Are you looking for a good hook to tantalize your players tastebuds for a tasty new adventure? Here is a Top Ten list that you can use to help inspire you to start your gorgeous story! Good Luck!

What Makes A Good Hook?

A good campaign hook usually follows a few key principles that “hook” the player in. It introduces the player to the setting, and what story you have in store for them. Here is a general formula you can use and think about when crafting your own:

1. Immediate Engagement– Present something that needs their attention right away. (a stolen heirloom, the kidnapped mayors child, etc.) Make sure to make it relevant to the characters, by adding personal stakes. (a local issue, a characters family is involved, or even an event that threatens their very lives or reputation)

2. An Unexpected Twist– Add a twist to make it more than what it seems. The heirloom could be tied to an ancient prophecy, a family curse, or a part of a larger conspiracy tied to a cult of Fish People. Always leave room for intrigue. Leave the players with some unanswered questions to leave them wanting more.

3. A Sense of Agency– Remember; Choices matter. Give the players options. Let them decide how best to approach the problem, whether it be by combat, diplomacy, investigation etc. The hook should be actionable, meaning it should feel like there’s a way forward, rather than them feeling helpless listening to you telling them a story. Let the players play!

4. Forward Momentum– Set them up for the next step in your story. A good hook should naturally lead into the rest of the campaign, introducing all that good stuff that expands into larger adventures, side quests, and deeper mysteries. Don’t think about it as solving a problem, but as introducing others like revealing something bigger. Hint at a new villain, a world altering event, a dangerous unknown enemy, or whatever theme you have going.

Ten Hooks To Start Your Campaign

As you read my Top Ten list, you may notice that they do not exactly line up with the formula of how to create an amazing hook for your campaign. This was purposely done so that it could leave a good amount of wiggle room to insert your ideas into it. I mean, I’m not the one writing your campaign! I’m just trying to give you ideas here!

If you have any ideas for hooks, leave them in the comments below! I would love to hear them!

The Forgotten Guardian

The players are hired to explore a newly discovered ruin. At the center of this ancient town lies a statue. The players find out that it’s not just a statue, but a living breathing structure. The “statue” is an ancient creature trapped in a long forgotten form, and as it’s slowly coming back to life, it beings to draw ancient enemies towards it! The players must decide whether to help it regain its power or destroy it before it wakens up entirely.

The Raging Storm

As the characters rest in a coastal town, A mysterious storm begins to form and strange things begin to happen within it. The wind sings with the voices of the dead, massive sea creatures are sighted offshore, etc. The players need to investigate and find the source of the storm, but the deeper they go, the more they realize that this is no mere storm, but the result of a failed ritual. And now, something inside of it is beginning to awaken.

The Smuggler’s Game

A great city has been under siege for months, and the fear is that it cant hold out for much longer. The players are hired to smuggle something or someone important out of the city before it’s too late. Perhaps a powerful relic, a mysterious secret child with an interesting super duper secret, or a noble that is wanted more dead that alive. However, their is a siege going on, and the walls and gates are being watched, and maybe not everyone in the castle wants them to succeed…

The Unfinished Symphony

An ancient bard composed a legendary piece of music that was said to figuratively contain the power to move mountains and influence gods. However, the composition was never completed, and the sheet music was scattered across the land. The players are tasked with finding the remaining pieces of the song. However, the players soon find that each piece of the symphony has a different and dangerous effect when played. As they search for the final piece, they discover the song is more that just a composition, its a weapon that could alter reality itself.

The Cult of The Dead Star

A once dormant star has suddenly ignited the sky, and its light seems to bring madness to those who stare at it for too long. A mysterious cult begins to form and spreads like wildfire. They begin to worship the star and claim that it holds the key to immortality or some other craziness. As the players investigate, they begin to discover that the cult is preparing a dangerous ritual to call down the star’s power, which could bring about an apocalyptic event.

The Living Library

An ancient Library, once thought to be long abandoned, has become sentient and is now influencing the world. The library has started to send out its books to individuals, spreading its knowledge, but also as a curse. Those who read the books are compelled to obey the Library’s will. The players are hired to track down the Library’s source and put and end to its influence before the Library takes full control.

OR

An ancient Library, once thought to be long abandoned, yada yada yada. It begins to magically send books throughout the realm, seemingly at random. Those who open the book is compelled to “read” it until the very end. When the person opens the book, the find it to be blank. As the person continues, words begin to write out every piece of their life like a biography. Once finished, the book drains the life of those who have “read it”, and returns back to the library, leaving the reader into a near mindless and emotionless husk. The players are hired to solve this problem before the situation gets any worse. (Lets be honest, it totally will!)

The Lost Letter

A letter meant for a local merchant has been lost in transit, and the players are hired to finding it. The letter is valuable to the merchant as it was the last letter from his recently deceased father who was an avid adventurer. The letter is not what the merchant expected. It contains the final will and testament of the fallen adventurer that leads the players to an old hidden buried treasure. unfortunately for the players, they are not the only ones to receive a letter…

The Rotten Apple

A young and beloved child of the village has fallen ill, and the local healer is at a lost of what to do as nothing seems to be working. The child’s parents are frantic and hire the players to save their child. After some investigation, they discover that the illness was caused by a poisoned apple that was given to the child as a gift by a traveling merchant. He’s long gone, but the players must track down the merchant and find a way to reverse the curse before it spreads to the rest of the village, or even beyond!

Grandma’s Cottage

The party inherits a strange old cottage in a sleepy town. The catch? It’s alive, a little needy, and constantly attracting lost souls, enchanted objects, and the occasional wayward monster seeking comfort. Managing it becomes their new full time job. (Honestly, I’ve gotten kind of into cozy fantasy lately. This may not be your speed, and that’s ok!)

The Shape of Us

The party begins the adventure already transformed into strange creatures, either beasts or monsters. (Up to you). Their first goal should be to reverse the transformation, but in doing so, they uncover that their change is just a symptom of a greater magical disturbance affecting that is beginning to affect the world. What began as a personal struggle turns into a mission to stop a rising magical catastrophe.

(I am loving this idea so I’m going to expand on it)

The setup: The players awaken from a good nights rest on their way to a city/town that is somewhere that is somewhat remote, like the woods outside of the town or a city. They are intelligent and can speak or communicate magically, but will find that navigating their new bodies will be difficult. They will need to survive and escape their current environment(depending on what you have them change into, especially if they are smaller more vulnerable creatures), and find a mage who might be able to help them go back to normal(maybe for a price, a favor later on, or for something that is morally grey).

The players shouldn’t be transformed for a long time. We don’t want the players to think they made their character’s 20 page backstory for nothing. (long term effects? Maybe once the players are back to normal, they find that they still have the ability to transform into that creature at will, or once per rest or just for short amount of time like an hour or less. Or perhaps they have residual scars/ physical abnormalities that comes from what they transformed into like animal parts, a tail, extra fur, scales, weird ears, or something monstrous if you went that route like bat wings, horns, fangs, discolored eyes, etc.)

So once the players are back to normal, they find out from the mage that it seems to be a result o a larger arcane rupture in the weave. Others are being transformed or whole region s are being affected in more dangerous ways like the weather, or inanimate objects become sentient, or plants having the ability to speak common. CHAOS! New goal? FIX IT!