Game Mastering on the Fly

I’ve previously discussed organizing your hooks but what if your new to Game Mastering and don’t really know what a hook is and don’t know why you should keep them all organized. A hook is a couple of sentences that give you a jumping off point to begin an adventure. You should keep them easily organized because it allows you to quickly start an adventure and allows you to thread in different events to your game.  Personally I keep a couple hooks handy to drop in as needed.

Picking your Hook

Obviously one of the toughest choices is picking which hook you want to employ on your characters.  Questions you might be asking is how much detail do you put into a hook?  What should a good hook do? A good hook should be vague and get you thinking about moving your PCs forward. Let’s borrow an example hook from Rocks Fall Everyone Dies which I lovingly abuse for such matters.

“One of the PCs has an admirer, a powerful one. An enchantress known across the land as having the ability to bend lesser wills to her whim at only the slightest exertion of her talents. She may have worked for a friend or foe in past, but somehow saw her chosen PC in action. If the PC is flattered and accepts her advances, she quickly proves too commanding to coexist with the PCs peacefully. Either way, after being rebuffed, she flees the city, and promises to ensnare her love’s mind as soon as he leaves the protection of civilization.”

The premise is simple and can be summed up in a couple of sentences. Its open ended, vague and allows you to fit it into any campaign. It also hooks the PCs into the action and continues from there. Imagine the awkward flirting that’s about to ensue between the GM and the lucky PC from this hook. I’m sure that’ll be worth a good story or two.

Fleshing out your Enemy

Now that you’ve either selected your hook or created your own it’s time to flesh out your enemy. Using our previously mentioned hook this would be the enchantress. This is the time to figure out her stat blocks, personality, background and motivations. Once the motivations are done you’ll know how to slot the enemy into the game.

Elaborate and Go

The only thing left to do at this point is establish a background for the game and the hook.  Using our established hook we’d ask ourselves, “Where do the PCs meet the enchantress and how are we going to introduce her now?” Once the background and introduction has been established start rolling some dice!

What’s been your favorite hook to use and what results did it lead to?