So, I'm planing on joining a new campaign soon and I already have a ton of characters I potentially want to play. The thing is though, I'm a bit of a role player of sorts and I don't really like breaking character. Thing is however, if I'd actually stick to half my characters backgrounds and motivations, they really don't have a reason to stay with any group for long periods of time. Unlike those characters with no particular goal in mind, like for example my bard who really just wants to travel the land and collect some kickass stories he can later tell others, or those with a vague enough goal that they don't know how to achive said goal yet, like my sorceres who is searching for her mother but doesn't actually know where to start looking except for: "This country", those characters with a clearly defined goal in mind don't really have a reason to stick with the group if it doesn't further their cause. Why would my zealot, who was sent out by her cult to capture and bring back an escaped cult member, travel with the group north to stop the dragon from terrorizing some random dwarven city if her target was last seen heading south and boarding a ship?
I know these kind of things are best decided on a case to case basis, but does any of you have some general ideas as to why anyone would logical ignore the reason they set out in the first place in order to stick together with a bunch of random strangers they just met.
Thank you all in advance for reading and have a nice day.
What about loneliness and desire for friends? Some of your characters (like the bard) seem like they'd do fine as a vagabond wandering the planet, but everybody gets lonely and sometimes needs friends. I believe that D&D adventuring parties are a lot like being in the military. At first, it's just a bunch of randos with rando personalities that seemingly have nothing in common, but as your train and fight together, you grow closer than family even if you have nothing in common, no aligned goals, etc. It's not always about objectives, sometimes it can be about feelings and mental well being as well.
Also, what about compassion in helping others? Sure, you need to continue your personal quests, but what about the others? If you help them, then they'll help you? That's how a good DM should run it, letting each of the characters chase after their objectives, but you can only do one (most of times) at a time and the others will need to come later.
Gold?, Fame?, Adventure?, Powerful Weapons? all else fails safety in numbers. It's up to you to find that reason to stay. A good DM would find a way to make it so you all have to stay together
There can be some outside force, some mystical means pulling them together. A deity watching over, a powerful fey, an evil demon lord plotting their demise, there are so many options. Make it so if one character leaves or they part ways, they somehow end up back together. Look to popular fantasy books with main characters that disagree. Make them disagree, but they eventually grow fond of each other and get to know themselves and the other PCs better.
Ideally: My character stays with the other characters initially for personal reasons. Usually they have some personal goal and I expect the other players to have one for their characters to. As we work together to find gold, do some good and feel good about it, save one another's ass, help each other with are problems and personal goals, and get to know each other; we should stay together because of familiarity. We might disagree or fight, but we trust each other. 'Ohana means family, especially when we're at each other's throats.
You should be talking to your DM about this; it's just my personal opinion, but if he/she is lucky enough to have a roleplayer who even thinks about things like this, the least he could do is to work it into the story. From a literary point of view, I think the story should be about the PCs and always center around them, not the PCs having to struggle to find a way to fit into the game's arc. For example, how boring would a movie be if the main character for once WASN'T the "chosen one" and really was just a poor peasant farm boy?
That being said, I think your DM should take responsibility to accommodate your character idea, and there are lot's of things that he could do. Since in order for there to be a game, your character has to stay, he could marshal all of his powers to create credible reasons, hopefully having something to do with where the story is going.
I'm showing my age, but something that comes to mind is that Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner where multiple times he thinks he's caught a train out of a strange town that was idyllic but wirrdly deserted, but every time the train pulls in to the next town, it's actually the same town he just left. It turned out that he had been captured by aliens and was put into a kind of zoo created by them to simulate man in his natural habitat. The train went in a large circle.
OK, that's a bad re-telling of a really interesting episode, but my point is: You shouldn't have to do this all by yourself :)
Making characters with very specific backstories is a pain on the DM for that very reason - as a dungeon master I can say with certainty that when a player comes up with a character that has such clearly defined goals, it's not just you that is feeling like it's hard finding a reason to stay. The DM is probably working their butt off to figure out how to get the group to stick together.
For that reason I really don't like characters with such goals in games that I run. There is a time and place for them, to be sure, but if you're going to play a big game that will last a long time, then having the more vague or ill-defined goal (or sometimes no goal at all) is easier and more fun. That's my two cents, anyway.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Your character got news that a new leader has arisen in the cult due to the untimely and suspicious death of the former leader. The rebel cultist you were sent to hunt down actually has dirt on this new guy, which factored into why he took off. You never trusted this new leader and feel like you’ve been used to clean up his loose ends, so you’re going to stay with your new friends while you get your head straight.
Making characters with very specific backstories is a pain on the DM for that very reason - as a dungeon master I can say with certainty that when a player comes up with a character that has such clearly defined goals, it's not just you that is feeling like it's hard finding a reason to stay. The DM is probably working their butt off to figure out how to get the group to stick together.
For that reason I really don't like characters with such goals in games that I run. There is a time and place for them, to be sure, but if you're going to play a big game that will last a long time, then having the more vague or ill-defined goal (or sometimes no goal at all) is easier and more fun. That's my two cents, anyway.
To an extent, this.
To my mind, one ideally makes their backstory for the specific campaign together with the DM. This requires you to be flexible with your story, just as the DM needs to be flexible with theirs. In other words, OP shouldn't be asking us, OP should be asking the DM.
Essentially, it all boils down to communication and adaptation. DMs need to communicate their goals for the campaign to the players so they can adapt their characters and players need to communicate their characters' goals to the DM so they can adapt the campaign.
So, I'm planing on joining a new campaign soon and I already have a ton of characters I potentially want to play. The thing is though, I'm a bit of a role player of sorts and I don't really like breaking character. Thing is however, if I'd actually stick to half my characters backgrounds and motivations, they really don't have a reason to stay with any group for long periods of time. Unlike those characters with no particular goal in mind, like for example my bard who really just wants to travel the land and collect some kickass stories he can later tell others, or those with a vague enough goal that they don't know how to achive said goal yet, like my sorceres who is searching for her mother but doesn't actually know where to start looking except for: "This country", those characters with a clearly defined goal in mind don't really have a reason to stick with the group if it doesn't further their cause. Why would my zealot, who was sent out by her cult to capture and bring back an escaped cult member, travel with the group north to stop the dragon from terrorizing some random dwarven city if her target was last seen heading south and boarding a ship?
I know these kind of things are best decided on a case to case basis, but does any of you have some general ideas as to why anyone would logical ignore the reason they set out in the first place in order to stick together with a bunch of random strangers they just met.
Thank you all in advance for reading and have a nice day.
What about loneliness and desire for friends? Some of your characters (like the bard) seem like they'd do fine as a vagabond wandering the planet, but everybody gets lonely and sometimes needs friends. I believe that D&D adventuring parties are a lot like being in the military. At first, it's just a bunch of randos with rando personalities that seemingly have nothing in common, but as your train and fight together, you grow closer than family even if you have nothing in common, no aligned goals, etc. It's not always about objectives, sometimes it can be about feelings and mental well being as well.
Also, what about compassion in helping others? Sure, you need to continue your personal quests, but what about the others? If you help them, then they'll help you? That's how a good DM should run it, letting each of the characters chase after their objectives, but you can only do one (most of times) at a time and the others will need to come later.
Gold?, Fame?, Adventure?, Powerful Weapons? all else fails safety in numbers. It's up to you to find that reason to stay. A good DM would find a way to make it so you all have to stay together
There can be some outside force, some mystical means pulling them together. A deity watching over, a powerful fey, an evil demon lord plotting their demise, there are so many options. Make it so if one character leaves or they part ways, they somehow end up back together. Look to popular fantasy books with main characters that disagree. Make them disagree, but they eventually grow fond of each other and get to know themselves and the other PCs better.
it's been a long time...
Ideally: My character stays with the other characters initially for personal reasons. Usually they have some personal goal and I expect the other players to have one for their characters to. As we work together to find gold, do some good and feel good about it, save one another's ass, help each other with are problems and personal goals, and get to know each other; we should stay together because of familiarity. We might disagree or fight, but we trust each other. 'Ohana means family, especially when we're at each other's throats.
You should be talking to your DM about this; it's just my personal opinion, but if he/she is lucky enough to have a roleplayer who even thinks about things like this, the least he could do is to work it into the story. From a literary point of view, I think the story should be about the PCs and always center around them, not the PCs having to struggle to find a way to fit into the game's arc. For example, how boring would a movie be if the main character for once WASN'T the "chosen one" and really was just a poor peasant farm boy?
That being said, I think your DM should take responsibility to accommodate your character idea, and there are lot's of things that he could do. Since in order for there to be a game, your character has to stay, he could marshal all of his powers to create credible reasons, hopefully having something to do with where the story is going.
I'm showing my age, but something that comes to mind is that Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner where multiple times he thinks he's caught a train out of a strange town that was idyllic but wirrdly deserted, but every time the train pulls in to the next town, it's actually the same town he just left. It turned out that he had been captured by aliens and was put into a kind of zoo created by them to simulate man in his natural habitat. The train went in a large circle.
OK, that's a bad re-telling of a really interesting episode, but my point is: You shouldn't have to do this all by yourself :)
Let us know what you come up with!
Making characters with very specific backstories is a pain on the DM for that very reason - as a dungeon master I can say with certainty that when a player comes up with a character that has such clearly defined goals, it's not just you that is feeling like it's hard finding a reason to stay. The DM is probably working their butt off to figure out how to get the group to stick together.
For that reason I really don't like characters with such goals in games that I run. There is a time and place for them, to be sure, but if you're going to play a big game that will last a long time, then having the more vague or ill-defined goal (or sometimes no goal at all) is easier and more fun. That's my two cents, anyway.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Your character got news that a new leader has arisen in the cult due to the untimely and suspicious death of the former leader. The rebel cultist you were sent to hunt down actually has dirt on this new guy, which factored into why he took off. You never trusted this new leader and feel like you’ve been used to clean up his loose ends, so you’re going to stay with your new friends while you get your head straight.
To an extent, this.
To my mind, one ideally makes their backstory for the specific campaign together with the DM. This requires you to be flexible with your story, just as the DM needs to be flexible with theirs. In other words, OP shouldn't be asking us, OP should be asking the DM.
Essentially, it all boils down to communication and adaptation. DMs need to communicate their goals for the campaign to the players so they can adapt their characters and players need to communicate their characters' goals to the DM so they can adapt the campaign.
Vote here for an interim solution for homebrew classes:
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360036951934-Homebrew-class-interim-solution