Players will enter the fictional environment you have developed as a counterpart of the real world and the space of the Old Suburb. This environment should be cohesive and it should incorporate the characters which can be found there. If you have answered the previously mentioned questions in detail, if you have analysed memories provided by the inhabitants and if you have analysed the archive stories collected by the Society of the Storytellers of the Lower Town of Gdańsk, you have already known a lot about the characters who will appear in your game. Now you just need to put everything together in the right order.
The main protagonist:
- What are the protagonist’s characteristic features (the way s/he looks like, the way s/he speaks like, sayings)?
- What are the protagonist’s good and bad qualities?
- What is the protagonist’s story?
- What are the protagonist’s aims? What does the protagonist care for most?
- What is the protagonist’s motivation to accomplish the mission?
- How can players identify themselves with the protagonist?
- Why can players like the protagonist?
The main antagonist:
Antagonists are often referred to as villains. Their aims are usually opposite to the aims of protagonists and antagonists make protagonists’ missions more difficult to be accomplished. Antagonists can be human beings (as Joker, Batman’s main antagonist), they can become fantastic creatures (as Smaug, the dragon in Hobbit) or they can become a collective antagonist (as Orks in The Lord of the Rings). On the other hand, however, antagonists can also be the forces of nature (a tsunami, a drought, a hurricane), passing time (as in In Time, a film directed by Andrew Niccol), an oppressive system or state (as the Galactic Empire in Star Wars). Antagonists are not always black and white characters. Frequently, they evoke some mixed feelings in their audience. Their stories are interesting and there is always some good in them.
Helpful questions:
- What makes the antagonist stand out?
- What is the antagonist’s story?
- What emotions does the antagonist express?
- What elements are mysterious or intriguing in the antagonist?
- What is good about the antagonist?
- What is the antagonist’s motivation?
- What emotions does the antagonist evoke?
- Does the antagonist have any supernatural powers? What kind of supernatural powers?
Episodic characters:
- They appear rarely and they do not affect the storyline.
- In the case of an urban game, inhabitants can become episodic characters.
- Who are they? What do they do? What does their everyday life look like? Get your inspiration from the archive materials and true stories.
- How are they related to the main plot?
Tip: If the world of the game is based in the reality of the 1950s and you are going to introduce a character of a hacker, then your game will not be cohesive – unless you can provide a sound explanation how he has got there and what tasks he is going to accomplish.