Avoid These 7 Plot Hook Pitfalls in D&D

#1 Not giving the party a reason to do the thing

Different players are motivated by different things. Try to include AT LEAST moral motivations and monetary/treasure motivations in your plot hooks. Also include character motivations when possible.

·         Moral motivations. Many characters want to be heroes and do the right thing – help people, stop back guys, etc.

·         Monetary motivations. Gold, treasure, and magic items!

·         Character motivation. This is something tied to a PC’s backstory or character traits/flaws or a moral motivation.

Advanced Rewards & Recognitions. If you have the Rewards & Recognitions system from the May 2022 issue of Lair Magazine, there are 13 other categories of rewards you could offer characters in your plot hook to motivate them to go on the adventure: appointments, decorations, services, patronage, and more.

Remember, you can motivate the character BUT ALSO the player!

Yes, we all should be roleplaying and only doing what our characters would do, but that isn’t always the reality. If you know your players like certain things, regardless of what characters they are running, you can appeal to those preferences, too.

#2 Not being clear on the next step

It’s FANTASTIC if your plot hook gets your players to bite and they are raring to go on that adventure. However, if they don’t know WHAT they should do next or WHERE they should go, they’re going to flounder about and perhaps just give up and begin wandering the game world aimlessly, hoping the adventure falls into their laps.

It’s okay to be painfully clear in your plot hook about what the next step is. Your NPC quest giver can tell them WHERE to go next, perhaps even the location of the adventure. They can tell them WHO to talk to to get more information. Being mysterious is fun as a DM, but if it results in your players having no idea what to do or where to go in order to go on your adventure…well, that’s a problem.

Now, it’s okay if part of the point of the adventure is that no one knows the location of the ancient dungeon of death your players need to explore, but you at least need to give them a push in the right direction. A clue, a hint, an NPC to talk to, a general idea of the location, a rumor they overhear in the tavern, SOMETHING!

#3 The secret plot hook

This is the plot hook your players don’t even know you gave them; thus, they can’t follow it. You were all clever and sly when you slipped this plot hook in – I mean, you wouldn’t want to RAILROAD them, would you? And what’s the best solution to not railroading players? Slipping in plot hooks that they don’t even realize, of course! And then those plot hooks will fester in their subconscious minds until FINALLY, in a flash of brilliance, they decide to go on the adventure WITHOUT any DM prodding whatsoever.

Yeah, probably won’t work. I mean, it could…my Curse of Strahd players are incredibly adept at spotting plot hooks to add to their ever-growing TO DO list…but I wouldn’t count on it, unless you know your players very well. You’re much better off making your plot hooks obvious; that way they can’t be overlooked.

#4 Not signing the social contract

Most game masters and players understand what is often an unspoken social contract: the GM creates adventures, lets the players know about them via plot hooks, and the players then go on those adventures. BECAUSE, if they don’t, the alternative is wandering the world randomly, trying to scare up stuff to do, and having the game master scramble to make up content on the fly.

And that style of game may or may not be satisfying. The players might be a bit bored because nothing exciting is happening. Even though that’s really their own fault because there WAS something exciting, but it was back that adventure location they decided not to go to. And the game master might be a bit frustrated, disappointed, and perhaps resentful because now instead of running that adventure they spent several hours preparing, they are frantically making up content on the fly, which is probably not as good as the adventure they prepped because they are pulling it out of their rear and hoping for the best.

Now, some groups LOVE THAT STYLE OF PLAY, let me be clear. The players get an open world where they can do anything, and the DM does minimal prep before the game and improvises heavily during the game. HOWEVER, many groups will hate that style of play. While the players may have complete freedom, they don’t experience well designed adventures and instead the game feels more like a mish-mash of random encounters thrown together on the fly…because they rather are… And the game master’s brain is working at 120% frantically trying to create content as they play the game.

So here’s my point: if your players don’t intuitively understand this social contract – that the DM creates adventures and the players should go on them – it’s okay to explain it to them. And then be very clear in requesting that players don’t intentionally ignore plot hooks.

Now, right about now, someone is screaming RAILROADING at the screen and typing a furious comment about how I’m a horrible very bad man, this is horrible very bad advice, and that I should be ashamed of myself. And that’s fair. I would argue that you don’t understand what railroading actually is. I would argue that there is nothing wrong with running LINEAR adventures instead of SANDBOX adventures. I would argue that most game masters are probably not that good at open-world sandbox adventures and that their players would probably have much more fun with a good linear adventure campaign, even if it limits their choices and freedom a bit. But, hey, that’s just me.

#6 Only giving your players ONE plot hook.

Plot hooks are lonely by themselves. They are more exciting in pairs or triplicate. Here’s the thing about human beings: we want to feel in control in our lives. Even if it’s just the illusion of control, we want to FEEL that we are in control. Feeling in control lowers anxiety and depression and brings about improved happiness. It is a fact. Research and study backs it up.

So, let’s apply that to our RPG games by giving our players increased control: instead of giving them just ONE plot hook that drives them to ONE adventure that they have to do…let’s give them MORE THAN ONE plot hook…so that they have CHOICES. When you give your players say 2 or 3 different plot hooks and they get to choose which adventure to go one, they are going to be immensely more satisfied with the game. Usually – there are always exceptions. And this strikes a balance between allowing the DM to prepare adventures in advance and allowing the players to choose what they do and where they go.

Of course, my advice is to NOT plan out in detail all three adventures. Instead, deliver the plot hooks and have your players tell you which adventure they plan to go on NEXT. You can then go off and prepare THAT adventure, instead of all three. Another advantage here is that since you didn’t prep the other 2 adventures, if you players never end up going on them, you don’t feel bad about “wasted” prep time…even though all content a DM creates can be repurposed to one degree or another down the line.

#7 Not linking adventures

One of the classic things that I do in my homebrew campaigns is that I “link” the adventures. What does that mean? So the players are going up and down the Sword Coast taking out Lord Paxton’s lieutenants and vassals, and during each adventure, often times toward the end of the adventure, they find SOMETHING that will lead them to the NEXT adventure. Perhaps it is a letter that Lord Paxton wrote to his lieutenant that mentions another lieutenant that the characters don’t know about yet. This will then prompt the PCs to go get that lieutenant next. Or in a chest they find during the adventure, they could uncover a map of the region with a few marks at specific spots and some smeared writing. The PCs don’t know exactly what the marks are for, but if they go there, they’ll find out.

You see, these are your PLOT HOOKS, and this is what I mean by linking the adventures together. Traditionally we have an NPC quest giver – often with a question mark floating above their heads – give our players their next plot hook, but it doesn’t have to work that way. In fact, the advanced dungeon master relies LESS on NPC quest givers and MORE on linking adventures together through elements the party discovers during an adventure. You’ll find this done in modules a lot, too.