Character Development Matrix for the Core Story Enemy
Wow. Doesn’t that post title sound like some kind of academic paper? I should totally start using more big words so people will think I’m an expert or something.
I’m fairly pleased with the GH2 model for character development. It’s based on two attributes: Attitude and Motivation. Attitude describes the NPC’s current feeling towards the PC. Motivation describes the NPC’s motivation, or at least what the PC perceives to be the NPC’s motivation. Both of these values will change as the campaign progresses.
Here’s the list of attitudes and motivations, along with their associated tags:
Motivation
— Unknown quantity
mer Mercenary. NPC is in it for the money.
pro Professional. NPC seeks his personal best.
com Competitor. NPC seeks to be better than others.
ggd Greater Good. NPC believers self to be working for greater good.
see Seeker. The NPC still hasn’t found what they’re looking for.
rev Revenge.
cha Change. The NPC decided to change their current situation.
nih Nihilism. The NPC seeks destruction.
Attitude
— Unknown quantity
nme NPC hasn’t met the PC yet
jr_ NPC is PC’s junior/subordinate/student
sr_ NPC is PC’s senior/superior/mentor
ant NPC feels antagonistic towards the PC
tha NPC feels thankful to the PC
sec NPC is keeping a secret from the PC
equ NPC respects the PC as an equal
dis NPC has lost respect for the PC
env NPC envies the PC
adm NPC admires the PC
pch PC has a reason to hate the NPC
hat NPC has a reason to hate the PC
mut The PC and NPC have reasons to hate one another mutually
obs NPC obsessed with the PC
Changes to Attitude or Motivation must happen in the forward direction: the new value must be later in the list than the current value. For instance, a character who respects the PC as an equal can come to disrespect the PC, but can never assert itself as the PC’s senior. This is done to prevent NPCs from getting caught in repeating loops. In general only one of either Motivation or Attitude will be changed at once.
Note that there are more Attitudes than Motivations. This is because Attitude should be more flexible than Motivation; an NPC is more likely to change its attitude to the PC than it is to change its own internal desires.
One of the most important uses of this system is the core story enemy. In nearly every episode of the campaign, the core story enemy (hereafter referred to as CSE) will get some character development. Today I wrote a short program to check and see how many subplot choices there were for each Motivation/Attitude state. Here are the results, with Motivations across the top and Attitudes down the side:
Core Story Enemy Chardev
--- mer pro com ggd see rev cha nih
--- 003 - 001 - - - 001 - -
nme 002 002 002 002 002 002 002 002 002
jr_ 004 001 002 001 001 001 002 001 001
sr_ 002 001 - - - - 001 - -
ant - - - - - - - - -
tha - - - - - - - - -
sec - - - - - - - - -
equ 002 - 001 001 001 - - - -
env 003 001 - 001 - - 001 - -
dis - - - - - - - - -
adm 001 - - - - - - - -
pch - - - - - - - - -
hat 002 - - 001 - 001 001 - -
mut 001 - - - - - 001 - -
obs 001 - - - - - 001 - 001
The cells marked “-” have no legal subplots. If the CSE happens to fall into one of these spots, the story will reach a deadend. Ideally there should be at least one plot for every possible combination, even though you’re very unlikely to have a CSE who is simultaneously thankful to the PC and nihilistic. Note that it isn’t necessary to write separate subplots for each of the cells. A given subplot might require a specific Motivation but be open to a range of Attitudes, or vice versa. For the time being I’ll just patch the deadends as they occur, trying to shepherd stray antagonists back to one of the rich patches on the chart.
