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NPCs, I Hardly Know Ye; When characters really are their own people
Tweet Topic Started: Jan 28 2010, 12:08 AM (378 Views)
kismetrose Jan 28 2010, 12:08 AM Post #1
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Today I read an article in which Mort Castle talks about knowing everything about your characters. You create them, get to know them like a parent or a psychiatrist, and you become privy to every detail about them. And they have to be real, distinct, and believable, so those details are needed.

And I realized again that the characters I've seen in my head, the characters that have notably enriched my games, the characters I've lived with every day since I was a small child have generally come to me as their own people. Very rarely has it felt like I was building them - rather, it has felt like they revealed themselves to me by telling me their stories or through flashes of insight. Maybe I've come up with names or colors, maybe I've translated things into game terms, but the most important things about them have shown up in an organic way rather than at my direction.

They are as distinct as people you can meet anywhere, but I never discover everything about them. They have subconscious lives, hidden drives, and spur-of-the-moment urges like any of us. Some of them may think they know everything about themselves, but they don't - and neither do I. Which is part of the joy I find in writing and DMing, because I do not always know what is going to happen next, or what is going to come out of a character's mouth, even when that mouth is being channeled through my own.

And if that sounds nuts, so be it - it's made for some of the best gaming I've ever known. :smoking:
Edited by kismetrose, Jan 28 2010, 12:09 AM.
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