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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vanifae" data-source="post: 5510093" data-attributes="member: 58765">I find this to be terribly important the player characters really need motivations; even if they are just I want to be rich and powerful.  You can use that to entice them into different hooks that promise power or more riches.  Hopefully they have a diverse grouping of needs and motivations so you can throw a variety of hooks at them.  This is usually something I do now before or during session 1, try to establish what it is that they want to do or hope to achieve.  Keep in mind it can and probably will change, but it gets things movingI use this technique pretty extensively, I often sprinkle the game with hooks; either through characters or plot hooks and see what sticks.  Often like you stated without even knowing the full details of said hook/character, I just throw it out there and if it begs for more clarification, exploration, and detail I give it.  Only if the players actually decide to pursue it, I tend to write down and make notes of things as the game goes on and flesh out things after the fact.  You never know when a player will latch onto an idea or character that you never expected.  When that happens I tend to milk it for all it’s worth.As to homebrew games and campaign settings, start small.  Recognize that the 1000 year history of the kingdom won’t really matter much to anyone unless a player shows an active interest in it.  Use broad strokes and fill in details when you need to.  Do provide a colorful cast of characters in whatever locality you decide to use and some important landmarks/locations filled with hooks to jumpstart adventures.  Do provide immediate and obvious “adventures” for the players to explore that can link to more adventures.  Meaning that if the players complete Adventure A, they should encounter enough hooks that it gives them ideas to further explore Adventure Hook 1, 2, and 3 at a minimum and then branch out from there.  This works equally well for sandbox or Plot driven stories or any mixture of the two.</blockquote>

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