d20 Personal Dungeon Stakes

 At Hilander's suggestion, here are examples of a great cheap trick to make normal D&D events feel more connected to the characters while still being very play-focused. "You are the ex-wife of the master of the nearest dungeon" are very efficient words. In our tradition, we tend to plug rootless PCs into adventure situations. But it really adds a lot imo to change "a sword" to "your rightful sword" and "an apocalypse" to "your apocalypse"

See also Louis's magnum opus.

d20
1. you are the local dungeon master's ex-wife
2. you are the confessor or loyal of one particular humanoid on the dungeon's random encounter table
3. your cousin is a bandit on the overland encounter table
4. Your son is an evil knight
5. your father was justly usurped from the throne of this land
6. you legally own the ruin the dungeon is built under
7. the immortal lich is your ancestor, and she really wants you to make something of yourself
8. You and the local cat burglar are rivals with overwhelming sexual tension
9. The master of the dungeon learned it all from you
10. You opened the forbidden scroll that caused this whole mess
11. Your sister opened the forbidden scroll that caused this whole mess
12. Legally, it's your responsibility to protect these people
13. You own a house within half a mile of where all this is going down, and you have good memories there.
14. The magic sword in the dungeon is your family's sword
15. Everyone in the evil zone wants you to be someone you're not, and they're threatening a nice old man who likes you for you
16. A specific lieutenant of the dungeon master killed your sister
17. 1-in-6 random encounters are actually demons in disguise, sent to punish you for how you live your life.
18. Your crush admires the evil dungeon people because they're attacking a third party who traumatized your crush with villainy
19. Your mentor is being judged by a council of snobbish wizards based on what you do, and if you fail she's out of a job and really sad.
20. the master of the dungeon is dating your ex-wife.