The 'favorite characters' thread in the lounge got me thinking. Looking through the archive here, I don't see very much about characters. I'm curious what people think are successful types of characters and examples of these. Let me clarify: I'm thinking of characters whose dialogue and behavior is determined by the writer, not the player. In other words, non-main party members or NPCs who just struck you as really cool or funny. What type of characters do you always recognize and smile to see? My examples: -the zany, charming, flirty psychotic (Flea, Chrono Trigger) This type frequently displays lack-of appropriate affect. They are sometimes referred to as Ottas ala C. S. Friedman's _This_Alien_Shore_. -the wounded, melancholy, mysterious, wrap-me-in-your-arms-and-take-care-of/heal-me loner (Cloud, FF VII) Many bishounen(pretty boys) in anime are this type. -the bad guy with more common sense and practicality than the good guys. (Raistlin, Dungeons and Dragons) This type of bad guy is usually not sadistic; rather they have some real reason to be on the bad side. I've tried to stick to the ones of these that are stereotypically more 3-dimensional (i.e. fully characterized). As opposed to the comic releif incompetent bad guy, for example. What other types can you guys think of? (Oops, had the term 'otta' misattributed... *blush* ) Edited by - sunandshadow on 8/21/00 10:24:43 PM

Taking some examples from comic books: The obssessed (crazy?) good guy who is very dark and brooding (appearing almost evil on the outside although thier moral code is very much good) like Batman in The Dark Knight Returns. Or the good guy who is practical (sometimes you gotta do things you don''t like, life ain''t always pretty) perhaps even feral, like Wolverine. Or like you said, bad guys with common sense or a reason for being bad guys (Doctor Doom, Magneto, Galactus). Comic relief characters I don''t care for unless they are really well done, for example: I had hoped Jar-Jar would get blasted (I think he single handedly ruined Episode 1), Gleep and Gloop from the Herculiods were cool though because they were comic relief types but they could actually fight when they needed to.

"A man can't just sit around." 'Lawn Chair' Larry Walters (1982)

If you really want to know...

Characters that have a story and a past, OR characters that you know are nice characters.

I never believe anything can be ''evil''...
A good explanation is best than nothing, when you now the characters motivations, and past, then you understand, so he looks more human to you.

This is all the job of a writer (which I am) to create this kind of characters.

You also, most of the time, like the fact that the character as somathing special, the way it move, the kind of things it does, how it''s dressed...

A character is not numbers (For fake RPGamers), nor a physical description (for fake Game Designers) :p

As a side note, I would like to say that I hate games with GOOD and EVIL, everyone as its own moral/ideas about that and everyone is ''shaded'' nobody''s black or white...

Make your world grey and you''ll make many people happy.
(At least me)

-* So many things to do, so little time to spend. *-

Why does everyone hate Jar-Jar ? I thought he was hilarious !!!
I personally like characters that aren''t cliche, like Belgarath.
Let''s examine him :
On the one hand, he''s the super-powerful ancient sorcerer who pushes around Gods etc etc etc
On the other hand he''s a seedy old man who drinks a lot of beer and is not above stealing.He''s still a good man, sure - but he''s not like THE AVATAR or something.
Another great thing about him is his humor and sarcasm.
"I don''t think we can ever expect Belar (A GOD !!!) to grow up."He''s a very "deep" character, and one that I really love.

Runemaster
Join the Game Developers SiteRing !

How about Jack Vance''s Cugel?
He''s in no way a good guy, in fact, he is completely amoral. But he has a lot of misfortune and the way things turn out he usually accidentally foils someone else''s plan. You can''t call him a "hero", he''s just a bastard who happens to do the wrong thing at the right time.
I really like that character, because it''s original.


Give me one more medicated peaceful moment.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~
ERROR: Your beta-version of Life1.0 has expired. Please upgrade to the full version. All important social functions will be disabled from now on.

Perhaps the concept of a "defining event" in the character''s history is not a bad thing... it''s been alluded at in the "child scene" idea ( it''s in Dwarfsoft''s doc. ), but I think we''ve missed the true importance. Most really memorable characters can be traced back to one or two momentous events in their history, be that when they became a mutant ( Spiderman ) or seeing their girlfriends murdered ( the Crow ), or whatever... most of the story of these people tends to be based around that defining event, in some way or another.

Something for us game designers to leverage perhaps?


Give me one more medicated peaceful moment.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~
ERROR: Your beta-version of Life1.0 has expired. Please upgrade to the full version. All important social functions will be disabled from now on.

I''m already implementing such a thing in my RPG.

In fact it''s since 99 that this kind of ''child scene'' is in my design doc

You play the most important events of the life of your character, and this will give you a clue of how you should play it afterward, a chance to make him as you wish AND this is used for the character generation.
(In fact this is the character generation sequence, in game sequence )

I love my idea

Any comment ?

-* So many things to do, so little time to spend. *-

I love the idea as well, we used to do it a lot for our really intense improvised Vampire roleplay. As in real, physical roleplay. It works very well to get in character.


Give me one more medicated peaceful moment.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~
ERROR: Your beta-version of Life1.0 has expired. Please upgrade to the full version. All important social functions will be disabled from now on.

I am one of Nakor''s blue riders... I like the easy way he tells everybody that "there is no magic" and then draw dozens of oranges from his empty rucksack while in the middle of the sea.
He is an ever good humored character and quite funny (a character from Raymond Feist).
What makes him interesting is not any "defining event" but his originality. It takes a really good writer to do this.

I like the child scene idea, its a great idea. I had thought of allowing the player to choose some defined events, but it would restrict his freedom too much .

I wonder how we could let the player define the past of his character without boring him too much.