How to Start Your Game With an Exciting Hook!

 You've decided to run a new TTRPG game for your friends, and you want to get them engaged with a great plot hook from the start. Whether you're new to running the game or you have some experience, plot hooks are something a lot of people struggle with. You can search online for long lists of hooks on various websites, and sometimes that's all you need, but now you want to write them on your own. Maybe you want it to be original or maybe you have some unique conditions to your game that don't fit with other prompts. 

The path to writing a great hook doesn't change depending on what TTRPG you're playing, what the conditions of your world are, or what type of players you have. A great hook is about making a connection with the characters and not using a specific event that may or may not fit in your world. In the very beginning we all learn the most basic hook of all and that is to drop word of someone needing help, which is an obvious sign that says, "start here." This really only works because the players use their meta knowledge and take the hint. What you want is a hook that captures the characters themselves. 

Let's look at the three best formats to create a plot hook! Each of these has hundreds different ways to be executed. 

1. Make something happen to your characters. 

This is my absolute favorite way to start any campaign. It's the most engaging way to start, it gets player's hearts pumping or minds turning. There's no wondering if they will take the bait, you don't have to struggle with whether you made the clues obvious enough, or if they will run off in different direction. It's almost full proof. 

Let your characters put their foot into some trouble, or have some phenomena happen to them, or let them come face to face with a natural danger. Anything that requires immediate action from the players works. There are many different forms this can come in and you're bound to find one that can link to your larger campaign ideas. 

Here's 5 examples to kickstart your brain: 

A. A ball of chain lighting strikes the party from the skies and leaves X effect. 

B. Mistaken identity leads to the players being hunted down. 

C. A sickness befalls the characters, and they must find a cure. 

D. While traveling the characters fall into underground ruins.

E. Someone in a tavern accidently sets off a magical (or technological) item and does X to the characters. 

2. Use consequences to engage players and characters.

This is my second favorite way to hook players in. This is not putting consequences directly on your characters, as in making something happen to them. In this format, you present a problem to them that has significant, even profound, consequence. Often, players will want to be a part of these events. The juicier the consequence the more engaged they will be. Remember when Luke Skywalker came across the message from the princess with the Deathstar plans? Remember when Frodo was told evil would come and threaten the Shire if he didn't leave with the ring? Present your characters with an opportunity to play a role in something larger than themselves and they will almost always jump at the chance. 

Here are 5 examples to kickstart your brain:

A. An unassuming NPC is being hunted and their death would bring dire consequences to the area/town/nation etc. 

B. Players discover documentation that holds terrible secrets. They may need to be exposed or hidden, but the consequences will shake those in power. 

C. While exploring an abandoned structure (or any location), players find a mighty hero dying and they pass along their quest to the players. 

D. Players accidently disturb a powerful enchantment (or technology) and if it cannot be fixed it will have terrible consequences. 

E. Players discover something archeological (or of another nature) that turns scholarly knowledge on its head. It will shake the world as your players know it and people will definitely kill to suppress it. 

3. Mystery!

This is perhaps the most fun choice, but sometimes the most difficult to do. When we think of mystery, we all usually think of a who-dun-it situation. This classic can be a great hook, but you need the characters to be invested in discovering the truth. There are two ways I like to use the classic who-dun-it scenario. My go-to is doing a murder mystery with the players trapped in the location with a group of people, and the killer of course. Your characters should want to know for their safety, and the players usually love the fun of it. The second way I use that scenario is with a murder at a public event that the characters have attended. This will usually spark everyone's interest. 

While a who-dun-it is always a grand time and is the easiest way to present a mystery, there are even better ways to use mystery as a plot hook. I like to use mystery when my main story arch involves extraordinary events and highly powerful figures. The best ways to use mystery are to defy what characters know to be true or possible, present truly bizarre events or behavior, or use strong consequential implications. No matter what you want your mystery to be, here's how you should hook your players: create a sequence of events (or pieces of evidence) that the players have ample opportunity to stumble over that are instantly mind boggling and difficult to resist. A great example of this is the beginning of the old sci-fi movie Sphere (give it a quick google). 

There are so many different ways to begin, but I highly suggest not starting off with subtlety. Shove a mystery right in their faces and let them get that spark of interest and imagination.  

Here are 5 examples to kickstart your brain: 

A. Through gossip, business, or investigation, players realize that an individual has been spotted in two places at the same time. 

B. A letter is delivered to your characters from them in the future. 

C. Players discover that huge amounts of money have been disappearing unnoticed. 

D. Several NPCs were seen carrying out the exact same actions at the same time, but none of them have any memory of it. 

E. Players come to a town where everyone refers to leaders that don't seem to exist, but their stories are all consistent, and players cannot catch anyone interacting with these entities. 

I promise, if you use these three formats and put some creativity into your plans your players will always be hooked at the start of your campaign. If you have any questions or need help with your planning, feel free to contact me. Remember, I do offer to write components for your game such as hooks, towns, characters, cultures, governments, gods, religions, a story arch, and anything else you might need to run your TTRPG! Message me for details.