The other day I listened to the episode of the podcast Scriptnotes where the two hosts, Craig and John played the role-playing game Fiasco with a fellow writer and it sparked some thoughts about story telling and how characters become compelling. John and Craig in addition to being successful screenwriters, show runner, novelists, and playwrights, are role-play gamers notably playing Dungeons and Dragons the wellspring of all role-play gaming today so listening to them play Fiasco a game that is entirely focused on storytelling with only extremely limited mechanics intrigued me, especially since I had thoroughly enjoyed the episode of the web series Tabletop where I first learned of Fiasco.
In Dungeons and Dragons characters have a well defined set of abilities, usually derived from a ‘class’ that defines the character profession, thief, wizard, warrior, and so one but in Fiasco the only thing that defines a character is their relationships to the other characters of the game. There are not statistics for physical or mental abilities, no rule set for determining if a gunshot hits a target or misses, in short characters have no defined abilities whatsoever. A Fiasco character is defined by their choices and in fiction writing it is the same.
In fiction a character’s attempt at any action is not random determine by lucky or unlucky dice rolls but success is predetermined by the author compelled by the needs of the text. The character’s abilities are there to allow the possibility of success at any particular action but not to drive that action. What makes a character compelling is the choices that they make. If you can remove the character from the action and replace them with another person with a similar skill set and nothing changes then it is likely that your character is not very compelling. It is the choice that defines the character, it is in agonizing dilemmas where there are no good choices that forces a character to grow and confront their own true nature. From quiet dramas such as The Remains of the Day and Mr. Stevens choice to not speak up and tell Miss Kensington how he really feels to special effects spectaculars such as Captain America: Civil War where Steve has to decide to confess to Tony Star the truth that he had kept secret the truth of Stark’s parents’ murder it is the choice that a character that makes them empathetic.
Abilities can be switched out, anyone can be an expert of some skill ort knowledge but only this particular person with this particular background and experience can be tortured with a specific choice and there you will find the compelling character.
