Hello, I’ve been an active reader of hosted and cog games for many years. I’ve read and purchased too many games to count. (I’ve read nearly them all and about 30 games purchased). My very first game I believe was choice of the dragon. Anyways that’s just a quick look into me, I want to talk about personality traits. Now, this isn’t going to tell you how to write your stories and no way of writing is wrong, I’m just here to put my 2 cents in and to offer my own perspective.
I write this because I’ve seen so many games lock you into a certain personality, which in my opinion isn’t realistic. An introverted person can speak up, a cold person can be completely warm to those close to them, a confident person can act shy. Instead of calling them traits, we should call them tendencies and shouldn’t lock choices based on them.
Now, I believe in the potential of personality tendencies and this is my take on it. First, I want you to consider that we all wear masks. What does this mean? It means we all act different depending on who we interact with. This is something you should consider when writing any character, including side ones. We connect deeper when a friend invites us to their house because we act different at home than we do for school or work. We are showing them a side to us that isn’t typically public and that little personal trust goes a long way. Consider having the main character act different in different circumstances as well, it’ll make them feel more human
Second, let’s talk about motivation. A character with a certain personality tendency going against that should be a big deal. Usually, depending on why they went against their personality, the reaction should be concern or appreciation. Why would one go against their personality? For a loved one, to get what they want, because their judgement is clouded; this should be taken into consideration.
Finally, let’s talk about what I think is the full potential of personality tendencies is. It will be a challenge, and you might need to grow as a writer and as a person. Writing different characters needs you to see all perspectives, not just your own. I believe the full potential is to change the narrative of your games. An introverted person sees the world differently than an extroverted person. I would highly recommend looking into the 16 personalities (but remember these are tendencies as well). Changing the perspective of the character based on their personality is interesting and makes your game replayable. Other characters can react if they make a choice that differs from their chosen tendecy and gives choices more weight. You as the author might have to think a little more about if the choice is important enough to go against personalities. Of course there are choices that would never go against any personality that you can choose as well.
Anyways this is just my 2 cents. I hope at the very least I have given you something to think about. The best thing of writing is that the author’s personality always leaks into the story which makes all stories as unique as the person that wrote them.