Mental Exercise: City Hooks

Dec 13, 2017 9:35 pm
Given the quality of RP I've seen on GP, I thought occasional threads on some mental exercises would be fun! The first, inspired by a thread I saw on Twitter, is this: hooks to build interesting cities from.

So how to play: No more than 10 words per hook. No need for complete sentences, but it should be understandable. Don't list more than 5 ideas per post, give people a chance to give some ideas as well.

I'll start:
- The central keep is constructed in a dragon's skeleton
- Crystalline tendrils grow from the ground
- A meteor is frozen mid-fall in the sky
- Every door is marked with a central rune
- Merchants aren't allow inside the city walls
Dec 14, 2017 1:37 am
- A certain waterfall flows upward.
- The person opposing the PCs was dead all along...
- A portal has opened in the village square.
- A new drug is giving users temporary magical powers.
- The temple is slowly sinking in the ground.
Dec 15, 2017 10:42 am
- Buildings hang from the branches of a giant tree.
- The wind through the canyon plays tunes on the windows.
- Huge walls hold back the sea.
- No building is within sight of more than five more.
- Thousands of slaves perpetually drag the city west..
Last edited December 15, 2017 12:53 pm
Dec 15, 2017 11:49 am
Reading this thread after seeing the title is a letdown. I was expecting to learn about blacksmithing. :p

1. Audible communication is forbidden
2. Every building is, literally, exactly the same - inside and out
3. City citizens believe no one else is real
4. Rival gangs fight annually over a baker's last cake
5. Half of the city is a reflection of other half

Len

Dec 15, 2017 4:32 pm
1. The entire city is contained in a single, massive building.
2. There are no roads or phones, only a vast and mysterious network of vacuum tubes.
3. A minority group dominates the majority both politically and financially.
4. There are no crimes, only taxes on undesirable behaviour.
5. People who cannot pay their taxes are sentenced to crank The Machine.
Dec 15, 2017 5:39 pm
1. New houses are being built everyday, but no one lives in them
2. Every person looks and acts exactly the same
3. There is a giant sand whirlpool everyone ignores
4. Every full moon, a pair of eyes appears over the town
5. Outsiders need a special helmet to breathe.
Dec 15, 2017 11:25 pm
Oh, for a city, darn, how did I missed that?

- The city has a guild for the deceased.
- The city is corrupt: the guards pay the citizens...
- Elections are feared, the elected mayor always ends up murdered.
- Adventurers are considered vagrants and thus are the lowest caste.
- The city's sewers is a gigantic black pudding.
Dec 16, 2017 12:17 am
kalajel says:

- The city has a guild for the deceased.
There are plenty of great ideas in this thread of hooking players, but this one stands out. This is pure Monty Python level greatness, assuming they are not undead. Picturing the bureaucracy in allowing the Guild for the Recently Deceased to take part in government and civic aspects of a city. Absolute Monty Python hilarity.
Last edited December 16, 2017 12:17 am
Dec 16, 2017 10:45 am
They do a lot of lobbying for corpse rights. "Non-lives matter!" and such.
Dec 16, 2017 2:12 pm
Imagine a large room with a long crescent table. There is a podium in the middle of the half circle where Eric Idle is standing to petition for opening his new business. On the other side of the crescent table, at the center, is John Cleese - Head of Council. There are three other council members on each side of him. One of them is a skeleton. Michael Palin is seated as a small desk inside the half circle scribing the notes of the council meeting.

Idle: I go around the town trapping mice, but last week you told me that I had to come back this week.
Cleese: Ah, yes, I see. Last week, you wanted a permit so that you could charge the city for trapping the mice. Is that correct?
Idle: Yes sir. I used to charge the people nearest the mouse, but they wouldn't ever pay. So I would let the mouse go.
Camera pans to skeleton then back to Cleese.
Cleese: Excellent point, yes. How many times have you released a mouse?
Idle: Oh I don't know.
Camera pans to skeleton then back to Idle who says nothing.
Cleese: Well?
Idle: Well what, sir?
Cleese: Answer the question.
Idle: What question?
Cleese: Sebastian, read the question back to us please.
Palin flips back through his notes.
Palin: He said that he goes around trapping mice, but last week you told him to come back this week. Then you asked if he wanted a permit to charge the city for trapping mice, to which he said yes because the people near the mice never pay. So he lets the mouse go. Then you asked how many times he released a mouse.
Camera pans to skeleton then back to Palin.
Palin: Right, sorry. Tom advised you to ask him about the number of mice he has released in town, and then you asked him how many times he has. He said he doesn't know. Tom asked if was a different mouse each time or if it was the same mouse each time. Then you told him to answer the question, and he asked what question. You told me to read back the question, and I said that he said he goes around trapping mice, but last week...
Cleese: Interrupting Palin That's enough, that's enough. Thank you, Sebastian. Well?
Idle: Well what?
Cleese: Getting annoyed Are you releasing a different mouse each time or the same mouse each time?
Idle: I can't release a different mouse than the one I caught.
Cleese: Doing cliche John Cleese things Is the mouse that you catch and release the same mouse each time you catch him, or are you catching a different mouse each time and then releasing him because the nearest person won't pay?
Idle: I don't know. I never bothered to ask the mouse his name.
Camera pans to skeleton then back to Palin who begins going back through the notes scratching and writing.
Idle: What's he doing?
Cleese: Sebastian, what are you doing?
Palin: What? Oh, Tom just told to me that I should name the mouse Steve for the notes.
Cleese: Excellent idea, Tom. Thank you.
Idle: So are you going to pay me for catching this mouse? Idle holds up a cage with a mouse in it
Camera pans between mouse, skeleton, and Palin. Palin once again is going through notes scratching and writing
Idle: What are you changing now?
Palin: Tom said the mouse doesn't look like a 'Steve' so much as a 'Richard' and wants me to update the notes.
Cleese: Read it back to us, please.
Palin: He said that he goes around trapping Richard, but last week you told him to come back this week. Then you asked if he wanted a permit to charge the city for trapping Richard, to which he said yes because the people near Richard never pay. So he lets Richard go. Tom advised you to ask him about how many times he released Richard in town, and then you asked him how many times. He said he doesn't know. Tom asked if was a different Richard each time or if it was the same Steve each time. Then you told him to answer the question, and he asked what question. You told me to read back the question, and I said that he said he goes around trapping mice, but last week...
Cleese: Interrupting Palin So we have established that there are two mice - Richard and Steve.
Idle: nodding
Palin: Wait. My mistake, that last Steve should have been Richard.
Cleese: So is the mouse in the cage Richard or Steve? Which mouse is it?
Palin: Richard, I think.
Cleese: Looking at Idle Do you know? Is that Richard or Steve?
Idle: Looking confused at the mouse ...Steve? Wait. Looking at skeleton ...Richard?
Camera pans to skeleton and back to Idle
Idle: Smiling Yes Richard is in the cage.
Camera pans to skeleton then to Cleese
Cleese: I agree. We will pay you a shilling for catching Richard. Please return when you have caught Steve, and we will pay you a shilling for him. However, we won't pay you either until you return with Steve. Ok?
Idle: So you will pay me two shillings for catching two mice?
Cleese: Of course
Idle: But this is the only mouse in town.
Dec 16, 2017 4:48 pm
And now for something completely different.
Dec 16, 2017 6:26 pm
fluglichkeiten says:
And now for something completely different.
Yes! I was hoping someone would respond as such. :)
Dec 18, 2017 3:32 am
Oh, I love coming up with hooks.

- The city was constructed in a fracture in time.
- The city floods every day.
- The city is actually a front for the true city underneath.
- Magic in the city compels those with violent thoughts to crawl.
- The closer you are to a central tower, the fewer sexual thoughts and urges you have.
Jan 2, 2018 4:44 pm
- The central bridge is closed every night.
- The statues in the park are different each day.
- The black market sells healing items.
- A mysterious fog rolls through the streets every night.
- All abandoned buildings are in the nobles' quarter...
Jan 2, 2018 10:30 pm
- The weather over the city changes based on the Queen's mood.
- Civic disagreements are settled by live-action chess.
- The altar in the temple rests inside a beholder's skull
- A permanent bolt of lightning flashes in the town square
- Precipitation falls in different directions on different days
Jan 22, 2018 6:35 am
-Citizens are caretakers of hive for Giant Bees.
-politeness is shunned,rude behavior is synonymous with sincerity
-city walls seem alive, and don't like outsiders.
-all the buildings exist miles apart, but magically linked

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