Hooks

Hooks describe your character in broad terms, forming the central character concept. In addition to using hooks to set Target Numbers for rolls, the GM uses your character's hooks to guide choices about how your character is connected to the world: who they know, what resources they're likely to have access to, and how NPCs are likely to react to them, for example. The number and type of hooks that your character has depends on the game you're playing, but for most games the hooks will fall into three categories:

• Required Hooks: As the name implies, all players are required to select this type of hook for their character. The most common type of required hook is a class or job hook that describes the character's skill set and training. Games that allow PCs to be aliens, elves, robots, or other non-human creatures may also include a required hook where players specify whether their character is human or something else. Other games may require players to choose factions, dark secrets, alter egos, fatal flaws, or anything else that's appropriate to the genre.
• Optional Hooks: Optional hooks are common for the genre, but not necessarily required. For example, player in a game set in a polytheistic culture might have "patron deity" as an optional hook. If your character actively worships a particular god, the hook can give you an edge on rolls that involve familiarity with the religion. If your character isn't particularly religious, you can ignore it.
• Player Hooks: Finally, most games will include a certain number of slots that the player can use to fill out their character. You can use them if you want to double up on required or optional hooks or to establish information about your character that the basic hooks don't cover. Most games include a selection of common hooks appropriate to the genre, but you can always create your own hooks with GM approval.

Hook Special Effects

In addition to affecting a character's Target Numbers, hooks often give the character access to additional abilities or options. For example, a character with the Mighty Thews hook does additional damage with melee attacks and has the option to increase this damage bonus further by spending character points. When designing a game, it's a good idea to set rules for hooks that are common for the genre, setting, or style of play before the game begins (since players are probably going to ask anyway). Others can be added on a case-by-case basis as they come up. Some examples of hooks common to most adventure stories are described in the Sample Hooks section.

"Negative" Hooks

In V23, the kinds of traits that most games classify as Weaknesses, Disadvantages, Flaws, or some other word meaning "bad thing" are considered either matters of player choice that fall outside of the confines of the game mechanics, or are treated as normal hooks that take up one of your hook slots and function just like every other hook. This makes sense if you keep two things in mind:

1. All hooks are a mixed bag. While some hooks are more consistently beneficial or detrimental than others, all hooks have the potential to either improve or penalize a roll based on the context. For example, having the "Cop" hook might help you when you're rolling to shoot a bad guy, but rolling up to a gang hangout or sovereign citizen's compound in your cruiser will probably penalize any rolls you make to get the inhabitants to answer your questions. By the same token, being deaf might give you a penalty to notice someone sneaking up on you, but it also makes you immune to sonic attacks.

1. Not everything needs to be a hook. Hooks don't describe everything about your character, only the things that are important for the GM to know when adjudicating the rules and setting up the story. Since many of the traditional Bad Thing traits in RPGs tend to be player-driven, we leave it up to the player to communicate them through role-playing, storytelling, and maybe even voluntary penalties to the occasional roll or self-imposed control rolls to see if your character does what's in character or what's smart. Making something a hook means you want that trait to be integral to the character in ways that require the GM to take an active roll. Addiction is a good example of a trait that plays differently depending on whether it's a hook or just flavor. If you're the loveable drunk, you don't need a hook. If it's more of a Reefer Madness situation where your addiction affects your ability to function, drives your character arc, and spawns new subplots, making it a hook lets the GM know that you want it to be a defining character trait with all that entails.