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Message: <blockquote data-quote="D+1" data-source="post: 1699586" data-attributes="member: 13654">That's a pretty broad brush you're painting with.  The "generic fantasy world" has NOT run its course for most people over the age of 15.  I would strongly assert that most campaigns of ALL demographics are still generic fantasy."Generic fantasy" is NOT by definition dull, bland or boring.  It only gets that way because the DM and/or players become dull, bland and bored.  It's not as if the genre has failed to entertain them - they fail to entertain themselves and simply find it easier to blame the genre for somehow being stagnant, restrictive, etc.  Imagination needs to be exercised to continue to work.No, you do NOT need a hook.  Yes, the players need to feel their characters are part of something interesting and that they are not just a conglomeration of game stats.  You start to need hooks when you have fallen into the trap of presenting "generic fantasy" without that life, vibrancy, personal involvment, etc.  You feel you have to put in some kind of significant tweak to MAKE it interesting and involving for the players or yourself.  That basically assumes that it has suddenly become UNinteresting - but nothing about generic fantasy has changed from all those previous years when you DID play generic fantasy.If you present a campaign as: "Well, this is going to be just another standard Realms or Greyhawk campaign with the usual assortment of prestige classes and same NPC's and recent history as the last game.  Go ahead and roll up a character and you'll all meet in a bar..."  What could you possibly expect?  You present no life to the campaign, no real personal interest in or excitement about what you're doing.  But as soon as you have an idea about what kind of adventures or meta-plots you intend to run it doesn't matter if it's generic fantasy or some complex, bizzare, home-brewed, freaky-world with 100 pages of house rules and intricate history... in other words - a world with a "hook" that will supposedly lure in players where a "generic" world would not.  You don't need the "hook" to MAKE it interesting.  You just need the interest and excitement in whatever world you ARE running, hook or no hook.</blockquote>

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