Editing Big List of RPG Plots (section)

== Manhunt ==

Someone is gone: they've run away, gotten lost, or simply haven't called home in a while. Somebody misses them or needs them returned. The PCs are called in to find them and bring them back.
* The target has been kidnapped (possibly to specifically lure the PCs). 
* The target is dangerous and escaped from a facility designed to protect the public. 
* The target is valuable and escaped from a place designed to keep him safe, cozy, and conveniently handy.
* The target has a reason for leaving that the PCs will sympathize with.
* The target has stumbled across another adventure (either as protagonist or victim), which the PCs must then undertake themselves.
* The missing "person" is an entire expedition or pilgrimage of some kind.
*  The target isn't a runaway or missing/lost - they're just someone that the PCs have been hired to track down (possibly under false pretenses).