So what's YOUR world's 'hook'?

[Sir Elton]

Lock this thread, please?

 

[Desdichado]

Lock this thread, please?

What an odd thing to say. Whatever for?

 

[Gez]

Hooks of my CW?

Don't know. I haven't built it around particular hooks. Some have developped over time.
The rule of fours (yep).
The influence of spirits over geology, geography and climate being much more important than erosion, tectonic and other mundane factors, allowing me to make a "plot-driven" world map.
The influence of said spirits over a lot of other things, explaining psionics, haunts, possessions, and a fair number of monstrous hybrids that way.
A distinction between planes and dimensions. Planes are different places altogether, while dimensions are just another way to look at the same place. (The world is in a lot of dimensions, but you can only perceive four at max -- normally, the three of space and the one of time. But what happens when you swap the dimensions you're perceiving for others? Rather than going to an Inner Plane of Water, you merely change your perceptions to three elemental dimension of water. You're still in the Material Plane, but you can only interact with the water element found in the Material Plane.)
A non-Euclidian Ethereal Plane as the dimension of magic.
Lei as life force and the power behind spellcasting (explaining the poor health of the most powerful spellcasters). The possibility to use this lei for quasi-spell effects rather than spell-preparation.

Not sure if these can be considered hooks or merely flavor and mechanic twists.

 

[Sir Elton]

What an odd thing to say. Whatever for?

The Alignment discussion above.

 

[Y.O.Morales]

I once read from a Plot Writing book that most novels are based on three main hooks or premises: Good vs. Evil (almost all of the stuff out there), Man vs. Himself (someone dealing with his own mindset and problems), and Man vs. Nature (like The Perfect Storm or the Day After Tomorrow).

So I decided to develop my setting around the latter. Briefly explained, a nation experimented with magic to reach the Spirit World where the (setting) world's 'Gaia' (the planet's conscious self and sole true deity) resides. Apparently, the great experiment 'went wrong' and a planar rip occurred, spilling what I call 'anti-dimensional' energy into the world (I wont give details on this as I literally got an physics book to develop the concept). This accident is causing a disastrous unbalance in magic, as the planet's 'Gaia' must spend her blood (magic) in keeping the energy pouring from the hole at bay. With the gradual reduction of magic, which makes nature works as it works, volcanoes have gone wild, weather phenomenons have appeared, lands are inundating, and even beast and the races are mutating (not a la super-hero-comic-book style). Meanwhile, some nations are fighting for safer lands, others are blaming each other for the accident, and some are actually looking for means to fix the planet or escape it (to another plane or even to one of its moons). However, there are other side plots as well.

That's it.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The campaign hook of my Diamond Throne campaign is that there might be a way that Virdella Tresham, the demi goodess attempting to effectively destroy the plane to gain more power, can do just that.
The characters slowly stumble upon this fact, engaging in a struggle with Chorrim, a cult controlled by Virdella, a group of Shadow Trolls trying to get the artifacts related to this item, Slassan allies of Virdella, travelling the world of the Diamond Throne (and beyond) ...

The world hook for my Space Experiences campaign was basically a science fiction setting with a not entirely good nor entirely evil empire, sometimes fighting a more good than evil confederation.
The specific plot hook for the adventure was an intruding Formian army that were called in by evil Artificial Intelligence (think of "Andromeda Ascendant" gone bad).
The twist in the setting was making magic usable in space (with "enlarged" fireball thrown between space cruisers...)

 

[Incenjucar]

Just a note, there's more categories, though they're broken up in different ways.

I prefer to break it up as follows, but there's plenty of varients.

Character(s) vs. Character(s) (Enemies, etc)
Character(s) vs. Sel(f/ves)
Character(s) vs. Society(s) (Capitalism, Communism, etc)
Character(s) vs. Situation(s) (Destitution, etc)
Character(s) vs. Effect(s) (Nature, Magic, Technology, Fate, etc)

In theory, Character(s) can also be replaced with any of the others, for things like Society vs. Society, but those are usually very impersonal stories if that's the only real conflict. However, they provide great background situations. Classics include "Nature vs. Technology", "Society vs. Magic", etc.

 

[Kalendraf]

Any chance you'd be willing to share those campaign rules?

I don't have the notes with me, but I'll try to wing it. We originally had a sorceress in the campaign but that player moved, and they currently don't have a wizard or sorcerer. I do know that wizards automatically gain the Eschew Materials feat, while Sorcerers gain the feat that lets them memorize spells (helpful for applying meta-feats). At higher levels (around 8th?), both gain arcane sight (ability to detect magic at will). They also gain a few free meta-magic feats, which are in addition to wizards normal bonus feats. I know one of them is Energy Affinity [Lightning]. Also, any spells with a duration of 1 unit/level actually last 0-3 units longer (determined with a DM-secret d4 roll). So a 1st level arcane caster casting Summon Monster will have it last 1 to 4 rounds, and that same caster using Mage Armor will have it last 1 to 4 hours.

Research by secret enclaves of arcane casters has shown that only certain spells risk exposure to the Taint. They hope to one day find a cure for the Taint, but until then any knowledge helps. My group has uncovered enough information to now know which ones are dangerous or not for the most part. A lot of the more common damage-dealing ones (fireball, lightning bolt) are risky to cast, while most other spells are fairly safe. It's not some willy-nilly DM-crusade against those spells though. As my group eventually learned, the taint follows somewhat of a mathematical formula. Discovering the properties of that formula is but one of the cool things they've dug up through the campaign.

Meanwhile, Bards are handled somewhat differently - they are less affected by the arcane taint (primarily due to their spell lists), and thus are not viewed as being nearly as dangerous.

Also, the current decrees of the pope, limit the Witchhunters to only hunting down tainted casters and creatures. However, a splinter faction of the Witchhunters guild broke off from the church years ago, and is still rumored to hunt down any casters they find. Whether they still exist, or are just a rumor meant to scare arcane casters is not clear.

 

[GentleGiant]

I don't have the notes with me, but I'll try to wing it.

Great stuff!
If you have the notes in some kind of electronic format, I'd love to have a look at them, it sounds very intriguing.
You can mail any documents to goatee*at*worldonline*dot*dk

TIA

GG

 

[Candide]

I would also like to see your notes. I am in the process of making a world in which arcane magic is viewed as heresy and sorcerers are labeled witches, and burned at the stake if they don't repent.