Motivations of characters

[Fingol]

How do other players share their character motivations? Do you read out your background sheet to the others at the start of the campaign and give updates before each session as their characters develop? If not how do you do this? DND seems like a game designed around actions (skill and ability checks, saving throws and to hit rolls); how do you sprinkle that with motivations? Its not like you read a book or watch a movie and get to know the other person through some cool voice over.

Don't get me wrong there is lots of roleplay in our game...just no understanding between the players or characters. Come to that; it would be really interesting to figure out what motivates major NPCs but you rarely do. Why is the sage helping you for free? Why does the inverted pyramid really want you to do this job? What pushes the buttons of the individuals that make up House Vladaam?

Do you guys bother?

 

[Turanil]

As a player, my PCs have their own motivations. However, they will disclose them in-character, and as such, only if it is relevant with their personality to do so. That is: an assassin won't tell that his job is to assassinate people; but a dwarf merchant won't hide he is here to do some business.

As a DM I most of the time have basic / archetypal motivations for the NPCs. You don't really need to know why the evil necromancer wants to take over the world, while i agree i could improve the gam to give him one... On the other hand, the sage would have a motivation to help for free, otherwise will work for a fee.

 

[Fingol]

What if the evil necromancer was trying to make sure there was a labour force that cleaned the streets, sewers, and bell towers without complaining?

What if she exhausted every avenue of negotiation with the authorities? They just did not want to buy the idea. What if the corpses would come from Myth Drannor? No one there would miss them, those that would have retreated anyways.

So she is left with only one option, to fulfil her plan he must show them her army of 'cleaners'. So she marches onto Waterdeep with 10,000 dead heros from Myth Drannor, armed with broomsticks and dust pans.

The Lords there get the wrong idea and send the adventuring group in? After the dust settles it would be nice to know what was really going on...but somehow we just end playing in another campaign with the DM perhaps itching to tell but no way to do so...specially as she might have a brother who will come to avange her death and will be knocking on the groups door in the not too distant future.

 

[Ryltar]

I let my players come up with their own motivations for "being where the action is" . Like Turanil's group, they will only discuss them in character and only insofar as that makes sense. Closemouthed characters may end up not having told their whole story until the campaign is over, while talkative ones sometimes spend it all at once in the first evening. Works for me.

As for NPCs, I go two ways: first, the characters know only what they are told or what they surmise while being around a specific NPC. Second, I write short fiction pieces which are meant to help the players understand the world they are dealing with a little better - but that is strictly OOC.

 

[Elf Witch]

In our group we sometimes write journals and that has made the game richer because it allows you to show what your character was thinking and why she was doing things. But it is hard sometimes to convey motivations in game through role play. Had a problem come up last night in game over my characters actions. They didn't seem to fit the character's alignment and on the surface the actions would not but there were deeper motivations.

 

[Umbran]

In general, I ask those who play in my games to give me information about the PC's motivations. As a GM, that information is darned useful in crafting adventures the players will find compellig and meaningful.

However, I don't ask them to share that information with other players. In the real world, you don't often know what motivates other people. If it would be right and appropriate in-character for the thing to be explained, fine. But I frown on exposition of the PC's internal dialogs to which other people would not be privy.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I like to help the players show their characters motivations off to the rest of the group.

Generally, before the campaign starts, I'll get each player to answer half a dozen questions about the characters motivation and background. I bribe them with extra stat points to make doubly sure they do this.

Gives me a pretty solid idea what their character is all about and I try to drop them into situations where they can show off what makes them tick...

I don't tell the players anything about the other characters directly, but they'll usually talk about it, either in or out of character.

 

[kirinke]

Good idea incon, but with a player like me, I generally don't have a clue on what the character's motivations are, at least at first. They tend to evolve in-game.

 

[DragonLancer]

Player motivation come sout in game as part of the RP. But players shouldn't force that out, it should come out into the game naturally.

Also, why do characters need a motivation? Can it not be enough that they play the game with a basic need for fame and fortune?

In a Wilderlands game I am playing at the moment, our characters have been sucked though (time?) by the gods to put right the evil that has dominated the land. We have no memory of our lives prior to waking up at the start of the campaign.

The other party members are up for stopping this evil and thats their motivation. My guy, though NG, doesn't care that much. He just wants to travel with his friends, get some money, and grow in power. Back to the fame and fortune motivation.

A motivation doesn't need to be a big thing.

Just some thoughts as I sit here.

 

[ThirdWizard]

NPC motivations are great because they often cause the NPC to do things that the PCs don't expect them to do. When the PCs learn how to anticipate an NPC well, then the NPC does something they didn't see coming, then later they find out it was a perfectly reasonable course of action for him or her, then I feel I've done my job.