# Adventures Are Expensive tags: #thoughts #references/twitter ![[Adventures Are Expensive (cover).png]] One of the great things about being on social media is that sometimes someone will say something that triggers a moment of comprehension you did not expect. They put together certain ideas in ways that you've never really thought of, even though they match up entirely with your understanding. I love it when those opportunities come by.  > The 'people who call themselves adventurers are really just day laborers who aren't doing any adventuring' problem. > > In the first place, 'adventure' is an 'entertainment' permitted only to people possessed of money, purpose, and education (blank stare).  > In other words — an 'adventure' is an 'entertainment' permitted only to people possessed of money, purpose, and education. So if you want adventurers to go on adventures, then in your own work, make the people who have money, purpose, and education the adventurers. > > Hahaha! The longing can't be held back!  This is actually an excellent point and something I don't see people address very often, in part because many of them are still obsessed with the **D&D** zero-to-hero story arc. They can't get beyond the gravitational pull of that concept. A real adventurer has the ability to go on adventures, and adventures are expensive. The more realistic your setting, the more true this is. Now, this trifecta of elements is sort of like *fast, cheap,* and *good*. You can have two of them and slide on the third if those two are good enough. If your character has purpose and education/training, you might slide on the money. Perhaps you find a patron or dig up someone who'll pay you to make use of your skills. If a character has money and purpose but no training, this is a good opportunity to hook up with other characters who *do* have the skill and go off into the great beyond looking for whatever the great purpose is. If a character has money and education but no purpose — well, I'm going to be honest — this makes for a shitty character in TRPGs. A character without purpose is a character without motivation. However, a character without purpose but with money and education makes for a great NPC. This is the kind of character that can be talked into going along with the adventure, or strong-armed, or pressured, or threatened. They give the characters with motivation and purpose someone to motivate and give purpose to. Think about the trifecta of these elements, and I think you'll have a pretty good time. ## Post Scriptum In a weird way, I think this is related to the three critical questions. - What does the character want? - Why can't they have it? - What are they going to do about it? I harp on this all the time, but these questions link back to *what the character needs to do* and *what the character wants to do*, and *why they're doing all of it*. *"Motivation, motivation, motivation,"* to paraphrase realtors.[^1] A player character can get by without a lot of things, but they can't get by without motivation, without purpose, without drive. If you write a scenario that deliberately invokes characters without the passion to get involved, then you can't be surprised if they don't get involved. If you write a scenario where characters don't have the resources to get involved and you don't signpost that there are ways for them to *get* the resources to be involved, don't be shocked if the players are frustrated that the characters don't have a clear way to get involved. You would think this would be obvious, but I have seen the obvious fail more often than you might think humanly possible. [^1]: For those not in the know, the usual chant is *"location, location, location."*