What hooks have you given to your players that worked ?

[questing gm]

Alright, let's face it, as a DM it could really ruin your entire campaign that you have planned for a zillion years if your PCs does not take the FIRST hook to keep things going
...of course, that would partially be the fault of an inexperienced DM who did not consider what kind of hook that would draw the players in the first place!
so what are some of the hooks you DMs out here have thrown at your players and it WORKED !?!

 

[pogre]

First, I think you need to sit down with your players and quiz them about their PCs' motivations. Do not be afraid to ask them what kind of adventures they would like to undertake. Then, explain to them you are going to craft some story/plot hooks that you think they might enjoy and you would appreciate it if they went along. Always be open to criticisms of the hooks, but do not be afraid to remind players they are there to play!

A hook I like to use a lot is a Renaissance Fair. People from miles around get dragged into the city to attend the fair. You can spring almost anything on them from there. You could always have them hear a mysterious explosion in the sewer and the overworked guards ask them to investigate - Micon's Hideout pdf a little adventure I wrote with just such a hook.

The best hooks from my campaigns are of two types:

1st The kind the pcs just seem to fall into by accident - looking for shelter, travelling from place to place. etc.

2nd The kind where pcs develop their own agendas and pursue their own goals - you just have to create the hurdles.

Best of luck to you!

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

Well I placed a desecrated battlefield next to their aquired lands and informed them that if they don't protect their peasants, they'd flee and thus destroy the land's productivity (& their wealth). I placed the appointed, reconsecrating cleric in the hands of bandits seeking a ransom for him; then I made the strongest nearby lord secretly being blackmailed by the desecrating cleric and covertly assist the PC's. The lord in turn paid the ransom to 'rescue' the cleric so as to appease the necromantic cleric as she threatened to reveal his crime, and so he has the good cleric 'recovering' within his manor never to be allowed to venture near the battle site.

Basically I asked "what motivates your characters?" early on and just built layers from there. In this case wealth, power and prestige.

 

[Beale Knight]

Tailoring the hooks to the PCs worked very well for me in the campaign I've just started. Weeks before we started I sent them each a write up of general world knowledge, and once they got an idea of what they wanted to play I sent them more specific information based on their choices.

From them I got four great backgrounds to work with (key to everything), and found it easy to tailor hooks to get them together and give realistic reasons for them to join together and go adventure.

The fighter was on the run and sought a sign from the gods, and got it in the form of another PC, that he now follows.

The cleric recieved a vision during a ceremony for such things, and it was peppered with clues leading him to where the PCs were to get together and then on to the adventure. It was heavy-handed, but I warned him it would be, and I made sure that things he saw in the vision began coming true very quickly (the first two, in fact, happened in the e-mail exchanges before the first session).

The ranger's mentor had to leave without her for something, and she found the place she was living in too socially inhospitable and decided to return home. She and the cleric were put together by an NPC as traveling companions.

The wizard found an old document that hinted of a secret treasure of knowledge, but needed it translated, which led him to someone who could do it, and along the way he happened to be the "sign" for the fighter above.

They were drawn together as a group by the document. The person the wizard thought could translate it was the mother of the ranger. Though she couldn't translate it, the cleric (there with the ranger) could, and became interested about this treasure mentioned by some predecessor of his temple. The Ranger became interested because the location the document mentioned was in hobgoblin territory - her favored enemy. The wizard of course wants the secret treasure of knowledge, and the fighter goes where he goes.

So they each have their own good reasons for going, and for going together. By the time the adventure is over we'll have lost the wizard to a RL move, but the goup will have other motivating factors to keep them together. After that I plan to let them guide things.

Tailor those hooks if at all possible!

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

• Have an NPC thief cheat them of a small amount of money, or pickpocket them for a few coppers. Most player characters will travel to the ends of the earth to find the thief and cut bits off him/her, enabling you to lead them around by the nose.
• In a dungeon, present them with a big, iron-bound door which is locked, padlocked, barred, wizard-locked, and has a Magic Mouth on which tells anyone who approaches, "Do not go through this door." Wait at least two sessions before presenting them with a key, which has a tag attached to it saying "Key to the Forbidden Portal - Never Use."
• While the players are in the streets of the city, a knight passes by. His horse treads firmly on one of the PCs' feet, and he sighs and tells the character, "Get out of my way, fool of a peasant!" The characters are now guaranteed to follow him.
• The player characters overhear part of a conversation in a tavern. Something along the lines of "HOW much gold?" "Incredible, isn't it? And there's all this magic stuff and a whole heap of scrolls..." "Sssh, that guy in the corner's listening in!" The two NPC's then exit the tavern, glancing fearfully over their shoulders.

 

[shilsen]

Alright, let's face it, as a DM it could really ruin your entire campaign that you have planned for a zillion years if your PCs does not take the FIRST hook to keep things going
...of course, that would partially be the fault of an inexperienced DM who did not consider what kind of hook that would draw the players in the first place!
so what are some of the hooks you DMs out here have thrown at your players and it WORKED !?!

I've found a solution which works very well for me - I stopped using hooks. In both of the Eberron campaigns I'm running now, I decided to have no pre-planned idea for the campaign. Instead, I just put the PCs in the middle of the city of Sharn and then ran with whatever direction it is that they decided to go.

One group had an agent who would find different areas where people might need adventurers , and he handed them a dozen. They found a way to deal with two concurrently, so that's what the campaign started off focusing on. If they'd picked some other choices, it would be a completely different campaign. In my second group, the PCs started off by visiting various organizations they had contacts with, and all the organizations had areas they'd suggest the PCs would deal with. My players decided to chase the first one they were handed, so that's what we're involved with, but it could just as easily have been something completely different, and their actions are already creating various ripples that may lead to more options for the future. In both cases, it's extremely interesting for me as a DM since I have no clue which directions the PCs will end up going next, and for the players there's a sense of substantial freedom, since they are pursuing exactly what it is they wish to pursue.

In short, my best use of hooks was throwing them out of my game

 

[Evilhalfling]

Dismembering their realtives is always good.
- or just threaten harm.

Dreams - warnings, hints and imagery. a dream that all players share is a powerful connection

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I agree with the suggestions of talking to the players about the motivations of their characters. At the end of every adventure, if they're not in the middle of something, I always ask what they want to do next. Even if they just say, find some monsters to kill and loot their bodies, that still gives an idea of what sort of hooks they're looking for.

But if your using hooks, always have a back-up for if they don't take the hook.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Background of the character - family member go missing or bad is always a good hook. This depends a lot on how much information the DM gets from the player.

The power vacuum - players remove the BBEG, now what happens. I have done this as a land rush, to other BBEG moves in.

The vengenful NPC - Hey, they killed my...

 

[NewJeffCT]

Alright, let's face it, as a DM it could really ruin your entire campaign that you have planned for a zillion years if your PCs does not take the FIRST hook to keep things going
...of course, that would partially be the fault of an inexperienced DM who did not consider what kind of hook that would draw the players in the first place!
so what are some of the hooks you DMs out here have thrown at your players and it WORKED !?!

My old DM did what I thought was a really good opening. He called it his "James Bond" opening. The PCs were all on their own in the same general area near a town - well, two PCs knew each other and were together, but the other 5 guys were by themselves and one guy was a native of the town.

He started it off with short, quick combats or roleplay situations for each first level PC. My dwarf came upon a kidnapped halfling and had to rescue it from a gnoll... the two PCs together had to break up a goblin raid... another guy had to bluff some rogues into stopping their crime (they outnumbered him 5 to 1) ... and I forget the rest. But, similar things that took about 5-7 minutes in game apiece.

At the end of each scenario, the PC then saw a huge red dragon flying in the sky towards the town. Naturally curious, all the PCs followed the dragon, most thinking that we'd have to bury the dead. The final encounter came with the last PC - a fledgling wizard. The dragon had landed at the wizard's master's house when the PC wizard was out on an errand. The dragon incinerated the house & master when the PC wizard comes home. PC wizard is obviously terrified and wondering why the DM hates his character so much... Shockingly, the dragon then notices an amulet on the wizard's neck (a gift from his master) and gets scared and flies off - just as the rest of the PCs arrive on the scene of the charred house.