RPG Crisis Community Forums: Designing a Protagonist

0. INTRODUCTION

Designing a Protagonist character starts from brainstorming. You need to consider the following. This guide will help you get the rough idea of what your character will be like.

I. Gender
II. Suitable Name
III. Qualification to be a Protagonist
-History/Past
-Speciality/Skills
IV. Characteristics/Behavior/Personality/Imperfections
V. Introducting the Protagonist

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I. CHOOSING A GENDER

Making a female protagonist is hard, because face it, you're a computer nerd, and you know little about girls. Go socialize some more, and come back when you've got some experience. Done? okay lets proceed.

The protagonist in games are usually male, because its just that guys are naturally stronger, and more brave. However, these are two traits which you might not want in your character. Maybe, you'd like your character to look back, and be afraid more often, or maybe have issues about being weaker than the antagonists, and having to use their brains in more situations, because girls are naturally gifted there. Agree with me.

Having female protagonists also mean you can put in more emotion into scenes and the storyline. You probably don't see many games where the main character, a guy, bursts into tears when his friends get kidnapped or get hurt or what not, they just say "Lets save him! HAIYAAAA! *Round House kicks* *Rescues*.

Okay, so theres the Pros, and the Cons of both genders, but we also have to look at the game's storyline and plot, lets say the story is a guy, risking his life to save a girl, switching this around, would many guys like to be rescued by a girl?

DECIDED? Lets go on then.


II. NAMING YOU PROTAGONIST

This is probably, one of the hardest things to decide on. Because it will, affect your gameplay a lot, especially if the name is unchangaeble. Some games name their characters based on their characteristics and personality, others just use cool words from a different language, and some are just common names.

How should you decide whether to make a slow character named Slug, Mann or John?
I really don't know, their all pretty good. Using a name which reflects on the character's personality is personally in my opinion, the best idea. However, the other could be used also, when you really haven't decided on the character's personality.

Heres some examples:
A slow protagonist named Slug or Sloth
An arrogant protagonist named Crown, Gem or Jewel.
An easy-going protagonist named Slack.
An orphan named Rag or Free, maybe even Ragfree.


III. QUALIFICATIONS

How did the character get into the situation of being the protagonist?
How does his/her past make him suitable to be the Hero here?
How is he/she special, more special than others?

Ask yourself these, and make sure you can really make a story out of it.
Lets use an example.

Final Fantasy VII is a pretty good example.

How did the character get into the situation of being the protagonist?
Cloud Strife got into the situation because he held a grudge against Shin-ra. He joined a group called AVALANCHE to fight against them.

How does his/her past make him suitable to be the Hero here?
He had Zack Fair's memories, and thought himself to be a Ex-SOLDIER 1st Class, who was experimented with by them. He was actually just a normal Soldier officer, who was friends with Zack, suffering from Materia Poisoning after being experimented with by Shin-ra.

How is he/she special, more special than others?
The experiments infused Materia into his body and Jenova cells and stuff, so he was given super-human powers, which he used to fight against Shin-ra with.

See how that works? So just use this, mix it together to the world you created, and the storyline you worked out, and you've got a qualified Protagonist.


IV. CHARACTER

Imperfections
You should definitely not make a protagonist who is completely flawless. You would want a character who screws up every now and then, and lands him or herself into trouble because of these imperfections. For example, a man who finds himself unable to fight a female enermy because he doesn't hit girls, like Sanji from One Piece.

So think of some Characteristics you can give the character.

Personality
You should have quite an equal number of good traits and bad traits like.

Heres a character, his name is Ragfree.
He was born an orphan, and therefore is uneducated, and lacks morals.

-Immoral, Vulgar (Bad)
-Easy-going (Neutral)
-Easily influenced/Gullible (Bad)
-Brave (Good)
-Independant (Neutral, because its good, but at the same time hes hard to work with)
-Enduring (Good)

So basically, he has 2 Good characteristics, 2 Neutral ones, and 2 bad ones.

You might want to expand on this, and make sure you keep to the plan throughout the game, unless something happens in the game to change this, like a life-long lesson, one of these things causing a close friend to die, etc.

Behaviour
The behaviour of this character would have to be based on what you decided his personality to be. For example, because hes easy-going, he tends to let things slide. So if a man is being bullied in an alley, he may choose not to help the man, if hes lazy. But on the other hand, if your character is the opposite, he might stand up to the bullies, or the baddies, by confronting them and saving the man.

If the character is thick-skinned, and braggy, you could have him show how proud of himself he is, by adding scenes where he brags about himself to others.

If the character is a womanizer, you may choose to have him flirting with girls in a bar in an introductory scene, or here and there in the story. This should also lead him into trouble once in awhile. For example, if he flirts with another man's woman, the man would get pissed at him and try kick his ass.

Characteristics
You may want to design some of his looks based on his personality as well. For example, if the character is a constant liar, you could give him a long nose, which is the case for Usopp in One Piece.


V. INTRODUCING THE PROTAGONIST

A common mistake in thinking is that the protagonist should be the first character introduced in the story. Which although is often the case, you can choose not to. Introductions are most important, because it can show a lot of how the character is like in a small scene.

What I mean when I say he/she doesn't have to be the first character introduced, is that, you can always use a temporary character as a playable character at the start, an NPC or you could start the game with a smaller-role playable character, like a party character, to meet the Protagonist a little later in the game, just to make things more interesting.

Another way could be introducing the character in a different time/age, like when hes old and remenescing, telling a story, or when hes young and you're showing his past. Maybe a greyscale scene where he grows up in a farm, and he returns home to see his parents dead, and a murderer escaping through a window.

You could also do something like, the first scene is in a bar, where the Protagonist is flirting with girls, drunk in a bar, he goes on a little rampage, fooling around. He gets himself into trouble with another guy, he looks stronger, and the Protagonist looks smaller and weaker, but the main character puts on a serious face and slashes the other guy up. He then passes out himself, and finds himself in an inn, the next morning.


THE END?

I hope this tutorial has helped you at least a little.
It took me about 2 hours to finish the tutorial, while doing my Chemistry homework, and watching Southpark. I had absolutely no planning at all, but these things naturally come to my head, because of experience.

I would like to ask that if you do want to use this tutorial on any other website than RPGCrisis.net, that you ask my permission, or at the very least, give me credit.

You may contact me at Magdreamer@hotmail.com (MSN/Email)