If an adventure situation directly affects the characters or the people and places they care about, that is often enough motivation for the characters to get involved. (However, see “Respect for the Players” in chapter 1 for advice about harming the people and places characters love.)
If the adventure situation doesn’t have an obvious impact on the characters or the people or things they care about, you can use other techniques to draw in the players. These are best tailored to the motivations of your players and their characters. For example, some adventuring groups are noble heroes who respond without hesitation to the pleas of innocent villagers crying for help; other groups are hardened mercenaries who respond only to offers of payment. Some groups are devoted to gods, rulers, or other patrons who might send them on quests, either directly or through intermediaries.
When rival factions inhabit a ruined city, sometimes the best course is to stay out of the way!
Many adventures begin with a patron asking the characters to undertake a quest or mission, offering a reward in exchange for this service.
Take the time to flesh out an NPC who serves as a patron. Once in a while, it can be interesting for the characters’ patron to betray them. Pulling that trick more than once in a campaign, though, is likely to make the players unwilling to trust any future patrons and possibly suspicious about any adventure hooks you put in front of them.
The Patron Hooks table offers some suggestions for ways a patron can lead characters to an adventure situation. The “Campaign Start” section in chapter 5 offers some more suggestions for patrons.
| 1d6 | Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | A town crier announces that someone is hoping to hire adventurers. |
| 2 | Someone the characters want to impress or need a favor from asks them to deal with the adventure situation. |
| 3 | When the characters arrive in a new city, they find a job board where someone has posted in search of adventurers. |
| 4 | A wealthy patron who is aware of the adventurers’ accomplishments writes to them, offering to pay them for their talents. |
| 5 | A citizen in need, who has learned of the adventurers’ accomplishments and kindness, travels miles to find them and implore them for help. |
| 6 | The adventurers are arrested (on valid or invented charges) and offered a chance to escape punishment by completing a quest. |
Subvert Clichés
As you populate your world with interesting supporting characters, consider the following:
Avoiding Stereotypes. Show how multiple people from the same culture are different. Don’t use a real-world accent in a disparaging way.
Beautiful Diversity. Feature members of different genders, ethnicities, and sexualities, as well as people with varied capabilities, beliefs, roles, professions, interests, and outlooks.
Fresh Spin. Whenever possible, put a fresh spin on a familiar trope. The mysterious figure who presents adventurers with a quest on behalf of the king might be the king in disguise. The wizard in the tower might be a projected illusion created by a band of thieves to guard their loot.
Relatability. Treat NPCs as real people with real motivations. Put yourself in their shoes. What would you do?
Celestial omens, vivid dreams, or other magical phenomena can point characters to the adventure situation and suggest a course of action. The Supernatural Hooks table offers some suggestions.
| 1d6 | Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | The characters all have a vivid dream that foreshadows elements of the adventure. |
| 2 | While preparing spells, one character receives a quest from a god or patron. |
| 3 | A fortune teller’s reading for one of the characters points to a quest and offers hints about challenges that lie ahead. |
| 4 | Flames, clouds, smoke, or huge flocks of birds take distinct shapes that portend the adventure situation. |
| 5 | Animals or animated objects speak clearly to direct the adventurers toward the situation. |
| 6 | Someone who died returns as a ghost and haunts the characters. The ghost prompts the characters to investigate the cause of the ghost’s death and put it to rest. |
Sometimes, characters just happen on an adventure through sheer coincidence—or at least what appears to be coincidence (which might actually involve divine or other supernatural intervention). The Happenstance Hooks table provides some ideas.
| 1d6 | Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | The characters find a letter describing the adventure situation. |
| 2 | The characters are on an unrelated quest, such as searching for a particular magic item, that leads them into the adventure situation. |
| 3 | The adventure situation disrupts a festival or ceremony that the characters are attending. |
| 4 | A magical mishap places the characters in the adventure situation. |
| 5 | While traveling in a caravan or aboard a ship, the characters befriend an NPC who has news about the adventure situation. |
| 6 | The characters are attacked after being mistaken for another group of adventurers. They learn about the adventure situation from a clue left behind by their attackers. |