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View Full Version : DM Help It's the question that drives us... (Mystery adventure hooks)



Yora
2014-04-10, 03:00 PM
"You're looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did."

There's a cool line in one of the early scenes of The Matrix, that sounds really cool but actually turns out to be irrelevant. Still, I think it's a great hook to begin coming up with adventures for an RPG.
Sometimes you see a picture or hear a description, and it makes you think that it seems really cool and you'd like to know more about it and its background. Maybe there isn't really much behind it at all, but it would still be cool to develop it into something much more bigger and complex. When you start describing or explaining something, you often get a better understanding of it and even new ideas for new details that you hadn't even though about before. This is what this thread is about. Single sentence adventure hooks that state a simple question, to which getting the answer might take a grand quest or even lead the PCs into something much bigger than they would have ever anticipated.

#1 What is the Matric? So disappointing. Sounds super mysterious and wondrous, and 10 minutes later it's all explained. But it doesn't have to be. Someone is making inquiries with traders of exotic goods, ancient tomes are getting stolen from libraries and sages are found murdered in their homes. Someone is looking for something, or maybe someone, or even somewhere. But what is it, and what makes people conspire and murder to learn more about it?

#2: Who is John Galt? I don't actually know who that John Galt is, but it seems to be an important question in some book of questionable reputation. I think that could be a really nice way to start an adventure or even keep going through most of a full campaign. Something is brewing and for those people who know what to look for, it becomes clear that it will be something big that will have long lasting impacts. But getting any definite information about what's going on, who is involved, and what it may be all about is pretty much impossible. All that is known is a single name that gets whispered in the darkest corners of the cities and among the spymasters of the realm. Who is that person, and what might he be able to tell if someone could find him?

#3: What is behind the door? The classic question about any door, both large and small. It can be a small cobweb covered door found behind an old bookshelf, or a gigantic stone gate uncovered during an expansion of the castle walls. But this is no ordinary door. It's a strange door. A mysterious door! Maybe it's impossible to open, or someone purposely tried to hide it. Or maybe it's even a door that shouldn't be there and a few days ago hasn't been there! Whatever it is, there is something unsettling about the door. Something hinting at a mystery that maybe one would not want to reveal.

#4: What is in the box? A variant of both #1 and #3. The characters come into posession of a container, or they are send to retrieve it from somewhere or someone. But they are unable to learn what is actually inside it, either because they can't open it, or it keeps eluding their grasp. As the box keeps resisting any attempt to force it open and other factions increase their efforts to get their hand on it, the mystery only keeps increasing.
This probably might easily suffer from the Monster in the Darkness problem, as the final reveal might not actually be getting close enough to the anticipation that had been building the whole time.