D&D 5: Class Motivation is Motivation

One of the big problems our group has with D&D 5 is the characteristic system. This is a psychological profile that puts mechanical rules on roleplaying. Your character has five mental characteristics (two personality traits, an ideal, a bond to the world, and a flaw). If you roleplay according to these mental characteristics you earn a one-use, one-maximum "fate point" which allows you to get an advantage on any roll. Once spent, you have to earn another.

Now, you can roll random roleplaying characteristics, or choose your own. Now, most of my group are pretty good roleplayers, and here is what we chose for ideals:

Fighter: "I am brave and selfless!"
Cleric: "I believe in helping the sick."
Thief: "I take things as I see fit."
Wizard: "I believe magic solves every problem."
Paladin: "I shall destroy evil!" 

Those seem like great ideals, and they are fun for players to roleplay and try and live up to. But notice one thing about them - they are the class' default motivation. Of course the fighter is going to be brave and selfless, that's his job. Every time the fighter smites an orc he can ask the DM for a roleplaying bonus. Of course the thief takes things, and every time he takes loot from a monster lair he is going to ask for a roleplaying award. Every time the cleric heals, and every time the paladin vanquishes an evil monster, the sort of token roleplay comes out, and a bonus is asked for.

These bonuses are huge, they are instant advantage on any roll. The more you earn them, the better you do. Now, of course, you want people to be roleplaying and having fun and living up to character ideals, right? Of course.

The problem comes with ideals that are not so easily applied. There was a thief character in the starter set with a motivation like, "Does not want her aunt to know she is a thief." I'm sorry, that isn't that likely to come up during play, as a DM, really, you would be lucky if it came up once. If you are 50 miles away from home in the middle of a dungeon, I guarantee it may not come up at all unless another player is using it to blackmail your character. And the big boss of the dungeon isn't going to stand there cackling and threatening to tell on you to your aunt either because he saw you swipe that gold necklace. Maybe in a Disney flick, okay, but not in my dungeon.

Players who pick more generic and easily applied personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws will do better than others with more specific and harder-to-apply during the game choices. They will earn inspiration more often on roleplaying, use it more frequently, and be able to replace it faster.

I know if I were designing a character I would pick my characteristics so I could get maximum return on my roleplaying, and they would mesh up with what my class does naturally in the game. I would love to be the paladin who "loves to destroy evil" because I could ham it up in every encounter and recharge my inspiration point for the next battle. I would never pick, "Wants to rise to the top of my paladin order," because that isn't as easily roleplayed or have opportunities to use that motivation.

We don't use this entire character motivation system, to be honest. I find it to be one of those "mouse maze" player behavioral control sort of rules frameworks that turns what players should be creative and having fun with (roleplaying) into a structured "does this apply to me?" rules system. We skip it and use this house rule:

If you roleplay an action well, the DM may give you an advantage on the roll.

It's simple, it works, and it rewards creativity at the table and during play. There's no bennie points to game the system with, earn, and track. Better players who have fun, swing from chandeliers, slide across tables to attack multiple foes, or do other silly and action movie stuff get advantage in my games. If we are playing dark and serious Gothic horror, if players act like they were in a horror movie in the game, they get advantage for the roll they roleplay that well - we don't need a new motivation set telling us we are playing horror-type characters now. It also puts the player in control of how they want to roleplay their character, and the DM as the judge of that effort.

We don't need formal "king's rules" on how to roleplay and reward it. Combat, loot, character creation, build options, magic, treasure, monsters, and all that other good stuff? Give me more of that please.