"I will pick up the hook.
You will see something new.
Two things. And I call them Thing One and Thing Two.
These Things will not bite you.
They want to have fun."
Then out of the box
Came Thing Two and Thing One.

--Dr. Suess, The Cat in the Hat

Having been a gamer for almost two decades, I've seen hundreds of characters created for dozens of game systems, with both good and bad results. And even in i those cases where a character looked well-made at the outset,

I have watched how those characters fail to develop, grow, and integrate themselves into the rest of the GM's campaign. Heck, I've even seen it happen to NPCs that were created by the GM!

While I don't claim to know the secret to creating an effective, and real feeling character, I have come up with one trick that can help. When creating characters (from any genre), create an NPC of roughly equal importance that is linked to her in some way.

Two for the Price of One

GURPS Mixed Doubles is a collection of NPC supers (heroes, villains and others) in which each character is paired with (or against) another. There are mentor-student pairs, hero-hero, hero-villain, villain-villain, grandfather-grandson, and other combinations, with the key being that every single NPC has at least one strong tie to another super (besides all his dependents, acquaintances and the like). The paired nature of the characters means that they have more built-in plot hooks than characters created solo, which makes them much more useful to a GM adding them to her campaign.

As an example, there's Profiteer - an always-cool mercenary hero with a number of secrets he hides behind an obnoxious personality - who's paired against Liquidator - an open and cheerful hero who carries a grudge against Profiteer for a long-past snub. Now, either character would make a useful and interesting addition to a campaign on their own, but when you get the two of them together, sparks fly and the mild-mannered Liquidator becomes uncharacteristically belligerent, blowing up in a way which might make Profiteer lose his cool. Two characters who could easily have been summed up in one-dimensional terms like "mild-mannered" and "cool" if considered alone, act more like real people when brought together. And if you're planning to use such a pair, it is often best to introduce them to the campaign separately, so that the players can see how they act under normal circumstances.

Even when these NPC is away from the PC, just the existence of the second character makes the first more solid. It gives each of them a past, while providing obvious motivations; the GM knows in advance how they'll react. In literary terminology, they serve as dramatic foils for each other. The contrasts and connections between them tell you things you couldn't know by seeing either in isolation.

Now, I'm not talking about those ever-present Dependents needing to be rescued, and the valuable Allies/Sidekicks who help GMs do it. Usually, these are additional characters created strictly for the extra points they bring the PC, or for the extra firepower they provide in a fight. While getting extra points or power are other reasons for creating a subsidiary NPC, it's important that a character relates to the NPCs around him in ways that bring out his personality. The most significant interactions will be between PCs and other characters of equivalent power-level or importance to the campaign.

When I was starting my own GURPS Supers campaign, I wanted the same connection between the PCs and NPCs that eventually crystallized in Mixed Doubles. Although those links between characters would have happened naturally over a number of play sessions, I was impatient. I didn't want to go through the slow process of having the players create PCs and then have them play through their origins and first few adventures, and then eventually their first "rematch" with a villain; I wanted those connections now!

And fortunately, one of my players was kind enough to oblige me.

When creating his female martial artist called Nightcycle, the player had chosen to give her a 10-point Disadvantage - she'd had a number of run-ins with a Vietnamese street gang. While some players might feel comfortable at that level of detail, Nightcycle wasn't. He went on to come up with their name, a description of their "gang colors", notes on how they were run, how they operate, and what illegal things they're likely to be doing to get Nightcycle involved. This was great! I'd wanted to come up with villains with pre-existing ties to the PCs, and here he had already created the villains for me. Half my work was already done for me, and all the player got out of it was a measly 10 points... points that he would have received anyway by just writing Enemies: Street Gang on his character sheet!

But don't be fooled into thinking that the only thing that Nightcycle's creator did was provide me with some readymade villains. He also got a better idea of how Nightcycle fit into the world of heroes and criminals she had to interact with, there were possibilities opened up for interesting relationships between her and individual members of the gang, both in public and secret identities, and I was given a tool that I knew could be used to manipulate Nightcycle into adventures with ease; all I had to do was mention the gang's possible involvement in a crime, and she would be forced to investigate.

So, how do you entice the players to make these wellrounded characters and do some of your own background work for you? It's easy when the players volunteer to step in the trap on their own; you just encourage them once you see them doing it:

Hey, that gang's got some great possibilities, but exactly what would their membership be like, and what would their "colors" be, what would make their leader special?

If they say that they want to put that sort of detail into their character, but that they don't have the imagination to come up with another entire character on their own, you can reward them for their good intentions by having them select an NPC (whether ally, rival, mentor, or enemy) from a book of such things (and while Mixed Doubles comes to mind, you might also want to take a look at similar books from other game systems.) If you particularly like the characters in some NPC book, you can even make it a rule in your campaign that allies, enemies, and the like have to be chosen from such a book to be worth their points.

And for those who refuse to do anything without some sort of tangible benefit, you can hang the carrot of a few bonus points in front of them:

Okay, you took a 10-point "Enemies" Disadvantage. You can select him from one of these books for free, or I'll give you another 5 points if you create your own enemy, and another 5 if you come up with a complete description of him, including details of why he's got a special interest in you.

Even in game with a complex character creation system like GURPS Supers or Champions, you'll be surprised at how much extra effort you can squeeze out of your players if you offer them bonus points for it. While you may have qualms about giving away points, the increased familiarity the players will have with their PCs, the amount of detail they'll create in their NPC advesaries for you, and the improved calibre of role-playing it will produce, will make it all worth while.

With or without outside source materials, making it the rule that every PC must have at least one important NPC link will quickly give a fledgling campaign depth of characterization, PC/NPC interaction, and general background to rival a campaign in action for years.

Two Plus One

Who says the players have to be equal? How about making a supporting cast member a PC? Take turns from campaign to campaign with a different pair and a different level of association. Batguy and Pigeon made an excellent duo, and who would ever argue that they were equals?

Players really interested in a challenge could try being the villains as well as the heroes for a change. Make a villain PC and then have another player make the hero PC nemesis. When the two are in the room, the players can actually take some of the action into their own hands for a change. Groups should experiment and see how things work for them.

About the Author

Spike Y. Jones always wanted to be a world-famous artist. He only viewed his writing as a vehicle to sell his art. The art accompanying this article isn't his. In fact, in 11 years in this industry he's only had one illustration published and he wasn't even credited for that. *sigh*