Desire is a fantastic motivator for a character. Millennia of fights, wars, songs, inventions, most of human civilization was birthed by some guy wanting to impress a woman, or the desire to improve your station, bank account, or have your name sung for all of time. Desire, the Buddha tells us, is also a trap; wanting is what causes suffering, and it is only be letting go of those things that we hold dear that we can get off the wheel of reincarnation and suffering.

The ability to craft an excellent character around this idea, and to form good adventures that use this to challenge and reward the character, is central to a good story. Using the new Legend in the Mist mechanics, here’s a good example of a character with a lot of talent (perhaps overly optimized for his job), but with a ton of immediately accessible flaws and desires (quests in LitM terms). Trogdor Trollmorder is a young man (15-16 for the 800s Viking campaign we’re running) who was found by his adopted father Alfgeir during a raid years ago. There are all sorts of boastful stories that the young man tells about himself, mostly based on the limited story of how he was found at the base of a ruin stone in Saxon territory that mentioned a dragon. The boy grew up wanted to be accepted by his new tribe, and to be the strongest and best fighter who goes to become a hero, while still not really knowing who he is.

Trogdor’s desire to be the strongest has worked in his favor a few times, but also causes him to overestimate his abilities. (The character was nearly killed in the first fight.) While he has an adopted family that have cared for him, he still wants more. His origin story makes him think he might be something special, and I’ve dropped hint that might be true…but it could also be a lot of crap. These wants coupled with a few excellent flaws — his “might makes right” and “fist-shaped problems” frequently lead him to act rashly and violently where another approach might be in order. His boasting and need to prove himself show a highly insecure mind behind the very talented body.

In a fight, Trogdor is deadly — frequently gaining bonuses to his combat rolls that equal that of his ship captain, who has a crew he can call on for a sizable bump in power. His being a braggart often works because he’s been able to back it up — so far. It’s a character where the GM can drop carrots for the character to follow, then hit him with a bigger stick. Will his desires lead him to be a leader, perhaps a ruler? Or will his desires and “draconic ancestry” lead him to be avaricious and violent (perhaps to one day become a dragon his friends will have to destroy?)

It’s a fairly extreme version of desire. A less grandiose version of this problem, funnily, shows in another character by the same player. LT Stephen Archer started our Star Trek Adventures campaign as a fresh from the academy helmsman — the sort of seat of the pants flyer that’s common for the hot shot pilot theme. He was built with a few Values that defined him in the Kirk mould: adventurous, loyal, and a bit randy.

Some of those values have stuck and gotten strong over the campaign: this is Archer as of “season 6” — only six years into his career and already ops officer and on the cusp of a possible promotion to lieutenant commander. He’s showed himself to be an exemplary pilot, a brave officer and leader, but headstrong and driven by his family’s legacy to live up to the Archer name. He’s also shown a repeated ability to get himself into trouble with his philandering. By this time, he’s married to an Orion girl, but has still followed the “what happens in space, stays in space” mindset. He has a tendency to fall in love easily, and once the relationships are done, he blithely continues on. He had a crush on his captain, and through a series of emotionally charged missions, finally wore her down. then screwed it up with yet another fling with his best friend’s sister (and this is about to bite him in the butt, hard.) 

He’s a character that the womanizing and desire to be the best has frequently led him to make bad judgment calls, some of which have worked out, some — not so much. But he’s a fun character to build character beats for in our game.