#The Big Book of Hooks

109 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

signal kestrel
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This is proof of concept for the Big Book of Hooks. My intent is for this to be a tool to help GMs build a conceptual foundation for new campaigns in keeping with specific factions in the Lancer setting.

Each hook will present an opening scenario to get players started with a game that has stakes, context, and a clear goal; they will be specific enough to have a strong identity but vague enough to allow you to fill in the details yourself and custom tailor it to the needs of your table and the story you want to tell. Each hook will also include an example combat encounter, though do not expect these to be thrilling or even competently balanced. They're just there because I thought people would appreciate it, and as somewhat of a personal challenge.

The current edition of this book only contains four hooks from the IPS-N section. I'm posting now simply to gauge interest. But rest assured that I have 16 more IPS-N hooks drafted and ready to go and a rough outline of a further 20 for each of the other major manufacturers. That adds up to a whopping 80 total hooks! Is that too many? I don't know, who cares! This is fun and I enjoy the work so we'll see where it goes.

I currently only plan on doing hooks for the Big Four. Depending on how exhausting this project ends up being, though, I may be open to the idea of writing more hooks for non-manufacturer factions like the Albatross, Voladores, and of course the various houses of the KTB.

Thanks for reading, and for your interest!

📎 THE_BIG_BOOK_OF_HOOKS.pdf
rigid light
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Mission hooks are always fantastic for getting the GM creativity flowing. Looking forward to seeing the final result in all its glory!

delicate plaza
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This is really neat, and the example combats are great for new GMs. Very cool

rigid light
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I will say that if it turns out doing an entire book of 80 hooks turns out to be too big, splitting them up into smaller books would also work excellently

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Can even bundle them up once they’re all published haha

signal kestrel
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i honestly think thats a great idea. im torn trying to decide whether a 160+ page book is more inconvenient than four 40+ page books

that is definitely a decision i will make though, rest assured

delicate plaza
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yeah I mean 10 for each faction would be a huge resource already, tbh

signal kestrel
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then just like my BMI it will be hugex2 😤 because i already have these drafted lolol

gilded charm
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Been looking forward to this for a while!

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This is a lot more comprehensive than I expected, I expected something more like general one-sentence "hooks" but these are whole ass missions pretty much

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I like it a lot

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Each of these could easily be a one-shot

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Small formatting suggestion: find a way to space out the book such that the scenarios are on even-numbered pages and the sample combats are on odd-numbered pages, so that you can look at each hook in a single spread

signal kestrel
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oh that is an excellent idea that i never considered

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i think i can pad it out a little to do just that 🤔

gilded charm
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It's possible the table of contents will get padded :P

signal kestrel
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yeah for sure lol

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and thank you! yeah i wanted them to be kinda psuedo-mission briefings

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just enough for a GM to whip it into shape

gilded charm
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Other ideas for padding: a single-page section for each corp to discussing themes and advice about running missions related to them as a way of prefacing their hooks

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"these are the general sorts of considerations when running missions that involve IPS-N"

signal kestrel
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i do have that planned, yes! i have a little scribble about identity and aesthetic, its just not something ive fleshed out at this stage

gilded charm
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bonus points: make the book title a pun on "omnihook"

rigid light
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you can always lean on free stock art for filler, too. Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels are all great

signal kestrel
rigid light
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If you see something on Shutterstock, you can also get a free trial (which I think comes with 10 free images of your choice that you keep forever? lasts only a month though). I don't think you'd need Shutterstock for a project like this, but it's something to keep in a back pocket

signal kestrel
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i definitely want to have some kind of art to break up the enormous wall of text

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if it will be different permutations of the same baroque monk then so be it 😤

gilded charm
rigid light
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They're trash for mechs but fine for other stuff

gilded charm
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I just thought it was funny

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mech -> duck

signal kestrel
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core power: quack

rigid light
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like I got the cover photo for Pierce the Heavens from Pixabay haha

elder halo
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will keep this in mind for when i decide to write a campaign

spare mirage
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I said it before, but this is a great idea for a book and i will buy it from you when it exists.

signal kestrel
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trying to tool out these HORUS hooks and i find my current list evenly split between two types of stories:

Die Hard, but the terrorists are hackers

and

Event Horizon, but the demons are NHPs

rigid light
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Do you have a scenario for HORUS where one cell is trying to be extremely petty to another cell

signal kestrel
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lmao no but thats a good one

rigid light
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because I could see that happen, especially in like an "open source programmer" or "hacker rivalry" sense

signal kestrel
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its my headcanon anyway that every horus cell believes that they are the TRUE horus and all other cells are copycats

rigid light
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I could imagine a scenario too where a HORUS cell is trying to control access to the omninet, attempting to take another faction "offline"

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like a DDoS or cutting their cables (figuratively or literally)

signal kestrel
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that is accurate to a scenario i have here, but the faction is instead a totalitarian government

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im trying to evenly split the hooks so that the manufacturer in question gets a chance to be both the hero and the villain

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though thats easier said than done with some of these guys.

rigid light
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yup yup, I figured that some of the things I'm throwing out there could cut both ways

signal kestrel
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i have a very dim opinion of SSC so their "good guy" column is still a little bare lmao

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just a bunch of techno eugenicists with fancy cars 😤

rigid light
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the first thing I'd do for positive SSC hooks is home in on their support of creatives

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art, architecture, and probably ensuring that standard of living is high

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SSC also wants humankind to reach peak potential; if there's toxic waste in the water supply, that will hold humans back

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there's systematic things that they can focus on from a biological perspective, in that way

signal kestrel
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yeah good thinking

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i def have a few that focus on the relationship between planetary ecology and the genetic uh stock of the populace

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i can definitely hit that a little more... favorably

rigid light
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when people have their basic needs met, they'll have more resources for luxury items, too

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a good "negative" that isn't eugenics could be SSC trying to pressure and buy out an artisan conclave

signal kestrel
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great idea

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i am getting immense enjoyment from coming up with titles for the horus hooks

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that about sums up their entire section

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Annoyed by their inability to hack biological entities, a local HORUS cell has installed a neuro-implant on a huge variety of dangerous animals on a rough, rural world. Unfortunately this has driven the animals quite insane.

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its not all eldritch horror here folks

rigid light
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good, I think one of the times HORUS is at its best is when it's doing something unhinged for an incredibly petty reason or annoyance

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it captures that "I created a Linux environment perfectly suited for me and my idiosyncrasies but completely arcane and ass-backwards for everyone else" feel

signal kestrel
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i agree

rigid light
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or like, a bandaid fix for one thing that winds up becoming a pile of bandaids on top of each other

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like their "solution" for the animals going insane isn't removing the implants but trying to patch them or something, making things worse

signal kestrel
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lmfao yes

rigid light
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"if I just tweak this one line of code it'll work perfectly"

signal kestrel
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fortunately for me, tom lancer himself came into chat and defined horus under no uncertain terms as "the internet combined with a death cult"

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exactly the kind of word of god guideline i needed

spare mirage
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Ssc likes genetic diversity in all it's forms, so I could see them going on a 'save the whales' kick if there was a planet with an impending extinction level event

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Or anti poacher operations, trying to keep baronic noble sparriboos away from the Vast

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Or maybe a painfully self aware fetch quest to get the perfect materials for terashima to forge a sword

versed gale
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i think horus is a good opportunity to do a lot of weird hooks

signal kestrel
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it really is, im excited

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i have some weirdy ones but i also have to balance them with the "goofy hacker terrorist" vibe that horus also has

versed gale
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one of my horus related fights in my module is going to be the pcs finding a broken minotaur and as soon as they get near it an entire squad of enemies all just 1 by 1 climb out of the metafold cockpit LMAO

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id love to see more stuff like that

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i really like the ghost ship hook for ipsn

signal kestrel
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thank you!

gilded charm
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I wonder if there's room for a HORUS vs Horizon hook

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Though Horizon could probably have their own subset of hooks

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decorp shenanigans

signal kestrel
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horizon absolutely deserves their own hook sheet, but dont worry they'll show up

vivid cipher
# spare mirage Ssc likes genetic diversity in all it's forms, so I could see them going on a 's...

I feel like they'd be "save the whales but put them in a box" in some cases. Not all, it probably would vary depending on what sort of company reps you were dealing with. But I could totally see some parts of SSC going like "yes we saved this special space tiger from extinction, but have decided that this one particular specimen needs to be kept in permanent containment for study due to it's natural adaptive camouflage techniques"

rigid light
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I feel like we need more biomonsters from SSC; get some House Vadalis vibes from Eberron up in here

signal kestrel
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i have two ecological crisis SSC scenarios

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one involves the food chain flipping upside down thanks to SSC trying to tamper with it so as to improve the population

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which leads to monsters, naturally

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the other is a similar scenario but instead of monsters its borderline ecological collapse; the people who live on the planet are trying to sue SSC but theyre getting stonewalled in court

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thus they hire the Player to perform the only effective form of activism

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that is indeed two "oops accidental monster" scenarios but i wrote them in close proximity so ill probably revisit before final draft to make them more thematically distinct

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a good night's sleep is the greatest editor of them all my friends

signal kestrel
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sometimes you have an idea so good that you have to take a 15 minute break from work just to congratulate yourself

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truly, this is my opus

gilded charm
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lol

tender cedar
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yeah I love this. I made a train heist map kind based off of a scene from one of the later movies with cataphract trucks and stuff because of course this series works in lancer

signal kestrel
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ive been doing the mental calculus and the entire fast and furious franchise works as a lancer campaign, top to bottom

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i feel like chazz palminteri at the end of the usual suspects

signal kestrel
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havent touched this in a bit cause life got in the way, but its by no means forgotten! i've been hard at work and am happy to report that im just about halfway done. thats 10 hooks for each manufacturer written and ready to go, all i have to do is transfer them over to the document im working on and edit for format, which has honestly been the hardest part of this whole project lol. the remaining hooks are still in the drafting phase but im knockin em out whenever i find myself with a little free time. part of me wants to just release a book with 10 of each, but i said id aim for 20 and by god i want to see it through

i also need to make up a combat for each hook, but i dont expect that to be as hard as it used to be since im pretty used to it by now. ill enjoy the work anyway

in the meantime, heres one IPS-N hook that i formatted today that im excited about

rigid light
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Hell yeah, glad to see this is still on the way

spiral locust
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Wow these rule 🤩

signal kestrel
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thank you!

gilded charm
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Love this project