So, I’ve been thinking about this recently and I wanted to share my thoughts, and see if you have any thoughts of your own on the matter: plot hooks and adventure seeds.
To my mind, Plot Hooks are those sticky magnetic situations that you put at the beginning of an adventure to draw the PCs in. They may hint at what’s going to happen in the adventure, but mostly they’re a version of “Dwarves you don’t know start showing up at your home as though they’re expected. They’re talking of some sort of plan.” These are the ways we get our players to buy into the adventure so we can actually tell the story. They go at the front of the adventure and lead into it.
Adventure Seeds are a little different, I think. They are the essence of the adventure. A seed grows into an tree, so an adventure seed is the core of the plot. It’s why there’s an adventure in the first place. The seed would be “An ancient red dragon has displaced the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain, killing the king and scattering his heir and the rest to the wilderness.”
What are your thoughts on this?
To me, any ‘seed’ is lacking if it doesn’t involve questions from the players, since that’s part of how the seed is fed and grown. Otherwise, I don’t care about dwarves or their heir, so I’ll be doing my own thing. When a seed involves those questions, that’s buy-in from the players. We all make an agreement that this seed is relevant and important to us, and it grows into an adventure.
A plot hook is a situation. Usually, it sounds cool, but doesn’t take that buy-in into consideration. So dwarves show up at my door…well, I’m going on vacation, since that sounds like a headache. Asking questions will help invest players, but I’d caution against a situation so specific that it doesn’t take character needs into consideration. Otherwise, it feels a bit forced, and we get into railroading territory.
To me, any ‘seed’ is lacking if it doesn’t involve questions from the players, since that’s part of how the seed is fed and grown. Otherwise, I don’t care about dwarves or their heir, so I’ll be doing my own thing. When a seed involves those questions, that’s buy-in from the players. We all make an agreement that this seed is relevant and important to us, and it grows into an adventure.
A plot hook is a situation. Usually, it sounds cool, but doesn’t take that buy-in into consideration. So dwarves show up at my door…well, I’m going on vacation, since that sounds like a headache. Asking questions will help invest players, but I’d caution against a situation so specific that it doesn’t take character needs into consideration. Otherwise, it feels a bit forced, and we get into railroading territory.
Sort of reminds me of the Kicker/Bang idea Ron Edwards talked about in Sorcerer. If I remember correctly, a Kicker was a starting situation that pushed a PC into action, while a Bang was a situation the GM set up to see what a player would do in a particular situation.
There’s a similar idea here – things that serve to get the story started, and things that will present new and interesting situations as the game goes on. I suppose where you focus depends on how improvisational v preplanned your gaming style is – an improvised game is going to lean heavily on starting hooks and then present new hooks to add momentum to the game, while a preplanned adventure benefits from having a ‘tree’ in mind for those adventure seeds to grow into!
Sort of reminds me of the Kicker/Bang idea Ron Edwards talked about in Sorcerer. If I remember correctly, a Kicker was a starting situation that pushed a PC into action, while a Bang was a situation the GM set up to see what a player would do in a particular situation.
There’s a similar idea here – things that serve to get the story started, and things that will present new and interesting situations as the game goes on. I suppose where you focus depends on how improvisational v preplanned your gaming style is – an improvised game is going to lean heavily on starting hooks and then present new hooks to add momentum to the game, while a preplanned adventure benefits from having a ‘tree’ in mind for those adventure seeds to grow into!
I don’t see a difference between a plot hook and an adventure seed. Though I guess if I were pressed to say what the difference is, a “hook” “forces” the PCs to care. A seed is just a fact laid out there for them to care about or not. (But honestly, you still expect them to care.) I don’t think either are very good ways to start a campaign if they are lures that “you put at the beginning of an adventure to draw the PCs in.” Why? Because that syntax sounds like a GM is creating story outlines and trying to attract the PCs into living out/fleshing out those outlines. The best hooks involve the players (in character) telling you about something they care about (not the other way around) and then you building on that idea with some of your own (some things you care about). This is why I like critical questions as part of any seed; they are a way to reflect what interests the players already have.
I don’t see a difference between a plot hook and an adventure seed. Though I guess if I were pressed to say what the difference is, a “hook” “forces” the PCs to care. A seed is just a fact laid out there for them to care about or not. (But honestly, you still expect them to care.) I don’t think either are very good ways to start a campaign if they are lures that “you put at the beginning of an adventure to draw the PCs in.” Why? Because that syntax sounds like a GM is creating story outlines and trying to attract the PCs into living out/fleshing out those outlines. The best hooks involve the players (in character) telling you about something they care about (not the other way around) and then you building on that idea with some of your own (some things you care about). This is why I like critical questions as part of any seed; they are a way to reflect what interests the players already have.
The Adventure Seeds as you call it, are to barrow from Apocalypse World, Fronts. The advancing elements in the setting that will trundle on with or without player involvement. Left ignored they’ll grow louder and louder until the repercussion of the events cannot be avoided. The Adventure Seeds will grow into the massive oak that shapes the landscape. The roots will break rock and sunder the ground. The limbs will stretch wide and blot out the sun. But at any point players can hew off branches or hack the whole thing to firewood.
Plot Hooks are the lures to get players involved. Rather than “hooking” players and pull them into the action, we as players should be looking to provide a call to action in the setting. A well define scene should have elements that elicit exploration from our protagonists. Maybe it’s all semantics but I challenge myself to frame scenes that provide players the strings to pull on rather than the hook to snag them with.
Without first establishing the comfortable quite life that Biblo enjoys in the pastoral Shire, the arrival of a troublesome wizard would lack the contrast necessary to demand the reader to take note and expect to follow that threat to something larger. The arrival of Thorin and friends may the hook but it’s the time that was spent before that, ensuring the reader appreciated the challenge this presented to Bilbo, that made it feel like an important and worthwhile decision. Answering the ‘why’, not the ‘how’, is the fun part.
The Adventure Seeds as you call it, are to barrow from Apocalypse World, Fronts. The advancing elements in the setting that will trundle on with or without player involvement. Left ignored they’ll grow louder and louder until the repercussion of the events cannot be avoided. The Adventure Seeds will grow into the massive oak that shapes the landscape. The roots will break rock and sunder the ground. The limbs will stretch wide and blot out the sun. But at any point players can hew off branches or hack the whole thing to firewood.
Plot Hooks are the lures to get players involved. Rather than “hooking” players and pull them into the action, we as players should be looking to provide a call to action in the setting. A well define scene should have elements that elicit exploration from our protagonists. Maybe it’s all semantics but I challenge myself to frame scenes that provide players the strings to pull on rather than the hook to snag them with.
Without first establishing the comfortable quite life that Biblo enjoys in the pastoral Shire, the arrival of a troublesome wizard would lack the contrast necessary to demand the reader to take note and expect to follow that threat to something larger. The arrival of Thorin and friends may the hook but it’s the time that was spent before that, ensuring the reader appreciated the challenge this presented to Bilbo, that made it feel like an important and worthwhile decision. Answering the ‘why’, not the ‘how’, is the fun part.
FYI. I sounded preachier than I meant to. I know it works all kinds of ways. In a con scenario, for instance, sometimes you have to give the hard sell (depending on the game).
FYI. I sounded preachier than I meant to. I know it works all kinds of ways. In a con scenario, for instance, sometimes you have to give the hard sell (depending on the game).