Roleplaying - Ideas for base character motivations?

[NNS10]

To stave off boredom with Skyrim, one day I decided to try roleplaying, and it has helped immensely. Creating a character's backstory, personality, and motivations do a lot to help give a sense of purpose to your character's presence in Skyrim.

 

However, the greatest challenge I've had in creating characters is finding good BASE motivations. It's incredibly easy to fall into the trap of using superficial motivations, such as wanting to be strong, wanting to be rich, wanting to explore dungeons, etc. Those are superficial and will quickly lead to boredom.

 

The real question is this: Why does the character want to be strong? Why does the character want to be rich? The answer to that is the base motivation. To look at it another way, a character wants to be strong because ______. Or wants to be rich because _______. The reason is what drives their behavior and is the base motivation. This can also go a few levels deep (e.g. Character seeks out challenges and danger BECAUSE ---they want to be strong--- and that is BECAUSE _________).

 

Examples:

-Character A wants to be strong in order to exact revenge against a group of NPCs that murdered his family.

-Character B works to make lots of money in order to fund a skooma addiction.

-Character C seeks out dark caves and dungeons in the hopes of finding vampires to kill. She seeks to kill all vampires because her family was attacked by them before, and she was forced to kill them all after they turned (note: Not sure how well this would actually work out in-game since I don't think there are all that many caves/dungeons occupied by vampires).

 

 

So having explained all that, here is the problem:

I find it hard to come up with base motivations besides Hatred and Revenge. Those are two very strong base motivations that can drive a lot of different behaviors. And later that can morph into base motivations of Repentance.

 

I'd like more variety though. If anyone has other ideas for base motivations, please do share.

[Guest]

It probably sounds simplistic, but I usually sketch out a little biography for my characters, and I try to think about nature and nurture; what their base qualities and  flaws are, and how life experience up to that point has shaped them.  I'll usually define a moral alignment for them, I can't get into a character unless I've decided where on the scale of kindly, thoughtless, wicked, selfish, generous, chaotic, or rule driven they tend to be. 

 

I find motivations naturally emerge from that. 

[Starbrow65]

Lost Love - The character's beloved spouse/lover/relative has disappeared and the only trail, hardly substantial, leads the PC to Skyrim. In a land tormented by civil war and threatened by dragons, the PC's only hope is to talk to every denizen, to look into any cave or ruin, to turn every stone, to follow even the faintest trace ...

 

Forgotten Identity - "So I'm on this wagon with these Stormcloak types and they tell me I was crossing the border illegaly. Fine, but ... who am I? Why was I trying to cross that border and enter Skyrim in the midst of a civil war? Was I mad? Desperate? Whoever I was before I forgot everything, I must have had a reason. And why and how did I lose my memories? What happened? Who is responsible? Someone must have an answer ... Somewhere, there must be a clue ..."

 

Promises To Keep - The PC has sworn a binding oath to a dying friend/an aedra or daedra of your choice/his dear mummy/his younger self/anyone to weed out all evil/fight injustice/become the best tomb raider in Skyrim/collect all butterflies in Tamriel/anything and has come to Skyrim under the geas to keep that oath.

[Content Consumer]

I guess the search for food is the most base need...

 

It might be useful to consider, not what the motivation is, but how you go about it.

 

For example, my sister once played an Oblivion character where she was a Khajiit monk who refused to kill anyone except in self defense... and whoever he killed, he had to put a "bouquet of flowers" item on the body. It made for an interesting playthrough, as well as a difficult one because bouquets of flowers aren't exactly common... he ended up robbing graves and stealing from people just to get the flowers, which was fine for him because his motivation was to leave flowers on corpses, not be good or evil or anything like that. He was just a little nutty, believed that Akatosh wanted him to leave flowers on the dead. And ingredient flowers just wouldn't cut it.

 

Maybe your best friend was killed by a wandering brigand. You've sworn to track the brigand down... not to exact revenge, or to bring him to justice, or anything... you just want to find him so you can try to force him to change his evil ways.

[snsd4203]

I don't make stories for my own character but I do for my followers

All my followers have very dark childhoods though :/

 

[Sarathis]

A lot of times choosing motivations with no foundation to work from can be overwhelming. If you sit down with a blank canvas of a character with no origin frame of reference you can sit there with a dull look on your face and have no idea what to create. A good way to start narrowing down your options is to consider generalities.

 

 

Race

What are you considering playing? Your setting is already established (even if you're using some whackadoo overhaul mod like Tropical Skyrim), so you're working within that environment. Generally speaking, though, each race has its own circumstances and characteristics to take into consideration when generating some kind of back story or motivation for them.

- Nords, proud citizens of Skyrim, practical, stubborn, but with a history of being downtrodden by more powerful, wealthier nations and now struggling under religious oppression. There's already a lot to work from there.

- Imperials, culturally rich, somewhat priveliged people who are stinging from getting a whipping from the Aldmeri Dominion, now dealing with an uprising from northern barbarians. What reason do you have for being in Skyrim? Were you ordered to go there? Are you a second or third generation immigrant? Were you a veteran of the war with the High Elves?

- Redguards, the warrior race, obviously sympathetic and having a lot in common with the Nords considering your own struggles not too long ago. Are you a mercenary looking for a good place to ply your martial skills now that the war with the elves is over? Are you a guard hired to escort a caravan? How do you feel about the civil war going on now? Are you in search of a certain Redguard noble woman rumored to have betrayed Hammerfell?

- Bretons, talented in the mystical arts, yet very underappreciated in Skyrim. How would you react in a nation where your very race makes people vaguely uneasy around you? Are you one of the Forsworn, determined to reclaim your home or bent on vengeance towards Ulfric and his Stormcloaks?

 

On and on, each race has its own characteristics and background to consider and those are simply the generalities. One could take those and choose to make a character the complete opposite of his or her racial stereotype. What about the Khajit and Argonians and the obvious prejudice they have to face? Or the Altmer who basically no one in Skyrim likes, not even the Imperials. How would they deal with their situation, especially if it turns out they're the Dragonborn? There's a lot to work from with each race but a good place to start is, why are they in Skyrim to begin with, assuming of course they're not a Nord?

 

 

Gender

As tough as people are in Skyrim (all of Tamriel, really) and as hardy a breed as Nords are, gender roles are still prevalent in Skyrim and they play a definite part in ones motivations and upbringing. While there may not be any social restrictions keeping any gender from filling any position from jarl to general to merchant to beggar, there are definitely residual prejudices that make one think job equality may be a more recent import from Cyrodil. All you need to do is listen to the tiresome Olfina Grey-mane talk for a while to realize that.

 

War is tough on everyone, as evidenced by how many people sport scars on their faces in Skyrim, but there's an undeniable element of additional risk for women... and we've got the mods to prove it.    With the dangers of ravishment and slavery to contend with in addition to the more mundane risks of death and dismemberment that come in a world consumed by civil war, overrun with bandits, and threatened by insurgency in the west, a woman has to be exceptionally brave or inured to hardship to take on a role of heroism (or villany depending on how you play). What circumstances make a woman overcome her misgivings in order to do what it is she's doing? Patriotism? Religious zealotry? A need to see justice done? Or was she simply a part of the army and is doing her duty? On the more villainous side, how about female bandits? What kind of desperation makes a woman turn to banditry? Was she raised by a bandit? Captured and abused by them to such an extent she became one of them? Once again, there's a lot to work with. I will say, though, that the "victim of rape / child abuse" origin is as overused as out-for-revenge and I-hate-____.

 

Men, of course, have to deal with the same concerns but to a lesser extent. I'd say females of the beastmen races have less of a risk factor but given the player base on this website... yeah, same amount of risk... you sick little monkeys.

 

 

Vocation

What, exactly, does your character do? Usually even if someone has no idea what race, gender, whatever they're going to play, they at least have an idea of how they're going to go skill wise, even if it's just "two handed, heavy armored warrior dude." Ok, fine, but what do they DO? How did they get their skills (such as they are at level 1)? Did they have a mentor?

 

Then there are some of the more unusual skill sets. Some people like to challenge themselves by being physically weak, putting most of their perk points into things like Pickpocketing, Speech, and crafting trees and attempting to get through the game as a merchant, thief, or tradesperson, using Followers as their muscle or not as they see fit. What motivates someone like a smithy to go out into the world? Does he or she only sell enchanted weapons and armor? Do they resent making things for war and long for days when all they made were farm tools and building materials in between shoeing horses? Were they drafted by Ulfric or Tullius? The same questions can be applied to an enchanter or an alchemist. And what do you do if you discover you're the Dragonborn? You make potions to help old ladies with their arthritis, not fight dragons!

 

How about magic? Where did you learn it? Why bring it to Skyrim? Or, if you're a Nord, how did you even start to use it? Maybe you didn't, you just find it fascinating and want to go to the College straight away. Are you a researcher looking into ancient mysticism? Are you seeking to peddle your talents as a War Mage in order to make a name for yourself and tip the balance of the Civil War one way or another? Do you have an agenda of some kind and don't give a damn about the people around you? Are you a dragon fanboy/girl like Farengar? What kind of magic do you do, anyway, and why does it interest you?

 

 

Alternate Starting mods

Don't know about all of you, but I hardly know anyone who DOESN'T use at least Alternate Start: Live Another Life mod these days. Riding in a wagon with Ulfric makes my eyes bleed I've seen it so much. So, ASLAL provides us with the bare minimum in changing things up a bit and also lets us decide what our character looks like right off. It's great that way. It also gives us a place to ask questions about our character's motivations.

 

You're soooo mundaaaane... you own a farm or are hanging out in a pub or you're a hunter. You bore me! But wait... boredom... is a motivation! Maybe your life is so damned dull in spite of the wars and uprisings and trolls and whatnot that you decide to check out that rumor you heard about something going on around Helgen. You get there and the poop hits the fan and suddenly you're caught up in some crap you hadn't counted on. Maybe you react well to it but... maybe you don't. Maybe dragons and civil wars and countless wolf attacks on roads doesn't sit well with you. What will you do to extract yourself from this trouble you've gotten yourself into?

 

Then there are the other starting points available in the mod.

 

You own a piece of property in a hold. For some of the holds that's the first step in becoming a Thane. Are you nobility? Did you inherit the house? Were you wealthy, bought it, and now are having a spot of financial difficulty?

 

You're a bandit. Being a bandit sucks. Bad living conditions, lots of danger, your coworkers smell... You want to get out of the business, or maybe just find a more enterprising group? Maybe you've heard being a soldier has better pay. Or, in a more exotic sort of play, maybe your group was exploring a barrow or one of those dwemer ruins and you came across something that didn't sit right. Ever since Bjorn picked up that ancient jeweled dagger he's been acting squirrelly. Hrofstaad disappeared last night and Bjorn keeps grinning and muttering to himself. Maybe it's time to go...

 

You're a vampire. Living in a cave sucks. Preying on dregs that live on the fringes of civilization isn't all it's cracked up to be. Your creator was exposed and burned to death leaving you and your fellow blood sucking brethren abandoned with no one go guide you. They may be willing to sit around and wait but not you. You've got a thirst to slake and questions about your very nature to be answered. Who are these vampires you keep hearing of who have their own royalty and an entire castle to themselves? Why is it that feeding sometimes feels as though it makes the thirst worse instead of making it subside? Why the hell do people keep asking if you sparkle in the sunlight?

 

You're a necromancer. Man, you live dangerously! Starting out as a necromancer is brutal without turning on god mode. Why, exactly, did you choose to be a necromancer? Is there a question you needed answered? Are you searching for power? Perhaps you think necromancy is the first step towards the ultimate secret of true immortality. If you're unaffiliated then what do you think of the rise of the Dragon Priests and the draugr?

 

You were in a ship wreck. Who made that idiot a ship captain? So now you're freezing your butt off trying to swim through water that has ice floes in it to a shoreline that looks about as exciting as paint drying. Great. So now what? Where was it your ship was going, anyway?

 

You're a Vigilant of Stendarr. It takes a pair of solid steel to go up against Daedra with an iron mace and a wooden shield... especially since the word is your headquarters was burned to the ground by vampires. So, you've got to ask yourself, why are you still doing this? Why'd you get into it in the first place? With all the troubles in Skyrim vampires, werewolves, and daedra seem the least of people's worries. And yet...

 

There's also the newer "Escape from the prison" start where you don't choose at all, you just pick the lock and escape from the abandoned prison. In a start like that you have to wonder, why was it abandoned and by whom? Why is the prison in such bad repair? Most importantly, why were you put in there?

 

 

Primal Needs and Urges

Sometimes one's basic needs are the most important motivations one can have. The need for sustenance, the need for shelter against the elements, the need for sex and beer... It might not even be a current need, your character might have something of a psychosis from a previous trauma. A glutton who's motivated from a time when they starved or a kleptomaniac who takes things without even realizing it because they're scarred by a memory of being poor and homeless. Skyrim is a harsh place to live, especially in times of war when the fighting can have unexpected consequences and collateral damage.

 

What does your character want and why does he or she want it? Does being Dragonborn (or not!) spark something not so admirable in your character? If you decide to do their storylines, what makes a person want to help out a floundering Thieves Guild or join the Dark Brotherhood? Does your character have a penchant for sexual deviancy that's been exacerbated by what's going on around him or her? Maybe the Dragonborn lets power go to his or her head and becomes something of a bully.

 

On the other hand, one's primal instincts can motivate him or her to a more noble state of mind. Maybe his or her feelings makes them want to do things for others who may be in a situation like they once were. How many people seek out spirituality to try to combat their more ignoble base instincts?

 

 

You're no Dragonborn!

Sometimes it's interesting NOT to play the main storyline. Maybe you're bored of shouts and Alduin makes you yawn. Who wants to climb the Throat of the World, anyway? High Hrothgar sucks! Sometimes it's fun to be a normal shmoe in the world. There's still the Civil War and the expansions to play through.

 

 

I write a lot.

 

Anyway, breaking a character down before they're even made can help a lot. Many of my characters from games, stories I've written, RPs I've done, etc... started from just a single idea that I expanded over time. Even just playing around in the character creation can spark ideas. You're fooling around with a face and you give a person a bent nose and a nasty scar. How did he or she get those? Did it affect their lives? Maybe you're playing around with their eye shape and you end up with a look that makes them seem mean or devious or humorous. I've had a lot of characters spring to life from just the features of their face or physique. Let your imagination guide you, don't just settle for generic.

[NNS10]

Alternate Starting mods

Don't know about all of you, but I hardly know anyone who DOESN'T use at least Alternate Start: Live Another Life mod these days.

 

I switched from Alternate Start: Live Another Life to Skyrim Unbound. Both are rather different, and while Skyrim Unbound does not have the range of starting backgrounds as ASLAL, it does make it so you are not the Dragonborn. You can also turn off dragons completely, as well as word walls. It makes other changes so the Civil War questline and Dragonborn questline do not intersect (previously, getting Whiterun onto your side of the war required doing some of the main quest line first).

 

 

A lot of times choosing motivations with no foundation to work from can be overwhelming. If you sit down with a blank canvas of a character with no origin frame of reference you can sit there with a dull look on your face and have no idea what to create. A good way to start narrowing down your options is to consider generalities.

 

Thanks for the great writeup. That definitely helps give ideas on how to approach building out a character's personality.

 

I'm still a bit unsure of motivations though. After reading your post, I tried starting from a blank canvas and building it up, but I quickly realized there are boundaries I need to stay within (e.g. can't have elements in their backstory that would cause them to leave Skyrim and return to where they came from). The character's vocation is combat-related, and it's hard to imagine what would keep them going in Skyrim if not hatred/revenge. If they're in Skyrim in search of someone, well... most NPCs aren't all that interesting. And once they find them, then what? A story would have to be spun to keep the character going, but if the chain of events is what keeps them going, it better be a damn good chain-of-events.

 

I understand the theory of what you've written, but I'm having trouble with some of the application. Do you have any examples (for combat-class characters).

 

[Sarathis]

I think you're approaching the story a bit too literally in regards to concrete goals to be completed in the game's time frame. Unless they're terribly obsessive, people don't have that narrow a view. Searching for a person or thing is a fine medium to short term goal but it's not long term because you have the expectation of finishing sooner rather than later... unless the person or thing you're looking for is a long-lost relative or artifact that's been missing for thousands of years or some junk. Establishing your character's long term motivations is more important because that's going to tell you why they're sticking around. That's why I mentioned the Primal Needs and Urges section.

 

Sometimes you need to establish your character's back story before you come up with a motivation but not always. It helps to know what their life was like growing up because a lot of people do or don't do things because of how they were raised. You know the saying, "You either turn out exactly like your parents or the exact opposite,"? A lot of people who grow up with religious parents end up becoming atheists or agnostics, for example. Coming up with little tidbits like that can help you round your character out and may even lead you to a long term motivation.

 

Warrior / combat type people have every excuse to be in Skyrim at the time the game is taking place, so I'm not sure what kind of other motivation he would need to stay there. A few quick off the top of my head examples:

- You've heard that the Companions are some of the best warriors in Tamriel... we'll see about that!

- War... war never changes... *cough*  Um, yeah, the Imperial army called you in to whip these pathetic Nord dogs back under control.

- You're the person the Vigilants of Stendarr call in to deal with "special" problems and if the Dawnguard is being reformed it sounds like your talents are needed...

- A true mercenary like yourself goes where the money is and with all the turmoil in Skyrim right now people are paying double what you'd get elsewhere just to guard caravans.

- Necromancers are the bane of all humanity and you intend to find who's responsible for raising all the draugr in Skyrim and run a sword through him.

 

Those ideas are just lead-ins, hooks to actually get your character to Skyrim if it isn't already their home. What actually keeps them there is up to you and how you make your personal story unfold. Maybe it's the whole Dovahkiin thing, maybe you meet a nice guygirl and decide to get married, maybe the money's good, maybe you get in trouble with the law and put in jail... Generally speaking motivation for being there in the first place isn't enough to keep your character there.

 

In stories it's rare for a character to go some place and have their ambitions keep them there. Usually circumstances will occur in the story that force them to be where they are. It may be that they're going to leave some day but the story requires them to stay for the duration. That's how it should be for your character. Sure, they may want to leave Skyrim eventually but events in the game will keep them there.

 

If you base your limitations solely on what you're able to accomplish as a player then, naturally, you're going to feel underwhelmed. If your motivation is to "kill General Tullius" or "get to the shore and leave Skyrim" then there's no real pressure to continue playing the game. Both of those goals are relatively simple to accomplish in the course of the game. As short term goals they work but as long term ones they're no good. You have to come up with your own reasons for staying and they have to be compelling on a personal level for your character. Try to think in terms of someone who's living in Skyrim and not your own goals as a player.

[uptower]

Greed and lust drive the bandit chief:

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/41277-adults-only-the-brigand-diaries-returns/?hl=brigand