Hi there everyone, and welcome to the Finder’s Archives.
In the past, we’ve looked at various ways that a Game Master can make his game better and more interesting for the players in his campaign, but this week we’re going to flip that a bit and talk about what you can do as a player to make your PLAYER CHARACTER one that others want to engage with, and tell a story with and about.
Now, you’ll probably find that some of these you don’t agree with, and that’s fine. There is no right or wrong to these, but they are ones that in my experience are what’s needed for everyone to have fun with that PC. I’m also going to try to take examples of characters from literature that fulfills these requirements, in order to show what I mean.
In short, I have 4 golden rules:
1: It’s a Hero, not a Player Character
This is actually something I only picked up on once I started writing. Your character is not a PLAYER CHARACTER. Because they’re not a character, they’re either the hero or the villain of the piece. They’re not just the side-pieces of the story, or at least they shouldn’t be. They should be the antagonist or protagonist, and you need to think of them as such.
A good example of this is Bilbo and Frodo from the Lord of the Rings. Neither of them are what you’d call typical heroes — they’re not strong nor brave (at least to begin with). They’re not expert weapons users and they’re hardly even what you’d call dangerous in battle. But they do have tenacity – the willingness to go on, no matter what the odds. And these two unassuming hobbits descended from a race that likes to keep to itself and where it’s quiet (thank you very much), they became great heroes because of overcoming their limits.
2: Overcome your limits
Your hero may well be defined by their limits. There will be things that they do well, and things that they don’t. And that is what makes a hero interesting. They have flaws and foibles, they have things they love doing and things they absolutely hate (or fear) above all else, to the point where even that weakness can become a distinguishing feature, especially as circumstances force you to overcome them.
A good example of this is Indiana Jones. He’s brave, he’s smart, he’s charming… And he’s deathly afraid of snakes. It humanizes this otherwise overpowered figure so that you’re rooting for him when he has to make his way through a pit of snakes. Obviously, you know he’ll make it out OK, but when it’s snakes… It heightens the tension and the risk/reward sensation.
3: You don’t have to be lovable, but you have to be relatable at least
This is the Lone Wolf conundrum. A lot of people like the idea of the Lone Wolf that is a mysterious figure (think Strider/Aragorn), but unfortunately, that doesn’t play out too well at the table. So, make sure your hero is either likable or brings something essential to the table (which should really be discussed before the campaign starts). There should be a reason why everyone else would want to hang out with your hero. And that usually needs to be either that it’s a likable person (after all, who wants to hang around someone unpleasant) or someone who has something to offer to the group.
A good example of this is Hermione Granger from Harry Potter (from the books, not the films). In the beginning, she is quite unlikeable, a know-it-all, who corrects others whenever they do something wrong. And even after they all befriend each other, Hermione is still the one who knows the most, but here it transforms from being a quality that makes her dislikable to someone indispensable to the group, especially once she loosens up a bit. You could argue the same for Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. She’s not nice to her son, nor to anyone else around her, but she is essential to the story, and the kid surviving and is willing to put it all on the line for him.
4: Give your hero a background and motivation
Your hero needs a reason for doing what they’re doing. They need to have something driving them, even if it’s simply curiosity about the world. But the more interesting you make your hero’s background, the more the game master has to work with when telling a story about your character. This is why even the basic heroes that we play in video games tend to have some sort of unspoken past. And discovering that through gameplay can be great fun.
A good example of this is Commander Shepard from Mass Effect. There’s clearly some stuff that went on before you start playing, as chosen by your choice of the three backgrounds, and as you progress through the story, the details are revealed in sidequests. This makes the story both more interesting for you, for the GM, and for the other players.
And that’s about it. Hopefully, it’ll help you. 🙂
Let us know in the comments, or on the Discords/Facebooks what you think. 🙂
Kim Frandsen
Latest posts by Kim Frandsen (see all)
- Finder’s Archive – Crypt of the Eternals - June 2, 2023
