Exchange of Realities

By now, you’ve probably got the seeds of a character. You might have an image, purpose and/or question; you probably have at least one distinctive feature; if you’re feeling really ambitious, you have all of the first and a few of the second. (For this exercise, all of the above will help.)

This is the part where you take a step back and figure out what you need to know about the character. Depending on your world, the character’s role, the tone of the narrative, and the curiosity of your players (if you’re running a game), this can be any of a number of things, though there are a few overall similarities.

How do we figure it out?

One way is to start with the information mentioned above.

First, we look at the purpose. This is a vital point for most characters, as it’s pretty much their reason for being: we have to make sure that they both can fulfill this purpose and will do so if given a choice. For an NPC created to fill an empty slot in a group, this usually comes out to “What exactly can this character do, and why would they do it for this particular group?” For the love interest in a romance plot, the first thing to ask is “What do they see in the character they’re designed for, and what is that character going to see in them?” (A lot of people forget that second question.) Note that you don’t need a complete motivation at this point; we’re still asking questions.

Speaking of questions, if you’ve got the underlying question for this character, now’s the time to use it. If the question’s in character, you can start figuring out how the character’s going to answer it. If out of character, that’s probably going to give you a few necessary qualities: it’s hard to answer “Can I do creepy on purpose” with a character who isn’t meant to be creepy, or “What is it like to know the future?” with a character who doesn’t know the future. So then you can figure out necessary questions for that: like “What must this character do to achieve her goals?”, “What makes this character creepy?”, or “How does this character know the future?”

Image and distinctive features (often overlapping categories) can work the same way. If the character wields a magic sword, knowing what it does and where they got it will come in handy. For a character who insists on wearing veils, it will probably be useful to figure out why.

The most important thing in the Things To Know phase is to isolate questions you’re almost guaranteed to need the answers to. The questions addressed above will usually come up in play, but sometimes you don’t have anything to kick them off, and sometimes it’s good to have more information. Consider this set, then: Who is this character? Where did she come from? What does she plan on doing? Why is she here? How is she going to make a difference? Each of these will have its own impact on characterization: who and why will affect motivation, what and how will probably tell you something about her power set, and where is likely to affect her skills (there are some places where certain skills are necessary), her languages (what she grew up speaking, what she had opportunity to learn) and what she knows about the world.

Then step back and consider the kinds of questions your protagonists will need to know the answers to in their dealings with this character, either immediately or eventually. (This is particularly important when dealing with gamers, as you’ll want to factor in the kinds of questions the players will ask.) These questions will vary with the role of the secondary character in question. An antagonist will probably bring forth questions like “What is your weakness?”, “Are your orders to capture or to kill?”, and “Can you be persuaded to cut it out?”, while an authority figure’s questions may include “What does it take to gain your respect?”, and the most important question for a friendly character may very well be “To what extent does our friendship go?” (This last is important when dealing with protagonists whose moral code clashes with the supporting character’s, protagonists who wish to take advantage of the character’s abilities, protagonists who give offense, and…. well, PCs as a whole, as they’re as likely as not to manage all of the above and a little to spare.) And there’s always the one thing to fear/one thing to look up to, or the ubiquitous “Do I know you? How?”

At this point, you’ve probably got a list of questions in need of answering. Start thinking about those; we’ll get to the next step tomorrow.

Want to do more with secondary characters? The site hub is here.