You never know where an adventure is going to start… but if you’re out looking for adventure, here are some promising environments.
Places to meet interesting people to start adventures…
- tavern, bar, pub, club, watering hole, saloon,
- guild hall, clubhouse, gathering house,
- hideout, retreat,
- temple, church, sanctuary, coven,
- court, royal audience chamber, lord’s manor,
- festival, carnival, circus, midway,
- fortune teller, prestidigitator, charm house, psychic, seer, reader, oracle,
- archive, library, museum,
- tomb, crypt, vault,
- mansion, palace, villa,
- party, celebration,
- sewer, tunnel, cellar,
- auction, yard sale, rummage sale, flea market,
- bazaar, market, souk, general store,
- emporium, curio shop, trading house,
- cafe, tea shop,
- tobacconist, smoke shop, hookah bar, opium den,
- lunch counter, pancake house,
- syndicate, corporation, “family”,
- meeting, gathering, council, conspiracy,
- mill, factory, bakery, abattoir, foundry,
- brewery, maltster, distillery, vintner
- construction site,
- alchemist’s, wizard lab, physician’s,
- battlefield,
- science class lab, drama club auditions, high school football field, late at night on the school roof,
Places to find curious objects to begin adventures…
- road, path, trail, rut, steps, stairs,
- cave, tunnel, pit, chute, tube, burrow, den,
- alcove, notch, niche, nick, loose stone,
- alley, backway, passageway, colonnade, corridor, ginnel, snicket, shortcut,
- hedgerow, briar, bush, thicket,
- ditch, gully, swale, culvert, gutter,
- rooftop, rafters, eaves troughs,
- cellar, attic, crawl space, pantry,
- wardrobes, closets, armoire, ornate cabinet,
- stable, barn, silo, pen, den, coop, nest,
- haystack, compost heap, silage pit,
- tomb, grave, crypt, vault, sepulcher, sarcophagus, undercroft, mausoleum,
- well, trout pond, city fountain, swimming pool, wishing well,
- riverbank, creek, beach, delta, bayou, mangrove, waterfall,
- archeological dig, artifact research facility at university,
- through a secret door passage at the back of a school locker,
- crime scene, forensics lab,
- move to a new home, country estate, old apartment, house in a new subdivision (build on an old grave site, battlefield, murder site), flat in a foreign country, refuge camp, boarding school,
Places to get you to other Weird Places
- elevator (to a strange floor, maybe), staircase, shaft, dumbwaiter, lift,
- doorway (to another world), portal, passage, secret door,
- laboratory, experimental facility, government-quarantined site,
- meet someone who will take you on an adventure at a cafe, tearoom, bar, tavern, hotel lobby,
- get abducted from a bar, alley, highway reststop bathroom, playground, park, road side (car broke down),
- teleporter room,
- wizard’s guild,
- tesseract, wormhole, blackhole,
- rift, tear, fold in the fabric of the universe,
- chasm, ravine, defile, hollow,
- forest, jungle, thicket, copse, brier,
- alley, back way, lane, path, walk, snicket,
- a shorcut (never goes well),
- railway siding, branch line,
- country lane, sideroad, county road, unmarked road,
Possible Story Hooks or Developments
- Many people come and go at a bus station or way station for a stage coach. Perhaps a strange traveler asks for your assistance in a clandestine matter. What could happen?
- In an old house, there are always many nooks and crannies. Perhaps in one there is a small door to which a key is missing. What happens if you open that door?
- You go down into a cellar, but as you descend into its darkness, do you ever wonder if something malicious has tunneled up to it? Perhaps today is the day they actually come through its earthen walls.
- People throw many things in a fountain. Could you find a key? A cursed coin? An ancient rune stone? A gem or jewel of great value? The kraken (it’s in a very big fountain pool)?
- At an estate sale, you leave the crowd and find your way to a hallway where a ladder leads to an attic crawl space…. of course you go up to find an old steamer trunk, an ornate mirror, a disturbing painting, a musty old robe, a ring of keys, an out-of-place basket of fresh fruit, a shrunken head, or a lard tin full of ashes (go to FIND SOMETHING STRANGE for more ideas).
- You’re playing in the backyard of a new home. Your ball (or whatever) rolls into a bush (briar, woods, ravine, etc.). You were told not to go in there… but it’s your favorite ball.
- Sitting in a coffee shop (pub, McDonald’s, library, etc.), you can hear a lot of neighboring conversations… you Nosey Nelly! What if you heard something about treasure, murder, a lost item, money, an illegal deal, terrorism, magic, the end of the world, cheating, blackmail, a robbery, corrupt police? What would you do?