GM's - How much meat do you need on your Plot hooks?
- Thread starter Shallown
- Start date
Westgate Polks
First Post
barsoomcore said:
This format would benefit me greatly. Most of the time, a simple, clear hook is what I need and the bullet points would be just the trick. However, there are times I want/need more stuff, and then the longer paragraph style would be ideal.
BTW - I liked the stuff you wrote quite a bit. I thought the plotline about the disappearing folks was very nicely constructed.
So seems most people like the obvious choice of both skinny and meaty plot hooks. Next question is should they be organized like I posted them the short then the long or perhaps as seperate pages. All the short hooks on a page (or two) and then the Longer plot hooks on their own pages?
Also Are the present (posted) hooks long enough do I need more or less?
Thanks again
Later
Also Are the present (posted) hooks long enough do I need more or less?
Thanks again
Later
Ozmar
First Post
I like both. Lean and meaty. I can sample the lean and then read the meaty if I like the flavor.
As to format: I prefer all the hooks combined together, not listed separately. And as to length: It seems about right, but it could be a little longer, as long as the meaty is good and fulfilling.
Ozmar the Adventure Connoisseur
As to format: I prefer all the hooks combined together, not listed separately. And as to length: It seems about right, but it could be a little longer, as long as the meaty is good and fulfilling.
Ozmar the Adventure Connoisseur
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Keep the short hooks together. If they take a full page, they're not short enough. One paragraph should do.Shallown said:
The short ones are way, way too long. The long ones are fine.Shallown said:
Barsoom that's interesting. I thought my short hooks were to short. I guess 2-3 sentences tops. Just enough to get the idea across. I can try that.
I need to get started fleshing out the other hooks I have written. See if I can get it done in time for CD - 3.
Another question. How important are inserting the stat bllocks for the npc's? Could saying they're a cleric/aristocrat 3/2 with a Gather info skill be enough or should they be fully stated out in a block?
later
I need to get started fleshing out the other hooks I have written. See if I can get it done in time for CD - 3.
Another question. How important are inserting the stat bllocks for the npc's? Could saying they're a cleric/aristocrat 3/2 with a Gather info skill be enough or should they be fully stated out in a block?
later
Breakdaddy
First Post
hong said:
Hung is right, I would pare it down so that it is more customizable. I need to be able to "drag n' drop" published adventures into my existing campaign.
Well Hung, Breakdaddy, and others These are only two of the hooks I was expanding. The Cooperative dungeon hooks, like the dungeon itself, are meant to be very generic. We just thought having an expanded hook may be more useful than a Short hook. Here are the other hooks so that you can see how "Plug and play" we are shooting for.
Do you think we need more hooks than this?
PS - These hooks have not been through the complete editing process so may have some errors, especially in grammar.
Adventure Hook:
Primarily Evil PCs
Contacted by one of the last members of a forgotten cult the PC’s are asked to recover materials from the library of the cults abandoned temple. The cultist only wants the books from the inner library everything else are spoils to the PC’s. The cultist describes a tomb filled with riches and even offers a few thousand in gold as incentive. Half now / half later of course.
Adventure Hook:
Locals have been disappearing in the night. Something has been entering homes and taking away villagers. The oddest fact is no one in good health has been taken. Often it is the overweight and sickly who fade into the night. Who is avoiding the strong in favor of the weak? There is a trail leading deeper into the surrounding hills that has been taboo for years. Why no one remembers anymore.
Adventure Hook:
A local Noble family is searching for a lost branch of its family tree. A recent dispute in linage within the kingdom has spurred nobles to document their family lines. The last known location of the missing line is at the edge of the border lands. Once there the adventurer’s locate or hear about a forgotten temple (churches being the record keepers in many cultures.) that may hold the answers within.
Adventure Hook:
Mercenary/adventurer’s
You have been hired to locate the final home of the Cult of the choking God the adventurer’s are to return any documents and books to the Sages guild for research. The other contents are considered payment for the risk involved.
Adventure Hook
Neutral PCs
The balance of things is upset. Within a hole in the ground built by man and dedicated to a dead God grows a power that may someday overwhelm the world. One may ask why some creatures of a great and powerful nature do not rule the world. It is because adventurer’s like yourself stop them before their power is too great and their influence too wide spread to be stopped.
Adventure Hook
Good Clerics
A good aligned cleric recieves a series of visions while sleeping over the span of a week.
The first vision is a howling wind spinning the priest about as the breath is slowly sucked from his lungs and his limbs grow weak and twisted.
The next vision holds the priest pinned beneath a mountain of earth and rock. The effort to draw a breath is beyond the priest strength as he wakes pale and blue from lack of air.
The last vision reveals the priest walking slowly through a dungeon among tombs half opened and rotted corpses lying about. As the priest continues with his weapon ready his shadow flickers and shifts slowly growing larger in the torch light. It moves independent of the priest extending its hands to grasp the priest throat and slowly chokes the life from him as the priest struggles against himself.
Adventure Hook
For Characters that wear their heart on their sleeve
Another poor villager has disappeared into the night. It is time this was put to a stop. Only one person has escaped from the clutches of the mad gibbering creature that haunted them. A pale small humanoid chased a farmer from his fields one evening as the sun set. He was set upon by the screaming creature who wielded a cleaver of shiny steel.
Adventure Hook
The Studious
You have found some notations in an old tome describing a Dark God that you have not heard of before. Further research reveals that no one has heard of them before. Some small hints of his existence lead you to believe that they once had a seat of power deep in an area reclaimed by the wilderness.
Do you think we need more hooks than this?
PS - These hooks have not been through the complete editing process so may have some errors, especially in grammar.
Adventure Hook:
Primarily Evil PCs
Contacted by one of the last members of a forgotten cult the PC’s are asked to recover materials from the library of the cults abandoned temple. The cultist only wants the books from the inner library everything else are spoils to the PC’s. The cultist describes a tomb filled with riches and even offers a few thousand in gold as incentive. Half now / half later of course.
Adventure Hook:
Locals have been disappearing in the night. Something has been entering homes and taking away villagers. The oddest fact is no one in good health has been taken. Often it is the overweight and sickly who fade into the night. Who is avoiding the strong in favor of the weak? There is a trail leading deeper into the surrounding hills that has been taboo for years. Why no one remembers anymore.
Adventure Hook:
A local Noble family is searching for a lost branch of its family tree. A recent dispute in linage within the kingdom has spurred nobles to document their family lines. The last known location of the missing line is at the edge of the border lands. Once there the adventurer’s locate or hear about a forgotten temple (churches being the record keepers in many cultures.) that may hold the answers within.
Adventure Hook:
Mercenary/adventurer’s
You have been hired to locate the final home of the Cult of the choking God the adventurer’s are to return any documents and books to the Sages guild for research. The other contents are considered payment for the risk involved.
Adventure Hook
Neutral PCs
The balance of things is upset. Within a hole in the ground built by man and dedicated to a dead God grows a power that may someday overwhelm the world. One may ask why some creatures of a great and powerful nature do not rule the world. It is because adventurer’s like yourself stop them before their power is too great and their influence too wide spread to be stopped.
Adventure Hook
Good Clerics
A good aligned cleric recieves a series of visions while sleeping over the span of a week.
The first vision is a howling wind spinning the priest about as the breath is slowly sucked from his lungs and his limbs grow weak and twisted.
The next vision holds the priest pinned beneath a mountain of earth and rock. The effort to draw a breath is beyond the priest strength as he wakes pale and blue from lack of air.
The last vision reveals the priest walking slowly through a dungeon among tombs half opened and rotted corpses lying about. As the priest continues with his weapon ready his shadow flickers and shifts slowly growing larger in the torch light. It moves independent of the priest extending its hands to grasp the priest throat and slowly chokes the life from him as the priest struggles against himself.
Adventure Hook
For Characters that wear their heart on their sleeve
Another poor villager has disappeared into the night. It is time this was put to a stop. Only one person has escaped from the clutches of the mad gibbering creature that haunted them. A pale small humanoid chased a farmer from his fields one evening as the sun set. He was set upon by the screaming creature who wielded a cleaver of shiny steel.
Adventure Hook
The Studious
You have found some notations in an old tome describing a Dark God that you have not heard of before. Further research reveals that no one has heard of them before. Some small hints of his existence lead you to believe that they once had a seat of power deep in an area reclaimed by the wilderness.
Breakdaddy
First Post
I think that is a pretty eclectic assortment of adventure hooks. Some pretty solid hooks there.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
I still say make your short hooks shorter. One ACTIVE VOICE sentence.
"A cultist asks the party to retrieve certain books from a forgotten temple's library."
"The frail and sickly disappear from local villages."
"A proud noble family seeks the secrets of its past in an ancient library."
Nice and tight. Easy to scan. The whole point of short hooks is to allow DMs to quickly run down the list and choose ones that interest them. If each one is a separate paragraph with a couple of sentences, I can't scan them, so I just jump ahead to the first thing that looks readable. In which case, all this work is wasted, anyway.
Shorter short hooks.
"A cultist asks the party to retrieve certain books from a forgotten temple's library."
"The frail and sickly disappear from local villages."
"A proud noble family seeks the secrets of its past in an ancient library."
Nice and tight. Easy to scan. The whole point of short hooks is to allow DMs to quickly run down the list and choose ones that interest them. If each one is a separate paragraph with a couple of sentences, I can't scan them, so I just jump ahead to the first thing that looks readable. In which case, all this work is wasted, anyway.
Shorter short hooks.
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