> [!info]- meta > **Source**: [Original URL](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbx-CSwU6rI) > **Author**: [[Dimension 20]] > **Full Title**: How to Build Compelling Characters > **Category**: #articles > **Tags**: #ttrpg/dm-tools > **Summary**: To build compelling characters, work with players to create motivations that fit the story. Use these motivations to inspire plot points by either disrupting what characters care about or embracing their desires. Keep the story flexible to honor player choices and reward creative play. > ## 🔦 Highlights & Commentary - All of this boils down to your plot hooks to start an adventure should not feel like your players are obliged to do. Obligation is the death of fun. If your players feel obliged to engage in an adventure in character because they feel it’s the right thing to do or, even worse, if they feel obliged out of character, saying, "Guys, I think Brennan's going to freak out if we don't go into this dungeon." That's bad. Because they're not having an immersive experience. So, your job is to create Desire and motivation in the actual characters your players are carrying. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kf8rzdac7w8hmsjnrm49e8mw)) - The debate we were having was Taylor was insisting that the stuff that a The dungeon master decides in their preparation. You know, it is somehow more significant than the stuff improvised at the table, which is where you can feel that point of view when people ask, "Did you plan that or did you come up with that? Was that supposed to happen?" This dichotomy is, I think, largely false on a philosophical level, right? Because if I made something up on Monday and I put it in like a piece of graph paper or wrote it on an index card when I was session prepping, or I made it up right now at the table while you're talking to me, how does the authorial purpose of that really change? Or how does the authority of what I made up, and the things I create in this world happen for lack of a better word? So what's the difference? It makes no difference if I made it up on Monday or I made it up right now. I think you should give yourself that permission. You are no less of an author of your campaign world at the table than you were on Friday on your couch with some snacks doing your prep work for the session. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kf8sb5czjzm4dy349n2a5x4z)) - Do you have a set plan for creating a storyline that includes all of your characters? No, there is no set plan. There is a loose plan, and it should be kept loose because that’s how you leave a world that can incorporate and honor the decisions of your PCs. A GM’s or DM’s world is secondary to the actions and storylines of your player characters. That is law. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kf8sdeh5ex5pd8ygdn05d5b7)) - Worlds exist fourthdimensionally. Time moves forward in a given setting. Plot is just a word we have for the sequence of events that are the focus of a story. But in any world, things change and progress. So there are stories happening whether or not you're focusing on them. So I think that starting with both might be the most accurate answer because as you create a world, you're creating characters. As you're creating characters, those characters have thoughts, feelings, goals, wants, and desires. Those goals, wants, and desires produce plot. And if you start with plot, you're going to do the exact same process in reverse. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kf8skbxmdc0qr0swx15g0n78))