Hooks can cover a lot of ground, so this section provides information on some of the kinds of things that can be hooks. Some are nearly universal, others are specific to certain genres, game worlds, or play styles. These are not rigid categories, nor is this an exhaustive list. The hooks available to a character, how they're categorized for character creation purposes, and other details are different for each game (see the links in the sidebar for some examples). In general, the hooks that are most relevant to common actions and situations in the game--things like combat, computer hacking, and spell casting--will be more explicitly defined and detailed than those that provide flavor and background details.
Whether a particular thing about your character should be a hook or just flavor depends a lot on the both the premise of the game and how you intend to play the character. Hooks that include a
hook template are binary: either you have the hook (and the associated traits from the template) or you don't. Other traits can be a hook for some characters and not for others. For example, Donnie from The Big Lebowski was an avid surfer, but since this hobby is not central to his personality (we only learn about it after he's dead) and because surfing isn't a plot point of The Big Lebowski, it probably doesn't need to be a hook. On the other hand, characters like Jeff Spicoli and Bodhi from
Point Break would probably have Surfer Dude as a hook regardless of the premise of the story they're in. In a mash-up prequel where Donnie's a member of Bodhi's gang, he'd have a surfing hook if only to give him a better chance to survive the surfing scenes. If something about the character is glaringly obvious, has clear story implications, is central to the character's identity, or if you want it to improve your rolls, it should be a hook. Otherwise, it can be a character detail. When in doubt, discuss it with your GM.
Roles
By far the most common type of hook, a role (sometimes called a job, specialty, or archetype) defines what part the character plays in the group, the story, and the world at large. While purely metafictional roles like mentor or wacky neighbor work perfectly well in some games, it's more common for roles to define or heavily imply the character's skill set and/or position in the milieu of the story. For example, most action teams include a leader, who tends to be smarter or more clever than everyone else; a face who excels at charm and manipulation; the muscle, who's good at beating people up, shooting them, or both; and various specialists ranging from computer hackers to helicopter pilots to cat burglars. For games that aren't purely focused on The Mission (the stuff that happens during adventures), the character's role must often describe how they fit into society at large as well. Sharpshooter works fine if you're playing a game about a band of soldiers fighting their way through a war zone, but for an Old West game you'll need to know how the character puts their crack shooting to use. Whether they're a bank robber, a soldier, a town sheriff, a hired gunslinger, or an Apache warrior is going to change how they fit into the story.
Classes
Classes are similar to and sometimes interchangeable with roles, but they're more concerned with classifying the character in terms of how they interact with the game mechanics rather than how they fit into the
Ficton of the story. Classes are common in games where certain abilities or powers are restricted to specific types of characters. For example, only wizards can use arcane magic in most fantasy games. Since they're primarily a game construct most classes are defined using a
template. Some classes effectively double as a role, describing the character's place in the game's
Ficton as well as the game system--"Jedi Knight" for example. Others, like "Fighter" are very broad and are primarily concerned with game mechanics. Whether the character is a noble knight, a barbarian warrior, or a swashbuckling pirate is left to player choices (does the character us a longsword or a cutlass?), role-playing (does the character say "Avast ye maties!" or just grunt a lot), and other player-provided flavor. Players who want this flavor to have concrete mechanical benefits (for example, if you want your barbarian to have a better chance at wilderness survival than the average Fighter) should consider adding an appropriate role to flesh out the class.
Species
In games that aren't limited to human characters, players may get to to decide what kind of thing their character is: Elf, Robot, Wookie, or whatever. If non-humans have unusual powers, vulnerabilities, and other traits that affect game mechanics,
hook templates are common. If they just have weird growths on their foreheads or pointy ears, species can work as a standard hook, giving the player a lower target number for things that are particularly dwarfy or Klingon-like and a higher target number on rolls for which the species is poorly-suited.
Factions
Factions are used when characters identify as part of or are obligated or loyal to a particular group or organization in the game world. Factions can be used to represent high school cliques, religious sects, noble houses, martial arts schools, barbarian tribes, or whatever other kinds of groups operate within your game world. In games where faction membership is integral to the function of society or the subculture in which the PC group operates, faction may be a required hook. If a character's faction affects game mechanics (for example, games about supernatural entities operating in the modern world, for some reason), it may come with a template.
Backgrounds
Backgrounds are formative or relevant events in the character's past: previous jobs, pre-apocalypse role, unusual experiences, past lives, and so forth. Most of the things in a character's past are flavor, but if a past experience is central to the character's identity or you think it should factor into your rolls, make it a background. A variation on backgrounds are alter-egos, which are basically backgrounds that are still happening, if mostly off-screen. Examples include a super-hero's secret identity, a spy's cover, and an M-Forcer's day job.
Rank and Status
This kind of hook describes power, influence, or social cachet based on the character's social status, position, or reputation that is relevant to the activity that takes place in the game. Your character's noble title is relevant in a fantasy game full of political intrigue, but probably won't count for enough to justify a hook in post-apocalypse game. You also don't need to worry about rank or status that's already spelled out or heavily implied by another hook. The social, ecclesiastical, and legal rights associated with being a priest are included in your priest role, for example.
Resources
This kind of hook is used to describe
Hero Props and other unusual resources that the character has at their disposal: A vast fortune, a secret crime cave, or a magical sword, for example. As with rank and status hooks, you don't have to worry about resources that are standard genre tropes for an existing hook. For example, the Green Lantern Corps gives you a power ring when you sign up; if your role is "Green Lantern," you've already got the ring.
Gimmicks
This is a catch-all category for unusual or useful abilities, especially fantastical abilities like super-powers, psychic abilities, and chi powers. For most games, the available gimmicks are defined in the game rules to fit with the genre, style and flavor of the game. As always, though, you can introduce new traits with GM approval.
Story & Characterization Hooks
Since traits that drive the character often also drive the plot and the line between the two is hazy at best, we're including them in a single heading. Hooks in this category are often the kinds of things discussed in the "Negative" Hooks" section. In addition to describing character traits--addictive or compulsive behaviors or disabilities, for example--they can describe social realities that change or limit how the character interacts with the game world and its people: being a (clearly identifiable) member of a reviled or subjugated group, having powerful enemies, or having a criminal record, for example. Even more than with other types of hooks, it's very important for you to work with your GM to decide which story and characterization traits are hooks and which are just flavor, and to make sure you agree on how they work in the game. In the case of traits that involve character choices (addictions, obsessions, etc.), making the trait a hook typically gives the GM the option of making the player roll when they want to resist their natural inclination. For example, making "Hates Elves" a hook might give you an edge in combat when fighting elves, but it also entitles the GM to make you roll to resist the urge to bash elven heads at the slightest provocation. If you choose to role-play your elf hate while making normal combat rolls, it's up to you whether your character does what's practical or what feels good when there are elf heads within bashing range.
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