CRAFTING GOOD STORY/CHARACTERS

I'm not going to bother with story because the plot you choose doesn't really matter that much compared to the characters in it: a good plot is just there to give the characters a reason to grow. So instead I'll focus on characters.

Good characters can really only come from observing and to a certain extent understanding people in real life. You've got to get a handle on how different kinds of people think and behave, and the sorts of relationships they form. There's no real shortcut for this part, and even some of the best writers can't get it right, especially not all the time. All of your characters are going to be you to a certain extent, but you want to avoid a situation where they all behave, think, or talk the same way.

There are some tricks that can help get you started in fleshing out a character. They won't actually make them better characters, but they can help solidifying them in your own mind, which can lead to you getting a better feel for who they are.

The first step is to start with character archetypes. You find a stock character, like the Mad Scientist or the Gentleman Thief, for example, and use it as your starting point. You take the stock character and figure out why this particular character is important, and what makes him his own person rather than just being interchangeable with any other character of that type. Don't worry if it's a character type you see all the time, just be careful to make him your own: just about everyone on this board would fall under the Nerd archetype, but most of us are fairly distinct from one another. A good way to start differentiating is to let your character multiclass into other archetypes....sometimes this leads to a new archetype (like the Badass Bookworm). Mix in traits from people you know.

Giving your characters little mannerisms, or certain words or phrases that they like to use (not to the point of catch phrases if you can help it, unless that's part of the character's nature) can help in giving you an idea of who they are. The sorts of clothes they like to wear, the sorts of entertainment they enjoy, these sorts of things can help you out. This isn't enough to flesh out a character for the audience, but it can get your mind working.

Even though I've suggested little touches like the ones above, I'd advise you to avoid exhaustive lists and huge backstories unless they're actually significant to the plot--they tend to make you think in terms of what the character is rather than who they are. A handful of morsels of this sort of information can go a long way, and only the most major of characters really need a full backstory....and even then a lot of people take it too far. What's important is who the character is now, and who the character is becoming, not whot he character was.

One more thing: if you have to give a character a tragic past of some point, don't make it over the top, stupid tragic (for example: your female characters were not raped. Just don't do it. It can be used effectively, but it almost never is. More often than not it just trivializes a pretty gruesome act), and don't let the character spend the entire game whining and angsting about it. A little bit of angst can really make the audience feel for the character, but after a certain point it just gets obnoxious and makes you want to Brightslap the little bitch. And the amount varies from player to player....my angst tolerance is very low, as opposed to someone like Sei who thinks it's the bee's knees.

Oh, and some forumgoers will probably want to stab me for it, but here goes anyway: a quick binge on TVTropes.org can be a huge creative boost, although it comes at the price of making it difficult not to think in (and talk in) Tropes.

author=kentona link=topic=2125.msg35342#msg35342 date=1222899889

author=Shadowtext link=topic=2125.msg35336#msg35336 date=1222899211
Oh, and some forumgoers will probably want to stab me for it, but here goes anyway: a quick binge on TVTropes.org can be a huge creative boost, although it comes at the price of making it difficult not to think in (and talk in) Tropes.

This is not a boost - it's a complete time sink that will suck the life out of you.

It's like college that way. Only cooler because there's swearing and references to Star Wars.

Like college, though, you come out with a different perspective that can be a big help. It's a pretty huge time investment to begin with, though. Took me weeks when I first discovered it. Still regularly devours entire days of free time.

Flush them out, or flesh them out? Or are you implying that all characters are shit?

EDIT:

Also, there is a new article in the DB: 5 Common Writing Pitfalls, Part 1 & 2: ( http://www.rpgmaker.net/articles/113/ and http://www.rpgmaker.net/articles/114/ )

EDIT 2:
And this one by Blitzen: http://www.rpgmaker.net/articles/115/

As always, folks: TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life. I think of it as a Gom Jabbar of media appreciation and creation.

I would like to add (assuming this is an RPG) that a characters story/personality etc is important but don't forget it is a game and they need to be interesting from a mechanics point of view too. FF7 (please hold the flames) is a great example of how the characters are very interesting with lots of back story and motives however when it came down to mechanics they were essentially the same with some very minor tweaks. Try to give each one some ability or skill that they bring to the team that actually will make you want them in the a party.
Just throwing my thoughts on the other side of the character development coin.

FF7 (please hold the flames) is a great example of how the characters are very interesting with lots of back story and motives however when it came down to mechanics they were essentially the same with some very minor tweaks.

Well, in your RPG, you would want all of your characters to be controlled the same way (i.e. mechanics). And if you are actually talking about defined roles in battle, then you essentially are asking for the pre-FFV days, where there was a cleric, a mage, a thief and a warrior (and every other variation of these names you can think of, including priest, wizard, rogue and barbarian).

FF7 skill development was actually more balanced then 6, 8, 10, and 12 because of the fact that you needed the materia equipped in order to have the spells, and the amount materia that you could equip was limited. If we look back to the games mentioned here:

FF6 involved learning spells though Espers.
Once you had the spell, they were yours indefinitely.

FF8 involved "drawing" spells from enemies.
Not only could you have 99 of each spell with time, they were available to that character until they ran out. Because of the expendibility, it was a little more balanced than the others.

FF10 involved a skill/spell grid where you expended AP to move across the board.
Every character could eventually run across the entire board, and own every skill/spell.

FF12 was a similar skill/spell "license" grid to FF10. Once you had the license (and bought the skill/spell) you could use it indefinitely.

In comparison,

FF4: Pre-determined character roles.
FF5: Different classes available. You could have every skill, but you were only allowed an extra skill-set 'equipped' outside of your classes skillset.
FF7: Materia system; explained above.
FF9: Weapons had learnable abilities. Could only wear specific weapons; i.e. skills were specific to character.
FFX-2: Garment Sphere system. Basically the same as FF5, but you needed to be wearing the sphere to use the spells.

*shrug* I might be taking this too far into details, but I don't think FF7's character mechanics were the same. The customization didn't allow you to have *everything*--although, if you wanted to, you could have three characters that were equal.

Just remember that we all need the most important character in every RPG;

Namely, the townsperson at the entrance of each town whose only purpose in life is to tell you the name of that town.

As long as you have those, your hero can be the dullest, angstiest, fan-wankiest dunderhead... but people will still play. Because the real heroes are there, letting us know where we are at all times.

Godspeed, townsperson!