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The murderous<br />

adventure design library<br />

M.A.D.LIBrary<br />

1) Who is the Big Bad?<br />

2) Which Monster Family are we going <strong>to</strong> have <strong>to</strong> kill?<br />

( ‘Oids, ‘Dead, Beasties, Darklings, or Weird)<br />

3) What is the McGuffin?<br />

4) What Flavor is that McGuffin?<br />

(Might, Arcana, Wealth, Glory, or Rosebud!)<br />

5) Why is there Conflict?<br />

(What brings the villains and the Party in<strong>to</strong> conflict<br />

over the McGuffin)<br />

6) Where’s the <strong>Open</strong>ing Scene?<br />

7) When is the Climactic Battle?<br />

8) How Dangerous is this Adventure?<br />

Dangerous (+0), More Dangerous (+1), Really<br />

Dangerous (+2), Nuts! (+3)<br />

9) What is the Title of the Adventure Module?<br />

Who is the Big Bad?<br />

Not <strong>to</strong> steal a Whedonism…well, actually <strong>to</strong> steal a Whedonism, since this<br />

has become the preferred nomenclature for primary villain in a post-Buffy<br />

universe. Who is the Big Bad. Don’t worry about stats, just give a name a<br />

general description of the primary villain. It could be a poncho wearing,<br />

Mariachi guitar playing, mustachioed Hill Giant named Poncho Colina<br />

Gigante. It could be a Vampiric Ham Sandwich. It could be a Rock (though<br />

not Iraq – let’s not make this game political).<br />

Which Monster Family are we going <strong>to</strong> have <strong>to</strong> kill?<br />

For now* there are 5 basic Monsters Families (all part of a well-balanced<br />

Adventure Diet): Beasties, ‘Dead, ‘Oids, Darklings, and Weird. Again, don’t<br />

worry about stats right now – just pick the flavor of beasts that you want the<br />

players <strong>to</strong> fill full of arrows, magic missiles, swords, and kung fu beats. Full<br />

info on Monster stats is given in the Monster Menu section.<br />

Beasties covers animals, animal like monsters, dinosaurs, and mythological<br />

wonders.<br />

‘Oids is short for “goblinoids” and covers the “green-skinned” anti-<br />

Adventurer races like goblins, orks, trolls, bugbears, ogres, giants, et al.<br />

The ‘Dead covers all of the various undead – from ghosts <strong>to</strong> vampires,<br />

skele<strong>to</strong>ns <strong>to</strong> zombies, with a side trip in<strong>to</strong> classic movie monster tropes like<br />

Frankensteins, Lagoon Monsters, Lycanthropes, and Mummies.<br />

Darklings are the “mirror mirror” underground dwelling versions of your<br />

fantasy standbys – with Drowlings (evil Elves), Gnumenlings (evil Gnomes),<br />

Dwurflings (evil Dwarves), Thirdlings (evil Halflings), Fifthlings (evil<br />

Quarterlings), and Ratlings (evil Hamsterlings).<br />

The Weird family covers just about everything else, as miscellaneous is<br />

always the largest category. In fact, we’re pretty sure that the Weird Family<br />

will split faster than denominations during the Protestant Reformation. This<br />

is for your oozes, slimes, owlbears, teleporting tentacle puma monsters,<br />

flying death eyeballs, mind sucking squid people, et cetera, et cetera, ad<br />

infinitum.<br />

*Designer’s Note: We’re quite sure that we’ll have about fifty Monster Types<br />

a day or two after this hits gamers’ grubby little mitts. If there is one thing<br />

that gamers like more than broken character skills, it’s a plethora of<br />

monsters for bashing and smashing.<br />

What is the McGuffin?<br />

Believe it or not, this is always the hardest part. It’s usually a breeze <strong>to</strong><br />

make up locations and villains – but the plot engine is always a life-sucker.<br />

For those unfamiliar with the techniques of Alfred Hitchcock, a McGuffin is<br />

a plot device that motivates the characters or advances the s<strong>to</strong>ry, but the<br />

details of which are of little or no importance otherwise. (For more, see<br />

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin).<br />

The McGuffin is some object (not necessarily a physical object) that the Big<br />

Bad and the Party are going <strong>to</strong> come in<strong>to</strong> conflict over. What the<br />

item/object/training/quality/philosophy/thingee is really doesn’t matter – it<br />

has no practical use for the party in and of itself. McGuffins are the focus of

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