Rook's Writing Tutorials #1

[Rook 0]

Rook's Writing Tutorial #1

Character Development

 

Correct character development and subsequent creation is an essential part of any good game, story, film, animation or anything to the like. Characters are the focus, and if they are bland and boring the chances of you getting recognised are significantly lost. For example, Final Fantasy 6's villain Kefka is engaging right from the start with his eccentric choice of dress, maniacal laughter and seemingly unsatiable thirst for destruction. Below, I have provided you with five tips for creating good characters.

 

1.) Basic Concept

All good things start with just an idea. This idea can be as common as you want it to be, for we will expand on it and make it different later. And example of a basic concept is: a boy whose parents were killed by a masked man in front of him. This gives you four things, it gives you a character first and foremost, but it also gives you a character motive, a basic villain concept and a slight look at personality.

 

Here I have listed some generic concepts for a Fight, Mage and a Villan. I will be using the Fighter thoughout this tutorial to give you a better understanding of the process.

 

A boy whose parents were killed by a masked man in front of him.

A girl who believe is helping people out, and whom is searching for her father.

A mysterious masked man whom kills people for fun.

 

2.) Fleshing it out.

Now that we have a base we can build on it by asking questions about the character, these questions are not simple ones and require more than on word answers. A good first question to ask is "What is this characters motivation?" Motivation is what drive the character to do what they do, some want to defeat a certain person, others may want to become king, another simply to find some items. Motivation gives a basis for more advanced storyline questions, which will come later.

Another good question to ask your characters is "What are this characters strengths and weaknesses?" Some characters may be strong warriors but lack the capabilities to lead, others may be someone with strong ties to the government but isn't high enough to change rules they think are wrong These strengths and weaknesses can be as numerous as you like, but a number above two for both is reccomended. One this is done, combined them to form a small paragraph description like so:

 

This boy grew up in a wealthy part of the kingdom and attended a prestigious academy, until the time of his parents death, when he became an orphan and had to leave the seclusion of the city. He wants to some day prove his worth by entering in the King's Challenge and becoming the champion.

 

Here I have given the Fighter the strengths of:

- Connectiongs with wealthy citizens.

- Attended a highly sucessful Swordsmanship Academy.

The weaknesses of:

- Parents killed so became an orphan.

- Had to flee his home and school.

And the motivation of:

- Proving his worth to the king by completing and grievous challenge.

 

This gives you a small character description. Remember, you can add as many strengths and weaknesses as you want, but the key is to have a balance. Making a character too strong or too weak will make them uninteresting, people like to have characters they feel can develop nicely.

 

3.) Name and Appearance.

It is time to give your character a name and description, I leave the naming to this part because I feel matching names to character descriptions is a nice touch. I have decided to name the Fighter "Alexander," partially after Alexander the Great, if you want you may add a last name, I have chosen not to. Now that that is done, you may add a description of the character.

 

NOTE: It is important NOT to have an image of the character drawn before you have the written description. This is because a strong base is needed, and writing is the base. Having an image first gives you a sterotype to stick to and so you lose that flare of creativity.

 

Alexander is an orphan in the lower part of the city, but he was originally wealthy. Living in a lower socitey he may have had to give many of what little possessions he took from his home away, to pay for services, but he may have also kept some to remind him of better times. Therefore I have given him a deep red travel vest with slight gold thread trim and a plain white, cotton undershirt, his pants are leather, having being stolen after his others tore. On his feet are soft riding boot that he had to give two of his rings for. He has a brown leather belt and scabbard where he keeps an uninteresting iron shortsword, his hair is deep brown, almost black, and he has a small mustache for lack of shaving, but since he is only young the hairs are not too noticable of spread. around his neck on a common iron chain is a small glass orb pendant. His body shape is toned from vigourous academy training, but because of his age he lacks large muscles. Still, he would look good with his shirt off.

 

I think you can see him in your mind now, Young and not so manly having to be a man on his own, his father wasn;t around to teach him things fathers usually teach like shaving and chopping wood and such, and he is at that awkward stage between boy and man. So now that you have the description, you can get the artist (or if your the artist, yourself) to make the images, if your happy with the description of course.

 

5.) Personality.

An importance of a character is their personality. Are they stubborn? Clumsy? Mute? Can they juggle the resposibilities of leadership? Remain calm under pressure? All of these things are important to know. You can also add here a phobia, which can be a nice touch, if you make them have a fear of water they will try anything to avoid sea travel, and maybe water based enemies will do more damage. Personalities must be character specific and unique, having the same one will bore people.

 

Here is my Fighter Alexander's persona.

 

Having grown up in a wealthy society and now being forced to basically make his own way, Alexander is quite stubborn and a little stuck up. He does do work but usually finds manual labour drudgery, unless it involves proper use of his skills. Being young, he is partially naive to things, he does not for instance know the workings of an Inn, of the proper manners in lowerlife society, which is none. A stubborn attitude is mostly a hinderance, but his skill with a sword and nager over his parents death makes him a great sword-for-hire. His appearance also has many admires, not unattractive in the least, he draws the eye and knows it, he tends to be a little bit of a ladies man, and likes to tease. He is very afraid of illness and can't stand sick people, thus he will never agree to helping them.

 

5.) Final little things.

After you have established motivation, asked all the tough questions, developed a description and given the character a name, the final step is to fill in all the small details and finalise. Details like height ans weight, and all things like that, can be ommitted as they are non-essential parts of the RPG. In describing your character, you can say that he or she is tall or short compared to other young teens, adults, elderly or what ever, if only to give the illustator more of an idea of how they look, so they can draw the character.

 

Finalities such as place of birth, weapon used, RPG related skills like proficiency in strength and agility, and exact age are just some. You can of course fill out as much infomation as you want, but not all of it will be seen by the player, it has to be represented in characters appearance, personality and way of speaking. Here is Alexander, finished off with the finals, this is the last step. So have fun creating characters, I hope this helped you.

 

Alexander

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Weapon: Sword

Origin: City of Valor.

Skills: Swordsmanship, riding, navigation.

 

This boy grew up in a wealthy part of the kingdom and attended a prestigious academy, until the time of his parents death, when he became an orphan and had to leave the seclusion of the city. He wants to some day prove his worth by entering in the King's Challenge and becoming the champion.

 

Having grown up in a wealthy society and now being forced to basically make his own way, Alexander is quite stubborn and a little stuck up. He does do work but usually finds manual labour drudgery, unless it involves proper use of his skills. Being young, he is partially naive to things, he does not for instance know the workings of an Inn, of the proper manners in lowerlife society, which is none. A stubborn attitude is mostly a hinderance, but his skill with a sword and nager over his parents death makes him a great sword-for-hire. His appearance also has many admires, not unattractive in the least, he draws the eye and knows it, he tends to be a little bit of a ladies man, and likes to tease. He is very afraid of illness and can't stand sick people, thus he will never agree to helping them.

 

Appearance: Alexander wears a deep red travel vest with slight gold thread trim and a plain white, cotton undershirt, his pants are leather, having being stolen after his others tore. On his feet are soft riding boot that he had to give two of his rings for. He has a brown leather belt and scabbard where he keeps an uninteresting iron shortsword, his hair is deep brown, almost black, and he has a small mustache for lack of shaving, but since he is only young the hairs are not too noticable of spread. around his neck on a common iron chain is a small glass orb pendant. His body shape is toned from vigourous academy training, but because of his age he lacks large muscles. Still, he would look good with his shirt off.

[Siverix 4]

a nice tutorial but i think the example is a lil bit cliche. you know 2 out of 3 rpg's have teenage boys who have no/only one parents as main protagonists

[Rook 0]

It's meant to sound cliche, its just an example of the process of making a character.

 

I used a generic run of the mill character to give it form, no sense making a 100% original for people to steal, like posting a an as of yet uncompleted Forever NPC.