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Making shit up on the fly isn’t just for comedy shows; it’s a major component of tabletop gaming! To be able to think like your characters, on the spot, you need to understand how:
- Archetypes can help steer character creation to be more meaningful and define them in ways that fully resonate with and impact your players
- To give Characters details and idiosyncrasies
- To have the elastic thinking of Yes, and…
- To Describe what their senses tell them
Here is a list of basics and how to apply them to get you started on the path to being a better Game Master and player.
- ArchetypesCommonly forgotten by other game master tutorials, are the classical archetypes that we see in pop culture with the likes of Spongebob, Mr. Burns, Deadpool, and more! Although these can be two-dimensional, they are an excellent foundation to start building a character that engages the players with universal relatable experiences.
Commedia dell’arte: Stock characters from the 1500s have been rehashed for decades in pop culture. Here is a short list.
Arlecchino: From Spongebob Squarepants to Deadpool, this trickster can be playful, crafty, forgetful, and easily distracted, despite some characters having a more Machiavellian aspect to their machinations. These can be your Homer Simpsons or even your Shawn Spencers from Psych. This may be in the same category as your Rogues, but they can also be your tricksy big bads.
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Columbina: The love interest of Arlecchino, and often slightly more focused on planning, although still prone to hijinks. Think Babs Bunny, Harley Quinn, or Deadpool’s Vanessa Carlysle. These can be any suitable love interest for your rogues. They can tend to see double-crossing as flirting.
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Pantalone: An old, miserly, and often angry boss like Scrooge McDuck, and yes, actual Ebeneezer Scrooge, is a fine specimen of Pantalone. He is often henpecked by his wife, La Signora. You’ll also see the likes of him in Mr. Crabs, Mr. Burns, and even J. Jonah Jameson. A lot of kings and shopkeepers have these energies.
- La Signora: Calculating older lady, often the wife (and oppressor) of Pantelone. This would be your queens, shopkeeper wives, etc.
Il Dottore: Highly educated, or at least pretends to be, the doctor often uses colorful or made-up words like you might see from Zoidberg from Futurama or Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. BAZINGA! You might find use for these in eccentric old wizards or arcane tinkerers.
- Il Capitano: A man’s man, or so he claims. They talk a big game but are found lacking when it comes to the punch. Zapp Brannigan may have a medal, but it was for sending hundreds of his own men to their death. Eventually, even these types realize how pathetic they are. Military captains and generals that seem to have coasted to their stations on wealth alone would fit the bill here.
La Ruffiana: An outsider and wild woman, often a witch, sometimes a whore with an overactive sex drive for her age, she is often mischievous but kind. The witch in Looney Tunes cartoons is a carbon copy of this archetype. If you need an eccentric hermit, it doesn’t always have to be a guy.
The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell studied Jungian psychology and comparative mythology to derive his Monomyth or Hero’s Journey, a subject which should allow for an entire blog on its own about classical storytelling (coming soon…hopefully). Without hitting all variations or even the 17 stages of this formula for narratives, here is a list of archetypes largely derived from Carl Jung’s work.
The Hero(s): This is the relatable average Jill, J, or Joe, a moisture farmer on Tatooine, a nerd sleeping in a closet under the stairs, a hacker named Anderson stuck in a cubicle at a dead-end job, etc. They start small, like 1st level, and through a lot of trials, end up remaking the world into a better place. Seriously, this creates an experience that everyone resonates with. Setting your players into this role and letting them stumble upon the stages of the monomyth you lay out in tracks makes a huge difference in your players’ immersiveness and fun levels. The other character archetypes can also help keep your players on track.
The Herald: Even heroes have a Refusal to the Call of Adventure, so when your players just miss the plot device that’s supposed to propel them forward, they can perhaps be snapped out of distraction by this character. They are the ones to flat out tell them that they are indeed a wizard, Harry, go do the thing now! It can also be a magical thing, event, disaster, dead Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, whatever.
The Mentor: The wizened old timer that helps train and guide heroes where they need to go is an important line of work. Maybe they can turn up mysteriously like Gandalf, and tell them exactly what they’re doing wrong, and what they should be doing instead. After all, in their looking ahead and behind, wizards always arrive precisely when they mean to. Just be careful to use this sparingly, or you’ll end up having your Mentor as disliked by your characters as Cavalier did Dungeon Master.
The Threshold Guardians: These are literally what they say they are. They are bad guys that guard the threshold to the world outside of our comfort, but if used well, they may not even have to fight them. The symbolism here is that the hero is only ready to pass the threshold when they FEEL they are worthy enough to cross. Work this idea into the story a little. It will mean a lot.
The Trickster: Arlecchino is one, but there are many types. This can be one of your own players. Let’s face it, it’s usually the Bard, but any Rogue or player with a Rogue mentality will do. However, you can also place your own little Chesire cats along the path to help steer your heroes (or villains depending on your campaign) back on the path. The Trickster has many aspects. It can be a fool with a rare wise thing to say like Olaf from Frozen, or it can be a full-on big bad like The Joker. Anyone with whimsy, misdirection, subverted expectations, or plans that seem to not even be planned at all can fit within this archetype. It is, without a doubt, my favorite.
The Goddess: Anyone with divine, feminine, nurturing energy. Actual gender and sex are irrelevant.
This can be an actual goddess but is almost always a love interest for the hero who loves unconditionally, often acting as…
Tempter/Temptress: Heroes are often simps. The Tempter/Temptress entices our protagonist to keep them from returning home with the boon that could save their people. In the end, our hero must leave their lover, but hey, they can always return.
The Father: It can be a father, a mother, or a boss; it’s pretty much anyone with life-or-death power over the hero. It’s part of breaking free from what are, at least, perceived as forced expectations. Sometimes our “fathers” want us to rule the galaxy alongside them, but we have other plans and desires. It’s time for us to shine for us, not them.
The Shadow: This is the big bad, Vader, Sauron, or worse. It is a representation of the wrong way of doing things, the part inside us all that we choose not to listen to. Make your villains an aspect of your heroes, and the final battle is even more intense and emotional.
The Shapeshifter: We often wear many hats, and so do our fictional characters. Some can be Tricksters and Mentors, some good beings can be bad, and vice versa. We all change and not always for the better, but sometimes, depending on how our things play out, redemption can happen. I recall a time when we realized the big bad was one of our own party members who lost their memory at the start of the adventure. We picked our jaws up off the floor and had some things to figure out fast. The point is, it was unforgettable.
There are so many more archetypes you can research in more detail:
In addition to:
Commedia dell’arte
Carl Jung
Joseph Campbell
There are also other personality types:
Myer Briggs
Ennegram
- Character BackgroundsThis is where the details of our devils come into play. The more history, personality quirks, upbringing, etc. you bring forth in character generation, the more the character’s motivations, desires, and more are established for you to act and react with. Each character should have a separate character description sheet for personality quirks, fears, desires, addictions, history, and anything else you can think of to round out our two-dimensional archetypes. The more you do this, the easier it gets, and the more you can make one up in-game, but do remember Step 5.
Below are a couple of free downloadable sheets I created to use for your games.
Background, A Memoir: For a medieval fantasy feel.
Background Report: For a more contemporary setting.
- Yes, and…This sentiment is about taking everything on board that is said as fact and building on it. This works well in farcical skits that escalate to the highest point in the 9 realms in seconds, and it works as a good rule of thumb in table-top gaming, but you don’t have to be Jim Carrey in Yes Man reckless with everything.
In the collaborative narrative building of role-playing with a group of friends (whether in tabletop games or the kinky kind), it’s perfectly fine and encouraged to discuss play beforehand, during, and afterward. It’s fine to have pauses for thought. You can pretend they’re for suspense or added dramatic flair. Even professionals on Whose Line mess up. It’s sometimes part of the fun. You can change your mind and replay scenes. Whatever works best to keep your players happy is best, because remember, YOU ARE ALL PLAYING THIS GAME, and games are meant to be fun. It’s the GM’s job to help make it so.
- Description of What Is SensedThere’s a thin line between describing everything they see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, and keeping the pacing for a good game, especially since most gamers are easily distracted neurodivergents. Do this by inserting descriptions into actions instead of pausing for a full layout of what all their senses are telling them when they walk into a room. Sure, do tell the important things, but keep it short. Then lay in more description with actions.
“He draws his golden-hilted sword with a sharp unsheathing. The silver blade shines beneath the blood stains as he shakes his raven locks out of his face to ready his stance for action.”
- Take NotesIf you just made up the above character in the middle of playing, then you need to write down the ongoing story of the sword you just described. You just laid the foundation there, and it already has a mysterious history. We also know our character has long black hair. Write that down on your character description sheet. Reference these and add to them as the game progresses. You may be using your own world, or a world from an established franchise. Either way, you need the notes at hand, and again, it’s okay to take the time to thumb through them a bit to check your sources and notes, BUT, it’s much better to have these notes committed to memory the best that you can. The more you know, the more you can maneuver quickly with the Yes, and… step.
Take AwaysThe more you build your characters, or even your world (article coming soon), with the right foundations of archetypes that demonstrate universal relationships we all face, add details and quirks for even your most rarely used NPCs, and describe them and your world with the action for pacing, the faster and more readily you will be able to think on your feet in the moment like Matt Mercer, and even if you never reach that efficiency, it’s about having a good time with your friends around a table. Pauses are fine until you figure out what works for your world. Fun is the magic. Make yours happen!
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