Character Goals

A character's motivation helps define the character and can help shape the story. Some goals will naturally occur during the game but those are largely GM created. Those type of goals help move a story along but they hardly motivate a character. It is important for a player to come up with a few goals for their character. These should range from a few short term goals and at least one long term goal.

Short term goals should only take a handful of games to complete. Short term goals could be a smaller step towards the long term goal or just another task they wish to complete. Having a few of these will give your character some extra motivation and a good GM will tie them into the story arch. This will take some of the pressure off the GM to try to rope your character into action while making the story more personal and more fun. Completion of short term goals should be rewarded with either additional experience points or an additional benefit.

Long term goals should take most of the campaign to complete. These goals should be something that a character would not possibly be able to achieve in the beginning of the game. Some larger goals could become the focus of the game and I encourage GMs to make use of this fact. Some larger goals might just tie into the end of the campaign and might be completed only after the story arch has ended.Long term goals will affect the game world in a significant way or at least the character's part of the world.  Long term goals are rewards in there own right and won't confer experience points or additional mechanical benefits unless you intend to use the character through multiple campaigns. Long term benefits should bring closure to the game and for the characters.