I've come to have very strong opinions about how characters should be written in CRPGs.
Here's the rule: the character needs to engage with the player.
This is a funny thing about a CRPG. The game can have terrible writing and unbelievably poorly written characters... as long as the characters properly engage with the player. Similarly, even if you have wonderfully written characters voice acted by legends, if they don't properly engage with the player, they're background noise.
So here's the exercise:
Don't write a backstory. None of your characters have any backstory.
Now your writing will radically improve.
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In order for a character to feel real, they have to exist in the same time and place as the player character. They have to talk to the player character. Negotiate, exchange ideas, come to a shared understanding of the world they exist in and their places within it. Their relationship has to evolve.
Backstories are poison to this, because a backstory exists in another time and place. Dripping a backstory into the player's ears as they earn relationship points doesn't establish a shared reality, doesn't involve negotiation or an exchange of ideas, doesn't improve the character's understanding of anything, and rather than evolve the relationship, it happens after the relationship evolved!
Some games try to bring the backstory into the present. This is possible, but it's more likely that you'll screw it up.
The basic rule is that you should never close loose ends without opening at least as many.
Most character backstories come into the present to close off loose ends - essentially ending the backstory and closing out the character. I have no idea why this is common, but it's just the worst approach.
Since I've been playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker, let me give some examples.
(Keep in mind that this game is written abominably.)
There's a warrior you'll use as your primary tank. I think every player uses her. Her backstory is that she's just so gosh-darn pretty that she was adopted by the religious order of beauty. She got angry with everyone telling her she was pretty, and quit.
Seriously.
Her "loyalty mission" is a character from her backstory showing up, fighting her, and scarring her face. The end. She's apparently no longer pretty and apparently the church no longer cares about her. All the loose ends are tied up and her character is now in limbo. No more interests, no more goals, no more looming threats, no more opinions.
There's another character that's undead. Her loyalty mission involves figuring out who killed her and, again, tying all the loose threads up so she has no more plot.
There's a character that's a ranger. His loyalty mission? Murdering innocent trolls because a troll killed his family. Again, it's tying the loose ends and closing the story of his life.
There is one character that qualifies, that passes the "loose threads" test. That would be the dumbass barbarian poseur.
Her backstory is that she ran away from her tribe because they didn't respect her. Her loyalty mission? Earning your respect and her self-respect at the same time by hunting a monster and taking the lead against it.
That's how you do it.
You and her are in the same time and place, discussing something happening in this time and place. It's not a monster from her past, it's just some random monster-of-the-week threatening your kingdom.
You and her are negotiating and exchanging ideas, finding a good balance between her heritage, her need to prove herself, her desire to belong, and the very blunt threat of a giant monster.
She grows as a person, having proven herself to herself. She's a little less of a poseur, and has found a place that accepts her.
You and she have an evolving relationship: you're no longer just 'a baron of some land I happen to be on', but her adopted tribe leader. A more fun and unusual relationship than the normal "strangers->friends->lovers" route!
I won't say her character is good or interesting. It's written with all the subtlety of a freight train... falling on another freight train...
But the structure of her character beats is solid, and therefore her character seems to exist and be a part of my story. She didn't close any loose threads off, she just joined my story as a living, growing person.
Could you adapt the other character beats the same way?
Sure. If the fighter's beauty is so great, let her lure in an ever-increasing volume of ever-richer and ever-more-aggressive suitors. Eventually it gets out of hand, and you have to choose: do the two of you get married in name only just to keep the suitors off, or does she carve a scar into her own face to stop them from coming?
It's not great writing, because the premise is dumb, but it's a situation that exists in the present and evolves your relationship to each other.
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If we look at other characters from other games, we can see the same basic premise.
Did you, like everyone, like Garrus? Well, guess what? He's the one that followed these rules. His character beats were always about something happening right now, he grew as a character, you negotiated and exchanged views with him, and your relationship steadily evolved.
Did you like Aeris? Well, guess what? She followed these rules.
Did you like Celes? Well, guess what? She followed these rules.
Even characters like Solas, weighed down by a ponderous backstory, are popular not because of their backstory, but because of how they bring their backstory into the present. How their backstory creates more problems, more loose threads... rather than resolving any.
I think there may even be some compelling characters whose names don't end with S. Try to find some, and see whether they follow these rules. I think they will.
So, my take:
1) Character beats should take place here and now, about things that matter here and now.
2) Character beats should involve debating, exchanging ideas or opinions, not just listening.
3) Character beats should evolve the character. Remember that weakness is strength, and that their place in the world is changing.
4) Character beats should evolve your PC's relationship with the character.
If you follow these guidelines, even if you write terribly, you'll at least have a compelling character!
At least, I think so. Let me know what you think.
