How do you come up with plothooks fa/tg/uys? I've made

Listen to your players. Ask them where they think things are going. Read into their backstories or the things their characters are connected to, join the dots and link things up to create plot hooks that directly matter to them. Cheat like a motherfucker, reference or take inspiration from things you don't think they know, and if nothing else just fly by the seat of your pants, make shit up and try to keep it all coherent.

I steal plots from popular media. For example, in my next game, the group has to fight fake news in order to make their country great again (Persona 5).

>>54283841
>Throw plothooks at my players
>They go out of their way to dodge them
>Brag about how they've avoided all my plothooks
>Immediately after start complaining that there's nothing to do

>>54284045

I fucking hate this so goddamn much.

Although sometimes it isn't the players fault. Asshole GMs who love to 'gotcha' people reinforce this behaviour, where the only way to 'win' is to avoid plot hooks at all costs.

I prefer playing with GMs I actually trust, and I generally build my characters so that jumping on plot hooks when they occur is natural for them. Because the game is more fun when you're doing something, as opposed to getting antsy and doing nothing.

>>54283841
When the players are drooling and you have no ideas, have someone try to kill the party. It hardly even matters who, because your players will answer that for you.

>>54284045
Sounds like you have a severe case of Douchebag Player Syndrome. I prescribe 10cc of handgun.

I watch TV.

>>54284045
Get new players. They're a diamond dozen.

>>54286567
>diamond dozen
God, that's not the expression.

The expression is "dime and does them".

>>54286606
It's actually "doggy dog."

>>54283841
Usually I'll start with some bit of the setting that hasn't really been focused on yet in the game that I want to explore (including relationships or things from backstories), or just something that I think is cool or would be fun to describe or build, along with what the characters have going on already and keeping in mind what the players want out of the campaign.

I'll start with those (possible) endpoints and work back to where the players are, and make a handful of hooks for each of those arcs. Bad guys or grim events have some sort of manifestations that the players are privy to or can be made aware of. Some that are a little obvious, some that are much more subtle.

And remember: Don't get married to those potential storylines. Be prepared to change them or adapt them as they go. Be prepared to re-theme a jungle temple to an arctic sanctum, and that sort of thing.

>>54286567
haha holy shit

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>>54284045
>players finally take plothook
>get halfway through it before session ends
>party is all ready to finish, spent end of session preparing and gathering resources
>plan session with this in mind, flesh everything out, enough planned to be able to improvise to fill in any gaps, set up potential consequences and ways this can continue into other plothooks
>get really hyped up, players are hyped up, everyone's ready
>next session starts
>player spends less than a minute thinking about what to do
>"...this is too hard"
>they haven't even tried to do anything, they're coming to conclusions based off of things that they're just inventing in their minds, "well there's probably xyz" sort of things
>"yeah, we can't do this. we're not gonna do this"
>in an instant everyone collectively loses all of their interest in the plothook
>"GM we need something to do"
>>uh, okay, well what would you like to do?
>"I dunno"
>>Is there any TYPE of thing you'd like to do?
>"no"
>caught completely off guard by all of this
>nobody has any idea of what they want to do
>nobody takes any initiative
>all of the players refuse to give their characters any long or short-term goals that I can make plothooks out of, all they want is money and murder
>"I'm bored"

Remember kids, even if your players take a plothook, always have at least four more waiting in the wings

Look at how narrative games approach session prep. Even if you loathe the way these games are set up mechanically, they often have lots of good advice on designing/running adventures.

I've taken the Fronts system from Dungeon World and used it to prep for all kinds of games. You come up with a front (the organization, thing, or NPC that will be the antagonist.) Then you give the front an Impending Doom, which represents what will happen if the PCs never interfere. The Impending Doom is given a series of Grim Portents, which are the events leading up to whatever the Impending Doom implies. You can also list essential NPCs, their motives, etc. Here's a very generic template.


Campaign Front or Adventure Front
Description & Cast: A high-level look at who or what makes up the Front.
Stakes: How will chosen PCs and/or important NPCs be affected? (Be specific!)
1. Stake
2. Stake
3. Stake

Danger (Ambitious Organization, Planar Force, Arcane Enemy, Horde, Cursed Place)
Impulse: The driving action/motivation/need that the Danger seeks to fulfill.
Impending Doom: What happens if the Danger succeeds at its end-goal?
Grim Portents: Key actions that the Danger takes to achieve its goal; things that affect the campaign world.
1. Grim Portent
2. Grim Portent
3. Grim Portent

>>54288613

Basically, I like this approach because I can quickly create a loose framework for an adventure without getting too attached to any particular idea. It also makes the DM ask himself WHY the PCs should be getting involved in the first place, and what will happen to them if they dont. Give the game a sense of urgency, if the they don't do anything about the necromantic cult in the countryside, then it should only make sense that travel is going to be very difficult once their ritual is complete and the countryside is littered with zombies.

Whenever they stay at the inn, mention that more and more people seem distressed. More villagers have gone missing, martial law has been imposed, etc. Signal to them that bad things are going to happen unless they do something about it. You're not railroading them, because they can still completely ignore the necromancers. Maybe now the adventure is all about leaving the city after it's been placed under quarantine.

>>54288083
That's where I would passive-aggressively make The Tavern of Hatred because a lot of my players go to a tavern where nothing happens and 'be safe'. That's all they do.

>You start in a tavern and nothing happens.
>"I got outside."
>You step out the front door and notice that you just entered the tavern kitchen.
>"Uhm... I take the food."
>The moment you grab the food, you notice that it's all fuzzy and rotten.
>"I talk to the barkeep."
>The barkeep turns his head 180 degrees without moving the rest of his body. It's cold stare going through your very soul. As it tries to speak, nothing but a thick yellow slime oozes from his mouth, nose, and eyes.

The rest is just some descent into Salvator Dali's nightmare realm that they can't escape conventionally.

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>>54283841
>being a GMcuck

>>54288083
That's when you make something explode.

GMs will often create plot hooks and encourage chars ter and group goals to spur on quests but then forget they can be proactive too and have characters in their world actually do stuff against the players . Usually players don care about plot hooks

Like what's more interesting

>A wizard in a tavern informs you that there's an evil sorcerer in a cave in the mountains far away that needs to be killed.
>An evil sorcerer just kicked in the tavern with his bandit thug lackeys and is demanding the bar keep give him his due of fresh corpses. The lackeysare meanwhile hustling the patrons for coins ti avoid a stabbing

>>54288083
You oughta told them that there can't be a game without players and that they are no players.

>>54289345

My current game revolves around the heir of a small realm. His father's going to die on session 1 or 2 at which point he's going to have three or four different things pressing in on him:

1) His father has 'rescued' (into his dungeons) the deposed king of a neighbouring kingdom, who happens to be the brother of his own king.

2) A tribe of Orcs, led by a Half-Orc, have decided that his land looks a good place to carve a place for themselves in the world, and his youngest sister aims to help them in secret.

3) His older brother, disinherited, has just married the sister of a neighboring ruler after breaking off his engagement to another neighboring ruler, and he wants to take what is rightfully his.

4) There largest Kingdom on the subcontinent wants to create a northern border under one banner against 'The Adversary'. PC's realm falls on that border.

5) There is a magical ash storm that is constantly eroding away at his realm. I'm not sure what I can do with this, but I'm trying to work it into something because one of the PC's is lacking in motivations, and his only primary motivation is finding magic stuff.

6) In a previous campaign an ocean away a God of Death was born out of a misguided goblin's wish and Death isn't quite so permanent since. This was never resolved and I'm unsure whether or not to utilize it. Since the PC is the youngest of three brothers, and the eldest died, it's tempting to use this.

The moment Daddy dies they're gonna get hit by 1, 2, 3, and the beginning of 4. If they do nothing their realm gets taken from them three times over and the King probably has them executed for imprisoning his brother.

>>54284045
This is what happens when you've got players who focus too much on playing the game and winning rather than playing a character and participating in a collaborative story.

>>54289242

This is mine now.

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>new campaign with familiar faces
>spent several hours in a session 0
>start out in a prison for about an hour to wrap it up and get them geared to the actual first session
>awkward as people get settled, but expected
>players get hired for a job to clear their debts
>session ends
>one player starts saying he'll go to his background issue right away
>"You'll need to convince the party of that issue. Plus, you're on the clock. Can you go searching for your dad at this key moment?"
>"It's fine. If they don't want to go, I'll go by myself."

>>54290857
That's enough for me to actually make it into an adventure/dungeon.

>>54283870
For the people who will inevitably reply to this post, don't.

>>54288083
>they haven't even tried to do anything, they're coming to conclusions based off of things that they're just inventing in their minds, "well there's probably xyz" sort of things
Why not simply tell them it isn't like that?
Why are so many GMs afraid of briefly shattering the meta-narrative?

>>54293071
>Why not simply tell them it isn't like that?
Because I'm an inexperienced GM and generally a timid person

>>54293071
This.
Roleplaying is about creating a story together and the players having fun using their characters to solve situations.
If the players are dodging obvious plot hooks because they're afraid they'll """"lose"""" its a shit group

>>54283841

What's been the last few things to happen? I mean I can't exactly help if i don't know what is going on. If you don't want to get into specifics then I would recommend going and reading some books, watch some good movies/tv. Get inspiration. Think about the media in relation to your campaign and see if anything clicks.

>>54283841
Hook for free: mages guild makes artificial Fae. Shenanigans ensue.