Motivations for Adventurers

[mgshamster]

A lot of people are of the mistaken idea that writing a good background qualifies as good role-playing.

But really, having good motivations for why your Character does what they do is a much better practice for good role-playing.

With that in mind, let's create a list of motivations a PC could have!

I'll start:

Adrenaline Junky - the PC needs to find adventure and can't stand being still for too long.

Owes debt - the PC is unable to pay back debt through conventional means, and has picked up adventuring in order to get gold to pay back his creditors.

Being Hunted - Some organization is looking for the PC, and "adventuring" is the best way for them to stay hidden and stay away. Plus, it keeps them moving.

[nickl_2000]

I guess I see a character backgrounds as a way of explaining why they are out the whole at the same time giving the DM options for ways to take the adventure.

I have a bard who was given his abilities by Milil directly, he has magic fingers and the voice of an angel. However, in his background he caused a rout thus killing people by being a diva at some concert venue. So Mili said he needs to do good in the world and join the Harpers or he will have his god given a abilities taken away.


Gives him a reason to be there, gives him a reason why he jumps in to help way to quickly, and gives the DM the ability to mess with me in many fun ways

[ZorroGames]

If it was good enough for my ancestors (Conquistadores) then -

"God, Gold, and Glory!"

Order mutable...

[Waterdeep Merch]

I played a faithless ex-Cyrian soldier who lost the will to live after the Day of Mourning who was given divine inspiration in a chapel to Dol Arrah. He wandered around with powers he couldn't understand for a purpose he didn't know, unsure if he even believed there was a purpose or that he really was wielding the light of the sun goddess.

He joined with the party as a mercenary because the only thing he understood was war, and it was the only thing that kept him from giving up altogether. In doing so, he eventually became embroiled in the campaign to rediscover the dragonmark of death and found his purpose protecting the last extant member of the house of Vol, changing over the course of the campaign from a gruff professional to a caring, heroic defender of the light. He became the devoted scion of Dol Arrah that he was always intended to be.

The campaign ended with him stepping into the Mournlands to see his home for the first time in years, unsure of what he'd find but ready to confront it at last.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Not my answer but I have a good reason.

Say a soldier drew an assignment to supervise the execution of a god's son. Having some sense of sympathy for the son and having plans for later to hasten things along the soldier stabs the son of the god to hurry things along.

The son then says, "soldier you are content with what you are, so you shall remain until we meet again."

So having no real skills and having seemingly eternal life the solder largely bounces from army to army as a sort of mercenary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5WJJVSE_BE

[VoxRationis]

My current character is motivated by the desire to reclaim her ancestral home, as well as the desire to kick the foreign oppressors out of her country.

[Tanarii]

Dispossed - my family was driven from their lands, and I'm trying to earn enough ... fast ... to see them safe.

Pit Fighter - I've proven my worth in the ring, now I look to really challenge my mettle.

Journeyman wizard - I've learned all I can from my master, it's time to plunder lost ruins for magical lore.

Ronin - I failed to save my Lord from an ambush. I seek magical power so I can avenge him.
(Alternate - My lord was captured, and I want to earn quick cash to help pay his ransom.)

Lawful Church warrior - I'm driven to fight the foes of civilization and order, who surround us everywhere.
(Alternate - circle acolyte - I seek maintain the security of the frontier lands.)

The PHB background Bonds are choc full of motivations to start adventuring too.

Edit: also, one of my favorites I've seen several players do is a Guild Artisan (Cartographer), who is adventuring to make maps.

Oh, and a big one in my campaign:
Henchman - some crazy adventures came to me and offered me a pile of gold to abandon my life and go with them, because they needed someone that could do X.
Commonly locksmiths, cartographers (when they don't have a player doing that), Sage background, guides (rangers or Outlander background). And of course lots of basic meat shields (Fighters & Barbarians mostly).

[Armored Walrus]

Trying to impress/become worthy of a love interest.

Can't stand spouse, takes these adventuring jobs to get out of the house.

In it for the fame, the women, and the free drinks when I tell folks about my deeds at the taverns.

A god saved an ailing family member, I now travel the world preaching the message and stomping out the god's foes.

[Sabeta]

My character is a Fallen Aasimar Favored Soul Soldier. She was a faithful captain of an order of paladins before superior technology destroyed her entire company, leaving her alone and broken. The character has two layers.

Surface Layer: She's aloof and moody and too cool for this party. She tags along for fun and likes killing bad guys to help release her frustration. I pegged her as Evil because she's willing to bargain with dark entities to get what she wants, namely power.

Subconscious Layer: She's deeply hurt by the loss of her friends and companion and never wants to experience that hurt again. She tags along with people because she wants to connect, but forces herself to stay distant because she's afraid of losing people she cares about. She craves power as a means to protect the people around her.


The character was written with an intentional progression so that she can fit into any party. For example,
Soldier Background of the Officer variety allows her to Face if she wants to. She's used to commanding people and can do so if necessary.
Her past however can make her reserved and avoid it if someone else wants to Face more.

In my present campaign we ended up with a Barbarian, Ranger, and Warlock. The Barbarian wants to Face, but her character is deliberately terrible at it. (She doesn't understand society and falls for a lot of common tricks). I've used my experience as a leader to take control of the other two (who do very little RP and generally listen when asked to do things), and for the Barbarian I simply suggest how she should behave for favorable results, but leave everything up to her.

Likewise, my characters prime motivator outside the party is a generic quest for ultimate power. How dark she goes with that quest depends on their actions. If they actively try to inhibit her from say, contacting an evil lich and releasing him from an Astral Prison then she'll edge away from evil. She doesn't want to hurt or alienate her friends. (even if that's not what she tells herself) The end result for this campaign is that I've released an ancient lich from his astral prison, and the recently added Paladin didn't know that's what I was doing and is now very upset with my character. She assures him that her goal is to release him, accept his bribes of power, and eventually turn that power against him, destroy him, and use the newfound power to make ammends for all the destruction she indirectly caused by saving as many people as she can.

The Paladin is still unhappy, but decided my soul was still redeemable enough to not destroy on the spot.

TLDR: Companionship A small twist on the 'lone brooding elf' by making the paradox of wanting to be in a group yet not have friends a part of her back story. She wants friends, but is afraid to get close. Think Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy, I guess.

[JAL_1138]

A bad case of Chronic Hero Syndrome (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChronicHeroSyndrome), or possibly a closely-related disorder, Samaritan Syndrome (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SamaritanSyndrome), or both at once.

It may be a bit gauche to quote one of my own older posts, but:

*When asked what my motivation is for adventuring, it apparently has to be something more than "I keep getting into situations where I'm one of the four or five people competent enough to do something about the problem right now, and I have too much of a conscience to buzz off and say it's not my problem. I can help, so I do. That's my motive."
**When asked about my character's long-term goals, the response apparently can't be "Discover the Demiplane of Infinite Beer and Beautiful Nudes of Various Attractive Species and settle there permanently. Alternatively, make a decent and reasonably uneventful living from a variety of relatively harmless confidence schemes against shadier or otherwise less-savory or more-corrupt people than me, and/or playing the lute and telling stories in taverns with the case open. But that's not going to happen, because even if I found enough gold to have me set for life, there's always bandits, or an orc warband, or an evil cult, or a mysterious curse on the crops, or a red dragon, or even just some stupid kid getting lost in the woods, and I help people."
(from "Things I May No Longer Do While Playing VIII: Why is the PLOT on fire?")

[mephnick]

A simple one, but a good one.

Slayer/Witcher/Hunter: Every den of evil I empty makes the world a bit safer for those weaker than me.

[BigKaiju]

The one I'm playing currently is one I like. Third child of a minor noble, he stands no chance of inheriting the land and never wanted to. His purpose is to adventure and become a great and famous warrior, both bringing fame to his family name and getting the seasoning to take over as the captain of the guard to serve his brother....

In other words, a less selfish "fortune and glory".

[JackPhoenix]

The one I'm playing currently is one I like. Third child of a minor noble, he stands no chance of inheriting the land and never wanted to. His purpose is to adventure and become a great and famous warrior, both bringing fame to his family name and getting the seasoning to take over as the captain of the guard to serve his brother....

In other words, a less selfish "fortune and glory".

I had pretty much the exact opposite. Bastard (in both senses of the word) half-elf born from an affair of the daughter of noble house and an elven mercenary serving her father. While she's loyal to her family and publicaly works for them, she wants to improve her position in life. Adventuring fulfills multiple functions: it's an easy way to get lot of gold quickly, and while gold itself isn't her goal, wealth certainly makes life easier. It's a way to test and improve her skills in a socially acceptable way (we're talking murder, using poison, sneaking and spying and using magic to mess with people's minds). It can be used to get a good reputation and goodwill of other nobles and royalty. Magic items are nice bonus, either to increase her own power (or just the level of comfort), either personally, or through minions, or gifted to aforementioned nobles for extra favor. And sometimes, it can be used as a source of minions: criminals accepting a better deal than ending up on a wrong side of adventuring party, monsters controlled through magic, those willing to accept gold for their service...

Her ultimate goal is gathering enough wealth, favors and influence to be awarded a proper noble title of her own. And given her flaw is "I'm never satisfied with what I have, I always want more", "ultimate" isn't really the correct term... and even if she somehow managed to end up as a queen, there is still more to achieve (immortality through Clone or other means, for example)

I love my NE lore bard.

[hymer]

I've linked to this (http://nanmehtar.wikispaces.com/PC+Motivations) before, but here it is again. It's a list of suggested motivations for races, classes and backgrounds, though it's specific to the campaign.

[Corran]

Sometimes starting with something simple, and having your character find a deeper motivation as the campaign progresses and the character evolves is not that bad.

So, for something like that, as others have mentioned, fortune and fame is a good early motivation. The way I see it, adventurers are the equivalent of a real-world rockstars, so that, along with the enthusiasm and wonderlast that possesses most new adventurers could be a good start.

(In the tunes of Rockstar: ''The girls come easy and the loot comes cheap, I'll just keep killing gaining more xp''.)
ps: Yeah, I just posted so I could post sing that final line...

[Sirdar]

Motivation?

I just tag along with this awesome group of semi-fanatic 'good guys'. They have all the motivation they need. I can't add anything on top of that. I just want some friends that I can trust and these people are really kind to me. They're charismatic and people listen to them when they speak. I'm never going back to being no one again. I still hide in the dark and stab people in the back for a living, but now people call me a hero. They don't ignore me anymore. It's a strange thing. I don't want it to end. I hope my life will always be like this.

[Basement Cat]

My paladin's hermit background partially involved him freeing a sacred grove with a thin rupture in the veil through which petty demons were emerging.

The process of stopping the petty demons and healing the rupture was how he became a paladin (with an eye towards becoming a Green Knight) and now that he has done so he's been sent into the world by the spirits to seek out other such ruptures and protect the world from demonic infestations.

[Tanarii]

I still hide in the dark and stab people in the back for a living, but now people call me a hero.The line between murderhobo and herohobo is an surprisingly easy one to cross. But adventurers usually cross it in the other direction. :smallbiggrin:

[mr-mercer]

My half-orc champion's parents were both heroic adventurers in their youth and he feels incredibly self-conscious about the daring deeds they did and how worthless he must look in comparison. He's also motivated towards certain avenues of character development through guilt over failure to save allies who have died in battle. Very much in need of the support and approval of those around him.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I'll reply for some of my group (I'm the DM, my notes in red):

The entire party (and campaign) started out with them being shanghaied into adventuring by being arrested (falsely or not) and compelled on threat of death to go adventure. They've gotten past that. These are their current motivations.

Half-elf GOO lock: I'm a Far Realms God (whose patron is his wife, a cosmic nautilus) who gave up his COSMIC POWER and took mortal shape to warn everyone and gather forces against the coming threat from the Far Realms. Or I'm crazy. Not sure which. Actually I'm not sure either. There is a threat from the Far Realms, but...

High-elf charlatan rogue: I want the money, power, and position I've always pretended to have. His favorite schemes always involved pretending to be a noble of a fallen House in order to defraud unsuspecting humans.

Dragonborn monk: I'm not really sure. I think she's in it to protect everybody else from these crazy adventurers, mainly the warlock (her IRL husband). She's the voice of sanity most of the time.

Wood-elf land druid: I love seeing new things and new animals and plants. And talking to them. Not to the dragons with tentacles coming out their backs--I learned that lesson the hard way. He's a tourist, basically. Group mother. Comes across as a bit of a cloudcuckoolander. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Cloudcuckoolander) Warning: TVtropes link.

[Drathmar]

As simple a concept as it is, I actually really love how its played into the personality of my current characters. His motivation is simply to make money (He got his training as a fighter by being a mercenary). It's caused him to do some dumb things.

Latest one was... despite the party just being scattered and only him and the other fighter (archer build) being in the room and not knowing where the rest were... he saw a chest and immediately went over to open it, not checking for traps. Gets his hand stuck to the lid, and yet still starts trying to figure out a way to take everything in the chest or the chest itself.

He also bet a bugbear later that he wouldn't be able to pull the lid off, then after the bugbear did convinced the bugbear that he actually bet him he could do it and got the money (with a 9 charisma)

The party also ended up finding a Formicid colony and meeting the queen. Despite being surrounded by ant people, he told her they would help them take on an army of githyanki at some point as long as she paid him... and she did.

The party also entered a room at one time with 4 gold bricks on top of pedestals... obvious trap... but gold... immediately grabs one and thinks the others telling him not to were being overly cautious as nothing happened (they were trapped but he made the save) and then did the same with the other 3 and made the save 3 more times so thought they were just being paranoid.

[erok0809]

My Soldier Assassin wanted to find the best beer in the world to try to take away his pain from the loss of his friends in the war, and also hone his craft with the bow, to eventually annihilate orcs as a species, or at least as close as he could manage before he died. He trained himself on giants, since there was a whole giant war thing going on around him anyway. (Storm King's Thunder)

My Outlander Barbarian just wants to get everyone out of his forest around the Stone Tooth so he can live in peace, and figure out how to get infinite beer. Not for any particular reason, but Beer Is Good! (Forge of Fury, but I'm the DM, so he's not there unless I'm super late and someone else DMs that night)

My Folk Hero wild mage wants to tear down the government of his hometown for revenge on the tyrranical noble who oppressed him and the other poor people. He settled for taking down Strahd when he accidentally ended up in Barovia. (Curse of Strahd)

My outlander druid had the personality of a plank of wood, and was on the adventure he was on because he literally fell into the underdark and wanted to get out to go back home. Not my best character, that one. (Out of the Abyss)

My very first character, a 3.5 sorcerer, adventured because he was on a special strike force for the army he was part of, which he joined to not be thrown in jail for thievery after he was forced to live on the streets for a while after accidentally burning down a large section of a forest near his hometown when he awakened his powers.

[KorvinStarmast]

Being Hunted - Some organization is looking for the PC, and "adventuring" is the best way for them to stay hidden and stay away. Plus, it keeps them moving. First thief I ever played, OD&D, had the "hunted back home" background that some levels later got put into play ... but in the end an evil high priest hit him with a finger of death and he died in the middle of a huge battle in the temple. The bounty hunters, who had offered our group's paladin money for me alive, also offered him money for me dead. He told them to piss off and my thief was given a heroe's burial in the local town. (Missed my "survive resurrection" roll (Greyhawk) by rolling a 00. (I had to roll 75% or lower). Not only did I waste a rare 00 roll (which is 100%, highest possible with two unmarked 20 sided dice, we didn't have fancy things like two digits on 20 sided dice in those days) but the DM looked at that roll and said "obviously, the gods have decided that he will stay dead."

And that's when I rolled up my first druid.

If it was good enough for my ancestors (Conquistadores) then -

"God, Gold, and Glory!" Yeah.

Slayer/Witcher/Hunter: Every den of evil I empty makes the world a bit safer for those weaker than me. Den of Evil was Quest 1, Act 1, Diablo II. Then what? :smallbiggrin:

(In the tunes of Rockstar: ''The girls come easy and the loot comes cheap, I'll just keep killing gaining more xp''.) Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser would approve.

My half orc champion: motivation is that the militia unit he was in got wiped out, 5 survivors, and because of him being a half breed he got the blame. (Not My Fault!) To keep the bad vibe he gets (a few too many fights and a few too many nights in local jail) from messing up his family's position in town, he hired on with a ranger of dubious background and a dwarf (who turns out to have been an assassin) left to seek his fortune. He's still alive, but he hasn't found "home" yet.

Cleric, KorvinStarmast: (Sailor)
Mother died in the violet plague. On my third trading voyage, Father was killed by the pirate Rustbeard while defending the good ship Windbreaker from attack. Rustbeard took our ship, since his had burned during the battle. Salted Bart and Steelfinger mutinied, feeding Rustbeard to the sharks. It was justice, of a sort. They put ashore those of us who wished to leave piracy to them.

I watched my seven shipmates slowly die from poisoned wine, which was Steelfinger's parting gift to us. I got sick but didn't die. At a loss for what to do, I walked to Mother's temple (she'd been a servant there before she married father). The high priest enrolled me to in study and, after four long years of prayer and learning, I emerged as a Cleric of Lathander. I felt a sailor's restlessness.
I left the cloister to spread the Light.
Maybe I can heal a small part of this sick world.
Maybe I can find justice.

Korvin, with the best of intentions, died in the depths of a cave along side a paladin, fighting ogres and goblins and undead controlled by a necromancer. The rest of the party survived, and lived to fight another day. The two of us were dinner for the bad guys.

[Pex]

I'll provide a background if asked and maybe come up with one even if not, but playing the game is all the motivation I need. A little railroading, so to speak, is ok. This is where the DM presents the plot hook or two or three, and I take it just because I want to play the game. If my character has a personal interest reason, great, but I can just as well go on the adventure because of "player fiat". My roleplaying will come through the decisions I make and how my characer's personality develops in social interactions. Events in the campaign will pique my interest to give me issues or people to care about or take a path of development I wouldn't have thought of on my own but got inspired.

[willdaBEAST]

If you're struggling to figure out motivations for a PC here's a huge resource:
Er I can't post a link yet (not high enough post count), but check out tvtropes dot org and search "motivation index".

You can mix and match, create unique combinations, etc.

Another approach is taking two fictional characters or real people and combining whatever drives them. I would also consider having short term goals and long term goals to help with party chemistry.

I'm playing a character who has the long term goal of becoming the "benevolent" dictator or his homeland, but short term goals of getting as powerful as possible, meeting potential allies and gaining as much knowledge as he can, all of which aid in achieving the overall goal. The character is lawful evil, but this allows me to go along with more typical adventures without too much grumbling. You don't want your motivation or backstory to constantly conflict with everything the party does, that'll quickly become disruptive.

[mephnick]

Den of Evil was Quest 1, Act 1, Diablo II. Then what? :smallbiggrin:

You got me. Next was...damn...Blood Raven? I need to play that game again (for the 500th time).

[KorvinStarmast]

You got me. Next was...damn...Blood Raven? I need to play that game again (for the 500th time). Heh, it was indeed Blood Raven.

(In D III they eventually put in an occasional mini-quest in to find Rakanishu and his five standing stones. I forget which patch they did that in. My latest season sojurn ended with the death of the demon hunter, one hit kill during a rift run). D II was a better game, IMO.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

My current character adventures as a mid-life crisis. He had a promising military career but never really rose to his full potential. Now, he's no longer a young man and wants to actually accomplish something in his lifetime so he's set out adventuring.

I really like the idea of "I had to get out of town in a hurry, and this adventuring party was looking for one more person". It reminds me of the movie Some Like It Hot but (possibly) without the cross-dressing. ("What do you mean it's an all female adventuring troop!?")

[Klorox]

This is great!

I get sick of reading the same old "I'm on a quest for more power" or "I'm spreading the word of my god" motivations.

[Tanarii]

I'll provide a background if asked and maybe come up with one even if not, but playing the game is all the motivation I need. A little railroading, so to speak, is ok. This is where the DM presents the plot hook or two or three, and I take it just because I want to play the game. If my character has a personal interest reason, great, but I can just as well go on the adventure because of "player fiat". My roleplaying will come through the decisions I make and how my characer's personality develops in social interactions. Events in the campaign will pique my interest to give me issues or people to care about or take a path of development I wouldn't have thought of on my own but got inspired.
I'm a huge fan of knowing your PC's motivations, but I agree that 'player fiat' is necessary if specific reasons for a specific adventure don't apply.

IMO motivations are just a way for the player to understand where the PC will make decisions for specific reasons. That creates a different PC personality from the player personality, either subtly or drastically. The rest of the time you make decisions as if it's you. Because you are you. :smallwink: That's why I think they're an important part of making decisions for the imaginary character (aka roleplaying).

But when they don't apply, certainly it makes sense to fall back on: I'm here to enjoy a game so my PCs motivation to adventure is I'm here to enjoy the game. In D&D, that generally translates to doing exciting things that are available to do, while trying not to die in the process.