Adventure motivation

[Stormcrow]

Motivation seems to be a problem with most of the official adventures. It seems they expect the player-characters to be a bunch of do-gooders, which really isn't very Tolkeinian at all. I'm finally giving Tales from Wilderland a good read-through, and it's full of instances where the party does something simply because they're the good guys.

Consider some of Tolkien's stories:

• The Hobbit: a treasure-hunt
• The Lord of the Rings: a quest to stop Sauron from taking over Middle-earth
• The Children of Húrin: a cursed hero seeks glory and inadvertently ruins everything in his path
• Beren and Lúthien: star-crossed lovers quest to be together
• The Fall of Gondolin: a hero defends the last refuge of the Noldor, but fails

Of these, only the last one is motivated by a do-gooder. I admit these are overly simplified descriptions.

What we need are more adventures where the player-characters can be a little more self-centered, where the players themselves want to go, or feel they must go, rather than going simply because they're the good guys and the peasants of the land need them.

[Elmoth]

Work around rewards. If you have Beorn promising you a few favors and political leverage you might want to do what he wants (what you describe as "do good") even if you do not care one iota about it. Greed for wealth and power is a powerful motivator. So is duress: if Thranduil or one of his agents asks you for something and you have the veiled threat that you might have Mirkwood less welcoming unless you comply, well, you are likely to oblige.

Recognition might also play a role here. Establishing your relationships with figures outside your fellowship is also important. Your family, your brothers, the members of your community... and why you were motivated to leave the safe haven where you were residing and take the path of adventure

[Yusei]

I think it's a common flaw to most generic published adventures, but the LM usually can adapt the motivations for his group. If we take Tales from Wilderland for example (SPOILERS):

- Don't Leave the Path: my group wanted to cross the forest to begin with. Helping Baldor (is that his name?) allowed them to easily access Woodland Realm, and benefit from his stuff in general.
- Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit: if you have hobbits in your group, they probably would help anyway, because it's rare to find someone of your kind in those regions. The biggest motivation was, however, to get free beer and free (pipe) weed at the inn! Don't save Dinodas, the inn does not get its pipeweed shipment.
- Kinstrife & Dark Tidings: you can easily change Oderic to be the little brother of a Beorning character.
- Those who tarry no longer: if your characters are elves, then it might just be an official mission. My (elf-less) group was asking a favour of King Thranduil, and they offered to accompany Irimë in exchange.
- A Darkness in the Marshes: I've got nothing, if the characters don't want to help Radagast, they may be playing the wrong game.
- The Crossings of Celduin: they might, for a start, be angry and getting poisoned. They might have family in Dale and Esgaroth. Or they might be after the fame and fortune that they would get by saving the day.
- The Watch on the Heath: I involved one PC by having some of his family go on that adventure while he was busy defending the gate.

[jamesrbrown]

Heroic development is of primary importance in a Tolkienian game. The individual members of a company each have their own Calling to deal with as a motivation for going on an adventure. The adventure is presented to them, but their motivation must be roleplayed and the Loremaster can work with that. As a default, however, an opportunity to be heroic is always presented by the Loremaster. Even though Bilbo needed to be coerced and promised remuneration to leave his comfortable Hobbit hole, the adventure to help the Dwarves reclaim Erebor was always meant to mature him and solidify his role in finding The One Ring.

As a Loremaster, it might be a good idea to review the Callings of each of the player-heroes and possibly highlight one or two of them during a game to focus on those themes.

[Glorelendil]

Agree with James: each hero's calling is intrinsic to their motivation.

[Rocmistro]

Motivation seems to be a problem with most of the official adventures. It seems they expect the player-characters to be a bunch of do-gooders, which really isn't very Tolkeinian at all. I'm finally giving Tales from Wilderland a good read-through, and it's full of instances where the party does something simply because they're the good guys.

Consider some of Tolkien's stories:

• The Hobbit: a treasure-hunt
• The Lord of the Rings: a quest to stop Sauron from taking over Middle-earth
• The Children of Húrin: a cursed hero seeks glory and inadvertently ruins everything in his path
• Beren and Lúthien: star-crossed lovers quest to be together
• The Fall of Gondolin: a hero defends the last refuge of the Noldor, but fails

Of these, only the last one is motivated by a do-gooder. I admit these are overly simplified descriptions.

What we need are more adventures where the player-characters can be a little more self-centered, where the players themselves want to go, or feel they must go, rather than going simply because they're the good guys and the peasants of the land need them.

I think the whole frame of your argument (observation) is completely wrong.

The motivation for each hero is his/her calling, and it's up to the player to connect the dots, NOT the LM. I have often found this type of thinking when I GM/LM/DM, and my response to my players is the same: "YOU are the frekking adventurer. It's up to YOU to decide why you want to go on this quest. I have enough work as a GM/LM/DM. If you can't help me or yourself with this basic, most simple thing (finding motivation), then that's on you. Go design a character who has a little easier time finding motivation."

/endrant

Sorry for what probably seems like a rant, but it always bothers me the amount of work the LM/GM/DM must do preparing for and adventurer only to have players turn their noses up with objections about how they would not be interested in doing this or that quest/adventure, etc. It's terrifically ungrateful and disrespectful to the amount of prep and work that the GM/LM/DM must do.

[Yusei]

The motivation for each hero is his/her calling, and it's up to the player to connect the dots, NOT the LM.

Isn't it up to the LM to ensure that there are dots to be connected? It is usually fairly easy, and if it's not enough for your players, then yes it is a bit rude of them.

(I've found, however, that I have more trouble finding excuses to involve treasure hunters in an interesting way.)

[Rocmistro]

I think a standard adventure carries enough potential for fulfilling each of the 5 callings that there should be no plausible reason for self-dismissal beyond the character being lazy. That's why Iike the callings so much in the game, as opposed to say, D&D alignments.

Slayer: Likes to kill stuff; there is ample opportunity to kill stuff in an adventure.

Treasure-Hunter: Likes to find material things; there is generally a fairly strong potential to find material things in adventures as they tend to involve bad guys who take things by force; take them back.

Scholar: Likes to learn new things. There is always new stuff to learn about the world and one's self on adventures.

Warden: Likes to protect things. What better way to protect things than to go sniff out the source of evil and waylay it.

Wanderer: Likes to walk around and experience things. If you have a hard time finding a reason to go on an adventure with this calling, then you just need to stop playing RPG's.

But Yusei, I agree with you that Treasure Hunter seems one of the trickier ones to fulfill, especially given the spiritual themes of Tolkien's work and the precedent for a lack of treasure highlighting in this game system.

[Stormcrow]

The individual members of a company each have their own Calling to deal with as a motivation for going on an adventure. The adventure is presented to them, but their motivation must be roleplayed and the Loremaster can work with that.

But their participation in your prepared adventure is still a foregone conclusion; all you're doing is finding a way to justify their participation.

The adventures I've read so far seem entirely tailored to Wardens. The other callings all rely on the excuse of "maybe we'll find something interesting along the way." Where are the treasure hunts? Where are the journeys of discovery? Where are the quests for vengeance? Perhaps these show up in adventures I haven't read yet?

[Stormcrow]

Slayer: Likes to kill stuff; there is ample opportunity to kill stuff in an adventure.

A Slayer doesn't just like to kill; a Slayer wants to redress wrongs or take vengeance.

Treasure-Hunter: Likes to find material things; there is generally a fairly strong potential to find material things in adventures as they tend to involve bad guys who take things by force; take them back.

A Treasure-hunter doesn't just want stuff; he is looking for lost and rare treasures.

Scholar: Likes to learn new things. There is always new stuff to learn about the world and one's self on adventures.

Which is a complete non-motivation. The adventure could be about delivering the mail and the Scholar could say, "Maybe I'll learn something new on this trip." A Scholar needs more than just a constant, generic chance of discovering something; he needs to be motivated by the chance to discover something specific, e.g. "There's a cache of lost scrolls reputed to contain ancient dwarvish lore; let's go look for it."

Warden: Likes to protect things. What better way to protect things than to go sniff out the source of evil and waylay it.

And this seems to be the primary type of adventure written for the game.

Wanderer: Likes to walk around and experience things. If you have a hard time finding a reason to go on an adventure with this calling, then you just need to stop playing RPG's.

This is another non-motivation. You may as well be an excitable dog following the party around. A Wanderer needs to go someplace new and meet new people, but otherwise you can't write an adventure specifically for this calling. It's too generic. Without better definition this is a catch-all calling for anyone too vague about their motivations to choose another.