGs - GM puts a problem in front of the players, and they find creative ways to solve it, that's what gives them fun stuff to do and feels satisfying to accomplish.
Adventure Ideas are fundamentally problems. They create an exciting, challenging, important goal for the players to accomplish.
Big problems are broken down into small challenges. But fundamentally, the big climactic adventure/campaign goals and the small challenges players encounter on their way are the same thing. Every scene the characters solve a small problem, and it drives them towards solving the big problem. That's what plot points are - players solving or failing to solve a problem, which moves them closer to or farther away from the goal. Which feels exciting/valuable/dramatic.
Conflict, obstacles, social/exploration/combat encounters are fundamentally just sources of problems. There probably are other sources that can generate problems.
It's all just nested challenges: Campaign Problem > Adventure Problem > Scene Problem. And any challenge can be used on any of these levels.
Therefore, the list above is a list of adventure ideas and plot points at the same time. Make any challenge very important/difficult/exciting to accomplish - and it becomes an idea for the adventure or a campaign. Make any adventure idea relatively small and simple - and it becomes a scene challenge (encounter). Put a number of smaller challenges in front of the players - and you've got your basic story structure (a list of encounters, the gameplay). Because goals and challenges are fundamentally the same, just the nested problems, they can be combined in any order to create any number of unique adventures.
Also, it means that you can take big story ideas from movies, TV episodes, published modules, and use them as ideas for small encounters. Shawshank Redemption, Alien, Jaws, Incredibles - they can be big campaign ideas, small adventure ideas, or just a thing characters do in a scene (escape from the prison, hide from a monster, defeat a big golem).
Game mechanics are also challenges. If there's an RPG system that gets players to do something awesome (GM moves in Dungeon World, Favors/Debts and Social Status mechanics from the Undying, Weak Moves from Dream Askew) - you can use those as challenges too.
Even a single challenge can create an unlimited number of unique stories - you just change the concrete details. McGuffins, NPCs, locations, etc.
A Big List of Challenges (Problems, Goals, Complications, Encounters) for your adventure (including Action/Adventure, Exploration, Social/Intrigue, Mystery/Investigation, and Stealth/Heist).
Hi! I have compiled a big list of challenges your players can encounter during the adventure.
Action/Adventure Challenges
Defeat a villain and his minions.
Defeat a monstecreature/horde.
Obtain a McGuffin (item, vehicle, money, magic artifact, spell, your lost/stolen valuables, etc)
Obtain Information (an ancient book, a piece of gossip, a clue, secret codes, a way to break the curse).
Protect/Escort /Guard a person/creature (a rich merchant, a researcher, a young prince targeted for assassination, a last of its kind monster, tax collector, witness).
Deliver a person (make sure they don't escape).
Rescue a person/creature (rescue a hostage or a kidnapped person, break them out of captivity).
Track, Find, Chase, and Capture/Catch a person/creature/vehicle (a criminal, a runaway, a ship, a lost pet, an escaped experiment, the infected).
Find and save the missing person (lost kid, caravan, courier, spy.
Deliver a valuable/fragile item/cargo and protect it from danger (artwork, cursed artifact, mysterious crate, a treasure map, a message).
Destroy the target (an object, a cursed item, enemy weapon or infrastructure, the enemy base, a piece of blackmail on someone, a source of infection, close a portal).
Sabotage a plan (disrupt a ritual, prevent a prophecy, undermine the invasion, stop villain from achieving their goals).
Capture and secure the base/location (enemy city, friendly city under siege, a building, a military target).
Defend a location (protect a village from monsters, a city from the enemy army, prevent enemies from passing a bridge or a tunnel, protect a crime scene, meeting site, warehouse, protect a ritual to ensure it will get completed).
Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies. Survive under siege, liberate it.
Robbery/Heist (rob a train or a blimp, abduct a person, commandeer a ship, steal diamonds from the casino, steal wand from the mage tower).
Protect many innocent people (save people from a natural disaster for example, release the prisoners/slaves).
Win a competition (Complications: your team is bad, the other side cheats, you can only win by cheating, the event is more deadly than it was supposed to be. You are competing for other purpose than victory, such as to keep another contestant safe, to spy on someone, or to get into the place where the event goes down, to prevent villain from winning, to prove yourself, to impress someone).
Prepare for the mission. Get equipment/supplies/transportation/funding.
Deal with the consequences of a botched/evil magic ritual.
Distract the enemies. Act as bait for the ambush/trap.
Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
Build or repair an object (by collecting McGuffin ingredients).
Perform a Ritual.
Law Enforcement - act as a police for a town.
Intercept a delivery, escort, communications.
Prepare and execute an ambush.
Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard (for dangerous potions).
Exploration Challenges
Survive/avoid environmental dangers (think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable mist, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc).
Overcome environmental obstacles (a river on your way, a closed gate, climbing a mountain, a swamp, quick sand, slipping hazard above the abyss, thin ice, wild magic area. Retrieve an item from the bottom of the lake.).
Travel through multiple locations to reach the target.
Explore the location (to learn about it, to map it, to figure out what happened here. To find bandit camps, enemy encampments, monster nest, a way through, resources).
Find a lost location/person/item/treasure/clues.
Scout for information, survey the location/region (ahead of group, enemy territory, monster infested territory, uncharted wilderness).
Clear location of danger (creatures, traps, haunting ghosts, curses, infestation).
Track something/someone, find a trail.
Deal with a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor).
Survival (without food/water, deal with harsh weather, diseases. Find shelter. Repair a ship or a radio. Find a way to get back home.)
Enter a guarded area (overcome defenses, defeat security, sneak in unseen).
Escape guarded location (break out of prison).
Use environment to your advantage (start an avalanche to block a pass, assume the most optimal position for combat).
Social/Intrigue Challenges
Convince/Persuade a person to do/say/give you what you want.
Intimidate/Manipulate/Blackmail/Force someone to do what you want.
Befriend/Seduce someone, make allies.
Gain confidence or forgiveness of a person who doesn't like you.
Find a non-combat resolution.
Get caught lying/cheating/sneaking, and rectify the situation.
Persuade a group of people (an organization, an angry mob, snobby nobles. Persuade the army to take a route that will slow them down/lead them into an ambush, convince the bandits to raid the enemy, convince farmers to donate food).
Gain social status, power, political influence (prove your worth, gain respect, impress someone, get elected).
Change someone's social status (make them look good/bad, get them elected, overthrow a ruler).
Run a kingdom/village/team/organization/business, lead an army (build a new one, restore the failing one to former glory).
Change the society/group/organization (raise morale, lower the crime, stop witch hunts, deal with corruption).
Gain control over the territory (invade a country or repel the invasion).
Put down or incite rebellion/mutiny/conspiracy.
Negotiate a deal, bargain (political compromise, hostage negotiations, trade information, convince them to sign a document).
Resolve conflict, broker peace, unite rivaling factions, settle dispute.
Establish political/trade relationships .
Navigate a strange culture/customs (without offending anyone).
Cause conflict/rivalry/war, pit people/factions against each other (get enemy minions to mistrust each other).
Deceive a person.
Set someone up, shift the blame to someone else.
Infiltrate a group, conceal your identity (cult, bandits, enemy citadel, thieves guild).
Find the spy/traitomole.
Deal with being blackmailed, spied on, threatened, manipulated.
Deal with a nasty rumor or important information/secrets about yourself being out there.
Defend someone (or yourself) in the court.
Prosecute/judge someone in the court.
Put on a show, entertain.
Redeem or corrupt a person (teach someone a lesson, seduce someone to the dark/light side).
Recruit people to your cause.
Find a way to get someone to owe you a favor, find a way to repay the debt you owe to someone else.
Enforcement - apply pressure to a person to get them to do something or behave in a specific manner, without killing. (Calm down the rowdy gang, collect the debts).
Get enemy soldiers/minions to defect and switch sides.
Create a disinformation/propaganda campaign (feed it to the enemy spy, destroy someone's reputation, saw fear in the hearts of the enemy soldiers).
Perform a con.
Mystery/Investigation Challenges
Investigate a crime (murder, assault, theft, threats, blackmail, destruction of “x”, disappearances, corrupt law enforcer).
Spying/Surveillance, gather information on a person/creature/location without being noticed. (Are they up to something shady, are they who they claim to be, discover their secret techniques, how are they bypassing security, how do they create “x”, involvement in “x”, what secrets are they hiding, where are they hiding “x”, where do they keep disappearing to, enemy troops, ).
Search for clues and put them together to reach a conclusion.
Find and interview witnesses, interrogate suspects.
Figure out what's going on, unravel a plot.
Figure out what happened in this location.
Find evidence (proof of innocence or guilt, expose a corrupt official).
Find out if the person is lying or keeping secrets, and what they are.
Figure out someone's plot/motives.
Figure out who's behind the plot.
Do research (find and read ancient texts, talk to old wise people).
Stealth/Heist Challenges
Steal (or plant) an item/information (modify enemy maps, plant disinformation. Plant clues to frame a person).
Escape from danger (overwhelming force, ambush, pursuit of the law or criminals).
Hide, cover your tracks, lay low.
Sneak through undetected (sneak past enemy lines to deliver a message to allied forces, sneak past the bouncers into a party).
Assassinate stealthily (sneak into the king's chambers, lure them out, use poison, make it look like an accident).
Deal with getting noticed / drawing an unwanted attention.
Clean up evidence (yours, someone else's).
Exchange a real item for a fake or vice versa.
Return a (creature, item) before anyone notices it's missing.
Sabotage (device, ritual) without being noticed.
Smuggle (creature, person, item) into or out of a location.
Security Testing - breach the clients security unnoticed.
Frame a person/group/nation for a crime.
Fake someone's death.
Villain's Moves
Personally confront the players.
Send minions after the players.
Hire a rival team of adventurers or thugs to go after players..
Send an assassin.
Send a spy.
Set a bounty on their heads.
Set a trap.
Setup an ambush.
Take hostages.
Threaten an NPC players like.
Frame players for a crime, declare them traitors/outlaws.
Reveal player's secrets, crimes they have committed.
Bribe the authorities/police to act against players.
Convince authorities/police that players are evil.
Make the public dislike the heroes.
Have a "dead man switch" that will hurt people or destroy something valuable if the villain is killed.
Know some information valuable to the players (like where hostages are kept, where the treasure is hidden), so players can't kill them, and must negotiate.
Set a time-bomb. Something horrible will happen unless players do what they're told.
Possess/blackmail/threaten an innocent person into doing their bidding.
Pretend to be someone else to deceive the players.
Befriend players to use them and betray them later.
Kidnap one of the players.
Join forces with another enemy of the players.
Plant false clues, create decoy trails.
Frame someone else for their crimes.
Kill hero's mentoally.
Cause mistrust, disorder, confusion, infighting among players or general population.
Hire people to commit crimes while pretending to be someone else to create mistrust/conflict among two parties. (Example: the bandits "from another country" attacks "local merchants", Start a plague in an uneducated city and have the "foreign merchant" sell snake oil cures, "native patriot" kills a "alien anarchist, etc.)
Put difficult choices in front of the heroes (like forcing Batman to save one of the ferry boats, to save Harvey Dent or Rachel).
Take away resources from the players (steal their items).
Give people the wrong idea about his powers/weaknesses.
Push player's buttons, play on heroes' flaws, temptations, fears.
Develop a good public image, make friends in the government, be beloved by the public.
Seduce player's allies to the dark side, convince/threaten them into betraying players.
Complications
Do it under time pressure (before the ritual is complete, before people run out of air, before reinforcements arrive, before or during the event, in transit, while you still have the chance).
Do it while competing with the rival team.
Unrelated people are interfering with the objective.
Do it stealthily (don't attract attention, don't leave clues, no witnesses).
Do it while pretending to be someone else.
Do it without revealing that your client is involved.
Prevent collateral damage, protect the innocents who are around.
Avoid violence. Defeat/capture the villain/creature without it being harmed.
Mitigate the risk, there's a high probability of causing a lot of damage if you're not careful.
Two challenges conflict with each other (you must break your stealth to help someone in trouble, capture criminal or save people who are currently in danger).
Difficult choice. Choose lesser of two evils, choose which people to rescue. Requiring personal sacrifice, risk, compromise.
Opportunities that come with a difficulty, cost or have negative consequences.
Resolve moral dilemma (the creature is dangerous but doesn't deserve to die, you're working for a bad guy, both sides of the conflict have valid points, completing a quest will harm people/environment).
Do it with incomplete information.
Do it with limited resources or without preparation.
Do it without access to powers you're used to having (while sick/injured/debilitated, in an area where magic is outlawed/disabled, having lost your equipment).
Locals here are unhelpful/hostile to you. You have low social status.
You can't trust anyone.
Doing it is illegal, or against authorities best interests, or is threatening a powerful group.
There are regulations/restrictions on what you can do hindering your progress.
Do it while being supervised (the media is all over you, a brilliant detective is on your tail, you are under suspicion, the enemy knows you're coming, you have a spy/mole).
Do it despite your flaws/temptations/fears.
It causes conflict/infighting within the team (player characters will have opposite goals/reactions to it).
Do it while working together with antagonist or someone else you don't like.
The side you're working for turns out to be evil.
The villain is someone you know/like/respect.
The villain is a respected public figure, celebrity, is liked by people or has authority over you.
Bad guy has a dead man switch, if he dies the others will suffer or treasure will be lost. Bad guy is the only one who knows the valuable information.
The people you're helping don't want your help.
Vital information turns out to be wrong.
Deal with the betrayal.
Mission has been rigged to fail from the start (PCs may be used as a scapegoat).
Objective is stolen before the PCs arrive.
Objective must be undamaged.
The important item has been transmuted and needs to be changed back, locked in a safe and needs a code to unlock, is a mineral that needs to be refined by a specific process. A book or a message is written in a foreign language that requires a translator.
Only a bad/unpleasant person can provide the item/information/favor you need.
Using Challenges to create Adventures
These challenges can be used as sub-goals the players will need to achieve on the path to their main goal, as obstacles they need to overcome to get what they want.
Most of them can also be used as the primary goal, an idea for the whole adventure (just make the stakes higher, make it important/interesting/exciting to accomplish, make it more difficult, add sub-goals and obstacles players need to get through to achieve it).
Challenges can be mixed and matched. In one adventure, challenge A can be the big primary goal, and challenge B can be a step towards accomplishing this big goal. In another adventure, it can be the other way around. In one adventure, the players need to obtain an item (a powerful weapon) to slay a monster, in another, they need to slay a monster to get their hands on the valuable item. In one adventure they need to rescue someone who has a clue to the mystery, in another they need to solve a mystery to be able to rescue someone.
Use multiple challenges together to add more depth, make the adventure more difficult/interesting, get players to fight on several fronts. Combine challenges to make them complications for each other, or use conflicting challenges that are incompatible with each other to create difficult choices. Players need to protect a person while also being on the run from the law, they need to spy on someone while traveling through the dangerous environment, they need to fight for political power while pretending to be someone they're not, they need to slay a big monster in the middle of the city while protecting people and avoiding collateral damage.
This works because:
Stories are fundamentally about problem solving. Roleplaying is fundamentally about problem solving. This is the fundamental "game loop" of RPGs - GM puts a problem in front of the players, and they find creative ways to solve it, that's what gives them fun stuff to do and feels satisfying to accomplish.
Adventure Ideas are fundamentally problems. They create an exciting, challenging, important goal for the players to accomplish.
Big problems are broken down into small challenges. But fundamentally, the big climactic adventure/campaign goals and the small challenges players encounter on their way are the same thing. Every scene the characters solve a small problem, and it drives them towards solving the big problem. That's what plot points are - players solving or failing to solve a problem, which moves them closer to or farther away from the goal. Which feels exciting/valuable/dramatic.
Conflict, obstacles, social/exploration/combat encounters are fundamentally just sources of problems. There probably are other sources that can generate problems.
It's all just nested challenges: Campaign Problem > Adventure Problem > Scene Problem. And any challenge can be used on any of these levels.
Therefore, the list above is a list of adventure ideas and plot points at the same time. Make any challenge very important/difficult/exciting to accomplish - and it becomes an idea for the adventure or a campaign. Make any adventure idea relatively small and simple - and it becomes a scene challenge (encounter). Put a number of smaller challenges in front of the players - and you've got your basic story structure (a list of encounters, the gameplay). Because goals and challenges are fundamentally the same, just the nested problems, they can be combined in any order to create any number of unique adventures.
Also, it means that you can take big story ideas from movies, TV episodes, published modules, and use them as ideas for small encounters. Shawshank Redemption, Alien, Jaws, Incredibles - they can be big campaign ideas, small adventure ideas, or just a thing characters do in a scene (escape from the prison, hide from a monster, defeat a big golem).
Game mechanics are also challenges. If there's an RPG system that gets players to do something awesome (GM moves in Dungeon World, Favors/Debts and Social Status mechanics from the Undying, Weak Moves from Dream Askew) - you can use those as challenges too.
Even a single challenge can create an unlimited number of unique stories - you just change the concrete details. McGuffins, NPCs, locations, etc.
If you find this list useful - please help me to improve and extend it!
Share more challenge ideas, how can these challenge lists can be extended?
What other big challenge categories could I add? Please share a few challenge examples in those categories.
Share interesting examples for each kind of challenge.
Share interesting complications and combinations of challenges.
Share feedback/advice/ideas on improving this project.
Share good resources (books, random tables, articles) I can use to extend this list.
Use the Adventure Writing Template to help you develop these challenges into a complete adventure. I have also made an "Adventure Prompts Tool" that will pick the random challenges for you (it also contains some prompts for settings and villains). Also see the Big List of Adventure Ideas - the list of challenges that will work well as the main idea for the adventure (a goal for the Players or the Villain). If you want updates on my future posts - follow me here.
A Big List of Challenges (Problems/Goals/Complications/Encounters) for your adventure (including Social, Exploration, Stealth, Mystery, and Combat).
Hi! I have compiled a big list of challenges your players can encounter during the adventure.
These challenges can be used as sub-goals the players will need to achieve on the path to their main goal, as obstacles they need to overcome to get what they want.
Most of them can also be used as the primary goal, an idea for the whole adventure (just make the stakes higher, make it important/interesting/exciting to accomplish, make it more difficult, add sub-goals and obstacles players need to get through to achieve it).
Challenges can be mixed and matched. In one adventure, challenge A can be the big primary goal, and challenge B can be a step towards accomplishing this big goal. In another adventure, it can be the other way around. In one adventure, the players need to obtain an item (a powerful weapon) to slay a monster, in another, they need to slay a monster to get their hands on the valuable item. In one adventure they need to rescue someone who has a clue to the mystery, in another they need to solve a mystery to be able to rescue someone.
Use multiple challenges together to add more depth, make the adventure more difficult/interesting, get players to fight on several fronts. Combine challenges to make them complications for each other, or use conflicting challenges that are incompatible with each other to create difficult choices. Players need to protect a person while also being on the run from the law, they need to spy on someone while traveling through the dangerous environment, they need to fight for political power while pretending to be someone they're not, they need to slay a big monster in the middle of the city while protecting people and avoiding collateral damage.
If you find this list useful - please help me to improve and extend it!
Share more challenge ideas, how can these challenge lists can be extended?
What other big challenge categories could I add? Please share a few challenge examples in those categories.
Share interesting examples for each kind of challenge.
Share interesting complications and combinations of challenges.
Share feedback/advice/ideas on improving this project.
Share good resources (books, random tables, articles) I can use to extend this list.
d100 Action/Adventure Challenges
Defeat a villain and his minions.
Defeat a monstecreature/horde.
Obtain a McGuffin (item, vehicle, money, magic artifact, spell, your lost/stolen valuables, etc)
Obtain Information (an ancient book, a piece of gossip, a clue, secret codes, a way to break the curse).
Protect/Escort /Guard a person/creature (a rich merchant, a researcher, a young prince targeted for assassination, a last of its kind monster, tax collector, witness).
Deliver a person (make sure they don't escape).
Rescue a person/creature (rescue a hostage or a kidnapped person, break them out of captivity).
Track, Find, Chase, and Capture/Catch a person/creature/vehicle (a criminal, a runaway, a ship, a lost pet, an escaped experiment, the infected).
Find and save the missing person (lost kid, caravan, courier, spy.
Deliver a valuable/fragile item/cargo and protect it from danger (artwork, cursed artifact, mysterious crate, a treasure map, a message).
Destroy the target (an object, enemy weapon or infrastructure, the enemy base, a piece of blackmail on someone, a source of infection, close a portal).
Sabotage a plan (disrupt a ritual, prevent a prophecy, undermine the invasion, stop villain from achieving their goals).
Capture and secure the base/location (enemy city, friendly city under siege, a building, a military target).
Defend a location (protect a village from monsters, a city from the enemy army, prevent enemies from passing a bridge or a tunnel, protect a crime scene, meeting site, ritual site, warehouse).
Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies. Survive under siege, liberate it.
Robbery/Heist (rob a train or a blimp, abduct a person, commandeer a ship, steal diamonds from the casino, steal wand from the mage tower).
Protect many innocent people (from natural disaster for example).
Win a competition (Complications: your team is bad, the other side cheats, you can only win by cheating, the event is more deadly than it was supposed to be. You are competing for other purpose than victory, such as to keep another contestant safe, to spy on someone, or to get into the place where the event goes down, to prevent villain from winning, to prove yourself, to impress someone).
Prepare for the mission. Get equipment/supplies/transportation/funding.
Deal with the consequences of a botched/evil magic ritual.
Distract the enemies. Act as bait for the ambush/trap.
Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
Build or repair an object (by collecting McGuffin ingredients).
Perform a Ritual.
Law Enforcement - act as a police for a town.
d100 Exploration Challenges
Survive/avoid environmental dangers (think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable myst, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc).
Overcome environmental obstacles (a river on your way, a closed gate, climbing a mountain, a swamp, quick sand, slipping hazard above the abyss, thin ice, wild magic area).
Travel through multiple locations to reach the target.
Explore the location (to learn about it, to map it, to figure out what happened here. To find bandit camps, enemy encampments, monster nest, a way through, resources).
Find a lost location/person/item/treasure/clues.
Scout for information, survey the location/region (ahead of group, enemy territory, monster infested territory, uncharted wilderness).
Clear location of danger (creatures, traps, haunting ghosts, curses, infestation).
Track something/someone, find a trail.
Deal with a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor).
Survival (without food/water, deal with harsh weather, diseases. Find shelter. Repair a ship or a radio. Find a way to get back home.)
Enter a guarded area (overcome defenses, defeat security, sneak in unseen).
Escape guarded location (break out of prison).
d100 Social/Intrigue Challenges
Convince/Persuade a person to do/say/give you what you want.
Intimidate/Manipulate/Blackmail/Force someone to do what you want.
Befriend/Seduce someone, make allies.
Gain confidence or forgiveness of a person who doesn't like you.
Find a non-combat resolution.
Get caught lying/cheating/sneaking, and rectify the situation.
Persuade a group of people (an organization, an angry mob, snobby nobles).
Gain social status, power, political influence (prove your worth, gain respect, impress someone, get elected).
Change someone's social status (make them look good/bad, get them elected, overthrow a ruler).
Run a kingdom/village/team/organization/business, lead an army (build a new one, restore the failing one to former glory).
Change the society/group/organization (raise morale, lower the crime, stop witch hunts, deal with corruption).
Gain control over the territory (invade a country or repel the invasion).
Put down or incite rebellion/mutiny/conspiracy.
Negotiate a deal, bargain (political compromise, hostage negotiations, trade information, convince them to sign a document).
Resolve conflict, broker peace, unite rivaling factions, settle dispute.
Establish political/trade relationships .
Navigate a strange culture/customs (without offending anyone).
Cause conflict/rivalry/war, pit people/factions against each other.
Deceive a person.
Set someone up, shift the blame to someone else.
Infiltrate a group, conceal your identity (cult, bandits, enemy citadel, thieves guild).
Find the spy/traitomole.
Deal with being blackmailed, spied on, threatened, manipulated.
Deal with a nasty rumor or important information/secrets about yourself being out there.
Defend someone (or yourself) in the court.
Prosecute/judge someone in the court.
Put on a show, entertain.
Redeem or corrupt a person (teach someone a lesson, seduce someone to the dark/light side).
Recruit people to your cause.
Find a way to get someone to owe you a favor, find a way to repay the debt you owe to someone else.
Enforcement - apply pressure to a person to get them to do something or behave in a specific manner, without killing. (Calm down the rowdy gang, collect the debts).
d100 Mystery/Investigation Challenges
Investigate a crime (murder, assault, theft, threats, blackmail, destruction of “x”, disappearances, corrupt law enforcer).
Spying/Surveillance, gather information on a person/creature/location without being noticed. (Are they up to something shady, are they who they claim to be, discover their secret techniques, how are they bypassing security, how do they create “x”, involvement in “x”, what secrets are they hiding, where are they hiding “x”, where do they keep disappearing to, enemy troops, ).
Search for clues and put them together to reach a conclusion.
Find and interview witnesses, interrogate suspects.
Figure out what's going on, unravel a plot.
Figure out what happened in this location.
Find evidence (proof of innocence or guilt, expose a corrupt official).
Find out if the person is lying or keeping secrets, and what they are.
Figure out someone's plot/motives.
Figure out who's behind the plot.
Do research (find and read ancient texts, talk to old wise people).
d100 Stealth/Heist Challenges
Steal (or plant) an item/information.
Escape from danger (overwhelming force, ambush, pursuit of the law or criminals).
Hide, cover your tracks, lay low.
Sneak through undetected.
Assassinate stealthily (sneak into the king's chambers, lure them out, use poison, make it look like an accident).
Deal with getting noticed / drawing an unwanted attention.
Clean up evidence (yours, someone else's).
Exchange a real item for a fake or vice versa.
Return a (creature, item) before anyone notices it's missing.
Sabotage (device, ritual) without being noticed.
Smuggle (creature, person, item) into or out of a location.
Security Testing - breach the clients security unnoticed.
Frame a person/group/nation for a crime.
d100 Complications
Do it under time pressure (before the ritual is complete, before people run out of air, before reinforcements arrive, before or during the event, in transit, while you still have the chance).
Do it while competing with the rival team.
Unrelated people are interfering with the objective.
Do it stealthily (don't attract attention, don't leave clues, no witnesses).
Do it while pretending to be someone else.
Do it without revealing that your client is involved.
Prevent collateral damage, protect the innocents who are around.
Avoid violence. Defeat/capture the villain/creature without it being harmed.
Mitigate the risk, there's a high probability of causing a lot of damage if you're not careful.
Two challenges conflict with each other (you must break your stealth to help someone in trouble, capture criminal or save people who are currently in danger).
Difficult choice. Choose lesser of two evils, choose which people to rescue. A goal that requires personal sacrifice.
Resolve moral dilemma (the creature is dangerous but doesn't deserve to die, you're working for a bad guy, both sides of the conflict have valid points, completing a quest will harm people/environment).
Do it with incomplete information.
Do it with limited resources or without preparation.
Do it without access to powers you're used to having (while sick/injured/debilitated, in an area where magic is outlawed/disabled, having lost your equipment).
Locals here are unhelpful/hostile to you. You have low social status.
You can't trust anyone.
Doing it is illegal, or against authorities best interests, or is threatening a powerful group.
There are regulations/restrictions on what you can do hindering your progress.
Do it while being supervised (the media is all over you, a brilliant detective is on your tail, you are under suspicion, the enemy knows you're coming, you have a spy/mole).
Do it despite your flaws/temptations/fears.
It causes conflict/infighting within the team (player characters will have opposite goals/reactions to it).
Do it while working together with antagonist or someone else you don't like.
The side you're working for turns out to be evil.
The villain is someone you know/like/respect.
The villain is a respected public figure, celebrity, is liked by people or has authority over you.
Bad guy has a dead man switch, if he dies the others will suffer or treasure will be lost. Bad guy is the only one who knows the valuable information.
The people you're helping don't want your help.
Vital information turns out to be wrong.
Deal with the betrayal.
Mission has been rigged to fail from the start (PCs may be used as a scapegoat).
Objective is stolen before the PCs arrive.
Objective must be undamaged.
The important item has been transmuted and needs to be changed back, locked in a safe and needs a code to unlock, is a mineral that needs to be refined by a specific process. A book or a message is written in a foreign language that requires a translator.
Only a bad/unpleasant person can provide the item/information/favor you need.
Please leave a comment and contribute to this project! Edit: I've had a few pretty huge epiphanies while writing this post:
Stories are fundamentally about problem solving. Roleplaying is fundamentally about problem solving. This is the fundamental "game loop" of RPGs - GM puts a problem in front of the players, and they find creative ways to solve it, that's what gives them fun stuff to do and feels satisfying to accomplish.
Adventure Ideas are fundamentally problems. They create an exciting, challenging, important goal for the players to accomplish.
Big problems are broken down into small challenges. But fundamentally, the big climactic adventure/campaign goals and the small challenges players encounter on their way are the same thing. Every scene the characters solve a small problem, and it drives them towards solving the big problem. That's what plot points are - players solving or failing to solve a problem, which moves them closer to or farther away from the goal. Which feels exciting/valuable/dramatic.
Conflict, obstacles, social/exploration/combat encounters are fundamentally just sources of problems. There probably are other sources that can generate problems.
It's all just nested challenges: Campaign Problem > Adventure Problem > Scene Problem. And any challenge can be used on any of these levels.
Therefore, the list above is a list of adventure ideas and plot points at the same time. Make any challenge very important/difficult/exciting to accomplish - and it becomes an idea for the adventure or a campaign. Make any adventure idea relatively small and simple - and it becomes a scene challenge (encounter). Put a number of smaller challenges in front of the players - and you've got your basic story structure (a list of encounters, the gameplay). Because goals and challenges are fundamentally the same, just the nested problems, they can be combined in any order to create any number of unique adventures.
Also, it means that you can take big story ideas from movies, TV episodes, published modules, and use them as ideas for small encounters. Shawshank Redemption, Alien, Jaws, Incredibles - they can be big campaign ideas, small adventure ideas, or just a thing characters do in a scene (escape from the prison, hide from a monster, defeat a big golem).
Game mechanics are also challenges. If there's an RPG system that gets players to do something awesome (GM moves in Dungeon World, Favors/Debts and Social Status mechanics from the Undying, Weak Moves from Dream Askew) - you can use those as challenges too.
Even a single challenge can create an unlimited number of unique stories - you just change the concrete details. McGuffins, NPCs, locations, etc.
Use the Adventure Writing Template to help you develop these challenges into a complete adventure. I have also made an "Adventure Prompts Tool" that will pick the random challenges for you (it also contains some prompts for settings and villains). Also see the Big List of Adventure Ideas - the list of challenges that will work well as the main idea for the adventure (a goal for the Players or the Villain). If you want updates on my future posts - follow me here.
'Kajillionaire' shows how boomers stole from millennials — and what they'll keep stealing
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 62%. (I'm a bot)
A "Kajillion" isn't a real number, so it makes sense that most of what the movie's middle-age con artists, Robert and Theresa, along with their daughter, Old Dolio, steal isn't real money. Want more articles like this? Follow THINK on Instagram to get updates on the week's most important cultural analysisThe joke-y hook is that Robert and Theresa believe they're the kind of rakish, amoral tricksters you might find in a movie about a casino heist or a bank robbery; Jenkins in particular does a beautiful job of playing a guy who is absolutely convinced he's a George Clooney hero. We can see that they're merely selfish, amusingly deluded crooks whose greed becomes less charming the more we see of their daughter, a woman who has been utterly smashed by their indifference. At one point, Robert and Theresa take Old Dolio and Melanie, played by Gina Rodriguez, out to a fancy dinner and recall their years of doing things other than stealing from people. RelatedBut "Kajillionaire" is also an essential L.A. movie, its sunny despair unmistakable, and it's about a sweet and tentative romance between Old Dolio and Melanie, who is as glamorous as Wood is deliberately frumpy. There are already quite a few treacly movies and books about the millennial tendency to create family out of trustworthy friends and romantic partners.
Summary Source | FAQ | Feedback | Topkeywords: more#1movie#2Old#3Theresa#4Robert#5 Post found in /Economics. NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.
How to earn all Ribbons in BitLife in a realistic ways! (2020)
UPDATED LAST JULY 11, 2020 Hello guys! Now since I've got all ribbons last April since I first played last July 19, 2019! I loved how to do it. For now I'll show you here's how to get all the ribbons in a realistic ways:
🧠 Academic - Study harder every year, read books and go to library to enhance smarts, go to University in major, have excellent grades and smarts, and seek higher education (e.g. Graduate School, Medical School, etc.). Have under $2.5 million of net worth. Best used when the character is born with high smarts.
💊 Addict - You must at least 2 addictions to die. Get alcohol and drugs offered and go to gambling very often to get addicted. It is a random luck-based chance. Don't go to clubbing over 10 times with addictions. For easiest way to get, must have at least under 30% smarts, have many friends and go party with them often to get addicted to alcohol and play with gambling often to get addicted to gambling. Don't get seek higher education.
🚂 Bandit - Rob a train successfully in exact real system time (e.g. 4:20 PM or Midnight 12:00 AM). Make sure don't use time cheat.
👱♀️ Barbie Girl - Be a female or transgender female to get all plastic surgeries. Don't get seek higher education (such as Graduate School) or over $2.5 million of net worth for iOS users.
👨💼 Big Boss - Major in English, Finance, Information Systems, or Mathematics. Go to Business School after graduates. Get a Corporate-related job, work harder every year and then you'll be promoted to CEO. Have at least over $20 million of net worth. It is easiest to get as a second generation after inheritance over $20 million.
😸 Cat Lady - Be a female, adopt at least 30 cats and less than 5 pets of other species. Never get married in a life. Also you can be a transgender female to earn this ribbon.
🎭 Cunning - Commit a crime and successfully escape from jail, desert the military or illegally immigrate then get sex change via gender reassignment surgery. Never get caught by the police again until you die.
🗡️ Deadly - Murder at least 5 people. The easiest ones are Perform Drive-By (with fast coupe car) Electrocute Them, Poison Them, Impale Them, and Push Off Cliff. If fails, you will sent to jail or assaulted you to death. Also you can hire a Hitman to kill them, but it requires Bitizenship.
👨👧👦 Family Guy - Be a male and get married. Have under 5-7 children. Spend time 10 times and be good karma. Never abandon or go to jail. Have under $2.5 million of net worth. Also you can be a transgender male to earn this ribbon.
📸 Famous - Have a high looks and smarts. Get a fame-related jobs such as Actor, Singer, Chef, Model, Reporter, DJ, Writer, Magician, Mobile App Developer, and Pornographer. Work hard, promote them and become fame. Also this can be earned after elected as GovernoChief Minister or President/Prime Minister to become Famous Politician.
🍼 Fertile - Have at least 8 children or 5 children with 5 grandchildren in a life from a partner or adoption.
🎁 Generous - Gift items to friends and family at least 20-30 items with much appreciations and more karma without arguments.
♾ Geriatric - Live at least 120 years old in a life with spend time, full karma, happiness, and health without having an illness. Take diets to increase your health.
🌎 Globetrotter - Vacate as many at least 20 countries.
⛏️ Gold Digger - Have a high looks and smarts. Use Freelance Gigs to earn quick money. Open Dating app to find one with highest money income (green bar). Marry 1 richest spouse or more and you'll get over $1.5 million from inheritance through divorce or widow. Never get a job.
👮 Hero - Rescue someone from situation whether if save or die, just tap "Attempt to rescue him/her" button. Keep good karma. Also this can be earned after your character dies after being exploded and blown up by stepping on a mines while serving on a military or another is saving a choking relationship by successfully performing the Heimlich maneuver.
🎲 Highroller - Go to casino or horse racing, you must have high million net worth and win over $2 million lifetime winnings from gambling. It is harder to get for iOS users as a casino glitch patched.
🔓 Houdini - Escape from jail at least 10 times. For easiest way to get without maximum security prisons, see here.
✔️ Influencer (not working on Android) - Have a high looks and smarts. Sign up for a social media accounts at age 13. Post on social media as many times often every year, pick correct options such as Blog, Random, Challenge, Dance, Selfie, or Sexy Pic, get many of million likes and over hundred-thousands of followers and try to go viral. Promote your products if you have over 5 thousands of followers. Monetize your account on YouTube if you have over many thousands of subscribers. If you have over 100k followers, verify on social media accounts and get quickly over 1 million followers to become enjoyment of social media influencer. Also, you can be a fame career life (such as Actor or Singer), then repeat this procedures to get this ribbon.
🚔 Jailbird - Escape from jail and go back at least 2 times. Also this can be earned after jailed at least 3 times without escaping or riot many times due to committing more crimes repeatedly.
😴 Lazy - Have never got a job and at least 50 years old, just spam the age button until you die. Must have smarts higher than 10%. No Job Referral options, just tap "That's not for me" button.
😍 Lustful - Hook-up at least 20 people in one night stands or threesomes without spreading STDs.
🤑 Loaded - Have at least over $20 million of net worth. It is earned via lottery jackpot, inheritance from generations, or a rare expensive heirloom (such as Holy Grail). For easiest way to get, born in most wealthy countries (e.g. Monaco), get a highest-paying job (such as Brain Surgeon or Music Composer), work hard longer and make 20 million of net worth.
😐 Mediocre - It is the easiest to get because you don't have to pass the requirements to get other ribbons and have nothing much in a life. Also this can be earned after you get fired from the job or siblings, classmates or people assaulted you to death at very young age.
🙌 Model Bitizen - You can be a male or female. Compliment, spend time with the relationships and give money at least 10 times. You must have a job, a full karma and relationships and at least $50,000 of net worth without debt. Always pick the right choices in the random events. Always call the police on the situations (don't tap "Attempt to rescue him/her" or "Try to intervene" buttons) and turned it in to the authorities. Never abandon children or pets, argue anyone, ask for money, assault anyone, cheat on partner, go clubbing, go to jail, insult anyone, murder, offer to drink alcohol and drugs, spread STDs to people, steal, do other negative things or do anything lowers karma. Never commit a crime (such as deliquency, solicitation or take a parcel). Apologize or walk away from situation when someone or a relationship argue you or they have disagreement of conversation. Avoid getting any addictions or drug overdose. Don't get over $20 million of net worth to avoid getting the Loaded ribbon or at least 8 biological children, 4 biological children with 8 grandchildren or 5 biological children with 5 grandchildren to avoid getting the Fertile ribbon.
🏠 Monopoly - Make flipping houses at least of over $1 million real estate profits within buying, renovating at least good condition, and selling them much higher price at least 10 houses.
🤲 Mooch - Ask your parents to get money or buy pets and they refuse it at least 10 times.
🎬 Movie Buff - Watch a movie (Comedy, Documentary, etc.) at the movie theater every year at least 20 movies. Requires to watch ad if you don't have a Bitizenship. Don't get seek higher education (such as Graduate School) or at least $2.5 million net worth for iOS users.
💸 Rich - Have at least $2.5 million of net worth. Don't get over $20 million. It is best used for high-paying jobs and inheritances.
👹 Rowdy - Go clubbing at least 10 times, hook-up with them, argue people, and accept every offer to drink alcohol and drugs.
😈 Scandalous - Commit a major crime such as armed robbery or murder, get sentenced to jail and stay at least 5 years without escaping.
🤪 Stupid - Same as Lazy ribbon, but with have a lower smarts under 10%, never got a job, and making dumb decisions that lowers smarts at least 50 years old. Also this can be earned after your character dies due to drug overdose for iOS users.
👍 Successful - Have at least $250k of net worth, good karma and at least 65 years old. Avoid getting any addictions. Don't get over $2.5 million of net worth or seek higher education such as Graduate School.
🐯 Tarzan - Be a male, Bond with at least 20 exotic animals and spend time with them. You'll need a Bitizenship to buy exotic animals from Exotic Pet Dealer. Also you can be a transgender male to earn this ribbon.
🌵 Teammate - Born in Miami or Tucson, United States. Major in Computer Science or Information Systems then get a Mobile App Developer job. Promote to App Designer and maintain it. For Android users, so never get famous.
🦊 Thief - For iOS, you must steal as many at least 5 rob banks, 5 burgle houses, 5 steal cars, 10 pickpocket people, 10 porch pirates, 10 shoplift items, or 10 stealing random items (much easier). For Android, you must steal at least 2 burgle houses, 2 pickpocket people and 2 stealing cars but don't spend too much time in jail.
⛈️ Unlucky - Die under 30 years old after contract deadly diseases such as cancer or coronavirus (COVID-19). This is a random luck-based chance. Also this can be earned after your character dies due to struck by lightning or attacked by the terrorists in some war torn countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria for iOS users. For easiest luck to get, use God Mode to edit all attributes to 0%, start a new life, contract with whooping cough, and die at least age 2 years old.
🚮 Wasteful - Go to Activities, then go to Surrender option to end life immediately. Also this can be earned after sentenced to death or highest debt of net worth.
👿 Wicked - Spread at least 5 STDs to them from hook-ups, abandon at least 5 children, release at least 5 pets, or more.
🎖️ Veteran - Get in the military as enlistee or officer (requires University in any majors). You must deploy mines successfully many times using Minesweeper game (have practice them with skills). Serve full career in the military until reach at age 62. For those who fail to deploy and blown up on mines, get Minesweeper Solver here.
For the Prison Escape guide, see here. For the Careers and Jobs guide, see here.
The name is Don Vitollo, I was born in Brooklyn in 1926, but when I was about five, we moved to New York City. My dad was a nice guy, but not the type character you would want to mess around with. You see, he was a big shot in New York and ran a business that sold insurance, or that’s at least what he told me he did. I figured out when I was a bit older that when he said he sold insurance, he was actually running illegal gambling operations. For the most part as a kid, my mother shielded me away from all the violence that comes from being in a criminal family. Life was pretty normal growing up. One thing I noticed that was pretty weird was that we had a huge family and we all lived in the same house. My dad told me and my brothers everyday, “If you don’t have family, you don’t have anything”. My family and I were really close all throughout my childhood. The year came when I was sixteen that I was recruited to be a part of the family business. When I got around that age and started to see what our family did and what was going on, I started to get paranoid. There were three different crime families in our area. The Moretti’s were good friends with my father. They each helped each other out with different things and he was a man of his word. Angelo Moretti always says, “If you don’t have your word, what do you have?” Then there’s the Mancino family. Real Scum, You couldn’t believe one word the Mancino’s said. They were just a bunch of riff raff that thought they were the most important people in America. They did whatever they could to get money. It was led by a young guy named Flavio who had no respect for anybody. They would go to restaurants and businesses and say that if they didn’t pay them, they would burn their business to the ground. When I was around 17, The Mancino’s thought that we were taking over their territory. They told us we had to stop doing what we do or they would burn our family house down. That’s when the two families went to war. One day that I remember clearly is when my Uncle Tony was taking a trip to go see a client in Seattle. There was my uncle Tony, two bodyguards, and me, all in a 1938 Ford four door sedan. We pulled over at a gas station to get some lunch. A car pulled up beside us. There was no warning before we heard shots. They drove off before the bodyguards could get them. My uncle had been shot! That was the first time I saw someone get killed. And it wouldn’t be the last. The funeral was held at a local cemetery. Over 200 people showed up to offertheir condolences. After the funeral, there was a big meeting with our whole crime family. One thought was on all of our minds. How could we get back at the Mancino’s? Two weeks later the Mancino’s mansion had burnt down credits to the Vitollo Crime family. Slowly, our family started to deteriorate. Hits were being placed on tons of people in our family. Three of my cousins and two more uncles, all dead. We couldn’t even leave the house for months. I remember the exact day when my brother died. It was twelve at night. About twenty guys from the Mancino family drove up to our house and climbed over the gate. Everyone woke up. My brothers and I and all of our bodyguards ran outside to help them. It was a full out firefight. My brother Ringo and I were behind a car shooting at the Mancino’s. Bam! Ringo has been shot. I grabbed him and ran him back inside our house barely avoiding bullets and yelled for my mom and sisters to come help him. Overall that fight cost about fifteen lives of our men and theirs. One of them was my brother. At this point, we knew if this kept on going on my father would end up being killed. So, we made a deal with the Mancinos. The war was over but now my family was only about half of what it used to be. 15 Years Later I now have a family of my own - a wife and kids. My father died from a heart attack, so I had taken over the Vitollo Crime family. I was a big shot now, We were making eight million dollars a month. We had two of the biggest casinos running under the Vitollo family name. I had it all, but with all this money and power gives you an ego, and an ego makes you greedy. We started to launder money away to pay less taxes. We and bought gas stations all over the country and were defrauding the government on all of our gas taxes. I started thinking the law couldn’t catch me no matter what I did. So, we planned a bank robbery. There was a Wells Fargo in Las Vegas that had millions of dollars in gold. I sent twenty of my best men to break into the safe. The day came when the robbery had been planned. I went to a movie at the time of the robbery so I had an alibi. When I exited the theatre there were cops waiting for me at my house. One of my men that was supposed to do the job had talked. The cops were waiting for them at the bank. The cops arrested all of them, and that is how I am here today... “Is that all,” asked the Judge.
A Big List of Challenges (Problems, Goals, Complications, Encounters) for your adventure (including Action/Adventure, Exploration, Social/Intrigue, Mystery/Investigation, and Stealth/Heist).
Hi! I have compiled a big list of challenges your players can encounter during the adventure.
Action/Adventure Challenges
Defeat a villain and his minions.
Defeat a monstecreature/horde.
Obtain a McGuffin (item, vehicle, money, magic artifact, spell, your lost/stolen valuables, etc)
Obtain Information (an ancient book, a piece of gossip, a clue, secret codes, a way to break the curse).
Protect/Escort /Guard a person/creature (a rich merchant, a researcher, a young prince targeted for assassination, a last of its kind monster, tax collector, witness).
Deliver a person (make sure they don't escape).
Rescue a person/creature (rescue a hostage or a kidnapped person, break them out of captivity).
Track, Find, Chase, and Capture/Catch a person/creature/vehicle (a criminal, a runaway, a ship, a lost pet, an escaped experiment, the infected).
Find and save the missing person (lost kid, caravan, courier, spy.
Deliver a valuable/fragile item/cargo and protect it from danger (artwork, cursed artifact, mysterious crate, a treasure map, a message).
Destroy the target (an object, a cursed item, enemy weapon or infrastructure, the enemy base, a piece of blackmail on someone, a source of infection, close a portal).
Sabotage a plan (disrupt a ritual, prevent a prophecy, undermine the invasion, stop villain from achieving their goals).
Capture and secure the base/location (enemy city, friendly city under siege, a building, a military target).
Defend a location (protect a village from monsters, a city from the enemy army, prevent enemies from passing a bridge or a tunnel, protect a crime scene, meeting site, warehouse, protect a ritual to ensure it will get completed).
Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies. Survive under siege, liberate it.
Robbery/Heist (rob a train or a blimp, abduct a person, commandeer a ship, steal diamonds from the casino, steal wand from the mage tower).
Protect many innocent people (save people from a natural disaster for example, release the prisoners/slaves).
Win a competition (Complications: your team is bad, the other side cheats, you can only win by cheating, the event is more deadly than it was supposed to be. You are competing for other purpose than victory, such as to keep another contestant safe, to spy on someone, or to get into the place where the event goes down, to prevent villain from winning, to prove yourself, to impress someone).
Prepare for the mission. Get equipment/supplies/transportation/funding.
Deal with the consequences of a botched/evil magic ritual.
Distract the enemies. Act as bait for the ambush/trap.
Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
Build or repair an object (by collecting McGuffin ingredients).
Perform a Ritual.
Law Enforcement - act as a police for a town.
Intercept a delivery, escort, communications.
Prepare and execute an ambush.
Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard (for dangerous potions).
Exploration Challenges
Survive/avoid environmental dangers (think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable mist, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc).
Overcome environmental obstacles (a river on your way, a closed gate, climbing a mountain, a swamp, quick sand, slipping hazard above the abyss, thin ice, wild magic area. Retrieve an item from the bottom of the lake.).
Travel through multiple locations to reach the target.
Explore the location (to learn about it, to map it, to figure out what happened here. To find bandit camps, enemy encampments, monster nest, a way through, resources).
Find a lost location/person/item/treasure/clues.
Scout for information, survey the location/region (ahead of group, enemy territory, monster infested territory, uncharted wilderness).
Clear location of danger (creatures, traps, haunting ghosts, curses, infestation).
Track something/someone, find a trail.
Deal with a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor).
Survival (without food/water, deal with harsh weather, diseases. Find shelter. Repair a ship or a radio. Find a way to get back home.)
Enter a guarded area (overcome defenses, defeat security, sneak in unseen).
Escape guarded location (break out of prison).
Use environment to your advantage (start an avalanche to block a pass, assume the most optimal position for combat).
Social/Intrigue Challenges
Convince/Persuade a person to do/say/give you what you want.
Intimidate/Manipulate/Blackmail/Force someone to do what you want.
Befriend/Seduce someone, make allies.
Gain confidence or forgiveness of a person who doesn't like you.
Find a non-combat resolution.
Get caught lying/cheating/sneaking, and rectify the situation.
Persuade a group of people (an organization, an angry mob, snobby nobles. Persuade the army to take a route that will slow them down/lead them into an ambush, convince the bandits to raid the enemy, convince farmers to donate food).
Gain social status, power, political influence (prove your worth, gain respect, impress someone, get elected).
Change someone's social status (make them look good/bad, get them elected, overthrow a ruler).
Run a kingdom/village/team/organization/business, lead an army (build a new one, restore the failing one to former glory).
Change the society/group/organization (raise morale, lower the crime, stop witch hunts, deal with corruption).
Gain control over the territory (invade a country or repel the invasion).
Put down or incite rebellion/mutiny/conspiracy.
Negotiate a deal, bargain (political compromise, hostage negotiations, trade information, convince them to sign a document).
Resolve conflict, broker peace, unite rivaling factions, settle dispute.
Establish political/trade relationships .
Navigate a strange culture/customs (without offending anyone).
Cause conflict/rivalry/war, pit people/factions against each other (get enemy minions to mistrust each other).
Deceive a person.
Set someone up, shift the blame to someone else.
Infiltrate a group, conceal your identity (cult, bandits, enemy citadel, thieves guild).
Find the spy/traitomole.
Deal with being blackmailed, spied on, threatened, manipulated.
Deal with a nasty rumor or important information/secrets about yourself being out there.
Defend someone (or yourself) in the court.
Prosecute/judge someone in the court.
Put on a show, entertain.
Redeem or corrupt a person (teach someone a lesson, seduce someone to the dark/light side).
Recruit people to your cause.
Find a way to get someone to owe you a favor, find a way to repay the debt you owe to someone else.
Enforcement - apply pressure to a person to get them to do something or behave in a specific manner, without killing. (Calm down the rowdy gang, collect the debts).
Get enemy soldiers/minions to defect and switch sides.
Create a disinformation/propaganda campaign (feed it to the enemy spy, destroy someone's reputation, saw fear in the hearts of the enemy soldiers).
Perform a con.
Mystery/Investigation Challenges
Investigate a crime (murder, assault, theft, threats, blackmail, destruction of “x”, disappearances, corrupt law enforcer).
Spying/Surveillance, gather information on a person/creature/location without being noticed. (Are they up to something shady, are they who they claim to be, discover their secret techniques, how are they bypassing security, how do they create “x”, involvement in “x”, what secrets are they hiding, where are they hiding “x”, where do they keep disappearing to, enemy troops, ).
Search for clues and put them together to reach a conclusion.
Find and interview witnesses, interrogate suspects.
Figure out what's going on, unravel a plot.
Figure out what happened in this location.
Find evidence (proof of innocence or guilt, expose a corrupt official).
Find out if the person is lying or keeping secrets, and what they are.
Figure out someone's plot/motives.
Figure out who's behind the plot.
Do research (find and read ancient texts, talk to old wise people).
Stealth/Heist Challenges
Steal (or plant) an item/information (modify enemy maps, plant disinformation. Plant clues to frame a person).
Escape from danger (overwhelming force, ambush, pursuit of the law or criminals).
Hide, cover your tracks, lay low.
Sneak through undetected (sneak past enemy lines to deliver a message to allied forces, sneak past the bouncers into a party).
Assassinate stealthily (sneak into the king's chambers, lure them out, use poison, make it look like an accident).
Deal with getting noticed / drawing an unwanted attention.
Clean up evidence (yours, someone else's).
Exchange a real item for a fake or vice versa.
Return a (creature, item) before anyone notices it's missing.
Sabotage (device, ritual) without being noticed.
Smuggle (creature, person, item) into or out of a location.
Security Testing - breach the clients security unnoticed.
Frame a person/group/nation for a crime.
Fake someone's death.
Complications
Do it under time pressure (before the ritual is complete, before people run out of air, before reinforcements arrive, before or during the event, in transit, while you still have the chance).
Do it while competing with the rival team.
Unrelated people are interfering with the objective.
Do it stealthily (don't attract attention, don't leave clues, no witnesses).
Do it while pretending to be someone else.
Do it without revealing that your client is involved.
Prevent collateral damage, protect the innocents who are around.
Avoid violence. Defeat/capture the villain/creature without it being harmed.
Mitigate the risk, there's a high probability of causing a lot of damage if you're not careful.
Two challenges conflict with each other (you must break your stealth to help someone in trouble, capture criminal or save people who are currently in danger).
Difficult choice. Choose lesser of two evils, choose which people to rescue. Requiring personal sacrifice, risk, compromise.
Opportunities that come with a difficulty, cost or have negative consequences.
Resolve moral dilemma (the creature is dangerous but doesn't deserve to die, you're working for a bad guy, both sides of the conflict have valid points, completing a quest will harm people/environment).
Do it with incomplete information.
Do it with limited resources or without preparation.
Do it without access to powers you're used to having (while sick/injured/debilitated, in an area where magic is outlawed/disabled, having lost your equipment).
Locals here are unhelpful/hostile to you. You have low social status.
You can't trust anyone.
Doing it is illegal, or against authorities best interests, or is threatening a powerful group.
There are regulations/restrictions on what you can do hindering your progress.
Do it while being supervised (the media is all over you, a brilliant detective is on your tail, you are under suspicion, the enemy knows you're coming, you have a spy/mole).
Do it despite your flaws/temptations/fears.
It causes conflict/infighting within the team (player characters will have opposite goals/reactions to it).
Do it while working together with antagonist or someone else you don't like.
The side you're working for turns out to be evil.
The villain is someone you know/like/respect.
The villain is a respected public figure, celebrity, is liked by people or has authority over you.
Bad guy has a dead man switch, if he dies the others will suffer or treasure will be lost. Bad guy is the only one who knows the valuable information.
The people you're helping don't want your help.
Vital information turns out to be wrong.
Deal with the betrayal.
Mission has been rigged to fail from the start (PCs may be used as a scapegoat).
Objective is stolen before the PCs arrive.
Objective must be undamaged.
The important item has been transmuted and needs to be changed back, locked in a safe and needs a code to unlock, is a mineral that needs to be refined by a specific process. A book or a message is written in a foreign language that requires a translator.
Only a bad/unpleasant person can provide the item/information/favor you need.
Using Challenges to create Adventures
These challenges can be used as sub-goals the players will need to achieve on the path to their main goal, as obstacles they need to overcome to get what they want.
Most of them can also be used as the primary goal, an idea for the whole adventure (just make the stakes higher, make it important/interesting/exciting to accomplish, make it more difficult, add sub-goals and obstacles players need to get through to achieve it).
Challenges can be mixed and matched. In one adventure, challenge A can be the big primary goal, and challenge B can be a step towards accomplishing this big goal. In another adventure, it can be the other way around. In one adventure, the players need to obtain an item (a powerful weapon) to slay a monster, in another, they need to slay a monster to get their hands on the valuable item. In one adventure they need to rescue someone who has a clue to the mystery, in another they need to solve a mystery to be able to rescue someone.
Use multiple challenges together to add more depth, make the adventure more difficult/interesting, get players to fight on several fronts. Combine challenges to make them complications for each other, or use conflicting challenges that are incompatible with each other to create difficult choices. Players need to protect a person while also being on the run from the law, they need to spy on someone while traveling through the dangerous environment, they need to fight for political power while pretending to be someone they're not, they need to slay a big monster in the middle of the city while protecting people and avoiding collateral damage.
This works because:
Stories are fundamentally about problem solving. Roleplaying is fundamentally about problem solving. This is the fundamental "game loop" of RPGs - GM puts a problem in front of the players, and they find creative ways to solve it, that's what gives them fun stuff to do and feels satisfying to accomplish.
Adventure Ideas are fundamentally problems. They create an exciting, challenging, important goal for the players to accomplish.
Big problems are broken down into small challenges. But fundamentally, the big climactic adventure/campaign goals and the small challenges players encounter on their way are the same thing. Every scene the characters solve a small problem, and it drives them towards solving the big problem. That's what plot points are - players solving or failing to solve a problem, which moves them closer to or farther away from the goal. Which feels exciting/valuable/dramatic.
Conflict, obstacles, social/exploration/combat encounters are fundamentally just sources of problems. There probably are other sources that can generate problems.
It's all just nested challenges: Campaign Problem > Adventure Problem > Scene Problem. And any challenge can be used on any of these levels.
Therefore, the list above is a list of adventure ideas and plot points at the same time. Make any challenge very important/difficult/exciting to accomplish - and it becomes an idea for the adventure or a campaign. Make any adventure idea relatively small and simple - and it becomes a scene challenge (encounter). Put a number of smaller challenges in front of the players - and you've got your basic story structure (a list of encounters, the gameplay). Because goals and challenges are fundamentally the same, just the nested problems, they can be combined in any order to create any number of unique adventures.
Also, it means that you can take big story ideas from movies, TV episodes, published modules, and use them as ideas for small encounters. Shawshank Redemption, Alien, Jaws, Incredibles - they can be big campaign ideas, small adventure ideas, or just a thing characters do in a scene (escape from the prison, hide from a monster, defeat a big golem).
Game mechanics are also challenges. If there's an RPG system that gets players to do something awesome (GM moves in Dungeon World, Favors/Debts and Social Status mechanics from the Undying, Weak Moves from Dream Askew) - you can use those as challenges too.
Even a single challenge can create an unlimited number of unique stories - you just change the concrete details. McGuffins, NPCs, locations, etc.
If you find this list useful - please help me to improve and extend it!
Share more challenge ideas, how can these challenge lists can be extended?
What other big challenge categories could I add? Please share a few challenge examples in those categories.
Share interesting examples for each kind of challenge.
Share interesting complications and combinations of challenges.
Share feedback/advice/ideas on improving this project.
Share good resources (books, random tables, articles) I can use to extend this list.
The name is Don Vitollo, I was born in Brooklyn in 1926, but when I was about five, we moved to New York City. My dad was a nice guy, but not the type character you would want to mess around with. You see, he was a big shot in New York and ran a business that sold insurance, or that’s at least what he told me he did. I figured out when I was a bit older that when he said he sold insurance, he was actually running illegal gambling operations. For the most part as a kid, my mother shielded me away from all the violence that comes from being in a criminal family. Life was pretty normal growing up. One thing I noticed that was pretty weird was that we had a huge family and we all lived in the same house. My dad told me and my brothers everyday, “If you don’t have family, you don’t have anything”. My family and I were really close all throughout my childhood. The year came when I was sixteen that I was recruited to be a part of the family business. When I got around that age and started to see what our family did and what was going on, I started to get paranoid. There were three different crime families in our area. The Moretti’s were good friends with my father. They each helped each other out with different things and he was a man of his word. Angelo Moretti always says, “If you don’t have your word, what do you have?” Then there’s the Mancino family. Real Scum, You couldn’t believe one word the Mancino’s said. They were just a bunch of riff raff that thought they were the most important people in America. They did whatever they could to get money. It was led by a young guy named Flavio who had no respect for anybody. They would go to restaurants and businesses and say that if they didn’t pay them, they would burn their business to the ground. When I was around 17, The Mancino’s thought that we were taking over their territory. They told us we had to stop doing what we do or they would burn our family house down. That’s when the two families went to war. One day that I remember clearly is when my Uncle Tony was taking a trip to go see a client in Seattle. There was my uncle Tony, two bodyguards, and me, all in a 1938 Ford four door sedan. We pulled over at a gas station to get some lunch. A car pulled up beside us. There was no warning before we heard shots. They drove off before the bodyguards could get them. My uncle had been shot! That was the first time I saw someone get killed. And it wouldn’t be the last. The funeral was held at a local cemetery. Over 200 people showed up to offertheir condolences. After the funeral, there was a big meeting with our whole crime family. One thought was on all of our minds. How could we get back at the Mancino’s? Two weeks later the Mancino’s mansion had burnt down credits to the Vitollo Crime family. Slowly, our family started to deteriorate. Hits were being placed on tons of people in our family. Three of my cousins and two more uncles, all dead. We couldn’t even leave the house for months. I remember the exact day when my brother died. It was twelve at night. About twenty guys from the Mancino family drove up to our house and climbed over the gate. Everyone woke up. My brothers and I and all of our bodyguards ran outside to help them. It was a full out firefight. My brother Ringo and I were behind a car shooting at the Mancino’s. Bam! Ringo has been shot. I grabbed him and ran him back inside our house barely avoiding bullets and yelled for my mom and sisters to come help him. Overall that fight cost about fifteen lives of our men and theirs. One of them was my brother. At this point, we knew if this kept on going on my father would end up being killed. So, we made a deal with the Mancinos. The war was over but now my family was only about half of what it used to be. 15 Years Later I now have a family of my own - a wife and kids. My father died from a heart attack, so I had taken over the Vitollo Crime family. I was a big shot now, We were making eight million dollars a month. We had two of the biggest casinos running under the Vitollo family name. I had it all, but with all this money and power gives you an ego, and an ego makes you greedy. We started to launder money away to pay less taxes. We and bought gas stations all over the country and were defrauding the government on all of our gas taxes. I started thinking the law couldn’t catch me no matter what I did. So, we planned a bank robbery. There was a Wells Fargo in Las Vegas that had millions of dollars in gold. I sent twenty of my best men to break into the safe. The day came when the robbery had been planned. I went to a movie at the time of the robbery so I had an alibi. When I exited the theatre there were cops waiting for me at my house. One of my men that was supposed to do the job had talked. The cops were waiting for them at the bank. The cops arrested all of them, and that is how I am here today... “Is that all,” asked the Judge.
A Big List of Challenges (Problems/Goals/Complications/Encounters) for your adventure (including Social, Exploration, Stealth, Mystery, and Combat).
Hi! I have compiled a big list of challenges your players can encounter during the adventure.
These challenges can be used as sub-goals the players will need to achieve on the path to their main goal, as obstacles they need to overcome to get what they want.
Most of them can also be used as the primary goal, an idea for the whole adventure (just make the stakes higher, make it important/interesting/exciting to accomplish, make it more difficult, add sub-goals and obstacles players need to get through to achieve it).
Challenges can be mixed and matched. In one adventure, challenge A can be the big primary goal, and challenge B can be a step towards accomplishing this big goal. In another adventure, it can be the other way around. In one adventure, the players need to obtain an item (a powerful weapon) to slay a monster, in another, they need to slay a monster to get their hands on the valuable item. In one adventure they need to rescue someone who has a clue to the mystery, in another they need to solve a mystery to be able to rescue someone.
Use multiple challenges together to add more depth, make the adventure more difficult/interesting, get players to fight on several fronts. Combine challenges to make them complications for each other, or use conflicting challenges that are incompatible with each other to create difficult choices. Players need to protect a person while also being on the run from the law, they need to spy on someone while traveling through the dangerous environment, they need to fight for political power while pretending to be someone they're not, they need to slay a big monster in the middle of the city while protecting people and avoiding collateral damage.
If you find this list useful - please help me to improve and extend it!
Share more challenge ideas, how can these challenge lists can be extended?
What other big challenge categories could I add? Please share a few challenge examples in those categories.
Share interesting examples for each kind of challenge.
Share interesting complications and combinations of challenges.
Share feedback/advice/ideas on improving this project.
Share good resources (books, random tables, articles) I can use to extend this list.
Action/Adventure Challenges
Defeat a villain and his minions.
Defeat a monstecreature/horde.
Obtain a McGuffin (item, vehicle, money, magic artifact, spell, your lost/stolen valuables, etc)
Obtain Information (an ancient book, a piece of gossip, a clue, secret codes, a way to break the curse).
Protect/Escort /Guard a person/creature (a rich merchant, a researcher, a young prince targeted for assassination, a last of its kind monster, tax collector, witness).
Deliver a person (make sure they don't escape).
Rescue a person/creature (rescue a hostage or a kidnapped person, break them out of captivity).
Track, Find, Chase, and Capture/Catch a person/creature/vehicle (a criminal, a runaway, a ship, a lost pet, an escaped experiment, the infected).
Find and save the missing person (lost kid, caravan, courier, spy.
Deliver a valuable/fragile item/cargo and protect it from danger (artwork, cursed artifact, mysterious crate, a treasure map, a message).
Destroy the target (an object, a cursed item, enemy weapon or infrastructure, the enemy base, a piece of blackmail on someone, a source of infection, close a portal).
Sabotage a plan (disrupt a ritual, prevent a prophecy, undermine the invasion, stop villain from achieving their goals).
Capture and secure the base/location (enemy city, friendly city under siege, a building, a military target).
Defend a location (protect a village from monsters, a city from the enemy army, prevent enemies from passing a bridge or a tunnel, protect a crime scene, meeting site, warehouse, protect a ritual to ensure it will get completed).
Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies. Survive under siege, liberate it.
Robbery/Heist (rob a train or a blimp, abduct a person, commandeer a ship, steal diamonds from the casino, steal wand from the mage tower).
Protect many innocent people (save people from a natural disaster for example, release the prisoners/slaves).
Win a competition (Complications: your team is bad, the other side cheats, you can only win by cheating, the event is more deadly than it was supposed to be. You are competing for other purpose than victory, such as to keep another contestant safe, to spy on someone, or to get into the place where the event goes down, to prevent villain from winning, to prove yourself, to impress someone).
Prepare for the mission. Get equipment/supplies/transportation/funding.
Deal with the consequences of a botched/evil magic ritual.
Distract the enemies. Act as bait for the ambush/trap.
Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
Build or repair an object (by collecting McGuffin ingredients).
Perform a Ritual.
Law Enforcement - act as a police for a town.
Intercept a delivery, escort, communications.
Prepare and execute an ambush.
Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard (for dangerous potions).
Exploration Challenges
Survive/avoid environmental dangers (think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable mist, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc).
Overcome environmental obstacles (a river on your way, a closed gate, climbing a mountain, a swamp, quick sand, slipping hazard above the abyss, thin ice, wild magic area. Retrieve an item from the bottom of the lake.).
Travel through multiple locations to reach the target.
Explore the location (to learn about it, to map it, to figure out what happened here. To find bandit camps, enemy encampments, monster nest, a way through, resources).
Find a lost location/person/item/treasure/clues.
Scout for information, survey the location/region (ahead of group, enemy territory, monster infested territory, uncharted wilderness).
Clear location of danger (creatures, traps, haunting ghosts, curses, infestation).
Track something/someone, find a trail.
Deal with a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor).
Survival (without food/water, deal with harsh weather, diseases. Find shelter. Repair a ship or a radio. Find a way to get back home.)
Enter a guarded area (overcome defenses, defeat security, sneak in unseen).
Escape guarded location (break out of prison).
Use environment to your advantage (start an avalanche to block a pass, assume the most optimal position for combat).
Social/Intrigue Challenges
Convince/Persuade a person to do/say/give you what you want.
Intimidate/Manipulate/Blackmail/Force someone to do what you want.
Befriend/Seduce someone, make allies.
Gain confidence or forgiveness of a person who doesn't like you.
Find a non-combat resolution.
Get caught lying/cheating/sneaking, and rectify the situation.
Persuade a group of people (an organization, an angry mob, snobby nobles. Persuade the army to take a route that will slow them down/lead them into an ambush, convince the bandits to raid the enemy, convince farmers to donate food).
Gain social status, power, political influence (prove your worth, gain respect, impress someone, get elected).
Change someone's social status (make them look good/bad, get them elected, overthrow a ruler).
Run a kingdom/village/team/organization/business, lead an army (build a new one, restore the failing one to former glory).
Change the society/group/organization (raise morale, lower the crime, stop witch hunts, deal with corruption).
Gain control over the territory (invade a country or repel the invasion).
Put down or incite rebellion/mutiny/conspiracy.
Negotiate a deal, bargain (political compromise, hostage negotiations, trade information, convince them to sign a document).
Resolve conflict, broker peace, unite rivaling factions, settle dispute.
Establish political/trade relationships .
Navigate a strange culture/customs (without offending anyone).
Cause conflict/rivalry/war, pit people/factions against each other (get enemy minions to mistrust each other).
Deceive a person.
Set someone up, shift the blame to someone else.
Infiltrate a group, conceal your identity (cult, bandits, enemy citadel, thieves guild).
Find the spy/traitomole.
Deal with being blackmailed, spied on, threatened, manipulated.
Deal with a nasty rumor or important information/secrets about yourself being out there.
Defend someone (or yourself) in the court.
Prosecute/judge someone in the court.
Put on a show, entertain.
Redeem or corrupt a person (teach someone a lesson, seduce someone to the dark/light side).
Recruit people to your cause.
Find a way to get someone to owe you a favor, find a way to repay the debt you owe to someone else.
Enforcement - apply pressure to a person to get them to do something or behave in a specific manner, without killing. (Calm down the rowdy gang, collect the debts).
Get enemy soldiers/minions to defect and switch sides.
Create a disinformation/propaganda campaign (feed it to the enemy spy, destroy someone's reputation, saw fear in the hearts of the enemy soldiers).
Perform a con.
Mystery/Investigation Challenges
Investigate a crime (murder, assault, theft, threats, blackmail, destruction of “x”, disappearances, corrupt law enforcer).
Spying/Surveillance, gather information on a person/creature/location without being noticed. (Are they up to something shady, are they whom they claim to be, discover their secret techniques, how are they bypassing security, how do they create “x”, involvement in “x”, what secrets are they hiding, where are they hiding “x”, where do they keep disappearing to, enemy troops, ).
Search for clues and put them together to reach a conclusion.
Find and interview witnesses, interrogate suspects.
Figure out what's going on, unravel a plot.
Figure out what happened in this location.
Find evidence (proof of innocence or guilt, expose a corrupt official).
Find out if the person is lying or keeping secrets, and what they are.
Figure out someone's plot/motives.
Figure out who's behind the plot.
Do research (find and read ancient texts, talk to old wise people).
Stealth/Heist Challenges
Steal (or plant) an item/information (modify enemy maps, plant disinformation. Plant clues to frame a person).
Escape from danger (overwhelming force, ambush, pursuit of the law or criminals).
Hide, cover your tracks, lay low.
Sneak through undetected (sneak past enemy lines to deliver a message to allied forces, sneak past the bouncers into a party).
Assassinate stealthily (sneak into the king's chambers, lure them out, use poison, make it look like an accident).
Deal with getting noticed / drawing an unwanted attention.
Clean up evidence (yours, someone else's).
Exchange a real item for a fake or vice versa.
Return a (creature, item) before anyone notices it's missing.
Sabotage (device, ritual) without being noticed.
Smuggle (creature, person, item) into or out of a location.
Security Testing - breach the clients security unnoticed.
Frame a person/group/nation for a crime.
Fake someone's death.
Villain's Moves
Personally confront the players.
Send minions after the players.
Hire a rival team of adventurers or thugs to go after players..
Send an assassin.
Send a spy.
Set a bounty on their heads.
Set a trap.
Setup an ambush.
Take hostages.
Threaten an NPC players like.
Frame players for a crime, declare them traitors/outlaws.
Reveal player's secrets, crimes they have committed.
Bribe the authorities/police to act against players.
Convince authorities/police that players are evil.
Make the public dislike the heroes.
Have a "dead man switch" that will hurt people or destroy something valuable if the villain is killed.
Know some information valuable to the players (like where hostages are kept, where the treasure is hidden), so players can't kill them, and must negotiate.
Set a time-bomb. Something horrible will happen unless players do what they're told.
Possess/blackmail/threaten an innocent person into doing their bidding.
Pretend to be someone else to deceive the players.
Befriend players to use them and betray them later.
Kidnap one of the players.
Join forces with another enemy of the players.
Plant false clues, create decoy trails.
Frame someone else for their crimes.
Kill hero's mentoally.
Cause mistrust, disorder, confusion, infighting among players or general population.
Hire people to commit crimes while pretending to be someone else to create mistrust/conflict among two parties. (Example: the bandits "from another country" attacks "local merchants", Start a plague in an uneducated city and have the "foreign merchant" sell snake oil cures, "native patriot" kills a "alien anarchist, etc.)
Put difficult choices in front of the heroes (like forcing Batman to save one of the ferry boats, to save Harvey Dent or Rachel).
Take away resources from the players (steal their items).
Give people the wrong idea about his powers/weaknesses.
Push player's buttons, play on heroes' flaws, temptations, fears.
Develop a good public image, make friends in the government, be beloved by the public.
Seduce player's allies to the dark side, convince/threaten them into betraying players.
Complications
Do it under time pressure (before the ritual is complete, before people run out of air, before reinforcements arrive, before or during the event, in transit, while you still have the chance).
Do it while competing with the rival team.
Unrelated people are interfering with the objective.
Do it stealthily (don't attract attention, don't leave clues, no witnesses).
Do it while pretending to be someone else.
Do it without revealing that your client is involved.
Prevent collateral damage, protect the innocents who are around.
Avoid violence. Defeat/capture the villain/creature without it being harmed.
Mitigate the risk, there's a high probability of causing a lot of damage if you're not careful.
Two challenges conflict with each other (you must break your stealth to help someone in trouble, capture criminal or save people who are currently in danger).
Difficult choice. Choose lesser of two evils, choose which people to rescue. Requiring personal sacrifice, risk, compromise.
Opportunities that come with a difficulty, cost or have negative consequences.
Resolve moral dilemma (the creature is dangerous but doesn't deserve to die, you're working for a bad guy, both sides of the conflict have valid points, completing a quest will harm people/environment).
Do it with incomplete information.
Do it with limited resources or without preparation.
Do it without access to powers you're used to having (while sick/injured/debilitated, in an area where magic is outlawed/disabled, having lost your equipment).
Locals here are unhelpful/hostile to you. You have low social status.
You can't trust anyone.
Doing it is illegal, or against authorities best interests, or is threatening a powerful group.
There are regulations/restrictions on what you can do hindering your progress.
Do it while being supervised (the media is all over you, a brilliant detective is on your tail, you are under suspicion, the enemy knows you're coming, you have a spy/mole).
Do it despite your flaws/temptations/fears.
It causes conflict/infighting within the team (player characters will have opposite goals/reactions to it).
Do it while working together with antagonist or someone else you don't like.
The side you're working for turns out to be evil.
The villain is someone you know/like/respect.
The villain is a respected public figure, celebrity, is liked by people or has authority over you.
Bad guy has a dead man switch, if he dies the others will suffer or treasure will be lost. Bad guy is the only one who knows the valuable information.
The people you're helping don't want your help.
Vital information turns out to be wrong.
Deal with the betrayal.
Mission has been rigged to fail from the start (PCs may be used as a scapegoat).
Objective is stolen before the PCs arrive.
Objective must be undamaged.
The important item has been transmuted and needs to be changed back, locked in a safe and needs a code to unlock, is a mineral that needs to be refined by a specific process. A book or a message is written in a foreign language that requires a translator.
Only a bad/unpleasant person can provide the item/information/favor you need.
Please leave a comment and contribute to this project! Edit: I've had a few pretty huge epiphanies while writing this post:
Stories are fundamentally about problem solving. Roleplaying is fundamentally about problem solving. This is the fundamental "game loop" of RPGs - GM puts a problem in front of the players, and they find creative ways to solve it, that's what gives them fun stuff to do and feels satisfying to accomplish.
Adventure Ideas are fundamentally problems. They create an exciting, challenging, important goal for the players to accomplish.
Big problems are broken down into small challenges. But fundamentally, the big climactic adventure/campaign goals and the small challenges players encounter on their way are the same thing. Every scene the characters solve a small problem, and it drives them towards solving the big problem. That's what plot points are - players solving or failing to solve a problem, which moves them closer to or farther away from the goal. Which feels exciting/valuable/dramatic.
Conflict, obstacles, social/exploration/combat encounters are fundamentally just sources of problems. There probably are other sources that can generate problems.
It's all just nested challenges: Campaign Problem > Adventure Problem > Scene Problem. And any challenge can be used on any of these levels.
Therefore, the list above is a list of adventure ideas and plot points at the same time. Make any challenge very important/difficult/exciting to accomplish - and it becomes an idea for the adventure or a campaign. Make any adventure idea relatively small and simple - and it becomes a scene challenge (encounter). Put a number of smaller challenges in front of the players - and you've got your basic story structure (a list of encounters, the gameplay). Because goals and challenges are fundamentally the same, just the nested problems, they can be combined in any order to create any number of unique adventures.
Also, it means that you can take big story ideas from movies, TV episodes, published modules, and use them as ideas for small encounters. Shawshank Redemption, Alien, Jaws, Incredibles - they can be big campaign ideas, small adventure ideas, or just a thing characters do in a scene (escape from the prison, hide from a monster, defeat a big golem).
Game mechanics are also challenges. If there's an RPG system that gets players to do something awesome (GM moves in Dungeon World, Favors/Debts and Social Status mechanics from the Undying, Weak Moves from Dream Askew) - you can use those as challenges too.
Even a single challenge can create an unlimited number of unique stories - you just change the concrete details. McGuffins, NPCs, locations, etc.
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