How to make side-characters look competent next to the chosen one?
I'm writing a storyline for a game where the forces of evil have humanity cornered. Truly everything seems lost, that is, until our main character decides to step in. Let's call him Bob. The Chosen.
Bob is extremely strong and has a special ability that's seemingly designed to counter the evil monsters. As a result he defeats enemy after enemy effortlessly, becoming humanity's last hope. He is stationed in a small village on the front lines where he gets to know the villagers and protects them from the monster assaults. Word spreads about his deeds and a second character is introduced: Sir Dave the Brave, the Virtuous, Vigilant Paragon of Hope, Knighted by the King, Slayer of Monsters.
Dave is currently the kingdom's greatest swordsman and leads the royal knights against the forces of evil. He's beloved by the citizens because of how many of them he has saved. He and his army set up camp in the village on order and from that point on Dave serves as the face of the kingdom.
The problem is that Dave is only human - he does not have the unique superpowers Chosen like Bob have. He is still very strong, but very strong for a human. After he set up camp the player isn't going to look at him anymore unless he decides to raise his affection level with Dave. Dave only has a single chance to prove himself as the competent knight he is. But I'm afraid that it doesn't matter how many mobs I let him defeat, the player will invariably compare those feats to his own. I can't have him be strong enough to defeat the bosses, the player is supposed to do that on his own.
When he tags along to scout for one of the bosses and he gets swatted aside it doesn't really give the wanted reaction of "Goodness, that monster is strong!", but rather something of an "Haha, silly Dave got defeated again." His competence as a swordsman has become an informed attribute. Even if I let him defeat a few monsters on his own he still feels weak because the great Bob kills those in his free time to farm xp.
I don't want Dave to be strong strong, but I do want the player to acknowledge him. Is there a way to make Dave look like a competent knight without affecting his or Bob's power level?
Until now, Bob had one way to solve problems: Stumble into them and then punch them until they fall. It works for the mo …
6y ago
It depends on what you're going for with this. Rather then wondering about how Dave is perceived, you need to figure out …
6y ago
I'm going to preface this with the fact that this is more game design advice than writing advice. Is Bob also a swordsm …
6y ago
Let Dave save Bob's life. Bob is strong against super evil but he is just a guy. He lacks Dave;s experience, and inne …
6y ago
You need to think about your protagonists weaknesses – now! If your protagonist is simply above and beyond everything a …
6y ago
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It depends on what you're going for with this. Rather then wondering about how Dave is perceived, you need to figure out what Daves role in all of this is. Why is he tagging along? What is he hoping to accomplish? Why does Bob let him tag along?
Drawing from game examples specifically, you have a similar situation in Final Fantasy X with the Crusaders. They are brave to self sacrificial levels and skilled warriors as well. However, they do not have the powers to defeat their enemy - that is something only summoners are capable of. However, they still have a role - they made it their goal to save as many lives as possible, by at least trying to divert and delay the big bad if they can't defeat it. Ultimately their attempts are futile, but they don't come across as comical or useless in the story.
Now when it comes to gameplay, that's another question entirely. Don't force sidekicks that don't contribute anything to the game part of the game on the player.
That aside, it appears that there is a fundamental confusion on your part regarding the nature of a player character - you correctly observe that ultimately, they are invincible from the players perspective because the player has the capability to start over if he fails. This is not an attribute of the protagonist. This is an attribute of the player. Separate the two. They are not the same. Just because the eventual victory of the player is an inevitable certainty, as is their ultimate superiority when it comes in actually getting things done in the game world, this is not by necessity a foregone conclusion from the point of view of the characters. The protagonist doesn't need to be actually invincible and unique in-universe just because they are special from a game mechanics point of view. If you do make them invincible in universe, that should be a conscious decision on your part of the sake of the story and/or worldbuilding rather than the result of attempting to reconcile story and gameplay.
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You need to think about your protagonists weaknesses – now!
If your protagonist is simply above and beyond everything and everybody else it will get really, really boring. Your character needs some form of development, some things to strive for. Dave has to be better in something, and that something is not necessarily bashing monster's heads in.
Think about other aspects. Investigating a murder for example. Maybe your character is just bad at deducting stuff and needs to look up to Dave for being good at this stuff. Or talking to the locals. Maybe he is just not that good with people. Organizing people – a great leader can make an inspiring speech every day to send search parties so that he can help at multiple places at the same time. Not by himself, but by organizing everything. Dave has connections to the higher-ups. Dave has experience that tell him about monsters' weaknesses and strengths, when to fight and when to flee, when a dungeon will collapse and bury every character, no matter how strong ... Dave knows his way around town quickly in case you need to follow something. Or maybe he is good with medicine and can heal people?
Whatever it is, he didn't get to where is just by being good with a sword. Fighting is not all that there is to life. And brute strength is not everything that counts in the world, not even in a videogame world that is trying to make the player feel powerful.
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Let Dave save Bob's life.
Bob is strong against super evil but he is just a guy. He lacks Dave;s experience, and inner strength. He also is not as strong at solving mundane problems. Have human enemies, followers of the super evil. Let those be a problem for Bob who's magic does nothing on them. Then let Dave step in with his sword skills and save the day. Then Bob can get back to blasting magic enemies.
If humans can't be enemies. Just put in 1 magic enemy immune to Bob's magic. Same idea applies. Like in Wheel of Time there is an enemy immune to weaves so the martial artist gets to shine.
Also let Dave rally Bob in the darkest hour. Dave knows a lot better than Bob how to overcome adversity.
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Until now, Bob had one way to solve problems: Stumble into them and then punch them until they fall. It works for the monsters he has encountered, because they were minor monsters. Too powerful for humans, too weak for him.
However, recently the big bad has decided to send stronger monsters out. The monsters are armored and smart enough to set traps. Bob can still defeat them, but his hands hurt after punching their thick armor and they injure him as well when they surprise him. Not a lot, just a scratch here and there. Bob tried to wield a sword or axe, but he ended up hitting himself with it. That wasn't fun.
Dave recognizes Bobs weaknesses. He sees that Bob doesn't even recognize obvious ambushes and is too clumsy to wield a weapon, so he decides to train him. Of course in a straight up fight he wouldn't win against the raw strength of Bob, but he can still teach him finesse. You don't have to be stronger or smarter to teach someone, as long as you have more knowledge and experience.
Examples (in prose, not in videogame form):
Bob and Dave are walking around in the forest when Dave stops, a concerned look on his face. Bob looks around confused, seeing nothing.
"Do you hear the birds?" Dave asks.
Bob shrugs. "What birds? I don't hear anything."
Dave smirks. "Exactly. Now look at that bush over there."
"It's a bush. There are many around here. Plenty for you to beat around, for that matter."
"Stay patient, Bob. I'm getting to the point. Look closer. You see that broken branch? And the footprint?"
Bob shrugs again. "Plenty of animals in a forest."
"Not with that footprint."
"Ambush?"
"Ambush."
They draw their weapons and charge the bush, surprising the hidden monster.
"Now hit the target dummy, Bob," Dave said.
Bob raised his sword and slashed down on the dummy, but only hit the ground next to it.
Dave rolled his eyes. "Remember what I told you about your stance? Keep your feet on the ground. Try again."
Bob adjusted his stance and tried again, this time hitting the shoulder of the dummy.
"That's better, Bob. Let's try it a few more times."
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I'm going to preface this with the fact that this is more game design advice than writing advice.
Is Bob also a swordsman or melee fighter? Consider classing them differently. If Bob's the world's best melee fighter, Dave could be the best ranged fighter. This is honestly a killer combination in most games, it allows Dave to help by thinning the crowd of enemies, or weakening a strong enemy while allowing Bob to go all out. A great example of this is Ike and Soren from the Fire Emblem series, a powerful swordsman and mage, respectively.
Speaking of Fire Emblem, one thing that series does well is that it rewards you for having pairs of characters fight together. If your game does not do this and only awards experience for time spent fighting/enemies killed, obviously your players will always use Bob and only use Dave when necessary, seeing Dave as someone who is 'stealing' experience from their main fighter, Bob. Consider bonus xp or powerups for things like two characters assisting in the same kill, or fighting near each other.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35773. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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