I have a group of 5-7 players all at level 7. Some of the players have come and gone. When we began this campaign (roughly a year ago) I was pretty new to DMing. I had a story written for an entire campaign, characters, and all.
The they player's began to derail and go off story, so I began creating content for them on the fly. That worked for a long time, but now they're to the point where they've pretty much got nothing to go on, and half the party hates the other half (Character wise, not Player wise, we're all good friends).
The problem started with my understanding of loot. The characters are overpowered by equipment: +3 Magic items and Wondrous loot (like the Luck Blade and Cubic Gate), as. During character creation we used the 4d6d1 which led to some godlike level 1's with 20's in their stats (Due to racial bonuses).
RESTART ATTEMPT
During the last game I decided I needed a way to restart them. One of the guys just bought a new card game. I decided to challenge the players: whoever won could decide between a crate of 6 dragon eggs (One for each player) and losing all their gear, or keeping their gear. This led to a tense situation, which played out really well, with intrigue and players working together. It ended with one player with 3 dragons eggs, 2 with none, and 3 with one each.
My plan is to have the eggs hatch. They are all gearless, making that the challenge to go with whatever quest comes along.
I feel that I have created a world that has wheels within wheels (2 players are cursed with lycanthropy unbeknownst to them).
Clarifying The Question
How does one develop a hook for a group of misfit adventurers that all have different goals?
