Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

                                                                                 — Mark Twain

As both a player and a DM I love good character hooks.  In the current campaign I’m running I had each of the players draw a couple of the following at random and work them into their personal histories.  I’ve even been using some of them for important NPC’s to give them more depth and personality. 

The following lists hooks by category; background, relationships, and motivations.  Most of them are not completely specific, they are simply designed to inspire and get you thinking about your character.  Use them for your character, NPC, or just as inspiration to create your own.

Background

• You have a former mentor, role model, or teacher that disappeared under unusual circumstances.
• You owe a significant debt to someone else.  The debt could be financial, moral, obligatory, or even a blood debt.
• You have an embarrassing secret you do not want others to know.  This secret may be from your past or something ongoing.
• You have served time for a crime.  You may or may not have actually committed the crime.
• You are the sole survivor of a great tragedy that affected your family, social group, or perhaps even an entire community. 
• You are a reluctant member of your character class.  Unusual or perhaps tragic circumstance brought you to your current vocation. 
• You once served (or maybe still do) in a local militia. 
• You have no recollection of your past beyond a few weeks ago.  Everything about you is a mystery to yourself although others may remember all sorts of things about you both good and bad. 
• You are scarred from some traumatic event in your past.  These scars may be mental, emotional, or even physical but always serve to remind you of the past.
• You are out to clear your family name due to some notorious family member of some infamous event. 
• You have a childhood rival always out to one-up you.
• Unusual circumstance surrounded your birth and many have considered this an omen of some sort, either for good or ill. 
• There is a price on your head.  This may be a legitimate bounty placed on you for a crime or debt, or someone may just be out to get you.
• You feel the burden of expectation placed upon you by some person, a community, or an organization. 
• Someone close to you was recently killed or disappeared mysteriously.  You want to discover the truth behind the event and perhaps seek justice / revenge. 
• You were once a slave, outcast, or some other pariah.  Perhaps you have escaped that life or maybe it still haunts you. 
• You have returned from the dead.  A local priest raised you.  Now you seek out answers for you death.
• You are the rightful heir (perhaps the only living one) of a displaced noble family.  You seek to reclaim your rightful place as a noble.   

Relationships

• You and another PC are related.  This relationship could be by blood, marriage, or adoption.  The relationship may be near (siblings) or more distant (second cousins).
• You are an orphan.  You may or may not, know what happened to your family.
• You are the descendant of a well known and much despised villain.
• You have a significant love interest.  This person may or may not know that you have feelings for them.
• You have a sibling of great renown and fame.
• You are from a well known and highly respected family in the community.
• You have a twin who disappeared when you were both much younger.
• You have a child.  This could be from a past or present marriage, a child out of wedlock, or one you adopted.  You may not even know of the child.
• You have a spouse.  This person may or may not be supportive of your life as an adventurer.  Your spouse may even be an adventurer (another PC?).
• You and another PC are former rivals.  This rivalry may have had its roots in something personal, professional, or even romantic.  For whatever reason the heart of the rivalry is no longer an issue. 
• You are trying to please a person, group, or organization.  Your reputation and standing within that is very important to you. 
• People are suspicious or doubtful of you due to some mistake you made when you where younger. 
• Someone looks up to and admires you.  This may be an apprentice you are training or perhaps just a fanboy who idolizes you. 
• Some person or group believes you are the “chosen one”.  They virtually worship you and hold you in very high regard.  Some of them may seek to emulate you or even have you perform “miracles” for them. 

Motivations

• You have a strong commitment outside of your adventuring.  The commitment may be of a family, religious, political, or even professional nature.
• You are a deeply religious individual.  You may revere one deity in particular or perhaps the entire pantheon.  Your religion colors your outlook on life.
• You are an honor-bound person.  Your word is your bond and you never give it lightly.
• You worry about your reputation.  You may want others to like you, respect you, follow you, or even fear you.  You work hard to achieve and maintain this reputation. 
• You have a personal hero, someone you look up to.  This may be a living family member or a long-dead ancestor. It maybe a great hero of myth and legend or someone alive today.  Either way you admire and seek to emulate your hero.
• You carry with you long standing guilt for a past misdeed either real or imagined. 
• You long for a “normal” life, one without monsters and villains or adventure to the far corners of the world. 
• You feel the call of some “higher power”.  This could be a religious calling, some sworn duty or obligation, or just something you feel you “have to do”. 
• You feel as though it is your destiny to do something of great importance.
• You grew up pampered in the lap of luxury.  Rebelling against this you have struck out to make a name for yourself based on your own merits, not those of your family. 
• You belong to a secret society or organization whose goals are more important to you than your own. 
• You always strive to make up for some dark past.  The details of this past may or may not be all that traumatic and dark. 

These are just a handful of ideas that each could be implemented in any number of different ways.  How might you elaborate on any of these?  What are your ideas and thoughts?