charecters that hijack the story -_-

[Oddball]

yea, this keeps happening to me. its so bad that in my current project i had to have a party member who hasnt joined yet mug the player looking for food just to focus on someone else for a while


ok, im done talking about my game in this thread, how do you deal with this problem?

 

[The Right Hand Man]

So,what you need here is how your story goes about the hijacker joining the party? Is the "Someone else" sick (might be her mom or summat)?

 

[Oddball]

its usually the main charecter, and i said i was done talking about my projects in this thread. does that happen to you? how do you deal with it?

 

[The Right Hand Man]

I don't quite understand your comment. What's usually the main character?

 

[Nirwanda]

Come on, Oddball, be cool! I know this section is for general discussion, but if someone wants to talk about the personal experience that sparked the thread... What's the harm in it?


That said, I almost have it happen to me: in the first town, I have this really cool witch who joins you, she is both really smart and a bit of a ditz. Which makes her a very entertaining character. When she's around she gets most of the funny lines because they make more sense coming out of her. How did I solve the issue? Well, she has further obligations in town so she can't leave with you once you're ready to move on to the next plot segment.


At least that's my experience with a story-hijacking character. Is this what you meant? Or did you meant something else? Honestly you wrote such a short opening post that it's kind of hard to tell what you mean.


EDIT: Now that I reread it I think you might mean the exact opposite. Are you asking how to make a different character than the main one be the focus? So, the opposite of what happened to me?

 

[Oddball]

ok, and spoilers ahead


well, i tried to have a charecter that has a goal join the party so that i could do charecter development on other charecters, then her ex who was left at the alter because the main charecter was kiddnaped (and escaped on her own) shows up and when she asks if they could continue getting married the ex says they have a baby with the charecter that i tried to have join the party, so its back to focusing on the main charecters struggle -_-


so i had to have another charecter mug her for food to focus on someone else


@Nirwanda: yes, but your post is very much appreciated because i can use the knowlage from your experince in my situation

 

[Nirwanda]

You're making one @Oddball game!


My stupidity aside, one easy way to make a permanent main character without resorting to off the wall stuff is through dialogue.


So, for example, the hijacker character, strikes up a conversation with the new character you want to focus on and starts talking about how convoluted their love life has become. That would get new focus chara reminiscent about something from their past. Say...an old story they heard from their grandpa. And from the narration of that story, if you write it right, you can lead up the story anywhere you want. Sometimes quiet moments can move the story along just as much as bigger flashier stuff, like a mugging or the sudden appearance of a villain.


Though I think that being mugged is a valid plot point too.


Anyway that's my opinion, I hope it helps, even if a little.


(I hope I understood your point right)

 

[Oddball]

very much so. Now i want to stop hijacking this topic

 

[LaFlibuste]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think your main problem lies with poor character development. You need to not only really develop each character's back story and personality, but make sure it ties in with the rest of the party AND the main quest. 


For example, I created a pair of characters with a friend for a DnD game when I was younger, he was half-angel and I was half-demon, we were like two halves of the same person and couldn't wander more than x miles from each others because of magic. Sounded interesting on paper, but it got old very fast: we were really just splitting the party with infighting and the quest went nowhere. So your characters need not only be interesting by themselves, but bring something interesting to the party. What are their values, opinions, what do they/will they think of other members? How will they interact? Will it actually help the story go forward and be more interesting or just detract from it?


About my second point, characters need to have a reason to join the party. Your party is likely on some sort of epic quest. Maybe the hero or some other dude does it "to save the world", but most characters will do it for something else entirely and maybe save the the world at the same time, as an option. Unless it's a joke game or the story is very light and unimportant, no character will likely join the party for the hero's nice smile or just for kicks. Or at least not in the long run. They will all have more or less assumed motives that more or less ties in with the plot. About your character that's been left at the altar by his pregnant wife or something, what does that have to do with the quest? Will the quest bring him by a town he knows his almost-wife to be? Or will it allow him to flee and hide from her, if that's his thing? They can also have multiple motivations, some they don't even know of yet: say that character fell in love again, maybe with a party member, and wants to help her out, and along the way he stumbles upon his ex-almost-wife. I don't know, anyway, whatever.

So yeah, I really gotta go, but to resume: plan your story ahead, at least in broad strokes, and do more character development. If the hero or any other character is hogging the spotlight, maybe it's because the others are not spotlight-worthy. That or poor writing, I guess...

 

[Oddball]

i dont think ploting backstory is the real issue though. its more the charecters themselves just do whatever they damn well please and dont care what i have planned for them