What do you adventure for?

K · Post by K » Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:32 am

Ok, everyone plays DnD for lots of reasons....fun with friends, heroic rpg, tactical play, whatever.

But, as an adventurer, what are you looking for? Here are the things that came to mind when I was mulling over the possibilities:

1. Awesome treasures. Sure, you get gold and magic items, but some guys are in it for the giant pennies.

2. Change the world. Fight a manticore and the village is saved and kill a lich king and the peasants can have a dozen fat babies.

3. Grow the legend. Yes, killing a lich king is one thing, but taking over the kingdom and renovating the bone fortress to something less undeadish is quite satisfying.

4. Smash! Blowing crap up is super fun.

5. Gotta catch 'em all! Once every magic slot is filled, then you fill them with bigger items.

6. Rise to godhood. Some people seriously just want to become a god among men. It doesn't matter if you become a real spell-granting god, but being able to tell the king that his laws don't matter is very satisfying. Starting weak makes the strong time even better.

7. Fight the good fight. Some people are not happy until the good fight has been fought to a reasonably satisfying conclusion.

8. Survive! Until the HPs are in the single digits and you're trying to figure out how to turn those few utility spells left into combat advantage, you just aren't enjoying the adventure.

Any I've missed?

And, for the record, I'm a 1/3/8 kind of guy.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:37 am

9. Fun.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:38 am

9. Personal reasons, like revenge or to find someone.

10. A sense of duty--maybe you're trying to accomplish something for somebody.

11. For hire.

12. Seeing the world. Or the multiverse. Whatever floats your boat.

13. Getting dragged along by someone else.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:47 am

14. Having fun stories to tell your friends while chewing the fatted calf

SphereOfFeetMan · Post by **SphereOfFeetMan** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:28 am

15. Redemption.

16. Secrets, knowledge, answers.

17. Guard/escort Companions.

18. Manipulating others to your own ends.

19. Protecting your tribe.

bosssmiley · Post by **bosssmiley** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:46 pm

20. The lulz.

Srsly: 1-4,7,8.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:33 pm

21. Interact. Meet all sorts of wierd people and eat their food (if possible) and talk with them.

.... I should make a tourist class. -_-;;

My characters tend to be: 1-3, 8, 12 (I'm a teleport, plane shift and airships kind of person)

22. Grow the army. You'd rather convince people to work with you than kill them.

Hicks · Post by **Hicks** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:49 pm

23. Victory; total and complete dominion over any and every tactical or strategic situation as it relates to anything having to do with conflict.

And #6 for Ultimate Cosmic Power (sans its itty bitty living space).

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:25 pm

Some of these 'goals' are impossible. I'm not saying that they're not valid, just that a player has to realize that they can't achieve certain ones.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:17 am

Achievable goals are great. But they are not the only goals.

World Peace. End Hunger. End Disease. End Violence. Uphold the Law.

Unattainable, but not bad goals to have.

-Crissa

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 1:21 am

Crissa wrote:Achievable goals are great. But they are not the only goals.

World Peace. End Hunger. End Disease. End Violence. Uphold the Law.

Unattainable, but not bad goals to have.

-Crissa

Good show. Success is what people settle for when they can't find something worth failing at.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 2:12 am

To go along with Judging Eagle's tourist class...

Survival: you don't go adventuring, adventures happen TO you. You live in interesting times when what you'd really like is good old-fashioned boredom.

For all of the cowardly Wizzards out there.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:17 am

To crush my enemies. To drive them before me. To hear the lamentation of their women.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 2:29 pm

Pretty much just 6.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:45 pm

Also... it depends from character to character.

My Eberron Archivist came from the country that had been changed into the mist-covered land of not-death and not-life.

He wanted to perform the impossible and either 1) Cleanse a magical anomaly from the land or 2) Find an other place for his countrymen to move to.

My RoW built Barbarian wanted to... "Find a Chaaalleeenge!" and was suicidal in almost all of his fighting (blitz was used a lot). The CR 4-5 Barbarian that could kill a CR 6 Ettin in one round was supremely satisfying to play, and the other players were fine with this, b/c no monster would really go after them when the bald, scarred man with two very long swords was running around screaming and killing.

My wizards and fighters tend to be more... pragmatic? They just want to get the job done. They tend to be equipped to end fights and are willing to take risks to do so.

The fighter pulling out a longsword to kill zombies when his spiked chain won't cut it or the portly wizard that was willing to grapple a sorcerer's familiar (wand of shocking grasp equipped or not) in order to use it as a hostage against the sorcerer the party needed to subdue.

Hey_I_Can_Chan · Post by **Hey_I_Can_Chan** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:11 pm

24. The next level.

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:03 pm

Kaelik wrote:Pretty much just 6.

Same here 90% of the time.

Talisman · Post by **Talisman** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:19 pm

As J_E noted, it depends on the character. Each of mine has a different motivation. A few examples:

Human mage in an anti-undead campaign. An outlawed noble, he wanted to see the undead who secretly controlled society exposed and destroyed. He also adventured for personal power, because that helped his goal of smashin' undead.

Eberron shifter ranger. Originallty hired as a guide, he became interested in the soap opera/spy thriller events occuring around him and adventured out of curiosity. He turned out to be related to a truly alarming number of people.

Human paladin. Belongs to the King's Gentlemen, the King's elite squad of adventurers. He goes on missions for the king. Currently exploring the Underdark in an effort to find a way out of the magical bubble that's been placed over his kingdom and "persuade" the freakin' elves to undo their freakin' magic bubble.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:38 am

Some people adventure because they're lame in real life.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 4:08 am

Psychic Robot wrote:Some people adventure because they're lame in real life.

A girl in a college years ago once asked me out of earshot while some nerd friends and I cooked a 'supper meal' around afternoon, so as to not offend their dedication to The Game.

"So, I know why they play, but why do you do it? I mean, look at you. You clean up nicely."

"I play for the storytelling aspect of it. I write fiction, or at least I try to, and playing RPGs with friends in person is like making a cooperative story."
(gay answer, whatever)

"Ah I see. It does sound far less nerdy the way you describe it."

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:26 am

Psychic Robot wrote:Some people adventure because they're lame in real life.

I thought we were talking about character motivation, not player motivation.

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:19 am

Heh. That would make for a good thread: Why do we pour ourselves into a flawed game that is, ultimately, damned because the very supports upon which it is founded do not work?

K · Post by K » Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:47 pm

Koumei wrote:
Psychic Robot wrote:Some people adventure because they're lame in real life.
I thought we were talking about character motivation, not player motivation.

I guess I see them as the same. As a player of a character, there are things about DnD that I find fun about the whole experience. I mean, I seriously want a giant giant penny for my bat cave and I value that more than I value my pile of easily exchanged gold coins(even if those coins could buy me a giant penny).

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:08 am

That's one thing I dislike about MMOs, there's no motivation to hold onto the Giant Penny, and all games that follow the MMO trope even holding onto the Giant Penny eventually makes you worse somehow... Limited inventory space, paying for a house, defenses for the giant penny, having to lose a retainer to polish the giant penny instead of holding your torch... Or you were supposed to exchange the Giant PEnny for a pile of gold and get better weapons. All things which hurt the game aspect of the character.

-Crissa

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:14 am

sigma999 wrote:"Ah I see. It does sound far less nerdy the way you describe it."

I think she mixed up what is and isn't nerdy. Because that's totally more, not less, nerdy.

-Crissa