Of course, one option is to look at their backgrounds and find a hobby or an interest which could move them to sneaking out of their parents' mansions. However, I'm looking for something simple so no elaborate backstories are needed right at the start and which prevents straightjacketing the players.
For example, and I made this up while typing this: the PCs are members of a secret club of the elite ((e.g. The Skulls)) and in order to move up in rank and/or gain standing from the others they must perform dangerous assignments with limited resources without their parents finding out.
Really their motivations wouldn't need to be so different than other people without that kind of money and power.
-They could feel that since they have the means to fight evil then they should.
-They could be just bored with their everyday lives and what to do something dangerous and fun.
-You could go the Prince and the Pauper route and have the rich kids pose as poor kids to have more freedom. Then they could get inadvertantly caught up in some adventure.
All depends on what you want the adventure to be about.
"How do you expect to be worthy of marrying Noble X's daughter/son if you don't do this?"
"If you expect to be my heir-designate some day, you're expected to go out and do things like this."
"What sort of a son of House X wouldn't lift a finger to help the peasantfolk?"
You get the idea.
If they're simply "rich kids" without being nobility, then there's a big motivator right there - their wealth. Have it stolen (cliché, yes, but effective), or cursed/magically hidden, etc.
- They could be thrill-seekers.
- They could be true believers in noblesse oblige.
- Their parents may require it of them in order to inhereit the estate (especially if mommy and/or daddy gained their original wealth through adventuring).
- Maybe they don't want to be dependant on their parents' largesse and want to make their own fortune.
- Maybe one is an artificer who uses his wealth to invent all sorts of gadgets that he needs to field-test.
- Maybe they despise the social status in which they were raised, and want to abandon it all in order to champion the rights of the commoner and defend the weak.
- Maybe he was kidnapped at a young age, and since that time realizes that he can't depend on his wealth for security -- if anything wealth makes you less secure. So his paranoia drives him to become more powerful.
- Maybe he was chosen to fulfill a prophecy that requires him to adventure.
- Maybe their parents were killed in a back-alley by a common thug and so they are dedicating their vast resources to the defeat of evil in all forms -- possibly choosing a personal badge that looks like some sort of flying nocturnal mammal.
There are lots of reasons why rich kids might become adventurers. Let your players choose one for themselves, but insist that they not chose one that is evil. (I.e., don't choose "I'm a sadist who enjoys hurting things and becoming an adventurer is a socially acceptable way to engage in this behavior.") Unless, of course, you don't mind having evil characters in the party.
1) Someone wants what you've got.
2) Someone is jealous of what you've got.
3) Someone got stepped on so that you could have what you've got.
Any one of those can be a campaign in itself really, but basically those factors are going to force the characters to do something to protect their wealth and power.
Also protecting something usually means you need the help of friends, other nobles/merchants, the church, maybe even the people. And these people are going to call in their favours from time to time, so that's another motivation.
And then there's their social obligations. You may well be expected to do something by your family or you get passed over for another heir. Or you displease someone you shouldn't, or whatever.
Also, if your family intends to arrange your marriage (as may well be the case), you might be motivated to prove yourself worthy of a very high status betrothal. On the otherhand, you might be motivated to avoid being married off somehow (BUT THE GUY'S A LICH, I CAN PROVE IT! Just kidding. =P)
Oh and, your wealth and power might well be linked to your property and assets. If your family owns lots of vineyards all over for example, and someone is going around laying waste to them, or killing your workers. You're gonna need to sort that out or your family income is going to dissapear.
Doesn't just have to be vineyards or farmland, could be anything. If you're from a merchant family, your assets are going to be your goods and your means of moving them.
And to tie the group together, the PCs may well be from a group wealthy families that have formed a cartel or something. So there's something to protect and people who won't like said cartel.
Just a few ideas anyway.
Such as....
Their home is being robbed in the night and their parents are off at a party.
Fighting off their drunken father thats trying to beat them.
One of there NPC friends is in the city guard and they have to take their place because of a unforseen illness or disability.
Protecting a pretty merchant girl in the local bizzaire from a bully/thug.
Duking it out with their rival thats after the same guy/girl.
Concription by their local government.
Concription by local bandits and must learn how to fight, steal and pillage. Or by some orginization that is like their class.
Combat is one of the tests of adulthood that every young person in that city goes through.
The list goes on and on. I hope some of these might be usuable.
You should read Less than Zero from Bret Easton Ellis. It shows how rich kids end's up to kill boredom.....
I'll put it on my list of books to check out. Does it have a sick N twisted but strangley compelling plot to it?
The goal of the Modern Project was to reunite the different cultures by accepting the differences of all, and to unite them with technology and science. But the result of this project, the postmodern era (our era) is a era of division, where there is a lost of ancient valors and principles, creating an empty void. Since technology and science progress so fast, there is no way to predict the future, so people live in the present or the close present. Since anyone can adopt the valors he want and reject those he doen'st want, there is a division of the society in sub-groups and of sub-groups in sub-sub-groups (ex: anarcho-communism and anarcho-capitalism). Also, the present generation is somewhat spoiled and have nothing to fight for: they are rich, they have a home, they have almost anything that before we forced to fight for (equality of sex, religion. Liberty. Money from their parents, etc). Since they is nothing to oppose them, the soon become bored and search for new ways to kill boredom through extremes acts: drugs, sex, decadence, ect. Also, since nobody cannot predict the future, they live without making plan for tomorrow following this philosophy: since we doesn't know what tomorrow is, it could be worse than today. So let's live forever like if it was today. And also, they have the tendacy to present marks of succes (like clothes and cars) even if they don't have success (it's their parents who guive them those things). They also buy many things, are extremly materialistic.
Your players could be these kind of kids: bored, throwing party and living in decadence. They could also try to surpass the law by commiting crimes and using their position to evade punishiment. Or they could be kids that try to prevent this corruption to spread through their society.
No, no! Dont worry! It's just the story of a rich kid who come back from college to spend christmas with his family and ''friends''. All the while, he just do things without any... how should I say it... reason. The book is about the emptyness of the American Elite and their unending quest to kill boredom, first by promiscuity and drugs, then by decadence and violence. The story is pretty empty of plot, at the exception of the plot of Julian, a missing character that appear and disappear many times in the story. The prime goal of the author was to write a realistic story, so it's in a funny way a story empty of plot to illustrate the emptyness of the postmodern era. Search wikipedia for definition of modernism and postmodernism... Or wait, I will do a brief resumé:
The goal of the Modern Project was to reunite the different cultures by accepting the differences of all, and to unite them with technology and science. But the result of this project, the postmodern era (our era) is a era of division, where there is a lost of ancient valors and principles, creating an empty void. Since technology and science progress so fast, there is no way to predict the future, so people live in the present or the close present. Since anyone can adopt the valors he want and reject those he doen'st want, there is a division of the society in sub-groups and of sub-groups in sub-sub-groups (ex: anarcho-communism and anarcho-capitalism). Also, the present generation is somewhat spoiled and have nothing to fight for: they are rich, they have a home, they have almost anything that before we forced to fight for (equality of sex, religion. Liberty. Money from their parents, etc). Since they is nothing to oppose them, the soon become bored and search for new ways to kill boredom through extremes acts: drugs, sex, decadence, ect. Also, since nobody cannot predict the future, they live without making plan for tomorrow following this philosophy: since we doesn't know what tomorrow is, it could be worse than today. So let's live forever like if it was today. And also, they have the tendacy to present marks of succes (like clothes and cars) even if they don't have success (it's their parents who guive them those things). They also buy many things, are extremly materialistic.
Your players could be these kind of kids: bored, throwing party and living in decadence. They could also try to surpass the law by commiting crimes and using their position to evade punishiment. Or they could be kids that try to prevent this corruption to spread through their society.
Thats one heck of a genre. I like it since I'm living within it.
Yeah OP, try to shove your party into that kind of scenerio. And if they don't feel like playing the part of being spoiled,bored and decadent then you can have the NPC's around them be that way. It would lead up to dramatic events either way and still make for interesting roleplaying and a interesting story as time goes on.
Part of the "coming of age" for that social class may be proving that they are worthy of their position (keeping up the bloodline as it were). If they don't ACT like heroes, why should they be treated as such? There is also the paradigm of "First for the Estate, Second for the Crown, Third for the Church" for what to do with extra heirs.
Have the society stress "Service before Self"
Also, in olden days some kings/emperors keep the members of each noble families in their palace as "guest-hostages". The players could find out their family intends to rebel and the adventure is escaping the palace.