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goto124
2017-07-26, 12:01 PM
I saw a similar thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?531238-What-makes-a-memorable-character) in the 5e subforum, and decided to bring it here.

What are the 'ingredients' to make a character, particularly but not limited to PCs, that players will talk about even 5 years down the road?

Breaking typical archetypes? Instead of an orc barbarian, have an orc wizard? Or are these sort of 'anti-archetypes' just gimmicks that don't work out in actual play, and archetypes are tried-and-tested for a reason? Even particular 'anti-archetypes' are archetypes in and of themselves.

Quirks? What sort of quirks? How much of an impact should the quirks have? Where does one find the balance between 'background detail no one remembers' but on a character, and 'disrupts everything the party tries to do'?

How does one end up with a character that doesn't fade into obscurity, but also doesn't try so hard it ends up on a List of Horrible Gaming Moments?

Koo Rehtorb
2017-07-26, 12:07 PM
Drive your character like it's a stolen car.

goto124
2017-07-26, 12:32 PM
Drive your character like it's a stolen car.

Extremely cautiously, covering up every evidence that it's not really mine, preferring more tedious but legal means of transport, and using it only when it's absolutely urgent?

Koo Rehtorb
2017-07-26, 12:38 PM
Extremely cautiously, covering up every evidence that it's not really mine, preferring more tedious but legal means of transport, and using it only when it's absolutely urgent?

Wow you just take all the fun out of stealing cars don't you?

goto124
2017-07-26, 12:40 PM
I probably take all the fun out of creating characters too. Or running them, for that matter.

Bulhakov
2017-07-26, 01:44 PM
From my many gaming parties, the most memorable characters were a bit of anti-stereotypes, though not in terms of race-class, but personalities, e.g. powerful "real man" fighters that shunned violence and always preferred "real roleplayer" solutions, or intelligent "wise wizards" that were emotional and short-tempered (and maybe a bit pyromaniac)... and there almost always was that murder-hobo munchkin guy in every party (though he was memorable only if he was the only such guy in the party and stood out from the rest).

As for memorable NPCs - I always went for clear visual imagery that made a character stick out from the background. Even if the players did not remember the name, they vividly remembered the mental picture, e.g. the one-armed ironsmith, the grey-cloaked spymaster, the flamboyantly gay merchant, the curvy druid chick...

Tinkerer
2017-07-26, 03:48 PM
Having defined goals. More than anything else I find this adds some weight and makes me remember the actual character rather than the player.

Breaking archetypes depends on the execution rather than the idea. "GenGen the leader of the Kobold Liberation Army!" worked pretty well for me but I've also seen and made several characters who fell flat. I think one of the main things there ties back to the first point, have a defined goal. If you make a orc bard then I should be focused on them seeking out the lore of the peoples of the northern plains and not the fact that it's an orc bard.

Quirks are fun and I haven't found too many cases where they become too annoying so long as the quirk isn't "I compulsively kill/attack/steal/run from X". Which a LOT of the quirks that I've seen people take are are. In terms of frequency I would have to say something which comes up about once every two sessions, doesn't hurt the party, and is at least somewhat interesting.

kyoryu
2017-07-26, 03:57 PM
Goals. Drives. To me, these are what define a good character. What you "are", in an RPG-esque stance, isn't that interesting. That's the tools you have available to you. What you *do* with the tools is what's interesting.

It's especially good if your goals or drives conflict in some way, and must change over time.

Quirks are overrated. Highly. They're more often annoying than anything.

Breaking archetypes for the sake of breaking them is also highly overrated.

The Fury
2017-07-26, 07:09 PM
Quirks are overrated. Highly. They're more often annoying than anything.


I think it depends on how you like to manifest quirks and how subtle or obvious they are. I like to use "useless" skills like Craft or Perform to imply that there might be more to a character than what's on the surface. Like a Fighter who's musically gifted, a wizard that enjoys cooking or a Cleric that appreciates quality ceramics is at least a start to something more interesting than the standard fare.

goto124
2017-07-26, 07:27 PM
Hmm... I suppose the goal has to be something the character can chase as part of the story the game is going along? Do I keep backup goals in case the players decide to do something else? Or start off with a goal that's flexible enough to change?

Putting points in 'useless' skills takes away from the rest of the skillset, however. 'Useless' skill are often 'useless' because situations where they're useful are very unlikely to happen. Do PCs have to reduce their mechanical effectiveness to be memorable in the roleplay sense?

The Fury
2017-07-26, 07:38 PM
Putting points in 'useless' skills takes away from the rest of the skillset, however. 'Useless' skill are often 'useless' because situations where they're useful are very unlikely to happen. Do PCs have to reduce their mechanical effectiveness to be memorable in the roleplay sense?

To tell you the truth, I'm generally not out to make a character memorable so much as I am out to make a character interesting and fun for me to play. And yes, I am willing to reduce a character's mechanical effectiveness to make them that way. But hey, it's not like buying points in "useless skills" is reducing their effectiveness by much.

goto124
2017-07-26, 08:13 PM
To tell you the truth, I'm generally not out to make a character interesting and fun for me to play so much as I am out to make a character interesting and fun for fellow players to work with.

I've never succeeded.

ImNotTrevor
2017-07-26, 08:44 PM
Here's my 5-step program for making an interesting character quickly.

1. Give them a name and descriptive title. Everyone should have a name. Ex. "Dourlip the Gravedigger."

2. Give them a goal. Ex. "Locate his dead daughter's missing locket so he can bring her back from the dead with ritual magic."

3. Give them something that stands between them and their goal. Ex. "The locket is still in the possession of the very bandits that took his daughter's life."

4. Pick a part of this NPC. Physical body part, or ephemeral part. Their head, nose, feet, gut, genitalia, honor, fear, something. This is the part they will follow around. Ie, it will be the main influence on their decisionmaking. Ex. "Dourlip follows his grief around."

5. Based on 2-4, make a plan for what they will DO and how the situation will change/escalate if the PCs do nothing. Ex. "Dourlip will leave his graveyard to hunt down the locket.-> He will kill the bandits under mysterious circumstances, and lock himself in a crypt upon his return.-> Villagers will report strange sounds coming from the graveyard and report seeing corpses walking the earth during the night. -> Dourlip and his daughter will emerge from the crypt as (insert intelligent undead here) and will leave town to cause trouble elsewhere." Etc.


NPCs should have bold, simple, straightforward goals. Even if their plans of achieving them are intricate.

To increase tension, create PC-NPC-PC triangles.
For example:
The Mafioso wants the rogue to pay her debt or face his goonsquad and pay it in teeth.
The same Mafioso thinks the party Muscle is impressive and wants to hire him on, and is willing to pay handsomely.

Etc.

Cluedrew
2017-07-26, 09:20 PM
If you want to create a character that is fun for other players, about half of it is creating a character that is fun for you, the other is bouncing off each other which I don't think you can pre-plan in anyway. Maybe you could if you got together with the other players before hand.

More me I just get the campaign premise, pick a quote (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?470687-Quotes-you-can-build-a-character-off-of-III-It-s-a-crowd) and see what I can come up with at the intersection of the two. I usually try to stick some other things an top of that (a goal, one way they can get into trouble, things like that) but that gets me a base to work from.

RazorChain
2017-07-26, 10:16 PM
In my group most characters are remembered for their actions.


In our Warhammer Fantasy campaign 3 characters stand out. Their names may not be remembered except by their players.

1) The mage that sold his soul to Chaos and became a body jumper to avoid dying so his soul didn't become swallowed by the Chaos Gods. We managed to save his soul during the course of the campaign.

2) The little annoying braggart of a halfling. He always threatened to give people he didn't like a Marienburg Necktie. He made us all piss on scarfs and tie around our face to ward against skaven poison gas attacks, maintaining that Dwarf piss was the best and lamenting that there were no dwarves in our party. When we found out there were no skaven in the sewers we were not amused. I remember his legendery food heists before adventures where he would "visit" the butcher and the baker to fill up his snack sack.

3) Max, my character. Still remembered because he wouldn't leave a small hamlet to it's fate when we failed to stop a Blood Dragon Vampire Lord being brought back to life. When the rest of the party legged it he faced the Vampire Lord on a bridge leading to the hamlet and got that one in a million crit hit and severed the head off the Vampire Lord in his first attack.


In a high fatality Black Ops campaign I had a the only character that survived all the missions despite taking insane risks. His name is Sven Gustav and was Swedish (based on Dolph Lundgren), and here after my group only remembers him as the Super Swede. He is the measurement of survivability in my group when talking about how tough a character is the utterance "He's tough but he's no Super Swede" is often heard.


Kwani and Bullseye became a legendary duo in a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign and their exploits are too many to list. One funny story though. Kwani had developed a healthy paranoia, she was very low on humanity after her arm got blown off and had to be replaced by a cyberarm and her low humanity was expressed as distrust of everyone. So after a high risk mission for a corporation the party were awarded with luxorious penthouses. Kwani didn't trust the corporation and found herself a body double and allow her to live in her penthouse apartment in her name. Bullseye who was very carefree used his penhouse to pick up chicks and live a life of luxury. So one day when the corporation decided we had become a liability the doors to our penthouse apartments got kicked in and half the party got killed in bed. Bullseye woke up naked and managed to roll out of bed when three assassins burst into his room spraying the place with small arms fire. Boy was he suprised (almost as suprised as the assassins) when his wardrobe opened and Kwani stood there in full battle armour and hosed down the assassins with her Assault Rifle.

Unbeknown to to Bullseye's player, Kwani who was the techninja had been crashing occasionally in his large wardrobe. In his next apartment he had a bulletresistant wardrobe where he kept an assault rifle....that's is before he had to lock up Kwani to put her in therapy because she was teetering on the brink of cyberpsychosis.


I think there is no formula to make a memorable character. You as a player will probably remember most of your characters but if you want your character to be remembered by others then you have to do something memorable.

Dimers
2017-07-26, 10:38 PM
To increase tension, create PC-NPC-PC triangles.
For example:
The Mafioso wants the rogue to pay her debt or face his goonsquad and pay it in teeth.
The same Mafioso thinks the party Muscle is impressive and wants to hire him on, and is willing to pay handsomely.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Could you give a couple more examples, please?

Koo Rehtorb
2017-07-26, 11:13 PM
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Could you give a couple more examples, please?

PC 1's trusted lieutenant had PC 2's loyal cultist executed for murder.

NichG
2017-07-26, 11:37 PM
For memorability, I think you want to aim for something like caricatures with an underlying basis, followed by perceivable growth or evolution of the character. The caricature part makes the character have an immediate impression, but if the character ends up being nothing more than an extreme quirk then they won't have much staying power. So the trick is to keep having things which make people re-evaluate the character - at first they seem like just someone quirky and weird, but then it turns out that there's an underlying reason for the quirk which is discovered/figured out/revealed, so people give the character a second thought. Then, when the character exhibits growth and change, that again makes people return to them and compare and re-evaluate them, giving them a 'third' thought as it were.

On top of that, you want to aim for an emotional relationship that encourage increased interaction rather than decreased interaction - you want people to actively seek to engage more with the character, not just be trying to get away from them or take them for granted. So desire or anger can work, but feelings of annoyance or comfort or patronizing superiority generally won't. That means that the character should not be something that others are 'forced' to deal with, but rather should present opportunities for interaction that encourage people to seek them out. Rather than a character that constantly ineffectively tries to interfere with the party, or offers unwanted help (leading to 'how can I avoid interacting with that character?'), it should be something where people think 'I can get something out of it by interacting' - I can surpass my rival and claim fame, I can find the answers to my questions, I can get this guy to be the perfect foil to my comedy routine, etc.

Surprise is also good for getting a character to stick in people's mind I think, not in the sense of the character just being randomly different than expected, but in the sense of the character doing things which retroactively make sense. So e.g. a villain who is kind of dropping subtle hints that they're not actually on the same side as the party's main opposition, and then who suddenly turns around and betrays the other villains to help the party might work. But someone who is a villain, but then suddenly says 'hey guys, I want to join your team' wouldn't work as well.

FreddyNoNose
2017-07-26, 11:39 PM
I saw a similar thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?531238-What-makes-a-memorable-character) in the 5e subforum, and decided to bring it here.

What are the 'ingredients' to make a character, particularly but not limited to PCs, that players will talk about even 5 years down the road?

Breaking typical archetypes? Instead of an orc barbarian, have an orc wizard? Or are these sort of 'anti-archetypes' just gimmicks that don't work out in actual play, and archetypes are tried-and-tested for a reason? Even particular 'anti-archetypes' are archetypes in and of themselves.

Quirks? What sort of quirks? How much of an impact should the quirks have? Where does one find the balance between 'background detail no one remembers' but on a character, and 'disrupts everything the party tries to do'?

How does one end up with a character that doesn't fade into obscurity, but also doesn't try so hard it ends up on a List of Horrible Gaming Moments?

Memorable characters, imo, come from the players. Boring player -> boring results.

scalyfreak
2017-07-27, 12:12 AM
Boring player -> boring results.

This.

One of the most memorable characters I've ever encountered was the most quiet and contemplative of the young magii in ta long-running Ars Magica campaign I played in. There was nothing remarkable about the character as far as back story, abilities, or anything goes. A perfectly normal magus who seemed to be exactly what you would expect her to be, only to later be revealed that she actually was.

But the player portrayed that "boring" character so masterfully she became everyone's favorite in no time.

Esprit15
2017-07-27, 01:08 AM
Memorable characters, imo, come from the players. Boring player -> boring results.

Very much this. Last year in two different campaigns I played alongside two different guys, one in each campaign playing the "big, dumb barbarian" type of guy. One was tiring to be around, while the other was enjoyable, and it came down to the player playing them. One was an escaped drow slave, the other was looking for his adoptive father. The slave just did what he wanted because he was bigger than everyone, what were they gonna do about it, and that was the extent of his role playing. He didn't talk much, and he didn't have much direction. The possible orphan, meanwhile, was a fiercely loyal ally and became the adoptive older brother to a child that we met in our travels. He wasn't the brightest, and we had to pull him out of the occasional fight, but he never seemed like a burden the same way the other one was.

Player is more important than character.

goto124
2017-07-27, 01:13 AM
I doubt I want to start a new thread called "How to become an interesting person" :smalltongue:

Cozzer
2017-07-27, 04:38 AM
An interesting guideline (because in storytelling there are no rules, only guidelinse) I've read is that "the description of an interesting character contains the word 'but'". Interesting characters contain contradictions, because real people contain contradictions.

Maybe the character is a fierce warrior, but he reads poetry in his tent at night. Maybe he's an idealistic paladin who has been taught the hard way that sometimes the way towards the greater good is making compromises. Maybe he's a smartass wizard who secretly envies a little the simple-mindedness and freedom of the barbarian. Maybe he's a pacifistic and wise monk who gets triggered by a specific issue, and in these circumstances unleashes all the anger he has repressed. Maybe he's a leader, as warm and caring towards his allies as he's cold and cruel towards people who threaten them. And so on.

Of course, just throwing a random contradiction out there doesn't make the character interesting, it just makes him zany (which is the polar opposite of "interesting"). The point is that once you get to know the character better, what was a contradiction becomes a perfectly natural part of who he is. It just has to look like a contradiction in the beginning, to make other people (and characters) want to get to know him better.

Also, "what your audience doesn't see, doesn't exist". If there's a contradiction between your character's actions and their inner thougts, that does exactly nothing to make them more interesting until that contradiction comes into light somehow. If you're the DM, show at least an hint towards the character's main contradiction in one of their very first scenes. If you're a player, remember that other players can't read your thoughts and other characters can't read your character's thoughts, and give the character some kind of way to express their emotion and thoughts (possibly through actions, but that depends on the DM throwing the right scenarios at you too).

(Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why I hate race/class stereotypes. "Oh no, but the barbarian has to be a mindless destruction machine!". "But the paladin has to be 100% pure and good hearted!". "But the rogue has to be untrustworthy!". And so on.)

BeerMug Paladin
2017-07-27, 06:07 AM
I have created some memorable characters. I forgot how I did it, though.

One was a joke character who survived for many, many sessions and the other players apparently liked my style of humor. He was sort of the idiot hero archetype. Be the hero! For justice!

The other character wasn't even used in a game. I ad-libbed it entirely to mock a friend of mine's plan for finding an evil cult in the game I was running. My friend was greatly amused by the humor/character and has since spread the character to many more people. It was just a dorky, tonally-flat, deep voice. People find it both easy and fun to imitate the voice, evidently.

If I had to guess the reasons why they (and a couple others) were memorable, I would say that having a clearly identifiable motivation or goal and having some kind of immediately obvious silly quirk is a good basis to start from. Then build the character from there in a direction that makes sense. Or just use a silly voice.

I would suspect that trying to intentionally create a memorable character isn't a realistic goal. The goal should be to make a character that you'd be interested in, and if you're having fun, you'll make them memorable by the things they say and do and the sorts of reactions they have to the situations they're involved in.

Darth Ultron
2017-07-27, 06:21 AM
It's rare for a memorable character to be some sort of wacky roll playing mechanical wonder. That type of character is quickly forgotten in most games that are not just roll playing table top video game style games.

More then anything, most memorable characters are ones with real personalities that are role-played well and leave an impression and impact.

Cluedrew
2017-07-27, 07:08 AM
I doubt I want to start a new thread called "How to become an interesting person" :smalltongue:In the context of being an role-player (sure let's call it that), run interesting characters and campaigns. Sure it is a cycle, the way to break that cycle it to practice and keep trying. Actively: force yourself out of your comfort zone, reflect on what did and didn't go well with earlier characters* and so on.

Another guideline that Darth Ultron made me think about this is: "What makes or breaks a character is the stuff you cannot fit into the initial description." All the little details and nuances and how they mesh with the world and other characters. There is again a limit to how much you can preplan, some of it just has to grow in response to things that happen during the game.

* P.S. From what you said about your old group they may have been hazing you, so take what they said with a grain of salt. Of course I'm going of a little indirect information, so take this with a grain as well.

DigoDragon
2017-07-27, 07:20 AM
I think the best characters out there are the ones that have all the "stats"--A defined goal, as fleshed out personality, and a well-thought background. Such multi-faceted characters stand the greatest chance of being remembered by players years later.

Concrete
2017-07-27, 10:05 AM
Personal Weakness.
Every good character needs it. Figure out in what situation the character can be pathetic, and let the character desperately avoid that situation in such a way that it's bound to happen. Or let the character strive for it, because they simply don't realize that they will make an ass of themselves.

Or let them have an unattainable goal that the character can strive for but never reach.

Or an ideal image of themselves that simply is never going to happen.

Someone clumsily striving for greatness while being destined for disgrace and obscurity can either be tragic, hilarious, or just all around flavorful.

FreddyNoNose
2017-07-28, 01:01 AM
Personal Weakness.
Every good character needs it. Figure out in what situation the character can be pathetic, and let the character desperately avoid that situation in such a way that it's bound to happen. Or let the character strive for it, because they simply don't realize that they will make an ass of themselves.


Sounds like something an English teacher would say.

Martin Greywolf
2017-07-28, 01:47 AM
Oh my, this depends on a lot of things, the three most important ones being tone of the campaign, type of character and type of memorability you're going for.

Tone of campaign is exactly what it sounds - El Macho may be at home in Despicable Me (or One Piece, for that matter), but not really at his best in Game of Thrones.

Type of character is trickier - PCs, villains, major NPCs and minor NPCs can all be interesting, but all have slightly different ways of achieving that.

And lastly, type of memorability - excentric professor and tragic villain will all use different tools at their disposal.

So, how to begin?

Step 1: The usual suspects

Give your character basic stats, motivation and personality. It can be fairly deep (in case of, say, major villain or PC) or basic, but it has to be there. Then build up on it - if the character is Fighter McStabbypants, add something that's completely unrelated to his fightiness, possibly in direct opposition. This way, you avoid creating one-dimensional characters.

Thing is, for a side NPC mook, it can be something as simple as "Is good with crossbows", "Not a morning person" and "Has a pet cactus". Boom, you're done, interesting-ish mook. For a major NPC, you will want to make these personality traits interact with each other a bit more, and give them more depth, e.g. the cactus is last memento of his mother, he dreams of being the next William Tell etc etc. For a major major NPC, you will probably want to give them a character arc of their own.

Step 2: Write it out

Especially if you're new to this TTRPG business, write out bits of text to read out as you play/DM - at this point, your improvisation game is most likely rather weak, so you need some help. Write down "At this point, the mook will mention his cactus, annoying the other guard", or just straight out write out the dialogue snippet.

Step 3: If you got it, show it

The best NPC on paper will be worth jack if you won't actually show other players what they have written there in play, or as the old adage goes, "Show, don't tell". If your NPC is a coward, make him run away, if he has a pet cactus, have him mention it ("Guys, guys, can we stop in the pottery store? My cactus needs a new pot."), if he has a tragic backstory, have it be told or hinted at.

Important point here is that sometimes, most of the times even, these revelations aren't wanted by the character itself (be it a PC or NPC) - circumstances conspire into forcing them to face or reveal a bit of it. It's your job as person controlling the character to make sure these happen, either by being DM and making it so, or by talking to the DM to have him work with you.

Lastly, if there is a trait that wasn't shown in this way, it is Schroedinger's aspect - you can freely change it and not worry too much about consistency if you (or just as often, your players) think of something better.

Step 4: Ogres are like onions

Major NPCs should have revelations about them in layers, to be peeled off over the time - at first, you find out the wife was killed, then that she was killed by orcs, then that the orcs were there for negotiations, thus explaining the strong dislike of orcs etc etc

You will have to pace these to both keep the NPC interesting and to not just splurge out all of his secrets during the first game.

Bonus step: Act it out better

Tone of voice, accents, gesticulation, facial expressions - these can all help a lot in making the NPC memorable. If you have three generic dudes and they talk over each other, it will be confusing, if you have a russian doctor, a spanish swordsman who turns into a cat and talks about senoritas all the time and a mute yet expressive cyborg fighting a brash marine officer and her gunslinging sidekick with a Texan accent, it's pretty clear who is who.

Problem is, this is yet another DM skill that isn't easy to learn - I have it because I'm a re-enactor and we do a lot of acting, but that is hardly every DM's cup of tea.

As a final bit of advice, if you have trouble creating the characters in the first place, give FATE Core a look, specifically section on PC creation and NPCs, they have some excellent guidelines on how to make them.

goto124
2017-07-28, 11:15 PM
Since this turned out to be a page-topper, I should mention that the previous page (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?531517-How-to-create-memorable-characters&page=1) has rather interesting ideas and suggestions.

Permission granted by original poster to post it here:


I have a few characters whom I have "built in" certain flaws with the intent of seeing the character grow out of that flaw. That has made for memorable characters.

One of those concepts, a rather ethnocentric Sun Elf Wizard, I have used twice. One of the groups taught him a lot about how other races have different talents, and that even "half-breeds" can posses as noble a spirit as he would have previously only attributed to elves. The other group taught my wizard that he was amazing, and frequently depended on him to pull a lot of the weight in the party. Most of the rest of said weight was pulled by the Elf cleric in the party, so his ideas about racial superiority were reinforced, rather than eroded, as I expected them to be.

One of my friends, who was in that first group, still remembers my "snobby, racist elf wizard", and how, by the end of the campaign, he was no longer either of those.

Max_Killjoy
2017-07-29, 11:19 AM
I'll have more to add later, but on the subject of archetypes, roles, tropes, and stereotypes...

... forget them. Ignore them. Discard them. Seek neither to invoke nor to contradict, simply pay them no heed.

Start with a person, not a splat combo or narrative cliche. Treat the character as if they were real, not a way to get the stats you want, or an expression of a trope. Then use the system mechanics to represent that person as best as the system allows.

goto124
2017-07-29, 11:38 AM
Start with a person, not a splat combo or narrative cliche. Treat the character as if they were real, not a way to get the stats you want, or an expression of a trope.

Well... there's the problem. Guess I should spend more time in real life and see how people act? I mean, real life is the very reason I'm here instead.

Cluedrew
2017-07-30, 07:35 AM
Yeah... reality is kind of terrible some times.

Still archetypes have a place. My if I had to pick a single favourite character of mine is was made by process of elimination on some of the standard archetypes I did not have in the story yet. (Those were generally retroactive matching, I don't purposeful archetypes so often.) Anyways I got a sort of contradictory set of ideas and putting them together got one of the most interesting characters I've ever made. Sure it is not the archetypes themselves that make the character that, but all the little details that do grew out of those basic templates. So in short, sure you can use archetypes, just don't let the character just be those archetypes, turn them into people.

Weimann
2017-08-01, 02:54 PM
I think a strong way to make characters memorable is reincorporation. Just having characters turn up several times makes them more memorable.

BeerMug Paladin
2017-08-02, 04:02 AM
I think a strong way to make characters memorable is reincorporation. Just having characters turn up several times makes them more memorable.

With this in mind, I had two NPCs that each had a silly gimmick with their appearances which made people remember them.

Acolyte Docee was an initiate in the local small-town temple devoted to various gods of the setting. He was more or less a pimply-faced teenager and whenever he appeared he was acting solely as a errand-boy, to deliver a message to the PCs. Because of that, he was always gasping for air when he talked to the party and always finished by charging away at top speed. He was the only NPC used in that town to deliver any message.

Sir Bolegon was a knight of the kingdom. He had a big, fuzzy mustache and generally had a quiet, happy demeanor. He was agreeable to most things asked of him. While on duty he wore a helmet with a faceplate. To talk to people he would raise the faceplate up so he could see them better. For one reason or another, the faceplate would fall into a closed position if he nodded his head. He nodded his head now and then in idle conversation, forgetting these set of facts (as I would as well) so conversations with him were often interrupted by- clang!- the face-plate falling down and him lifting it back up. One time I forgot he was smoking a cigar while wearing his helmet and he nodded. Promptly, the face-plate fell down, chopping off the end of the cigar and after a beat, a fresh burst of smoke jutted from every hole in the helm.

These two characters always had their signature out-of-breath and malfunctioning face-plate, and they were encountered several times. The fairly distinct traits were readily apparent on each visit, which I think helped to make them pretty memorable. My players from that game talk about them every so often.

goto124
2017-08-02, 04:56 AM
I think a strong way to make characters memorable is reincorporation. Just having characters turn up several times makes them more memorable.

So all my PCs are automatically memorable. Yay! :smalltongue:

Calthropstu
2017-08-02, 09:30 AM
Memorable characters have something memorable about them. An annoying quirk, a funny physical trait, a very wierd combination.
An awakened cat druid who likes to cast charm animal on rats to make them "come over for dinner," a thrallherd who forms his army of followers into a gigantic spy network taking information gathering into a whole new level, an annoying sorcerer who polymorphs people's shoes, the dwarven racist sexist cha 6 who manages to offend nearly everyone he meets, who gets the party thrown out of the palace and their rewards revoked... AFTER they rescue the princess.
Memorable characters are easy to make. Just have something that sticks out or DO something memorable.

GungHo
2017-08-02, 09:49 AM
Extremely cautiously, covering up every evidence that it's not really mine, preferring more tedious but legal means of transport, and using it only when it's absolutely urgent?

A person who is truly cognizant of both the likelihood and consequences of being caught wouldn't have stolen the car in the first place.

Sariel Vailo
2017-08-04, 12:58 PM
Magic Mike the half orc bard whose main way of giving inspiration. Seductively dancing and playing a instrument like a drum Or flute.

Tinkerer
2017-08-04, 01:38 PM
Just remembered a couple of things

1) If you are going to do a voice then make certain that it's a voice that you can comfortably do for hours (I almost lost my voice after a particularly long session with my harsh whispering character)

2) It can help if you refer to your character by their name rather than a pronoun, at least if you have a short name. I realized this when I was playing a character of ambiguous gender so I replaced all the pronouns other than I with their name ("they" wouldn't have worked due to playing 2 characters and "they" being singular or plural). Worked out pretty well.

Scripten
2017-08-04, 02:29 PM
I read this fairly quickly, so I apologize if any of this is redundant. My big rules when creating PCs (NPCs are a whole different bag) are the following:

1) Balance to the mechanical power level - Interestingly, the result of messing this up is that the rules invert the fiction. If you make your character seem too powerful, they will feel like they are failing too much; too weak, and they will look hyper-competent to a fault. Either way, it will likely come off as obnoxious.

2) Give the DM opportunities - This should be self-evident. You can talk about your character's super cool traits all you want, but if there's no material for the DM to draw plot hooks from, you'll get tuned out eventually.

3) Think in terms of potential - I put this last, but it's probably the most important. Instead of coming up with the best backstory ever, with neat twists aplenty and compelling writing, use the backstory from which to launch into the adventure, where actual memorable things will happen. This is intertwined fairly well with the second point.

Slipperychicken
2017-08-04, 03:20 PM
I've made a few characters that my friends praised as interesting, and that's lead me to a revelation: The only thing that matters in the end, is what's said and done at the table.

Also here's some advice:

Create a flawed person. That doesn't mean a human with -2 to vision, nor one with half a leg missing, nor one who cannot fill his role in the party, but I mean one whose personality, upbringing, education, moral outlook, and mental state itself provide clear strengths and weaknesses.

People don't love characters for succeeding, but for trying. That said, while struggling can be relatable, being a drama queen about it might not be as endearing. Some of my players find it interesting when my characters determinedly keep trying to accomplish something despite not being very good at it. That said I try to reserve those moments when said attempts aren't as likely to annoy or destroy the party.

Your character does not exist not in a vacuum. Interact with external forces, and use your character's background, experiences, and ideology (if any) to inform those interactions for better or worse.

People don't have everything figured out, nor fit perfectly into a theme, try as they might to do so. Real humans are messy: full of contradictions, paradoxes, dissonance, lies, and mismatches. Not many people have a truly clear, consistent ideology that's rock-solid and stands up under real pressure. The person your character thinks he is, and the person he actually is, and the person he feels he ought to be: all of those might be different. This kind of regular human messiness can make your character more believable while giving you degrees of freedom in roleplaying.

Anyone who doesn't have regrets is either crazy or a liar. Give your character some things he wishes he'd done differently, or that he wishes were different than they are.

Give your character opinions and thoughts, and think about how your character responds internally when those are challenged.

Your character should have vague aspirations (i.e. "I want to get thinner", "I want to get money", "I want to study animals", "I want to be like my childhood hero", "I want a big house", "I want to be respected", "I want to get a hot gf", etc etc). These need not align with your character's actions, skills, mindset, situation, or even knowledge. Some can be downright impossible given the way your character approaches them. This can help you decide how your character spends his time and approaches situations.

FreddyNoNose
2017-08-04, 03:45 PM
Quirks are overrated. Highly. They're more often annoying than anything.

Breaking archetypes for the sake of breaking them is also highly overrated.

Agree with this. Boring player -> boring character. Dressing the character up with quirks and anti-tropes doesn't help. It is a failed fake it until you make it approach.

Kitten Champion
2017-08-04, 08:59 PM
A good position to start from is to consider how you're going to differentiate your new character from the one you've just created. Both because it's easy to become forgettable when your characters blur into one another, but also there's a degree of challenging yourself in seeing what your box is and endeavoring to move outside it.

I don't mean zig in every avenue you've just zagged - that could easily lead to incoherence - just be consciously aware of it and look for productive areas where you could contrast from to stop every character from being just another one of your PCs that everyone's familiar with before you even roll it.

Secondly, consider the other player's characters in terms of their characterization and temperaments when drawing your own. A vital part of memorable interactions in much of fiction be it comedic or dramatic is temperamental differentiation between its characters. You can create a cast of characters with near-identical roles, backgrounds, and moral alignments that feel nothing alike due to their personae bouncing off one another effectively. When you start playing and you had this idea of how you thought the character was supposed to be in your head but quickly feel it being overlapped by others, maybe start pushing it in another direction before it gets too set in its ways.

Basically, you want room to be memorable both from yourself and the other players. To that end, it's also good to have a degree of respect and recognition when potentially memorable character moments come about that you're not stepping on anyone else's feet and vice versa.

It's an ongoing process, and one best aided by your group, I think.

ImNotTrevor
2017-08-04, 10:10 PM
Most of my most memorable characters are simple, straightforward, and bold.

Errant has been around for 1 campaign and his presence shapes things a lot because he does what he wants to do. He has a motivation beyond surviving until tomorrow and doing X duty someone told him to do.

And he will apply liberal amounts of violence and bloodshed to get what he wants. (Because he is terrible at every other method. Luckily, this has worked out pretty well thus far.)

The other players love and hate Errant in equal measure. (Bearing in mind that this game doesn't follow traditional party structure,) They have realized that being in his good graces is a great idea. And that if he's not with you, you're gonna have a bad time. They all recognize Errant as the unstable chaos-engine/force-of-nature that he is. Nobody feels safe when Errant is around. And yet, as diverse the reactions to this danger are, Errant himself is very straightforward and easy to understand.

Granted, as I said before this game does not follow traditional "party" structure, and so take that with a grain of salt. It is a game that assumes the characters will START OUT on the same side. But outright states that this may not be true by the end.

Herought
2017-08-05, 11:58 PM
my idea of a memorable character is not its strength but its attitude whether good or bad, it should also have a striking background story and really cool quirks.

daniel_ream
2017-08-07, 06:44 PM
Start with a person, not a splat combo or narrative cliche. Treat the character as if they were real, not a way to get the stats you want, or an expression of a trope.

Counter-argument: most real people aren't very interesting, and the reason fiction uses tropes, archetypes and improbable situations is because they work and they resonate with people.

The problem with rigorous simulation is that much of reality is tedious.

To the OP: Have a look at these games:

Burning Wheel, for mechanical representations of goals, drives, and instincts
Hillfolk, for deliberately building in relationships and tensions among the characters
The Shadow of Yesterday for Keys - ways to incentivize medium term goals and narrative hooks about your character