New DM Question [4e] - How many hook options do I need?

[Dakaran]

I'll be starting my first (4e) campaign soon as a DM and I'm trying to come up with ideas to get my players into the story. I've read a lot about trying to avoid railroading my players down a path, but I'm not really sure how to go about getting players to go down a certain storyline without making them feel that way. What's the best way to start off a campaign story? Do I need to try and come up with a handful of unique ways for the players to get into one storyline? Is that good enough? Or is it best to come up with several different storylines that they could end up going down? Am I overthinking this? Any tips you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dakaran

(Hopefully this is the correct forum to post this question under. If it isn't can someone let me know what the proper location would be?)

[Oracle_Hunter]

In general: 1 hook. You need to get the party "out the door" ASAP; after that, seed hooks as you want them.

Some general advice for new DMs & Plotting

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(1) Set up your party
Why did they form? Do they know each other? How do they know each other?

This is necessary for figuring out how to kick off a campaign. If they've been hired to do a job, then you only need 1 hook - The Job. Otherwise, you'll have to dig deeper.

(2) Learn about your Characters & Players
Get a paragraph-length backstory for each Character and make sure it says why they're adventuring. Making hooks that appeal to the majority of your party is a good way to start.

Next, learn about your Players. What sort of adventurers would they like to follow - ones that promise dungeon crawling? Political intrigue? Character development? Figure out what the majority of the party wants to do and produce 1 hook for that.

(3) Figure out what kind of DM you are
This is nice to know because if you're not having fun, the campaign is going to be a drag. Consider this flow-chart for guidance. Once you figure out what sort of DM you are you can better understand what kind of hooks to seed and, more importantly, how your DMing style will interact with your Players' expectations.

[Vaecae]

Not sure edition applies to the question, but if my guys don't figure it out and jump by the third time I present a hook for a plot line I forget about it. Hell sometimes I throw out something that's supposed to be a short time killing side quest and they grab on like it's the main line to follow for no appearent reason. The more difficult thing for me is giving them a reason to be together in the first place. If the group doesn't want to form you can't make it and trying will make them mad, but if you put them into something where the group forming is just the best for everyone involved they usually will.

I had a set up once where they were all from the same little town and they were in the bar together when an attack came upon the village. One guy snuck out and hightailed it to his cabin, holed up there, but the rest of the group fell together beautifully and he ended up catching up with them when they hopped a raft to sail down river to safety. It worked out in the end and they stayed together for the next couple of adventures because they were all now literally in the same boat with no home and forced to make a way for themselves in a new city where the only people they knew were eachother.

If you have an idea you want them to follow bait them with it in little ways. A stray wanted poster, a conversation overheard in a tavern, or just put it in their face where they have a choice to approach it head on or run, they might even surprise you. If you don't have anything specific throw out a few lines and see which one catches. Have them all roughly equally fleshed out enough to start them and when you know where you're going finish them before the next session. Delaying the players with preperations for their adventure or giving them a couple of solid challenges that will take time to start off is reasonable so you can build a better game for them the next time they gather to play.

Main thing is you have to have an idea of what you and they want and how to make that work together. Once you have that down roll with it. Trust me the best laid plans never survive contact with the players, so looser ideas with more flex will get you farther. If one thing is somehow the talk of the town they'll get the idea soon enough. Good luck, and don't worry about it.

[Dakaran]

It sounds like it's important to figure out how and why the players would be working together and then flushing some story options out from there. I'll have to talk to my players and figure out their style of play and come up with options after that that would appeal to them and their desired style of play. Thanks for the advice, Oracle_Hunter and Vaecae!

Dakaran

[kyoryu]

A couple pieces of advice:

1) Make the players care. Figure out what it is they care about, and use that. Players typically care about things that they have invested in... and they always care about levels and loot. Often, the reason players ignore plot hooks is that they just aren't interested.

2) Create a scenario, not a plot hook. If the BBEG (or at least the MBEG) is raising an army of undead to take over the world, what does this mean? What other effects does it have on the world? Well, you could have rogue undead wandering about. His need for supplies might involve him taking out caravans/etc. He could be getting followers by starting up/encouraging evil cults, at least as "front" organizations. His acts could be causing disruptions in the magical field causing weirdness... or any number of other effects. By thinking in terms of scenarios, you virtually guarantee that the players will stumble on the plot at some point - all roads lead to Rome. And you do so without having to worry about if the players "miss" one particular hook or not.

3) Sometimes the best thing to do is let the players come up with their own hooks, and then tie those into the main scenario. A player wants to forge a magic sword? Well, he'll need to talk to a wizard, who will either ask for a favor, or say that a certain material is required... and guess where you find that material? This has the advantage of letting the players tell you what *they* care about, rather than you having to figure it out.

[Oracle_Hunter]

It sounds like it's important to figure out how and why the players would be working together and then flushing some story options out from there. I'll have to talk to my players and figure out their style of play and come up with options after that that would appeal to them and their desired style of play. Thanks for the advice, Oracle_Hunter and Vaecae!

Dakaran

My pleasure.

Also, it's "fleshing out" an idea, not flushing it

[Dakaran]

A couple pieces of advice:
[...]
2) Create a scenario, not a plot hook.
[...]

That's a great way to look at it! I like that a lot. Thanks for that and your other points, Kyoryu!

My pleasure.

Also, it's "fleshing out" an idea, not flushing it

Haha, "flushing"... oops. Hopefully I'll be able to flesh out some ideas and not ones that require flushing.

[Katana_Geldar]

One is good, and a backup in case your players destroy the first.

[Reluctance]

The best way to start a campaign is to have the first session be a group character-building exercise, with handing out pregens coming a close second. Very few plots work well when the main cast is composed of five strangers with no past history or shared plot hooks. Add in the benefits of having a synergistic party, and you'll want the players involved from before word one.

Depending on both your players' tastes and your own, you have two options to kick off adventures. The easiest one is to ensure that all PCs are part of the same organization. The party is given an objective and plenty of latitude on how exactly they achieve it, and you have the seed of a solid if episodic campaign. A slightly more complicated option is to discuss initial ideas at character generation, ask the players why their characters would be involved, and run them through the first adventure as normal. Seed plot hooks for later adventures, so your players are motivated to follow through on things later. I'd recommend the first option, but the point is that you shouldn't have to do all the work yourself. That way lies burnout.

[Katana_Geldar]

The DMG2 has a very good section about getting characters to have interlinking backstories.