10 Adventure Hooks based on Classic Stories

For World Book Day this year, I put together 10 plot hooks that you can use in your campaign. Based on classic stories like Moby Dick and Romeo and Juliet, these are designed as a starting point for your own ideas, not entire adventures. Hopefully they spark some amazing stories for you and your players.

1. The Count of Monte Cristo: A wealthy count hires the party to pose as bandits and kidnap the son of a noble family, so that he can then bravely rescue the boy and win the family’s favour.
2. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: A monstrous figure is standing over a fresh body in a dark alleyway, it flees when it notices the party. They are able to track it to a fancy house owned by a renowned alchemist.
3. Romeo & Juliet – Antony & Cleopatra: A rare venomous snake has been stolen from a reptile collector’s menagerie. He wants the party to find it, as he is worried it has caused the deaths of two noble children in the city.
4. Frankenstein: The tavern is abuzz with discussion about the local wizard. Rumour is that he was seen stealing bodies from the local graveyard in the dead of night, and everyone has a theory as to why.
5. Don Quixote: Two men are searching for a friend who believes himself to be a daring knight. They are willing to pay the party to pose as damsels in distress to lure their crazed friend back to town.
6. Jane Eyre: The party overhears two people at a tavern who work as servants for a rich merchant. They are debating a theory that their employer keeps a vicious beast hidden on the top floor of his home.
7. Robinson Crusoe: In a jungle clearing a tall wooden stake has been erected with a date carved into the top. The date is about 10 years prior, and many notches have been carved into the wood below it.
8. Gulliver’s Travels: The party discovers a town of miniature buildings and occupied by Sprites. The Sprites request the party’s help to win a war about how to crack an egg against another Sprite town.
9. Moby Dick: An old man at the harbour is raving about a devil in the form of a whale that brings bad luck to any who see it. A brave captain is offering a reward to any who will help him slay the beast.
10. Alice in Wonderland: A rabbit in a waistcoat runs past the party into a small hole. Near the hole is a bottle with “drink me” written on it, whose contents shrink the party enough to explore the hole.