story hooks i have going in my game right now are:
1) PC PALADIN who is about to join the group is from an ancient order opposed to the vampire lords. He has a brother who has been corrupted by the evil cult and they are using him to help further their goals.
2) PC BURGLAR is cursed by an evil sword that is slowly turning him into a vampire. His goal is to seek help from a group of 'good' monks. They are led by a high priestess who also wants to defeat the evil cult. The cult have plans to abduct her and use her as a sacrifice.
3) PC BARBARIAN is working for the leader of a fighters guild (a crime lord). The pc has fallen off-side with him and owed him a large dept of gold.
4) PC BOUNTY HUNTER has been hired to locate a rogue magician who is presumed to be linked to a plot to abduct a 'good' magician and ally of the party. The good magician has gone missing under suspicious circumstances and information is needed to locate him or prove he has been murdered.
5) PC ASSASSIN is working as a spy to gather intel on a rival assassins guild.
Neat to see these. With the party I'm spinning up (4 of 5 have done solo adventures!) I have:
1) PC orcish bard, a custom class I made, whose brigand band was ambushed and wiped out while he and a couple of others guarded the base. The base was discovered, so they had to flee.
2) PC nightblade, whose mother crossed the evil church that rules their country. She was publicly sacrificed as a warning, and he and his father fled town. His father went to avenge her and said the son had to get out or the church would catch and slaughter him, too.
3) PC rogue who was so poor he was proficient with a club, but only owned a stick. A local prostitute in his hinterlands village convinced him to escort her to the big city. They're about to pick up 2 NPCs who are going to drag the whole party into controversies.
4) PC warrior monk, from a maritime culture, was sent across country by his noble mom and dad, to deliver a message to a former captain.
5) PC wood elf cleric, of the goddess of water. She's apprenticed on a fishing boat that gets wrecked in a storm, and her mentor killed.
Unbeknownst to the players, #1 and #2 share the enmity of the same evil cleric - he slaughtered the brigands, and the mother, for being part of a ring smuggling potential sacrifice victims to freedom.
The other thing I'm doing this time, to tie the characters into a party, is mystical (read, unexplained) cross-powers. Each PC will receive some benefit from staying with one of the others, and they'll lose that when they part ways. For example, the cleric will give the nightblade elfin resistance to poison. The rogue will give the monk linguistic ability.