Why keep adventuring?

[Kolvin]

The Hook

I generally have a hook for all my characters. Something to keep him going other than fame/fortune.

One was a dragon-slayer looking for the queen of dragons. Another was a cleric who wanted to become a God so he could become his Diety's consort. The type of long term goal that doesn't have to come into play right at the beginning of the campaign and that can give a GM some good ideas for your character beyond "more treasure and more peer recognition".

 

[Nightfall]

"I also have a great lust for wealth."

Which is what drives most characters, wealth and the chance to wield bad ass swords via Highlander!

Jeff,

Yep Han Solo is the reason I play D&D.

 

[KingCrab]

It is fun to kill things.

 

[maddman75]

This is why I don't like having PCs that are 'adventurers'.

 

[Tonguez]

Adventurers are Mercenaries and just as someone like Sir John Hawkwood keeps adventuring (eventually becoming the commander of a a cities forces) so too do PCs keep going (whilst taking on more responsibility - which is the DM job of course)


The other two options I 'build in' is either to make the PCs members of the City militia/guard with a role in defending their homebase (and build adventurers to suit - Ankh-Morporks Watch is a good example of this (Vimes, Carrot, Angua, Detritus and even Nobby are high level PCs within that setting) )

or give the PCs an excuse to adventure - make them a Merchant caravan following the Spice Road, or a travelling circus, or explorers venturing into a new world/continent or an Officer of the Church charged with recovering relics and suppressing evil

 

[Stormborn]

This is why I don't like having PCs that are 'adventurers'.

So what are they? What do you do instead?


For those who answer "because I enjoy playing them": do you ever give an ingame reason for the character to keep going? Or do your games not require one?

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Most of my PCs never reached the point where this mattered, the campaign they were in ended before they got rich, powerful and famous. My one really long running PC was a wizard who was questing for knowledge. You can't discover lost secrets sitting in a stuffy tower.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Why does your PC, or the PCs if you mainly GM, keep adventuring after they have acheived fame and fortune? Do you build PCs or campaigns with an inate reason for the characters to constantly strive for power, glory, and wealth or is it more of a metagame reason? "I want to keep playing so my PC keeps adventuring."

It seems that the "adventurers" in many works of fiction either go out for a very specific reason and once its achieved stop (ie Bilbo) or having achieved a goal somehow loose what they gained and have to fight again (classically Conan, but to a lesser extent any hero of a series of novels who is confronted by a "moster/villain of the week/novel/movie."

What keeps your heroes going?

My games don't revolve around wealth and magic items. The PCs get both but there are much more important factors forcing them to the adventuring life. Usually I give the PCs the idea that they are just about the only ones who stand between Evil and the world they live in. PC are Heroes in my games and as such money and fame are minor considerations.

 

[Korgoth]

Masochism.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

What's wrong with greed and lust for power?

Sometime's it's lust for power. Sometimes it's lust for adventure. Sometimes it's because the threat is still there (you don't just stop trying thwart the Evil Overlords plans one day and decide to become a farmer). Sometimes it's because the threads just keep coming in and they feel an obligation and responsibility to use their might to defend those who can't defend themselves. Sometimes it's because I like the character.