I Getting Started and certainly their understanding of what is going on will change You can also use this to up the ante Let’s use Turning an Encounter Into an Adventure another example The town suffers from an outbreak It is perfectly plausible to plop down a gug guarding of ghouls Of course, the players are worried because a treasure chest The gug in this case would just be ghouls are a potent, intelligent foe There are scary another monster—a bag of hit points hindering the moments, desperate ambushes in dark alleyways, and players from gaining loot A gug has some unique so forth powers that you can use to your advantage in planning Then, during the course of this conflict, the players your encounter For example, gugs are completely uncover the second part of the storyline and learn silent, so players are likely unaware of the creature’s that the ghouls are up to something–some grandiose presence until it chooses to show itself Since gugs have plot So now the player’s focus changes from physical religious tendencies, perhaps it has an altar to its foul danger to worrying about a larger threat–what are the deity in its chamber Perhaps killing the gug triggers a ghouls up to? Instead of just defending the township, curse which follows the party around they now have to descend into the ghoul tunnels to With a little effort, the gug can be used for more find out the secret Now the ghouls lay traps and call For example, gugs are an intelligent species known for unholy allies to their aid The ante has been raised for crafting organized plans Perhaps the gug was in that the players, not just in terms of danger, but in terms of room for a reason? It’s not hard to extrapolate that after what happens if they fail? the party murders the gug for his loot, his fellow gugs When the players finally discover what the ghouls might find the corpse, and—thirsting for vengeance— are plotting, you the game master have the opportunity track down the party All of a sudden, perhaps when to transform the adventure once again, in a third hotly engaged in another fight, a group of gugs emerges storyline, and confront them with an existential threat! silently from the darkness and joins in the fight against Perhaps the ghouls are replacing all the important the players You’ve kept the adventure element of your humans in town with their evil changelings Maybe the game strong, but the gugs have taken on personality ghouls have accumulated enough sacrifices to summon and perhaps even become a permanent part of your and (they think) control a monstrous dhole to destroy game After all, even if the players manage to drive the entire town It’s even possible they plot to magically away or kill the pursuing party of gugs, this doesn’t teleport the entire township to the Vale of Pnath, where mean they’re done with them: they might have to deal they can feast at their leisure with gug hunting bands for the foreseeable future In this way, you have three simple, separate plotlines, In the end, you have turned an almost random each with a different type of frightening threat, and encounter with a lone gug guarding some treasure into you can keep up the horror element far longer and a recurring enemy that may plague the heroes’ future more effectively than in a one-shot adventure! endeavors, potentially for an entire campaign