Creating Meaningful Characters #

This note is meant to serve as the Player’s version of Creating Meaningful Stories

Main Questions #

What is a character from some form of media that you think has an interesting story that’d you’d like to explore?
- Think BIG maybe more than just movie characters, maybe a song inspires you, maybe an artistic comic page inspires you, find your muse and pay attention to how it flows, changes, and develops!

What are two things that your character wants more than anything else?
- Try and come up with two distinct goals that your character has!
  - Examples:
  - Perhaps you are the main protector of a loved one, and you wish to see them prosper, while also being in-charge of the betterment of your people.

Slightly more minor than your Desires/Goals, but still important to consider!
- Examples:
- Is there something or someone they don’t want to become?
- Is there something or someone they’re afraid of?
- Is there something or someone they’re afraid of losing?

Figure out the things that you need to get into the mindset of your character, maybe talking like them, or hitting a punching bag like they would hit a Monster, do things your character does, whatever it is that you need to do to bridge that gap between you and your character!
- Pay attention to have doing those things make you feel too, bring forward all those little details you wouldn’t have otherwise that really make this character feel authentic!

Say you make a character who’s larger than life or crazily bombastic, example Jinx from Arcane/League. Where is the Nuance that you can introduce to make her feel like a real person?
- Something about their past?
- Something about their relationships?
- Something about what they suffer from?
- Something about how they suffer?
What do YOU have to say about this archetype?
- With Jinx being a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” the writers of Arcane have a LOT to say about this character
- Or looking at the “Action Girl” i.e. Vi, the Arcane writers clearly want to show how it looks like for this archetype to deal with characters that she can’t hit and so much more

So you want to be a bold adventurer? that’s an idealized high, how your character will act during moments of high tension and adrenaline but what what do they look like on the flip side of this? If you don’t know then how can you play them during these moments? How can they be like a real human being?
Consider the inverse, if you start with an Idealized High consider how your character looks like during their lows, consider what the transitions between these two points looks like. Because if the transition between these two feels organic and realistic, there’s a good chance that the character as a whole will too!

You have so many tools at your disposal now for making not just an excellent character, but an incredible one. Do your best and who knows where it’ll take you!?
A poor craftsman may blame his tools, but only a true fool would not attempt to use every last one until they got the job done.

Don’t worry about whether your characters story or journey is “original”. This is a thought process and concept that we create within our own minds that serves to hold us back and it is fueled primarily by our own egos, this is YOUR story, and YOUR character, and the most important thing is that you realize them as something that you want not something you think they should be!