Where to find free RPG adventure ideas

Today I will provoke you with an issue that goes completely below the line of sight of most Game Masters and players. What's that issue? Slavery.
Slavery is common for most fantasy RPG systems. In fact, many fantasy worlds are some variation on medieval or ancient times, when slavery was more or less accepted. Slavery appears in these worlds in a variety of ways ranging from classic slavery and indentured servitude to the semi-slavery of serfdom, binding common folks to the land.
Considering the length of recorded human history, slavery has only really been outlawed by most of the civilized world fairly recently (the last 200 years or so). That said, slavery exists even today in the modern world in dark places ruled by the power hungry and even to a certain extent in some modern corporations.
Most people raised in Western culture are sensitive to human rights. As such, we recognize slavery as diametrically opposed to the concepts of freedom and liberty for all. So today, as opposed to 200 or more years ago, slavery is very wrong to us.
But let's jump back to how characters in fantasy roleplaying games perceive slavery.
There's a strange paradox in RPGs. Most players accept slavery as a part of the world their characters exist in as long as it doesn't affect them directly. These same players who silently accept slavery in a fantasy world, will fight against it when they will have opportunity to interact with it in the real world.
Typically, slavery is connected with a character's background in some way. For example, if a PC is an escaped slave, he has plenty of motives to support every aspect of freedom for others while protecting his own. This kind of character can be useful to the GM since he or she will oppose almost every sign that freedom is being deprived from another intelligent being. An escaped slave will defend the rights of the weak against the goals of the strong because might does not make right.
A character like this can make keeping the game moving fairly easy, but these characters can also be very difficult to run. Any sort of fanaticism creates space for possible complications. But%u2026 what if you as GM could use slavery in a slightly different way.
Put your players in a situation that involves slavery, but let them decide what to do about it. Even if none of the PCs were affected by slavery directly, they can deal with it in a more subtle way.
I did it to my players once. And story goes like this.
It was a campaign with two players, both of whom had difficulty accepting slavery during the game. But even though their characters had no opportunities to interfere with ongoing slavery in the world, they believed much the same as we do today: slavery is wrong.
They came to the home of an older, 50+ year old NPC. He owns a big house & plantation in the middle of a country which sees slavery as something normal.
He is an amazing host - generous, funny, intelligent and well-mannered. In my group, both of the player characters had different backgrounds: one was a thief and the other a knight. And even though each had a different point of view, after many sessions they started to recognize that each had a kind of code of honor. And this was the basis for a relationship in which they could trust each other.
So the host appeared in much the same way to the characters. For the knight he had stories about great battles he once fought; for the thief he had interesting philosophical observations.
And slavery? It was still there in the background, but after a few days on the plantation the players forgot about the slaves. After not seeing any brutality or terror so often connected with the treatment of slaves, they started to treat them as%u2026 normal servants. The characters dove into the world of their host - comfortable, full of joy. And they really started to like the guy quite a bit.
And then, one night, the slaves rebelled.
I put my players in a difficult position. Will their characters support the violence of the slave uprising? Or will they defend the house of their host and his family?
To the player characters, the slaves were a completely unknown group of people - largely faceless and nameless. And now those same people were an angry mob trying to destroy the life of their friend the slave owner, burning his home and killing his family. If the situation was different, the players may have joined the rebelling slaves because their fight was just.
And the slave owner had become a friend to the PCs - a person they got to know quite well while spending a few days with him and his lovely family.
So the PCs (and their players) were left in a predicament. Would they support the slaves' violent bid for freedom? Or would they support the slave owner in quelling the rebellion?
I did not leave the players too much time to decide. I convinced them that the rebels would be dangerous for them as well. Why? Well, they were guests in the house of a slave owner. The mob of rebelling slaves was angry and bloodthirsty. There was no time for negotiations. But the PCs knew that their host had quite a big group of guards. There was a slim possibility he would be able to defend his home, without the PCs getting involved.
And what did my players do? They decided to%u2026 run away. They described their situation and point of view to me with very angry words.
Did they act like heroes during this adventure? What do You think? What would you have done differently?
Consider using moral traps like this to force your players' hands from time to time. It offers a great chance for roleplaying and a little taste of the brutal reality some of the fictional situations might bring about.

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This post was originally published on http://gameknightreviews.com as a part of "Ancient Scroll's Secret Room" column

As you've probably noticed, I like to talk about difficult subjects for roleplaying games. Thanks to Brian, I've had a chance to share my views on three topics so far - retiring adventurers, interrogation methods, and slavery.
Today I want to discuss another hardcore but common RPG issue - War.
We all know and love the traditional fantasy RPG hero type: bulging muscles, big sword, incredible strength. And we've seen how they can work beautifully while engaged in chopping down hordes of goblins. During RPG campaigns and adventures, our player characters often participate in wars cutting down enemies left and right. And usually, those wars are just. And in those cases, we know without the smallest doubt that we fight on the right side. This is especially true when we (the "civilized" humanoid races like humans, elves, and dwarves) have to face the grim, bloodthirsty hordes of darkness%u2026 typically made up by the goblinoid or monstrous races.
However when both sides of the conflict involve characters of the same race, things start to complicate a bit. It's easy for a player to strip away rational motives, feelings, and doubts from enemies like orcs, especially when some invisible greater power sends them to crush members of a less monstrous race. But what happens when it's humans on the other side?
Sure, the other guy is an enemy. We know this already or have been told so by our superiors. He has vile plans, usually he is an invader, brings fire, pain and tears to our beloved country. As long as we see an invading force of thousands on the horizon, again it's easy to avoid thinking of them as having human traits. But in a face-to-face fight? If you ever pause long enough to ask "What is this guy doing here?" your perception of the situation can change in an instant. Why?
Because suddenly our enemy has become more "human," which makes the situation uncomfortable. He's somebody's son or maybe he has a loving girlfriend or wife waiting back at home. Maybe he's not a professional soldier or mercenary, but was forced to join the army. Maybe he volunteered because his kids were starving. In the end, maybe he's just a nice family guy like we are.
So why he is fighting in this unjust war and invading our land, burning our homes? Is he brainwashed? Maybe just not very smart? Maybe someone put a spell on him? Why he is doing something that an average person wouldn't - harming other people?
If you are able to force your players to think about the motivations of their enemy - a single soldier and not the whole army - your player's point of view can turn upside down. They may not be so eager to fight any more. They may not run away, but I can bet that they will try do something to minimize the "kill rate." And this may change their approach to war forever.
How to do this? There are some simple tricks I use. For example, once I let my players (by accident of course) listen to campfire talk in enemy's camp. Was the enemy was doing strategy planning? Nope. Were they talking about how excited they were after the day's murder and destruction? Nope. They were talking about their families and what they would do if the gods got them back home safely%u2026 In the morning, the fighting mood in my party decreased like letting the air out of a balloon.
Another trick is to show your players that it's not just the enemy doing bad things. In one of my games there was war about religious issues (it was a fantasy world, so nobody felt offended). The attackers were really barbaric. But the defenders provoked them many times by bullying followers of their god living for years in the invaded country. As the invasion was coming closer, repression against people of the other faith increased. It was enough to describe one or two situations when "brave" defenders acted nasty. And my players changed their opinion about the "barbaric invaders". They started to ask questions like "Who is the real defender?" and "Who is the oppressor?"
My biggest "antiwar" adventure was based in the time of the Great War (World War I). My players started the game as a group of US soldiers and played a few sessions. The last session started just before an attack on German trenches and the story went like this%u2026
A wave of soldiers, heavily thinned by artillery and toxic gas, finally nears the enemy trenches. Both sides of the conflict are now engaged in the firefight. From the trenches, the machine guns rattle as the soldiers started shooting at random. Both the PC's allies and the Germans suffered heavy casualties. Any moment now the fight will shift to a hand-to-hand approach and the most frightening part of the battle will commence - melee combat.
But my dear soldiers, there is a small twist. Your soldier is no longer an American, but instead you've taken on the role of a young soldier in a German uniform on the other side.
You now see, the American soldiers' frenzied assault on your trenches. You now see that the color of the uniform is meaningless. Why? Because young men, sometimes boys, on both sides of the front line have the same experiences, the same memories, dreams and fears. Just as your team of Americans running straight towards the German trenches do, and just as the German soldiers in their fortifications do. English names aren't that different from the German ones. Forget about past sessions. All of scenarios we played in this campaign might as well have been something that happened to the German soldiers.
So now, shooting wildly, your squad awaits the furious attack of the Americans. Only a dozen meters left until they reach the trenches. Someone barks out the order "Fix%u2026Bayonets!" Your blood is pumping so hard it almost bursts your veins and each moment a new body joins the fallen. Grenades are thrown while the enemies' bayonets glitter in the darkness. You can feel the blood pulsing in your ears. It's strange, but despite the cannonade, you can still hear your own heavy breathing. The world slows down%u2026
Then my players became US soldiers again who, after a murderous passage through the no man's land, rush towards the enemies' trenches. The screams, hits, blood and fury hit them full in the face.
In this bloodbath, I asked my players: "What are you doing here boys?"
Why did I do it? To make my players aware that, in the tumult of clashes between huge armies, personal dramas take place. There's room for fear for what may come as well as little pleasures like a cup of hot coffee or a visit to the cabaret. The global war machine doesn't care - it swallows and grinds everybody equally just like the toxic gas on the battlefield that, with a change of wind, may suddenly suffocate the allies. Meanwhile somewhere in relative safety, bent over maps, cold blooded generals with rakish mustaches and elegant uniforms decide who's to live or die. Their sticks move human fates on the map, killing some and saving others.
In truth, war never ends. Each moment, for as long as mankind can remember, there is fighting somewhere in the world and young men are sent to their deaths. Some of these sacrifices are honored to make them heroes, but most are faceless, nameless bodies stripped of their humanity.
Think about this the next time your characters march onward to another war campaign. Through gaming, we can reexamine some important, sometimes hard, subjects. I know gaming is fun, but I think it can bring catharsis and consciousness as well.
I dedicate this article to the victims, soldiers, and civilians affected by war.