Personal stakes! Yes, that's an excellent one. And I think even if some of the stakes are huge--the world is going to end!--there can still be personal factors. The world is going to end, and we have to stop it because--because all my stuff is stored here, because my family is here, because I don't want to let down my friends, etc. And please don't start a story with someone just deciding they're going to save the world or overthrow the evil king or whatever. I much prefer stories where people think they're just taking someone in for the night/trying to locate their missing sister/take a vacation and they unintentionally get caught up in much larger events.
Case in point, because I just finished reading the entire series, in the Dresden Files, Harry inevitably thinks his latest case is just some minor thing--find a stolen Church relic, for example, or find a book for an insane vampire--and they always end up being these huge things--stop a warlock from becoming immortal, stop fallen angels from causing the Apocalypse, whatever. He doesn't mean to do big stuff, it just sort of happens that way. (Although, in all fairness, he's gotten more genre savvy in later books, considering who his clients are now. Or, rather, client.)
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