From Tabletop to Paperback – Chargen Part 2
So last Thursday I talked about how hard it is to make good, three dimensional characters and how difficult it is for a lot of burgeoning writers. I also swore that I'd show you, the gamer with designs on writing fiction, how prepared you are to create exactly those kinds of characters. Trust me on this, if you've been playing RPGs for any length of time, you can do this and do it well. Here are a few of the keys to compelling characters and how rolling 3d6 over and over has already done the heavy lifting for you.
Larger Than Life Characters
Nobody ever rolled up a portly, balding middle manager at a small accounting firm in Cleveland for their adventuring party. Not unless the normalcy is meant to contrast with the living nightmares that are about to attack every corner of his nice, quiet, suburban life. Every character is hellbent on revenge, or a superhero, or a barbarian warrior destined to be king, or a keen-eyed wizard, or, at the very least, an attractive orphan who wants to delve deep into the earth in order to brave its dangers and come back with treasure.
What I'm trying to say is nobody sets out to play an average character. Even if their stats are just okay, good players are looking for ways to carve out their niche at the table. They're creating big personalities. They're just waiting for the moment they can say something like, "my character gambles a little...but he isn't very good at it." Whatever it is, you always always give your character some kind of interesting hook that sets them above the pile. The kind of thing that, when you mention it, makes your GM's eyes gleam devilishly.
Sometimes you have to do this because the system is generic. The player has to bring everything distinctive to the PC because the mechanics have a sameness. I found this to be true in most flavors of Dungeons & Dragons. There are three fighters in your party...so what is it that makes yours so special? An indie game that nods in the direction of Old School Dungeoneering, Sage Kobold's Dungeon World, deals with this by declaring that you are THE Fighter. Oh there are other people who wield swords, but none of them compare to your skill at arms. You're THE Magic User. There may be other conjurers and shamans, but your Arcane wisdom is supreme.
But whether it's in spite of the system or baked right in, whether it's epic fantasy, superheroes, cyberpunk revolutionaries, or swashbuckling pirates, you're already used to thinking of your RPG character as the center of the universe. His enemies join him in the center of the universe by virtue of being his enemies. This is an attitude you must apply to your story's characters.
Nuanced Characters
In this context, nuance is the myriad things I vaguely know about my characters that let me predict random facts like their favorite colors. It's the backgrounds, the towns they came from, the socioeconomic status they grew up in, the religion they belong to, the hundred million little things that you know because you know the top eight things about their lives before the adventure begins.
Nuance is knowing the interests and beliefs of your character that have absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Of course you know what god the paladin follows, but what about your fighter that grew up a dirt grubbing peasant? Does he still pay homage to the goddess of grain, or did he leave that behind when he left the farm? If you've ever been blindsided by your gamemaster with an unexpected question that you nevertheless were able to answer in-character without thinking because you just knew what you're character would do, then you're on the road to nuanced characters.
Flawed Characters
One danger that a lot of beginner writers fall into is protecting their characters. The knife isn't twisted as hard as it should be, the punches aren't as bruising, and the cherished character, usually the hero, walk around with a kind of plot armor protecting them from the worst the story has to offer. When you combine this with the "amoeba" syndrome," you stray into very lackluster territory even if you're command of language and story structure is otherwise good.
One symptom of that plot armor is forgetting that your characters need flaws. This isn't always protecting the characters. Sometimes it's just an added problem with not fleshing your characters out in the first place. But between these two beginner mistakes, you often wind up with unassailable heroes and indestructible villains. That's not only unrealistic (everybody has some flaws), but it winds up being boring and, ultimately, unrelatable.
Marvel v. DC (c. 1963)
This isn't an RPG example, but it's a great one that's near and dear to my heart. By the 1960s, superhero comics were selling again (after a massive lull throughout the 1950s). There was no Marvel Comics at this point, DC was the main game in town. For those of you not in the know, that's Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, et al. These guys were total whitebread; square-jawed heroes through and through. They were, each and every one, totally unflawed. Oh sure, there was Kryptonite for Superman and Green Lantern's ring didn't work on yellow objects, but those are Plot, not Character.
In comes young upstart publisher Marvel Comics. They decided to position themselves as the "world outside your window" superhero universe. That meant heroes and villains with actual, honest to goodness character flaws. Peter Parker is wracked by guilt, has an ailing aunt, is perpetually broke, and girls don't like him. The Thing is a dashing pilot now trapped in the body of a monster by his best friend. Mr. Fantastic is the best friend, so another wracked by guilt situation. Thor is so full of himself that he's kicked out of Asgard to learn humility. Iron Man is a drunk, Daredevil is a lawyer by day and vigilante by night. The X-Men protect people who hate and fear them.
These were heroes with feet of clay. Compared to the Distinguished Competition, these were heroes you could believe in because they were created in a lab to appeal to teenagers. Everything is louder than everything else in those early Marvel comics, and the flaws still somehow manage to be loudest of all. It was such a revolutionary idea that, by the mid 70s, DC had basically emulated the formula. They'd emulate it even harder when they restarted their entire line and shared universe in 1985.
Flaws, Drawbacks, Vices...Just Gimme the Points!
Just like I mentioned, new writers have trouble giving their characters flaws. Once they get over that hurdle, they tend to give all their characters the same flaw. Even veterans can fall prey to this (I'm looking at you, Wheel of Time and your perpetual gender idiocy). But it isn't enough to just give characters flaws, they have to be interesting flaws.
All of you already do this. You might have started doing it just because so many rules systems reward you with more positive stuff for taking negative stuff (Champions and Savage Worlds to name just two of thousands). Maybe your mind shifted when you realized that you could take an Enemy for points but then suddenly declared that he'd killed your character's father. Maybe you just thought you were clever taking schizophrenia and you ran into a GM who made your other personality the villain of the plot. Whatever it was, at some point, you realized that your PC's flaws could also make her interesting.
If you haven't made this switch yet, try to do it consciously the next time you roll up a character. If you can convince your group to change systems, look for a rules that reward you for your flaws not just in chargen but also when these flaws come up in play. Better yet, when you bring them up. Then, and this is important, don't beat that drum until it breaks. Look for the best moment for your guy to be clumsy or greedy. Better yet, look for the worst moment.
Flaws With a Twist
Maybe characters aren't your strong suit. Maybe you've been perfectly happy to play a Fighter and the only difference between him and the other fighter you played is this one uses a halberd. If so, then you may find yourself falling into the beginner habits of not characterizing or over-protectiveness. Here's a favorite trick of mine that I like to use on my protagonists who are actually Big Damn Heroes and, therefore, pretty uniquely without flaws.
I create opportunities for their virtues and strengths to become vices and weaknesses. Maybe they're famous, so they have to rely on a secondary, and less skilled, character to infiltrate the villain's hideout. Perhaps they have a huge and supportive family, which they run into when pretending to be somebody else. They could have a vast capacity for violence, but they happen to indulge in it right in front of the news crew. Whatever it is, I spend a few scenes turning whatever I viewed as their greatest strength into their greatest weakness.
Characters That Tempt FATE
If you want some practice with good character building at the game table, I have a recommendation. The best for both making interesting characters whose strengths are also weaknesses is probably a FATE game, such as Spirit of the Century or The Dresden Files RPG. In FATE, characters have Aspects as part of their stat block. These Aspects are descriptive phrases that tell you things about the character. Harry Dresden is a Wizard Private Detective. I made a Tarzan type who was a Hairy Chested Love God. There's a million of these, your options are literally endless.
What's more, a lot of FATE systems walk you through your character's life history. So your first two Aspects have to do with your childhood, the next two have to do with your teen years, the next two are when you started adventuring, and the rest tie you to the other characters. So your PC might have Grown Up On the Streets, but then was taken in and Mentored by an Aging Hero. Aspects cannot help but force you to make more interesting, three dimensional characters.
Aspects usually help your character. You pay a Plot Point (an in-game currency without which you'll be a very poor hero indeed) to give yourself a boost where your background or high concept comes into play. Fairly obvious and straight forward. But to me, that's not the true joy of Aspects. The flip side of Aspects is when the GM actually pays you a Plot Point when he uses your Aspect as a complication.
Wizard Detectives get a Plot Point when they have to answer to the council of wizards. Hairy Chest Love Gods get a Plot Point when some important NPC's wife finds him irresistible. Characters with Family In Every Town get a Plot Point when Aunt Petunia wants to tell the King all about her embarrassing childhood stories.
Aspects are brilliant and a great way to practice the things that are going to make your story's characters come alive for your readers.
Next time, we'll talk about another area gamers don't typically have a problem with in stories: Plot! Also known as When Stuff Happens To Your Characters. See you then!
