Featuring a foreword by gaming industry legend Monte Cook, Eureka contains 501 complete adventure plots usable with almost any roleplaying game, plus GMing advice and tools for making the most of every plot.

If you game once a week, that’s nearly 10 years of adventures, all right here in the largest collection of its kind ever published. Written by nine veteran game masters — the authors of the most widely read game mastering blog on the planet, Gnome Stew — Eureka is more than just adventure seeds.

Each plot includes a hook to draw your players in, an outline detailing enough material for a complete adventure, generally in the form of 3-5 meaty encounters, and any game mastering notes, plot twists, and advice you might need to turn that plot into a fun night of gaming.

Adventure hooks alone don’t give you much to work with, but fully developed adventures can be hard to personalize and fit into an ongoing game. Eureka is the perfect middle ground: We provide the main ingredients, and you decide how to prepare them.

Packed with ideas and inspiration, this massive collection is designed to be the ultimate adventure toolkit:

• Fantasy, science fiction, and horror plots: 167 of each, all easily adaptable to multiple genres
• Clear, concise game mastering advice: We show you how to adapt plots to other genres (effectively giving you 464 fantasy, 420 sci-fi, and 338 horror plots) and how to turn Eureka plots into full-blown adventures
• The tools you need: Plots are grouped by theme, from “Revolt” to “Mistaken Jealousy,” and categorized by tags like intrigue, exploration, and combat-heavy
• Four indexes: Quickly find a plot for any situation by genre, tag, title, or author
• No game mechanics and no proper names: These system-neutral plots are simple to use and easy to personalize to your game

Original Concept and Design: Martin Ralya
Project Manager: Phil Vecchione
Design: John Arcadian, Patrick Benson, Walt Ciechanowski, Scott Martin, Matthew Neagley, Kurt “Telas” Schneider, Troy Taylor, Phil Vecchione
Genre Design: Kurt “Telas” Schneider
Tag Design: Matthew Neagley
Authors: John Arcadian, Patrick Benson, Walt Ciechanowski, Scott Martin, Matthew Neagley, Martin Ralya, Kurt “Telas” Schneider, Troy Taylor, Phil Vecchione
Lead Editor: Martin Ralya
Editors: Sara DeNunzio, Brian Nowak
Developer: Martin Ralya
Art Director: John Arcadian
Graphic Designer: Darren Hardy
Layout: Darren Hardy
Cover Artist: Andrew McIntosh
Cover Designer: Darren Hardy
Interior Artists: Laine Garrett, Avery Liell-Kok, Andrew McIntosh, Philip Miller, Hugo Solis
Border Artwork: Darren Hardy
Indexer: Matthew Neagley
Proofreaders: Scott Martin, Daniel Milne, Samuel Mustain
Capitalist Tool: Kurt “Telas” Schneider

Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters, Engine Publishing, the Engine Publishing logo, and the truncated gear device are trademarks of Engine Publishing, LLC.

Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters is copyright © 2010 as a whole by Engine Publishing, LLC; all rights reserved. Each author’s contribution (listed in the author index) is copyright © 2010 by that individual author, and is used with permission; all rights reserved.

Philip Miller’s artwork is copyright © 2010 Philip Miller, and is used with permission; all rights reserved. All other artwork is copyright © 2010 Engine Publishing, LLC; all rights reserved.

Gnome Stew, The Game Mastering Blog, and the Gnome Stew logo are trademarks of Martin Ralya.

The Engine Publishing logo was designed by Darren Hardy.

Published by Engine Publishing, LLC in July 2010.

ENGINE PUBLISHING
enginepublishing.com
PO Box 571992
Murray, UT 84157

With special thanks to Helena Ciechanowski for legal advice, Laine Garrett for suggesting the cover layout, Georges Polti for his big brass ones, and Jason Kottke and Geoff Manaugh for the blog post that inspired this book (kottke.org/09/06/ghostbusters-iii)

In memory of E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson

DEDICATIONS

John—For my mom, who let me buy the 2nd Ed. AD&D books and read them for hours in my room when I was younger, and for my friends who stand by me and make me stronger.

Patrick—To my wife Karen who inspires me to be a better person every day, my daughter Calen who reminds me to be full of wonder, and my son Liam who keeps my wits sharp.

Walt—For my wonderful (and gamer!) wife Helena, and our beautiful children Leianna and Stephen, who have taught me that no fantasy can beat the magic of being a daddy.

Scott—For Dad, who introduced me to roleplaying when I was ten, and for my wife Jennifer, who I plan to play with until we settle into an old gamers’ home.

Matthew—To my wife, the best GM ever, and my daughter, whose imagination is limitless, and to the rest of the gnomes for being a positive influence on both my games and my projects list.

Martin—To my patient wife, Alysia (who insists that we’ll be retiring to Aruba on Eureka money), and my bright-eyed daughter Lark, to my fantastic, imagination-nurturing parents, and to the many friends I’ve made through gaming.

Kurt—For my non-gaming but patient and understanding wife Christine, and our always-amazing daughter Erin, who enjoys everything she does. And to all the players characters I’ve killed over the years.

Troy—To Paula, who for years kept insisting that I find a hobby; and to Carolyn, our stargazer, Preston, our storyteller, and Jonathan, king of the sandbox, for whom imagination knows no boundaries.

Phil—To my wife Florence, who always helps me find that next idea, my children Dante and Rose, and to Spenser, Sargon and all my other players, for making me strive to be a better GM.

Last but most certainly not least, we’d like to collectively dedicate this book to the readers of Gnome Stew, the best damned community of sexy, brainy, downright inspirational GMs on the web. You rock!