Hook, Line, and Sinker – Ideas for Role Play Game Adventures

As a gamemaster it can be tough to find ideas for adventures.  This can be especially true if you are running a weekly game which can mean you need to potentially come up with 52 different adventures a year.

Filling 52 weeks with adventures may seem an unbelievable task at first but of course most gamemasters have storylines that last more than one session so this reduces the number of adventures needed each year.  Even then there are going to be times that you and the players are going to need a break from the main story for a session or two.  It may be because the group has had a number of intense adventures recently and they need a comedic side story to lighten the mood or they just need a break before throwing themselves back into the frontlines of the Orc Wars again.

Many years ago I came across a concept which I found useful to get ideas.  It was call the hook, line, and sinker method.  It came from either Palladium Games or Dungeon magazine when it was a printing bi-monthly.  The origin is debatable.  All I know is the first place I came across it was Dungeon magazine.

The concept is simple.  The hook is the thing that draws the players into the adventure.  The line is where the players are given what they believe to be to goal of the adventure.  The sinker is the actual adventure idea which can follow the goals given in the line or there may be a twist involved.

The great thing about the hook, line, and sinker method is that you can use it to get ideas on paper or the screen and be able to review them later.  They can also be used to do many different things.  They can be used as the basis for a single encounter, an adventure, or an entire campaign.

In order to boost my own creativity and to provide gamemasters with the help that they sometimes need, I will be coming up with hook, line, and sinker ideas and posting them here what I hope to be a weekly basis.  When I do post them there will be at least three of them and they will be from the same genre.  I welcome you to take them and use them as they are or change them to fit your game.  I would love to hear about your results with them as well, but it is not a requirement.

Good luck and good gaming.