Great PC: Creating Character Arcs for your Player Character - Player Character RPG Tips
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- How do you build a character that is interesting and has somewhere to go? This episode discusses creating character arcs for your player character in your rpg and how to achieve an epic story that isn't one dimensional.
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You, my good man, have earned a new subscriber. I always tell people that the best part about the ttrpg crowd is our willingness to give back to our community by sharing our experience and talents - that people spend hours on projects to just give them away for no reason save the love of the game. Thank you for proving me right.
My absolute pleasure. If we can all benefit from a better game because I take a couple hours a week to make a video and you guys take a couple hours a week to watch them and debate them and improve our understanding - that's super awesome! Welcome to the table!
My guess as to why so many D&D players are so community-focused is because D&D is a community game. The people who are self-centered don't last long.
Recently realised that I ended up accidentally building the foundations for this with a character I have in a Pathfinder campaign and it happened at about the same time as I realised I'd been completely neglecting the common personality traits of her race (rakshasa-spawn tiefling, for those curious). Now I could have just continued on my merry way, but I realised that I could still work some of this in with the right bit of framing.
The way I see it; the personality traits that tieflings and aasimar and whatnot have are actually specific forms of passive instincts. A tiefling descended from rakshasa is going to instinctively be possessive, hedonistic, and arrogant. But what if those instincts didn't "switch on" until something triggered them? Tieflings are already mutant-ish enough as it is in Golarion so a hiccup like this isn't necessarily out of the question.
So I realised that the recent romantic relationship she'd gotten into with a PC she'd had a massive crush on for years prior, could serve as a good trigger for this. Without realising it, she could become subtly more possessive of her new girlfriend. The hedonism was also accidentally founded in two ways - minorly by having her already be borderline-addicted to coffee at the start of the campaign, and majorly by her and her girlfriend going at it like aphrodisiac-dosed rabbits just about whenever the opportunity presented itself. And the arrogance, well; you look at how quickly a spellcaster can grow in power over the course of a campaign (specifically how much time passes in-universe between levels, say, 1 and 5) and that they would have spent several years having settled at the level of arcane might that Level 1 represents, and you can see how that relatively sudden increase in power might go to their head.
So now I'm planning for these rakshasa-y traits to start manifesting in her and slowly building as the campaign goes on until they start to reach a tipping point. If we reach the right time and nobody's calling her out on it seriously enough, then I can just have her brushing up on her knowledge of various fiends and read up on rakshasa as part of that, and the bit about rakshasa-spawn tieflings just for a bit of fun, and realise how she's been acting more and more like a rakshasa as things have gone on. From there, she can try to temper those impulses and possibly end up somewhere between who she was at the start of the campaign, and who she was at her worst.
So I'm playing a few different sessions with different GM's but I'm getting a very similar vibe from each one. Also keeping in mind that I'm a GM for a Star Wars game myself and I'm not as familiar with the lore of Dungeons and Dragons. So I will often ask questions about the lore during a game session to help me role-play. Questions like, "Is it common for this to happen in this world?" just so that I know as a player how my character should react. And often times I get the response, "It doesn't matter, it's happening now," and I feel like I'm being brushed off. I also feel as if the GM's are bullying me, and I don't think it's because I'm being, "a bitch," but I do genuinely feel resentment, like I'll be put into encounters that I can't possibly evade, like, "you're walking in the woods and you suddenly trip, you fall unconscious and are reduced to 0 HP." Or the GM will just kill my characters really quickly, as if I'm the primary target. Is this a common tactic to get players into the action, or does this sound like bullying to you?
It sounds to me like they are not keen on having you in the role-playing group. That's option one. Option two is they are testing your mettle as a role-player - though that seems unlikely. I don't know the extent of it, but they sound like the wrong kind of people to be playing with for you. To test that - make an excuse to not pitch up to the next session and see what their response is like. If they don't respond, or just brush it off, then they probably don't care for your playing style, and it's time to move on. One of the hard facts about this type of entertainment - you either fit with the group or you don't, and it's a better player who can realize if they do or don't and move on. It sounds like there are a couple groups out there for you to try out others :) Hope this helps a bit, and please remember I don't know all the facts, so I'm calling it as I see it.
Roleplaying has been an interest of mine for quite a while now, as the endless possibilities and storylines you can get into with a completely custom-tailored character just for you sounds amazing.
These videos are really well thought-out and made, and thank you for sharing your knowledge on this subject!
What's the proper action to take when the story arc is complete? Just keep on adventuring like a bad sequel tacked on to a good movie?
Based on what he said, the key is not to "finish" the character's story arc too early, or to leave things out. I guess if you've set the character up well enough, and if you're really invested in it, it'll take some time to get to the point where you feel your character has developed as much as it can. Once you're there, you may as well make another one. If you didn't feel as though you did a previous character justice, I wouldn't see any harm in revisiting it later (perhaps with a different group?). If a character is too important/fun to just retire, some brainstorming about how you could give it another hurdle to overcome would be in order. Real lives don't usually involve just one main struggle, after all. Or, you could use that character's experiences to help out another character with their problems (sort of a master and apprentice situation, or a child/grandchild). That'd be a fun way to continue playing it with players who're already familiar with the character you previously used.
I finally decided to invest and get back into D&D. I used to play it (not very seriously) as a kid, but have recently found a renewed interest in exploring roleplaying as a more mature and creative activity. Your channel is amazing and hopefully it helps me craft characters and stories that deserve to be shared with other players.
You know what makes me incredibly happy? Your videos are so good, so helpful, that you only have 1 dislike.
I would really love to give my character a character arc, he wants to become a deamon prince so he is powerful, but when I start to ask why? I just end up with more questions, and I never really get an answer. we are now 20 sessions into the game, and I started off as a selfish power hungry chaos cultist, that didn't trust anybody. now I am still selfish and am still power hungry, but only help people if I think I have a use for them. but should they die I am not likely to care. and I hoped to make him trust people more, but one of the players created a character at the third session or so, optimized just for stealing things. so he went and stole my power armors reactor, our necrons war scythe, a shit load of money from the corrupt Inquisitor, and one of the weapons our heretek managed to salvage off a Crysis armor we managed to take down earlier. so we executed him. sadly he already managed to hide what he has stolen. since then the player holds a grudge against us and regularly tries to kill us. under those conditions my character just can't learn to trust anyone. also he always tries to min max his characters so they are in an optimal state to kill our current team. because many of our players often switch characters. I have the only character that has been there from the start on, only two others, the Inquisitor and the necron, are still alive and the others of the original crew have died. how should my character development in such chaotic surroundings?
Don't know if it helps, and I do understand you're thread is fairly old... BUT...
Character Arc does NOT have to be entirely "positive"... It's a growth and development, not always a progressive step in the world for humanity's sake.
So you've started with selfish and chaotic, untrusting, and power hungry... As a demonic or related, have you considered either a dark hero, or anti-heroic direction?
From the surrounding players/party you certainly have the inter-party politics for something like that to shine. The difference is kind of subtle, so I'll try to point it out... A dark hero is more like Wolverine in the X-men (surely about everyone knows who that is)... He genuinely actually means well. He's not exactly "heroic" in all circumstances, but he actively works with moral virtue, just not always in the characteristic "narrow straight line" of what would constitute a "paladin-esque" hero...
On the other hand, an "anti-hero" is... well... Only heroic because it serves his purpose(s). He saves children from certain doom (or injury) because it's technically the "right" thing to do, but not because he even gives a damn about children. In saving those children, he earns the respect and honor of town (particularly the parents of said children) and garners admiration... which often includes free drinks at the tavern, reduced prices for goods or services and easier negotiations at almost any other business dealing... He might face the dilemma of "do I just keep this safe full of gold?" with the obvious "right" answer to bring it back to the bank... NOT because it was stolen and the town would be poverty stricken without it... BUT because it's more trouble than it's going to be worth to break it open (as opposed to collecting an obvious reward) and then explaining where all the gold (usually kept in boullion or coins and MARKED) came from to everyone else when he invariably has to deal with people again... (and no excuses there) He going to have to deal with people, or there's no point in the gold even having a value in the first place... So anti-heroes and darker sides to human condition don't have to mean seeking out to be the baddest AND the most miserable piece of shit to draw breath about the table.
Figuring up a path and even adjusting that path for your character while BEING TRUE TO CHARACTER is the important part of role play. The arc you initially conceived when constructing this guy or gal might not always get to be the finished polished product you'll be so proud of when recounting the tale later on...
On the other hand, some players (mini-maxing and numbers types particularly) aren't all together compatible with full authentic ROLE PLAYERS at the same games... So you might check in with the GM and some of the other players to see where they all "wish to stand" in regards to the subject.
I do wish you the best of luck... And remember, at the end of the bitching, crying, even the cheating "bastards"... It is (after all) just a game. :o)
Be sure to leave room for the arc to fit the DM's campaign....
Don't be too specific about locations or exactly WHO any enemy or mentor is. Let the DM help fill that in.
Instead of saying you are from Greyhawk and have Asmodeus as your family enemy, say you are from a major city, probably the capital of the kingdom and your family has enmity with a high level devil.
A 2 paragraph backstory at first level can be filled in easily. A 30 page backstory will never be read by the DM.
I'm confused... we are supposed to make them have teenage angst.. But not? And every change has to be positive in nature?
Seems weird .-.
Well you want to play a hero, so yeah it whould be positive I think one of the most obvious examples for this kind of transformation is Kiss the frog
"They all knew what they wanted, what they wanted me to do. I told them what they needed..." yeah kinda obvious
so Navim starts of as a selfcenterede party guy thinking fun is all that is important and the only way to have fun ist through loads of Money. Tiana wants to built her restaurant thinking the can't have fun until she gets to her dream and every second in her life is dedicated to getting there.
What Navim needs is a real relationship with other, it is to learn that immaterial things are more important than money and senseless fun. Tiana needs to learn to have faith, to trust others and that she can live her dream and cook for others even outside of a restaurant. It's not about the food but about the people.
So they get this character arc where, in the end, both give up their wants but realize that having a family and people to count on is more important than any worldly possesion
BTW these are no Teenage angsts! Teenage angsts are about who you are what you want from life etc, it's a loud and very tiresome time and to bring that up on the table would be rather annoying. This is about people who think they know what they want, they are NOT confused about their wants but don't realize what they actually need.
But back to the "always good"
1. it probably depends on the perspective I mean not everyone would say that a life as a frog would be a good thing, I dare say. It's about what satisfys you character. Of course if you want to you can have a character arc from a Do-Goddie, to an evil overlord! That is totally possible too and works basically the same way.
In a less extreme way you can have a doormat, someone always helping others doing anythingthey ask of you, learning to ay no and standing up and even becoming a bit of a egoist. This would be a good change although it's from giving to more selfcentered. It really can be any two opposing sides but with hero stories you usually try to make a shift into the positive rather than negative
Those were just examples. The idea is to go from a complete absence of the objective trait to acquiring the objective trait after a journey. For example a greedy ass who becomes a generous benefactor, or a violent barbarian to a peaceful gentleman, or a coward and fool to a brave wise leader, etc.
The character doesn't need to be whiny, have "teenage angst," or anything like that and the arc doesn't need to be the primary focus of your character. It's just a feature to add depth and interest/intrigue to your character, something for which by the end you can look back and see how you've grown.
and it doesn't need to be good. one of my character's was an optimistic rogue seeking adventure and "retired" a cynical realist siding with the antagonist.
This is quite an interesting video. It did leave me with a question about the specifics of the character arc. Mainly, do you think that a character arc leading a character into being a more negative and volatile person could work in a role-playing setting? Similar to a fall from grace type scenario.
That's a journey of discovery where the character goes dark but then comes back to the light side so to speak. That is Darth Vader's journey in Star Wars - he starts out good becomes evil and returns to good. Again it really depends on your party and on how how you play the character - remember if you wouldn't want to spend time at a bar with your character why should your fellow players characters want to. So it's a great arc for a Paladin or say an upstanding officer to follow as long as there comes a moment where they know what they are about to do is bad, really bad, and from which there can be no escape.
you could still be evil, if the family does not reunite, they get reunited in eithe the mines or death
Sorry, totally unrelated but it keeps bugging me, Luke Skywalker never wanted to join the empire. He says it directly to Obi Wan that he doesn't like the empire, instead making excuses why he couldn't do anything about them. I agree that he was very whiny at the beginning, but he didn't want to join the empire.
He did want to go to Imperial Academy.
He wanted to go in order to learn to fly a fighter and then defect to the rebellion. He never wanted to join the empire, which again, he says so in the film. He's whiny because his uncle says he needs to stay on longer because he's restless, because as soon as opportunity is thrown his way, he panics and says he can't go.
Question...can you be a good Necromancer? what are your thoughts?
Absolutely. It all depends on how lore is structured in your game. In a game I ran about six months ago, for example, there was a nation that used necromancy as a cheap way to produce inanimate guardians - basically squishy meat golems. When someone in this nation volunteered for military service, they agree that if they die in service to the nation, that their body would be used postmortem as fodder in further battles, which both scared the piss out of rival nations and cut casualties in half, more or less.
Is some campaigns, necromancy will be inherently evil (especially if reanimating corpses messes with the bodies; souls), and in other campaigns it will be nothing more than an extremely unpleasant profession. As to whether the person raising the dead is good, that all depends on their intentions for doing so.
First step: Ask your GM. Jesse Booth is correct - and thank you for answering so nicely Jesse - the idea of Good versus Evil in RPG's is often defined as alignment. In worlds like that - Necromancy is usually seen as evil. Having said that a good necromancer would need a strong reason for upsetting the bones of the dead. Voodoo is in a round-about way a large part necromancy and yet it is seen as being both good and evil. If communities in the world see it as neither good nor evil than your characters intentions are all that are needed to determine good or evil necromancy.
+Bacon Battalion RPG thanks for the replys:)
+Jesse Booth thanks for the reply good input:)
Matthew Liddell Any time, friend.
That impression of Luke was spot on.
@Ulises Fernandez that was just a fan fic movie, it isn't canon.
My one criticism is that you seem to be coming from a perspective that players are going to just automatically going to be self centered pricks. Is there not an interesting character arc with a player who has more benevolent, less selfish, goals? What about the Paladin that wants to stop the humanoid slave traffic, or the pair of Bards that want to save the Orphanage that raised them? How would you run those kinds of Arcs? Now the, "want vs need" aspect just becomes silly.
Hi guy, I've been DMimg and watching your videos, and I would absolutely LOVE a video about incorporating characters archs to the main narrative, because I find it the most rewarding when I see my player's characters grow. I'm having difficulties making everything fit together, but I really want the main events to be centered around them.
Really great tips. You're a fantastic teacher!
my current character is an evil barbarian. who was a slave his whole life tell being rescued by the party. he is a cynical person who fully beleaves every one in the world is out for their own so he mimics that. he needs something he will take it. my hope is during his arc that thought will break and find happiness in companionship
I have a character who is going through a much less positive character arc, something like a fall from grace. Its a long running campaign where he started as proud and honorable and is slowly slipping under some demonic influences.
A lot of what you say in the video can be twisted to fit nicely but I was wondering if you had anything to add about a negative character arc
So you are bang on the buck with 'Fall from Grace'. This was not popular in the 1980s - 2000's as a theme, but in recent years has made a comeback - AKA Wolf of Wallstreet, Spartacus, and more. So one of the interesting things about fall from Grace is that your character may have a moment to realize this is happening. Humans tend to dismiss it as once off and not the status quo... even though it is. So either he needs to find a route to salvation, or spiral into a darker place. At that point some kind of ah ha moment could happen where he claws his way back - AKA Rocky movies. Or are more poignant solution would be for him to find a protoge to teach how to be better than himself AKA The Seventh Son. One must be careful though that his darker actions do not cause grief for the party. Unless your fellow players are happy to explore that notion with you. So he can be dark but he should be loyal to his party and still keep their interests at heart. Even if he does the wrong thing to do that. You know... like sacrifice babies to save the dying paladin or something :) Hope that helps!
That is helpful, so far I have been rather tight lipped with the whole arc but I am getting the feeling that I should start slowly making it more noticeable to the character and his party. I am a little worried about it coming on too strong and ending prematurely though
We always worried about premature endings... so it's about restraint - one and only reference once per session. One sneaky thing. Then back off because for a session or two... Let us know how it goes!
Thanks!
Question: How does a character arc fit into a character's backstory? To elaborate, if a character goes through some kind of great change in their backstory, how do we give them an arc?
As an example, my character has to adventure and do good as part of their faith. Somewhere along the line, she met an adventuring party and started journeying with them to do good, but they ended up betraying her and destroying her village. Now, she continues to fulfill what her diety asks of her, but she is far less trusting of others. This is her "backstory." Ultimately, her "wants" are to appease her god and deliver justice to wrongdoers. What kind of arc could I theoretically put her through in-game now that she's already gone through the change to become more cautious of others?
(I swear I didn't mean to use this comment as an excuse to talk about a character. I'm genuinely struggling.)
I don't know about you, but it seems the obvious arc would be to learn to trust others again.
On the subject of character arcs, could we perhaps have an episode that discusses balancing character 'screentime', both for GMs and players? I find that having a lot of strong personalities in a game can lead to some characters hogging the limelight while others are left behind and made to feel useless (e.g. a brash warrior starting a fight by interrupting a charismatic bard who was attempting diploamcy).
Ah, yes. Player etiquette. It's a great idea, and for GM it's a great issue that we often over look. Added to the list for sure!
Really interesting Guy :) thx
Always happy :)
My character June used to travel around and hunt monsters with his brother, but when his brother died June went down a downward spiral which is where the party met him, after a while he's started to notice his new morally gray or perhaps even Evil actions.
This is because of the party themselves has been doing more bad stuff and now he questions himself, would my brother be proud of me? Answer, probably not.
He also has happened to get accidentally involved in a war by decapitating a general of the other army while searching for someone they captured and he was hired to find.
The sword that decapitated him is also cursed, a god is stuck in it... Hel is stuck in it thanks to a hag.
This means that he isn't really doing any good right now and he isn't comfortable with that anymore...
And I don't know how to fix this, any ideas anyone?
too late, but he should stand up for himself and right the parties direction or confront them over a camp fire.
Your videos are always helpful and wholesome, keep em coming.
Many thanks. I must admit this video did inspire me to want to play :) rather than GM...
The deep questions right at the end. Awesome.
Must say I do often struggle to make both backstories and character progressions clear and concise, which in turn cause them to be hard to incorporate while playing. One of my (good) characters has however become more and more ruthless as the environment got more and more violent, gritty and unforgiving. No idea how this brings him closer to his "needs" and "wants"... If at all.
Well it gives him the chance to realize what is happening and question if this is the right path for him. He could choose to fight against it, find his inner alignment so to speak, and start fighting against the evil and corruption around him, or he could surrender into a downward spiral to evil, and then maybe find redemption in self sacrifice to save his hometown or something like that?
Sound advice. Will probably go for the "downward spiral to evil" and then keep an eye out for situations where the character may redeem himself :) Thank you.
Anytime!
The hell. I don't watch these videos for tough existential questions about how my life is progressing, I watch them for how to be better at escapism. Don't do this to me.
You're the one who is having a problem with it. Maybe you ought to rethink some things in life.
Kyle Hart I don't watch these to be TOLD WHAT TO DO by random people I don't know EITHER >:U
that's what every video is lol
trolltothebank .....okay you're not wrong but that's beside the point