His characters entire motivation is that they were bored with life or want to get filthy rich

>his characters entire motivation is that they were bored with life or want to get filthy rich

Why do people do this? Why is it so difficult for them to get involved in the story? Can't they just get back to playing video games instead?

because its a reasonable motivation that can be easily supplanted by a deeper motivation once the BBEG does something

because most characters arent made with heavy involvement in the setting due to that being restrictive

because its fun&easy

>bbeg isn't a low effort individual
>huge lore preface is given before character creation
>character could have some sort of anchor in the world that the DM could use
It's not fun&easy, it's low effort and low immersion. People who do this are incidentally also bad players, because their characters have no motivation to do anything before the BBEG literally rapes an entire village in front of them. Most often such characters are also merely stereotypes, such as the elf-hating drunkard dwarf fighter.

>>his characters entire motivation is that they were bored with life or want to get filthy rich
It's realistic.

>"Oh I'm just going to become one of the most powerful people in the world and defeat the greatest evil, risking my life at every turn, instead of doing something interesting or joining a criminal organisation."

Those are still completely valid "base motivations" for someone, or as the catalyst in their backstory.
Motivation isn't static, so these are fine places to start.

>"He was bored with life as the third son of a farmer, so he joined the local militia."
Boredom is the catalyst, and now the motivation is to protect the people of his village.

>"He was bored with life and became an eternal backpacker, when he ran into the rest of the characters."
Boredom is his most basic motivation, and he hangs around with the other characters because it's fun, but it may develop into a sense of duty or a motivation to stop the BBEG.

>"He wanted to get filthy rich, so he joined ZenoCorp HiTec Armaments."
The character is going to try to support his corp as much as possible because that's how he earns his dosh, but with greed as a base motivation he might jump ship or backstab his company if he thinks he'll earn more cash from that.

>"He wanted to get filthy rich, so he joined up with some lunatic adventurers which he's hoping to scam out of their treasure."
Probably the most basic "greed" character, and one that is pretty dynamic, seeing as the party might respond to it in a lot of ways.

Really, the issue isn't that people have one main driving force behind their character, but rather that they don't let their character's motivations and priorities shift over time, as the story develops. But even that might work out in the end.

Of course!

If only those hook were used.

I'd say it's because low level D&D characters are incredibly fragile and any backstory you came up with can easily be wasted by a single critical hit in the first level or two. Mostly from what I've seen is right, D&D characters start as low effort caricatures that become more fleshed out in play.

challenge accepted

I will now make a character whose only motivation is money, and will always choose money over party, and still be an accepted and liked member of the party

Nothing wrong with having a simple straightforward motivation like getting rich.

>bbeg isn't a low effort individual

Reminder you can write all the setting lore you want where the BBEG is proactive and destructive but it won't make a difference because the character has not yet done actually done anything to the players.

Yeah some more involved players will be invested in stopping the villain but it still won't be real for them until the villain actually shows up and ruins their day. Until that happens you have the issue of telling rather than showing.

>I will now make a character whose only motivation is money, and will always choose money over party, and still be an accepted and liked member of the party

In most RPGs, it will be obvious to any character that staying with the party will be more lucrative than going solo.

Well, yeah. Why do you think I posted a picture of a guy who's basically that ethos's poster boy?

>want to get filthy rich
He doesn't like LOADSA ENOME

>claiming there are "proper" and "improper" motivations for the characters
>whining about "muh story"
>appealing to "muh vidya" strawman argument
Why don't you fuck off, cunt?

You don't hold the monopoly on motivations. What makes a character complex is not his backstory or initial motivations, but his interactions with the world.
But, of course, you seem like the kind of person butthurt over players being interested in actually exploring the world instead of following your neatly laid out railroad.
The most interesting characters are usually the ones that start out the most boring at the start, because, guess what - what is character growth during the campaign for 200$, Alex?
What are character growth arcs in good stories for 500$, Alex? Or do you prefer people being stagnant over the course of the campaign, because everything interesting has already happened in their backstory?

Almost always the simple motivations are the best ones.
You know the movies that inspired FIASCO? You know, Fargo, Blood Simple, Burn After Reading - the ones where simple motivations of simple people collide and create a clusterfuck of magnificent proportions?
That's the kind of thing you should be aiming for.

Like the dude from The Way of the Gun said (can't remember who it was, actually) - "A couple of million dollars is not just money. It's a motive with a universal adaptor on it".

being a murder hobo is statistically a much better way to get money and valuable items and you don't risk ending up a target for said murder hobos like you would as a criminal

My friend - those are not Killing Floor characters.

Isn't that most people in real life?

>Jayne
>Accepted and liked member of the party

Wasn't everyone but Book and Kaylee shitting on him?

How am I meant to get involved in the story if the fucking story hasn't happened yet?

yes, but when he chose the money over the crew, Mal almost killed him, and he was threatened with severe implications by simon.

he stopped after that

>players haven't instantly bought into my story before they even started playing I have to interact with them reeeeeee

Did you ever consider maybe you're the lazy one?

the show kinda stopped after that friend

Because after so many games that blew up in your face from a high investment, it makes much more sense to start out with a character you have little attachment to that you can flesh out as time goes on.

How is this not an entirely valid reason?
Most humans go through career changes because they're fed up with the status quo or are poor and realise they can do better.

>group of murderhobos
>not a criminal organization

>can do better

The most common delusion.