Dialogue and Character creation

I know what youre thinking, Odd title. Well lets face it, we may have created a good plot line in the last tutorial but what good is it if the characters talk like robots? Ive witnessed this thing many times in Qbasic RPGs. I want to cross the bridge You cant cross Then well fight Okay. I mean who talks like that? Seriously. But can you truly just make the characters talk without developing them? Sure, its possible, take the following example. Soldier: This was once the ancient Kingdom of Heir. Now these ruins are all that remain. Levi: Then why are you here? Soldier: It was our duty in life to protect this kingdom. We have not yet been relieved of our duties. (Soldier vanishes) Did you see what I did there? I created a soldier character and without previous development gave him a personality, a past, and a purpose. And though this is all well and good I prefer making each and every character personally in order to bring out the greatest dialogue possible. If you remember from our last tutorial there are four major types of characters besides the obvious main characters. Main Secondary Characters Secondary Characters Anomalous Characters (Originally Random, but graciously changed by Pete) And Disposable Characters

1. Disposable Characters
Now one of the most asked questions is, Why bother developing a Disposable Character? Very good question with a very simple answer. You dont. Its true that disposable characters can be talked to. And do need good dialogue to really bring out the game, but how do you do this? Well Im not going to go giving these guys a past or develop their relationships to others. I am however going to give them a personality. Picture this, a woman walking down the street carrying a bucket with which she intends to pick up some water. Here is the first step to successfully creating a Disposable Character. The Now. The Now is an odd thing, but easy enough to learn and understand. Basically, its what the character is doing now. Not what they are going to do, or what they did do. But what they are doing. In this case, shes going to the well for water. Simple, do you have

to talk to her to find relevant info? No. But we have given her a personality we can use already. Shes a water fetcher, from that alone the user can imagine her as a house wife, or maid. But what if she does talk? What if the user decides to talk to her? Well thats the next part. The Who. The Who may sound like it contradicts what I said earlier about not developing the character, or not giving them anything to truly identify them. Well, we can give her a name. Lets call her Rose. Rose we can say is a gossip. So when you talk to her. Shell give you juicy tid-bits. And Walla you have a Disposable Character. Rose, house wife, and gossip. Speak to her to learn something about the state of the world

2. Anomalous Characters
Here is the definition I gave for these Random characters. I made this up basically but in a game these do exist. They are much like regular Secondary Characters except that their parts are far under developed and a stupid move by them causes the whole game to go out of wack. These characters are ones who if you dont beat to a certain area youll never finish your objective, these are minor enemies and bosses who are there only for the purpose of stopping you and making the game more fun and time consuming. Ever played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? Do you remember getting into a horse race with a man called Ingo. Well believe it or not you need to race him to get Epona, the horse. And this horse makes things easier, and I can almost guarantee that she is needed to finish the game. Well Ingo is an Anomalous Character, his position on the Ranch is a hired helper. He is of no real importance. He is later consumed with evil and takes over the Ranch but by stealing the horse he goes back to normal. His Character is very undeveloped, but he has a past, he a position in the now, and he has a personality. So he does have some development under him. And he serves one major purpose, to make the game that much more difficult to win and offer a bit more fun. So lets go over what we need for these characters. We need a past, we need a purpose, we need a now, we need a personality. Even one of the weakest bosses has a past to him. Lets say youre playing in Arabia, the sub-boss here is an old snake charmer. We have a now. His first line is, Youll never get past me. His purpose is to keep you away. But that leaves us wanting two things. One a past, and two a personality. Lets look at that line, Youll never get past me. Dull, clich, over done. Isnt there something we can do to liven it up? Sure, Kantaba will reward me for your death. Unless youre afraid, I might be willing to let you go. See? In those few short phrases we emphasized the now. We gave him a purpose on a more detailed scale, we gave him a personality. Hes greedy, looking for a reward, and willing to kill. We also gave him a slight past. Kantaba, is his leader and promised him something for your capture or death. Its not an extreme past but knowing hes a snake charmer gives you some idea of what hes been doing with his life. It also gives you something to work on for the fights. Youll also notice small characters like Ingo always muttering under their breaths. Making deals, complaining and bragging. Knowing your characters, what role they play

in your game. And what pasts they have, really brings out the ability to make stunning dialogue.

3. Secondary Characters
These characters are the extra characters who give depth to all of your main characters. Levis parents, Jessies friend Allegra, people who exist for the sole purpose of being helpful but unnecessary. Who accentuate and give a realness feeling to your characters without having any say in how the game turns out. Now if you notice or remember Secondary characters, unlike Anomalous Characters, dont determine any part of the game. They are more for story events, or to whine, or give purpose to the main characters. Lets take for example, that one guy in that one game. Yeah you know the one Im talking about, or better yet you dont. These characters are notorious for talking to you, crying out loud, telling you where to go, and then vanishing from sight until later in the game. Now dont get me wrong when I tell you that they dont determine how the game turns out, they do move the game forward. I mean if that strange guy who turns out to be your father doesnt save you in the beginning, you wont live long enough to find out hes your father. However, him saving you is built into the game. You dont have to convince him to save you by doing a whole bunch of side games, he just does once you reach a certain portion. So he wont determine how the game turns out, but he will move it forward. But notice, I made him your father. I made it a secret, which means his past is secret but enough is known, hes your father, to give him a past. His personality gets to be developed right away or later in the game depending on how fast you present the character. If youre talking to a friend the past, purpose, and so on are determined right away. However if you talk to someone who turns out to be someone from your past later on, a lot of them is hidden for later. Basically Anomalous Characters and Secondary Characters are the same in their need for development. But how they are seen and used is different. Thats all. Dialogue will however tend to be far more developed for them since they move the game on that much more. I mean a Father who challenges you to a side game for a special object you need, will talk less than a Father who gives you words of wisdom. So keep in mind what type of character each is and develop them accordingly.

4. Main Secondary Characters

These are the extra characters who have just as much say and purpose in the story as the main characters, just not as large a part. In an RPG these would be the followers or group members of your party. In games like Zelda these are the main characters whom you always have to visit, meet, help, receive help from. And so on. Youll notice that Main Secondary Characters in regular games are almost exactly like Anomalous and Secondary Characters. The difference? Again, they make the story move forward and offer more than simple words. You can play games with them, you work with them to save someone, or save them. They are important to the game in how

you interact with them. So their personalities, their pasts, their purposes, are tied with the main characters. Making them that much harder to produce effective dialogue for. The other characters if youll notice have preset things to say, will say no more and no less than what they are programmed to say and change as events happen. This is the same with all non-Main characters obviously. But though Main Secondary Characters also have preset things to say, they can change depending on your reactions to them. To move the story forward, or to move to a side game. To save and give helpful info and objects to, or to work with to save such a person. A common Dialogue between the main and Main Secondary Characters could be like Navi and Link in Zelda. Where Navi points out things you should check out, tells you what its found and enemies weaknesses. As well as giving good dialogue during story sequences to explain things and move the story along. Their personalities and their relationship with the Main characters develop during the story and so what they say and do is more like a roller coaster than a flat road. Keep these things in mind when developing these characters.

5. Main Characters
Now wait a minute. Didnt we already develop these characters in the first tutorial? The answer, yes. Or at least you were suppose to. We gave them a past, we gave them personalities. We gave them looks, and attitudes, and purpose, where they are now and where they were before. Everything we ever needed to give them. So why talk about them? Well again, we may have those but those are the building blocks to good dialogue. Imagine I have a character who is a hot head. If someone swears at him and tells him to get lost, will he get lost? Will he just shrug his shoulders and leave? NO! Hell yell at the guy, start a fight, swear back if he has to. Hell probably be short on words in fact. Often stuttering as hes trying to control his anger only to burst out with a loud war cry. There of course is the chance hed just leave only to take out his anger in another way but you have to plan for these things. How is your character most likely to react to each of these types of characters? How do his past, purpose, relationships, and current hardships affect who he is and how he acts? These are important questions to consider. But the biggest question is what happened just before the characters introduction. Lets face it, in all games something has happened to the character, his village, his family, he was off traveling, he was doing chores, he was playing games, sleeping, something. He was doing something before the game started and before he entered. How does that affect his personality at that moment? A person angry at having to do chores is less likely to be whistling than someone coming home after a long journey and daydreaming. Lets look at Levi from my previous story example. Heres how I introduced him. War, there isnt a single generation that has been spared its wrath. Not a single child alive nor still born has escaped its looming presence. That death like grip that holds all men in fear for their lives. Now war is not simply over there being fought by a few. Its here, its now, its being fought by all.

Levi walked down the streets of his once lovely town, now crumbling with decay and destruction. As he watched the once proud building tumble and corrode slowly he realized that with greed came such destruction, and that in this world of death that so many suffered, death itself was the only escape this devastation offered. If he didnt have the love of his family, of his friends, Levi might just wish for such an end himself. Now if youll notice how I introduced the setting. Setting again is important to the beginning, The Now of the character, and his personality. I said that a once proud city had fallen in war. I described the world and the destruction that plagued it. The horrible living conditions, how most just wanted to die. And how much Levi relied on his family. My oh my what might happen if one went missing? I introduced The Now, I brought a bit of his personality to life. Ive given him relationships. And Ive done a bit of foreshadowing. Ill explain foreshadowing in depth in another tutorial. That short piece introduced so much and gives you a slight idea of what to expect when we meet Levi himself and he begins a dialogue with his friends and family. I hope this has given you much to think about. That dialogue is determined by your characters, their positions, their personalities and likely reactions to the settings and other characters. And how these can make or break a plot line. Good luck and happy gaming.