Chamber Pots of Gold: Transforming Flat Hooks Into Arced Ones

What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t work?

A stick.

I received this request from a Patron on turning sticks into boomerangs:

Tips for creative writing. More adventure seeds, a little more in depth than some of the random event tables have been. I can do a lot with a man selling a magic acorn, but not so much with a chamberpot being emptied.

I see what you mean.

Let’s put hooks into three buckets:

Plot Hooks

These are your adventure acorns that’ll someday become treants. Strong plot hooks help guide the party into our prep.

The leader of the Servant’s Guild was assassinated. The new master vows revenge and offers a large bounty for bringing the killer to him…alive.

Encounter Hooks

These trigger the situations of our adventures and keep the plot moving.

After intimidating a witness using pointy things and halitosis, the party learns the assassin is staying at The Twisted Serpent Inn in Lowtown.

Detail Hooks

Within scenes and encounters, these give players interesting choices to inspire character actions.

Fighting the dust elemental assassin, swords swing right through it to no effect, but maybe that full chamber pot could make some crappy splash damage.

Sprucing Up Hooks

At any level, a good hook needs to have an “it” factor that grabs attention, provides a bit of information, and gets the PCs to act.

  • A man selling acorns is a boring hook.
  •  A man selling one acorn for a lot of gold pieces raises eyebrows.
  •  And a man selling a magic acorn plants the right seed.

In this case, it’s the magic piece that offers us the “it” factor.

Another way to look at it is a great hook has some kind of engagement with players and their characters.

Something magical immediately catches interest, be it greed, curiosity, fear, anger, wonderment….

There’s another important piece to a fantastic hook though. And that’s the offer.

Our nutty man is selling something. He’s initiating an offer with the party.

A chamber pot being emptied has nothing valuable on offer. If it was a magical chamber pot, that’s different. Players would get curious about that.

When we drop hooks into play, they need to offer something potentially interesting to the PCs.

d12 Hooks About a Chamber Pot Being Emptied

  1. The chamber pot is made of gold and jewels.
  2. Letters carved into the pot’s bottom seem to start a riddle.
  3. Out of the chamber pot drops a blood-stained note.
  4. The chamber pot’s design seems to be a map.
  5. The chamber pot floats from the man’s hands and empties itself, muttering curses as it does so.
  6. A strange alchemical substance pours out.
  7. The man empties it on a noble’s head.
  8. The man doesn’t see a ghost come out of the chamber pot and mimic the action.
  9. Insects fly out, each with a tiny message tied to its thorax.
  10. A beggar uses the chamber pot to collect donations, and one PC notices how a copper piece went in and a gold piece came out.
  11. The chamber pot’s contents starts moving down the street once the man goes back inside.
  12. The chamber pot is made of the exact material the PCs need.
  13. The PCs notice it’s actually a holy relic.

Next time someone hands you a stick, give it a twist and it’ll come back to you with some great returns!

Cheers,
Johnn
roleplayingtips.com
https://discord.gg/6MxTRAqQ76
Have more fun at every game!

P.S. Check out these great creative writing tips from Jeremy Brown.

P.P.S. Thanks for the hooks feedback! I’ll aim to serve up boomerangs more often.

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