Back in April, I wrote about Georges Polti’s wonderfully inspiring “The 36 Dramatic Situations”, a writers tool offering 36 types of plots for a story, or in the case of our hobby, adventures. From the moment I read it, I thought “how cool would it be if somebody adapted all these to an RPG?”. I even thought of creating a series on my blog doing just that. Well, I’m glad I didn’t.
It turns out that the guys behind the Gnome Stew blog were already on the case, and believe me when I tell you that their efforts are way better than anything I would have, or could have, provided in this blog!
“Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters” is a book of pure plot hooks, using all 36 dramatic situations, and applying it to three different gaming genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Horror.
Here is a sample, straight from their site
This book is a treasure trove for the DM like me, who sometimes has to find inspiration in order to create stories. Remeber, there’s no shame in stealing when you are a DM, and a book like this has plenty for you to take and use. With nine authors contributing, you’ll find that the plots all have distinct styles and voices, and all are useful and easily reskinnable to your game.
I can’t really tell you much more than what I’ve written. I am a huge fan of Polti’s book, and this project is a realization of something I wish I could have done for the hobby. Now that someone has done the hard work for me, I can just lean back in a comfy chair and enjoy it for a few days, because at over 300 pages, you won’t read this in one sitting.
Eureka will be available for preorder from 6/28 to 7/23 on the
Engine Publishing website (http://www.enginepublishing.com). Anyone
who preorders will get their PDF copy within 24 hours (or sooner),
weeks before the book is printed and mailed out. Preorder copies of
the print book should arrive before GenCon in the continental U.S.,
but may take longer elsewhere. The PDF won’t be available on its own
until after the preorder period.– It’s an 8.25 x 11 softcover book, 312 pages, with a full-color cover
and B&W interior, and it features original artwork throughout. It
retails for $34.95 as a print + PDF bundle, or $16.95 for the PDF
alone. We don’t believe folks should have to pay for content twice, so
the PDF is included with the print edition at no charge.
Enjoy it as much as I am!
www. Newbie DM .com 
Thunderforge
June 28, 2010
This looks amazing! I think I’ll have to get a copy!
Matthew Neagley
June 28, 2010
We were hard at work on Eureka one day when one of the gnomes (Phil I think) sent an e-mail round with a link to your Polti article, so we all went and gave it a read. It just goes to prove that great minds think alike!
newbiedm
June 28, 2010
Yeah, it’s a great book, not an easy read, but a good inspiring read for authors (and game designers alike). Congratulations on the book, again, it is pretty fantastic.
Martin Ralya
June 29, 2010
Thanks for writing this post, Newbie DM!
There’s definitely something magnetic about Polti’s incredibly ballsy idea, even close to a hundred years later — it’s always made my brain perk up and take notice. There’s plenty of room for other products based on his work, too.
For example: We largely ignored the plot elements he calls out for each situation, preferring to play loose in the interest of creating better adventures — but that’s just one POV. Using those elements would make for a very different kind of plot book.