5 Second Hooks

Omegonthesane · Post by **Omegonthesane** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 8:10 pm

A cabal of mad sorcerers are performing a ritual to 'update' the setting to 5th Edition.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 5:09 pm

Omegonthesane wrote:A cabal of mad sorcerers are performing a ritual to 'update' the setting to 5th Edition.

This has to be a larp session where the players bombard the dm with paper magic missiles.
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The last Dragon has been killed by half-dragons born of Zeus-style dragon seductions. You are secretly harboring a wyrmling and the dragon hunters have figured it out. Run or kill the half dragons.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:31 am

The mad archmage Walter has transformed the local castle into something called a theme park.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:18 am

The mad gnome wizard has been kidnapping a score of villagers at a time and putting them inside his dungeon full of crazy traps.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Mon Jul 08, 2013 2:12 am

The mad lich-king has terraformed his dungeon into a village and polymorphed & awakened all the monsters. Do you accept their headsman's quests or kill them all?

rampaging-poet · Post by **rampaging-poet** » Tue Jul 09, 2013 5:52 am

You can lift the curse on the village, but...

... you'll need a vial of Pure Hope to do it.
... the warlock's spirit will haunt you instead.
... it will have to wait until the demons are banished.
... a genie noble will pay far more if you ignore it.
... it will strike you in the process.
... you have already fallen victim to it.
... the villagers have begged you not to.
... you cannot cure those already affected.
... it may be too late.
... think of what you could learn if you studied it instead!

rampaging-poet · Post by **rampaging-poet** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 3:56 am

A powerful wizard cursed the village because...

her crystal ball has been stolen.
someone cut down his favourite tree.
she's been possessed by a fiend.
his advances were spurned by the mayor's daughter.
she wants to build a tower on the town square.
local hedge wizards have undercut his business.
she needs to attract adventurers to the area.
he mispronounced the name of the village he really wanted to curse.
the villagers mocked her when she last visited.
he can. There's no point in learning Evil magic if you're not going to use it, right?

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:08 am

... think of what you could learn if you studied it instead!

Can you explain how this is a plot hook?

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:21 am

Players gradually uncover more and more curse magic that is vaguely useful. But to do so, they need to keep the villagers pacified and stop heroes that want to break the curse prematurely.

I could spin that into 3-5 sessions easily. Maybe the curse was placed by a powerful demon, and you'll learn it's true name if you manipulate the curse in just the right way.

rampaging-poet · Post by **rampaging-poet** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:31 am

It's really more of an unusual way to skip the "cure the curse" plot hook than a plot hook itself, but it immediately suggests several other complications. First, the villagers will be almost as mad at you as they are at whoever cursed them. They can't do squat to a powerful wizard, but it's really bad for your reputation. You might also have to prevent a second group of adventurers from breaking the curse while you're still studying it. It's also a reasonable starting point for fetch quests (you've unlocked the secrets of the curse, but you need Chemical X to duplicate it!). Finally, several of the other things on that list could apply to studying the curse as well as breaking it.