Post by C a p t a i n D r e d on May 29, 2017 23:20:10 GMT -5
Round vs. Flat
"Flat characters are two-dimensional in that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the course of a work. By contrast, round characters are complex and undergo development, sometimes sufficiently to surprise the reader."
-Britannica.com
A flat character was defined by E.M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel as a character that tended to be defined by a single trait, but it's generally understood in modern times to mean a few simple traits. A quick and dirty, poorly thought out one dimensional character.
Forster wrote that the true test of roundness is in a character's ability to surprise in a convincing way. In modern times it's generally thought of more to do with whether a character is dynamic, and changes and grows through the course of a story or plot and less about surprising the reader. But keep in mind that as role-players, sometimes it's a hell of a lot of fun when we not only surprise each other, but ourselves, with what our characters end up doing. A round character is complicated. A round character is real.
Round Characters
Writers, and role-players, should always strive to create characters that are not flat. What is a Flat Character? It's 1-dimensional, or at best 2-dimensional, like a cardboard cutout instead of a real character. As a writer it is very easy to fall into the trap of making a huge cast of characters for a story, most of whom never go beyond the cardboard cutout they were when they were first brainstormed down onto a list of names with a couple details beside them. As role-players or game masters, it is very easy to fall into the trap of making cardboard cutout NPCs all the time-- while the PCs of the story arc might be fantastic, and they have a great villain to go up against, every other non-player character in the plot can end up flat-- and boring.
Boredom is our eternal foe. We do not role-play, or write, or read, to enhance our boredom.
So as role-players, it benefits us to do what the professionals of the literary world do, and strive to create rounded characters. This stuff goes way back, and was probably written down by someone wise in ancient Greece, China and elsewhere long before E.M. Forster wrote about the craft of novels and they started teaching it in colleges. It applies to theater, movies, tv shows, and even comic books and cartoons too. Round characters are interesting and engaging. In this art form we take part in, the round characters are the ones we remember and love-- or love to hate. And that is different than hating a character. It's easy to just hate a flat, boring character for being what they are. It's the ones that make us go, 'Oooh, I haaaate that guy!' whenever they show up in a scene, while loving the fact that they're suddenly there to make the story more interesting, that we remember for their roundness and depth. It's the stories full of a cast of round characters that we love the most, and spend the most time talking about.
What makes a Round Character?
It's the details, man. But don't get lost in those. Our characters are people. Remember that. You are role-playing a person. So make a person. Not a cardboard cutout of one. Not a snap shot selfie pic of a person. Make a character, not a picture of one.
I remember a lot of other people struggling with how to do that, and how to understand what it really meant, back when I was in college studying the art and craft of writing. But I got it, I had a few tools in my arsenal that made it easy for me. I'd gotten in role-playing.
Some of the role-playing games I tried out in college, both as a player and as a storyteller/game master, were greatly focused on role-playing rather than roll-playing. A few of the tabletop RPGs I tried out stuck with me, and remained useful tools for both writing and for online free-form role-playing. Whenever I struggle to create or develop a character I tend to think in terms of some of the games I played back then. When it comes to making a character rounded, the idea behind one of those RPGs has stood the test of time for me.
The game was one of those ones where they didn't have character levels at all. They used a point system, so you would get points to build your character. Raising your attributes above average, gaining powers or skills, all those things would cost points. The power level of the campaign would be determined not by a level range, but maybe by how many points you got to work with.
The important part, was that this game was focused on role-playing instead of D&D style hack and slash monty haul gaming, and they took great care in make sure every aspect of the game lent to that. The character creation greatly encouraged round characters that were more than just a collection of stats and combat abilities with a personality described in two short phrases.
The way it worked was pretty simple. Raising your strength, dexterity, intelligence or constitution above average for your race cost you points. Every skill you knew cost a minimum of 1 point to learn-- more if you were very experienced, or a master of that skill. Every spell or psychic power or superhero ability cost you 1 to 10 points. Basically all the cool stuff about your character, everything RPG gamers are used to being the entirety of character creation, cost you points. Then you got to the real meat. The rounding. The actual character. You had to choose your character traits, but rather than just presenting a list of Traits or Feats like most games do, they had you pick Advantages, Disadvantages, and Character Quirks.
Advantages cost you points, like everything else. Disadvantages gave you points back, and the game makers sold the readers on it as a 'pick a few things to get extra points to spend on cool stuff', but cleverly encouraged you to get sucked into doing what they wanted -- making round characters, and eventually realizing that this was the cool stuff about a character, not their powers and skills and combat abilities and magic. It's a fantastic tool as a writer, and as a role-player who finds themselves doing free-form gaming over the internet on things like cool MMOs.
Here's how it works.
An Advantage is anything that gives your character a leg up or advantage in situations.
A Disadvantage is anything that limits your characters options in a situation.
A Quirk is a minor thing about the character, a like or dislike, something that is noticeable about them and may even be a minor form of a disadvantage.
Why would you want to give your character limits and disadvantages?
Well, you want them to be interesting, right?
Don't fall into the trap many of us do and mistake your cardboard cutout for a round character. Forget about 'rounding' by coming up with a backstory and history and details about their family and all that. Those details are great, and they do contribute. But they can't make something flat into something round. They just fool you. Your character can be a flat piece of wet flimsy cardboard, and you might think that it's rounded because the cardboard is wet and soggy and seems to give the character a bit of shape where it flops over due to sogginess. But it's still a piece of cardboard. It's still flat. A 20 page backstory does not actually give any real depth or roundness to a character about to engage in a story or role-playing plot. It's just details, don't get lost in them. Those are details about your character. They are not the character, not the person. (I still write those for my favourite characters and love reading them when the people I RP with post them, don't get me wrong. Do that, just don't stop there and think a backstory means you've developed a round and interesting character.)
If I told you my backstory, about where I'm from and where I grew up, you might think that you have a pretty good idea about my character, about what kind of person I am. You would be dead wrong, and only be looking at a soggy cardboard cut-out, so wet the details have run like paint. You would have a great idea about what it was like to grow up where I did-- but you would not be able to distinguish me from the other 300 kids my age that grew up there while I was growing up, or the thousands and thousands before and since. You'd only have a vague description about what the people where I am from are like, and be able to make a small set of assumptions about how our environment must affect us. But you wouldn't know anything about me or be able to tell me apart from my peers. You'd have details, sure, but the wrong kind of details.
So remember to make your character a person, and that details about where they came from don't actually tell you what a person is like. Only where they came from and the kind of things they did in the past. It can give you insight into a character, great insight, but only if you have a character to gain insight into! If the character is flat, the backstory won't help you figure them out or make them interesting. In fact, it tends to do the opposite and make the character confusing and easy to dismiss.
How do you make a round character?
First, get your basic details out of the way. Make your cardboard cutout or outline, give it a name, figure out a few family details, parents, siblings, marital status and all that. Decide on the physical attributes, if they are strong, or lightning quick, or far more intelligent than average. And get ready to actually flesh the character out.
First you write down a list of what advantages the character has, things that can help them out in sticky situations, or make life easier for them. Are they wealthy or members of the ruling class? Do they have a high pain tolerance or an unusual magic power? Do they have legal enforcement powers or a photographic memory? You'll start to find details about their character and personality as you do this.
Second, write down the list of what disadvantages the character has, all the things that can limit their options or choices, or make a bad situation more difficult for them. This is where you really get to know who your character is. What social disadvantages do they have? What mental disadvantages do they have? Are they honest? Do they have a code of honor? Are they lecherous, a kleptomaniac? Are they unlucky? Or jinx the luck of people around them? Are they greedy? Overconfident? Impulsive? Do they have any phobias, and if so, how severe is it? Decide on a negative modifier they have on their will roll to get through any fearful situation involving the subject of their phobia. You made the character a skeleton instead of a cardboard cutout with the advantages. The disadvantages is when you put the meat on the bones, and turn the character into a person and into something interesting and engaging.
Quirks you can jot down at any time in the process as things come to you. Maybe you decide during the Disadvantages step that instead of being a compulsive party-er, your character just has a minor quirk, 'Loves to party!" You won't have to make a dice roll to avoid joining a party when you should be doing something more important or schedule your work and adventuring life around when the parties are five nights a week or be showing up drunk or without sleep almost all the time, but you now know that your character is likely to accept invitations or even schedule going out regularly once a week or so, and might very well sometimes say 'what the hell' and tie one on even they should be going home to bed. You've now got an idea about part of your characters routine, as well as their behaviour with a few built in cues for getting involved in role-play with other characters.
As another example, quirks can be a great intentional method of foreshadowing, allowing you to insert things that might lead to character growth in the future. You could pick something as a minor quirk, knowing that it could develop into a serious mental disadvantage later in the characters life, and even have in mind a few conditions or situations that might trigger that, or plan for it to happen, or just wait to see if it does.
To stick with the previous example, a character that starts out their adventuring life on an MMO with a quirk of 'Loves to Party' might, several years later, have developed into having the disadvantage Compulsive Carouser. Maybe they were in a relationship with another character that loved to party way too much, or had a job that involved being at parties and being able to get their friends and lovers into said parties. Then later, there is the option that the character could develop an even more serious disadvantage; maybe after their lover the Palace DJ gets executed for being caught with a married noble, your character becomes an alcoholic, or on the other end of the scale vows to never party again, and you can replace the Compulsive Behavior (Carousing and Partying) with another disadvantage entirely - a minor vow, a minor negative reputation among your closest social circle ("They don't like to come to the club anymore."), and deciding to become an activist trying to convince other people that drinking and partying will ruin their lives too. (Yes, being an activist is a disadvantage - the character is obligated to attend rallies, meetings, plan their activism, perhaps have both positive and negative reputation or social stigma modifiers on reaction rolls to people they meet depending on whether they agree with the activism or not, etc. It limits their choices, colors how others will react to the character--for good or ill--and is a demand on the character's time).
Don't think of disadvantages as a negative thing, or just as a way to balance out the character's super-duper powers and abilities (though that is an important part of the creation and rounding process, it's not the only reason to use disadvantages), but as a way to enhance your character, make them interesting (for you to play and for others to play with) and a way to get them engaged in plot-lines or just random RP. It's how you flesh your character out, make them round, and plant the seeds for future character growth, how you define how they might react in situations, and can serve as your guideline for what to /roll against when you decide you want to let the dice determine what your character will do.
I love to give my characters disadvantages that involve a will roll to overcome, or a dice roll to decide how they react to certain specifically vague things, or a dice roll to determine their mood even. One of my characters is of a race known to be very capricious, and a reputation for reacting unpredictably to certain specific social situations, so I will do a die roll to determine general mood for the day or evening, and then break out the dice roller if they encounter a situation that might trigger a sudden shift in mood to let the dice decide which way they react. It can keep things fun to have a random element in our storytelling, and this method of character development is very easy to work into both free form role-playing and using dice. When you are deciding the details and severity of your character's disadvantages and working out how it affects their personality, it's easy to jot down a few notes about dice rolls that tie into that so you remember to use your disadvantages later when you are role-playing. Play them up!
To help get people started, I will make a list below of good sample Advantages and Disadvantages and Quirks, and provide a brief outline on how to use them to whip up a new PC or NPC.
Just remember, a character that is not dynamic and stops growing can slowly go from round to flat without us realizing it, like full water balloon with a small leak on the bottom. A character that changes and grows--even in small ways--remains interesting for the long haul, as well as through the course of a story arc. So try to build yourself in one or two quirks or minor disadvantages that could be used later if the plots you are involved in are not providing enough opportunity for growth.
Happy gaming,
-Captain Dred