#Roleplay plot hooks

[bluegreene118]

Anyone want to rp Harry Hook and Gil Gaston?

But like when they are 30 and maybe idk other than that. I have plots tagged for ideas…

Just watched all the movies and want an au rp with them!!

Pleaseeee??? I wanna be Harry Hook and you can be Gil Gaston.

(Not photoshopped!! Actor for Gil posted it!! And apparently it’s in the book but nooo the movie cut it!! 🥺🥺)

[educationaldm]

Story Hook: Gifted Child.

How do the party react to this magic child?

Can they protect him from those who want him for their own? Do they use his skills to help them? What awaits for him at the destination?

[luxlicht]

My Wife is Going to Kill Me (or, mundane themes in Scion)

Running a story in the world of Scion is normally thought of to be one where you enter the underworld looking for a lost artifact – or battle an Ōmagatoki at twilight to stop it from releasing thousands of evil spirits onto San Francisco. But this is not where the story of a Scion starts. In fact, the first book for Scion, Origin, is mostly free of such supernatural threats. Oh, there are tinges…

[kithpendragon]

Author Drew Hayes did a terrific job of this concept in the "Spells Swords and Stealth" novels. It starts out with a low level adventuring party dying in a backwater pub because they did a stupid in the woods, and ends up being this amazing multi-dimensional chess game involving several gods and maybe someone in the real world.

Book 1 is called "NPCs", highly recommend to anyone who thinks that gods doing some next-level cloak and dagger shit is a really compelling way to move a story along!

I am obsessed with this idea

[ufohio]

Write a story or a poem about a character who is inexplicably and/or dramatically changed after witnessing a solar eclipse or some other dazzling celestial event.

I'd also like to take this moment to urge North Americans to look into our exciting, upcoming solar eclipse and learn more about what to expect: Check out these safety tips from NASA or this cheerful video overview from PBS that goes over why the eclipse is so special, what will happen that day, and what you should be ready to see.

On Kaleidoscope World, we use prompts to inspire standalone science fiction and genre stories from our writers. In the context of our collaborative setting, we use these stories to populate a fictional magazine called—you guessed it!—Kaleidoscope World. However, as standalone writing prompts, they really could be used by anybody looking to create a thematic sci-fi story. Go wild!

[severevoiddragon]

Playing Thousand Year Old Vampire and I do Not want to stop... I'm so invested in my new vampires life.

(her name is Myrin. It used to be Aeliza, but people worked out she was a vampire. Her arranged marriage husband turned her into a vampire)

[toxicanonymity]

night walks masterlist

Updated Jan 17, 2025 (Alt timeline - basement breeder)

mood board by @milla-frenchy 🖤

This is an AU moreso than a series. Very little plot. Joel, an older neighbor you've been walking with late at night, asks you into his basement to sell him weed. Turns out he's a little obsessed with you. You find him irresistible, despite your initial efforts to stay away.

OVERALL WARNINGS: Non-outbreak AU, drug use, Dubcon, unsafe P in V, dirty talk, stalking

gif by @iamasaddie. see bottom of post for more art

reader curated spotify playlist

MAIN TIMELINE

NIGHT WALKS (2k) - ORIGINAL. Joel gets you in his basement and you fuck.

"Deleted Scene" - Joel reveals his breeding kink.

✨neighbor stuff (800) - Grocery store run-in

Night Walks 2 (1.9k) - When you don't come back for more, Joel takes matters into his own hands.

Night Walks 3 (1.4k) - Joel breaks in and has his way with you. (Darkest, can skip)

Liquor store run-in (350) - You run into Joel in public and he gropes you.

Night Walks 4: All dressed up (1.3k) - You run into Joel at a gas station and end up fucking him.

Restaurant drabble (400) - You run into Joel when you're out with your friends.

Night Walks 5: Harder (2.8k) - You get jealous. You hang out and can't get enough of him.

BLOW (2k) - You do a line of his dick then give him an amazing blow job and later he puts it in.

Night Walks 6: Morning After (900) - You wake up at Joel's and he's not ready for you to leave.

Night Walks 7: Soaked (3.5k) - You're still there and it's storming so you stay for a while.

Night Walks 8: Menace (4k) - You're set up on a date, but Joel reminds you why you want him.

Interludes: 4th of July (200?) - You go to the pool. POV: Neighbor (Ethyl).

✨tired (1k) - comfort fic

Night Walks 9: Late Night Dip (2.3k) - You go to the pool and he dicks you down. Interlude: Ethyl's house.

Beach walks - Prequel (3.8k) - Joel is acting shady and you hook up with someone else.

Beach Walks (7k) - Joel can't let you go. surf shack lore

HCs, ALTERNATE READERS & TIMELINES ⤵️

Headcanons

If someone refused him - What would Joel do if someone flat-out refused him and really didn't want it?

Alt. timelines (AUs of AU)

FUTURE: Sleeping beauty (750) - You and Joel have a consensual non-con agreement. He breaks in, chloroforms you, ties you up.

FUTURE: Day walks (150) - You and Joel are out hiking and he's being irresponsible.

night caulks (100) - Joel being a rascal

ALT: Leopard print (4.5k)- ft. Tommy

ALT: Basement breeder (1k) if Joel were a serial breeder. spoiler alert he gets fixated on you

DIFFERENT READERS (AUs of AU)

(2003) Night Chalks (400) - Joel takes a liking to Sarah's engaged teacher and starts to seduce her.

Night Chalks 2 (380) - Joel gets her in the back seat of his car.

(2008) Night Talks (2.8k) - Joel gets Sarah's best friend high and takes her virginity.

(2018) Night Drives (1k) - You order a lyft after a girl's night out and end up in Joel's basement.

Misc: If you're desperate: Dr. Rock has NW roleplay (1st person)

NIGHT WALKS GHOSTFACE

Every inch

Every inch 2

Every inch 3

main joel miller masterlist

Art & Visuals

POV Ring doorbell by @swedishscumfuck.

Joel on vacation w/ blurb.

Man cave/basement floor plan

Booty text by @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog and @missannwinchester

TRAILER (video) by @iamasaddie

meet me in the moonlight by @iamasaddie

mood board by @milla-frenchy

gif by @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog

Pumpkin mood board

beach walks collages by @lunitawrites

nw collage by @selfproclaimed-moviecritic

beach walks by @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog

sleeping beauty by @milla-frenchy

night walks vibes by @xdaddysprincessxx

Silhouette edit by Milla

[tabletopresources]

2 years later, here's 10 more!

Inception (2010): Navigate through the dreamscape to extract vital information from a powerful dreamer whose subconscious defenses are becoming increasingly dangerous.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): Lead a convoy across a wasteland, fending off marauders and rival factions to reach a rumored haven.

Get Out (2017): Investigate a seemingly idyllic community with a dark secret, where people are not what they appear to be, and uncover the truth before falling victim to sinister forces.

A Quiet Place (2018): Survive in an environment where sound attracts deadly creatures, while deciphering a mysterious signal that could either be salvation or a new, more insidious threat.

The Shape of Water (2017): Protect and assist a mysterious, misunderstood creature, possibly of magical origin, while navigating a web of political intrigue and supernatural dangers.

Black Panther (2018): Enter an isolationist, technologically advanced group, and prevent a usurper from using a powerful artifact to plunge a delicate social order into chaos.

Bird Box (2018): Travel a perilous path to a rumored sanctuary, all while evading entities that induce madness should you dare attempt to make use of a key ability you've taken for granted.

The Matrix Series (1999-2021): Uncover the truth behind a false reality, facing powerful adversaries who seek to maintain control over the minds of the populace.

Interstellar (2014): Embark on an intergalactic/interplanar journey to find a new habitable location for a group of endangered people, solving puzzles and challenges that distort space and time.

John Wick (2014): Retaliate against a criminal organization that has wronged you, navigating a shadowy underworld of assassins and mercenaries in a quest for vengeance.

Image above found on pinterest

How about some more?

1d10 more plot hook ideas inspired by film

Groundhog Day. Escape a strange encounter that seems to keep restarting in slightly varied ways.

E.T. Help an otherworldly life form return to its own world/realm to prevent it from inadvertently causing escalating mass conflicts.

Jumper. Stop a powerful figure who is enacting a plan to control and prevent others from ever using their own gifts again.

Casino Royale. Covertly enter a high stakes contest to end a villainous plot conducted by one of its participants.

Spider-Man 3. Break free from the mind-altering influence of a powerful but consuming magic item and keep it from those who would enable it to achieve its dark purpose.

The Chronicles of Riddick. Stay out of the hands of an enemy looking to capture you long enough to bring down a genocidal tyrant.

The Dark Knight. End the crime spree of an agent of chaos whose elaborate plots risk vilifying the wrong people even if you succeed.

Watchmen/Civil War. Find out why heroes are being targeted and unite them in time before distrust and differences turns to violence between once-allied factions. 

I, Robot. Investigate a crime being blamed on an unlikely but far too convenient suspect before they and their entire faction face mob justice.

Apocalypto. Escape captivity, outrun and outfight an army of cultists long enough to disrupt their apocalyptic sacrificial rituals.

Care to reblog with a list of your own?

Let’s keep the community list going strong! And check out Tabletop Gaming Resources for more art, tips, and tools for your game!

[yuurivoice]

A few folks seem very intrigued by the somewhat vague pre-BitterSweet ideas I had for Seth I was discussing on stream last night (and a few times before that) so I'll share in my own words here as well!

Seth's embryonic stage was straightforward.

Create a sexy rival for Alphonse who shares a criminal history with him, and wants to use Boo as a means to fuck with Al. Biker bad boy who fucks. That was all there was in the beginning.

From there I considered doing the Good End, Bad End approach that would expand on a concept I tried out with early Alphonse, where Boo and him hooking up on their first night was a non-canon bad end. This would have been more of a Bad Path rather than just an end, a few audios where shit just gets real wild.

I don't remember a ton of specifics now, but long story short after meeting (not the same as episode 1 of BS) Seth would be a lingering menace stirring shit and taunting Al/Boo before ultimately kidnapping Boo and luring Alphonse to a remote location, something similar to a trainyard or warehouse, like the settings seen in BS3. The climax involved a gun, and an ambiguous ending where we're not sure who got got in the end.

Then, after I sat with it for a while and started hammering out what I wanted his introduction to look like, Seth was not becoming that character. I held on, thinking maybe it'll take shape, and then the "THEY WERE LOVERS!?" bit hit me and it really started to get some movement...and nowhere near the direction of Seth really being a menace.

Also, I find the whole thing so overplayed and cliche in the ASMR roleplay niche that I did not think it would be wise in the long run to introduce even the optional Bad End thing because a lot of people cannot grasp the concept of "this is just a spicy branching alternate story for fun".

And honestly, I don't find it all that fun. A by the numbers kidnapping plot for the folks who enjoy that sort of thing would not have been the level of work I'd go on to do, nor would it have created the long lasting emotional attachment to Seth we have today.

Also, knowing your audience fucking matters. That era of the my audience had people freaking out at the idea that Alphonse might leave Boo. They were not prepared for that kind of content whether it was clearly labeled non-canon or not.

I'm pretty happy with where we ended up, and I am much more equipped to tell a story involving a fucked up asshole causing problems on purpose now than I was all those years ago.

But I hear the folks who want various boys behaving badly, and perhaps one day Seth will have a bad dream about what could have been. 🙏

[unveiling-unguarding]

Let's fix the story of Dragon Age: The Veilguard pt. 1 - Prologue

I have spent the last week-ish just stewing and thinking about all the things that bugged me about Veilguard's story. Things I knew would bug me going in, having seen the gameplay reveal of the intro mission, but thought would fade as the game got over the hump of an awkward start. Nope.

This game, unfortunately, has such massive structural problems that I need to try to rework the basic skeleton of the narrative for my own sanity. So while my first instinct would quite frankly be to scrap the whole premise of what we got, I'll stick to doing some amateur developmental editing.

First things first, Bioware seems to not understand why people have wanted origins back in Dragon Age and are content to give lip service to various backstories without implementing the real reason people loved them - they mattered narratively, were intrinsic to the plot and various subplots, and provided solid character motivation at the very beginning of the story. For example, the human noble origin starts your warden's story off with the betrayal and murder of your parents at the hands of supposed close friend Arl Howe. So now you have very personal motivations to leave your home, become a Grey Warden, and be an active participant in the political landscape of Ferelden. Same goes for each of the origins you can play, each of which introduces the player to subcultures and subplots important to the setting.

Like Veilguard, Inquisition didn't do well with this, but it was fine since the real narrative hook for why the player's character becomes the protagonist is them gaining the anchor and stepping out of the fade in the wake of a world-altering calamity under uncertain circumstances. And most importantly, the game allows you to roleplay how your character feels about the whole thing. Rook, on the other hand (heh), is a character who only gets a short paragraph, functionally identical no matter the faction, about pissing off their higher ups before being recruited by Varric. Supposedly, Rook travels with Varric and Harding for the better part of a year before the game takes place, a timeframe we only learn a couple hours into the game.

This is all coupled with some painterly cutscenes where Varric gives us the lowdown on Solas and his plans. Which is fine, but does the bare minimum and gives our player character no personal stake in the story. We are left to infer our pre existing relationship with Varric (and Harding) and our Rook's reasons for stopping Solas. You can kind of define those reasons later on, but they are rather shallow and the game does not give them their due emphasis. Not to mention this comes at a point in the story I'd argue is way too late.

What should have happened to start the game was a mission that allows us to both define Rook's relationship with Varric and their stake in the story. You could conceivably come up with any number of specifics for this prologue mission, so I'll forgo getting too into the weeds, except to say that it should in some capacity involve Solas' agents that were seen and hinted at during Trespasser. Since the game insists on allowing Rook to be from one of six factions (a seeming holdover from the pivot away from a live service model for the game), the game should start off with a mission about narrowing Solas' ritual location down. Allow us to banter with Varric about the months leading up to that moment. Allow us to elucidate our feelings on what Solas plans and our taking leave from our faction. This would provide a great opportunity for have race or faction reactivity upon learning he was last seen in Minrathous, whether you're an elf or qunari hesitant to go to place that is generally hostile toward people like you or a shadow dragon eager to return home.

This would be a perfect lead in to contacting Neve Gallus for help and the existing opening mission, if you absolutely have to keep it in the game. I am still annoyed about John Epler stating that they wanted the beginning of this game to feel like the ending of a previous game. Why? That's the opposite of how a story should start. A story should start at the beginning, especially when one of their stated goals was to onboard new players to Dragon Age. It hamstrung them into leaving our main character's connection to Varric and the plot nebulous and undefined while they felt the need to shove in extremely awkward and on the nose exposition to tell the player about the veil, Solas, and ancient Elvhenan. Let the beginning of your story breathe, goddamn it.

Next up we'll talk about how the story handles Varric and why it's such a stupid fucking plot twist.

[cjh00k]

Calista Jane (CJ) Hook

She/Her

This is a roleplay account! I’m fine with most roleplay plots or so and I am open to rp in DM’S! Main acc is @aiodenhunt, and I use any prns really!

[educationaldm]

Story Hook: The party chase a child thief into a dead-end alley. The child is no where to be seen.

What happens next?

Do the players give up?

Is this the first of many encounters with this child?

Why is this child targeting them?

[wheneverfeasible]

I fully blame @blushweddinggowns (purpleweekend on AO3) for this because now they have reignited my obsession with pirate AUs but now I really want to do my own version of a Steddie Pirate AU. I just don’t know if I want to do it as a story or as a roleplay plot lmao.

I will probably be posting something for it at some point today or tomorrow, depending on when I finish it, because now I am hooked on piratey Steddie goodness.

But seriously, I’m really enjoying their fic Siren and I recommend it if you like pirates and Steddie and protective platonic Stobin. I am highly enjoying though.

[anonymousredactedconfessions]

To the person who mentioned the balance between lore and fluff being super inconsistent, yeah I think that's what frustrates most people. I got into Redacted through his lore-heavy stuff (a few months after Inversion finished) and that's what hooked me. The people who recommended him to me were also heavily selling him on the lore. It's hard/frustrating for me to keep up though, because he not only heavily leans on the fluff, but the fluff often feels like it comes from a different story entirely.

I learned to appreciate the fluff. There's still lore there, it's just more like getting bits and pieces that combine into a bigger story rather than a traditional narrative structure of introduction -> character development -> rising action -> climax -> resolution. I can appreciate that it has its own style. The problem is that sometimes (especially recently) Redacted characters just... don't feel like they're even part of the same story. I think the D.A.M.N. crew and the Shaw Pack are the worst offenders here. Sometimes they're characters in a big supernatural soap opera, then they drop that theme and appear in audio after audio just being painfully generic and disconnected from all the plot/lore that was established for them.

Sometimes months pass and the plots they're involved in don't get mentioned at all, even when there's a lot at stake. Ex: characters seem to get amnesia characters get about CloseKnit, the post-Inversion fallout, William's shady activities etc. The plotlines the characters are involved in vanish suddenly and return randomly. Their supernatural abilities go months (sometimes years) without being used or even mentioned. It's downright bizarre seeing characters be threatened by a supernatural cult, then just go five months without mentioning it and instead spend time playing videogames and decorating their apartments or whatever else happens in the fluff audios.

Their characterization changes in the fluff/vs lore-based audios. Fluff David and Lore David feel like the same character transplanted into two different plotlines. Fluff Milo and Lore Milo actually feel like two completely different people. The DAMN Crew in the main Freelancer series feel like they're part of a fascinating magical world, but the DAMN Crew from the fluff audios just feel like a completely different group group of friends with the same names and voices. It's like they come from an AU. That is what bugs me.

At least Vincent and Sam are pretty consistent between their boyfriend roleplays and plot focused audios. Geordi too, even though he doesn't appear as often. Replying to this anon: https://www.tumblr.com/anonymousredactedconfessions/755285410436055040/not-something-that-hasnt-been-said-before-but-i?source=share

.

[txttletale]

bundletober #8: nasty, brutish, and long

welcome to bundletober, the txttletale dot tumblr dot com ttrpg blogging indulgence that absolutely everyone. is talking about? yes! today i read a slightly longer game than most of the ones i've been talking about here, because, frankly, it captivated me. nasty brutish, and long, by not writing, is a game about rebellion.

what instantly drew me into this game is that 'rebellion' isn't abstract and it doesn't happen for no reason. a lot of games like to style themselvs as being 'about rebellion' or 'about revolution', with no actual desire to engage in why revolutions happen--there's an evil empire and you're fighting it because it's evil. but nasty, brutish, and long is clearly deeply invested in questions of class and economics--part of the first session asks you to consider the economic state of the nation:

and yet another part gives you a 36-item table to roll on for an inciting incident for the revolution in question:

i love this shit--well, firstly, because i love games that give you strong plot hooks, games that tell you about their world, games that imply possibilities through options rather than grabbing your lapels and telling you what possibilities are on the table in tedious monologue. but second because this shows that the game wants to tell stories about the realities of revolution, that it is founding itself in history as more than just an aesthetic.

another really cool thing that happens before you even get out of character creation is 'backgrounds' -- as part of creating your character, you select four backgrounds (professions your character has worked), which are separated by social class (another choice you make at character creation). while you can always choose, the game encourages you to roll on yet more tables and make a story from that--i've done it a few times, and it's great fun.

for example, in the course of writing this post i created geoffrey--born a rural peasant class, he was taken in under the wing of a preacher after his family died. the preacher recognizes his potential and groomed him to be his successor--when the preacher eventually passed away, geoffrey, who'd always been a confident silvertongued lad, became his rural township's pastor. however, although he was convincing, he'd never been a true believer--so while when on a pilgrimage a merchant approached him with a simple scheme, using the legal immunity afforded to pilgrims to have him smuggle contraband into the country, he happily became a smuggler. this worked out great for a while, and saw geoffrey make a very tidy sum--but after a particularly close call he realized that he needed to get the hell out of this arrangement. with the sum of his ill-gotten gains, he travelled to a city and purchased a bookstore, becoming a middle class shop owner. he happily lived out the next few decades selling books--but at heart, he missed the fire of a sermon, having the ear of a crowd, so in his late years he passed his shop on to his son and became an elderly teacher, bringing literacy to the village of his youth.

this is exactly the kind of thing i fucking love about tabletop roleplaying games, the feeling that the game is chiming in with me as i try to tell a story, throwing me these weird curveballs i have to 'yes, and!' to create a backstory i'd never have thought of on a million years on my own. something else worth noting is that character creation is very open for a forged in the dark game -- you're unlkely to even have the same set of attributes as someone else, and you can pick backgrounds and abilities (mostly) totally independent of one another or any overarching playbook-type restriction.

the game itself diverges from blades in a lot of interesting ways. instead of blades' system of looking for the highest die, nasty, brutish, and long operates on a die pool system, which is what allows for it to add a large pile of levers for influencing rolls, including using multiple attributes for the same roll--there seems to be some OSR influence in here, with the open-endedness of the actual moment to moment gameplay and the vast amount of opportunities to use and exchange in-game resources. that said, unlike OSR stuff, there's a lot of effort being put in here to hand narrative control to players. instead of just saying 'you succeed' on a success, it says, 'the PC narrates what happens' which is a really cool spin on the usual success/mixed success/failure trifecta. players also get the ability to make up NPCs by expending resources, which is super cool.

other highlights include a take on burning wheel's drives system, a weird version of blades' resist mechanic that lets you change, rather than avert, the consequence your character faces, and a take on 'downtime' that frames it as more of a timeskip, during which years can pass. it's pretty cool stuff.

oh, and finally--the fucking style of this game is incredible. it does a lot with very little colour--a few splashes of dark red here and there is all it needs to complement its striking black and white, rich sense of texture, and

if there's one thing i don't like about nasty, brutish, and long, it's that it doesn't have any strong ideas about what the players need to be doing. the game establishes social turmoil and brewing revolution, makes a huge point of social class and class differences, but the verbs, the substance of what your player characters do, is deliberately left totally open. and that's cool for some people, some people like that openness a lot! but for me, who appreciates a tight and specific design, it doesn't do much. the tagline says its 'an game about class and revolution'--and i'm not sure i can fully agree with that. it'd be more accurate to call it a game 'containing class and revolution'. which is a step up from a lot of games that claim to be revolutionary, as i said before--but at the end of the day leaves me feeling like something's been left on the table.

still, there's a huge amount here worth checking out--even if you don't intend on playing it, it's a great look into the different directions you can take the forged in the dark framework, and a great tool for Making Up Guys. can't go wrong with making up a guy!

nasty, brutish, and long can be purchased as a digital download through itch.io

[rpedia]

I’ve seen your post about good starters, is there anything with good conversations starters that’ll actually get characters somewhere?

So, starters are something that gives other people an idea of how you play your character, what your goals are, and what you're looking for. They also need to be pretty open ended, or happen in a public place unless you want to hook a specific other character. That means a starter is infinitely customizable and super personal to write. Just copy pasting any given starter is not going to do the job you need it for, it'll stymie your growth and leave you scrambling to keep up with whatever someone else chose for you. On top of that, starters are not what keep RP going: The plot and player is.

So, let's jump in and break it down a little more so it's easier to put together your own starter from absolutely nothing, and how you as a player can keep plot going after the initial starter is dead in the dust behind you on your little journey, shall we?

When you write a starter, basically you're writing a hook to get someone involved in a situation. You're putting out into the world a question, or something that looks like it needs to be interrupted or acted on, so that other people will interrupt or act on it. So write it from that perspective: what would make you want to engage with a post?

So, pick apart what's important to you to get from a partner. When you roleplay, you look for specific goals, an A to B, essentially. Are you writing this scene in an attempt to explore the character and maybe find out something about their past or reveal a secret? Do you simply want to see how they respond to others? Or do you have a plot in mind? If there's an arc of a story you wanna get through, you're gonna have to nestle your starter securely in a situation that will allow you to forward that plot. See what I mean about it being deeply personal?

For example: If I were playing Tony Stark, and I wanted him to show off a new invention while handling his PTSD, I might drop a starter invoking curiosity. I'd set it up with a scene, probably near his workshop but public enough someone would have a chance to see me. I'd be carrying something remarkable but, questionable. "Did you just see him with a bomb?" This item would effect another character, so it would be rewarding to double check Tony isn't about to wreck your household by blowing it up. Then I'd have an experiment or invention in mind. He's made a robot that goes and grabs bombs, and folds over them to protect the household ala Steve Rogers jumping on a grenade. Mostly to stop Steve doing that shit. Cool, cool. I'll have that in mind when I describe what they find if they call out to him, and he ignores them and keeps bolting, or they follow him to see what's up. Then I can discuss it, and show emotions in my post that lead the other character to ask questions why I made this. Reveal a personal story or anecdote, and eventually get cornered by their curiosity or my loud mouth into joking and revealing some deeply personal trauma. Tada, a starter!

A starter that only works for my goals of exploring Tony's trauma, that only works for Tony Stark, that only works with characters who would see him when he's vulnerable at home with the other Avengers. So it's absolutely personalized and broken for anyone else.

Except, throughout, you can see how I logically broke it down! Here is the hook, here is my character's interests, here is why another person wants to care, here is my goal for the reveal, here's enough plot to feed into the machine to keep them interested, here's how I expect the scene to get to a certain point. It's very loosely put together, because by the end of it I might be looking at their trauma instead if, for instance, the explosion sets off a panic attack. Keeping flexibility helps keep a conversation going.

It also helps to provoke. Prod, ask questions, be curious, or offer something that makes other people want to know more. When you just roleplay hi, how are you, hello, how's the weather that's not a conversation so much as small talk. Which will die out quickly because there's no bonding or true interaction beyond the surface level. Like a geode, a character must be broken to see what shiny things are inside. So find something to crack them open a little, a chip here or there.

Now, if the other person absolutely fucking sucks at prompting you or offering a chance to open up? You may wanna, as a player, screw with the narrative and make for external pressure. Put your character under a deadline, by making them be waiting for something stressful. It makes them try to get things in fast, and they mess up. Maybe have a phone call or something happen, so they have to talk in front of the other character and divulge more than they meant to. You can force things on your character from outside, and it can help keep things going.

Relying entirely on your characters to keep things going is a fool's errand if the characters are not expressive, extroverted, and mouthy. A quiet stern guy who keeps to himself will want to kill a conversation quickly, and it'll drive other players off because they think that's you doing it, not your character. So make sure your narration explains why they're acting like that, and give tips to approach for the other character. Like I said, external forces may be the only way to force someone out of their shell while making sure your RP partner wants to keep digging!

You may have to fudge your character's personality or characterization slightly to get the ball rolling. Don't be afraid to make them slightly OOC if it means opening a door to tons more IC things. What, you've never blurted out something by mistake, or gotten mad and said something you regret because it's not really you? You never lied? Tch! They can fuck up too! Let them! Explore that!

Starters are never gonna be as easy as reading off cards, or having something set-up for you. You're gonna have to look at the setting for your character and see what's important. Are there places people frequent? Are there hobbies your character does that may be interesting? Can you arrive covered in blood because you're an assassin to prompt other people to fret until they realize it's not your blood and you can brag about the kill? Can you do something that seems out of character, but is perfectly normal? Be interesting! be interested in what your partner has to offer too, maybe it's not what you intended but following THEIR plot concepts can be super rewarding too!

So, good luck, and happy roleplaying!