Character motivation in D&D is tricky

One of the most challenging things in D&D can be character motivation. Players build characters with elaborate backstories or with no backstory at all. In either case, there might be very little tie-in to the adventure of the game, the campaign, or the session. One way to prevent this is to run a strong session zero, in which players work together on their PCs’ motivation. But another way to tie characters to the adventure is to hand out character secrets before a D&D session.

Character secrets as individual adventure hooks

A character secret is a bite-sized piece of information, no more than one or two sentences, which directly connects a player character to the adventure. Maybe the character has an axe to grind with the villain due to their shared history. Or they have secret knowledge of the adventure location because of a vision from their god.

During our D&D prep, we can think about each character’s potential connections to the adventure we’re planning. Envision the character’s backstory, their allies and enemies, their race, class, and background, and see if anything could connect them to the adventure.

During the game, players decide themselves whether and when to reveal their character secret. In effect, we are outsourcing the delivery of information to the players. We formulate the secrets during prep, hand them out before the game starts, and the players take care of the rest, during the game.

This is a great way to easily customize a published adventure. We don’t have to change much if we just hand out character-specific adventure hooks before the game starts.

The player has the final say

The players control the characters. They are telling their character’s story. And sometimes, a character secret we came up with during prep might not fit the player’s vision of the character. In that case, a player should always be able to change their secret or even refuse it entirely. That’s fine. It’s their character. And each player has final say over whether to use a character secret or not.

Ten kinds of character secrets

Here are different kinds of character secrets which can give you a starting point to create custom character secrets for your game:

1. The character knows a vulnerability of the villain from an earlier encounter.
2. The character has heard tales of a magic item hidden in the adventure location.
3. The character is friends with an NPC currently captured by the villain.
4. The character and an evil NPC were once allies.
5. The character knows details about the adventure location because it’s a legendary place for their species.
6. A relative of the character used to work at the adventure location. They mysteriously perished there.
7. A character stole from the villain and knows the villain wants payback.
8. A character received a vision or omen about the villain’s plan.
9. A character knows of a bounty on an NPC’s head.
10. A character has a secret personal agenda in the adventure.

Secrets as motivation for characters (and players)

Handing each player a slip if paper with their secret on it can become a motivating ritual before each D&D game. The secret makes the adventure personal. It gives the character a stake in the adventure. And it makes the player feel special. They own part of the story. The moment when a player reveals their secret can be magical. Everyone turns their head, when a player says, “Actually, my character has been here before. I know there is a secret tunnel that can lead us past these orcs without being spotted.”

Try it out. Give each player a character secret before your next D&D game.