I have a pretty clean adventure that I'm writing for my homebrew campaign that I think also could serve as a great place to start a much larger campaign but as I wrote it with the intention for it being a one-shot I'm now trying to shoehorn in plot hooks for the larger world I'm writing. There a few NPCs that I'm writing more for but I didn't make them integral to the plot of this adventure, e.g. the PCs can have a perfectly rewarding time without knowing about the higher tier machinations of some of the people they might never see. If I have let's say three places the story could go afterwards how could I go about hinting all of them in an already written adventure so the players can choose to pick it up or not? I also don't want to just force feed them with let's say a plot hook sitting at the side of the road telling them "well you look busy but feel free to come back and do me a favour when you're done with whatever plot you're currently busy with!"
I have a ton of things going on in my current homebrew, 3 major plot arcs and 5 player arcs. Of the major plot arcs; one the players aren't aware of yet, one they're just getting into, and another that they're about half way through and don't even realize it yet. The first few levels of the game was clustered with so much exposition and linear progression that it felt very daunting but we got through it. Now, we're to a point where the players are making all the decisions and I'm just letting the rest of the world do it's thing whether the players interfere or not.
My players just got done celebrating a major victory, they defeated a priestess of vecna and reclaimed a dryad's glade. They're spending some down time helping the orc tribe that they were prisoners with smith weapons they can use to defend themselves. Before the end of the last session they were told by their guild master that there was a threat of a white dragon that he needed to address. There was also an artifact of a lost diety that was reclaimed, and one of the players received a key to her family's homestead. All of this happened so that the players could make decisions on what they wanted to do next and allow me to run a story that fit their decisions.
You've put together a major plot, you have your story fixed, and you're ready to go, but you want more. The easiest thing to do is to use the "Checkov's Gun" approach and hint at more going on in the world than what they're aware of. As they're delving through your story have them run across a book in an ancient text that they'll need to bring somewhere to be translated. When they get to one of the many rooms in a dungeon have them acquire a signet ring with very specific imagery that connects to one of the backgrounds of a player. After they complete the story have them return to a blatant "The tavern starts on fire as you celebrate your victory!". There's no real limits on how you can do it, and sometimes a trope approach may simply be the easiest.
I have a pretty clean adventure that I'm writing for my homebrew campaign that I think also could serve as a great place to start a much larger campaign but as I wrote it with the intention for it being a one-shot I'm now trying to shoehorn in plot hooks for the larger world I'm writing. There a few NPCs that I'm writing more for but I didn't make them integral to the plot of this adventure, e.g. the PCs can have a perfectly rewarding time without knowing about the higher tier machinations of some of the people they might never see. If I have let's say three places the story could go afterwards how could I go about hinting all of them in an already written adventure so the players can choose to pick it up or not? I also don't want to just force feed them with let's say a plot hook sitting at the side of the road telling them "well you look busy but feel free to come back and do me a favour when you're done with whatever plot you're currently busy with!"
Thanks in advance guys for all the help
I have a ton of things going on in my current homebrew, 3 major plot arcs and 5 player arcs. Of the major plot arcs; one the players aren't aware of yet, one they're just getting into, and another that they're about half way through and don't even realize it yet. The first few levels of the game was clustered with so much exposition and linear progression that it felt very daunting but we got through it. Now, we're to a point where the players are making all the decisions and I'm just letting the rest of the world do it's thing whether the players interfere or not.
My players just got done celebrating a major victory, they defeated a priestess of vecna and reclaimed a dryad's glade. They're spending some down time helping the orc tribe that they were prisoners with smith weapons they can use to defend themselves. Before the end of the last session they were told by their guild master that there was a threat of a white dragon that he needed to address. There was also an artifact of a lost diety that was reclaimed, and one of the players received a key to her family's homestead. All of this happened so that the players could make decisions on what they wanted to do next and allow me to run a story that fit their decisions.
You've put together a major plot, you have your story fixed, and you're ready to go, but you want more. The easiest thing to do is to use the "Checkov's Gun" approach and hint at more going on in the world than what they're aware of. As they're delving through your story have them run across a book in an ancient text that they'll need to bring somewhere to be translated. When they get to one of the many rooms in a dungeon have them acquire a signet ring with very specific imagery that connects to one of the backgrounds of a player. After they complete the story have them return to a blatant "The tavern starts on fire as you celebrate your victory!". There's no real limits on how you can do it, and sometimes a trope approach may simply be the easiest.