Today's prompt is, well, Prompt.
Not every adventure begins with a map and a reward poster.
Sometimes, the adventure starts with a whisper you didn’t expect to hear. A shadow in the same place every night. A child saying something they shouldn’t know. The sound of something scratching inside the walls, but there are no mice, and the walls aren’t hollow.
These are the kinds of prompts I love best. The ones that feel like a dare from the world.
Sure, a good old-fashioned “Help us, adventurers!” hook is tried and true, and it works well. But what keeps me coming back, what really gets me writing, is when the prompt is uncanny. Subtle. Occult even. Note I will often use "occult" here in the original sense of "hidden" or "unknown."
It’s the dream you can’t shake. It’s the name you don’t remember learning but now can’t forget. It’s the cracked mirror in the old inn that only reflects one of the party members, and no one else.
These are the prompts that get the witch involved. The ones that pull the warlock out of their tower. That make the players sit forward in their chairs.
The best part? You can drop these kinds of prompts anywhere.
The party’s resting in a sleepy village? One of the locals offers them tea and casually mentions that no one’s seen the moon in three nights.
They’re walking through a forest? A dead bird falls from the sky, but its body is still warm. Or maybe it is frozen solid.
They open a letter meant for someone else. There’s no writing inside, just a sigil, drawn in blood, that starts to glow faintly when it rains.
You don’t have to explain it right away. In fact, please don’t. Let it linger. Let it get under their skin, worm its way into their brains. Let the players dig. Let them argue over what it means. If they follow down the wrong path, let them go.
The Prompt is not the Plot. The Prompt is the door.
Let them decide whether to knock, kick it down, or walk away.
But if they walk away… it might follow.
Questions
Let's roll again!
Who, Excited, Art. "Who's art am I most excited to see in a book?"
I think it would have to have been Clyde Caldwell back in the day, or Larry Elmore. They defined the "old-school" look for me.
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