Write Real Characters, Not Rational Ones

One of the greatest blessings and curses of roleplaying is that every writer has an audience. Whether it’s posting the character sheet or responding to the roleplaying thread the character is in, each person expects what they’ve written to be read. On the one hand, this is great because it gives writers a real, living experience for their creations to live in. But on the other hand, this also means that even the people who really aren’t writers, at their cores, can still play creative fiction on their unsuspecting victims.

In practice, what you end up getting is a pretty steady demographic with roleplaying. Every roleplayer I’ve met has fancied themselves a fairly intelligent, rational person in their own minds. That may very well be the case, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but it does have some serious implications for the sorts of characters you run into in your adventures. As we have already long since established, people are inherently drawn (usually unhelpfully) to write portions of themselves into characters. You should tread lightly.

This brings us to the idea of a rational character. What is it, exactly?

In essence, a rational character is someone who does what the reader always hopes they will. This is not necessarily the same thing as a logical character, because some of these decisions may not be completely sterile but rather the character sits comfortably within the ruts of the plotline, handling situations much as you would expect a reasonable ma’am or sir to do. You may suspect, then, that rational characters often end up seeming a little on the tasteless side, and often too they end up becoming Mary Sues in the process, incapable of rocking the boat to their disadvantage.

But the real tragedy with rational characters begins not so much in the stories they affect but rather their influence on the writer and readers themselves. Rational characters are easy. They’re easy to digest, easy to palate, easy to fit in strange circumstances, and easy to advance a plotline with. Most of the time, that seems to be what the other writer wants you to have, since they’ve got an agenda they’re trying to wrap up before five o’clock. Can we do better?

Recently, I finished the TV Show ‘House, M.D.’ which stars Hugh Laurie as an insufferable genius doctor whose entire identity is wrapped in his intellect. At first glance to his peers, Doctor House is brilliant man who solves medical cases through logic, reason, and rationality, all of which he takes great pride in. As the show progresses, though, the viewer begins to realize something more about the character. Yes, he’s smart, and yes, he’s rational, but there’s something more. There’s a wild side to him that makes him an incredibly unforgivable jerk, sometimes. There’s a broken side to him that makes him act like a child in almost all conflicts he runs up against. He struggles with addiction, depression, loneliness, and purposelessness. His rogue nature, crass jokes, and brutal humor come from his deep, deep flaws. One cannot rightly call him a rational person, in light of all that, but it makes him an incredibly interesting character in the meantime.

Not every character needs to be a broken genius to be interesting, but there should be something about your character that gives them an allure. Simply strapping on a name and a profession to any character is not sufficient to create truly memorable dialogue. Your characters should be explosive and dynamic. They should disrupt how everyone else wants the scene to go. They should be a wildcard, and every time a person gets into a thread with them, they should legitimately worry about every reaching their goal, because who knows what your character might do?

This doesn’t mean be an attention-whore or a drama seeker, but it does mean you have some license to go against the grain. Maybe in a world full of fighters, your guy is constantly almost getting killed. Maybe in a world full of deep thought and intellectual ideas, your character can’t read or do basic arithmetic. Maybe after going through an entire thread, your character finally puts your foot down and stubbornly refuses to complete their objective. All these things are doable and just the tip of potential (but, for the record, if you do any of those things, it should be rooted in their character and not just your random whim).

One of the most fun parts about roleplaying is talking about your characters behind their backs, but sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want it to. Sometimes your fellow roleplayer might say in passing, with no malice attached, “Wow, haha, what your character said there was really dumb. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.” But… you didn’t intend for what your character to say something dumb, SO THAT MEANS THEY’RE INSULTING YOU, DOESN’T IT?!

When you write, there are bound to be misinterpretations of what your character just did or said. This is inevitable, but treat it as a (very welcomed) critique on your writing. If someone misunderstood what you wrote, it’s probably because you wrote it poorly. Sometimes people just forget things, and it’s appropriate to remind them, but a lot of the time that’s on you. But why would I bring this up? I thought we were talking about rational characters?

If you find people are constantly saying about your character, “They’re so mean!” or “This guy seems like a total slime-ball” or “I would never want to meet this person in real life” and you’re going wait, wait, wait! That’s not what I meant! It’s probably because you’re writing a rational character, and your roleplaying partner is looking for something more. If your character comes across as mean, maybe that’s just the character trying to escape from being so darn boring all the time so they can be who they want to be. You don’t need to be a slave to rationality.

Irrational characters have a lot to write home about. What I mentioned before, about how cool it is when someone talks about your characters? This is what I was getting at. I cannot describe the satisfaction of someone telling me that, indeed, my character is a complete idiot. Mission accomplished! That’s what I was going for! Or the feeling of success when my character completely rains on someone else’s parade, and the other writer goes, “Oh come on, man, now we’ll never get out of here!”

A boring character gets to the finish line and crosses it, receiving his wonderful trophy, woman, and deep-seated emotional rest.

An interesting character reaches the finish line and decides it was all a waste of time. They give up, or they decide ‘To Hell with this game, I’m going to mess something up’ and they walk away. They’re the guy who betrays their friends. They’re the girl who can never seem to make things work out. Disasters and mavericks make me want to turn the next page, but the guy who always wins makes me want to put the book down after he does.