Campaign Toybox
N is for Nuts
Insanity isn't easy to do – ask anyone who's ever played with a loser with a Malkavian. On the other hand, going nuts or riding the risk of it is what makes adventuring in Call of Cthulhu so unique. This can be the low-level nothing-left-to-live-for death-wish kind of madness that makes the PCs the only people crazy enough to risk death or enjoy killing people (see also K), or it can go right up to the eating-your-own-flesh-or-that-of-others kind of fun that may make the game short-lived but incredibly memorable. Cthulhu and other games often make madness the outcome of adventuring, but it's much more interesting if its the motivation or even the pre-requisite. Maybe you have to be pretty insane to even the see the enemies, or the plane they live in, or to use the magic powers of the setting. The question then is how to be sane but not too insane, which is a question that is always fun to answer.
O is for Oppressed
Again, a common theme in fantasy fiction – Conan being the most famous example – but rarely as a fundamental part of an RPG campaign. There is a reason for it: if everywhere you go you are hunted, it puts a limit on the kind of adventures you can have – and we also end up back at I for Inescapable. The key is being oppressed but operational; such as being part of an oppressed underclass that is still able to walk around places without being shot. It makes demanding answers from the over-classes harder but in turn it provides plenty of adventure fodder, and wonderful dramatic angst, because sometimes you'll be called in to help the very people who make your life hell. Best of all it has a built-in campaign arc if the oppressed are trying to earn their freedom, or take it by force.
P is for Prestige
Hunting for fame is not unknown in PC motivations, but it's usually a very soft idea, or it's part and parcel of everything else. Save the world, rescue the princess, you'll generally become better known. Like a lot of these letters, the key is amping it up to eleven – whether as a goal or as an effect, or both. When fame is an issue, record-keeping becomes important, and that doesn't just mean scribes, but trophies and memorabilia. No point killing a dragon if you don't bring back its head to mount on your wall. No point exploring the unknown if you don't bring back new species, all named after you (and make sure you name the mountain ranges, too). You might also want to hire some bards or press-agents to travel with you, or be close at hand. Fame is also a great team motivator because when everyone wants it, it gets even stronger and binds everyone together (and going solo is a sure way to kill your career). Meanwhile, fame also drives a group apart. Watch Behind the Music some time and take notes.
Q is for Quandary
Explorers are looking to find out anything they can, but sometimes there's something specific driving the search for knowledge. This might be the great secret behind the entire universe – the why we are here question – or it might be something more personal, like why the PCs in particular are here. The latter is common when the PCs are mystically chosen or thrown into events, and like L is for Lost solving the quandary is the big part of getting home (or getting J is for Justice). The difference is there's more at stake here, or it feels that way because of the big hidden mystery – and the activating forces behind it. Want to find God? Uncover The Truth about the government? Understand why the fantasy world was built and the humans birthed to care for it? Then you'll need to look for answers to these questions in every puzzle or adventure, and that's what makes it such a great hook.
R is for Rivalry
Not unlike Prestige, the idea here is the PCs want to be the first to do things, or do them better than anybody else. What makes it different is that now they have a rival – or several – and they're all in the same horse race. Players are used to having villains but they're not used to rivals which is an incredible shame because rivalry may just be the strongest emotion known to man. Get the players to do it themselves, too: have them create a second PC, and then the GM can add a few annoying traits and send them off (in her head) on similar adventures. Then all you have to do is let the PCs know every now and then that their rivals have killed a dragon already, or found three new planets just this week, or are well on their way to solving the Quandary. Of course the PCs don't just have to try and catch up – there's always room for sabotage!
S is for Specialists
Last month we talked about Geniuses, where the PCs needed to be the smartest people in the world to be good enough to adventure. This one's narrower: the PCs have a skill (maybe all of them, or maybe they each have one skill) that nobody or almost nobody else has (maybe just their Rival). And it's not just being the last three Jedi in the universe and Jedi are good at kicking ass, but that there's a problem that can ONLY be solved by Jedi (or whatever). Maybe they're the only people who can fly a spaceship (or at least, well enough to fight off Zur and the Ko-Dan Armada) or the only thieves good enough to open the locks on the ancient dungeons from the First Age. What makes this interesting is the issue of scarcity. When you're the only one who can do something, you can't die or have something drastically reduce your skills, because then everything is screwed – or there'll be a massive u-turn in the plot while everyone looks for a replacement. Plus you can't split the party...
T is for Terminal
Time restraints are always fun but they're hard enough to do for a single session, what with all the wackiness that happens in unpredictable RPGs. For a full campaign, you need a longer, more flexible time limit – and a death sentence will do that nicely. It stretches belief for everyone in a party to have a terminal illness (unless you set your game in a cancer ward, which would be awesome) but a magical curse might do the trick. Alternatively, the death could be from an external force. Perhaps everyone who rides the wild plains or spaceways gets a certain sickness. Or maybe its not just the PCs – perhaps there's a world-wide plague, or a magical curse (again) or the sun is dying or the demons are coming back...whatever, deadlines are interesting. Doubly so when they're literal.
U is for Unwanted
Now a classic motivation, thanks mostly to White Wolf, this is the idea that you have to adventure because civilised society doesn't want you. Maybe you're unnatural (or supernatural); maybe you're unseemly or unpopular or unlawful; or maybe you're just ugly. Whatever the reason, normal people – good, honest people – are afraid when you're around. So afraid they are tempted to set you on fire. The key difference between this and I for Inescapable is that in I, there was a sense of running until it became safe again. The unwanted don't have that luxury; by their very existence they can never go back, never find a home. So the only choice is to fight other monsters. Oh, it's so grim and angsty I may swoon. Keep it from going too angsty by making sure even the players can understand why they're unwanted. In other words, less the X-Men, more guys who are actually dangerously radioactive.
V is for Villainous
Villainous motivations are dangerous because if only one person in the party has them, it can get a bit weird because the PCs will always be wondering when they should sort that issue out. But if you can find a way to delay that or slide it under the carpet for a while, villainous motivations are awesome for heroes because they're so unused. Well, some are common – anti-heroes seeking bloody revenge, for example – but an added twist will give them new life. Probably the best example in popular fiction is John Wayne in the Searchers. While one PC is looking for his sister, the other is looking for a girl who has now been so tainted by her Native American kidnappers, he has to kill her. It's messed up, but that's why it's memorable. Villains often have the best plans of all, too, by virtue of their size and audactiy – and that scope is why they can play hero for a while. Maybe after you rescue enough billionaires, you'll be able to afford the giant drill that will let you drown the world in molten lava.
W is for Wooing
It's a hard world out there in adventure land. What a hero needs is a woman. Or several women. Dandies looking for hands to kiss or knee-trembles with buxom barmaids are pretty run-of-the-mill, but the trick again is to turn it up. Make the goal either a truly enormous amount of wooing on an epic scale, or make it actual marriage and a family being sought. And be sure to build it into the adventures: you need to kill the dragon not just to stop it eating people but because its head will make an excellent dowry (or really impress Jodie Foster). Jane Austen may be the biggest-selling author of the year again this year and her entire genre is about partner-seeking. I'm not saying you should run Sense Motive and Sensibility but if your next Conan-clone is constantly wife-hunting, he'll stand out a lot more. And if the whole party is, it may be a campaign you'll never forget.
X is for Xenophobia
Exploring the unknown, solving mysteries, answering questions about the universe – these are all terrible ideas that must be stopped. The mysteries must stay unsolved, the questions unanswered and everything from the outside and the unknown must be killed dead dead dead before it has time to infect us. This can easily turn into something pretty dark that few players will want to play (or just your average game of D&D, for some) but on the other hand it is a big part of settings like Call of Cthulhu and especially Warhammer 40K, because in those cases the other is truly horrible and horrifying. Of course, both games can get pretty dull if the first and only response is to burn anything that isn't the purest of orthodoxy but that kind of abhorrence at the base of all things can really fire the individual and the party. Apply it to any setting you like and see where it goes.
Y is for Yes
Why are you adventuring? Because you said yes. Because you can't say no. Not that you're an idiot or a sucker (not necessarily), just a really positive thinker. Every challenge is an adventure, every death trap a learning experience, every monster another cool trophy for your belt. Optimism isn't the same as innocence (although the comedy is similar) because innocence is usually smashed to pieces, whereas optimism goes on forever. And it never turns down a plotline because there's always something to be gained, even if it is only a lesson for next time. This sounds silly but some great literary figures have kept travelling because they really believe that things are great or will turn out great, because they love life and love revelling in all its strangeness. David Tennant's Dr Who is a good example, and Captain Picard and crew had many days like this. Just as darkness can make the good times brighter, optimistic characters and teams can make the truly dark moments really scar the memory..
Z is for Zeroes
Most of the time adventurers with no skills and no prospects go on adventures for others reasons – love, honour, revenge, ambition, and so on. But sometimes it can be fun if the quality of your characters is also why you're adventuring. You're too undisciplined to join the army, too stupid for magic school, to poor to go into business, too clumsy to be a thief...the only other option besides starving to death might as well be being eaten by a dragon. Nihilism, hopelessness, despair are actually common reasons for people to go adventuring, but it doesn't even have to be that dark – just a sense of carelessness or simply having nothing better to do. Or just cosmic indifference. It doesn't sound like much of a motivation but some of the greatest heroes have been motivated by not much more than boredom, or a desire to avoid it. In the most petty of emotions, there can be great pageantry.
