Storium Theory: Build Towards Something

Storium games are quite heavily about revealing new things about your characters, and moving their issues forward - developing their personal tales alongside the game's tale. Two rules, Wild Cards and Subplots, strongly support this element of Storium and help bring focus to the characters. We learn major new things about characters through Wild Cards, and we delve heavily into their personal issues or conflicts with Subplots.

But characters in stories, which Storium is designed to help represent, don't just develop at random. From the start of a character's tale, the tale is building towards something. The young, inexperienced hero's tale builds towards the point where he proves himself worthy of his destiny. The arrogant knight's tale builds to the point where he is proven inadequate. The seeker for truth's tale builds to the point where the truth is found...and is unwelcome.

I've written before that from a game perspective, it's a good idea for the narrator to have an idea of the ending of his game's tale from the start. This ending idea can - and should - change as the story goes on if game events seem to suggest it, but having an ending concept in mind from the start gives you something to build towards and helps determine the general thrust of events. Periodically re-evaluating the ending idea lets you change thrusts if you need to, but by keeping an idea in mind and setting up challenges that could move the game towards it, you give the story a feeling of direction.

The same exact advice applies for players with their player characters.

When you start out writing a character, it is a very good idea to think about where their story could go. You've had to determine an issue they are struggling with or a theme they focus on - their Subplot. Where do you see that struggle ending up? If this were a movie, or a novel, or some other tale with an ending, where do you see them ending up by the end of the tale?

Just as with the overall game story, your ending idea doesn't have to be terribly detailed. You're not writing down every little bit of the ending, every tiny element. And you're not writing out every twist and turn along the way.

It's simply a good idea to have an idea where you are going, that's all. A simple, quick statement of a likely destination.

• 157 learns to be human.
• Blythe learns what his creations can do in the wrong hands and changes his ways.
• Brennan depends on himself and moves past Peter's death.
• Álmos is humbled and becomes a better person.

These are ideas that I had from the start with the above characters - very simple ending statements, a single sentence each, which just told me what I was working towards with the character. They're nothing complex, but they gave me something to build towards. They gave me a focus for my Wild Cards, and for my Subplots. They gave me something to write about, to show the character wrestling with over the course of the game, to emphasize in the character's thoughts. They gave me questions for the character to ask, goals for the character to set, interests for the character to have. They were wells of inspiration that I could keep dipping back in time and again.

A single sentence can do that. Just having something to work towards can give you a basis for so many things it's incredible. The easiest characters to write, I've found, are those for whom I have this idea from the beginning - a thought about where their story will end up. The hardest are those for whom I haven't had that idea, those for whom I haven't thought it through and haven't taken the time to just...write that little sentence somewhere.

It is worth taking the time to think about this. It makes everything easier. Writing a character is rough when you have no idea where you're going.

Now...it needs to be emphasized that just as with a narrator's game ending idea, your character ending idea can change as the game goes on. Maybe game events lead you to tweak things a little. Maybe game events make you change things entirely. Maybe a relationship with another character seems like it would lift your character out of the muck you thought they'd end up in...or maybe it seems like it would push him into a muck you didn't initially realize would threaten. Maybe the way a particular, meaningful challenge works out changes your perception of what your character wants out of life.

There are loads of possibilities, and I don't want you to miss those chances to change. I'm encouraging you to think about endings from the start not to force you to lock things in from the beginning, but to give you something to work towards. A character's story is stronger if it is always building towards something, if it feels like it has momentum. And...a character is just more fun to play that way, too. If you're looking ahead, not just at the moment, it's more exciting. You see how each moment in the tale can relate to the future.

That doesn't mean you can't change that future. It just means that you're always looking towards it.

So think about this a bit. When you design a character, think about the end of their tale. Think about where they end up. Think about who they become. It doesn't have to be detailed, and it can change as you go. You aren't locked in to anything. But if you have an idea on this from the start of a character's tale, you can build towards it, and you'll find ideas for the character's actions and plot development and Wild Cards and Subplots and any number of other things coming to you much more readily.

Have an ending from the start. It works for games, and it works for characters.