I had this crazy idea the other day. The Not-Adventure Adventure.
It starts off pretty typical. A little village filled with bumbling peasants hires a group of hearty and greedy adventurers to care of a monster problem. But here’s the catch. There is NO monster.
Through a series of unfortunate events, half truths and misinformation, the villages honestly believe that they are being plagued by a big mean nasty monster. So the only natural thing to do is hire some adventurers.
So the party goes on its usual way to track down “The Monster”. The usual methods turn up pretty much nothing. If they take the time and dig just a little deeper, they realize that the villagers are just being, well, villagers.
Here comes the interesting part. What does the party do? Do they try to convince the villagers that there is no monster? Do they kill something else and try to pass if off as the monster? Do they ride the gravy train for as long as they can and take advantage of the villagers? Or just maybe do they throw their hands up in frustration and walk away? If done just right, this might a fun a little session to throw the party off balance a little bit.