Baiting the Hook: How to Create Immersive Adventure Hooks When Running the Game and in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

*Spoiler Alert* This Article Contains Spoilers for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

Now that we have that out of the way, we can dive in to one of the most important steps to starting any new campaign: creating a tempting, intriguing, immersive, interesting, fascinating, attractive, alluring, absorbing, captivating, appealing, beguiling, compelling, enthralling, exciting, gripping, provocative, riveting, stimulating, thought-provoking and stirring adventure hook.

I used a Thesaurus… just so you understand how crucial a step this is to setting your campaign off on the right foot.

All kidding aside, putting the time into creating a believable, character-centric hook to the upcoming adventure does a lot of the heavy lifting for you by increasing player buy-in to the story and giving them a seriously good reason to risk life and limb to go adventuring.

We’ve talked about adventure hooks on the podcast many times – from the ones that worked well right out of the box (like Curse of Strahd) to the ones that needed some more assembly before they were ready for primetime (like Storm Kings Thunder and Tomb of Annihilation). Granted, becoming stuck in Barovia and having to kill the big bad to go home is a bit heavy-handed, but still…

With all of the published adventures we’ve run or been players in, the hook for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is the strongest I’ve seen so far from 5e. With that in mind, I’m going to show you how I added another layer to their already excellent adventure hook, as well as show how I adjusted the Training Scenario in the companion board game Warriors of Krynn to lean even heavier into it.

The Set-Up

This letter serves as the introduction for the characters. A letter from a Knight of Solamnia named Becklin uth Viharin requesting the characters presence at the funeral of a dear old friend, Ispin Greenshield.

Additionally, the adventure suggests that the players create characters that are not only connected to Krynn, but that they should all have some connection to Ispin Greenshield.

This was such a simple, yet elegant, way to get the players to journey to where the adventure will begin: the town of Vogler. The majority of the work is already done for you, but as I said, I wanted to lean even heavier into this intro.

Forging Connection

I created a Campaign Guide that I sent to the players to assist them in creating characters that reflected the setting that we had chosen to play in as well as have them think about how they might be connected to this famed, retired adventurer, Ispin Greenshield.

Since we were going to be playing this adventure with the companion game, Warriors of Krynn (which I recommend highly as it provides much more of a wargame mechanic that an adventure set in Dragonlance requires) I decided to adjust the introductory Training Scenario of the board game to tie into this hook, as well as deliver some clues and hints that would matter later into the adventure.

Reel Them In

You have all gone on in life to apprentice, squire, study, train, and learn under various masters. This has brought you abilities that have begun to separate you from your peers. As the rumors of war swirl about, our story begins. But it begins in years past, in the small, forgotten village of Salem’s Bend. It was a seminal moment for all of you, a crossroads if you will, for it was the day you became honorary Greenshields.

DM Dave, Intro Monologue

For the Training Scenario (which could easily be converted into a mini-adventure that you play out as a normal D&D session) I transported the players back five years (345 AC) before the adventure starts in a town called Salem’s Bend.

In the scenario, I had the Commanders be Ispin Greenshield and Cudgel Ironsmile, as opposed to the two Commanders listed in the Scenario set-up (as they wouldn’t make any sense to players that had not yet reached the town of Vogler.) Additionally, it allowed me to introduce Cudgel Ironsmile as a more important NPC for the characters to tie them in deeper when she is introduced again in Vogler. If you’re playing WoK, just rename the Commanders Cudgel and Ispin and use the same Commander abilities listed for Darrett and Raven. I even printed out pictures of the two to add another dimension.

As I described, the characters all happened to meet in this town as well, which allowed me to deepen the connection amongst them as a group, as well as add another layer onto whatever connection they had to Ispin detailed in their backstory.

The enemy was led by Lohezet of the Black Robes, as he used this ragtag group (a foreshadowing of the Dragon Army to come) to invade Salem’s Bend looking for artifacts (the objectives to be obtained within the Training Scenario.)

These artifacts allowed me to pepper in story elements that would become more important later in the story: An incomplete, hand drawn map of “The City of Lost Names”, a journal of an old, elven mage named Demelin, as well as a spellbook of Demelin’s that detailed rituals to allow the levitation of large structures.

Fighting side-by-side with Ispin and Cudgel allowed the players to have in-game memory of the man, not just the imagined connection provided in their backstory – and as you have undoubtedly experienced, what happens during the session makes the biggest impression on players.

Then, at the end of the session, as we traveled forward in time to 350 AC, and the characters reintroduced themselves, I was able to deliver the letters to them from Becklin telling them of Ispin’s passing.

It hit way harder.

Additionally, I printed out the letters as well, so that I could pass them to the players. I would recommend this step… it’s an easy prop that pays dividends.

Final Thoughts

Getting your players to buy-in, as we’ve said many times, does so much of the work for you. It gives the players a reason to be there, a reason to go adventuring, and a place in the world. And players who feel like they are a real part of the world will want to affect that world.

So, take some time to think about WHY characters would be there. I mean, you can always just drop them in front of the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief ala Against the Giants and that can be fun, but if you’re wanting to start off on a grand adventure, having players that have a stake in it and feel like they chose the adventure will make for a much greater and more immersive game.

Until next time, Heroes… LIVE THE ADVENTURE!

And, as always, feel free to visit our Affiliate Link at Fanroll for all your dice and dice accessory needs and get 10% off your entire order on us!