How much personality should a MC have?

Game Development Writing and Content
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Hello everyone!

I was wondering how people feel about your MC having more of a distinct personality. Doing this does lower the amount of control you have over what they say and do, but I was wondering if some people enjoy the deeper characterization this allows you to get with the MC (and with relationships between the MC and other characters).

Have you seen this done well, or do you think it’s usually a turn off? I like stories with stronger main characters with distinct voices, but I have had problems with my idea of what they’re like clashing with what’s actually written, you know, the “He wouldn’t say that,” syndrome in play.

Thoughts? : )

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Honestly, it’s up to the author. If they want MC to have a fully developed personality, that’s fine with me. This is probably because I don’t self-insert. The closest I get to doing so is through morals and personal beliefs. I see IFs like any other video game I’ve played. The MC having their own personality doesn’t stop me from connecting with them. I’m not any less interested in them. I still want to see how relationships with the world and other characters develop. As far as I’m concerned, I’m just a passenger. I’m the little voice in their head judging their life choices :joy:

I think for an IF however, it’d be difficult to pull off, just because we as players/readers expect MC to be at least somewhat of a clean slate to influence. So, I guess I’d see it like games that give you choices on romance, or how you act in negations, how you respond to authority. The core personality stays but fluctuates and changes over the story/per the situation. If that makes sense?

:skull: This is all just to say that I wouldn’t be less interested or engrossed. Hopefully other people, more eloquent than I, will respond here because it’s hard putting it into concise words.

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My last couple stories, Meteoric and The Nascent Necromancer both have fairly distinct MCs. Although you can choose any personality type for them and choose how to respond to things or act to people differently, there are core qualities that you do have regardless to make the main story flow and be more impactful.

For example, the MC in TNN has anger and self hate problems, and the MC in Meteoric has depression problems regardless of the choices of the reader. In this way, you can roleplay as self-inserts with these characters but you are also guiding an equally distinct and autonomous character through their predestined story rather than controlling them entirely in the course of a story that can be anything the reader wishes, such as games with incredible amounts of replay value and choice types, and blank slate MCs.

So, to answer your question, I would say that MCs with more set personalities tend to fit better in more linear stories or stories that are focused on a specific vibe or message

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It’s kind of creepy if you think about. What if someone were to play us like a MC in a interactive fiction novel? Anyway, I think it’s good to have a fair balance. For example; if you could stick to choosing the core beliefs, but they still have a character of their own. I don’t know now… that thought kind of creeped me out. Heh.

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In my opinion, the author should have free reign to get as detailed as they like about a player character’s externalities: how old they are, where they’re from, what they know or don’t know, what their childhood was like. If the author wants to let players choose some of those aspects, and make those choices meaningfully affect the text, great!

But I believe that control should absolutely stop at what the player character thinks and feels about a situation. Like, no no, that is for the player alone to determine. Unless the PC is in some mind control situation, their internal state and decisions are the player’s domain.

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Up to the author. As a reader, I can say I enjoy MCs with personalities because that means I have to role play. And I enjoy the deeper characterization and reactivity that’s possible. But there are some personalities I just wouldn’t be interested in playing.

Having a range of personalities to RP is a good way to do it, but requires so much more work for the author.

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My usual preference is what @Khipsky said!

I don’t necessarily mind the PC being nudged into feeling certain ways though, as long as it feels consistent. But that can be a tricky needle to thread if player-responsive personality stats exist: it’s easy for the writing to start contradicting them. For example if there’s a Grouchy personality trait, don’t write the player to automatically feel or behave really cheerfully or grouchily. It’ll feel weird - the player will go “wait, why is my 95 Grouchy character beaming sincerely without me choosing to make that happen?” So, that’s important to keep in mind.

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It’s the inevitable tension between player agency and authorial intent. I personally prefer characters that are more fleshed out than complete blank slates, specially if they continue to be bland and generic throughout.

I think when you allow players to customize the character so much it also comes with the expectation of being able to determine a lot of the character’s personality and goals. It’s different than playing, say Geralt in The Witcher.

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The more defined the PC, the more I’m generally a fan. It helps that I don’t really self insert and that I tend to separate myself and the character I’m playing as much as possible outside of just making the choices and creating internal justifications for doing so. There’s a reason games like I, the forgotten one, whiskey four, and fallen hero are some of my favorites

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For me, it really depends on how the rest of the story is put together. If the plot is very linear and driving the action, then I like a lot of freedom to decide the MC’s feelings and reactions. If the plot is really broad and there’s a ton of choices about where to go/what to do, then I actually prefer it if the MC’s personality is a little pre-defined. Either way can be fun!

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Thinking about it more, I think some of the problems people have with the idea of a “blank slate” protagonist, including me, is the possibility that the slate will remain blank throughout. That’s when blandness and a generic feeling happens. But there’s a ton of satisfaction and personality that comes from giving players options to feel all sorts of things about the situations they’re in … and for the game to reflect that in the descriptive narrative, protagonist dialogue, NPC responses, etc.

So, a blank slate that gets illustrated with lots of vividness and responsivity in a sort of collaboration between the player and author is very appealing to me.

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One of the main attractions for me when playing IFs like these is to be able to play many different kind of MCs for every HG or COG, so if there’s too little room to change up how the MC is(at least outside of a few select “things” I usually enjoy selecting for my MCs when I get the chance) and there are too many aspects of the MC’s personality, abilities and such that are canon whatever the playthrough, I tend to lose interest. My favorite MCs have been in HGs and COGs that allows you to create different MCs, each with a different vibe, that while not always necessarily a personality as such, suggest a certain kind of personality and also allows me to headcanon certain personalities for my different MCs if I want to do so.

Two series that have been particularly good at that, to my mind, are Jolly Good and the Evertree Saga. Jolly Good has been extremely good in bringing to life how it is for MCs in that world to have certain strong or weak abilities, combined with where they are on the soothing/abrasive scale, by giving you a lot of memorable scenes where those qualities are brough to life. And by doing that and making those particular abilities and qualities so memorable it encourages me to roleplay the MCs more and bringing my headcanons to life. The Evertree Saga, while not having quite as many memorable scenes in that manner as Jolly Good, still provided me with enough background options and other ways of customising my MCs abilities and vibe, that made the vibes of the different MCs feel different enough that it felt like they had different personalities from one another and encouraged me to try to roleplay those different personalities in the same way Jolly Good has done.

So my ideal MC is one who comes in many different flavors, including personality and where the writer is good enough in bringing those different flavors to life that it’s fun trying to roleplay different MCs with many different flavors. And, not least actually encourages me to kind of co-create the MC in a way where they’re neither really a self-insert nor inhabiting one particular role already made by the writer in question, but is actually several different MCs in a trench coat, so to speak, where there’s some room to bring new kind of MCs who aren’t already set in stone by the story, but is a kind of mixture of what the writer’s already put there and the imagination and roleplaying of the player/reader. It’s not easy putting this into words in a way that is easily understood, but I still hope I’ve been able to get my point across in a way that is not too confusing and at least somewhat clear.

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I don’t think personality is opposed with player choices. A good example is Fallen Hero, Sidestep (the MC) has pretty defined characteristics, the player still has significant control over how those characteristics manifest, but those choices are always shaped by that core characterization. Sidestep is paranoid and a has a past that influences them, but how that influence plays out is determined by you. So you can’t change them as a character but their current present is determine by your choices, choices that are limited by that characterization but nonetheless feel convincing as though you the player do have autonomy and control.

What matters isn’t the degree of characterization, highly defined or less, but the finesse with which it’s executed. There are others games with very similar themes in their character as Fallen Hero, but the execution fails for one reason or another to maintain the illusion of agency and choice. That illusion is integral to all pre-written RPGs (like IF), because there are never any true choices, you are always picking predetermined options and always heading to a predetermined place. Good RPGs just manage to convince you that those choices matter and have meaning when in reality they don’t matter, and aren’t meaningful.

So, TLDR: the question of defined or undefined MC doesn’t really matter. What does is how well executed the chosen approach is. Poorly executed characters, whether rigid or flexible, lead to weak experiences. Which I get that’s a kinda reductive take as I am essentially saying good is good and bad is bad, but to me at least that’s really what it comes down to.

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I want them to be very distinct in personality. As full in character as a main character in a non-interactive novel. Blank slate for the reader to fill in, is boring to me.

You can make a MC with pre-disposed traits feel close to the reader through the universality of human emotions and experiences. Readers don’t always need to chose every single thing for a MC to feel ownership over them.

Side note- I find flavour text based off personality traits, far more interesting than ones based on appearance. Some of my favourite games have no appearance choices, but I know that MC so well through the stats that make the flavour text distinct. E.g. Tin Star - stoic, lightning charged etc MC etc, The Infinite Sea series - love the flavour text you get based on if feminist or not, if ruthless or not, etc.

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I like to have control over my character’s personality in terms of choosing how to act in given situations…but even though I self insert, I don’t mind the MC having a base character given by the author to build from…if that makes sense? Like I wouldn’t want to be forced to act shy or naive because i don’t relate to that, but if you say the character has depression, or dead parents or a dark secret or something - I don’t mind that. But I am also always for the writer choosing what and how they want to write, and luckily these games allow you to read an excerpt before purchasing, so if the reader doesnt like the narrative they could always just not buy that one…and move onto the next!

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I highly agree with @HarrisPS’s point regarding blank state PCs with the narrative and NPC responses reacting accordingly.

For me, I think the optimal way to design a PC is to have their “core” experiences and background already laid out by the narrative. Stuff like where they grew, who their parents/guardians are, a defining experience, etc. Those things are starting points, but they give room for the players to react the way they want.

For example, in Bastard of Camelot, all PCs start out the same: raised by Morgana and seemingly abandoned by Arthur. Yet the author deliberately gave the players choices on how their PC navigated those relationships. You can be resentful of Arthur or want to meet him, in later chapters, you can even be estranged from your mom, and all these choices have impact on the narrative in the form of flavor texts that in some instances, changes the vibe of scenes entirely.

Another example from the same game (sorry I love BoC lol), you can choose how you feel about your half-brother, if you antagonise him, he will hate you back and it dramatically changes whole scenes! But still, the core premise remains: you’re both children of noble descent so even if you two hate each other, the narrative stays tight since that background reasonably restricts you.

So yeah, something like that. Give PCs a solid background but give the players a lot of leeway regarding personality choices, and most importantly, let those choices shape the narrative and NPC interactions.

Flavor text is the most harmless and effective way to do this, it feels rewarding to the players when their choices are seemingly valued by the narrative, even though in the grand scheme of things, those choices don’t really matter. But just making it feel like those choices matter is what’s truly important.

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Oh dear. I guess my multiple-choice-background MCs are doomed!

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Multiple backgrounds can still totally work, but I just find one single background work better for me personally. Many multiple background PCs can feel a little… uh watered down, I suppose, simply for the sake of the narrative. Branching is really freaking hard since most authors are writers first and coders second.

But if and when an author really takes the time to make those background meaningful enough to the narrative and branch them out appropriately, that’s when having multiple backgrounds for a PC work. A great example for this is Shattered Eagle which had several distinctly different backgrounds for the PC to choose from and each one really feel different from the other.

So yeah, I wasn’t trying to say single background are 100% the only way, but just that, for many authors, it is one of the most optimal ways, but is of course, not the only or the best way to write a PC. Not to mention, single background can make the PC feel more cohesive with the narrative, but you can also do that with multiple backgrounds, just with a bit more work.

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These are my feelings about the games I tend to get invested in. I just feel if I’m reading IF that, tells me who I already am…then what I say, think, do, and how I feel and treat people then what am I there to really do besides press the button to turn the page and I guess name the character?

I don’t need to self-insert, but I like to feel like the character actually involves some things I chose and gives me the desire to go back through the game later with a different character.

It goes without saying, at the end of the day the author should do whatever makes them happy since there will always be a audience who likes the same thing though.

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This has been really interesting. I’m not actually that familiar with IF- it’s a new interest for me, so my understanding of the exact culture and expectations are not complete.

When I’m consuming fiction, I frequently want a character who I don’t self-interest into and/or control a lot of their internal world. I enjoy when they’re a very specific person designed by someone else to provoke specific emotions or themes for me- but that’s for less interactive mediums! In a TTRPG I would totally want to define the character’s feelings more thoroughly, unless I’m doing a very specific concept.

Since IF sits at such an interesting middle ground there, I’m curious and excited about the potential!

I’m seeing a lot of things about agency here, where highly characterized or even specific elements are fine as long as you still get to express that as you wish.

It’s making me realized that if I am writing for IF, it would be better to offer a choice about an internal thing if I wish to include it- like, if I want the character to experience fear, it’s better to either build the correct atmosphere so that the emotional bleed from reading causes the reader to project fear onto the situation and character; or, to go, like, "It’s the worst kind of situation. It’s a dreadful thing, because you’re going to have to face your fears here. You open your eyes and see- "

-and then offer some choices, so that you decide what it is they’re scared of and get to express their feelings.

If what I’m saying follows! Thanks for all the replies. : )

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