>"Have you thought about the reason your character became

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>>47214071
>Implying you need a deep motivation to become a murderhobo who risks his life fighting eldritch horrors

He basically just stumbles from the frying pan into the fryer, doesn't know where he was yesterday, doesn't know where he'll be tomorrow. He probably wouldn't even be able to tell you that he's an adventurer.

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>>47214071
What's wrong with that?

>First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman

>>47214071
>I'm not an adventurer, I'm just a man doing what needs to be done.
What the fuck did you think an adventurer was?

He's a droid who finally found someone who treats him as a person and not as a piece of equipment, and more importantly, actually gives him a salary.

That's good enough for him, as far as he's concerned.

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He's a man that's just trying to fund his firearms addiction.

>>47214138
>What's wrong with that?

Gold and power are both relative and transient, and are ultimately means towards an end, rather than goals in of themselves.

"Living luxuriously" can be called a goal. "Get the woman" also can be called a goal.
"Get the money" and "get the power" just leave hanging questions.

>>47214071

>A mysterious letter

>>47214071
Is this a question, OP, or a venting of frustration?

>>47214071
Sexual gratification through wanton whoring and savage violence.

>>47214219
Power can be for it's own sake - you can get a lot of good feelings as a leader, even if your actual situation isn't so good.
You might ascribe that as the goal of "followers", but just knowing that what you do and say has a big impact can feel pretty good - call it vanity, ego or whatever, but there's a reason "power for its own sake" has remained a staple motivation for thousands of years

>>47214236
Is there a reason why players hit the default button so readily when it comes to motivations?
Aside from them just being lazy?

>>47214071
>everyone goes for gold
I go for silver

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>>47214071
Too lazy to type it all out again, but it's pretty much right there.

>>47214277
Only bad/new players do that.

>>47214283
>not going for iron, cold iron

>>47214071
Its the only occupation that has a high fatality rate, chances at massive riches, if you don't die you almost always end up incredibly powerful and influential, and you always come home, assuming you're not dead in a ditch, with crazy overpowered magical items. He could honestly care about the prestige.
He's suicidal as all hell and if life doesn't get exciting quick he will just off himself to end the boredom. Now his retirement plan, assuming it all goes to plan, is that he now comes out the other end a rich and powerful demigod, with magical world breaking relics he can go on a world tour of destruction, enslavement, raping, pillaging, and general mayhem just to keep himself entertained and make life interesting for the rest of the world. If he's immortal at the end he will just occasionally move between benevolent god to Murderhobo Supreme on his Golden Throne Above as fits his mood, again, to ensure things stay fresh for everyone involved, especially him.
Its basically agreed amongst the group, and myself, they WILL have to kill him at some point but considering his whole focus up to this point was amalgamation of power through basically any means that doesn't rob him of any types of pleasure he's a damned juggernaut thats the only one to survive 3 total tpk's and 2 technical tpk's, minus him of course.

>>47214277
If a character has other motivations than gold/power, he'd be busy completing his goals instead of participating in jolly adventuring with 4 other guys who have "very important motivations" but instead of following them they prefer to loot random ruins and slaughter kobolds.

tl;dr because it makes the most sense

>>47214071
If "adventurer" is a profession in your games, that's probably half the problem right there. Try crafting a scenario where the players are non-adventurers forced into a situation where they have to go on an adventure. As much as I hate to quote video games as good examples, in this case they kinda are. See the new Tomb Raider, Fallout series, even GTA (modern settings), ect. Just find a way to apply something like that to multiple characters instead of one and you're golden.

>>47214370
>ect
Fuck off

>>47214439
Chump
Chumpette
Yours
Up
Pimpmobile
Bite
My
Shiny
Daffodil
[redacted as per the requirements of the Muh FeeFee's act of 2014]

>>47214390
Lel u mad

It's a common theme for all my characters that they have a single goal when it comes to adventuring.

They want to make hats out of the most terrifying of beasts.

Along the way, money, fame, fortune all comes along (Some settings omitted) but they don't do it for that. They do it because they want the best hat around. Not one to waste parts, the rest of the creature is used for... something. Food, more armor, alchemical reagents, what have you. No matter what though, the most impressive ones always have SOME part of them turned into a hat.

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>>47214475
Not him, but it should be etc., the abbreviation of etcetera, from the Latin et cetera, "and other [such] things" - t. Grammar Nazi

Motivations aren't hard. My first character came home from the war to his parents' general store and realized he just wasn't feeling it, so he went mercenary.

Had another character whose culture promoted adventure and grand deeds in combat.

And another who wanted to be an anime character, so she went on magical girl adventures.

>>47214218
A man after my own heart.

>>47214536
That's actually really good to know. Thanks anon.

>>47214219
You honestly expect your players' characters to be more self-aware than the players themselves? Your players probably believe in acquiring money for its own sake. It's a pretty common mindset.

>>47214357

Or motives that can be solved with gold and bbeg hide. Sick family/loved one. Rivalry. Nihilism. Research?

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His friends Ricardo and Stephan found the diary he wrote at the temple at home and it turned into a bestseller when they published it, no doubt due to his odd philosophies and way of looking at things.

They sent him off to be a cleric with a pre-existing adventuring team in hopes that his writings on the road will sell just as well. He just went with it.

>>47214218
Red Death, is that you?
https://youtu.be/Gj6r0Vi4-Bk

>>47214071
Motherfuckin gold and glory

>>47214071
He didn't want to become an adventurer, he just sort of stuck around with the group because it was sort of fun.

>>47214071
Yeah. Initially it's gold. That's not why he continues adventuring. Retirement is death.

He just signed up with the militia to get away from the wife and his naggy harpy of a mother-in-law a bit, he never expected to actually be in a fight.

In a setting done by someone else my character was slain in a conflict with a fellow apprentice wizard. Thanks to a secret pact with a friend, my character was raised as an 'undying "

I'm no more powerful than a normal human but I'm visibly different and must hide this fact or be lynched. So I left to find a place in the world of the living for someone who just pretends to be breathing.

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Life? What life are you talkin' about I ain't got no life! I just got a living and the only way I get to do that is through these loot drops.

>>47214071
Wealth -> Social Status -> Power.
Also, better bargaining position when getting a husband.

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>>47214071
I lived in a society where males generally get stabbed, and don't have much opportunity to make giant piles of cash. I want money, and the possibility of a lover who will not knife me as soon as she gets bored.

I guess if I want kids someday I will have someone polymorphed into a drow. Maybe a halfling, busty drow lady who likes baking seems really cozy.

>>47215070
>the guy is standing on her robes

>>47214071
Assuming your talking about DND. The average adventurer makes more in a single loot pull at level 1 than most shitty villagers make in their life time. It is absolutely a reason for a character to become an adventurer.

>>47215086
Drow are commonly what most people would call jerks.
He is probably about to die though, irritating a priestess of lolth is a painful way to die.

>>47215154
I seem to remember some drow spell that causes your hand to tear off and become a spider that starts to eat you. Knowing female drow, I'm sure they have a spell like that for penises.

>>47214370
Just hero's journey all the things!

>>47214071
Motivations are not important as long as the player roleplays his character well and gets along with the party and interacts with the world without wanting to kill/rape everything.

His wife and daughter nees medicine.

At least that's what he tells people, they actually died years ago while he was out trying to earn money for medicine. Nowadays all of the money he sends home is to support his townspeople who watched after his family while he was gone.

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>>47214071
>Have you thought of a setting yet?
>Generic medieval europe fantasy

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>>47214284
95% of any community is shit.

Congrats on being part of the 5% of this one that's not. 9/10 would gladly accept as a player.

>>47216218
You lookin' for a fight because dem's fightin' words.

>>47214298
Ah, the master of them all.

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>>47216292
I would say it's more like Sturgeon's law, with a shit/nonshit 'schrodinger-esque' gradient in between that represents 91-95% percentiles. Now you can lock that shitty idea in your tabletop folder, and it will simultaneously be fucking awful and really cool at the same time.

Only after it is used in a game (observed) will we know its true state.

>>47216421
Sure, any idea can end up being shitty in practice, but if given the choice between the player who looks like they put some effort into it or the player who's just in it for the gold... well, it's not hard to develop ideas of which is probably going to be more interesting.

It almost blows my mind how many people in this thread proudly proclaim their characters are just in it for money or thrills.

>>47216460

Because defaulting to "a bunch of assholes raiding tombs for gold and glory" makes the game less serious. It makes it easier to have an open table, which makes it easier to introduce people to RPGs.

They shouldn't have to read 15 pages of worldbuilding and submit a 2 page backstory to play a game.

>>47216460
Or it could be that you prefer to not have a dominating motivation for you character initially, instead wishing to see what kind of story the GM is going to tell, and then thinking up a reason as to why your character is interrested.

>>47214138
>If I don't slay the dragons and claim all their gold my sister won't let me fuck her.

>>47214071
>I just really hate goblins. More than is socially acceptable to admit.
>It's not even a personal vendetta like they killed my father or something. They are, as a race, objectively bad people and holding my race back.
>Don't act like your reason is any better.

>>47216586
>Are you by any chance a paladin?

>>47214284
>"So, GM, who is the rest of the party"
>well, there's Synn. The Thief. She likes knives and has amnesia.
>and the Barbarian. He goes by "Meat." He was kicked out of his town for being too stupid and rowdy.
>And T'elen#thander, the drow wizard. He's out for revenge against all Drowkind because male drow, but he also is smugly superior to everyone who isn't drow as well.
>And the cleric of Pelor, whose player hasn't given me a name yet.
>also pretty sure that "revenge on drow" thing from punctuation-man is going to be a plot tumor because he's gonna try to politic every noble we meet into being an "unwitting pawn" in his revenge crusade. So we might not actually ever find out what happened to your mentor on account of other interactions we're forced into with nobles, then their guards and shit.
>still, great character. Love the thought you put into this. Great plot hooks.

This is me. I've forever GMed so long that good characters like yours fill me only with pity, because I know what will come of it.

>>47214071
There is literally nothing wrong with this.

If you phrased gold as wealth or riches, you'd be cool. If you phrased power as magical mastery or physical perfection, you'd be cool with that too.

I am also so tired of characters that come in and slap down their five page backstory, that quite clearly states several very specific goals that give them absolutely no reason to want to work with the rest of the party, and even give them good reason to hate other party members - not that it matters, because half of them have done the same thing.

>>47214355
While that is a motivation that I, as a hedonistic sort, can empathize with it really comes off as pretty edgetastic when his relief from boredom is to become evil supreme and rape and pillage.

It is an interesting end goal, and if he lives a good way to set up a BBEG, but Im not a fan personally. I probably wouldve phrased it as he goes out afterwards looking for someone who can match his prowess, whether it be in battle, sheets, or tavern. Winning or losing doesnt matter, the experience is what actually matters.

In my group, we have:

>A conman warlock who signed a deal with his mentor as an act of desperation, and now seeks sufficient power and knowledge to out-trick his trickster spirit mentor in a way that gets him out of the deal.
>A nobleman paladin who's utterly convinced he's a genuine prophet/messiah and seeks to radically transform the dominant religion
>Half-orc Malcom X, seeking to end oppression AT ANY COST.
>A wild magic sorcerer who accidentally burned his entire tribe to death because of his magical awakening, and now seeks the money to erect a massive monument in their honour.

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>>47216616
Well, you wern't wrong. Except it was the barbarian who fucked the game over by constantly doing murderhobo shit even though we were supposed to be hunting criminals and constantly whining that he was "bored" when we tried to pursue anyone else's personal plot arcs.

Would've been nice to just keep going without him, but he had too many connections to other people in the game, most notably the GM.

>>47216699
Still probably gonna attempt to use the character in a future game once I find a better group for it.

Which will be never T-T

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>>47214071
Greed and pride are valid motivations to go adventuring. They mostly lead down to the dark side, but they're still viable.

Each of the group is in some way set to become or replace a god/dess of the setting. For a lot of the group that's not an obvious outcome or the initial reason why they're adventuring, but it's the assumed ongoing goal.

He wants to find out who he is and make himself.

>Caught between the lines of right and wrong
>Caught between the things that I don’t know
>Up and down the mountain climbing, climbing
>Drowning in a ocean to find my soul

>>47216665
One of these is not like the others.

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>>47214218

>>47214219
"Get the power" is only a transient goal when you can't use the power to literally reshape reality as you see fit.

>>47216980
>Joker without lipstick
He looks weird as fuck
>Joker being THAT against other villain because of ideology
What a fag. Villain is a villain, Jokie.

>>47217028
But then the actually interesting question is "what shape do they want reality to have?"

>>47216980

absolutely disgusting

>>47214071
My group runs the spectrum of good/bad motivations. I've found that how motivations are roleplayed is more important than the quality of the motivation itself.
I got the paladin with the novella-length backstory that basically boils down to standard "protect the weak, uphold my god's rules" <yawn>
I got a bard who is unabashedly in it just for the fame. The player actually makes this work through decent role-playing
Warrior who's got great motivation for freeing his clan from oppression, but the player is incapable of roleplaying and ends up doing LOLRANDUM shit
And a rogue who's goal is to be in a position where he never has to do anything he doesn't want to do. Would be a good motivation except the teenager playing him is telegraphing his "my parents are such mean tyrants" angst

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>>47214071
My characters are murderhobos trough circumstance rather choice. Since I frankly cannot imagine why any sane person would willingly put themselves in constant life-threatening danger unless they were basically desperate.

End goal is not having to be an adventurer anymore by scrapping enough gold pieces together to afford a decent home and either an early retirement or a real job.
But of course by the nature of campaigns things often spiral out of control way before that point.

>>47217083
In another comic, a prisoner asks Joker if he's interested in joining the Aryan Brotherhood, to which he says "I'm evil and all, but you guys are just mean".

Meanwhile in Death in the Family, he becomes the Iran Ambassador.

In the last campaign I was in, one of the players had the goal of becoming a sort of infamous wealthy swashbuckler. Anything that would build his reputation, swordsmanship, or wealth was seized upon. Over time he started chasing legends around simply because they existed. He was one of my favorite players to have because his goals were numerous and transparent so motivation was never lacking.

The players in my current campaign are the proverbial band of misfits that don't play nicely with society. They don't like their circumstances or each other very much (in character), but they can't really deny their mutual goals, so a lot of their roleplaying is coming to terms with one another.

>>47214071
Gold/Curiosity/Knocked the fuck out and woke up on a different plane of existence.
He just wanted to learn a bit of magic and run his shop in peace, but now that he's here he may as well learn more magic.

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>>47214071
>gold
Easy to come by as an adventurer
>women
A construct is cheaper unless your wanting a serious relationship in which case, why are you adventuring?
>Superman style hero doing whats right/believes in
IMO feels the blandest, would rather have any of the other tropes in my party than this one.
>revenge for murdered family/friend/something stolen.etc
I hear this one non stop. Honestly bores me how often I her it. Sure it gives the GM a villain and stuff to work with but they can do that with any other reason to become and adventurer.
>Flee from Underdark
Generic drow background, personally never have used it. Most of my Drow are wizards who didn't flee because their good (Their neutral) they left for their dreams.
>power
I get this one and its one of my favorites but I feel it needs to be expanded upon rather than just "I WANNA BE STRONGER!"
>Knowledge
Same as power, like combining the two.

The trope I almost always use for my Wizard (Since its the same Char, just different Editions) is that the Wizard is adventuring to improve their knowledge of how the world, magic and science work while taking relics/artifacts/tomes to learn how to use them and what makes them tick. Generally his opinion ends up being (Or for post level 5 already is his opinion) that the world is ran by super powered Wizards and that he wants to learn their tricks so he can ascend and become a god of Knowledge, spending all eternity learning every bit of information he can. Gold is a means to this end, as is power. A love interest would interfere with his pursuit of knowledge and once he is immortal he can chase tail as long as he wants. Hes the kind of person to dissect a Kobold/Goblin/Orc/Dragon and write down his findings after they were slain in a dungeon.

https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/8/81/Rubick_move_21.mp3

>>47214071
Grief and alcohol

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>>47214071
>Those are not reasonable responses to becoming an adventurer.

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>>47214071
>"Have you thought about the reason your character became an adventurer?"

He wants to stop monsters and thereby save people from their evil. Pic unrelated.

>>47214071
>>47218669
>gold
>power
>grief
>alcohol

By your powers combined, I am Murder Hobo.

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>>47216980
>the poster-child of absurd anarchic villainly suddenly getting a hard dick for ideology

>>47220980
To be fair it is the Red Skull.

Fucking nobody likes him

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>>47221280

>>47214071
Wants to figure out why she seems to be cursed. Original plan was to become strong enough to lead the charge to generic evilland. Then in the first session I rolled no higher than a 5, and my first roll was a 1. Retroactively changed her backstory so as to be horribly, inhumanly unlucky and she wants to find a solution. GM ruled any time she fails it's because of her luck. It's kinda funny hearing how she gets bitten every time.

>>47214219
I disagree; the motivation can easily be to amass enough money/power that they can reach whatever goal occurs to them. They do not have a goal in mind, only an intention to make the goal reachable if they had one.

Effectively, the mindset that answers "What do you plan to do with your lottery winnings?" with "Whatever I want." Ask them what they want and they'll just start listing off whatever comes to mind, because they hadn't even wanted it yet when you asked.

To see as many beautiful and exotic bodies and faces as possible to create a catalog for his illusion staffed strip club when he retires.

>>47221309
Well Jubilee's Hitler, so what did you expect?

>>47221566
Am I missing a joke here?

>>47214071
What asshole weeb makes the shitty drawings of these stupid anime-looking bimbos, because when I see him I'm gonna call him a big faggot for making this garbage

>>47221309
That's adorable and awful simultaneously.

>>47214071
My character went a-sojourning to prove themselves to their noble bloodline.

They kept adventuring for the sake of dressing up tomboy lolis in fancy clothes.

When the alternative is dying a peasant, does one really need a reason to become a murderhobo?

>>47222927
You're a newfag and you're trying too hard.
It's cringeworthy. Lurk more.

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>>47214071
>not becoming an adventurer to ressurect your dead-ass god
>not also becoming an adventurer to get that sick fucking fame and notoriety
>being satisfied with just power and gold

>>47214071

Or maybe I was just born with a heart full of adventuring.

>>47223112
What about wizards and shit? Why are learned men murderhoboing around instead of doing literally anything else?

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Mercenary. He's literally in it for the money and to kill things.

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>>47223296
Because fuck logic.

>>47223296
Actually applying knowlesge? Finding exotic magicks? Thesis for wizard college?

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>>47214071
Because the vague yet menacing government agency my character freelances for is the only employment he can find that lets him build dangerous contraptions and use them recklessly on monsters.

Also money.

>>47223296
Student loans.

>>47223296
Actually applying knowlege? Finding exotic magicks? Thesis for wizard college?

>>47221309
Is this cannon?

On the surface
>I'm in it for the gold and killings what I do best.
Under the surface
>I enlisted in the army at a young age thinking I would find glory and honor, instead I only find that there is no honor in lying in a filthy muddy field while choking on my own blood and trying desperately to call on my long dead mother. Now that I am older and cynical I see the world in a darker lense and killing is all I know. I have no place in the world except as an agent of death, Telling myself I'm in it for money is what I use to poorly convince myself I am not a monster.

>>47223063
>>47223537
Its not Jubilee and Red Skull but two characters that look like them named Hazmat and Mettle.

>>47214071
Half ork barb, captures goblinoids to serve as minions, intended to return home some day and sieze control of his tribe to prove that halfblood or not he is the orkiest.

I had them working as a sorta mobile gambling den/fight club as a way to pay there keep till i had large enough numbers and as an excuse to the other members why i was capturing as many enemys as possible alive.

My characters usually have some shitty backstory.
>broke up with waifu, travelled aimlessly
>always hated homelife, started travelling aimlessly
>blacksmith working at burned down. Started travelling aimlessly
>Some guilt inducing incident occurs. Started travelling aimlessly
>Trouble with the law. Started travelling aimlessly
>Village is super poor. Started travelling aimlessly
>Rebellious nature. Started travelling aimlessly
>Aimless traveler, started travelling aimlessly

>>47223618
I was sort of wondering when Red Skull managed to find some time to hit the gym.

I guess I have decent reasoning
>character's rich town stolen by another country
>character is weak and can't do anything
>leaves, gets pact with dark God
>comes back to lead his people to murder the people who stole his town
I haven't actually been able to play this character yet but I think I'll be able to pull it off

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Babby's first campaign:

Party is sort of randumb. The Monk is pooping on everything - DM had to homebrew him a spell-slot system for his poops. He gets to fling poop as an improvised ranged weapon. Has to roll increasingly difficult CON saving throws to not poop himself If he doesn't poop once per day. Critical misses have happened.
The Bard is an Aaracockra bard who comes from the Elemental Plane of Air over the Sea.

My Half Elf druid was raised by his Elven mother in a secluded druidic circle. All his life, he only knew Elven culture. His friends and family were all elves. He was always the "half human". He had to adhere to a culture he didn't feel he belonged to. He'd grown to find full blooded elves pompous, overly ritualistic, and above all else, BORING. He had a bit of a wild streak. He was a proper druid, and genuinely loved nature, but his circle was less "hunt with the wolves in wild shape" and more "tend the flowers in the meadow, go forage for berries".

He was told of tales of his Human father, an adventuring sea captain. He had sailed into storms and come out unscathed. He'd fought sea monsters, rescued nobles from pirates. He'd been everywhere, seen everything, done everything. My druid decided he needed to follow in his foot steps and see the world and experience it all.

Basically he wants to experience the world, but hasn't had any exposure to it, so he's super naive, kinda horny in the award teenage way, and has been tricked into taking various drugs before we've hit 7th level. The party's fighter is an actually pompous High Elf. They hate each other, but in a funny rivalry kind of way.

How'd I do?

>>47223912
Oh, and his actual motivation for leaving is to find his father. I told the DM what the druid's father WAS like, but didn't tell him what he's CURRENTLY like. Told the DM to surprise me if the party ever encounters him. He could be old, crippled in a bed, he could be a drunkard, bragging about his former glory days in the inn, he could be a grizzled veteran still adventuring. I don't know what the DM is going to do with it, and that's part of the fun.

>>47223632
>sieze control of his tribe to prove that halfblood or not he is the orkiest.
I like this a lot.

Because otherwise, I will lose my fucking will to live from making fucking chairs every god damned day to some fucker with a dragon fetish! So give me that fucking bag of fermented roots so I can shove it in that fucking deranged old bastard's warp incursed wizard's puckered fucking lips!

>>47223446
Thanks for the read anon.

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Because adventure.

Literally - she's an Elan. She was made an Elan because she wanted to adventure.

And she's gotten so good at it she has started becoming the focus of other adventurers' adventures by doing things like taking over kingdoms and playing the evil despot, making alliances with githyanki to obliterate kingdoms to create ruins, and leaving powerful artifacvts in dangerous places because she made a new toy for herself and doesn't need the old one.

She may be slightly crazy, but when you've outlived three generations of elves and have a place in their history, you have a slightly skewed perspective of the world.

>>47214071
My last character was a monk who became an adventurer to fund his alcoholism after his monastery got fucked by evil dwarves.

Admittedly, I'm a pleb that went with the default 'pays well' reason. Except I spiced it up with the 'she has no other options' angle. It's either adventure or go steal things. Basic 'people discriminate against immigrants, but I don't get short changed when I break into some assholes fortress and take his various pricey bullshit.'

That said, it's less 'living wage' and more 'saving up for retirement/living a dream' angle.

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>>47214071
>He's the parasitic offspring of a race of dragons that capture lone humans and creates a near-identical copy that also has a desire for "loot" and hoards it in order to create a nest for the next step of its metamorphosis...
At that point on the character sheet, I just kinda gave up
the guy playing the character never brought it up again and it didn't play a role in the short-lived campaign we had

>>47224326
Reminds me of that old /tg/ screencap about Adventurer Eggs

I spent 4 years of my life traveling around, starving half the time and eating maggots inside bread the other half, waiting to be killed half the time or killing other people just because the guy in charge ordered it the other half. Traveling around, having some good meals when I can get them, and killing people because I can take what they have is a fine tradeoff as far as I'm concerned.

It's either that or farm for a couple pieces of copper a week and wait for a famine to kill me. Gold is a damn fine motivator.

>>47224326
I know everything except the dragon part is from some movie, but I can't for the life of me remember which one. Some science fiction alien thing.

>>47224282
in the campaign I'm working on right now my character isn't really an adventurer as much as he is just an imperial officer looking to hire adventurers for a top secret quest his superiors don't believe is important enough to allow him to use his own men

>>47223556
sounds like you're a 15 year old going through that "I hate everything" phase

>>47224423
Hyper-poverty can make for some good plot-lines and motivated characters for sure.
>>47224282
Do you have alcohol withdrawals as a game mechanic?

>>47223296

Wizard's minds and motives are incomprehensible. You wouldn't understand.

>>47214071
Because their boss said to go be a doctor with these murderhobos and they did the absolute madman.

Such is life in shadowrun.

>>47224572
>Do you have alcohol withdrawals as a game mechanic?

nope but he hasn't really stopped drinking long enough for it to effect him. the party has been stuck doing missions for this ex-paladin who's trying to build a village in the middle of a place that used to be run by a necromancer, so all our quests were pretty much "go kill undead over there, then come back".
plus that shit would kill him, man

>>47223245
One character concept I had had something like the first one as their motivation. Only it was more like that they were the only one left alive who still worshipped them as everyone else got killed when they were a child.

>>47220980
>>47217123
but its funny because you wouldn't expect it, right?
That seems right up the joker's alley

Who cares? Nobody roleplays in my group.

>>47223618
Does he think she's Jubilee? - given he's calling her that and there's the fireworks

Or is it fan work?

>>47224540
Hey you guys always want a Le ebin character archetype subversion, and its not like I play him like a massive Edgelord despite the way I described him. also I never really had an I hate everything phase

>>47225056
Its an edit dumdum.

>>47214071
For my characters, it's generally a hobby. That's either in the direct sense or something else. Say you're a mechanic, you're there to hone your skills in taking apart some of the most devious traps in existence. Perhaps you want to complete the puzzles or study the runes. Either way, you're there because you want to be, and you gain experience because it's your damn job.

>>47224389
It's basically that but the second stage of the metamorphosis involved everything from the waist down shedding off, being replaced with a dragon lower half, making it something described as a "dragon-centaur". Shit was so bizarre that I didn't read the second paragraph on the sheet.

My current character's motivation is as follows:

>Helping innocent people makes him feel better about his life choices

>The pay is pretty good

>Every now and then get to show up that smugass rouge who can't remember my name.

>>47214071
He says it's to protect people like when he was on the force, but without the paperwork or the oversight. The direct payout was good too.
But under the white hat veneer, I suspect he just enjoyed the violence.

>>47214071
>D&D 5e pugilist
Currently she's on a quest of vengeance against any and all cultists, but in particular against the cultist who was responsible for destroying the street gang she was part of.

>Stars without Number psychic xeno-archaeologist
On the run from several systems' governments because he could only get the required research materials he needed on the black market. He's basically trying to study an extinct psychic race to figure out why they went extinct so humanity doesn't make the same mistake.

I just want to kill shit

>>47214071
But I just wanted gold and power to make my country great again...

>>47214071
>wanting the exterminate all intelligent life (except those he deems acceptable, of course) in order to obtain true peace.
>also to find a person that is the same race as him

>>47214071
He concluded that he would never achieve his dream of being a comedian, so he turned to a lift of adventuring to seek fame and fortune instead.

>>47223296
>No sense of right or wrong

>>47226959
To go more in detail, he hopes to gain favour with the devils by sacrificing PCs, eventually becoming Asmodeus' right hand, and re-spark the war between the devils and the demons, so he can backstab Asmodeus and claim the "evil shard" for himself.
Also he's a human that has silver hair and red eyes, which his mother said only pure people have.

I don't think this was the best idea for a pre-written good-alignment campaign.

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>>47224916
sorry to hear, bru

My character adventures because I can't do it IRL.

>>47214071
>he didn't become an adventurer for ultimate power

it's like lore friendly min/maxing

>>47214071
>people thinking power is something like being king
>not being a fucking god

warriors become kings, but wizards become gods

*tips*

>He comes from a place where people rarely live past 35.
>The area is extremely dangerous and the only real way to make money is smuggling since its located in a geographically convenient spot and goods moved through this region are able to dodge the heavy tariffs.
>He had lost countless friends to wildlife,bounty hunters or rival gangs.
>Wanted to get out and turn his life so he immigrated to the safe crime free area.
>Trying to repent and get right with the lord
>But all his skills are tied to illegal shit and the world and its lifestyle still have a grip on him trying to draw him back in.

Imagine if the US/Mexico Border was a giant death swamp. This is where he was from.

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>>47214277
Yes, the perfectly reasonable assumption that it doesn't matter at all as far as your usual game of mansions and murderhobos is concerned.
Also the perfectly reasonable assumption that expecting the average DM to integrate your PCs backstory and motivations into the game as anything substantial is optimistic at best.

>>47223296
sociopaths are a thing

>>47218975
great, now I have to reread akumetsu; thanks anon

>tell the GM I go on adventures to try to forget the sight of my girlfriend having been eaten apart by rats, for which I partly blame myself
>GM tells me to stop being an edgelord teenager
>I literally stole it from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

>>47214071
"I just want to hurt people."

Adventuring is a safe way to deal with murder issues.

>>47214219
Are you saying human beings arent greedy or short sighted with their life goals?

>Be basically autistic small witch who lives alone in the woods with mother dearest
>Almost never interact with other human beings, the world outside of the forest itself is an enigma
>Adventurers literally stumble over you, shout something about evil and walk away when you begin to panic
>Tag along with them without really saying anything because what the fuck do normies even do
>Help them defeat a minor evil corrupting the landscape, decide to tag along still to see a town for the first time
>On the way get attacked by gobbledygooks, lose a party member and several local guards
>Decide to help the party mount an attack on what they believe is the raiding camp that the orc/goblins/whatever are using
>Militia and guardsman come too
>It is not a raiding camp
>ITS REALLY NOT A RAIDING CAMP
>feellikeahero.jpg
>At this point decide that the outside world is a harsh place that needs someone to care about making it better
>Decide that to atone for burning down and massacring an orc village, you'll travel the land with your party and do as much good as humanly possible

I basically built my character around the idea that I'd never played DnD before so I'd learn as they did. It was pretty fun ending up with a motivation for adventuring as a result of events that unfolded for the party rather than just doing it for gold and power. Which she also happened to get as a bonus.

His skill set is comprised almost entirely of ways to dole out horrible death. Generally via burning. That sort of limits your career choices a good bit

>>47214071
to find his missing master and show his worth as a student. (AKA: surrogate parental abandonment issues)

>>47216369
If you won't put special effort into the setting, why should I put special effort into my character?

Knowledge, Status and Power are all valid motivations

>>47233816
You're in charge of one character.
DM's in charge of an entire world, a plot, balancing combat and performing the roles of a judge, actor, director, writer, and babysitter simultaneously.

Cut him some slack.

>>47235351
If you think it is too much work, let someone else DM then

>>47214071
Well, he was a slave at first, and was freed by pirates and became a pirate, and then he found a sword that just said he was destined to be a king. He figured any talking sword knows what it's talking about and just listened to its instructions.

Now he's a figurehead king for a the demon lord Orcus is personally supporting and allied with, surrounded by Chaotic Evil maniacs with more power than him, and he's beginning to worry the sword might not have the best intentions while he tries to stop the kingdom itself from going full evil, channeling the evil of the people around him in more productive directions and keeping them busy with dungeon crawls.

>>47214071
Well, he can't stay in one place when fantasy Umbrella Corp is after his ass, so he decided to explore the world while on the run.

Tell me how cliched this is: human paladin, noble background.

>great-grandparents wuz dragonslayers and sheeit
>got noble title and wealth after killing
>family moved into trade rather than heroing as generations passed, degenerate and wealthy
>raised on stories of family being great
>realises family doesn't have glorious victories anymore
>decides to make his surname mean something again

>>47216607
/pol/adin.

The best kind.

Idea: Character who adventures so they can make whatever passes for a documentary in the setting.

Imagine a wizard using crystals and shiet to record his adventures with a group of criminally insane high-powered sapients. Recording nature documentaries about magical beasts. Having his apprentice carry the crystal ball.

He becomes renowned the world over as a fine filmmaker and goes on more adventures because of the pressure to make sequels. Maybe the BBEG has been making snuff films that he needs to stamp out as chosen representative of the Mages' Guilds of Filmmakers.

>>47236830
>Moving Pictures

>>47214071
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq4SSlsZ_p0

For truth, for justice and for some kings lies in that order.

>>47214071
>it's another shitty non-topic to justify the spamming of terrible dA OC donut steal waifu

>>47214679
A+

>>47236830
I'd actually be interested in a setting with a few more "modern" technologies taken for granted.

Maybe not smartphones, but magical telegraphs, magical submarines, magical movies, magical speakers and magical instruments, those sort of things.

>>47214071
Is this a backstory thread?
>MC is the heir to a minor noble line that got betrayed and their ancestral home seized. He adventures to raise money and allies to take back his house and honour and etc etc etc

> my shithole brother stole the throne from me.
> now I'm gonna get rich and powerful enough to take my throne back and nail him to the back of it.

>>47241589
>nail him to the back of it

You really want your brother stinking up the throne? You know you'll have to sit on that thing, right?

>>47239861
so kind of a lo-tech magitech setting? could be good. post-sci-fi settings are always good for that. have modern tech be regarded as ancient powerful relics.

After having lost everything he's become suicidal, but it too much of a coward to just kill himself, so he throws himself into danger, and each day he continues to live he drowns his sorrows in drink and women. He puts on a brave face and a false bravado, but his prayers to his god every morning beg for death that day.

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>>47214071

>Put a lot of time and effort into my character
>Reasonable origin and justification of motives and abilities
>Get stuck in a situation I knew how to solve but my character doesn't
>Gets killed
>Resurrection isn't common in this setting, sorry
Make another in depth well thought character that has a reason to join the party who could die just as easily and waste all the time I put into thinking, or just say I desire wealth and see what happens?

>>47214071
>"Have you thought about the reason your character became an adventurer?"

Because there was nothing else to dedicate his life to

>be dorf paladin
>literal bastard who's mother couldn't bare the shame of being a single mom
>dumps him off in an abbey
>abbey gives him a sheltered life, teaches him that he was born for the sole purpose of serving the gods
>graduate to full pally, ready to fight the forces of evil
>experienced pallys too busy fighting other evil
>send him, a Lv1 squirt off to destroy an army of undead
>heal and protect the shit out of some random adventurers
>come back with undead army vanquished
>dude wtf ur alive
>turns out he was supposed to die for the glory of the gods out there, and by not dying he insulted the gods and bought dishonor on his famriy ect.
>bar him entry from the abbey, making him homeless
>murderhobo it is then

>>47230610
Why does that exist in printed form.
A tree died for that.

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>>47236415
Remove kebab pallys are a personal favorite of mine

Mine was a man who grew up without a mother, raised by a single father in a poor hovel. his father tried to provide for him, tried to be a good father, but in the end father died to malnutrition and disease, leaving Darius (The kid) alone. Darius took to minor petty theft as a street urchin, none of the orphanages would take him. He wasn't a mean guy, but when he got older he realized something. He was a big mofo. Like, seven feet tall. And a thief.

Charged with his crimes, he was locked away for eight months, but midway through his sentence the town was attacked by slavers and the lack of strong guard forces made it easy pickings. Daruis broke from his cell, grabbed the first weapon he could find (An earthshaker) and went to smashing slaver skulls to defend his home.

Turns out he bumped into a paladin of Apsu and helped him fight back these slavers. Later on, paladin left but turned Darius onto the path of the church as a Neutral Good Cleric. Darius follows Iomedae, Apsu, and usually Sarenrae. Doesn't force beliefs on people, rather, he ushers out challenges to evil and routes it with his hammer and his spells. Follows the War > Tactics subdomain and the healing domain. Tactics allows me to force one ally to roll initiative twice and take better results. He's a battle-cleric with a heart of gold, in fullplate armor. (My GM equated him to a less douchy space marine, I didn't realize it at the time.)

>>47214071
Sometimes the stupidest fucking reasons can make the best characters.

Most fun I ever had with a character was when our Pathfinder DM fucked up his map and accidentally swapped the position of the local Orphanage with the Brothel. My character grows up to be the biggest man-whore in the town, want's to find his mother because he "Has a feeling" she's still alive.

How does he do this? Become Rich and hire people to aid in his search? Become a famous hero after saving the lands from cataclysmic events and evil villains?

Fuck that! he just goes about seducing nobles and shagging royals wives and daughters with the intention of getting caught (With the occasional thieving heist every now and then being "Found out somehow"). Infamy is easier than Heroism to obtain.

Did find my mother though! Turns out she was a succubus...Kinda explains lots really. ¦)

>>47214071
>personal revenge
>wonder lust
>discovering secret power
>to test myself
>to escape my past
>to find uncharted lands
>to find love
>to become a god or find one true god
>because i was banished from my home
these are all default shit tier answers that commonly come up

>>47214071
Magus: Revenge...but then I needed money, and then I ran out of leads. Group broke up before GM could throw me another.

Barbarian/Bard: To become king of my homeland.

Swashbuckler: I just like fighting.

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>>47246260
>Sometimes the stupidest fucking reasons can make the best characters.

>entire 519 chapter adventure started because he was bored

>>47214071
He is the third son of a fairly powerful noble from a family with a very long military tradition.

He isn't likely to inherit much, much less become heir, and doesn't look forward to the set of circumstances required to change that.

So instead he uses a lifetime of martial training to wander the realms and gain fame on his own.

>>47214071
Redemption. He was terrible selfish person, had near-death experience and a revelation that made him change his ways radically. It's ambiguous whether that was actual divine intervention or a fewer dream induced by drug cocktail and concussion.

>>47229832

Of course you can go on adventures, anon.

Clearing out crack dens, fighting ISIS, exploring the Serengeti, it's all dangerous and potentially rewarding work!

For the sake of getting out every so often