Characterization Minigames:

[Josh_Kablack]

Having been (re) playing through the X-men Legends / Marvel Ultimate Alliance series lately, I realized that their somewhat limited voice-acting scripts do a relatively decent job of characterization with very limited lines - and that this could potentially be adapted to tapletop in a useful manner. For those unfamiliar with the games, each character has two different lines for each of nine different situations that occur in these arcade-style superhero dungeoncrawlers. But precisely what the characters say for each of these varies slightly, while the most obvious choice for low HP is "My Health is low", the characters say things like "I require medical attention", "I'm fading fast", "Can't take much more of this", "Medic!, "Someone help me.", "I'm dying here", "Uh-oh, my health bar is flashing" or other variations. And even players unfamiliar with characters can get a general idea of their personality from just that set of quips.

So with that in mind, here's an exercise minigame players can complete to have a set of handy quips for their own character:

Come up with two exclamations that your character would say for each of these events. Such quips should serve to illustrate your character's personality and be brief enough to shout out during a fight (probably 10 words or less)

1. At the start of a fight.
2. When they have dispatched a foe
3. When they are running low on HP
4. As they get knocked out
5. When they fail to complete a single-round task
6. When they are bored
7. When they have performed notably better than their allies

Edit: adding examples of quips for both the characters I am am currently playing. They are two very different characters in two very different games, so hopefully this works to communicate something about the character and the game for each of them:

Director Clarion

1. Follow the plan! or We're fighting for the future!
2. You lost before you even reached the battlefield. or Learn from that!
3. I'm hurt worse than the time at <insert town> or Withdraw and regroup!
4. Carry on without me, the free world's counting on you! or Tell 'em I went down fighin'
5. Guess I'm not as young as I used to be. or That's a new trick, and I'm an old dog.
6. Why we still here jawing? or I guess you think the world can save itself now.
7. Another objective complete or Now that's how you move a mission along.

Crystal Oymyako

1. For booty! or Get out of our moat![/b]
2. I'm just too cool! or Another foe sliced and iced!
3. I need some Magic Hands! or Hey, stop, that really hurts!
4. I feel cold or Nooooo!
5. Why would I even do that ? or Not like that was important anyways.
6. I'm out of wine. Also patience.or Borrrr-ing!!
7. Don't feel bad - I'm just that good. or Coooool! *giggle*

moving on

I also recall that a lot of games I've been in have used various character quizzes, personality tests and even modified fortune-telling methods as other minigames to help establish characterization. So this thread would be as good a place as any for the rest of yinz to share any such things that you found especially useful, fun, memorable or innovative.

[Psychic Robot]

this is a cool idea

[icyshadowlord]

You want us to make them here and now? I just need to pick one of my characters and go on to give their lines if that's the case...

So yeah, this post is subject to edits.

[Username17]

Actually, that's a really good list. A thing I would like to stress though is that characters shouldn't necessarily reach for the catchphrases in every instance. I mean, if you're in a fight against a giant turtle trying to save the princess, you might want to avoid your usual line of "Feel the Burn!" or whatever and say something to the turtle or the princess that is relevant to the current events.

In fact, it is possible that the things you write down will never be said. If you're a snarky character, you could very plausibly say something relevant to the events at hand in every instance. The catchphrases are just templates of things the characters would say.

-Username17

[RobbyPants]

I remember wanting to give the players some sort of questionnaire back when I started playing 3E to get them to give me more detail about their personality than their alignment. I don't remember if I actually completed it or not. This list is nice and short, and also doesn't get into all of the complicated ethical situations I was aiming at in mine.

Elegant in its simplicity.

[Mask_De_H]

It's like making voice clips for a fighting game, and anything that resembles a fighting game is fine by me.

[Josh_Kablack]

You want us to make them here and now?

Well I was hoping for suggestions for other similar minigames, seeing as theres another vaguely related thread around but if you think posting quips for your own characters would be useful or entertaining, go right ahead.

I've edited in examples for character in both my F2F retro champions LXG-style game and the online silly Disgaea-inspired D&D game.

[Saxony]

Preemptively and extensively planning character speech = bad.

[Josh_Kablack]

Preemptively and extensively planning character speech = bad.

Well it's pretty much the entire basis from all forms of non-improvisational drama and characterization, from Homer through Shakespeare through Hollywood movies and into the current network TV season.

While you can run into problems where pre-planning things in an interactive, improvisational medium means that you're wasting time preparing for eventualities that might never come to pass, I don't see how a suggestion that players could coming up with a set of exclaimations totaling to less than 300 words for situations that are likely to occur commonly in most TTRPGs is in any way "extensively planning".

Furthermore, the point of any sort of "Characterization Minigame" is that it can be used to give the Player something to do or think about that keeps their interest in the game during times when their character is not in the spotlight - even scripting responses for situations that don't happen can be a useful way for a player to better define their character and an MC to encourage players to maintain engagement with the game.

[Winnah]

Reminds me of an old Baldur's Gate mod I had. Ash from the Evil Dead movies.

went something like:

1:"Alright. Who wants some?" or ""Yeah! C'mon! I got plenty for everybody."
2."See how that works?" or "Ooh that's gotta hurt."
3."For God's sake! How do you stop it?" or "Now I swear, the next one of you primates even touches me..."
4."You bastards. You dirty bastards!" sobbing, or "You bastards! Why are you torturing me like this? Why?"
5. ?
6.It wasn't always like this. I had a normal life once...
7."Groovy" or "Hail to the king, baby."

Started to grate by the end of the game, but was pretty funny at first.

[Ice9]

Preemptively and extensively planning character speech = bad.

I think it's probably as or more useful than planning the character background.

Detailed backgrounds can be interesting for their own sake, but often they don't really give you a good idea on how to play the character, and there's no plausible opportunity for the other players to hear the interesting stuff. As a result, I've switched to describing a character by what they do in common situations like:
* Hanging around resting.
* In town, with some time off.
* Facing a legitimately dangerous situation.
* Dealing with more powerful people.
* Dealing with less powerful people.
* Being admired for accomplishments.
* Being blamed for screwing up.
* Negotiating with someone they don't really trust.

IMO, even if you never used the exact catchphrases you wrote down, the process of deciding them would be useful in figuring out how you want to play the character.