The Four Cs of Characters
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
I wrote this in my notebook while working on Petrograd and it seemed like a thing to share:What makes a fit character for this game? The Four Cs.
Connected: The character has relationships (positive and negative) with other significant characters in the situation.
Committed: The character has a stake in the outcome of the situation, and will stay to see it through.
Capable: The character has the capacity to affect change in the situation by taking decisive action.
Conflicted: The character has beliefs and goals that are in conflict. They must make choices about which are more important, and which must be abandoned or changed.
I'm making all the characters for Petrograd (they're pregens, like in Lady Blackbird) and those are my parameters. I think those are probably applicable to other games, too. Burning Wheel character creation hits those notes, for example.