Every game has a surface reason for the characters to be adventuring together. Goblins are raiding out of the Kormuroth Caverns, a diplomat needs an escort on their way to an important summit, a lost treasure is waiting to be found on an uncharted island and so on, and so forth. But down beneath that surface reason, there should be something the character is trying to achieve as well; some driving motivation that leads them on. Sometimes it’s connected to the plot, sometimes to the other members of the party, but this underlying motivation is one of the many forces that guides their action as the story goes on.

While there may be some quibbles about the differences between motivations and goals for some of the following entries, the idea is to get players and Game Masters thinking about what these characters care about, and why they do the things that they do. And if they manage to satisfy a particular motivation, then they should find a fresh reason to stay involved with their companions in order to make sure the character remains a part of the adventure going forward.

Though 1d100 can be rolled for a random result, these should be chosen manually.

Here are some sample results:

87. You have a desire to be a great actor. While you’ve played a variety of roles already, you have always found it difficult to really embody characters who face real, potent dangers as part of their stories. Your hope is that if you travel with those who do this for a living, and if you see and experience some of these things for yourself, that it will allow you to really take your art to the next level. And, perhaps, allow you to tell truer stories rather than simply creating caricatures of the heroes you attempt to portray.

88. You want to leave your mark in as many important places as you possibly can. Whether it’s scratching your name on the back of a vault door in the royal treasury during a heist, carving your mark onto the plinth of a holy statue visited by hundreds of people every day or high on the walls of an ancient tomb that no living person has seen in thousands of years, you want to make sure everyone who comes after you knows that you were there first. And if you can do this often enough your grand hope is that others will trace the course of your adventures, following your marks like a trail you blazed for them.

89. Someone important to you had dreams of becoming a noted and important adventurer. Whether it was a childhood friend, a sibling or even one of your children, something happened to them that dashed that dream. While this may have killed them, or it may not have, you are doing everything you can to become that dream embodied because they are no longer able to pursue it for themselves.

Released: 21st May 2022 Pages: 19

PDF ($1.99): DriveThruRPG

Neal Litherland Reads “Why Are You Here?”