Interesting character motivations and backstories?

[kinztastic]

For the bard, what are interesting inspirations for him to adventure and goals for him to have other then 'I want to be a great performer'?

For the warrior? What's more interesting then 'I want to be a hero, or I'm hunting for the guy that killed my village'?

--In general what are some unique but driving inspirations or unique backstories for characters, good and evil? For the harder races? Like kobolds? Or the more challenging classes, like monks? Other then 'improving his martial arts'?

What are some good non-generic back stories or driving goals you've heard or came up for for characters? Especially the harder ones?

[JAL_1138]

Who said bards want to be known as great performers? My current one's a scam artist who was just trying to make a buck until the plot started and he got roped in against his better judgment and got himself cursed by an angry sea-goddess as a result. Now he's trying to remove an indelible tattoo that a disguise kit can't hide so he can go back to scamming people and doing spy work for the Harpers.

[TheCountAlucard]

For the bard, what are interesting inspirations for him to adventure and goals for him to have other then 'I want to be a great performer'?Money. Power. Fame. Love. Sex. Drugs. Rock 'n' Roll. Revenge. Redemption. A worthy death. Exploration. Knowledge. Obligation.

I don't really see "motivation" as a trait that's hitched to one's character class, honestly.

Heracles went out to do his famous Labors as penance for murdering his family in a fit of rage; Sun Wukong first wanted to forge his monkey subjects into a powerful kingdom free from the chains of death, then to become known as the equal of Heaven, then to get vengeance on Heaven, then to atone for his misdeeds by helping Tang Sanzang in the titular Journey to the West; Odysseus just wanted to go home.

"Evil" characters are generally driven by the same forces that push at the hearts of "good" people, the big difference is that at the end of the day, someone's calling them evil for it.

[kinztastic]

I meant more then just 'money, power, or knowledge' - something that spawns a good story. Something with depth. What are some of the best you've heard? It needs a why. Other then just personal greed or lust for it. Otherwise it's just.... bland.

I like the first example.

[Anonymouswizard]

I meant more then just 'money, power, or knowledge' - something that spawns a good story. Something with depth. What are some of the best you've heard? It needs a why. Other then just personal greed or lust for it. Otherwise it's just.... bland.

I like the first example.

My last character wanted to become more like the priest who saved him from damnation.

Other than that, it's just 'money, power, or knowledge', but the reasons for the reasons can be interesting.

[TheCountAlucard]

Personal stories seldom carry the same resonance when taken out of context. Additionally even the most powerful principles or ties seldom act alone to influence a good character - like with real people, their actions at a given moment will be the result of a tangled jumble of many different desires pulling them in different directions.

The Storm King is the god-blooded son of a barbarian chief; his tribe worships thunderbirds, and their oral traditions include mythic figures like the Sky-Queen Golden Blossom and the hateful, venomous Frog Queen and wondrous artifacts like the Crown of Thunders. His father recently became too infirm to continue leading, so the Storm King's first cousin leads the tribe, and has sent him on a quest to win glory for his tribe; Barbus has decided to accomplish this by slaying the Frog Queen, finding the Crown of Thunders, and earning the approval of the spirit of the West Wind, Black Grinning Bear. He also seeks Golden Blossom, his mother.

[jaydubs]

For the bard, what are interesting inspirations for him to adventure and goals for him to have other then 'I want to be a great performer'?

Bard motivations I've used:

-Put together a mercenary company. This bard was flavored as a veteran officer, rather than any kind of entertainer.
-Bard who was already a well-known actor, but wanted to stop faking it for once, and live the real thing.
-An 18 year old or so, who had been homeless before that, and took up adventuring because of how quickly one could earn money vs begging/stealing
-Was subject to a coup (he was previously the king), who was using adventuring as a way to gain allies and increase personal prowess. Long-term goal to retake his throne.

I mean, only one of those is even remotely performance related. And all of them could fit other classes as well. The point being that bards don't have to be entertainers, any more than rogues have to be thieves, or wizards have to be reclusive old men.

[Rakoa]

My current Bard, DJ Kython Python, was the leader of a band that fell apart when everyone got married. After realizing that the married life is for suckers, he skipped town and is off to get the band back together so that they can rock out for ages to come.

Of course, the world is a dangerous place, and he is has not been in contact with any of them for quite some time. He's going to need to follow a lot of clues. He's going to need protection. Protection in the form of an adventuring team! They can get him from Point A to Point B without too much hassle. Hopefully.

[Maglubiyet]

It kind of matters where these characters are from. A PC bard from an all-human steampunk campaign based loosely on the 16th-century wars in Europe will probably be different in flavor than a campaign based in an underground sea using only races from the FR Underdark book.

Still, they should all have fairly basic desires that you can dress up to match any particular setting.


Petruchio wants to adventure to build his reputation in hopes of attracting a wealthy patron woman to marry.
Niklai's father wants him to manage the family's stone quarry business and landholdings, but Niklai only wants to party and hang around with his "lowlife" friends. He has no head for figures, but he can weave a captivating tale and carry a tune.
Sambohu is the third son and will receive no inheritance from his family (it all goes to the first son). He wants to gain skill to compete in the annual Thunder Drum competition during his Clan's spring festival. The winners gain prestige and summer watering rights for his family's horses at Blue Crystal Springs.

[Zalphon]

I once had a bard who was adventuring because he lost his tenure as a Professor of Magic Theory (apparently they wanted someone who could actually cast high level spells, why do they call it theory if its application? There's a whole other department for that...)

Had a rogue (a detective) trying to find his friend who was on the run, to help him clear his name.

And a Paladin who adventured, because, it was the right thing to do (and he had a phobia of Dwarves--he died early on to Dwarves...and was a Kobold).

[goto124]

A paladin who's the eldest son of an evil blackguard family. He was supposed to learn their evil ways, take over the family business, etc. Instead, he turned on his overbearing father, started his own business, and sorta became a paladin of freedom. Adventuring to stay away from his family, and perhaps liberate others. FREEDOM!

[JAL_1138]

Like with my bard above, one I fall back on is to make characters expressly not adventurers at first, just people with skills that would be useful and a Good-ish alignment, and then find a way for the setting/plot/party/initial meeting to rope them into it. Not always possible, granted.

Why are you investigating that evil cult? Well, they tried to kill me earlier today (in the initial encounter) and the guards aren't worth their armor in this town, so someone's got to. Plus, I have a bit of a grudge over the whole "they tried to kill me this morning" thing.

Why are you joining this group that plans to kill the red dragon? Well, they're lacking a skillset I can provide, and someone has to do something about the dragon before we all get roasted. Even if I'd rather not do it, I stand a better chance of not getting roasted by helping these folks go kill it than waiting for it to set the inn on fire. And as much as I'd rather just leave, I can't abandon the city to its fate and still be able to look at myself in the mirror afterwards.

Why did you join the group clearing out the undead in the catacombs? The priest asked, and I'd rather the city not be overrun with undead, I live here!

Why are you going off to save the world? I live here. And so do people I like. And it's the right thing to do. What, am I just going to walk away and let the next guy ? What if "the next guy" is an incompetent idiot? Well, more of one than me, anyway?

Why are you trying to overthrow the evil overlord? Well, two things, "evil" and "overlord." Not real keen on either one. Less flippant answer, have you seen the way the Legions of Terror treat the civilian populace? That cannot stand.

Why are you following the next plot thread after that? By now, I like these people (i.e., the party), and/or the next plot thread's another one of those things my conscience won't let me ignore, like a threat to the realm or a sob story from a poor farmer. If I had my preference, I'd sell my magic weapon and spend the rest of my days on the beach with a fishing pole and a magic tankard that provides infinite beer, but I keep getting pulled into this kind of thing...

[goto124]

I like how you answered all those questions as if you were an ordinary citizen doing the most obvious thing to do.

I could imagine an evil motivation though: Have you seen the way the Legions of Terror treat the civilian populace? They're such idiots- any villian worth their salt knows he must at least provide enough food to keep his civilians happy! I must fix this!

[Callos_DeTerran]

Best motivation for a paladin that I've never gotten to use yet is one that summoned Pazuzu to save a bunch of kids and took up adventuring to atone for the fact that he/she summoned a demon lord.

[5a Violista]

--In general what are some unique but driving inspirations or unique backstories for characters, good and evil? For the harder races? Like kobolds? Or the more challenging classes, like monks? Other then 'improving his martial arts'?

What are some good non-generic back stories or driving goals you've heard or came up for for characters? Especially the harder ones?
Like others have already stated, I too don't really see there being "harder" races or "more challenging" classes to come up with motivation; in the end, they're all people and classes are merely an abstraction.

Anyway: here are some of the motivations I've used for characters, some motivations more complex than others. Most of these were Free Form Roleplaying characters rather than D&D or other characters, because I don't really like using character sheets or rolling dice; I prefer to make my characters fail because they made stupid choices or were distracted by someone, rather than because the dice said so.
- One evil bard character went adventuring because she blamed herself for her adoptive father's death (he was an orc who was killed by some adventurers, because he was following her after she had a bout of insanity due to spooky shamanistic magic) because being in life-or-death situations distracted her from the guilt she felt whenever she reflected back on it.
- A witch-style character went adventuring because (1) she had read all sorts of books about ancient dragon slayers and heroes and she wanted to be like one, (2) a dead god began speaking to her in dreams and influencing those around her, and (3) someone she trusted asked her to investigate a mystery for him.
- A third character, a druid mermaid, went adventuring in the first place after her betrothed went MIA during a war, and then decades later she picked up adventuring again because there was a really large storm and she interpreted the storm as a sign for change.
- A character I'm playing right now in a game (a Bard/Druid) became an adventurer because of the allure of lost stories: finding old tomes of poetry, hunting mysteries and myths, and so on.
- A villainous knight-type character began adventuring as a way to (initially) rebel against her mother, then later as penance for the allies she had betrayed while adventuring, and then once again decades later to revenge because her family died. After failing to achieve this vengeance (and losing her sword), she retired. Then, an eldritch abomination gave her Magical Girl-style powers, and she took up adventuring again to make up for all the time she lost without her sword.
- A retired mercenary (paladin and werewolf-type) took up adventuring again because he was bored with retirement.
- An pyromaniac villainous witch took up "adventuring" because she lost her memory of what her life used to be like when she was brought back to life after being burned at a stake as a heretic, and watching things burn and explode gives her brief flashes of memory about her past life, which she desperately wants to know.
- A goomba took up adventuring after some chaos magic gave her super powers, and she wanted to rise above the "minion" stereotype that everyone sees her as.
- A Knight/Priestess person took up adventuring because she broke the 4th wall, realizing she was a character in a game and figured that characters in games are always adventurers, so she might as well be one too.
- A dragon transformed into a human pirate and took up adventuring because she got bored with being a dragon who collected treasure and wanted to know what it was like being a pirate who hunted treasure, and everybody knows that pirates always are interesting especially when searching for treasure.
- I had a Paladin character who took up adventuring because his Order branded him as a heretic for taking the wrong side in a war, and he had to run from them because the heads in the Order labeled him as "so evil that he's kill-on-sight".
- I also had a robot who took up adventuring because of DRAMATIC ENTRANCES and DRAMATIC FIGHT SCENES! The robot was literally made to inject as many dramatic scenes as possible into every circumstance. Because the robot was assumed destroyed (after all, all the other robots were destroyed) and left for dead in the wreckage, he decided he had to go around and find his own places to be dramatic.
- Also, another character, inspired by the Prince Charming trope, went adventuring because, after years of running away and trying to avoid responsibility, circumstances finally caught up to him and he was forced to take charge of a small army and so on (because otherwise he was threatened with several things including blackmail to his family and death).
- A nurse became an adventurer (OoC) because everybody kept on bothering her and wouldn't let her be an NPC in peace, eventually forcing me into making her a PC, (IC) because her boyfriend was an adventurer who constantly bugged her to go adventuring with him.
- Several others just went out adventuring for motives not fully explored, usually having to do with protecting family or searching for redemption or just because.

Actually, now that I listed all these out, I can see some definite trends here. Interesting.

[Ettina]

I like how you answered all those questions as if you were an ordinary citizen doing the most obvious thing to do.

I could imagine an evil motivation though: Have you seen the way the Legions of Terror treat the civilian populace? They're such idiots- any villian worth their salt knows he must at least provide enough food to keep his civilians happy! I must fix this!

Why would an evil character care if the Legions of Terror are doing it wrong? Evil is fundamentally self-centred, unless they have some kind of personal stake in it (such as being part of the civilian populace), they wouldn't care.

Actually, if I built a character who things the Legions of Terror are doing it wrong, I'd probably make them a Good or 'Neutral with Good intentions' character, whose ideology matches the Legion of Terror but who hates how they've applied it. Kind of like how I think communism is a great idea, but Stalin was doing it wrong.

[JAL_1138]

I could imagine an evil motivation though: Have you seen the way the Legions of Terror treat the civilian populace? They're such idiots- any villian worth their salt knows he must at least provide enough food to keep his civilians happy! I must fix this!

Now that you mention it, it could work. "Panem et circenses, 'bread and circuses', the fools; the concept has been around since the [ancient empire]! ...well, I guess if you want anything done right, you've got to do it yourself...looks like I have a nation to conquer."


Why would an evil character care if the Legions of Terror are doing it wrong? Evil is fundamentally self-centred, unless they have some kind of personal stake in it (such as being part of the civilian populace), they wouldn't care.

Evil is also prideful, opportunistic, and (in the case of Lawful Evil) has certain ideas of How It's Done. They could be offended by the sheer ineptitude, and/or see an opportunity to rally the populace with promises of bread and circuses to stage a coup that would put them in power. You've never seen someone screwing up and thought "What an [expletive], I could do much better with my eyes closed--and I'll prove it" or some such?

[darkscizor]

Mival was a young and happy boy at a young age, but that all changed when the fire nation drow attacked.

[Jay R]

My original D&D bard:

As a baby, Gwydion was left at a farmhouse in a basket, near the totally inconsequential village of Paesino. The farmer and his wife (Giacomo and Maria) raised him and were as kind as possible, but nonetheless, his position in the household was always somewhere between an annoyance and an embarrassment. He always felt the loneliness of someone with no family and no history. Furthermore, as he grew, he was always known to be an outsider, being in essence the only blonde Welsh boy in a village of Italians. He learned to fight, he learned to sneak away, and he learned to get along – all useful traits for an outsider, and a useful background for a future bard.

One day, Gwydion heard a wandering bard and was enchanted – at the stories and music, but also at the idea of seeing the outside world, traveling and performing. He decided that he had to follow the man, so the day after the bard left town, Gwydion ran away to join him. But he was a child – he took no food, extra clothes, tinder box, anything.

Gwydion couldn’t find him, and three days later he was lost, footsore, and starving. That’s the condition in which Fflewdder found him. Flewdder took him as a servant, with no intention of teaching bardcraft.

But Gwydion was persistent, and eventually started learning about rhyme, meter, music, etc. After several years in the service of Fflewdder, he is finally ready to be a first-level bard.

He still feels embarrassment at being merely Gwydion, rather than Gwydion son of Someone or Gwydion of Someplace. He is continually trying on new epithets. He starts the game calling himself Gwydion Harpist or Gwydion Word-shaper, but will continue exploring new epithets, for he really considers himself Gwydion the Abandoned.

[Maglubiyet]

Are you crowdsourcing your requirement for an origin story to the Playground here?

[Jay R]

My 3.5E Ranger/Fighter/Horizon Walker. (He started at 7th level.)

Gustav was born in a small village in the north, at the edge of the mountains. Being stronger and tougher than anyone else, he became a bully. He intimidated others, kicked puppies, and basically did the Viking equivalent of stealing lunch money. But however much stronger he was than any individual, he wasn’t stronger than the village as a whole. They eventually kicked him out, and he went wandering into the wilderness.

He grew to hate the frost giants as they took to stealing from his village and sometimes raiding it. They were more powerful bullies than he could be. Therefore, his racial enemy is the race of frost giants.

He found Asbiorn, an older man he tried to bully. Unfortunately, Asbiorn was a high-level Ranger, who put him in his place, instilling the first level of real discipline Gustav had ever known. Asbiorn taught him the ways of the wilderness, and Gustav became a Ranger, eventually reaching 3rd level. But then Asbiorn died, and so Gustav wandered on, more disciplined, but with no real goals or aspirations. He happened onto a mercenary unit, and signed on.

So after three levels of Ranger, he was trained as a Fighter. His company fought in a few minor wars and skirmishes, and Gustav learned a great deal about fighting, and met Prince Thorin. Thorin was something new to him – the strongest man around, but with no need to bully. He became a good friend, and Gustav has learned a lot from him.

But after the first few years, Gustav was looking for something he couldn’t find in a mercenary company. He moved on, and spent a lot of time alone in the northern forests and hils. During that time he took two levels of Horizon Walker, though he doesn’t know it by that name. He has no idea what a “Horizon Walker” is. He fell into wandering and has picked up the levels based on the forests and the hills, but thinks of himself as a Ranger /Fighter . Gustav has kept close ties with the company, although he is not a full-time member.

He is now a 3rd level Ranger / 2nd level Fighter / 2nd level Horizon Walker. Now he’s looking for something worth doing. He has grown to hate bullies, and will always stand up for the little guy. He also very firmly believes that you do not kill an animal except for cause. (Yes, he does hunt.) He thinks hurting animals is worse than bullying people, because they don’t understand it. He might very easily get into trouble when he sees an abused animal or person.

[Kantaki]

Are you crowdsourcing your requirement for an origin story to the Playground here?
If that was the plan it seems to work:smallbiggrin:.

to stay on Topic:
One day you woke up in this strange world and now you seek for a way home.
You are a dwarf, that means there are at least three other suitors for the Girl you love - prove you are worthy.
You are a dwarf, your cultural duty demands that you hunt and slay a Dragon. Now you travel to improve your abilties.

[AceOfFools]

Unique character motivations? I've done that.

I played a favored soul of a LG sun god (DnD 3.5) that just wanted to spend time with his wife. He was LG, wanted to do right by the god that had invested him with power, and wanted to make the world a better place. When the going got rough, he through himself headlong into the fray and was good at what he did. But all he wanted was to go home and spend time with his wife, who had married him over his objections of "I'll be gone all the time on holy missions", "My life is far to dangerous," etc. and got them married shortly before the campaign began.

As an exercise in playing a deliberately contrasting character, I played a Dwarven Paladin with the same group who was the manliest of men. His wife was, likewise a woman among woman. This was a bad combination, given they were both high cha classes and very much in love. His wife kicked him out because having him around to help care for the children was just going to make things worse given how long dwarven babies need to stay out of the "diapers" stage. So he was out adventuring to collect large quantities of wealth to send home to his family, and to do (the same) LG sun god's work out in the world. He wrote his wife every week.

I played in an urban fantasy game (Dresden Files RPG) as a ordinary human con man who managed to finagle his way into an FBI unit that deals with supernatural creatures. He believed the supernatural didn't exist, and so thought the group was a con and wanted in. Fortunately, he was extremely qualified (which is why the FBI hired someone who had been wrongfully acquitted of embezzling money from the FBI).

I played an Exalted Dragonblooded character of exceptionally high breeding, and outstanding (i.e. 6 on a 5-point scale) physical traits who was extraordinarily dim. After being discharged from the military for playing the politics game extremely poorly, he decided the best way to serve his house was to have a lot (exactly 1250) children so they would be substantially advantaged in the future. He spent the campaign doing the **** work no one else wanted to do, and propositioning smart women by explaining exactly what he wanted and why he wanted it, and offering to hire them onto his house to do whatever smart people things they were doing. His only non-garbage social stat was Appearance, which was maxed, and so it was surprisingly effective.

I played in a game that was based on the Terry Pratchett's Night Watch (which I had not read at the time) who was mentally deficient, if absurdly strong, whose sole motivation was food. He joined the rebellion because they said something about a boiled egg, so whatever the other things they were talking about were probably food and therefore something he figured wanted.

This one was an NPC, but the character had been possessed by a wicked demon and, after getting cured, began a quest to find a good demon she could invite back into her headspace because having a demonic friend was super cool. She just wanted one that would respect her life choices, boundaries, and moral choices. I usually GM, but I may try to roll a character with a similar background/motivation if playing in a system that could support it.

I played a warforged that, when the whole, "You're alive and have a soul and are a person," was explained, its reaction was a resounding "No." The character could be summed up by the quote "A-15-15 is not a person. A-15-15 is a thing," which was its catch phrase. One of the other players was a CG artificer, who pretended to be my owner, while harboring deep moral objections to the idea of owning a soul-ed creature, because they felt it was better than having someone who would happily exploit a creature that rejects their own free will. A-15-15 had the sense motive to tell that the other PC didn't believe he was its master, but chose to believe their words and not what the other character meant.

[MrConsideration]

I find this (http://whothe****ismydndcharacter.com/) a great place to find the initial kernel of inspiration. [Warning: Swears, NSFW]

My current character is a retired pirate whose crew mutinied against him mechanically a Dragonborn Cleric of Loki - his motivations include reclaiming his status and ship as well as trying to live up to the legend he built for himself despite being something of a coward really. A lot of small details fed into wider aspects of his story: we roll trinkets in our 5e group and I rolled a small jade statue of Halfling - which I rationalised as being my mutinous first mate whom I want vengeance on.

I find creating one or two events at character creation as a backstory then gradually adding to it to explain your actions in play can be a good way to create an interesting background.

[goto124]

An evil drow who has to bear the burden of her breathen, the Good Drizzt clones.

Sorry.

[Centik]

I've always seen the bards of the world as searchers of great tales to solidify their places in history. I mean, think back to when Elan and Tarquin were discussing the fall of evil in every bard's tale. Tarquin's big answer was that he would have his place in history as the bards and storytellers of the world recanted their battle and his inevitable downfall. That's how I like to play my bards, anyway. Always willing to get themselves and their party into some mischief in order to add another paragraph to their long, long tale.

[hoverfrog]

I very rarely decide of a class or race before having a back story in my mind. The class related skills and abilities are largely secondary to the character's motivations.

[Lorsa]

I know I am a little late, but I feel as though you are starting in the wrong place. If you start with "What is an interesting backstory for a Bard?", of course it will be difficult.

Instead, try to come up with the character and backstory first. Then figure out which class this character would end up like. Also, sometimes it doesn't need to be what the character really wants. For example, you could have a Fighter who really wants to be a Druid, but for some reason doesn't have the attunement to nature necessary. Or a Sorcerer who really wants to be a buff Fighter.

As for generic adventurer motivations, that is very campaign dependant. Very hard to answer without knowing a bit of context.