The Cheap and Cheesy Adventure Generator.
The nice thing is, this could be used for pretty much any game or genre, with mild tweaking. So take one of the random generations:
* Threats: A secret order of warrior-mystics, defending their relics. (Ruins)
* Characters: The local lord’s young daughter, tramping after strawberries. (Countryside)
* Characters: Some great wizard’s magical messenger, brass-skinned. (Magical)
* Threats: An ambitious petty-wizard, quick to take offense. (Magical)
For a Firefly game, you’ve got a band of covert browncoat hold-outs on some planet who have the original copy of the Independence Resolution — which is going to be transported by the players (without their knowledge as to what it is) to another, safer world. You’ve got the daughter of the local mayor who, perhaps, stumbles across them during one of their meetings. You’ve got an Alliance courier officer — or is that all he is? — set down in town for reasons that nobody can fathom. And then there’s the guy who wants to be the mayor’s daughter’s boyfriend, well-connected, who keeps picking fights with (and raising the profile of) the crew.
Mix ’em up and let ’em fly.
(via Doyce)