How To Create Adventure Hooks For Your Players
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- čas přidán 9. 02. 2024
- Introducing adventure hooks is an essential part of running a homebrewed sandbox campaign. I use a process through which they arise organically through the activities of the players and the world around them.
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Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Most plot hooks should be simple tasks. Once in a while the Epic hook comes along. That is what makes them special. I have a town drunk/crazy that habitually bothers guests and gets tossed out of the tavern. The Tavern keeper would tell the party: "don't bother with him, he is just and old drunk". One day the party actually went out to talk with him after he had been tossed after begging for drinks. Viola - plot hook and epic adventure, but it was several sessions before the players took the bait. But in another town, the town bum was just a bum and the players plied him with cash (and he told them whatever they wanted to hear).
I love the town drunk/crazy guy. Maybe he's an ex-soldier with trauma from the great war with the orcs back 30 years ago. And maybe he's crazy because "me and my platoon became separated from the main host, took shelter in a cave, only to discover the long lost shrine to....I forget! Get me another drink!"
I think a major step for adventure hooks is in a session 0, discuss with your players what they want to do/what they are like.
So 1 player may be driven by greed, another player is driven by altruism, yet another is driven by excitement, and finally yet another is driven by desire/love.
So to get all 4 party members to take a hook.
Have the Eldest Child of a local noble who is actually a kind/just noble left to investigate a strange portal that opened nearby. Then that Noble's Child disappeared.
The Greedy Player would likely accept to get a large payment.
The Altruistic Player would likely accept to do good.
The Excitement Player would likely accept because a strange portal sounds exciting.
The Desire/Love Driven Player would possibly accept to try and win the heart of that Noble's Child by being heroic.
Nice work here. You use the goals of the players to put bait on your hook and then just reel them in!😎
Oh the urchins! “Stop thief!” A couple NPCs step up and dash after them after quickly offering their services. These NPC adventurers actually hired the urchins to snag the items. If the PCs don’t pursue and catch this other adventurer group paying the urchins, maybe they see them again at a later time. Do they strike up conversation asking if they were successful catching the thieves? Do the players see them looking at an ancient map or some other secret that could open up opportunity? Dang, you continue inspiring ideas. This is an excellent channel. Keep inspiring!!! Share more secrets!
Glad you like my content! And you're right on with letting the urchins escape, then they become a part of the scenery for potential future encounters. Let things develop naturally and it makes your world that much more realistic.
Love the ideas. It is this reason I ask the players to decide the classes and races they want to create the party they want to be. It’s the whole idea of secrets Sly Flourish suggests. Come up with maybe a half dozen and the players choose which ones to pursue. Absolutely cool presentation KR!
Just glad to help other GM's out there!
Thanks K.R. King.
How was your roundtable game?
@@DDHomebrew The Space Balls SAGAS game was very silly, lethal and fun. The game I invited you to is about three weeks away for BECMI D&D.
@@HowtoRPG That is great! I am ready to play!
I had made an adventure hook where the players would have to wait 10 days while the city is panicking because of a troll infestation expanding to the cities lands. After the 10 days, the players would be contracted as an expeditionary force to take care of said thing. It seems that the players don't like to stand around & the characters don't like such evil things to kill innocents, so the contractors job isn't going to work. That said, the contractor is open to working future deals with the party. Tomorrow we shall see how the adventure goes!
So did the group just leave to kill the trolls, or do something else? Can't wait to hear what happened.
Good ideas. Always looking to get inspiration.
Thanks!
I have mentioned before that I pretty much railroad the players up to the the fifth level before opening the sandbox. The party spends about a year serving a year in the local lord's, (ri buiden), retinue as a method of tax payment. During those the missions they are sent on time, they will meet npcs that are arcane or useful sources of background information on forgotten tombs and arcane magic items, and who can serve as a fence or a source of items. Once they are sandboxing, they know where these guys are, it just might not be practical to travel back to consult them, but they might meet others along the way.
An interesting way to run. If your players are fine with it, then why not? I'm sure it makes prep time easier.
@@DDHomebrew My campaign setting is a semi-historical version of western Europe. Starting area is Iberia,(Ireland, more specifically Leinster.) The rest of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, Spain and France are part of the sandbox area. What can I say? I'm a history nut.
You've got a lot of great terrain on that map, and the mythology is well known. And you get to change history, which is always fun! @@neutronjack7399
@@DDHomebrew It makes it easier for new players to learn the fundamentals of the game and role playing.
@@DDHomebrew Unfortunately, Saint Patrick banned all reptiles from Ireland, but I already planned a Silver Dragon in Wales, who is shacking up at Merlin's workshop, while he is away.
My favorite naturally occurring plot hook was started long ago in my world, is the hero party being defamed. There are three parties playing in my world, the Originals, the Exes of the originals, and the Children of the originals. Anytime the exes of the Originals take a quest they aren't sure they can handle. They would use the name and mark of the Original party. Then if it got dangerous or just became more complex than they thought it would be, they would just abandon the quest. So, the Originals enter this town, where they are then chased off by the towns folk who are pelting them with rotting vegetables, and calling them "theivin' bastages". It took them more than a year to figure out that their exes were messing with them from their game. It made sense in the game because the parties are in direct competition with each other. Then one day the Originals ended up in the same town where the Exes were about to sabotage the Originals, and both Parties met. The Exes told the Originals, that they too had been defamed, and had followed the villainous party to Over-Winter. Oh, the lies that were told that winter, no one could have gone hungry for all the red herrings. It made for the most complex 10 sessions of who done it, locked town mystery. I played the NPCs, the monsters, nature. The rest of the sessions were the two parties interacting. The Bull crap was far deeper than the snow that year, my friends. The Exes pulled off the con-job for the whole winter, and a great time was had by all.
Great video as usual, sorry about the long story.
I love those kinds of stories: taken from actual play with all the twists and tunes that comes from players and the GM reacting to each other's actions! Did the Originals finally get their revenge?
@@DDHomebrew Yes, they did. They accidently on purpose let it slip, over a few rounds of Kava, at the tavern. Where it was overheard by Runtelit, the town information broker; that there was a lair of a dead dragon they had found and had returned to Iron-wohl to hire some carts to bring back the treasure trove from the Stegospine Mountains. Somehow they managed to leave out the "Un" in Undead Dragon. So, the Exes went to grab the best of what's left in the lair before the Orignals could get back with the carts. They set up a magic mouth within the cave mouth that would only be triggered if the party entered, which set off the Alarm spell. The Orignals walled them in the dungeon with every wall spell they had and then used move earth to further seal them in with the Draco-Lich.
very interesting video..ty sir
Glad you enjoyed it!
Expanding on one of your concepts a bit, think about the missing fighter who hasn't been around for some weeks.
One way to approach this is gradually. Of course it assumes that the PCs go there regularly, but you can mention him the first few times but then stop mentioning him being present.
If they don't bring it up themselves, you can then have them overhear someone else asking about him, "I wanted to pay him the 5 gold he loaned me."
Next time, "Odd, he always comes here on his birthday."
The process of introducing these adventure hooks slowly is another whole video. Because you're right; the players can slowly discover the missing fighter between various adventures, whether through random conversations or their own observations. And by not telegraphing the urgency of this missing person, it can have time to develop on its own: the fighter was kidnapped, or went off in search of another missing NPC, or is trapped in a dungeon they were exploring. And each of these possibilities (which you as the GM can develop as you see fit) leads to more adventure hooks!