I have made up more fictional people than I know in real life. I like some of them better, hate some of them more, and enjoy the company of many, more than their corporeal counterparts.

This probably makes me warped. S’okay, I can live with that. Until I actually start seeing them, I figure I’m doing all right.

If I were asked to define a “good” character (in terms of quality, not philosophy), I would say that a good character should be memorable, not be ”perfect,” and evoke an emotional reaction.

Let’s take a look at each of those in turn.

1. Memorable Characters.

The way a character looks is going to affect the reactions of others; like it or not, we still dwell in a world where first impressions are made by sight (the growing exception being the Internet).

The words you use to describe a character will shape what others expect of that character’s personality, whether accurate or not.

Interestingly, studies have shown that we have an innate tendency to attribute positive qualities (higher intelligence, stronger morals, general nice-ness) to good-looking people, and negative ones to less-good-looking. So, whatever it might say about us as a species, we seem to want instinctively to judge the book by the cover, and believe that beauty = goodness. Unless “beauty” is prefaced by words such as “cold,” or “sinister.”

Therefore, if you want a character to be liked and trusted, make him/her physically attractive ... whether or not this like-and-trust is deserved. And vice-versa.

One way to hook an important character in the reader/player’s mind is to give him/her a notable feature. Scars, an unusual hair color, or remarkable eyes are all possibilities (and do note that a scar or even a disfigurement such as a missing eye, can add to a character’s attractiveness if handled appropriately).

Going along with appearance is voice. A GM comfortable with his/her acting ability might enjoy speaking in accents and giving striking speech patterns to notable NPCs; a writer can do the same thing though should be careful not to dialect it into the point of being unreadable.

1A. Stereotypes

These can be your best friend, believe it or not. They’re comfortable when you use them, and noteworthy when you break them.

Suppose that in your world, the common stereotype is that all thieves are small and wiry. This makes perfect sense; a small wiry person is likely to be naturally more adept at moving quietly and getting into or out of tight places than a larger person.

Break it, make your thief large and portly, and you’ve accomplished two things. First, nobody’s going to suspect. Second, when they do catch on, it’ll be memorable. That thief will be marked in the reader/player’s memory.

1B. Names.

Juliet said that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but Juliet was a naive 14-year-old girl with emotional problems, and thus perhaps should not be considered an authority.

A name is perhaps the most vital part of a character. It has to:

Be pronounceable -- too many fantasy authors get frisky with their apostrophes and letter combinations, coming up with names that might look cool on paper but fumble on the tongue. If a reader has to stop and try and figure out what a name sounds like, it breaks the flow of the story.

Fit the world -- for fantasy authors/GM s, this tends to let out all modern / trendy names, though some classics like Jason have remarkable staying power.

Suit / define / describe the character -- in general, a hero should have a “strong” sounding name, while the villain will have one a bit more ominous. A dwarven character’s name might be heavy on the hard consonants, while elves have airy names with lots of vowels. Last names in medieval societies were taken from the person’s appearance, occupation, or place of residence.

There are several resources available to you. I heartily recommend the Character Naming Sourcebook, by the Writers’ Digest Book Club. Baby name books will often tell you the meaning and place of origin of each name. When all else fails, there’s the phone book -- and you can get quite a bit of mileage switching one letter or spelling to make a modern name more exotic and suitable for a fantasy world.

GM s in particular will want to keep a handy list of generic names; you can be almost certain that sooner or later, your players will take keen interest in an NPC that you intended only as a brief encounter, and you don’t want to be caught flat-footed when they pop up with, “What’s his name?”

With sufficient practice, you may find that your characters come complete with names already attached; that it’s not so much a matter of naming them as finding out what their real name has been all along. This happens to me quite often; the name will just come to me and I will instantly know that it’s right.

2. Perfection.

There’s a phenomenon so common among writers that it has a name -- Mary Sue Syndrome. Basically, this is the tendency of the author to live out wish fulfillment, usually by inserting a character based on him/herself. Said character often turns out to be smarter / faster / stronger / more powerful / better looking than everyone else in the story.

This is generally a bad idea. It’s painfully obvious, readers don’t like it, and everyone gets sorely tired of this one infallible superstar constantly saving the day (it’s by no means limited to beginning writers; two prime examples would be D’Artagnan from The Three Musketeers and Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

It can be even more of a pitfall for gamers; several games on the market actively encourage players to design characters based on themselves. I personally don’t advise this; it’s not much of an exercise of the creativity.

One of the hallmarks of the Mary Sue is perfection. Flawlessness. Can-do-no-wrong. Which is horrendously unrealistic, and actually not much fun. In The Hobbit, Tolkien mentioned that tales of misery and woe make the best telling; nobody wants to hear about endless parties in Rivendell. Same goes for characters; perfect people are boring!

So go ahead! Make your characters flawed! Give them personality problems! Built-in obstacles to overcome are often more interesting than external ones.

3. Evoking Emotions.

I confess, I am something of an emotional vampire. In my writing and my gaming, it is the thrill of the rollercoaster ride than appeals to me. I thrive on taking my readers/players from heights of fun to depths of anguish, usually with a few stops at mirth or anger along the way.

The best way to do this is through characters. If I can create someone that someone else reacts strongly to, loves or hates, doesn’t matter which, I consider my job well-begun.

To this day, my husband Tim cannot say or hear the name “Stefan” without snarling, thanks to a game I ran almost five years ago.

To this day, Tim’s sister Kathy collects pirate ships because, in a previous game, her character fell in love with an NPC pirate captain.

To this day, I cannot read Cujo without wanting to slap Donna Trenton silly. Ditto for Carter Burke from Aliens; I was never quite able to enjoy Paul Reiser in any other role because he was so, so despicable.

And then there’s Jericho ... a character that I introduced to my Gargoyles fanfiction saga some time ago (and speaking of names that just come to you, he was one; it wasn’t so much a matter of creating him as discovering him).

Jericho is an insane bloodthirsty killer with an Oedipal complex resolved in the most unspeakable way; yet he is also slavishly devoted, handsome, and a total hunk.

Love him (he has his own Fan Club), hate him (he almost has his own Hate Club), or be too creeped out by him to even read those stories ... nobody’s neutral. When it comes to evoking emotional reactions, he takes the cake, candles, and ice cream.

So ... how to do it? How to hit that nerve, push that button?

Manipulation is an art that requires an understanding of basic human emotions and motivations, and the (some would say sadistic) willingness to get in there and tweak them.

The reader or player must care about the characters involved in order for emotions to come into play. For a gamer; who has just spent X-hours building a PC, they have a personal investment already.

In writing, starting off with a fairly normal person and then putting him or her in danger is the hook. My first novel begins with Arien Mirida taking a wrong turn into a dark alley. While the average reader is not going to be an elf or a wizard, the basic situation is one with which the reader can empathize.

Most important of all, I’ve found, the writer/GM must not be afraid to involve his/her own emotions. The more actual emotion goes into the writing, the more impact it will have on the reader, because it will have the ring of sincerity. If I get misty-eyed when writing a sad scene, or my breathing fogs up the monitor writing a love scene, I can be confident that things are going well.

So, as a wise Jedi once said, “Trust your feelings.”

3A. Love Interests.

I am a matchmaker at heart; in most of my writing and gaming, I take a great deal of joy in pairing up characters.

Love is the deepest and most complex of all emotions; it can inspire strength and foster courage; it can bring vulnerability, fear, despair.

Love is contradictory: birds of a feather flock together; opposites attract.

That’s the key. That contradiction. To love, there must be an element of each. Enough in common to get along, enough diverse to complement each other’s abilities and needs.

When you as the writer/GM plan to introduce the love interest, that first meeting is all-important. It must be dramatic, it must be memorable. Whether it is “love at first sight” or not is up to you, but there should be something at first sight, to make the character stand out.

Here are some tried-and-true maxims that have worked for me:

Shared danger heightens emotional bonds.
The more you suffer for a goal, the more important the goal becomes.

The better you know your characters, the better you’ll be able to come up with their “perfect match.” In gaming, this also means having to know a little something about your players, not just their characters.

For example, over ten years of gaming together I have come to know exactly what works for my husband Tim. No matter what character he is playing, there are certain traits that they’ll all go for in a love interest -- mysterious, strong-willed, capable, elegant (and usually brunette). Those are his buttons, and I take utter advantage of them.

Introducing love interests opens doors to all manner of excellent storylines. Lover’s spats, love triangles, unrequited love, forbidden love, jealous spouses, jilted suitors, kidnapped sweethearts ... the list is endless.

As a female gamer in a male-dominated hobby, I admit I probably have an edge on than my brother GM s when it comes to roleplaying romance. Even though we all know it’s a game, it is often difficult for a male GM and a male PC to roleplay a flirty situation even when female characters are involved. But such talk coming from a female GM -- though it’s still just a game, folks! -- is generally okay. All part of living in our mixed-up double-standard world, I suppose.

Conclusion:

Creating characters is not about what they can do, it’s about who they are. In my novel, Arien may know dozens of spells, and Cat may be able to best six thugs in a swordfight ... but that’s not what the book is about. It’s about a tormented and lonely man, and the spirited young girl who gives him hope.

Next issue, we’ll be taking a look at “dungeons” by many names. Whether a haunted castle, a troll-infested swamp, a temple to an evil deity, or a mountaintop dragon’s cave, sooner or later your characters are going to end up there.

-- Christine Morgan

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