Exchange of Realities

It came to my attention recently that despite having topped 200 posts, and despite it being one of my greatest strengths, I haven’t really discussed creating and maintaining engaging secondary characters. So I plan on spending the bulk of this month rectifying that.

After all, the existence of such characters is vital to a good story, be it game, novel, or movie. They are the ones who make it clear that, while the story is focused on the protagonists, the world is not. They live, they dream, they change; they might have stories all their own, resting in the shadows of the characters who carry the narrative focus. They give members of the audience someone to admire who isn’t the hero, or someone to be disturbed by who isn’t necessarily the villain; in a world of black and white, the secondary characters can be the shades of gray. Even the protagonists need them; who else is going to draw out their characterization? Help, hindrance, background, distraction—they’re there, they’re useful, and they deserve at least a portion of the color their more noticeable counterparts have.

In games, engaging secondary characters can power plots on their own. As TheZomb pointed out last week, without a connection with the PCs, an NPC’s betrayal is just another empty plot twist. And while people may go to rescue a kidnapped NPC because the plot says so, they have much more fire about them, and put more spark into their plans, if they have an attachment to the NPC in question. Even antagonists work better when there’s something about them; a truly engaging villain can bring forth moral dilemmas, the whole gamut of emotions, and even a certain possessiveness about being The One To Defeat Her. A romance plot will fail without chemistry, and a student will not try as hard to impress a mentor he cannot respect. In sum: there are none alive who would travel to the ends of the earth for a cardboard cutout.

So it cannot be claimed that there is no need for them. The question, then, is how do we create them? How do we ensure that our secondary characters can grab and hold our audience’s question as well as any protagonist would? What makes an engaging supporting character?

While I’m going to be spending a lot of time on specific qualities, I’ll begin with the basics—my idea of the essential qualities of an engaging supporting character. An engaging supporting character must be memorable—if she is forgotten, how will anyone engage with her? Of course, she must be in decent proximity, to the audience if not the protagonists (fortunately for GMs, they’re one and the same in games), so that she’s available to engage with. One whose entire characterization is stereotype will repulse more than engage, but so will a secondary character created solely as a rejection of stereotypes; both are shortcuts, and neither is good characterization. Uniqueness helps, but not uniqueness that tries too hard to be unique. An engaging secondary character will have qualities that are worthy of respect, possibly even of admiration, but will still have flaws. A little mystery rarely hurts, since that’ll get people’s attention and hold it. She must have a life of her own; otherwise, she’s just scenery, and who wants to engage with scenery? Most importantly, she will be an agent of her own desires; one who just sits around letting the world happen to her will come across as an object, possibly one to be poked and prodded until it takes a form more suited to the protagonists’ wishes.

I’m sure you’ve all seen good secondary characters, in some medium or other. The ones that draw attachment, pique your interest, or just seem too alive to be truly fictional. Who are there characters? What made them resonate with you?

Getting a truly engaging supporting character is a long, complicated process. I’ll be compiling useful links from this blog here.