# RPG A DAY 2025: Day 06 - Motive tags: #thoughts #thoughts/RPGaDay/2025 ![[RPG a Day 2025 (illo).png]] Motive is one of those things I talk about a lot in the context of both narrative within novels, short stories, and screenplays, as well as RPGs and even wargames. Motive is a critical element of good storytelling in general. And yes, storytelling happens in wargames as well. Without story, there's no motivation for you as the player to tell someone excitedly about the last cool game you played because things happened either to thwart the will of your play or that let it come to complete fruition. Those stories don't happen without the player understanding that they are motivated within the context of play. The little figures they're pushing around on the map have needs, wants, and desires—not as fully realized human beings, of course, but there are needs, wants, and desires. In the broader context of RPGs, we focus more on characterization. Even in the most game-centric of RPGs, motivation from the character is hugely important. Without it, it's less than just pushing little guys around on a map. It becomes less than a board game. It's funny how serendipity can lead to finding things just when you need to, because the video below hit my feeds last night. I really spent the whole time—an hour and a half—watching it, paying very close attention, and being engaged with it. Absolutely worthwhile. And it's not because I am fascinated by the idea of **[Broken Empires](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/evil-baby-ent/the-broken-empires-rpg)**. Honestly, I think it sounds a bit overcomplicated for what it is aiming to accomplish and still way more crunchy than I want in my games. Even though I appreciate all the places it takes inspiration from,[^1] and I even appreciate what it's trying to do. But what I truly appreciate about it is that the creator feels strongly about bringing the fact that characters need goals into the core of mechanics and character creation from the very beginning. Check this out.  *(Yes, that is the host of [Me, Myself, and Die](https://www.youtube.com/c/memyselfanddierpg), who does a great YouTube channel where he showcases a whole lot of solo and group-play RPGs. If you haven't watched it or seen his work, you really ought to. He is as entertaining as you think he would be.)* Right, back to motive. It's no secret that I love games which make motive part of the mechanical architecture, right from the beginning. And it's interesting to watch as creators and designers of games which ostensibly put themselves forward as OSR/old school games inch very slowly and very carefully toward more narrative architectures with bits putting mechanization of motive slowly filtering in. *[[Blades in the Dark|Forged in the Dark]]* games do it via direct hooks in their playbooks. **[[Ironsworn]]** does it with making iron vows central to not just character generation, but gameplay. **[[Urban Shadows]]** makes motivation not just part of character generation, but contingent on the debts that you owe people in the city of play, constantly, both owed by your character and owed to you. So, you're constantly reminded of various motivations that not only you may have at the moment, but others have had in regards to you. There are three things a character needs to be interesting and to have interesting stories centering around them. - They need to want something—something they can't have, something that compels them to action. - They can't have it. There has to be a reason they can't have it right now, and that needs to be clearly communicated to the audience. - There needs to be something they want to do about it. They can't just accept that there is something they want and that they can't have, and that's okay—they must be compelled to action. Note that all three of these things hinge on the same element: there needs to be something that they want, and it needs to be something grounded in the character that they want—not just that the player wants. The player creates the fiction, but the characterization drives the fiction. Ultimately, this is what we're there to experience. We're there to find out what happens. We're playing to find out, to borrow a phrase which has shaped a lot of my understanding of gameplay over the last quite a while. So where does motive come from? A character can't just emerge from nothingness and have desires—not ones that matter. They need history. They need backstory. They need something that precedes the moment at which we join them on the stage, in front of the camera of our game. Motive is grounded in history. And history is only significant if you care about it. If you don't care about it, it can't lead to motive. This is one of the reasons that I get frustrated with people who say outright, *"I don't care about the character's backstory. It's not important. Don't bring me three pages of history. It's never going to come up, and you're a bad person for doing it."* If someone brings you three pages of backstory for a character they want to play with you, they are dropping all kinds of hints about the stuff that they care about. They are putting up arrows and diagrams and maps that lead directly to where the story can be. They are *begging* you on their hands and knees, forehead to the floor, to let them seek motives and have probably written a good four or five of them in whatever they put in front of you. Throw that away at your peril. Motive changes a sequence of events from *"this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens,"* to *"this happens therefore this happens, but this thing happened because that happened."* Good writers, good storytellers, good GMs, and good players know that the causative power of motive improves every experience.  Maybe the game that you're playing doesn't include motive and motivation as mechanical elements. That's fine. Not necessary, though quite helpful. But it needs to be something that you take on board in your everyday gameplay, in your everyday writing, if that's what you're doing. Sit down and go through the three important questions for every character: What do they want? Why can't they have it? And what are they going to do about it? If your stories and games are starting to feel a little bit like you're just a camera going through the motions of watching disconnected actions happening, odds are good that there is no motive and characters are not pursuing their goals. Change that. Do something different. Make the situation better. Double down on motive. I think you'll find that it brings you to a better place. [^1]: Anybody inspired by **[[Ars Magica]]** enough to rip off the core mechanical system for constructing spells is okay in my book. And no, I'm not kidding. I love that shit. ## Postscript Things just seem to fall into my lap when I'm not looking for them, I swear.  ## Postscript Postscript