Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 23 - Character Arcs

Episode Date: May 31, 2020

In what will hopefully help role players, we explore positive and negative character arcs.  How do you give a character an arc to follow?  Using examples from popular media, we look at how arcs can progress.  Finally, we talk briefly about how to support arcs for your fellow players' characters.  Come see us at Taking 20 Podcast.com

this episode of the taking 20 podcast is brought to you by candy great as a kid not so great for you as an adult ladies and gentlemen thank you for tuning into the taking 20 podcast episode 23 character arcs first and foremost to those of you who are listening to this podcast thank you i check my download numbers multiple times per week, and it makes me realize how much it's worth it when an episode gets 15 or 20 downloads. So if you're listening to this podcast, thank you so much for doing so. If you like this podcast, I would dare say if you love this podcast, but I'll take a like right now.

If you like the podcast, I need a favor. Please tell one person about it, tweet about it, join the Facebook group, join the subreddit. I'd love to see this podcast continue to grow, but it won't happen without you, and I'd love to get more engagement with the people that are listening to this. Give me a hand, and hopefully we'll see this podcast grow together. So character arcs. As a preface, this episode will be more useful for roleplay-heavy campaigns. If your group doesn't have a lot of character development or roleplay moments, you probably won't get as much out of this immediately, but it might pay dividends in the future, so hopefully you'll still get something out of it.

So you're in a campaign, or you're starting a long campaign, and you want your character to grow and develop as part of the story. What you want is a character arc. A character arc is the transformation or inner journey of a character during a story. You begin as one sort of person and then gradually transform into something or someone different. Your character changes as a result of interacting with the world around them. Many times the start of the arc is based on a lie they tell themselves. The author K.M. Whelan defines the lie your character believes as something he wants but shouldn't have. A false promise of happiness that he needs to forget in order to grow as a person.

This lie usually forms around fears, flaws, doubts, or regrets. Fears. Maybe they're unjustifiably scared by someone or something or some element of their own psyche. Flaws, such as a negative trait that keeps them from happiness. They're prone to anger. Doubt. They have an uncertainty about their future. Uncertainty about something about themselves. Or regrets.

Past actions that make them feel unworthy of happiness. I'm not worthy of having friends. I'll never find love because I'm so angry all the time. If I become CEO, my father will finally respect me. This lie could be from a bad assumption. For RPG characters, the lie could be something along the lines of, I will do anything to murder my husband's killer. lie could be something on the lines of, I will do anything to murder my husband's killer. I am the strongest and should always get my way because of it. Might makes right. I don't care who my parents are and my heritage means nothing to me. I was rejected by my social group and will never be wanted by anyone. Now character arcs in general can be positive or negative. Let's look at a few from literature.

Hamlet starts out as a learned prince, but is indecisive and doubtful. He kills the wrong person, and it starts a descent into madness. Daenerys Targaryen believes she is a pawn of her brother, realizes her worth, becomes a queen, and then, well, the hot microwaved garbage of season eight happens, so let's just leave that alone, shall we? Frozen. Elsa revels in her abilities, winds up hurting her sister, believes her powers are dangerous, and tries the conceal-don't-feel solution, which, by the way, as an aside, may be the worst advice given in the history of movie making. Just short of, the monsters out there, let's split up, we'll cover more ground that way. Breaking Bad. Walter White was a high school chemistry teacher with lung cancer. He becomes a drug manufacturer to try to make money for medical costs. Downward spiral into a fear-inducing

monster that he winds up as. The Lord of the Rings trilogy had a ton of character arcs. Frodo, for example, was always good from the very beginning, but he was transformed by his long interaction with the ring and the ordeal to try to get it to Mount Doom. He became a more serious but wiser person. Merry and Pippin were kind of troublemakers. They were changed by their roles in the War of the Ring into responsible people, leaders in their own rights. Gandalf the Grey, who deferred to Saruman, took a level of a prestige class and became Gandalf the White. So how does a positive transformation happen? A positive, redemptive character arc, if you will.

The character has to start in a place of conflict, struggle, turmoil, or denial. They have a lie they believe. Aragorn, for example, was scared he would make the same mistakes as his forefathers, so he runs from his birthright to be king of Minas Tirith. By the way, as an aside, that's just from the movie. In the books, Aragorn's kind of wandering to become worthy of being king, but that's a separate story. There has to be in any character arc an inciting incident, an event that changes the character's life forever. Because if nothing changed, if there was no inciting incident, where's the onus to become anything different? They can just be comfortable where they are now and forevermore,

so this incident is what drives them forward to change. For an RPG character, this could be part of the backstory, or in a roleplay-heavy campaign, it could actually be an early part of the adventure. Examples include death of or betrayal by loved ones, loss of parents, siblings, spouse, children, being stabbed in the back by someone considered a friend or a lover. Something of great value stolen from the character could be something physical, emotional, or unique to you. It could be early lifetime tragedies. Character must do X or face negative consequences, maybe the inciting incident.

For example, Aragorn was told by Elrond that if he doesn't take up the role of leadership, his love will die. And by when I say his love, I mean for some reason, Arwen. I'm still trying to figure that out. Eowyn in the movie was a hundred times hotter. Fight me. But anyway, I'm getting trying to figure that out. Eowyn in the movie was a hundred times hotter. Fight me.

But anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. Conflicts must arise that force the character to confront this struggle or turmoil within. Maybe your character likes being the loner, but gradually comes to realize that he can't save his sister alone. He needs this group of annoyingly cheerful morons to help him. They grow to become friends. Friends love the character enough to be honest with him or her that he or she needs other people. Sometimes it's through connections to others.

The character realizes that he or she does care for person X and will now go to great lengths to be worthy of that person's love. It could be, believe it or not, through acquisition of resources. A complete transformation happens because a character comes into money, inherits a business, has to become responsible because of it. And so that inciting incident changes them from the playboy, goof-off, do-nothing, to a leader in his own right. A variant of that could be an acquisition of power.

A character becomes a business mogul, a crime boss, to a leader in his own right. A variant of that could be an acquisition of power. Character becomes a business mogul, a crime boss, lieutenant because of a battlefield promotion because the previous lieutenant just got his head taken off. So I mentioned tragic and rough starts are good candidates for character backstory. At session one, the character's already been affected by the backstory, so you don't have to drag it into the actual campaign itself, just the evolution of the character. But regardless of how you start, by the end the character has confronted the lie and accepted a new truth, and they grow for the better. Sometimes it's a moment of self-realization,

discovery of one's inner strength. The real treasure was the friends we made along the way. The path was the treasure, not the gold at the end. So if you want a character arc, besides picking a backstory, start thinking about some of the places your characters could be at the end of the arc. More trusting, more connected, learning how to love again, discovering the character's inner power, finding inner peace, self-realization, dying and giving everything to save and help others. Becoming the biggest badass on the planet and curb stomping that bastard that killed your brother. Discovering they're worthy of having friends by being good friends to others.

Working on their anger issues and in so doing finding that special someone or coming to love themselves for who they are. Maybe they realize as long as they respect themselves, it doesn't matter if their father does. But on a positive character arc, by knowing the end point you want to reach, you can now kind of set milestones along the way so that you can gradually grow your character as the adventure unfolds. Now let's flip the script. Let's talk about some negative character arcs. let's flip the script. Let's talk about some negative character arcs. Please note, this may be tragic to run as a PC, to have a character who starts off maybe with the possibility of becoming good and crashes out hard through destruction or failure or decay of their own morals. But it's something that can be an interesting character arc, especially in roleplay heavy campaigns. The arc starts the same way. Character starts in a place of conflict, struggle, turmoil, or denial. There's a lie they

tell themselves, but their actions and choices only serve to reinforce that lie. In the beginning, for example, the character will have some good traits. Even if they aren't developed or aren't used often, you still see little flashes of them here and there. But when tested, the character retreats further into their harmful habits or beliefs. And in the end, one of two things happen. They're a fallen character given to the lie, or they discover that truth is far worse than the lie ever could be. A lot of times what they descend to is a corrupted version of a virtue that causes a character to fall. I'll do anything sometimes precedes this fall. Think about Anakin Skywalker in episodes one through three of Star Wars. The decisions he made because he's an ignorant asshat, he was

obsessed with trying to save Padme from his visions of dying, made him Darth Vader. Going a little bit more obscure, General Francis Hummel in the movie The Rock wanted the U.S. government to pay war reparations to families of soldiers who were killed in covert ops. And to try to make it happen, he threatened San Francisco. Obviously, it didn't work. Otherwise, why would you have a hero? Never mind. Thinking honestly about this, if you're in book six of a Pathfinder campaign, or if you're two years into an existing D&D campaign, it's going to be hard to shoehorn a character arc into what's left of the story. But if you do want a character arc, and it's either early or you're preparing for an upcoming campaign, have ideas in mind for the lies that he or she tells himself or herself and how that arc

could end. Throughout the campaign, slowly or she tells himself or herself and how that arc could end. Throughout the campaign, slowly show the embracing of positive traits that show that character is growing, or if you want a negative character arc, reinforcement of the lie that he or she is telling herself. Look for milestones or choices that can reinforce or emphasize your character arc, demonstrate it to others. If you want an arc where your loner becomes more trusting of others, look for opportunities to gradually begin to trust others. Falteringly at first, hesitatingly at first, gradually showing more. Maybe towards the end, give a soliloquy or maybe even one line that shows the character's rejection of the lie of being the loner and needs friends for that support. Or maybe it's a line that you've given yourself completely over to the dark side.

You've embraced the lie and I don't need you people and storm off from the campfire, maybe becoming the big bad in the next campaign. If you want your character arc to be positive, a lot of times it's finding that inner strength. It's that moment of confrontation where it would be so easy to stay comfortable in the lie that they're telling themselves or to find the inner strength and become someone else to make a better choice. But if you want your character's arc to be more negative, like a wizard who's obsessed more and more with power, the character should start out with some good aspects in their life. Starting out with friends and family and stability. But the wizard's obsessed with more and more power and in the pursuit of that power, he gradually loses everything that should make him happy.

His town starts to shun him, his friends begin to shun him. And finally, his wife leaves, taking the children. And he barely notices because his nose is buried in a book. In that pivotal moment, he faced a choice. He saw perhaps he was on a destructive path and recognizes how destructive that path is and has a choice. Turn back to my family and turn back to the stability that it held or give that up for that more power I so desperately want. He chooses power and it costs him happiness. Last thing I would say to PCs is that some of your other players may want their characters to go through a certain character arc. It's not a bad idea to discuss this early in the campaign and be ready to support the other players character arcs,

but many times you want to keep it a surprise. Players are trying to keep their arcs secret from one another. If so, start looking for the telltale signs of a character arc. Changes in perception, attitude, willingness to engage. So how do you train yourself to recognize what an arc looks like? Start paying attention to movies, books, and TV shows. Look for those moments, however subtle they are, of a character making a choice to embrace something more positive or rejecting it to go down a negative path. Many times they're done very, very subtly in movies, and sometimes it's hit you over the head obvious, like Ebenezer Scrooge. At any rate, if you'd like to learn more about character arcs, number one, watch movies,

read books, and look for the changes of those characters within the media. If you are in a role-play heavy campaign, that moment of turn where that sad, self-maligning person understands her true worth, that'll be a moment that all the other players around the table will gasp at. Even if you don't feel comfortable doing the acting part of it, even if you just hint at it and suggest it, a redemptive character arc can make for a great story, whether you are in the lost mines of Phandelver or you are riding along the shackles in Galarian. Thank you so much for listening to Taking 20 Podcast, episode 23, Character Arcs. Once again, I want to thank our sponsor, Candy. Werthers don't count.

Stop trying to push that crap on us. Unless Werthers would like to sponsor us, then Werthers are delicious unicorn tears mixed with solid love and delivered to us on the wings of angels. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game.