100 Random Secrets
August 9th, 2011
Hello everyone, and welcome to another exciting Grave Plots, where we bring you new plot hooks and adventure ideas. This week we’re going to do something a little different: rather than provide you with a few adventure ideas, this week I will be providing you with a handy little table I whipped up, offering you with 1d% random secrets for NPCs to have. Use them as central plot themes, red herrings, or just random little accents to make your NPCs more interesting. Enjoy rolling random secrets or just pick the most interesting or convenient.
1d% secrets.
1. Having an affair with one of the main NPCs
2. Murdered an ex-lover
3. Has an unacceptable sexual deviation
4. Is a bastard
5. Secretly a noble
6. Generally adulterous
7. Dying
8. Is a wizard
9. Follows a heretical religion
10. Is a demoniac
11. Is a demon
12. Ex-adventurer
13. Is a spy for the crown
14. Is a spy for a foreign power.
15. Is a vampire
16. Has a tendency to blackmail
17. Fleeing justice for a minor crime (theft, etc.)
18. Horse thief
19. Is a seditionist
20. Planning a high profile robbery
21. Wanted for high treason by a foreign power
22. Planning an assassination
23. Once a great and famous warrior, now posing as someone harmless, like a monk
24. Is an inquisitor
25. Is a bodyguard for a high-profile individual
26. Is only posing as a bodyguard
27. Is a prisoner
28. Is a kidnaper
29. Knows the location of a vast treasure
30. Is bound to serve any who speaks its name
31. Man of weak principles (easily bribed)
32. Reformed thief
33. Retired thief
34. “Retired” thief
35. Can read thoughts
36. Sleeping with the precious daughter of an influential political figure
37. Is a prince or princess
38. Has the legal right to demand a toll of all who would cross the bridge
39. Is destroyed utterly by sunlight
40. Magically bound to keep their word
41. Is a compulsive liar
42. Can see the future
43. Cheats
44. Has a divine patron
45. Has lycanthropy
46. Is a fey in disguise
47. Knows one or more steps of the Sanguine Path (DMs only, download here)
48. Is the last heir to the old empire, but doesn’t know it yet
49. Is the last heir to a conquered kingdom and is very much aware of it
50. Knew one of the PCs’ relatives
51. Is extremely wealthy
52. Is a cannibal
53. Belongs to a cult (harmless)
54. Belongs to a cult (dangerous)
55. Is extremely poor
56. Is starving
57. Is sadistic
58. Lost his or her family to a plague
59. Is a deity in disguise
60. Is a foreign hero
61. Is obsessed with one of the PCs or an important NPC
62. Secretly an orc disguised with magic
63. Is conspiring with the city’s enemies
64. Knows about the PCs’ grand destiny
65. Has a good relationship with the area’s most fearsome creatures
66. Has an “understanding” with someone politically untouchable
67. Is a high-level member of a criminal organization
68. Unbeknownst to him/her, he/she becomes a new person at nightfall
69. Has an unnaturally long life span and seems to age slowly
70. Knows the hidden location of the fountain of youth, or something similar
71. Is the last remnant of an ancient secret society
72. Is only pretending to be a wizard
73. Is an intelligent item
74. Has a real gambling problem
75. Is under a geas effect
76. Has sworn an unbreakable vow to do no harm to a living creature
77. Undergoes dramatic physical changes with the passing of seasons
78. Transforms into another creature when he/she comes into contact with water
79. Survivor of a terrible battle
80. Is not a statue, but rather a petrified being from ages past
81. Can see ethereal creatures
82. Is a dragon in disguise
83. Knows the PCs’ past better than they do
84. Under the effects of a terrible curse
85. Actually long dead
86. Cannot die
87. Addicted to drugs or alcohol
88. Has a plot-important traumatic past
89. Realizes the world is stuck in a time loop
90. Is actually an illusion
91. Is Elmin—well, somebody incredibly powerful
92. Is the major villain’s (or other major character’s) brother
93. Is not actually an unassuming animal, such as a dog
94. Knows that no one (except perhaps one of the PCs) can see her
95. Has amnesia
96. Is planer traveler
97. Is a time traveler
98. Is a replicant (see Advanced Arcana)
99. Is nothing special
100. Roll twice again
Well, that’s all for this week; if you want to see more of these kinds of articles or have any other suggestions for things you want to see in future Grave Plots, feel free to email me, and until next time, please allow me to wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.