We would be ashamed of our finest actions if the world understood all the motives which produced them.
-Rochefoucauld, Maxims
When taking on the role of a character, improvisational actors often ask each other, “What’s my motivation?” The answer serves as a guide for how an actor might believably portray a character, since motives dictate actions.
In a Dungeons & Dragons game, players portray characters, usually with intent to be as realistic as possible, given the setting. The responsibility of the Dungeon Master (DM) is even greater in this regard, as a DM may have to assume a dozen or more roles in a single game session, and poorly portraying these NPCs can detract from the players’ suspension of disbelief during the game. Fortunately, both DM and players can benefit from the actor’s tactic of defining character motivation first in order to create consistent, believable characters. And a convenient method for doing so emerged at a most unlikely place: a management leadership training seminar this author once attended.
The seminar, produced by John Maxwell’s organization Maximum Impact, described an array of leadership tools and philosophies, among them an unusual deck of cards supplied at event registration. Instead of the various numbers and suits, these cards featured the names of 48 leadership values. In one of the break-out exercises, seminar attendees were asked to remove 24 cards from the deck that named values they felt were important. From those 24, they were asked to remove the 12 they thought were most important; from the 12, they needed to select six; from six, they had to choose three; from three, two; and from those two, they had to select the single leadership value most important to them. (more…)

