Getting PCs Motivated

[Padraix]

Hi all

I recently began DMing for a new group of players. A question that has come up with a few of these players is, "What's my character's motivation?" The players all agree that the premise for the adventure sounds very exciting and challenging, but from their character's perspective, there's not much pulling them towards the campaign. I realized, I never had to think about this before with my original group. The characters there, now suddenly very conveniently, fit the pill for my previous adventures.

A quick summary of what I have: Players discovered that an ancient artifact is being secretly reassembled with the power to summon great extraplannar evils to the material plane. PCs must 'race against time' to stop its completion. The two PCs who's feel their characters don't feel motivated, play a halfelf rouge and halforc barbarian.

So without altering characters and the story too much, are there any tips you guys may have on what might get the characters hooked?

[Rhynn]

That's a question the players should be answering. It should always be part of character creation (which means players should know the initial hook, at least). Players should give their characters goals that fit the campaign and setting.

Edit: How is "stop extraplanar evils from wrecking the world" not a good motivation, though? Do these guys own a lot of real estate in Sigil or something? :smallconfused:

[CaladanMoonblad]

Are either of these two motivation-less characters religious? If so, feel free to send a "dream" their way from an emissary of their deity.

Are either of these two evil? Perhaps they want the artifact to blackmail their way to wealth?

To get at motivation, it is important to know the most about these characters. What from their backstory can you as a GM make use of? Perhaps a close family member was murdered by the BBEG or its minions?

[Uncle Pine]

Unless said characters are Evil and there is a chance for them to join the Dark Side, I'd say that the main motivation to stop the BBEG who wants to start an apocalypse is kill him before his devilish minion can kill you.

[Berenger]

Uh... do these character possess some kind of personality beyond a race / class combination? If yes, a short description would be helpful.

[Someonelse]

I find that backstories help a player figure out their motivations. It also helps me to write a game geared towards their specific characters. So I offer a bonus feat to players who submit a backstory 48 hours before game time, but the bonus feat has to be explained in the backstory. In your case I would allow the players to submit backstories now for the same benefit.

Another trick I use regularly is to organize the group before the game, rather than just allow the players to make any character they want and then figure out later who they are to each other and why they adventure together. For example, maybe the PCs are all operatives of the local lord, they do special missions for him, but they are also free to do other things as well. The players make their characters with this in mind and write their backstories to explain why they work for the lord of Dndland.

I think it is traditionally up to the players though. A more hardcore approach might be to just present the adventure hook, if the players don't feel that their characters would care about that hook then they are free to make characters who would, or they can just wander around the campaign world and let the DM improvise, which, depending on the play styles and creativity of the players and the DM can be a lot of fun or no fun at all.

[Padraix]

Thanks everyone for the comments :smallsmile:

I agree that the "stop extraplanar evils from wrecking the world" would have been motivation enough for me. Both the barbarian and Rouge have similar back stories. They both are outcasts which just roam the world now, and don't find anyplace homely. In the entire party, only one character is Good. All the rest are neutral of some kind. CaladanMoonblad's idea would be a fun option.

Prior to the start of play, I informed them that the story would be heavy in dungeoneering. That sparked them to to create the expert (the rouge) to find traps and secret places, and the tank (the barbarian) to smash any fiends that await below. I feel like it was a good response to what I told them they would be doing.

[Rhynn]

They both are outcasts which just roam the world now, and don't find anyplace homely.

That's the sort of backstory you should, frankly, not accept. If it's a tiny part of an otherwise involving backstory, cool, but if you just go "I have nobody and no ties to anything" you might as well not have written the backstory! The point of a backstory is to give you ties to the setting.

(Not that I, personally even ask for backstories, but if you do, then why accept ones that aren't really?)

[elvengunner69]

That's the sort of backstory you should, frankly, not accept. If it's a tiny part of an otherwise involving backstory, cool, but if you just go "I have nobody and no ties to anything" you might as well not have written the backstory! The point of a backstory is to give you ties to the setting.

(Not that I, personally even ask for backstories, but if you do, then why accept ones that aren't really?)

I disagree. I have not problem with this type of 'backstory' but where I would counter them is ask them to flesh out the reasons why they are outcasts.

[Musco]

Thanks everyone for the comments :smallsmile:

I agree that the "stop extraplanar evils from wrecking the world" would have been motivation enough for me. Both the barbarian and Rouge have similar back stories. They both are outcasts which just roam the world now, and don't find anyplace homely. In the entire party, only one character is Good. All the rest are neutral of some kind. CaladanMoonblad's idea would be a fun option.

Prior to the start of play, I informed them that the story would be heavy in dungeoneering. That sparked them to to create the expert (the rouge) to find traps and secret places, and the tank (the barbarian) to smash any fiends that await below. I feel like it was a good response to what I told them they would be doing.

Well, the "rouge" probably aspires to become a widely used make-up again. :P

Jest aside, if your campaign world is big on dungeoneering, make it about dungeoneering in the first place.

You could get some inspiration from the great works of Acererak, mad lich, and have a villain plotting some kind of mastermind evil ritual requiring control of some weird/exotic locations/artifacts/dungeons.

They could stumble on this while harmlessly searching an old ruined site, maybe questing for some long forgotten item to make ends meet, and this could spur them toward planar travelling and exploring large, alien complexes, which maybe would be motivation enough.

Down the line, they could decide this plot is worth stopping, and decide that the best way to do it is to stabilish a base in a demiplane with easy access to other planes (somewhere like the City of Union, for instance, or maybe having them find/create one of their own).

Assembling a base, on the other hand, would require them to recruit people, which could come from the early NPCs they met before, for instance, and could start a few plot hooks relating to those NPCs, like convincing them to join the cause (political adventures, or quest hooks to send them to more dungeons), or helping them in their hour of need.

Sure, you have outcasts, but seeing as the evil ritual would destroy the world, you know, the one they live in, I suppose they'd be ok with helping stop it.

And also, if they're outcasts, there's nothing like MAKING somewhere "home"...

[Padraix]

I disagree. I have not problem with this type of 'backstory' but where I would counter them is ask them to flesh out the reasons why they are outcasts.

They both do. The Halfelf is all the typical halfelf mumbojumbo, who feels like a stranger to both races, so he just kept bouncing from one city to the next, searching for his next spoil. The barbarian was kicked out of his clan just before the events of the first day of play.

[PersonMan]

The barbarian, at least, should feel motivated to protect his clan, even after it cast him out, unless it was one of those "he hates and wants to kill them all, but was thrown out when they found out he was planning to poison the food pot" or similar things.

Half-Elf: Parents/siblings/friends could be one way. Heck, even just the typical Neutral or Evil response of "hey, you can't wipe out that continent! There's a bar there with amazing booze!" or something similar could work.

[Alefiend]

I have to disagree a bit here. "Save the world from an ancient evil" isn't particularly motivating, because it's too big.

Real life analogy: we'd all like to end hunger, poverty, and crime, but nobody goes on a quest to do it, at least not initially. People tend to see what needs doing close to home, and start there. Once they realize the problem is bigger than just making sure the local hobos have sandwiches and a place to sleep, they get involved in the next level of action, and then the next.

In a gaming world, having reality threatened by Cthulhu, Thanos, and the Rolling Stones is pretty much the status quo when you wake up. To motivate these characters, you have to make it small and personal. Steps like the following are what you need:

1. A group of thieves, rivals to the rogue, has stolen something from a local temple or museum, and the party is hired to get it back.

2. Those thieves are delivering the item to a barbarian shaman who seeks to take over the local tribes.

3. Upon defeating him, the party discovers the shaman was working with agents of the BBEG that is at the heart of your main plot (or at least closer to it).

I agree that the players should have ways to answer the question of "why am I doing this?" without prompting. But sometimes you have to meet them half way. Make it matter to them and they will follow.