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one i know this might be the wrong forum for this kind of thread but i chose this forum in hopes of expanding my own limited information pool on the subject through discussion and to hope fully help fellow developers add depth to their characters and games 
now on to the topic
hi everyone.... i am a long time RPG fan, enjoying JRPGs, strategy RPGs, hack and slash RPGs, and table top RPGs for the last 20 years of my life......and started developing about since RPG maker VX first hit the scene..... but due lack of knowledge and certain skills i havent released a single game.....
this topic is to Discuss developing characters for your story and party and some other things that can bring depth to a game
first and foremost....developing characters.... is difficult..... random NPCs who dont have an impact on the game/story easy, but characters that develop the story or are key to the plot not so much.... if you try and tackle every aspect at once.... break it down into parts
Race: what is their race? this can help with determining traits, back story, goals, ambitions, etc. helps to determine resistances, stats and weaknesses for player characters, enemies and villans
Name: don't think to hard on this.... in fact you can save this for last.... so long as the name fits your world's lore/culture it will work
Goal: what are they trying to acheive, heck this can be as simple as world peace, or as complex as being the worlds best body builder, this simply determines why they make certain choices and has minimal impact
Archetype: this is where things start to get complex, archetypes determine the base personality, and for player characters how their stats grow, effects how they tend to act towards certain actions and how they go about completing goals..... this however does not determine role or class for player characters and enemies....... more information will be below
short bio: come up with a short life bio, include little details that can help flesh out the character more
likes and dislikes: just some things to flesh the character out more and can be used as narrative devices
and for player characters and enemies only
Element: not needed but for games that focus on elements and weaknesses this could help with developing base resistances and the like.... more information below
Role: what role in combat to plan for this character to preform.... more information below
Class: decide on the class of player characters..... more information below
when you break it down into parts like this it becomes easier to develop your world's lore and characters
Now for some information and myth busting:
Archetype: the basic personality of the character, for player characters and villans, developers for some reason think this determines a characters role and class, when it fact it doesnt..... just becuase a character has a warrior archetype doesnt mean they have to be a warrior..... nor does a guardian archetype have to serve as the tank role, all this does is determine how they grow and interact with the world, and it might have an impact on their stats
Roles: the role of a character in combat effects the type of skills they use and generally how their stats are geared.....
Tank: the most prominent role, their task is to draw aggro and take the bulk of the attacks for the party.... this role how ever does not equal high hp and high defense.....in fact the tank can be broken down into several differant types
the sponge - boasts high hp, able to absorb blows that would kill other allies due to this, this type of tank uses skills to draw fire and buffer his defenses rather then relying on heavy armor
the wall - boasts a high towering defense that is nigh inpregnable, like the sponge it buffers its defenses with skills but naturally draws fire
the Dodger - using high agility this tank relies on not being hit and sacrifices higher armor to allow for them to be light on their feet
the regenerator - instead of relying on heavy defenses, high hp or great agility, this tank relies on skills to regain their health over time
usually the wall and sponge or the sponge and regenerator are used together as one character
DPT/DPS: Damage per turn/second characters are generally geared towards dealing as much damage as fast as possible..... though damage over time effects can be employed by this role
Healer: basic role is to heal the party's health and ailments, but is generally fused with the support aka cheerleader role
Support: also known as the cheerleader..... uses skills to improve the party's performance in combat
Saboutour: basicly the support role only it debilitates the enemy with ailments and lowers their performance
Class: is not needed.... in fact you could just use this to determine how you want the character to preform in combat and such..... or just to be used as a title..... as role, archetype, race, and bio already take care of everything a class does.....
yea i know most of you already know most of this but its good to have it out there
now Elements..... this is the bread an butter of a combat system..... as you can, thanks to the many brillent scripters/plug in makers out there, use elements to have a huge impact on battle
we can add depth to battles by using elements like anti-type, anti-trait, or even making certain weapon types an element (with certain plug ins can be used to increase a character's effectiveness with this type of weapon)
by giving each playable character their own base resistances and affinities you add alot more depth to battles and player interaction with the story i mean who wants to play a game where every playable character has the same resistances.....
..... now for a little bit of a touchy topic.... skills and gear.... a character's arsenal of skills and gear can make or break a game.....
see stats can only take a character so far.... their gear and arsenal of skills needs to take them the rest of the way..... a spell caster with high mana and magic attack can be brought down if they have a small arsenal of spells.... but spell casters are a bad example of this
see a spell casters arsenal is determined by the type of spell caster..... a sage will have a more varied arsenal while a fire magus' arsenal is all fire elemental, but it is for this reason why spell caster are the kings of RPGs..... the sheer variaty of spell effects allow them to fill several roles, they can be situational or useful anywhere
also there is a differance between a good arsenal and a large arsenal...... a good arsenal has a good variaty of skills to fit many situations or can be built towards one goal (like dragon slaying or specific element), while a large arsenal is hard to sift through and manage
Gear is a big determining factor of how the party fairs in combat...... but it can do more.... for instance to add more depth you can have axe weapons though stronger then swords lower hit rate and attack speed..... or have a spear ignore portions of enemy defense (major plug in needed here), and you can go so far as to have an actor's favorite weapon type determine their stats....
other things can be like having heavy armor with higher defense and crit avoid then light armor but you take penaties to speed and evasion rates and so on and so forth
well thats my limited information pool... i also have trouble getting my thoughts down on paper and spelling......
well did i miss anything or is there anything you would like to expand on please feel free this is a good learning experiance for everyone even me..... hopefully it helps someone and hopefully we can expand on it more through good discussion
now on to the topic
hi everyone.... i am a long time RPG fan, enjoying JRPGs, strategy RPGs, hack and slash RPGs, and table top RPGs for the last 20 years of my life......and started developing about since RPG maker VX first hit the scene..... but due lack of knowledge and certain skills i havent released a single game.....
this topic is to Discuss developing characters for your story and party
and some other things that can bring depth to a gamefirst and foremost....developing characters.... is difficult..... random NPCs who dont have an impact on the game/story easy, but characters that develop the story or are key to the plot not so much.... if you try and tackle every aspect at once.... break it down into parts
Race: what is their race? this can help with determining traits, back story, goals, ambitions, etc. helps to determine resistances, stats and weaknesses for player characters, enemies and villans
Name: don't think to hard on this.... in fact you can save this for last.... so long as the name fits your world's lore/culture it will work
Goal: what are they trying to acheive, heck this can be as simple as world peace, or as complex as being the worlds best body builder, this simply determines why they make certain choices and has minimal impact
Archetype: this is where things start to get complex, archetypes determine the base personality, and for player characters how their stats grow, effects how they tend to act towards certain actions and how they go about completing goals..... this however does not determine role or class for player characters and enemies....... more information will be below
short bio: come up with a short life bio, include little details that can help flesh out the character more
likes and dislikes: just some things to flesh the character out more and can be used as narrative devices
and for player characters and enemies only
Element: not needed but for games that focus on elements and weaknesses this could help with developing base resistances and the like.... more information below
Role: what role in combat to plan for this character to preform.... more information below
Class: decide on the class of player characters..... more information below
when you break it down into parts like this it becomes easier to develop your world's lore and characters
Now for some information and myth busting:
Archetype: the basic personality of the character, for player characters and villans, developers for some reason think this determines a characters role and class, when it fact it doesnt..... just becuase a character has a warrior archetype doesnt mean they have to be a warrior..... nor does a guardian archetype have to serve as the tank role, all this does is determine how they grow and interact with the world, and it might have an impact on their stats
Roles: the role of a character in combat effects the type of skills they use and generally how their stats are geared.....
Tank: the most prominent role, their task is to draw aggro and take the bulk of the attacks for the party.... this role how ever does not equal high hp and high defense.....in fact the tank can be broken down into several differant types
the sponge - boasts high hp, able to absorb blows that would kill other allies due to this, this type of tank uses skills to draw fire and buffer his defenses rather then relying on heavy armor
the wall - boasts a high towering defense that is nigh inpregnable, like the sponge it buffers its defenses with skills but naturally draws fire
the Dodger - using high agility this tank relies on not being hit and sacrifices higher armor to allow for them to be light on their feet
the regenerator - instead of relying on heavy defenses, high hp or great agility, this tank relies on skills to regain their health over time
usually the wall and sponge or the sponge and regenerator are used together as one character
DPT/DPS: Damage per turn/second characters are generally geared towards dealing as much damage as fast as possible..... though damage over time effects can be employed by this role
Healer: basic role is to heal the party's health and ailments, but is generally fused with the support aka cheerleader role
Support: also known as the cheerleader..... uses skills to improve the party's performance in combat
Saboutour: basicly the support role only it debilitates the enemy with ailments and lowers their performance
Class: is not needed.... in fact you could just use this to determine how you want the character to preform in combat and such..... or just to be used as a title..... as role, archetype, race, and bio already take care of everything a class does.....
yea i know most of you already know most of this but its good to have it out there
now Elements..... this is the bread an butter of a combat system..... as you can, thanks to the many brillent scripters/plug in makers out there, use elements to have a huge impact on battle
we can add depth to battles by using elements like anti-type, anti-trait, or even making certain weapon types an element (with certain plug ins can be used to increase a character's effectiveness with this type of weapon)
by giving each playable character their own base resistances and affinities you add alot more depth to battles and player interaction with the story
i mean who wants to play a game where every playable character has the same resistances.......... now for a little bit of a touchy topic.... skills and gear.... a character's arsenal of skills and gear can make or break a game.....
see stats can only take a character so far.... their gear and arsenal of skills needs to take them the rest of the way..... a spell caster with high mana and magic attack can be brought down if they have a small arsenal of spells.... but spell casters are a bad example of this
see a spell casters arsenal is determined by the type of spell caster..... a sage will have a more varied arsenal while a fire magus' arsenal is all fire elemental, but it is for this reason why spell caster are the kings of RPGs..... the sheer variaty of spell effects allow them to fill several roles
, they can be situational or useful anywherealso there is a differance between a good arsenal and a large arsenal...... a good arsenal has a good variaty of skills to fit many situations or can be built towards one goal (like dragon slaying or specific element), while a large arsenal is hard to sift through and manage
Gear is a big determining factor of how the party fairs in combat...... but it can do more.... for instance to add more depth you can have axe weapons though stronger then swords lower hit rate and attack speed..... or have a spear ignore portions of enemy defense (major plug in needed here), and you can go so far as to have an actor's favorite weapon type determine their stats....
other things can be like having heavy armor with higher defense and crit avoid then light armor but you take penaties to speed and evasion rates and so on and so forth
well thats my limited information pool... i also have trouble getting my thoughts down on paper and spelling......
well did i miss anything or is there anything you would like to expand on please feel free
this is a good learning experiance for everyone even me..... hopefully it helps someone and hopefully we can expand on it more through good discussion
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