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View Full Version : Trouble coming up with a "hook"



Silus
2013-08-21, 01:47 AM
Ok, so the campaign I'm running is coming to an end, hopefully by the end of September, and I'm already thinking about the next campaign. So instead of "You start in the world I worked on crafting in the first campaign", it's gonna be different.

The premise is 1) a reverse of Part 5 of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path for Pathfinder (Rasputin Must Die!) where the players go from their world to Earth around World War 2 to kill Rasputin, and 2) a bit like DOOM and DOOM 2.

We start with the players all as Russian soldiers (Gunslingers with the option to retcon their class levels further down the line) tasked with stopping the precursors of the Occult-obsessed Nazi. Bust into the German stronghold, kill everyone inside save for maybe a handful of people who escape through some sort of rift/portal/Gate to some other world (Possible another Plane of existence that leads them eventually to the world the current campaign is set in).

Now here's the problem: I cannot think of a way to logically have the players (hardened soldiers and survivors of several battles and half the war) to follow some fleeing Germans into a mystery portal that leads God knows where, especially when, upon fleeing, the Russians have control of the stronghold. Most I can think of is there being some sort of MacGuffin or something where if they DON'T go after it, Russia/the world is doomed or something.

So, um, some help would be appreciated >.>

TheStranger
2013-08-21, 07:45 AM
The first thing that comes to mind is for the fleeing Germans to have something the players want. Maybe they're not storming the stronghold just to "kill all Germans," but because they need the secret plans, or to capture an intelligence officer, or something.

Or just have Russian command be really worried about the portal - where it goes, what the Germans are doing there, etc. Somebody has to go through and find out, and the PCs are the obvious choice. It's not like they're going to see the enemy escape through a portal and then just decide it's not important to find out how it works, where they went, whether they might come back, or if there's any way for the Russians to appropriate this portal technology to move soldiers behind enemy lines.

Berenger
2013-08-21, 08:20 AM
Now here's the problem: I cannot think of a way to logically have the players (hardened soldiers and survivors of several battles and half the war) to follow some fleeing Germans into a mystery portal that leads God knows where, especially when, upon fleeing, the Russians have control of the stronghold.

The stronghold self-destructs and is blowing up around him?

Mutazoia
2013-08-21, 09:50 AM
Don't give them a choice.

Have the PC's burst into a room where 4 Germans are conducting a ritual. The amount of magic involved makes any fire arms useless (the bullets are deflected) so to kill the Germs and stop the ritual they have to close for hand to hand. However, as soon as the PC's cross the thresh-hold and are all in the room the ritual completes and everyone in the room is transported, PC's included.

Now if you want them to be hunting the Germs in this new world you can have the ritual miss-fire a bit. Being set for 4 people the PC's overloaded the weight limit and the ritual flings the Germs to one location and the PC's to another.

Silus
2013-08-21, 09:59 AM
Don't give them a choice.

Have the PC's burst into a room where 4 Germans are conducting a ritual. The amount of magic involved makes any fire arms useless (the bullets are deflected) so to kill the Germs and stop the ritual they have to close for hand to hand. However, as soon as the PC's cross the thresh-hold and are all in the room the ritual completes and everyone in the room is transported, PC's included.

Now if you want them to be hunting the Germs in this new world you can have the ritual miss-fire a bit. Being set for 4 people the PC's overloaded the weight limit and the ritual flings the Germs to one location and the PC's to another.

The idea actually was that they'd fight through some plane (One of the alignment or afterlife ones), slaying monsters and changing as they went (Development of magic powers and special abilities (The aforementioned class retcons)) trying to stop the Germans/get the MacGuffin/get home.

It would also, hopefully, be a chance for the players to explore a side of RPing that you don't get to touch on often in your typical D&D/PF games, that being mundane humans discovering magic and, moreover, discovering that THEY have the potential to do magic to help combat the horrors they face.

Slipperychicken
2013-08-21, 03:44 PM
Maybe they're ordered through the portal by a superior?

They should know that it's probably safe since the nazis ran through it. Even if it carries risks, they know that disobeying their CO during a combat operation means certain death, so it's the only logical thing to do.

Besides, having Officer D-Bag at home gives them a cathartic target for their powers when they get back to Mother Russia. It also shows them how far they've come; this guy who used to make their lives hell is now at their mercy. Or it could give them new rage, seeing commander d-bag promoted after the tremendous success of his decision to order the PCs into the portal.

Morgarion
2013-08-21, 04:24 PM
Maybe the Germans already triggered the beginning of the end of the world and they took the thing that can stop it with them? Reversing the apocalypse is usually a pretty good reason to do things.

Mutazoia
2013-08-21, 10:50 PM
The idea actually was that they'd fight through some plane (One of the alignment or afterlife ones), slaying monsters and changing as they went (Development of magic powers and special abilities (The aforementioned class retcons)) trying to stop the Germans/get the MacGuffin/get home.

It would also, hopefully, be a chance for the players to explore a side of RPing that you don't get to touch on often in your typical D&D/PF games, that being mundane humans discovering magic and, moreover, discovering that THEY have the potential to do magic to help combat the horrors they face.

So the ritual transports them to said plane and the chase is on....

kyoryu
2013-08-21, 10:58 PM
Don't give them a choice. Seriously. The whole campaign is predicated on this, so they don't *have* a choice. Trying to manipulate them into going down the only available path while pretending they have a choice is kind of dishonest.

So either start the game after they've entered the portal, or have the device blow up or whatever in such a way that they're sucked in.

Ideally, I'd just talk to them about the general plot so that the players are on board with it, and then you can just narrate to that point.

I wouldn't worry about giving away "the big surprise". Get them to sign on with the concept, it's an interesting one. It's like the blurb on the back of the book - it'll usually give away the premise, which is what you find out in the first chapter anyway. But that premise is what sells you on the book.

And if you sell the game as "WW2 soldiers!" and then all of a sudden you're in fantasy-land, people might not like it, as you've set their expectations for something other than you've given them.

Slipperychicken
2013-08-21, 11:56 PM
And if you sell the game as "WW2 soldiers!" and then all of a sudden you're in fantasy-land, people might not like it, as you've set their expectations for something other than you've given them.

Very much this. It's okay to have characters surprised by this stuff, but not players. They have a right to know what kind of game they're getting into.

Silus
2013-08-22, 02:45 AM
Very much this. It's okay to have characters surprised by this stuff, but not players. They have a right to know what kind of game they're getting into.

Oh of course. I'll let the players know first thing the direction is headed. It's not so much a twist as it is a premise. Like "The campaign is a survival game on an in-progress theme park full of dinosaurs" instead of "Yeah, surprise, you were dead the whole game and only now realize it".

kyoryu
2013-08-22, 03:39 AM
Oh of course. I'll let the players know first thing the direction is headed. It's not so much a twist as it is a premise. Like "The campaign is a survival game on an in-progress theme park full of dinosaurs" instead of "Yeah, surprise, you were dead the whole game and only now realize it".

Perfect. If they know what they've signed up for, and have agreed to it, they're far more likely to go along with the plans without having to coerce them strongly.

Best way to do it :)

Weltall_BR
2013-08-22, 12:31 PM
The first thing that comes to mind is for the fleeing Germans to have something the players want. Maybe they're not storming the stronghold just to "kill all Germans," but because they need the secret plans, or to capture an intelligence officer, or something.

Say the characters' mission was to retrieve a certain item. The Nazis try to escape with that item and the characters follow them. If they are not willing to follow the Nazis (players, you never know what they gonna do), have a superior officer say something like "If those ***** get away with that ***** you are all going to the gulags!". If they still don't follow the Nazis... Send them to the gulags :smallcool:

Joe the Rat
2013-08-22, 08:06 PM
You could make it personal. A player (or the group) wants revenge against a specific German officer. Something that happened earlier in the war. I'm sure you (or the players) can come up with something suitably vengeance-inspiring.