I think frequently we make characters backwards. We crack open our favorite game and think, what cool things would we like our characters to do. Now, don't get me wrong I am all for playing a character with very cool abilities. I love games with level advancement that unlock new powers, or with horizontal advancement where I get to become a mover and shaker in the community, and maybe the world. I have played D&D games that started at first level and went up into the teens, and had amazing fun on amazing worlds, and yet...
Going into most games, that aren't being fully generated as you play, you have some idea what you are getting into. And in 9 games in 10 what you getting into is danger and trouble. But why?
Two gaming sources that I am aware of, but surely there are many more, make this part of the character creation. In Fate games you define who your character is and what is Troubling their lives. These are built into the game rules. In the many Sine Nomine games, by Kevin Crawford, before the completion of a character you set up a character goal. Both of these games are hitting very close to the mark, but I still feel they are not quite making it.
In the case of Fate there is a mechanical advantage to your PC's Trouble. In Crawford's games your goal is the drive that moves the character forward. It may change over time, and probably will, but it is always there to generate new adventures.
Neither of these systems, fine as they are, actually tackle the root motivation of the character. Why? Why go down into a deep dungeon where you may face anything from dangerous monsters to deadly traps. Why go running across a universe seeking gold and glory? Why subject your PC to potential torment, suffering, and death?
For a while now, the first two steps I take when making characters is to first decide what I want to play, in broad strokes, and then I decide why this (otherwise sane and rational) person is going to devote some portion of his life to, what may very well be, a lethal series of adventures.
Is it glory? Join the local space marines and you will be better equipped and have opportunity for all the glory you can stomach.
Is it a pursuit of fame? Surely the character has some talent that will bring attention without the possibility of being melted by a green slime?
Do they wish to be rich? There are plenty of less dangerous prospects for wealth than trying to actually kill and or rob a dragon.
Maybe they want a better social status. See the comment above about wealth. In all but the most stringent caste systems a large pot of gold will bump you up that ladder in a practical way, even if you never wear a crown.
Perhaps, there is a shame they wish to over come. Or a wrong that must be righted. People do both everyday without taking up arms.
So recently, I have been absorbing the game GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System), and to do this properly I needed a character. I wanted to play an adventurer swordsman. That was easy enough to make. Then I got the they next question. Why would this capable talented man, subject himself to danger. That is when a character that I had made to sample some practical game rules, suddenly leapt from the screen to become a real person.
Lets call the PC Johansson. He is the child of two retired military warriors who married late in life and opened a weapon smithy together. They had Johansson, he is an only child, born when his parents were already in their late 30s, so by the time he came of age they were drifting into old age. They had groomed their son to take up the role of soldier, but as he himself married young he was resistant to the idea of leaving behind his wife. Then tragedy struck and she dies in childbirth, but leaves him with an infant daughter.
He could learn more smithing from his parents, but there has been a dwindling need for arms and armor since this country was pacified so many years ago. Also a military career would start out with very poor pay. Even if every penny was sent home, it would barely support a family of three. In his cups and in his despair he hears that the local Baron has set a bounty on a particularly dangerous wild bear. The bounty would feed his family for months, as well as keep the tax man off the door. So, he leaves his daughter in the care of his parents and sets forth to collect that bounty.
If you have read this far, bless you. I will stop with the tedious and poorly written backstory at this point. Should I have chosen to play this character in a group game I would have explained it to the GM in much fewer words.
This, rather stereotypical, narrative has accomplished two things. First, this skilled character has a reason for risking life and limb in a dangerous wilderness, to kill a dangerous beast. Secondly there is no way now I can just toss this character on the practice pile. I need to know if he succeeds. He is motivated, and through that so am I.
Thanks for your time.
W.D.
