The Initial Hook - Motivating PC's

[TarionzCousin]

How much effort do you put into the initial "hook" linking PC's to your adventure?

The near-minimum would be having them be hired by an NPC to do a job.
Near-maximum would be something akin to a PC wanting revenge for his slain parent, lover, pet, etc.

Example:
I just ran the first session of 4E for my "rotating DM" group. There are seven players. My hooks:

1. I sent a brass owl to the PC's in Waterdeep to bring them back to Loudwater with the message "Lady Moonfire has been acting strange recently. Ever since (Tiefling PC)'s brother came to town---(malfunction)." Of course, the player of the tiefling has never mentioned having a brother and, in fact, doesn't remember one from his life. So he wanted to know what was going on.

2. When the PC's arrived in Loudwater, the tiefling's brother was gone. He went to find additional tomes in the tower they had already cleared of monsters. Lady Moonfire was obviously infatuated by him. The tiefling was upset as the mayor had previously been infatuated by him, but his so-called brother was more handsome, charming, and had stolen his lady's affections!

3. The church started by the cleric was missing over 2000 GP. The money disappeared around the same time that the tiefling's brother left town.

4. New PC was in town because Lady Moonfire is his sister and his mother had asked him to investigate--her last letter to Mom sounded odd.

This was enough to get the PC's on the so-called brother's trail.




Note: yes, I know some people are huge proponents of the sandbox/do whatever you want game. I allow my PC's to do whatever they want but I try to create events that resonate with their characters' desires, backgrounds, goals, etc.

 

[Chainsaw]

Note: yes, I know some people are huge proponents of the sandbox/do whatever you want game. I allow my PC's to do whatever they want but I try to create events that resonate with their characters' desires, backgrounds, goals, etc.

Sounds like the sort of pre-planning that works well in sandbox: figure out what interests the players, create some hooks for adventures toward that end, then let them proceed in the order they want.

Back when I started playing, we weren't terribly sophisticated or aware of game theory stuff. I knew what interested my friends (testing their mettle against the cool monsters/traps/puzzles), so I arranged hooks that I knew they'd probably take. Tried to have 2-3 things ready at any one time. They didn't really feel railroaded because they knew I knew what they wanted and would arrange for it. Sometimes they ended up screwing around on something stupid, like mucking with the bartender or trying to rob a jewelry store or something like that, but usually they went after the quest.

I mean, you have to have SOMETHING pre-planned. You can't just improvise everything. I guess you can, but your players probably won't be able to appreciate your mad skillz that way. What are you gonna do, draw the dungeon as you go along? Haha. I certainly don't equate planning with railroad.

OK, enough rambling - I have probably already contradicted myself like twenty times.

 

[Nagol]

Typically, I'll provide something the group can focus on as they learn the lay of the land. Occasionally, they follow it!

My last campaign start included a treasure map and an area changed from civilisation such that the characters had to find enough commonality to locate the starting point.

 

[Haltherrion]

I typically use a middling level of hook that involves:

• Detailed PC backgrounds from as many players as will cooperate. These typically provide some starting hooks and some likely starting places.
• An initial scenario that demonstrates what ever distinctive elements there may be to the setting and tosses out a number of plot hooks to the players to see what interests them.

One of our refs typical goes with a strong hook: an initial "boom" to start the campaign off, tightly linked to the campaign story. Last campaign, we started off in Ptolus at a yearly holiday that involved games and competition. We got to play around at that for a bit and then... the zombies hit. The game was all about Ptolus being over run with undead and are attempts to first stave that off and create places of refuge and then dealing with the underlying causes. Much more linear than I run a game but a lot of fun all the same.

 

[ggroy]

I mean, you have to have SOMETHING pre-planned. You can't just improvise everything. I guess you can, but your players probably won't be able to appreciate your mad skillz that way. What are you gonna do, draw the dungeon as you go along? Haha. I certainly don't equate planning with railroad.

In my experience, not having any pre-planned hooks only really works with groups consisting of experienced players who have played in sandboxes previously.

With players who are not experienced with sandboxes, I've found that they have no idea what to do if the DM does not give them any pre-planned hooks.

A few years ago I was DM-ing a 4E D&D sandbox game in the Forgotten Realms with a group of inexperienced D&D players. The players ended up going around Waterdeep, mostly getting into barfights and beating up random people on the streets. They completely missed anything resembling "hooks", such as killing NPCs with possible hooks and bulletin boards with "help wanted" ads. (They even set some bars/saloons on fire, after killing the bartender NPCs and whoever else was present).

The game became rudderless and eventually collapsed.

 

[LostSoul]

The way it works in my game is that I present the players with a bunch of rumours and each PC picks one as a Quest. They get some XP for completing that Quest. They also pick a Goal, the reason the PC is adventuring, like a long-term Quest that racks up XP when they work towards it.

So I make the setting but after that I just sit back and let them deal with it. The reward system is in place to award players who take risks to get what they want.

 

[howandwhy99]

Starting off a campaign I like to put all the players in a situation where they need to rely on each other to keep from losing resources, even their characters lives.

Do they know each other before hand? Maybe. It's their choice and something decided during character generation. But once they've begun the game the situation remains tight for at least a few sessions until they have secured themselves and plenty of other hooks have presented themselves through play.

After the initial threat is gone they can choose to follow up any lead, split up, or initiate a goal of their own.

For example, they begin as migrant workers on a farm in frontier lands. The game begins the first evening they arrive for work. Zombies Attack! The NPCs act according to their scripts, running, cowering, or attacking. The PCs are in the leadership position. They can defend the farmhouse, move to the manor, explore the fields, even hunt down an out of the way cemetery. In the morning the zombies shamble away and can be followed. The next night more come and perhaps any bodies not buried, hacked to pieces, even the killed from the night before, rise up from the dead.

Does the party stay and defend the families of the workers, negotiate with the manor family, do their own thing, or go? It should take a few sessions, but by the end plenty of other information will have trickled out for further leads. Maybe their are caves connected to the cemetery or under the manor house? Perhaps rumors about strange folk in the woods nearby catch their interest? Suppliers coming to the land know how nearby farmers hold this manor's family in bad repute.

 

[TarionzCousin]

[*]Detailed PC backgrounds from as many players as will cooperate. These typically provide some starting hooks and some likely starting places.

I try to have my players answer questionnaires at the very beginning of each campaign. It can really help create an interesting and involving game if the players put some effort into it.

If not, you get things like this:
*Short-Term Goal: Adventure, Stay Alive
*Long-Term Goal: Get Rich, Stay Alive
DM Response:

 

[thejc]

It depends what we are doing. If it's a one shot or particular AP such as Red Hand of Doom then the hooks are pretty pronounced. I usually don't go the sandbox route. Often times I find if left to themselves they will become beet farmers. They are adventurers the stuff of hero's is in their veins. Fate finds them out.

Recently however my current campaign is a sandbox. Find the SH here
http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-hour/297656-darkness-us-all.html
I have been amazed. Almost felt as if dopplegangers had taken over my group(yes the same people that would become beet farmers). To buy into the game you needed a backstory one that was at least a 700+ and must include one faction, location and one npc. Additional things or a particularly good bg earned an extra 1st level bonus feat. Then over email we all worked out to how they got to where the starting point would be over email. And my players have hit the ground at a sprint. Between them and you guys here

http://www.enworld.org/forum/plots-places/297818-forge-world-me.html

My work has been pretty minimal.

The internet has ruined "You are in the inn. A man approaches you and says I have a job for you"

 

[Gilladian]

In my next campaign, I will be starting it something like this:

"Create your characters with the intent that they like dungeoneering, because there will be a lot of it. You will all be starting out in a small town/large village on a main route between two distant larger cities. You know that not far away is a legendary dungeon."

Once that is done, I will throw out a sheet of paper with a dozen or so hooks to the dungeon and other little adventures in the surrounding community. I'll say something like:

"Here are the plot hooks. Each of you pick one that fits into your character's personality and background. That's what brought you to the area, and is your current goal. Mark it off the list (but two people can choose the same goal if they wish). The other hooks are still there, waiting for you later, although some may develop over time into different problems."