Motivations are open to interpretation, as is any career or specialization. I think its important to remember that. As GM, your interpretation may not synch with that of the player. Also, people change. What motivated a PC right out of the gate may get pushed aside or even abandoned by something in the player's real life or something interesting and engaging within the game.

As an example, I played a barbarian long ago and had written a rather in-depth backstory, only to have the character forget literally everything about his past; we'd found a bowl stone filled with clear "water" in a wooded glade, we needed fresh water, so I tasted it to make sure it was okay, but it turned out to be a dryad's forget potion, something to make a traveler stay in the glade. And just like that my entire backstory became irrelevant.

The same can happen to anyone, player and PC, for any reason, at any time.

2 hours ago, JalekZem said:

Which is why you make a blanket announcement PRIOR to implementing it, like at the end of a session to give them a chance to think about it and a reminder at the beginning of the next session as well as reminders, when something would interact with a motivation.

If they cannot see that it is not nepotism, then the players need a quick case of GTFU.

Again, if they freak out about a 5 XP every other session and make absolutely 0 effort to make even a minor effort to remedy the situation and they don't want to make an effort to understand, then you have 2 choices.

1) Live with the group as it is, and run it as a video game where greed is the primary motivation

2) Have the players get a quick case of Grow the F*** Up! and deal with it or get new players

As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.

Seems fair. I run 4 other groups, I'm really not concerned if this one eventually falls apart. I'd like to keep the group improving and they seem to enjoy it more and more so the plan is to try some stuff out. Bounced the idea of the Motivation XP off the family members, they agree with the idea and also were concerned about nepotism so we talked that out. The plan is to award bonus 5 XP to anyone who RPs towards their Motivations well in that session, meaning the whole group could earn it in a session, up to 10xp more than the rest of the group so as not to create a wide gap. Should motivate the other players and reward them for their efforts while ensuring the family members don't skyrocket ahead of the rest in XP.

19 minutes ago, Alekzanter said:

Motivations are open to interpretation, as is any career or specialization. I think its important to remember that. As GM, your interpretation may not synch with that of the player. Also, people change. What motivated a PC right out of the gate may get pushed aside or even abandoned by something in the player's real life or something interesting and engaging within the game.

As an example, I played a barbarian long ago and had written a rather in-depth backstory, only to have the character forget literally everything about his past; we'd found a bowl stone filled with clear "water" in a wooded glade, we needed fresh water, so I tasted it to make sure it was okay, but it turned out to be a dryad's forget potion, something to make a traveler stay in the glade. And just like that my entire backstory became irrelevant.

The same can happen to anyone, player and PC, for any reason, at any time.

I agree they are open to interpretation. I'm cool with whatever they want, as long as that is what they want for their Motivation. We need to review what a few of them put down because some have ignored their Motivations since the beginning of the game. The Weak/Charity Motivation, which is what 2 players chose, does not equal greed, which is what they RP. Never once have they helped out people in need unless something was in it for them & it had to be worthwhile too. Obviously doesn't match up with what they chose so I believe after a year of play, it's time to review and ensure they want what they chose or change it. Another chose Discovery:Self, an obviously transitory Motivation, as after a year of playing & established behavior, I believe the player and subsequently, the player, should know who the character is and what it is that motivates them.

Okay here's a radical thought.

Give players extra EXP for having their characters goals either advanced and or achieved.

The other players will take note and may start asking, "So how do I get that kind of extra EXP?"

Also check out "Super Freakanomics" for how to motivate people.

1 hour ago, Mark Caliber said:

Okay here's a radical thought.

Give players extra EXP for having their characters goals either advanced and or achieved.

The other players will take note and may start asking, "So how do I get that kind of extra EXP?"

Also check out "Super Freakanomics" for how to motivate people.

Is this not basically a copy of the duty mechanic? Just with XP instead of the party resource duty. *g* Because your duty is actually a set of goals: Advance the space superiority of the alliance. etc …

While Obligations are often anti-goals, pain in the neck from achieving your goals, often by short cuts which come at a price once the obligation triggers, so getting rid of them sounds like something which many players would assign as goals for their characters.

1 minute ago, SEApocalypse said:

While Obligations are often anti-goals, . . . getting rid of them sounds like something which many players would assign as goals for their characters.

Yes! Yes, I do.

Some obligations are harder to overcome though.

4 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

Is this not basically a copy of the duty mechanic? Just with XP instead of the party resource duty.

It's actually suggested within the rules (Chapter IX, under Awarding Experience Points): "Playing to a PC's Motivation also grants 5 XP per session at the GM's discretion." So GMs that actually apply this rule might find that their PCs are played more sensibly towards their goals

We always have a problem in the group of a guy who always likes loner-characters that never work well within a group. He always plays someone ultra-paranoid with no reason to be tied to anyone. Eventually, the 'player' becomes unhinged or disappointed with bad rolls or other character's actions and the player makes the character go off the rails. One way I have diffused this is have the person come up with a selection of character ideas and then choose one of them. I can always spot the paranoid-delusional one a mile-off. About 1 of every 5 he makes is a friendly-type based on charisma. (I also have to be careful to make sure things that happen to his character have infallible reasoning behind them.) For the group, I made it that each person was running from the Core Worlds for a reason. This took away the possibility of a person wanting to leave the Outer Rim. This worked as sort of a motivation. Basically, "I" am a better judge of which character will work with my concept than they are. So, having them submit several ideas lets you cultivate a group of your choosing.

On 2/23/2017 at 3:31 AM, HappyDaze said:

Generally, I start with the group. Have them come up with a group motivation/goal that ties them together. Then we explore individual goals, taking into.account how they might interact with the group goal.

10 minutes ago, DurosSpacer said:

Basically, "I" am a better judge of which character will work with my concept than they are. So, having them submit several ideas lets you cultivate a group of your choosing.

That's not exactly the way I approach being a GM, nor would I encourage it, simply for the fact that this game encourages a very cooperative narration of the continuing story, rather than a story that's mostly from the GM that the players just get to "experience".

I want the players to develop their characters more, rather than just do nothing story-wise with them. Where they choose to take their character on that story is up to them but I am trying to encourage them to at least pursue a story arc, instead of having a character go through all these troubling situations and problems and adventures with no Motivation for what they do and no character growth over literal years.

3 minutes ago, GroggyGolem said:

That's not exactly the way I approach being a GM, nor would I encourage it, simply for the fact that this game encourages a very cooperative narration of the continuing story, rather than a story that's mostly from the GM that the players just get to "experience".

I want the players to develop their characters more, rather than just do nothing story-wise with them. Where they choose to take their character on that story is up to them but I am trying to encourage them to at least pursue a story arc, instead of having a character go through all these troubling situations and problems and adventures with no Motivation for what they do and no character growth over literal years.

In the context of what I wrote, you have to consider tendencies of your players is what I am saying. Some players have a tendency to come up with characters that lack motivation on a regular basis. The player either: 1) can't see it, or 2) they "think" they have a good character when they really don't. Either way, I can see it coming and it is best to work cooperatively on creating the character background. I find I can "mold" the motivation from there. When they create several character ideas, I find some easier to work with and suggesting one above the others doesn't discourage the player (as opposed to rejecting one character and telling them to make a better one). For example, the mentioned player had an sadistic outlaw doctor, a recluse old mechanic working at a cantina, and a female investigative reporter. I could easily see that the first two had no reason to join in with a group of characters and had NO motivation in life to do anything. The reporter is easily more sociable and had reasons to do so to get good stories to print. Motivation solved!

I ONLY take the story as far as the campaign concept, and, yes, then cooperative narration, character role-playing choices, and the luck of the dice decide the rest. My concept is the overall location, job, or plot. It almost always goes in a different direction based on how the game plays out.

3 minutes ago, DurosSpacer said:

In the context of what I wrote, you have to consider tendencies of your players is what I am saying. Some players have a tendency to come up with characters that lack motivation on a regular basis. The player either: 1) can't see it, or 2) they "think" they have a good character when they really don't. Either way, I can see it coming and it is best to work cooperatively on creating the character background. I find I can "mold" the motivation from there. When they create several character ideas, I find some easier to work with and suggesting one above the others doesn't discourage the player (as opposed to rejecting one character and telling them to make a better one). For example, the mentioned player had an sadistic outlaw doctor, a recluse old mechanic working at a cantina, and a female investigative reporter. I could easily see that the first two had no reason to join in with a group of characters and had NO motivation in life to do anything. The reporter is easily more sociable and had reasons to do so to get good stories to print. Motivation solved!

I ONLY take the story as far as the campaign concept, and, yes, then cooperative narration, character role-playing choices, and the luck of the dice decide the rest. My concept is the overall location, job, or plot. It almost always goes in a different direction based on how the game plays out.

That comes across a lot more as a cooperative thing than what you initially wrote, so I thank you for the clarification.

My players are all fresh to RPGs for the most part, having only played in maybe 1 other depending on the individual. It wasn't until I took a greater look at certain characters that I realized they had been ignoring their Motivation from the start and that I was failing to bring their Motivations into the story meaningfully (not that they would have RPed it... the player I've spoken with so far didn't even remember what a Motivation was and he has his character sheet on his phone).

That will change, as I plan to introduce scenarios in which their Motivations are somewhat "triggered" and it's up to them to act upon those Motivations. I also wanted to speak with them to prompt a further thought process regarding the Motivations beyond just picking one. Like, WHY is this your Motivation? How does that translate when you're going to RP the character? How do you plan to RP this when advancing towards whatever goals are tied into your Motivation? If it doesn't fit with their plans, I'd suggest they alter it to match. For instance, if the player still was focused on credits and items of value, then I'd suggest they change their Motivation to Ambition: Greed, as it has matched exactly how they have RPed the character from day 1. So in that respect, I agree with looking it over and talking with them about it but only so far as to find the best fit for their character as they see them, which may not be the choice they initially chose or are thinking about, such as RPing greed when they chose the weak/charity.

Motivations serve two different purposes. For the players, they serve as guidance with regard to role-playing their characters and encouraging players to make consistent, in-character decisions. For the game master, they're ideas that can be used to set up story situations that directly challenge the player characters, as opposed to more generic story ideas that would work with any group (i.e. how pre-written modules work).

I view games as ongoing conversations between the players and the GM, and Motivations are just one of those topics of conversation.