A seed for fantasy table-top role-playing games (TTRPGs) is a brief idea or description of a situation or scene that a game master (GM) can use as a starting point for an encounter, an adventure, a side quest, or even a full campaign. A seed is used for inspiration or as a catalyst in the creation and world-building process. A seed must be grown through ad hoc game-mastering either on the fly or during preparation.
To illustrate, here are five examples of seeds that could be used for various purposes, from simple encounters to many sessions of an epic campaign.
A settlement patrol group returns to town after a night on the plains. With them is a captured drow, who they say was watching them from the mouth of a cave. The patrol wants to know the drow’s intentions, but she’s refusing to talk.
A storm is approaching a settlement from the east. Rather than natural lightning, this storm is producing lightning that is blood red.
A second member of the Red Anvils has died under suspicious circumstances. The network of blacksmiths forges the mythical red blades used by the elite guard. The deaths have concerned the guards and the nine surviving Red Anvils.
The home of an esteemed historian is in flames. As the crowd begins to gather outside, the elderly man walks out of the front door and quietly says, “Let it burn.” Then he collapses to the ground, dead.
A pair of twins, each one missing an eye, approaches a character, points to an object in the character’s possession, and says, “That isn’t yours.”
Seeds are intentionally brief. They provide enough information for a GM to grow them into an encounter, adventure, or campaign. They do not provide a “read-aloud” box like adventure modules. In some instances, the party might not even be aware the event occurred until communication with NPCs. A well-practiced GM would start an entire adventure with any of these seeds, either spontaneously or with preparation.
What Seeds are Not
Seeds are distinct from adventure hooks or random encounters. An adventure hook is a way of drawing the party into an adventure. Consider the example seeds above. Aside from the approaching twins, none of these seeds directly hook the party to act. Just because the historian’s home burns down does not mean the party will be involved. Maybe they decide it is not their business or assume the historian did it himself and ignore it.
There are ways to add hooks to seeds. For example, the town guard might ask the party to investigate the cave where the drow was seen hiding. Perhaps the party knew the deceased historian; he was a family friend or an NPC that provided them with information.
In most TTRPG play, characters are not the center of the entire world. Sure, the game is about the characters, but the world moves forward independently. If the party decides that the matter with the Red Anvils is not their business, that’s okay. The world goes on without their involvement. If someone is killing the Red Anvils, that may continue to happen. It could have repercussions for the party down the road (or not). If the historian was murdered by the cult of a fire elemental searching for the whereabouts of a ruined temple, the cult might survive and present a different sort of seed later.
How Many Seeds
The question of how many seeds a GM should have at their disposal depends on many factors, such as the pacing of the game, the type of game being played, and GM/player preference. If the GM and players prefer a linear game with a central plot, a single seed might be all that is necessary (though extra seeds make great side-quests). A sandbox-style hex crawl might benefit from dozens of seeds through the life of the campaign. Each hex might have multiple seeds.
Seeds can be used for different purposes. The GM can have seeds for brief encounters, for longer adventures, and for entire campaign story arcs. These seeds can be linked together through common threads (or, perhaps, roots), or they might be completely independent. All of these events might happen in the same time interval:
- Rival nations are at war
- A cult is establishing a lair in nearby ruins
- A monstrous hoard prepares to attack a village
- A priest is in search of a missing relic
- The village alchemist goes on strike
They could be mutually exclusive events or intrinsically linked, such as the cult growing stronger while people are distracted by the war.
The point is that it never hurts for a GM to have multiple seeds at their disposal. One is likely too few. No number is too many to have in reserve. It is up to the GM to find that balance between one and “too many.” Three seeds at a time are probably a reasonable number to present to a party, but there is no hard rule.