Intrigue
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Characters may have many goals, triggers, and drives, but every character has a primary motivation that is reoccurring and pivotal in a story. A character's motivation represents an aspect of their nature that they habitually, compulsively, and eagerly want to fulfill. In essence, they are compulsive behaviors and drives that result from their personal opinions, beliefs, drives, hopes, dreams, inner demons, and vices. At character creation, a player decides what sort of personality they want their character to have and selects one or two creeds to represent this (or more if a GM allows).
Some examples are listed below but you can ultimately come up with your own motivation. Talk to your game master and fellow players to ensure you come up with a motivation that works within the campaign context as well as the party group dynamics.
Complications
GMs use character motivations as connectors for plot hooks they provide. For example, if a player had "bravado" as a motivation, they wouldn't just say there is a quest to fight goblins in the wood, they'd be able to provide character motivation by saying there's a rumor one of the goblins is the strongest warrior in the land and that local adventurers are too cowardly to take the job. Motivations can encourage a character to act in certain ways in certain situations, regardless of the pragmatism or danger. Complications and challenges are often what makes characters interesting and helps develop them over time. Every time you take an course of action to fulfill your motivation in a way that causes or risks major inconvenience or cost for you, you gain 1 surge. This is called fulfilling a motivation.
End of Session
At the end of each session in which you fulfilled your motivation at least once, you get +1 XP if you faced inconveniences for it or +3 XP if you risked life and limb to fulfill it.
Example Motivations
Addiction
Your character has a problem and it doesn’t look like they’re willing to admit it any time soon. The source of your addiction, can be a drug, a particular activity or personal obsession. The only way for the character to satisfy their creed is by consuming the drug, performing the activity or acquiring the object of their obsession and adding it to their inventory. Typically, an addiction is a considered a negative creed and overcoming it during a pivotal moment is considered character growth.
Balance
You believe the universe has natural order to it and seek to keep this order in check. You generally seek to maintain the status quo instead of disrupting it. Whenever you encounter a conflict that has an underdog, you’re eager to help the underdog just to even the odds. Who’s right and who’s wrong doesn’t matter. What matters is that the fight is fair. Making things “fair” is a greater obsession for you than making them “right”. You also seek to help repair and rebuild dead or dying ecosystems and economies wherever you encounter them. This often puts you at odds with everyone, but just as often helps you to find a middle-ground between parties with disagreements.
Bravado
You have no fear. At least that’s what you tell yourself. Anyone who challenges you, insults your honor or questions your abilities is in for a rough tussle, because you do not take lip from anyone. You are always on a mission to prove yourself worthy or prove that you are the best at what you do. You take challenges seriously and never turn down a dare or a test of your mettle and courage. Many would call you foolish and brazen, but you prefer to call it “true grit” or “gusto”. Nobody, and I mean nobody, calls you chicken.
Chaos
There’s nothing you hate more than the status quo. You cannot tolerate structured rules, organizations and routines. You’ll take any chance you get to throw a wrench in the machine, throw off a schedule, trick a fool or take a shot against “the man”. This is more than just valuing freedom, this is about destroying the constructs that limit it in any way. Anarchy is the only true end to any real justice (if there is such a thing). Some would call you inherently evil and destructive, but you prefer to think of yourself as an agent of progress. Change is necessary for anything to progress, after all, and all ingenuity is the result of a little madness. And madness, as you may know, is a lot like gravity: all it needs is a little push.
Destruction
There is no meaning to life, no greater purpose, no hope or joy or any great hereafter. All existence is misery and the only joy in it...is destroying it. You are the ultimate fusion of malice and nihilism. Most would call you more than simply evil, but rather say you’re as mad as they come. You don’t seek power or wealth to enjoy it. You only seek these things to further your ability to reign down destruction. You don’t fight, torture, or kill with ulterior motives, but simply for the pleasure you take in causing pain and death. Everything you do is merely a means to an end to cause more destruction until this wretched galaxy has been crushed to nothing but star dust and entropy.
Empathy
There are certain aspects about yourself or experiences you’ve had that allow you to empathize with others who also possess those attributes or experiences. Perhaps you’re a survivor of an abusive home and have a soft spot for kids or perhaps you’re a recovering addict who sees their younger stupider selves in other addicts or maybe you grew up from nothing and empathize with the plight of the poor and downtrodden. Whatever your empathic bond is, you are compelled to help others recover from and overcome the dangers and pitfalls that result from having these attributes, as well as helping those who are in need as a direct result. You empathize so strongly with others of your kind, that you often seek to help them, even when they do not want or deserve it. This sometimes puts you at odds with your allies, but deep down you know you can help others like yourself.
Freedom
You have a strong affinity for freedom, liberty and personal choice. Slavery, indentured servitude, imprisonment and tyranny are subjects of particular disgust for you. You’d rather die on your feet than live on your knees and go out of your way to ensure that others can do the same. Willful subservience disgusts you just as much, because clearly it is the result of some madness a tyrant has brainwashed into people. Even prisons turn your stomach. You’d rather see prisoners rehabilitated into society (if there’s any hope for them) or just executed on their feet like men (if there isn’t). Many smaller-minded folks have presumed you’re just an agent of chaos, but you’re not. You’re an agent of choice. Everyone should be free to make those decisions and face those consequences. Life isn’t worth living without both these things. When push comes to shove, you’ll demand liberty, or die trying.
Greed
Money makes the world go round and you must have it all. Every coin, every credit, every bit of treasure and loot will be yours. Sure, you’ll agree to split things evenly or pay a fair price for the sake of the law and order...while people are looking. Any chance you get to have all the money and acquire all the gold, you will take. You can’t pass up a rare and valuable item when you see it and you never turn away an opportunity for easy money or big scores. All that matters in life is being the wealthiest and richest among others, because money really does buy happiness. It’s a fool who puts their trust in anything other than the almighty coin and you are no fool. If you have to wiggle your way around rules or occasionally resort to a little thievery; you’ll find a way. After all, whomever has the gold, makes the rules.
Hatred
Pick some particular affiliation, aspect, origin, creature type, mutation, lifestyle, religion, type of religion, organization, or society. You hate the people who are associated with the object of your chosen hatred. Your bigotry and resentment runs so deep, that you only treat them as second class citizens as a nicety. Given the opportunity, you’d do far worse. You seek to have this goal achieved in subtle ways if the law permits and less than subtle ways when the law isn’t looking. Somehow, some way, you always seem to find a way to blame those you hate and attempt to steer your actions in a way that hurts them. Regardless of what intentions they say they have, you believe that they’ve all earned your hatred and you will devote everything you have to destroying them.
Hope
You are an agent of hope. No, that’s not just some fancy title for a glorified cheerleader or mascot. You’re much more than that. You’re a beacon, an icon and a model for others and often a counselor and adviser as well. You cannot stand to see others cower in fear and despair and you make it your personal goal to give hope to others. You never accept surrender and you especially never allow suicide or “giving up” in others. Be it a rousing speech or dangerous mission, you’ll undergo whatever it takes to give the people hope. Without hope, there’s no point in existing and you aim to give life all the meaning it can take.
Justice
You just want good old-fashioned eye-for-an-eye justice. That’s right. You seek to avenge the hurt and right the wrongs as best you can. Some confuse you for a vengeful person, but a vengeful person is selfish, self-centered and takes things too far. No, you are an agent of justice. You avenge others who have been wronged and you see to it that the perpetrator is punished in a fair and transparent way, neither excessively nor mercifully. That’s the key word: fair. Justice is fairness and anyone who says otherwise is probably trying to get away with something.
Law
Good and evil are moral judgments that have no place in the court of law. All that matters to you is ensuring that the laws and customs of the governing parties are adhered to and that proper channels are used and authorities informed. It doesn’t matter if it’s jaywalking or murder, the criminal must pay for their crimes be it a small fine and a lecture about rules or a trial and execution. You are an agent of the law and will not tolerate bending the rules for anyone, not even yourself. You genuinely believe that “the system” works and will do everything in your power to ensure that it does and that law and order is maintained.
Love
You love someone on your team deeply. No, that doesn’t mean you’re in love with them, necessarily. It could be just a very close friendship or perhaps they are a family member or someone you look up to or someone who looks up to you. It is your love for them that drives you onwards, as well as your love for all your allies (though you do have a favorite of course). You’d do anything for your friends, and you’re not ashamed to let them know it (even if you’re the type to never say so aloud).
Malice
You hate happiness. You loath love. You are utterly disgusted and repulsed by kindness. You seek out others who are happy and affectionate and go out of your way to destroy that happiness. Nothing cheers you up more than ruining someone else’s day. Everyone’s stupid face should be as miserable as yours, if not more so. The universe is a dark and loathsome place, and anyone who can’t see that is an ignorant naive fool who needs to be put in their place. You don’t necessarily like killing or stealing, you just like ensuring everyone is a miserable and cantankerous curmudgeon just like you.
Peace
There is a saying that violence begets violence and that an eye for an eye makes the world go blind. Few people know this as well as you do. As a seeker of peace, you know that even in the darkest of times and in the cruelest of creatures there lies hope for peace. Somewhere, somehow we can all coexist and live together peacefully if we just try hard enough to resolve the situation with our words and put our heads together. As an agent of peace, you always try to resolve every conflict peacefully. It doesn’t matter whether you do so by tricking others, negotiating with them or even bribing or intimidating them, but you can do so without the need for real conflict. And when push comes to shove and you have no choice but to fight, you will always do your best to insure that no killing takes place and that criminals and violators are brought to justice in a fair and civil manner. You know others have a hard time seeing it, but universal peace is a very real possibility and you strive every day to achieve that reality.
Power
Only fools believe in things like “love”, “peace” and “justice”. It is only might that makes right. All that matters in life is raw unadulterated power. How many minions do your bidding and what is the highest rank you’ve achieved? These are the only questions in life that have any real meaning. You’ll do anything to acquire authority and build your own personal empire by cutting out chunks of the galaxy for yourself. Someday you’ll wear a crown and a single word from you will decimate worlds. Sure, for now you are reliant on a small group of allies to help you get where you’re going. Some of them even have great promise to rise the path of power with you as your most elite minions, but they are merely a means to an end.
Pride
Similar to bravado, but different in that you are not one to prove yourself to others. You already know your greatness, but you seek to get others to prove themselves to you. You constantly test the limits and boundaries of others and lure them into trusting you long enough for you to put your plans and schemes into action. Any time you are exposed to a new character of some import, it’s your prerogative to ensure that they perform some menial task for you to prove their loyalty and pay homage. Whether you persuade them, bribe them, trick them or coerce them is not important. You will get others to do your bidding and prove themselves to you. You never let anyone slide and everyone must pay their dues to you. Even when exposed to a character who has already paid homage to you, if you witness or hear of them accomplishing a great deed or task or somehow building reputation, it’s your job to put them in their place and get them to pay homage to you once again. You’ll find any excuse to put yourself above someone else because pride is what you’re made of. There is no such thing as climbing the latter or building an empire from nothing because all greatness is built on the backs of lesser people and you know this. Ensuring you have as many backs to stand on as possible, is all that matters.
Prestige
You always need to be the popular one. You’ll do anything for glory and happily pose for a photo shoot and sign autographs. You’re a ham for the camera, and it knows you taste good. You’ll do anything to stay at the center of attention and to ensure everyone remembers your name. You seek glory and fame more than anything else. After all, what’s money and power if you don’t have people doting all over you? You’ll play the goody-two-shoes if you have to just to get by, but you know being a bad boy/girl is always more popular, so testing waters and pushing the envelope is often your calling card. On the rare occasion that charm and reputation doesn’t work, blackmail and bribery are great backups. You prefer being a mascot, a cheerleader and an icon more than having any actual responsibilities of leadership, though you make it your personal mission to ensure that leaders dote on your every whim. The world is your audience and you are here to give the performance of a lifetime.
Truth
You are a seeker of truth. You solve long-forgotten mysteries, expose liars and charlatans and seek to get to the bottom of every conspiracy and clue you encounter. Curiosity and inquisitiveness are your main drives and they are fundamental to unveiling the secret wonders of the universe. Whenever there’s a case that needs to be solved, you’re the one to crack it. You and your team of fellow adventurers-turned-investigators always get your ma, or ancient alien horror, as the case may be.
Vengeance
You let no slight, no matter how small, go unavenged. Be it an insult to your friend, or an atrocity committed against your family, you will hunt down the violator and make them pay in full...and more. You are often agitated by small things and often bully others to ensure they know their place. When fools crying out for peace or friendship or “fair trial” get in your way, you’re certain if you don’t punish them for the audacity of getting between you and your prey, you’ll simply hunt them down at a later time in a darker place. Some would say you have a temper, but you know better. Righteous wrath is indistinguishable from vengeance, the weak-willed and naive just cannot see that. Even the judicators don’t understand justice. They try to even the odds, but don’t realize that a perpetrator will just commit a violation again later unless the crime is not only punished fairly, but charges interest in the form of pain and fear and loss. Only by instilling fear of vengeance in the heart of every man, woman and child can there be any peace and you seek to ensure that you have peace of mind...no matter what it costs others.