Why Do Character Development?

Why do you do it, because people change over time. Now, sometimes it is a small amount of time. But for eight levels higher, you spent some time in the game world. Both in game and outside of the game. And your character now has way more experiences than they did before.

When creating characters we think of big backstories for them. Well, that big backstory isn’t that much compared to where they are now. If you start playing at level one and then progress, you start somewhat better than the average person. Now at level eight you are impressive, and also you have just experienced more of the world for better and worse than the NPC who runs a shop or many other characters.

So, naturally it feels like there is a story progression there. I think for the players as well, it is useful to progress and develop your character as you go. You might start playing a character, realize you like one or two things about it which you lean into and that changes how your character interacts with the world. Yes, that is character development through the eyes of the players desires.

How Do You Do Character Development?

So how do you do character development well? And honestly, well is a relative term. You don’t need to do character development at all. But for a longer campaign it can be fun to toy around with that as time progresses to think about how your character is going to progress as well.

For example, I have in a game I’m running, a player who has a character who is scared of water. Were they at the start of the campaign, no, but now they are through things that have happened. They even bought an umbrella to make sure they could be dry in a given situation. Or another character who started out as a fighter and has since started thinking about how he can develop business and grow his own little business empire.

And I can put it down to a few different things, which you might recognize from the character sheet. You can grown your character development through your characters changing Personality Traits, Bonds, Flaws, and Ideals.

These are all the elements of your character that you start out with. But you can see in my above example of gaining a fear of water, rain in particular, a new flaw or personality trait has come out. For the other one, his personality trait and ideal life have changed to where he wants to run a business and spends time on that as much as he can. let’s dive into each.

Personality Traits

Probably the easiest, your character gains a new interest. It might be running a business. Or you might find out that like or dislike something a lot. Now you interact in situations differently. And you grow that over time.

Bonds

Bonds is one that I haven’t mentioned yet, but I’ve had a character in a game develop in that too. They were in close contact and connection with a demon lord, as time progressed, they drifted away from them, so that demon lord is not longer a bond. Oddly enough, another one is forming more of a bond as time goes on.

But who you know matters and who you are most connected with. If you join a thieves guild mid game, that might be a new bond that you have. Bonds are easy in some ways because you might have an old master, if they die, who fills that spot? It might be the adventuring party, but how does that change how you play.

Flaws

Flaws, being scared of rain in a world where they travel a lot is a big deal. But is there something new that your character dislikes a lot now that gets in the way. Rain works, but maybe you had a run in with the city guard, so even though you are good, you really dislike the city guard. Or a religion or anything like that which you now really dislike.

Or maybe it is a situation where you spoke your mind once and through a great roll got what you wanted in a situation where it was dicey. How does that change your character, do you believe you can do it all the time, maybe to a detriment when a roll doesn’t go as well?

Ideals

And this one ties some into what I mentioned above about starting to dislike a religion, city guard, whatever it might be. Your ideal can change because you find something better. Or your ideal can change because you no longer believe as much as you did before. Either way, that can cause your character to develop over time.

Final Thoughts on Character Development in Dungeons and Dragons

I think that developing your character throughout a campaign is that it is something good that you can do. But it is something optional for a Dungeons and Dragons game. Some people have an idea and want to stick to it. Though, when creating a character, you can develop that idea over time. So you want to end up at this point, how does your character grow to that.

But for other people, they start out where they want to be. The trickster character who is just in adventuring for fun. Maybe they develop a bit of a heart for their party. But they likely stay as the trickster in the adventure for fun versus developing deep connections.

But when you can develop and change your character over time, I think it offers a chance to developing a bigger story. To create those more memorable moments that stand out because they changed the campaign when they changed your character.

Do you try and do character development through a Dungeons and Dragons or any RPG campaign?

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Campaign Game Expectations

Branching Narrative

Let’s start out with story. I want a good narrative and I want a branching narrative in a game. Now, this doesn’t mean I need 10 different endings. Though I appreciate what Tainted Grail does, giving a lot of different end game moments. But I’m fine with just a story that gives me choices in what I do. The illusion of branching narrative.

What I mean by the illusion is that I can make a choice and that’ll change how something goes. It might make a few scenarios different. But the main story beats, I’m going to end up there no matter what. So do the decisions I make matter? Yes, for how the story is shaped and told to me, but where I’m going to end up not really. But there needs to be real, meaningful feeling decisions.

Tainted Grail does a good job of this, Stars of Akarios, you end up on a planet and can choose to go many ways. Gloomhaven, the story is much more linear throughout. In a few spots, it does branch but only changes stuff in a minor way. Sword and Sorcery, about once per box would you have a decision to make. Clearly there are other stuff that determine how much I like a game than just story. But now, I expect more from story because companies are doing more.

Storage Solution

I didn’t put these in any order, but this might be number one. I want a campaign game to come with a storage solution. And not just any storage solution. Sleeping Gods gives you baggies to save your game. That is not a storage solution that I’m talking about. Though, it’s better than not having the baggies.

What I am talking about is something that makes it easier to play and faster to the table. Gloomhaven I had to buy an insert for that. Sword and Sorcery it doesn’t have that at all. But Tainted Grail allows you to save characters and locations in an okay system. But when I look at good, I look at my Gloomhaven insert or Stars of Akarios.

I want to be able to pull out a whole tray of tokens and that that on the table. I don’t need to worry about getting them to the right spot or within reach. There is just a tray for that, and for the cards. And, ideally, you can have all your character stuff in a single spot. Make it easy as possible on me to get it back to the table. Yes, it is still a big game, but you can make it easier.

Scaling – Player Count and Difficulty

This one might not be the most obvious, but at times some games require you to play with four characters. Sleeping Gods you play with 9 characters plus the Captain, I believe. Now, you activate as the whole crew, but for a lot of people that is a lot. I always saw it just as a turn and knowing my abilities. But I totally get why it would be a lot.

And it isn’t just how many characters you control, it is how many monsters you control and how hard they are. Gloomhaven is a great example of this. The fewer players that you have, the fewer monsters there are on the board. But if a scenario is too easy or too hard, you can lower or raise the difficulty. That is great.

Now, sometimes games do need or expect four characters. So some games handle that in different ways. Oathsworn they are allies who activate on a simpler system in combat. That way you only need to think about a character or two. For Middara, they kind of slot in with another character. So think of lending health or stuff like that. Bad guys don’t change, but your heroes get stronger with fewer.

Interesting Mechanics

Interesting is a relative term. I think I mean that I want a mechanic that feels different or feels unique to the game. Stars of Akarios gave me unique tactical space dog fights. Gloomhaven has the dual use cards with the top and bottom. Tainted Grail leans into the exploration and survival, but also has the chaining combat system. Each of those feels different.

What I don’t really want is to only grab a handful of dice with an ability card and roll to see if I activate it. Now, something like Oathsworn has an element of that, you just grab dice and roll them. But it offers more than that, the card play and the battle flow system are unique. And the grabbing of dice is a push your luck element.

I hope it doesn’t come across that I don’t like rolling dice, rolling a handful of dice is satisfying. But if that is your mechanic, or main mechanic, that is old at this point. Sword and Sorcery, for example, mainly has your activating a card which tells you what dice to roll, and you can take actions to add dice. It’s why over time Sword and Sorcery has slipped so much for me.

Good Character Progression

Finally, I want good character progression. And this is also in two ways. Kind of like the scaling can be done in two ways. But I want good character progression where I get to know more about the character. This isn’t a must, but it is appreciated. Awaken Realms often has this as an add-on to their games. Echoes of the Past is that for Tainted Grail. You complete objectives, you get to read story about the horrible past your character has had.

It doesn’t need to be as blatantly obvious as that. But also in Tainted Grail, you find certain things that only a given character can do. Generally there are other ways to do them, but it’s easier for that character. And you find out more details about that characters past that way, or story, and it feels good to have something unique for that character.

But I also want to level up my characters fairly often. And leveling up can slow down as time goes on. But within the first few sessions I should get something new. I want to feel like my character is doing better and is stronger in the game. Generally this is more mechanical. For Gloomhaven, it’s less XP to level up early levels. For Tainted Grail, it’s chapters early on giving you things you’d normally spend XP for.

Final Thoughts

Now, this list probably isn’t everything that I want. Personally, I would love voice narration and app assistance for most any game. This goes back to the ease of play I talk about with an insert. That makes it easier to play and get to the table. But not flipping through a book also makes it easier and simpler to play.

So I want that for more games, but I don’t know that it is needed for every game. At least narration so I don’t have to read large swathes of text. But it’s also important that it’s done well. Don’t just have the designer of the game, or a random friend, read it, it needs to be well done. And same with the app, the app needs to be well designed as well, because a bad app can hurt ease of play if not careful.

What, to you are the important things to get you interested in a campaign game? What is often the biggest barrier for you to getting a campaign game to the table?

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The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest Plot

Devils are trying to take over the world and the strongest sage, well, he is doing his best to hold them back. But out of the four crests, his is the weakest for combat. When the hordes and threats have been driven back. He takes the opportunity to cast a spell to reincarnate himself to come back stronger with a stronger crest to be able to defeat them once and for all.

That is how Mathias Hildesheimer is born. He is powerful, he has the crest he wants, but he needs to still grow in power and training to get back to the point where he wants to be. However, the world has changed a lot since he was alive before. And now his crest, what he knows to be the strongest is considered to be the crest of failure.

Why It Doesn’t Work

We’re deviating from the normal format. Mainly because I don’t have much good to say about this anime. Visually, I think that it is good, not amazing but certainly not bad. And the voice acting is fine. I think that a lot of the characters are fairly annoying, but the voice acting is acting them as written, not adding to that affect. But otherwise, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is not good.

I guess to say one more nice thing about it, I like the premise, but it flubs it. I’m going to be comparing this to two other anime that I’ve watched, the first being Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and the other Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Came to a Starter Town. Why, because The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest does some things they do, but not as well. It’s more like The Wise Man’s Grandchild.

Mathias Hildesheimer

Let’s start out with the main character. I’ve mentioned that the characters are a bit annoying and he tends to be the worst. Mainly because for him, everything comes easily. There is no struggle with his character. Sometimes he fights a demon that is tougher, but only in the finale and maybe in the finale do you feel like there’s any threat to him. Otherwise he is just over powered.

Mathias always talks about how he needs to become stronger, but he’s already the strongest person alive. It might be true to some extent to get back to his power level, but it doesn’t seem like it’s much lower. In fact, in the finale, he defeats the boss without that much trouble, granted he needs a weapon to do so, but the danger, then feels contrived.

So he shows up to a school to learn and prepare. But he’s stronger than the teachers, he knows things that the teachers don’t know. And generally he just ends up being the teacher for everyone. Characters need a struggle and he has none. I guess his struggle is that he’s kind of clueless with the girl who likes him and he likes. But that also doesn’t make sense, he has his memories of a previously lived life. Was that not a part of his life? And if it wasn’t, why is romance a part of his life now?

The Comparison

So, I said that I was going to compare it to two other things. Let’s start out with the kid from the boonies, Lloyd. This does the same trope in some ways. The kid from the boonies near the last dungeon, you grow up there everything is hard. Monsters are hard to fight because it’s a high level town. So he goes to the starter town and he’s the most powerful. But to him, or for him, he can’t believe it. He doesn’t realize his power. He’s weak in his town, so now when he’s the most powerful, he doesn’t get it.

Compare that to Mathias, he is always the best out there. He knows he’s the best out there. He teaches teachers how to do things that were common place in his original time. Lloyd is struggling to fit into a new town. He’s struggling with realizing his power for what it is. Mathias is just the best there is, and he steps in and runs everything.

Then there is Bell from Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon. Bell is a sweet heart, and someone who wants to get better and stronger. And he does so quite quickly, but there are always people stronger than him. I compare it because both Bell and Mathias are kids, but Bell is learning his powers. His struggle is to get stronger. Mathias never has that struggle. Even though that’s supposed to be part of his character. He is already strong.

The Premise

Finally, let’s talk about the premise, because I do think that it’s interesting, but the show or story misses on it. What happens, as I keep on harping on, is Mathias reincarnates to get a better crest. He does so and it takes a little bit but he regains all his memories. And he is just as strong, or nearly, as he was before, now with a better crest.

The problem, as I keep on coming back to as well, is that there is no character development. He’s instantly the strongest and mostly who he was before. He is just that as a kid. What would have worked better and they keep on hinting at, would be a struggle to get stronger. Have him know he should be better and get frustrated because his body can’t do what it used to do. Let Mathias struggle when he tries to do too much and it fails. Make there be problems for him, not a problem that is always resolved by the end of the episode.

The Comparison

Let’s compare the other premises, this time let’s start with Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and that story. It’s about Bell, who is a low level adventurer under a low level god, trying to improve. He’s always trying to push himself to be better because he wants to catch up to Aiz, one of the strongest adventurers because she saves him and he falls in love with her. But he doesn’t think he’s strong enough for her to even notice him. He has motivation and a struggle.

And with Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, Lloyd’s struggle is that he doesn’t know what real life is like. And he doesn’t know how to balance his powers. He is amongst the weakest in his town, but it’s high level. So he struggles with actually being powerful, what his powers can actually do, especially in his town. And he just struggles with what normal life is actually like and the fame that comes with it.

The plot and Mathias in The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, he knows he is the strongest. And everyone treats him like that. He isn’t pushed to be better, it’s just something that automatically happens. And there isn’t much need for him to get better. So he doesn’t have a struggle to improve. And he doesn’t have a struggle of dealing with life. So the motivations for the plot, they just aren’t there. It’s a story that doesn’t give you a good reason as to why it is being told.

Final Thoughts

I am disappointed. Like I talked about in the discussion on the plot, I think that there are elements that could have made a solid story. But those don’t really matter because Mathias is good at everything. And more so because Mathias doesn’t fail. Bell fails. Lloyd fails, though mainly just at life stuff. In both cases neither of them are perfect. Mathias is kind of perfect and he doesn’t fail.

I don’t think that there is a reason to watch this. It reminds me, in some ways, of the stories where the main character is an edge lord. Those are about the viewer or reader kind of getting wish fulfillment of being a bit bad and edgy. Mathias is wish fulfillment for the viewer or reader if they want to be good, but also be the most powerful. And it is a shame, because it could have been more.

Finally, I think a lot of this might be somewhat intentional, which is also disappointing. The plot level of this is very low. The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, feels like it’s trying to target people who are new to anime. However, it does so by dumbing down the story so much and removing all danger it’s a bad story.

To do one last comparison. Harry Potter doesn’t really get in trouble when he does bad stuff. There are fun elements to the story and world, but great writing, it’s not so much that. Versus Keeper of the Lost Cities, it is a constant struggle for Sophie, she gets in a lot of trouble and there are real consequences for her and those around her. I wish it was more like that.

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Comments or Questions

Let me know your thoughts on the finale of Moon Knight. Were you pleased with how the series went? And let me know about Doctor Strange in the Mutliverse of Madness. Is the film too Sam Raimi for you?

You can let me know all of those things down in the comment section below. Or tweet them to me @TheScando or by using #10MinMarvel. I also would love to know people thoughts on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Is it one that you thought was worth it to see in theaters?

Thank you again for listening, and I’ll see you next time.

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Keeper of the Lost Cities – The Premise

Sophie Foster is not your normal 12 year old girl. She is extremely smart with a photographic memory. But more than that, she is a telepath. It is something that she’s had from a very young age and it’s definitely an annoyance. When her class is on a school trip to the science museum she spots a boy who is watching her. Not from her class, she goes and talks to him.

It turns out that the world she thought existed wasn’t quite what she thought it was. It is a whole lot bigger and she is part of that bigger picture. But what that means for her, as she moves from a world of humans to a world of magic and elves is the adventure she’s about to discover.

What Doesn’t Work?

I don’t find much fault with this series. Shannon Messenger does a really good job of writing this series. Yes, it most definitely is targeted towards the middle grade reader, but it doesn’t pull it’s punches. My only knock on the writing is that it can get a little bit preachy at times. Now, I say at times, in almost four full books, it’s maybe a handful of times. And these aren’t small books. It is more that you can feel the tone or style or writing shift when it happens.

Again, it isn’t much of the books. And it isn’t long sections of the book. Most of the time it is a paragraph of two. So compared to something like the Shannara Chronicles where it is the main focus through large chunks of the book, it doesn’t feel oppressive. It just isn’t blended into the series as well as it should be.

What Works?

Sophie Foster and Friends

There are a lot of things that work in the series. Again, no shock there, I really like the series. Let’s start out with the characters and in particular the main character, Sophie Foster. She is a well developed character. Her life gets turned on it’s head. And while she is most definitely excited about what is happening going forward, she also misses things. She has emotions and she has flaws and all of that gives her depth.

Is she a prototypical hero where things work out for her in the end, yes, generally. But the moments between, she struggles. I compare this series a bit to Harry Potter. Again, starting in middle grade and with magic, it is going to be an obvious comparison. In Harry Potter, he gets away with everything, Sophie gets away with almost nothing. When she does, there is always a cost.

Also, her friends work. A series that I don’t like, Divergent, had interesting side characters, for one book. They overshadowed the main character, so they became more boring. In Keeper of the Lost Cities, because Sophie has depth, the side characters have depth. I might still prefer some of the side characters to Sophie, but not by much. In Divergent it wasn’t even close, the side characters were that much better. This brings them all together in a way that makes them all different and interesting.

The Plot

The plot of all the books is good, that I’ve read thus far. But I mainly am talking about the first one right now. It is kind of a fish out of water story. Sophie Foster, obviously, doesn’t know the world she hasn’t lived in. So the first story is about her finding out about herself. Who she is, why she grew up in the human world. But there is more to the story than that. And Shannon Messenger does a good job of creating a middle grade reading level story that isn’t dumbed down.

It really comes out in further books in the series. But Sophie has a lot of tough stuff happen to her. Again, reading level appropriate, but not shying away from it. I feel like there are a lot of books that dumb it down for their target audience. The Keeper of the Lost Cities certainly does not do that. And the story is so much stronger for it. If it were dumbed down, I think my comment about characters wouldn’t exist.

That said, and this isn’t a negative, be aware of that. Sophie goes through a lot. For some readers, it might be too much at times. But this is also a series that adults will enjoy. So you, if thinking about it for a kid, and preread the first two books to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

Who Is It For?

I want to address this as well, because I think some people will pass it by because it is middle grade. Did you like Harry Potter, I think this is better. Do you still like Harry Potter, I think you will like this. Keeper of the Lost Cities is a well written series, and while it might be lighter reading than what some people normally do, it is still good reading. So while I do recommend that adults maybe check it out to see how intense it gets, I think a lot will want to continue through the whole series.

That said, I know I am a sucker for fantasy. If you aren’t, again, you probably don’t like Harry Potter, this series isn’t likely to change it for you. And I think that some adults or readers outside of the age range, might find it too breezy a read. This is a summer read where you want to read something that has depth but a lot of fast action. Or in Minnesota a winter read, so you don’t stew in the fact it’s cold outside and snowing.

Keeper of the Lost Cities Final Thoughts

This is a really fun and addicting series. I like it when I pick up a series and I want to read the next book and then the next. The Great Library Series that I wrote about not too long ago was like this, but to a lesser extent. The Keeper of the Lost Cities keeps me coming back again and again. And they read so fast. It is one that I can pick-up and read and get far enough into the story in a few minutes that I just want to keep going.

So, like I said four or five times already, I really like this series. I think it works as a whole. There is enough depth to keep me interested. But it isn’t so heavy that I can’t speed through it and just absorb it as I go. For me, that is what I really love about a good book series, I just get so sucked into it, that I don’t ever want to leave. And the world created in Keeper of the Lost Cities, for me, is like that.

My Grade: 9/10

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What’s the Difference?

So the concept that I’m going here for Dungeons and Dragons or any role playing game is one between dice and how you play a character at a table. If I’m focused on roll play, I’m focused on the mechanics of the game and how combat works. If I am focused on role play, that means I am putting more focus onto the character, character traits, and how you play your character in social interactions with NPC’s and other characters.

Which is Better?

You need a balance of both in your gaming. But I do think for a lot of new players the roll play is what they focus on. Learning the mechanics of the game seems daunting. There, however, needs to be a balance between the two. You need to know how your character works but also how you’ll play them. If you focus too much one role play, you can slow down combat. On the flip side, too much on roll play, you’ll not enjoy a large chunk of the game.

The Pitfalls of Both

Firstly, let’s start with role playing. If you focus too much on that, what is the issue that can occur? The big one is during combat. You don’t know what to do and your turns take a long time. This slows down combat and the game as a whole. Knowing your characters mechanics means that you are ready for those situations where you do roll the dice. You don’t need to look up spells as much, and you know what you’ll do when it’s your turn in combat.

Secondly, we have roll playing. This one is the more common of the two that new players really focus on. Why, because most games are about winning or losing. The role play aspect is abstracted from the mechanics of a game a lot. But playing in combat, it feels like something a player should be able to win. The downfalls of this, are different though. You might just enjoy the game less. If it’s not focused on combat and rolling the dice, you don’t have an interesting character to fall back onto. You will also step on other players toes when you do get to dice rolling.

Let me explain that other one a bit more. I know I’ve brought it up before, but every character and player at the table should have something they are best at. If that means you are the best at fighting, that’s great. But for new players you often want to be the best at everything. If you are the wizard, you shouldn’t be the best at acrobatics. That is something that the rogue should be doing.

How Would I Balance It?

• Pick a concept
• Learn your character sheet and default attack
• Develop a personality

Pick A Character Concept

I’d start by coming up with a character concept. A character concept that isn’t being Batman, Batman is good at everything and an evil character. I don’t let evil aligned characters into parties that often, but ignoring that joke, Batman breaks the rule. He is good at everything so he steps on everyone’s toes.

Instead, pick a concept for a character and what you want to be good at. If you want to be the drunken tank, that’s a great concept. Why because it gives you two things to work with. It gives you a role playing piece, how do you play being a drunkard and why are they that way? Plus you now know the character is a tank, that gives you direction when picking classes. You’ll likely go with a fighter, barbarian, or paladin in that case.

Learn the Basics Of Your Class

Next, learn your character class, kind of. This is where players can go too far. They try and optimize what they are going to do with their character before they start playing. You have a general ideal, not the final plan, and at level 1, your tank isn’t going to be that much of a tank. But the point is that you’ll build towards that. What you are trying to learn are the basics of the your class and what your default is going to be. By default, I mean default in combat, what attack will you do if you don’t have a special plan? Have that ready so you are ready to go on your turn.

Develop Your Characters Personality

Then spend time with the personality traits, flaws, bonds, and ideals. Make them make sense and give yourself a real flaw. These can help inform your role playing. What you want to do is create a character who has a reason to be part of the group. And you want those four things to be role playing defaults. This is slightly different than combat. These aren’t ones to be wielded as justification for how your character is. These are meant when you, as the player, can’t decide what your character would do, a way to give an answer.

That’s really it, come up with that character concept. Something that gives you an interesting backstory and a direction towards what you’re good at. Then it’s about learning your character, on the paper and how they act from there. And just play around with that as you go. You will find that it develops and grows over time both on the paper with roll play and personality wise with role play.

Why Does This Matter So Much?

Now, I’m clearly harping on this topic a lot. I’ve written about mistakes new players make. I’ve written about homebrewing a campaign or starting up a new character. Why do I talk about it as much as I do?

Well, because Dungeons and Dragons and other role playing games are cooperative games. It is a game where you want everyone at the table to be having fun. I know I keep on going back to this, The RPG Academy says it well, if you’re having fun you’re doing it right. And that is for the whole group at the table, not just you. Play to have fun as a group. If you build a character who is pointless in combat so you are always running away from a fight, that’s not going to be fun for everyone. On the flip side, only good in combat, when there isn’t combat you’ll not be having fun.

I think another way to describe it would be that new players often want to have the most fun. Doing so reduces the overall fun at the table if not done well. And being that Batman character who is good at everything, in my opinion, isn’t how most players will have the most fun. Memorable moments and fun moments come from doing well but also from role playing your 7 charisma barbarian.

So, I don’t want to take away your fun, but also consider how you can have fun without it always needing to be Batman. And make those weaknesses fun for you as you play. I’ll plan on writing about weaknesses in Dungeons and Dragons an other role playing games and how those make things more interesting and fun.

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What Are Some Pitfalls?

With all of that said, I do think that we need to start on a bit more negative side of things. We need to call out what can create these less interesting characters in a book. Then after that, I will talk about how they can be overcome.

The Mary Sue or Marty Stu

This is one of the more common tropes for new writers. The general idea is that the main character is perfect at anything they do. Jumping out of an helicopter with a bedsheet and parachuting to safety, that is completely absurd. But it’s been done in a book that I read. Every idea the character has is right and everyone else is always proven wrong, I watched a show that ended with a season that was completely full of that.

The Dullard

Similar to the Mary Sue or Marty Stu, the dullard is slightly different. While previous they might be good at everything, this one is just generic. It is meant to have that ultimate self insert into the character. They don’t really have any traits of their own, so that as you read them, they sound like you sound. The biggest issue with the dullard is they can often be overtaken in interest by side characters. And that causes an issue for the author, they either need to make the main character better and more interesting losing the self insertion or make the side characters worse weakening the whole story. I had seen side characters fall of a cliff in terms of depth and interest of writing in a series before because of this problem.

The Out of Place

This one I see more often in RPG’s. A person has an idea for a character that they want. And they really love the character. Maybe it has personal sentiment for them or something like that. And it is something they want to bring to the table in a book or a series. The character, however, doesn’t fit in with the world that is created. A grim dark setting isn’t going to have a crazy happy brightly colored character without people believing that character would be crazy. Or it could be a archetype character that just doesn’t quite fit. But it’s something that shows up in a books as well, and can sometimes be a dullard character who just doesn’t match the depth of the rest of the characters.

The Fixes

The Mary Sue or Marty Stu

This character is one of the easier ones to fix. Give that character a flaw, and a major flaw. Going back to the one example I gave, the character who jumped out of a helicopter, the author gave them a claustrophobia that kind of appeared out of nowhere, and then was fixed the page later. That doesn’t cut it. This really goes back to RPG’s in some ways and how you can learn from them for writing, but give your characters a “dump stat”.

What do I mean by a dump stat? In Dungeons and Dragons and other RPG’s you fairly often have six different stats. For Dungeons and Dragons that is strength, agility, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. Most heroes in RPG’s will have stats that are 10 or higher in most of them. 10 is the common baseline for what everyone can do. But, a more interesting character will have a stat that is below average. So while a fighter might have 18 strength being well higher than the average, they might have a below average wisdom or charisma.

This idea can be taken into writing as well. Harry Dresden has a massive flaw when it comes to women. Now, is he a womanizer, not really, but his default is to always protect a woman. This, of course, gets him into trouble when that woman might be a vampire or just as dangerous as he is. He even knows he has that flaw, but out of a misplaced chivalry refuses to work on it. It is something that trips him up again and again, but makes him feel more human.

The Dullard

Honestly, it’s a similar fix to the Mary Sue and Marty Stu. Give them a flaw. But also give them depth of character. The self-insert character often lacks motivations in almost any way. Going back to Dungeons and Dragons, there is trick that can help with character creation that can also help with writing. There are four different character traits you fill in when creating a character.

• Personality Trait – Funny, serious, clueless. Give them one or two of these things. They are basically some role playing direction but also a common tone you can use for a character you are writing.
• Ideal – This is something that they hold up on a pedestal. For someone like Harry Dresden it could be that chivalry is not dead. Why you add this in, is because it always gives the character that goal or reference of what they hold most important.
• Bond – Who are they connected to. Going back to Harry Dresden, there is the White Council, his friends, and more. Find that one person or group of people who your character sees as important. The great thing about these characters is that you can then kill them to add in drama to your story, or at least put them in danger. But it could also be something like a bond to a religious organization or any organization as well.
• Flaw – Hey, we’re back to flaws. Give them something that they are bad at. For Harry Dresden that is that he doesn’t want to hurt a woman as that isn’t chivalrous or honorable. I talked about this a lot already, but it helps make your character feel more human and realistic than just an empty shell.

Now, these things don’t need to be explicitly stated in the story. But use them to create a more interesting and realistic character and get away from the dullard self-insertion main character. These characters will have longer staying power if you create them with depth. And this will give you a quick reference for a characters motivations when you get stuck as to what they would do, or what would make sense to do.

The Out of Place

This one is the hardest to fix. And, in my opinion, the simplest answer is save them. If you might just have that character in the wrong story. It might be that this great character is just meant to be in a totally different world and story. Take what I talk about above, create those traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds for that character, jot down some back story for them. When the time comes, when you have the right story, you’ll have that character in your back pocket who is ready to go. And who knows when that story will come to you, but don’t fret about it, it just means you have something already. Just because a character doesn’t fit doesn’t make you bad at writing, it just means that you had the right idea at the wrong time and the right time will come.

It’s Okay to Not Get it Perfect

Finally, it is okay to not get it perfect. If your character is a Mary Sue at some points, that is fine. If a character in a scene stands out like a sore thumb, that is fine. If your character ends up being a little but dull, that is fine. The only way to get better at writing is to write more. And sometimes you need a Marty Stu in your story, or you want someone who stands out, or it is meant as a fluff self-insertion story. My hope is that you leave more equipped to write a better variety of characters and deeper characters that will be memorable. While these aren’t hard and fast character writing rules, they are handy tools that are good to master so that you then know how, why, and where to break them.

What are some of your favorite characters in books, film, television, RPG’s, that have a lot of depth to them? What are some of the best examples out there?

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In a world where spontaneous human combustion is a thing, and when it happens, the people turn into monsters, there is a special elite set of stations. Station 8 was created because every other station either has allegiances to their area, the Hijima corporation, or the religious order, and everyone is supposed to be working to figure out the cause of spontaneous human combustion, but they aren’t and Station 8 is tasked with figuring it out. That’s where new recruit, Shinra Kusakabe, is assigned. He’s a 3rd Generation pyrokinetic which mean that he can create and manipulate fire. Can he complete his dream of becoming a hero and help figure out what happened years ago when he lost his mother and brother in a fire?

This is a pretty standard anime in that it has a big ensemble cast of characters who all get their moment to shine, there is a lot of fighting and completely absurd situations that happen. There’s humor and fan service, and it kind of meanders towards the main plot at times, introducing new characters along the way, and then will rush through other parts of the plot. That said, I like the story. I think that it’s fun, and it’s not an anime that I’m going to think about after watching it, but I’ve had a good time watching it, and I feel like in 2020 that’s what I really want, and more so when it starts to get darker earlier, it’s just nice to have a show that you can pay attention to but doesn’t demand all of your brain power.

The cast of characters is what really makes this show. I think that the villains, while mainly just monsters, work pretty well, and I like the whole of station 8. They’ve done a solid job in the show of giving them all their moments, though the show does focus mainly on Shinra. There are plenty of other characters, like Arthur, Iris, Maki, and more that are getting a lot of chance to shine. While Shinra often gets to take down the biggest bad guy, in combat, it’s not like some anime and shows in general where the side characters get beaten up and the main character then comes in and saves the day for everyone. In this, everyone is very good at what they do and fairly competent about it, as competent, if not more than the main character.

The story itself makes a fair amount of sense actually, in an anime way. I think that they do a solid job of building the world out further and further as they go, which is really great because they don’t do a knowledge dump on you at the start. You learn more as you go, possibly matching when the creator learned the stuff or decided on stuff, but it works. And I think that it really is so character driven around Shinra most of the time, it also works. He has good motivation for what he is doing, why he is doing it, and an attitude that makes sense for the story and for the problems that he needs to overcome.

Let’s talk a bit about fan service. I wrote about Food Wars! last time and the fan service for Fire Force is no where near on the same level. There is a character who will lose articles of clothing at times and shots of cleavage, but for the most part the losing of the clothing is more for comedic affect than for fan service reasons. That isn’t to say that there aren’t characters who are drawn the way they are drawn so as to be fan service almost every time they are on the screen. That is certainly something that is the case for a few of the female characters. There is also an episode where there is a nude calendar shoot, but that is all the male characters in the calendar, and also no nudity is shown.

Overall, I think this is a pretty classic anime in terms of what it does. And I like that about it. It’s a show that doesn’t pretend it’s going to go that deep, but it also isn’t a random nonsensical plot to it. I would recommend this one to most anime fans, I think some will find it a bit to light and goofy for their taste, but I think that this is a pretty safe anime for most people to watch and enjoy.

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With that said, I want who you play in the game to be highly customizable. If you like the look for a character, you can play them how you want if it’s a dual weapon fighting tank, a slow moving shielded character, or a rogue who uses fancy knife tricks, all of those could be the same character you visually like. But, I also want to give it an RPG feel. It would be easy to give you just a blank character sheet and let you go at it, but I’ve found that those don’t work as well for board games as they do for something like D&D, mainly because no one fully knows the world like they do in a RPG, so no one can help guide how things are going to be created. Plus, you aren’t just your in game character.

So how do I propose getting around this issue, I’m going to split your character into two parts, there is the out of game character, this is supposed to be an MMORPG that is a death game that people are stuck in, that means that you not only have your in game character and persona, but you have your out of game life as well. My thoughts are that in game you can be anyone you want to be, if you want to be a tank or a rogue or a ranged character, a night in shining armor or slink around in the shadows, you can do that, but in order to give you some direction or something to base it off of but it is still going to allow you to do what you want in game, because in game the name of the game is survival.

I think giving some player backstory will help push people in a direction if they are feeling overwhelmed with options as well. A quiet mousy player might pick something similar to themselves or completely different, but you can choose, they probably are less likely to pick something adjacent. And I can give them real life skills and things like that which might influence what a person picks. Or maybe they are a big streaming celebrity, that will probably influence what they pick as well, maybe they will go really flashy, or maybe they are going “undercover” to try and get the scoop on a new game. And if this was an RPG, I wouldn’t do anything like that, generally RPGer’s have about 400,000 different characters that they have an idea for, but for a board game, they generally have more constraints, so for a board gamer, they might want more direction, and it also makes the game more accessible.

To make it even more accessible, I’d probably give a quick build guide as well. Like, if you want to be a tank, start with this at level 1 and then this at level 2. Or a rogue, agility with a side of agility and charisma is probably what you’re going to want to have. I know if I pull this idea together there is going to be a lot for it, so I don’t want it to be too intimidating.

Before I kind of run down specifically what I’m thinking with this, there is one more reason for having the player character set-up already. I want to add in story elements or story cards, however, it works, that are things which can come up in game, or maybe it’s just a narrative branching path that relates to who the person was in the real world. Or give the players hidden objectives based off of their character in the game. It wouldn’t be something like tank the party and get everyone killed or get this other character killed or anything negative, but something that would be able to open up something fun and cool specifically for that character that would allow it to feel unique and special based off of the backstory that you picked.

So let’s talk about specifics, what does this mean.

First, it means that each person is going to have two character cards, you’re going to have your real world character and your MMORPG character. The real world character is probably going to have some key words on it, these are things that they’ll know, so if you find something with that keyword in the MMORPG world, they are going to know more about, solve it, whatever it might be, faster than everyone else or better odds.

The in game character will get keywords as time goes on, but this will come from getting skills or items. And it’ll be about focusing your character how you want to play it. You have your basic sets of skills, strength, agility, guile, toughness, intelligence, and allure. These skills you can level up however you want, and they are going to influence game created challenges, you’d use your strength when swinging a massive hammer or you could get a better deal at an NPC shop because you have better guile or allure. And while sure some of the real skills will come over like I said with keywords, the in game skills are going to be not that useful when dealing with a player in the game, so another person stuck in the MMORGP, that’s going to be some more about those keywords again, or at least not influenced by in game stats.

Finally, I talked about story elements for the characters. This part can be tricky, because you want them to be important, but you don’t want them to be locking someone into a choice. So if you are playing Lily the Tank and you have a personal quest that connects you to someone or something that then leads you to The Rapier of the Lilies that kind of sucks, because you wouldn’t be able to use it. But if you unlock a skill, again the same issue. And anything else could feel like it’s a little bit lacking as well if it doesn’t offer some in game reward. One thought I have, if there are enough of the elements in there, to give each character a real life drama that they are unfolding and finding out about in the game. The trick with that is that it’s not the main focus of the game itself, so there needs to be enough to keep the thread going. This is still a work in progress as to how this will play out or if it’ll even happen, but I like the idea of character specific quests/bonuses.

We’ll talk more about leveling up characters, starting stats and skills, and more of that coming up, but that is a bit more into the nitty-gritty, and I’m not to that part yet in my design, at least not with characters. So I’ll be back later, sometime soon probably, with more design talk as I look at creating a campaign style board game.

Let me know your thoughts below. Would you like a rare item for a character specific thing, would you like a rare skill, something you can sell, or something to do with your backstory? What would be the most engaging for you?

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Session one, the first thing you have to do to show off your skills is use a rope, attached to a flag pole and swing with it to a balcony. And you fall in your face. You try it again, and you fall on your face. Somehow you managed to leap from roof top to roof top and then repel down into a secret chamber to steal some crown jewels, but this is impossible.

So, what’s wrong with this picture?

There are probably a couple of things, but I want to talk about one thing in particular, and that’s having a backstory that is just too big for your level 1 character.

There’s a really strong desire to jump into an epic game and an epic moment with your epic character. But if the campaign starts at level 1, you aren’t epic yet. You might have had some small adventures, but to have big epic stories as to what’s happened in your past, it can be jarring when the reality of playing the character and the fickle nature of the dice end up causing your character to feel not like the backstory that you created.

So much of this is driven by wanting your character to be that end product of the dashing rogue who steals form the rick and gives to the poor, and can toss out a witty one-liner and insult the King and get away with it with a wink. Or to be Batman and the force in the dark keeping the peace. Or to be a powerful wizard hurling lightning bolts and calling down meteor storms on the heads of your enemies. But this is really the end product that you should be striving for.

At level 1, you are a hero, you are better than the average person, but there are so many bigger and scarier and more powerful things out there in the world than you. So when creating your backstory keep is scaled to who you are. Maybe you helped with the heist to steal the crown jewels, but you were just the lookout two blocks away. Maybe you did sale around the world, but you helped the cook on the ship and spent most of your time killing rats. Maybe you did have to prove your love and worthiness to your fiance and their family, and this is it. But it is about keeping your story in line with the level that you are at. You probably don’t have many big and grand adventures yet, and that’s why you are setting out adventuring now.

Now, I think to go along with scaling down your heroic actions in a game, you also need to shift the focus of your character concept. A lot of the time people end up with a way to big backstory because they start their character fully into the concept. Being Batman is an end goal, a bad one but one, so instead of thinking that you’re Batman from the start, think about the path that Bruce Wayne took to becoming Batman, you’re somewhere right after Bruce Wayne’s parents were killed at level 1, or Spider-Man before he was bitten by the spider. So your goal is to become Spider-Man or I guess if you have to, Batman. So what do you need to do to create those two backstories? If you’re Batman, be focused on revenge, be paranoid, and have dead parents, that’s the level 1 backstory for Batman. So, whatever your concept would be, consider where they would start at level 1 and when they hit level X where you want that concept to be fleshed out, what are the steps to get there?

Taking the approach of building towards and end character, someone who grows into that style of play you want over time, gives you a lot of motivation for what your character is going to do in the campaign, giving you clearer decision and role play paths. It’s also going to help keep that story from being too expansive or feeling like you should be better and leading to frustration because your character isn’t better or doesn’t match what you have in your head. Now, for some people they have a concept, they want to drop it into a game and play it immediately. So maybe you are Spider-Man, but you’re just learning the ropes, and consider how you want your character to grow more and more into that role so it feels more and more like your concept.

When creating a backstory do you just do something that has a lot of epic moments like I talk about, or do you build one that allows your character to grow into a concept? What’s the hardest part of doing it that way, because it is more difficult? What have you done to overcome challenges with a backstory?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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