Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters
Buy Eureka in our online store as a print + PDF bundle or a DRM-free PDF.
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
Want to see how all of this comes together in the book? Download a 19-page PDF excerpt from Eureka, and don’t miss Eureka’s cover and sample interior artwork.
Reviews
In addition to selling over 1,500 copies to date, Eureka is a Gold bestseller (top 1% of all products sold) on DriveThruRPG, was nominated for a Golden Geek Award for Best Supplement in 2010, and has gotten rave reviews:
- Kobold Quarterly review by award-winning game designer Wolfgang Baur — “Much more than a simple book of plots, Eureka! stands as one of those essential tools that GMs and game designers will find themselves reaching for again and again.”
- Gaming Brouhaha review — “This is a great book, which is just as useful for a novice game master as someone who has been running RPG games for decades.”
- Gamer: The Blogging review — “There have been a ton of products on this subject over the years, and they’ve always fallen short for me. Not so with Eureka.” (Ron also posted an update a few months later, in his review of our second book, Masks: “UPDATE: I still use it. I used it a couple weeks ago. No one’s changed my opinion of its status as the best RPG plot book ever.)
- Nuketown review — “All of these plots would be useless if you couldn’t find them, but thankfully Eureka is exceptionally well organized. In fact, it’s the most organized RPG resource I’ve ever read.”
- Stargazer’s World review — “So why should any GM get Eureka? In my humble opinion it’s the most useful tool a gamemaster could probably have.”
- Neuroglyph Games review — “Eureka (501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters) is really a remarkable ebook, and certainly one that can be easily recommended for not only D&D 4E Dungeon Masters, but for anyone choosing to take on the task of Game Mastering any Role-Playing Game.”
- RPGnet review — “This product delivers exactly what it promises and will enliven my campaigns for years to come.”
- Blogcritics review — “This book should be like crack to not only roleplayers in general and gamemasters (GMs) in specific, but should also provide infinite ideas for novelists and short story writers seeking inspiration for their own works.”
- RPG Blog II review — “If you’re a Game Master who likes a little help with his brainstorming, Eureka will be a welcome addition to your bookshelf, virtual or otherwise.”
- Fantasy Hrvatska review in Croatian (English auto-translation) — “There is no doubt – Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters is a terrific reference book that could (and should!) be found on the shelf of every GM.”
- Tenkar’s Tavern review — “Did I mention this is a full bookmarked PDF? And that they are further broken down by Dramatic Structure? Nicely done. This, my iPad and Goodreader will have me making notes right on the PDF for the plots I want to use.“
- Halfway Station review — “This is a useful addition to my GM’s Shelf of Wonders, which I can turn to when other inspiration fails so long as I have an hour or two’s warning of a game session.“
- The Most Unread Blog Ever review — “Unless you just never, ever get stuck for ideas, then this is practically a must-buy for any GM.“
- Haishakia review in Hebrew (English auto-translation) — “‘Eureka’ promises 501 concise plots, ready to be used straight from the book into tonight’s game. As a big fan of gaming PDFs, I’ve bought over a hundred such books over the last few years and I’ve seen these sort of promises often. Eureka delivers and delivers well, making it one of the best purchases I can think of, easily fitting into my top ten.“
- DriveThruRPG reviews from customers who’ve bought Eureka:
- (five stars) “I’ve spent a lot more money on things to try to get a better adventure than I have on this and come away from it with a lot less, if you want to get some surefire adventures, look no further than Eureka!” — Erathoniel Woodenbow
- (five stars) “This is a book that any GM should have. Period.” — Chad Stevens
- (five stars) “Compares very favorably to the “Seeds” (supers/western/pulp) and the 100 (planets/adventures/conspiracies) series.” — Tim Loud
- (four stars) “This is a good book for GMs wanting to put some fun hooks into their games.” — NB Neil
- (four stars) “Great product. it really helps get the creative juices flowing when you are having problems coming up with adventure ideas.” — Ronald Watkins
- (five stars) “This is one of that books that should be kept right behind GM screen (or in a writer secret drawer) to express its full potential.” — Paulo Pustorino
Customer Comments
Here’s a sampling of the awesome things we’ve heard from GMs about Eureka:
- “Eureka has been my savior so many times over.” — Austen Woods
- “Really, As a gm, this has literally opened up years of games for my group…” — Frank P.
- “Thoroughly enjoying Eureka. I’m still only on pg. 95 of 314. Can’t believe how much you guys stuffed into this book.” — Andrew Judge
- “I love my copy of Eureka!!” — Nateal Erickson
- “Thanks for such a great product!” — Twenty-year veteran gamer from Wellington, New Zealand
- “I purchased Eureka at Gencon and I absolutely love it.” — Ken F.
- “501 Adventures that have been scrubbed of mechanics. Made of awesome and win.” — Marcel Beaudoin
- “Eureka is a superb resource for GMs. For me it is a great source of inspiration and it has opened up ideas for game genres where I’d previously suffered from writer’s block. There’s enough material in the book to keep you going for years. I recommend Eureka to any GM.” — Mike Jensen, Auckland New Zealand
If that sounds like a book worth having on your real or virtual shelf, you can snag a copy in our online store!
For more about Eureka, check out these articles and podcasts that have featured the book:
Articles
- Wired: GeekDad blogger Daniel Donahoo says: “In my reading, I found myself getting excited about writing up one of those epic campaigns again!“
- UncleBear: Berin Kinsman talks about Eureka as a campaign planning tool
- Critical Hits: The Chatty DM breaks down Eureka from his perspective: “This product is ideal for GMs that want to create their own adventures but need help to kick start their creative muscles.“
- Newbie DM: The Newbie DM says “This book is a treasure trove for the DM like me, who sometimes has to find inspiration in order to create stories.“
- Campaign Mastery (take one): Johnn Four of Roleplaying Tips likes Eureka’s plot format, and has shared his own plot stat block for readers to use
- Campaign Mastery (take two): Mike Bourke discusses Eureka’s GMing advice, building organized, Eureka-style plots, and using Eureka plots in character creation
Podcasts
- Order 66 Podcast (MP3) did a one-hour show with Eureka design team members Phil Vecchione and Martin Ralya about the book, Gnome Stew, and how Star Wars GMs can use Eureka.
- Atomic Array showcased Eureka and had several of the book’s designers on to discuss the book.
- 3.5 Private Sanctuary offers up a 30-minute interview covering the origins of Eureka and Gnome Stew, using Eureka, and its utility for Pathfinder/D&D 3.5e GMs
- The Tome Show interviewed Eureka author and designer Patrick Benson about the book.
Buy Eureka in our online store as a print + PDF bundle or a DRM-free PDF.