Role-Playing World Building: Your World Hook Part 1
A good world hook is essential to getting people interested in to your world. You want them to know why something is the way it is and what makes it different so they will enjoy playing in your creation. It will make your world seem alive and not the same as every other place out there. You may have an idea what kind of hook you want to use. There is nothing with that and if you already know what you want to do, go with it. The idea may become the greatest place your PC’s have ever lived in. However if you don’t know or want to add an extra element here are some ideas.
You can go with climate or landform hooks where the land is not normal. This could cause the PC’s to not even know if they will survive normal life, let alone going on an adventure. Places of interest could bring the PC’s to become the heroes that role-playing games make of them. A specific culture could be the hook because it defies what you would normally see. This could be like a desert in the middle of a lush oasis. The rest of the world could be fairly normal and this one area where all the adventures happen or stem from. A situation can peak someone’s interest in playing. How did this world get this way, what caused this situation to be the dominant way of life here? And even with the situation, is there any way to change it? Finally what about something historical that is still part of the world today. It could be an event from the gods of your world that do this or from the people who live in the world itself.
Of course any of these can be combined to really make your world come alive. You could have a landform hook with a culture. And it can be something that you normally wouldn’t put together if you really want to peak your players curiosity. I do caution against picking something that you know nothing about prior to creation. You might think it sounds very interesting but is hard to actually create adventures for. Before having your final say, do a little research on anything you don’t know so you can make the world come alive and be possible. You are, after all, creating this to actually play in.
Look for the next part of this where I will go into further detail about hooks. It might help you think of something you normally wouldn’t.