# RPG a Day 2026 - 19: Desire tags: #thoughts #thoughts/RPGaDay/2026 ![[RPG a Day 2026 (illo).jpg]] ![[Desire (illo).jpg]] I think this one's actually going to be a short one, kids.[^1] It does, after all, touch on a subject that I find both fascinating and important. Desire, in particular, the desire of characters. No, not your desire for your waifu. Guy in the back, you can put your hand down. Speaking of things that I've mentioned more than once before, there are three things that are absolutely critical to know about a character. None of them are given on most character sheets. All of them are absolutely imperative for being able to play a character, with nothing else except for the vaguest of ideas of what a character does in life. You can play them and have a great time: 1: What is it that they want? 2: Why can't they have it? 3: What are they going to do about it? That's it. Those three things are the absolute core of being able to play a character and having a good time. We've talked about issues that touch on this subject, but never so directly as we are about to.[^2] Here is the moment where I deliver to you the most important thing about playing a character rather than facilitating a game or GMing/Keeping. Always remember the three questions. If nothing else, remember the three questions. One of the great advantages of understanding this as a mechanism and methodology is that you can use it to analyze media that you already know and like. Sit down with your favorite TV show, anime, or movie. Grab any character off the screen and start jotting down notes on the three questions. If you can't answer any of these three questions, given what you have been exposed to by watching, reading, or listening to the medium, then that's not actually a character. They are a prop. Conversely, if you pick a prop and can answer these three questions, that's not actually a prop. That's a character. The primary example of that would always be the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. What does the Enterprise want? It wants to protect the crew of the Enterprise and provide them any help that it can along the way. Why can't it have that? Because the crew of the Enterprise are absolutely insane and keep putting it and themselves into dangerous situations, some of which would be absolutely unwinnable were it not for the tenacity of the crew and the resilience of the ship. What is the Enterprise going to do about the fact that it can't have what it wants, the safety of the crew? It will fight as hard as it must to keep them safe. It will sacrifice itself for the crew if the situation arises. It will do its level best to keep going beyond what any other ship could or would to save the crew. That's a character. That's a fully-fleshed-out entity. It has desires, obstacles, and mechanisms to overcome them. If your characters in every game don't at least have that, then they're not characters. At best, they're pawns that you push around a board to play a game with. At worst, they're just time fillers for somebody else's story. If you're looking for more information about breaking down stories and looking for ways to integrate that into your play, I would definitely suggest you check out **[[Hamlet's Hit Points]]**, which is a fantastic book about deconstructing stories and plots in a very particular way.[^3] Despite the perverse urge to go into great detail on systems that give you mechanical support for doing this, I think it's a good time to just step back and let you think about it. I want you to actually engage with this process. Sit down with your favorite player character, yours or someone else's, and see if you can answer the three questions: - What do they want? - Why can't they have it? - What are they going to do about it? If they can't be answered, figure out why. If the answers are boring and trite, then you know the storytelling that happens with them is going to be boring and trite. You need to find a better hook. It could be a refinement of what you already have. It could be a complete rewrite, which gives them proper motivations and next actions, whatever it takes. If you have a lot of possible answers, that is, the character wants a lot of things, they can't have a lot of things, and they are going to do a lot of things about all those issues. Maybe you have a different problem. Maybe your character is overburdened with glorious purpose,[^4] and you need to trim how much they care about *all* of those things so that the things they *truly* care about have the opportunity to come out in story. A character that cares about everything cares about nothing. Figure out your desires. They don't have to be written as large as Desire in **[The Sandman](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_(comic)>)** series, but they should tower above your character itself. Your desires are the hooks that keep characters moving into the story and making *their* stories. Lean into the desires and their frustrations. You'll find that the game on the other side is just much more fun. [^1]: Which is the standing lie of the whole Thoughts format, and I know it. Every Thought rolls out the door with the honest intention of being short — see the 2025 run, which opened **[[Day 09 - Inspire|Inspire]]** promising "lightweight" and only a "brief" discussion, or the **[[Day 26 - Nemesis, Day 27 - Tactic, Day 28 - Suspense|Nemesis–Tactic–Suspense]]** closer admitting "time is getting short" and that it would "try not to hit that many" words. And then some of them grow beyond all expectation. This one already looks like it's going to be one of those. [^2]: You were probably half-expecting this, given the month. **[[RPGaDay 2026 - 09 - Privilege|Privilege]]** built a character up from a literal Goal and Motive; **[[RPGaDay 2026 - 12 - Loss|Loss]]** argued you can't make a player care, only hand them the opportunity; **[[RPGaDay 2026 - 16 - Composure|Composure]]** made motivation a pool you spend and tethered characters to what they love; **[[RPGaDay 2026 - 10 - Secret|Secret]]** nosed at the wants people keep hidden; **[[RPGaDay 2026 - 14 - Regard|Regard]]** handed characters a past to live up to. All of it circling these same three questions from a different angle. [^3]: And if that tickles your pickle, also try **[[Beating the Story]]**. [^4]: "I am burdened with glorious purpose," as Loki memorably put it. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pQKYN-yR2oM" title="Loki arrives on Earth — The Avengers (2012)" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>