What's my motivation here?

[bokodasu]

I'm starting in a new 5th-level campaign, got my character all rolled up, basic personality ready to go - and I can't think of any reason why she should be an adventurer. I've been through all the cliches, and want to avoid anything related to:


Escaping arranged marriage
Partner kidnapped/killed by badguys
Family kidnapped/killed by badguys
Village burned to ground by badguys


Wouldn't it be refreshing to play a character with a nice, normal, still-alive family who she gets on with ok, who comes from a village that hasn't been wiped out by a marauding horde of anything? But if everything's ok, why would she be out killing kobolds instead of safely at home?

Really I'm looking for more general motivations, but for this specific character, she's got fairly average stats, a little weak, but hyper-smart. And she's a psion, which seems like it should be a hook right there, except I want to stay away from "and she found out when she accidentally burned the village to the ground with the power of her mind." (She doesn't even HAVE fire powers. The best she could do would be to cover the village in ectoplasmic grease.)

[Eldan]

Other classics that work with healthy, living families:

*Wants to find a master of her particular skill to learn from.
*Wants to see the world.
*Wants to earn money and fame.

All of these work with almost any character and can then be personalized.

[peacenlove]

I'm starting in a new 5th-level campaign, got my character all rolled up, basic personality ready to go - and I can't think of any reason why she should be an adventurer. I've been through all the cliches, and want to avoid anything related to:


Escaping arranged marriage
Partner kidnapped/killed by badguys
Family kidnapped/killed by badguys
Village burned to ground by badguys


Wouldn't it be refreshing to play a character with a nice, normal, still-alive family who she gets on with ok, who comes from a village that hasn't been wiped out by a marauding horde of anything? But if everything's ok, why would she be out killing kobolds instead of safely at home?

Really I'm looking for more general motivations, but for this specific character, she's got fairly average stats, a little weak, but hyper-smart. And she's a psion, which seems like it should be a hook right there, except I want to stay away from "and she found out when she accidentally burned the village to the ground with the power of her mind." (She doesn't even HAVE fire powers. The best she could do would be to cover the village in ectoplasmic grease.)

Poverty. Maybe the family seems okay but is in reality indebted and she needs quick and dirty money.
Obligation to the state. Due to her abilities she was drafted into the military into a special assignment unit (the adventuring party). The money is good and she won't need to work afterwards ever.
A shining example. A great hero achieved the impossible. Not only her but many of her age are inspired by his example and set out to make a name for themselves.

[Serpentine]

"Because I want to" is always fine, and is the basis of a few characters I've come across.

If you're super-clever and a psion, what about knowledge? She wants to know as much about anything that she can, and... well, she already knew everything about everything and everyone where she was. Quite possibly more than they wanted her to know...

[kamikasei]

Maybe her family's in debt and she's adventuring to pay it off (though a non-monetary obligation would be best since otherwise she'll quickly have as much money as could realistically be needed). Perhaps she owes a debt of service to an authority who sends her along with the party, because the authority did something good for her or her family in the past, or she or a family member did something bad to the authority that has to be made right.

Maybe she owes something to the party or a person in it.

Maybe it's just standard practice in her culture for gifted young people to go a-wandering for a while.

Maybe she wants to get enough gold together to resurrect a loved one, and in the process of doing so will pick up enough ties to the party and the campaign to stick around after she does so.


A shining example. A great hero achieved the impossible. Not only her but many of her age are inspired by his example and set out to make a name for themselves.
Meant to mention something like this myself: maybe she wants to do good, and thinks she can do more as a psion by going out in to the world than by staying at home.

[Duke of URL]

One I'm currently using: Perhaps she is a member of (or wants to join) an organization who sends her on a mission that requires her to adventure.

[Trekkin]

Perhaps boredom could work? If she's as smart as she sounds, sitting in a medieval village watching grain grow is going to get very boring, very fast, and she could adventure to stave off ennui. Assuming a world sufficiently misogynistic that she can't easily get into some scholarly academy, she'd probably see adventuring as the only sufficiently challenging outlet for her intellect that also provides a wealth of new experiences.

Depending on her discipline, she could be Grand Admiral Thrawn crossed with the most annoying bratty child you've ever seen with ADD thrown in for good measure. "Judging from their taste in camp guard layout, the kobolds are coming from the south armed with spears and short swords in the following pincer formation and if I manifest grease here the left flank will be immobilized for long enough that we can funnel both ends into the valley here where they're all within fireball radius now can we PLEASE move ON I want to see what's over the next rise."

[Yora]

Debt may work to get a character on the road, but is a bad motivation for a longer campaign. If you survive, adventuring is by far the best selling job in the world. By clearing a single dungeon, you can easily make several years wages in just one day. Once you reached 2nd level, you probably have enough wealth to buy your whole home village.

[kamikasei]

Debt may work to get a character on the road, but is a bad motivation for a longer campaign.
Unless it's a debt of service, or to be paid in something that can't simply be bought with money but must be quested for...

Remember too that you just need to get them away from home to start with. Once out in the wide world there can be all kinds of reasons to want to stay there.

[pffh]

You could work with the paradoxical commandants.
http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com/

Basically "I won't be able to change much and I will probably be scorned or laughed at for my effort BUT I will do my best to help people"

Or "This world/city/town/friends/whatever ain't much BUT it is MY world/city/town/friends/whatever and by [insert deity here] I WILL fight for it".

[Callista]

See, this is why I like Good-aligned adventurers; there's no need to make it personal to kick them into the adventuring life--they just have to see that there's a wrong out there and realize they have the skills to deal with it, and the adventuring follows logically.

If you're a cleric or a paladin, then the generic "vision from the deity" works fine. A devout character in some other class can be the same way--don't have to be a cleric to be close to your god.

If your character is part of a hierarchy, then maybe he's received orders from his superiors. Fighters and other military types are commonly in this category.

Needing money for some reason is a common motivation. For example, let's say that your character grew up in a poor but quite happy family, and wants to become wealthier--maybe gain enough money to give his parents comfort in their old age, or to buy a house and a farm in order to marry a significant other and give them and their kids a decent life.

Maybe your character doesn't fit into society for some reason. Half-orcs and half-elves, who grow up between two cultures, often have this motivation; they don't have strong roots to begin with. Halflings and gnomes often have enough wanderlust to want to leave home and travel for a while before settling down, so they are natural adventurers.

Bards are natural travelers, gathering stories and entertaining as they go. They practically don't need a reason to leave home.

Maybe your character is a mercenary and was hired by someone to, say, protect a merchant caravan, serve as a bodyguard, remove bandits, or join a military unit.

Being on the run from something will put a character on the road. Having a bounty out for your head is a good reason to get out of your hometown. A shady past will do it, too--maybe the thieves' guild is after you, or you're running before your latest con is discovered. Even darker characters could be running to avoid being hung for murder, banditry, etc.

You could be displaced for some other reason. Maybe your character is trying to find a new place to settle down because his town has been caught in the middle of war, and when your fields are burned and your town is destroyed, there's no place to live anymore. Maybe there's a plague he's running from, or a famine.

You could be running away from tyranny of some kind. Being an escaped slave makes sense; so does having escaped a tyrannical government. On a smaller scale, maybe your family is so overbearing you escaped at the first opportunity, or maybe they are even harsh enough to be considered abusive (but be careful with this--you don't want to make others uncomfortable if they have experienced this themselves; D&D is supposed to be fun). Or maybe you're running away from a bad marriage--your spouse is overbearing or annoying; or you're just the sort of person who doesn't like sticking around when the going gets tough, so you've left them and gone traveling.

Chaotics have a built-in motivation--they just want to go out and seek their fortune rather than staying in one place all their lives. Maybe you're from a small town, it's boring, and you're sick of it. A naive character who leaves a small town for the excitement of it has to face harsh realities sooner or later, but that can be quite interesting to play out.

Being stranded somewhere is another reason you might adventure. I had a character who was accidentally plane-shifted by a misfired spell, met the other party members, and stuck together for safety. You could be a shipwrecked sailor or traveler, or a merchant whose business has gone so bad that you don't have the money to return home. War can strand people, too; you don't want to have to sneak past battlefields to get home--that's a great way to get yourself killed.

So yeah... lots of reasons, and that's not even taking into account your own character's personality and whatnot.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I once played a character who was in love with his life at home. 'Chaim the Gentleman Farmer'. Think druidy amish fellow. Loving wife, houseful of kids, plentiful fields and orchards. Friend, council leader, and loved head of the community.

However, lots of strange things were occurring to the land around, and folks, good friends and neighbors, were going missing. Apparently the entire country/area was.

So as a representative of his area, he went to the nearest main city to inform them of the troubles. City was attacked and the threat made manifest. He sent word to his wife on a pigeon (animal messenger), and another to the heads of his community that he would have to be dealing with this stuff. His farm hands and older sons ran the farm, and his wife returned a note saying she'd be waiting for him, however long it took.

That's literally how he got into the campaign. He got into the thick of things because he loved his family, not because he lost them. As I put it to the DM, there is one thing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose. It's a man who has everything to lose.

[Dimers]

Upon seeing "smart and a little weak" my first thought was that the character had been teased into negative hitpoints frequently throughout her childhood, bullied, mugged for lunch money by kids years younger than she is. That's plenty of reason to want to get out of town and do something, ANYTHING, else. It also provides a solid (if cliche'd) basis for either good or evil alignment: wanting to help others who are being picked on, or craving enough power to make sure nobody picks on you ever again.

[Anonomuss]

The hooks that came to my mind were amongst the following.

Her powers are abhorrant to the people of her extremely religious town. They believe that the only magic that should exist are those given down from on high by the gods (With arcane power being from the God of Knowledge, primal from the God of the Wild and Divine Power being the general norm.) and that other "magiks" are tools of demons and devils to thwart the Gods will. Her family might care for her, but are finding it increasingly difficult to keep her powers secret with her curious nature and her desire to learn the limits of her powers. They might have sent her away to her more tolerant relatives only for her to decide half way there that she'd be more able to learn the limits and depths of her powers by travelling. She could do good deeds, and show the people of her home town the errors of their beliefs.

She might alternately have been sent to a more senior practicioner of the same discipline, only to find that their powers have waned with age/they're incompetant/they're too restrictive. The mentor's tone can vary with what kind of person you want your character to be. They could be ignorant and abbrasive, if you want your character to feel justified in abandoning their teachings. They could be kind hearted but without true talent, if you want your character to be continuing with their blessing and have, a somewhat clueless, a contact to continue with. They could even be indifferent, but self serving, if your character wants to be able to do more good in the world, when they see the way their mentor's powers have corrupted their outlook on the world.

They're not great ideas, but they're workable.

[Benly]

My favorite for psychics is "I read someone's mind and learned something about them which made it impossible for me to live there anymore". Or "I learned it off an object via psychometry", or "I saw it via clairvoyance", or whatever suits the character's powers.

[bokodasu]

That is a lot of really good ideas! I think I've figured out a way to make it all work, and even fit in with the campaign.

The only reason I try to be careful about "paying off a debt" backstory is that I have mean DMs who actually make me spend my loot on paying off my debts. Which is no fun for me, as a player. But I really like the "paying off a debt THROUGH SERVICE", because it's a natural hook and it lets you keep your candy.

Now the only thing I'm having trouble with is how to describe a character with low strength and above-average constitution. Weak but hearty? That doesn't sound right.

@Vorpal Tribble - your druid story made me sniffle. It's *exactly* the sort of thing I'm talking about - fewer orphan loner hobos, more heroes of home and hearth.

[Duke of URL]

Now the only thing I'm having trouble with is how to describe a character with low strength and above-average constitution. Weak but hearty? That doesn't sound right.

Weak but surprisingly tough of fiber. Think Tolkien hobbits or Rasputin.

[bokodasu]

Her powers are abhorrant to the people of her extremely religious town.

That's funny, what I picked is close to and yet almost the opposite of that. Her family is all paladins and clerics (still have to pick a god here), and she's the black sheep who can't even remember her evening prayers. When her psi powers manifest, they're kind of relieved to figure out why she's so incompetent, and pack her off to go study with someone who understands those alien magics. But, you know, with love and a teddybear, not torches and pitchforks.


Weak but surprisingly tough of fiber. Think Tolkien hobbits or Rasputin.

That's it exactly, thanks!

[Tiki Snakes]

She has a great, caring family. Problem is, the best way they can see of ensuring her safe and happy is to marry her off to [boring guy] as soon as possible, so she can devote herself to cooking, cleaning, and housework and generally being a pretty little whifey and stop messing around with Man's Things like serious books and ancient lore.

The home life is great, but suddenly not being there is starting to look a little more attractive to the psionically powered intallectual.

[AmberVael]

You could say that since she has a great family and a nice home and never had a traumatic upbringing, that once she realizes all the potential things that could have gone wrong, she decides that maybe it would be wise to invest some time into making sure it doesn't. :smalltongue:

So she adventures. Because each time she fends off a horde of orcs or placates a rampaging dragon, she makes things a bit safer for her family.

[Ingus]

I vote for Vorpal's :smallbiggrin:

To the main theme... if you pick the "looking for master" motivation alone, you'll have difficulties jumping in all the adventures hooks your master will show you.
You can add boredom as secondary motivation and a strong will to mess up with the world around (if chaotic), to find out an answer to "who am I and what's my place in the world" (if neutral) or to forge her persona (if lawful).
As an adventurer, she could face the question of why go to the catacombs of the last duke instead of staying in city and quetly learning psionics, like all the responsible NPC do.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

@Vorpal Tribble - your druid story made me sniffle. It's *exactly* the sort of thing I'm talking about - fewer orphan loner hobos, more heroes of home and hearth.
If interested, here is his (rather long) backstory.

Father of the Fields (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2561437&postcount=13)

[Grelna the Blue]

Now the only thing I'm having trouble with is how to describe a character with low strength and above-average constitution. Weak but hearty? That doesn't sound right.

I've got a character like that. 5 foot nothing, less than 100 pounds dripping wet, and not even super buff (a mage), but at least reasonably fit and with a great immune system. Also, think of kids. Plenty of them IRL are too small to be very strong but are as healthy as horses.

[Kuma Kode]

Now the only thing I'm having trouble with is how to describe a character with low strength and above-average constitution. Weak but hearty? That doesn't sound right. Well, biologically speaking, men have a tendency to build muscle easier and therefore be physically strong, but women have a stronger immune system and are more resistant to their environment. Combine that with any genetic tendencies she has and perhaps what her chores were around her homestead, she may have built up good cardiovascular health but didn't do anything that really built muscle. Light but long and repetitive work?

She's better built for light, constant activity instead of sudden bursts of intense exertion.

[Benly]

Low-STR high-CON makes me think of a distance runner.

[Ozymandias]

If she's really smart, she could simply have reached the conclusion that the only way to become smarter (and better at psionicity) is by killing goblins etc. She could simply have realized that adventurers grow in power much more quickly than scholars or cartwrights or whatever, and wanted a piece of the action.

[Kaeso]

This is another cliché but what about the nobleman/noblewoman who got bored of his/her luxurious lifestyle and went out to adventure in cognito?
Or the wild tribesman that went out into the world to prove himself worthy of *insert clan title here*?
Or even a soldier who's regiment was disbanded and is looking for a new way to earn a quick buck.

Perhaps you could be a highly trained professional trying to accomplish the goal of the campaign (for example, if your campaign is centered around demons you could play a PC that has been trained as a demon hunter in a secret order).

You don't always need orphans to make good adventurers, some have pretty normal lives :smallamused:

[Jay R]

Everybody in her local village gets along fine, and they spend all day growing potatoes and talking about growing potatoes and thinking about growing potatoes and planning for next year's potato crop and holding potato festivals and weeding potato crops and selling potatoes and

ENOUGH WITH THE POTATOES ALREADY! THERE MUST BE MORE IN LIFE THAN POTATOES!

[Myth]

It's all about the talking purple gerbil who prophesied to her in her dream. You cannot deny the will of the talking purple gerbil.

[TheWhisper]

Everybody in her local village gets along fine, and they spend all day growing potatoes and talking about growing potatoes and thinking about growing potatoes and planning for next year's potato crop and holding potato festivals and weeding potato crops and selling potatoes and

ENOUGH WITH THE POTATOES ALREADY! THERE MUST BE MORE IN LIFE THAN POTATOES!

Welllll... your mother and I didn't want to face it, I suppose. But we saw it coming. We're not totally comfortable with the idea, you understand, but this is not the first time someone has...

... Look, what we're trying to say is that we love you and we will still love even if you choose to... ah... ahem... discretely grow other kinds of root vegetables.

[BenInHB]

PC make more in a single encounter than most commoners make in a year. If you had Psionic powers would you still be happy planting and harvesting turnips??

Its kinda fun to play a Merc style character who is in it purely for the money and is always looking at the bottom line. "We would love to help you with your Dire Wolf problem but... well... you see animals don't tend to carry possessions of value for us to loot and I'm afraid your small farming community cant afford our services so... I think we will be headed over that hill to hunt down the bandits we saw the wanted poster for in the tavern, they should have a stock pile of lots of nice shiny stuff and plus the merchants have pooled together some gold and offered a bounty... Whelp, have a nice day!!"

And if this gets style tired its easy for a character to "find a cause" along the campaign trail.

[skywalker]

Depending on her discipline, she could be Grand Admiral Thrawn crossed with the most annoying bratty child you've ever seen with ADD thrown in for good measure. "Judging from their taste in camp guard layout, the kobolds are coming from the south armed with spears and short swords in the following pincer formation and if I manifest grease here the left flank will be immobilized for long enough that we can funnel both ends into the valley here where they're all within fireball radius now can we PLEASE move ON I want to see what's over the next rise."

That was pretty classic.

I'm always in for the Kanye explanation: I did it for the glory.

[Dr.Epic]

If your character is religious, they're on some quest for their god. It can be vague like "Restore order to the world because I'm your god and say so."

[Mikeavelli]

This is from waaaay back in the day, this was the original thread it appeared in (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-101363.html), and it has been my favorite backstory ever.

53) Evil volcano cultists abducted you as a baby. You were saved from mass baby sacrifice by two paladins, one a wise-cracking rookie representing St. Cuthbert and the other a by-the-book veteran spreading the word of Pelor. In an explosion-filled magic carpet chase through the underground geyser system, the head cultist managed to possess you just before biting it. You were taken to an orphanage where eventually a master of kung-fu adopted you, recognizing your potential even at such an early age. You spent your childhood learning how to punch and kick, but mostly to seek inner peace. At night, you warred with the spirit of the cultist in your dreams, besting him in his weakened form, but slowly coming to realize that one day, he will overpower you. At the age of nine, you fled the monastery and fell into the hands of some gnomish sailors, who tried to sell you into slavery to an Orcish cabal of alchemists. The sale was interrupted by a raiding party of gnolls, though. In the ensuing battle, you crippled an arm stealing a worg and riding to safety. You trudged on through the deserts and plains and foothills, subsisting off of the (un)mercy of nature and fleeing the daily hordes of monsters and unnamable entities. After weeks of travel, you made it to a trading hub and apprenticed yourself to the mad cleric of Olidamarra who healed your arm....several times after repeatedly crippling it for laughs. For years, you were used as guinea pig for the cleric's wizard friends, gaining all manner of maladies and additions to your physical form. During a boring afternoon, the evil cultist guy in your soul finally took over and promptly murdered the cleric, using your mouth to scream something about "violations" and weeping profusely. You regained control weeks afterward to realize you were suddenly a famous adventurer, having defeated some guy which was totally bad ass (even though you don't remember it. But you do have a fish souvenir thing.)

[Templarkommando]

There are a couple of other things I would suggest in addition to what has been given:

1. You are an ideologue. Your beliefs have compelled you to seek the adventuring life, because you believe your special talents will help you affect society (be it for the sake of good/evil/law/chaos/whatever).

2. After burning the town to the ground, you have become intrigued by your newfound powers. You believe that if they are not appropriately restrained you could cause major problems for those around you. The most obvious way to refine your powers is to seek a life of adventuring, and if you get a few cool trinkets and make a few friends along the way, well that's okay too.

3. You are seeking a solution to a problem. Maybe you know of a disease that has infected your town and could kill them all within a few years and you're looking for the cure, or maybe your village is ruled by a tyrant who demands tribute and you think that by increasing your power you can face him down and restore freedom to your home.

4. You've grown up hearing stories about adventurers and have just always wanted to be one. You have a long list of heroes and stories about every one and you want to be just like them. Maybe you had these heroes in lieu of parents so you're only following in their footsteps.

[Knaight]

Everybody in her local village gets along fine, and they spend all day growing potatoes and talking about growing potatoes and thinking about growing potatoes and planning for next year's potato crop and holding potato festivals and weeding potato crops and selling potatoes and

ENOUGH WITH THE POTATOES ALREADY! THERE MUST BE MORE IN LIFE THAN POTATOES!

Long lasting bitterness at Achebe's Things Fall Apart aside, ambition is a good option. Another fun one is rivalry, a younger sibling looks up to the character and they feel the need to earn the approval they already have, or they are hte younger sibling and want to get the reputation of their older sibling.

[RndmNumGen]

Other classics that work with healthy, living families:

*Wants to see the world.

I generally use some variation of this. Wanderlust, I believe it's called. It can range from wanting to expand your horizons, to having a desire to test your skills against what the world has to throw at you, so simply being bored with everyday village life. After all, everyone needs a vacation... some people prefer to sit in a nice, relaxing hot spring, while others? Others want to kill monsters and take their loot as a souvenir.

[Jay R]

Welllll... your mother and I didn't want to face it, I suppose. But we saw it coming. We're not totally comfortable with the idea, you understand, but this is not the first time someone has...

... Look, what we're trying to say is that we love you and we will still love even if you choose to... ah... ahem... discretely grow other kinds of root vegetables.

Wonderful. This is funnier than the OOTS quotes in bed thread.