Why did your character become an adventurer?

Adventurer in a roleplaying game like Dungeons & Dragons is a dangerous profession. Travelling through dangerous landscapes, delving into infested tombs, and challenging mighty beasts – why would anyone choose such a life? Why would someone give up their life of relative safety to place themselves into the jaws of the unknown, sometimes literally? Answering why they emerged from their life of solitude as a hermit or ended their career as soldier poses more questions than you started with. These questions will lead to crafting more compelling roleplaying game characters through the introduction of flaws, personal conviction and opening the door to meaningful decisions.

The cover of the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide illustrates a diverse group of D&D characters. [Art by Tyler Jacobson]

Conviction

Convictions can be seen as a truth one holds dear. This can be used as a standard your character will not go below, like a paladin acting on her sense of honor by treating even her foes with the utmost respect. Maybe your warlock has been privy to the true intentions of an alien host beyond the veil and he sees the material plane for what it truly is: worthless and futile. These firmly held beliefs, as you flesh them out, color every aspect of your character and provide roleplaying opportunities. A slave who broke their shackles, rising up to free their people might ironically use a whip as their preferred weapon, reveling in the dark humor that a symbol of oppression is being used to break the backs of those who would oppress.

Flaws

The decision to leave a seat of nobility to sleep in the mud and rain, at first glance, isn’t a particularly clever one. Perhaps while they may have had a seat of privilege, they would have to bend a knee to a clan their family holds a bitter resentment towards. Being stubborn can lead individuals down the path of their own destruction for simple and petty reasons.

Leaving a previous life for one as an adventurer could be something thrust upon a person. A character intervening and saving a group of innocents from an orc raiding party could believe in the righteousness of their deed. However, their kin could view it differently. The character is exiled because the people they saved are from a village of lumberjacks encroaching into their copse. Individuals can be blinded by their values and convictions, making choices with lasting ramifications just so they can reinforce their ideals.

Flaws ground a character in reality, even if their feats are anything but. Stories need these flawed personas so those experiencing them can relate. Without these short comings, it is easy forget or even dislike these characters as they can come off as flat and unrelatable.

Meaningful decisions

When it comes to the narrative in a pen and paper game, the most important aspect we all should strive for is the construction and deployment of meaningful decisions. Answering why a character made such a massive decision, like becoming an adventurer, can give you incredible insight on how they approach problems. Did they flee a previous life? Is she answering a higher calling? What if they had no choice? The loss of agency can be a powerful motivator to never be placed in such a situation again. You’ll find if you’re asking the right question during character creation, the questions will multiply faster than the answers. The added bonus of answering these questions as they rear their heads is your GM will have an easier time writing for you character. The more intimately you understand your character, the easier it is to get lost in them during session and become immersed in the story.

Underworld Races & Classes offers 14 new races and subraces, plus a wealth of new alternate classes, class options, feats and much more.

What are some of the characters you’ve written and why did they leave their lives for that of an adventurer? Why did they take on such a burden? Comment below and throw out a few compliments to others you read who you find interesting.

From the Nerditor’s desk

Where an adventurer comes from and what life was like before embarking on a dangerous road can help inform a lot about your roleplaying game character. When you consider fantastical elements of game settings and how these environments affect characters you broaden horizons for development even further. What if you character comes from a subterranean civilization – what sorts of different effects might this have on how their adventurer career began?

Underworld Races & Classes from AAW Games delves deep to expand on culture beneath the surface with material about drow and duergar, new civilizations, monsters, class options, lore and more. Even if your adventurer adventures above ground (like my shifty drow charlatan enchanter Mesmogdu) their life underground before officially becoming an adventurer could inform and influence a lot about them.

Over on YouTube, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted took a first look through this book. (The creators were also live chat guests during the Kickstarter campaign.) If you pick it up yourself from DriveThruRPG you can use Nerdarchy’s exclusive coupon code DTRPG-Nerdarchy for a one-time 10 percent off your digital product order of $10 or more.

Stay nerdy!

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1 Comment


Abe Sorby
January 26, 2018 at 2:56 pm

I have a neutral evil mage, Delwyn Swartzenvorzenkov the mad maniac mage and his immortal donkey familiar, “Donkey”.He was born with wild magic in a kingdom where magic was persecuted and illegal. Chased across the continent (sometimes setting massive wildfires behind himself trying to stop his persuers, or taking refuge with bandits and doing bandit things for safety in numbers and anonymity),he’s done whatever he’s needed to do (he is neutral evil afterall).He’s vowed never to be powerless to others again and it has led him to some very interesting places in search of some very interesting things.