Call of Cthulhu Character Creation

Peterson identifies character development as one of the most difficult aspects of narrative construction for student writers, and her views on the matter align with both my observations of student work and my limited experience with creative writing. Developing well-rounded characters who are more than pawns of the plot through realistic dialog, narration that is at once both revealing and subtle, and actions that are justified by previously-established motivations while revealing previously unseen elements of a character is incredibly difficult.

My experience with tabletop role playing games has led me to consider character prior to the development of a plot. The series of steps that players and game masters follow at the outset of a game in some ways seems to mirror the process of character construction in a written narrative, possibly offering students a scaffolding activity for their attempts to create believable and fully-realized characters. A role playing game - Call of Cthulhu, for instance - begins with a shared understanding of setting, principle themes, and the ideas that the author wishes to explore. Firmly set upon this common, solid ground, players develop characters, built around a flexible template that can be expanded or contracted as desired, considering history and attributes. A co-creative process of plot development follows in which players and narrator together construct a story that responds to character-driven choices - assuming that one does not play for a "railroading" GM. This process could be adapted into a classroom context in order to train students in some of the basic techniques of narrative and character development while engaging them in part of a game. The random nature of character generation in a tabletop RPG demands creativity in the formation of personalities, characteristics, and backstories. For instance, how do we account -- historically, physically, and psychologically - for a charisma roll of 4? What does this number translate into for a particular character and how does it affect him or her over the course of his or her life?

With proper guidance, students at a sufficiently advanced level could use games such as Call of Cthulhu in order to gain a better sense of the logical and emotional bases for the characters that they seek to develop for their written narratives.