Storytelling and Self-Made Character Arcs

[NathanielKing]

So, I'm a screenwriting student and I've found, that for me personally, a lot of what makes very cinematic storytelling, ie Bioware games, interesting is when they adhere to storytelling rules. SWTOR is very obviously divided into three act structure, and I think that a lot of the best received class stories in the game follow a lot of the classical storytelling rules, cyclicality, a lowest point at the end of the second act, etc. Sith Warrior for instance, deals with the themes of the sith rise to power, needing to destroy your master, the need to gain power in society at any cost, revenge for having been wronged and the eventual return to where you started, now a master of the force, taking what you deserve.

A lot of what makes us interested in stories is when the protagonist has a character arc, the events of the story changing from the beginning of the story to the end in a meaningful and satisfying way. Our companions have them in their personal quests, but one of the issues in dealing with a protagonist whose choices we make is that it's hard to create a good arc for them as a writer.

So I was wondering, do you as players invested invested in the story, and as people RPing create an arc for your character's? Do you find them naturally changing during the game? Or do you create a flat character with an interesting personality who you take through the plot, never changing? Do you find one more satisfying than the other? Please, give me some examples of how you've done this if you have. I found myself much more interested and driven to finish my stories when I've made a character who changes over the course of the story. Thoughts?

[edit: sorry for the essay, I'm just really passionate about both swtor and writing right now. Thank you for reading if you have]

[NathanielKing]

I figured I would share first, when I made my Sith Inquisitor, Thanell, I based him around the idea of a former slave who was a good person at heart but declared that he was never going to let the world take control of him again. I defended the weak, taught kindness and compassion to my cult. But little hints of Thanell's growing need for power kept slipping through. I chose to kill an evil sith, the son of a comrade because he was a d*** and that his death would gain me an artifact of power. I lightning'd an ******e pirate who was wasting my time. I brutally slaughtered a competing Sith lord who made me powerless, even if only momentarily. By the time Zash and then Thanaton had betrayed my trust, I decided that I was going to gain the maximum amount of power I could, to never be hurt again, to be lord of my own destiny. I forcibly bound with spirits, figuring I could simultaneously gain maximum power and punish them for their wicked ways. I destroyed a fleet and another imperial ship to show my power. My character went from a slave just trying to make it by and be good in a cruel world to a power hungry sith who would take any measure to create order and goodness, even if he had to be bad. Edited October 10, 2015 by NathanielKing

[lilietsecaus]

I´ve made some, altough they sure have great holes in them, but I like them.

My sith inquisitor story - Accidentely I´ve found out my idea was slightly similar to one of the apprentices later shown in storyline (the twilek, who is killed by Xalek). I´ve imagined my inquisitor was a hutt slave. Fighting in arenas, when sometimes using the force without knowing it. Once an imperial soldier, higher rank, was watching her fighting show and recognized her force sensitivity. He bought her off and took her to the Sith Academy. Altough for some it might seem as worse fate than before, this slave saw it as a dark tunel with light in the end. It was difficult and rough, but that didnt scare her. As matter of fact, she was happy. Her fate was in her own hands and she could become "someone". Because of that, she feels great affection towards the Empire and its people. She enjoys being one of the leaders, but she has no need of showing off her own power. She respects non-force sensitive people as well as those of lower ranks. However, she is familiar with violence and is capable of feeling no empathy, if it means gain to the Empire and her. She understands though, that sacrificing imperials for her own gain is foolishness and make her as well as the Empire weak, therefore she tries to avoid it.

 

My bounty hunter - Was born in the lowest servants family of House Organa in Alderaan. Her family was mostly serving to one noble and his close siblings, who were paying no respect to their servants what so ever. They were treating them as low lifes. Physical punishments, no empathy and constant disrespect annoyed my future bounty hunter, but her parents were trying to silent her. They believed this is order of things and rebelling or even leaving is pointless. But then once on her way home she has seen a strange person covered in heavy armor talking to one of nobles. In fact, the talk was rather short and it later got violent. She saw this person beat noble unconscious and then freezing him in carbonite. So fierce. She ran to him and asked, who he is. Answering her in strange language she was confused. But then the person just laughed and spoke to her in basic. He said, that he is honorful warrior and hunter, a mandalorian. That he is a bounty hunter as well and that anyone can become mandalorian or bounty hunter (or both), if one has guts for it. In that day she decided she wants to be like him. But since she was still too young, she had to wait. In meantime she started to exercise and any moment of free time she had, she went to a spaceport and stopped few travelers asking about mandalorians, their culture or bounty hunting. Usually from smugglers, she gained enough knowledge and physical strenght as years passed by. On her 15th birthday she has announced her goals. Parents were strictly against it. Argues went so far, that her parents were willing to distant themselves. If she is going to be a bounty hunter, her family knows her no more. But her will was strong. If her family doesnt like her for who she is, she will find a new one, that accepts her. Slipping on many different ships she traveled into hutt space and started to fullfill her first bounty contracts.

Altough she dislikes nobility, she doesn´t have grudge against the Empire (being only offensive towards very disrespectfull sith or moffs), because "nobility" in the Empire isn´t given by birth. One has to survive the sith academy and work hard. That seems only fair to her.

Edited October 10, 2015 by lilietsecaus

[leggywillow]

I think the Imperial Agent storyline is great for this. My agent started as a loyal Imperial, became incredibly disillusioned with her superiors and their goals after

realizing that her own superiors had her brainwashed

and eventually

breaking emotional ties with her former role--if not actually breaking ties with Imperial Intelligence--by becoming a double agent for the Republic.

She came to deeply value her own freedom by the end of Act 3, something she had never really even had cause to consider prior to Act 1.

[Joachimthbear]

Making these stories is basically my addiction. Here's a couple of mine.

 

Jasem Lefevre

 

Scoundrel, ex-mercenary scout; close-quarters takedown specialist

 

"I never did get on with the Republic, and all its rules. But the Empire? They got no rules at all. And that... eh, turns out that's a whole lot worse."

 

Born on Nar Shaddaa, Jasem has never been a stranger to the criminal underworld. In his youth he ran with gangs, honing his survival skills on the streets, but the Smuggler's Moon held few opportunities for someone starting from nothing. When a mercenary crew came recruiting on their way to the Outer Rim, Jasem signed up like a shot, and his skills at sneaking and fighting dirty got him an assignment with the company's scouting force.

 

For many years during the Cold War, Jasem fought on numerous battlefields across the fringes of civilised space, clashing with pirates, rival mercenaries and the occasional Mandalorian. But gradually it dawned on Jasem that as the years and the scars mounted up, he never seemed to get any richer, and he certainly wasn't getting any younger. So he quit, investing what credits he did have into an old, beaten-up freighter, and went into business for himself hauling cargo.

 

Though he might have quietly rooted for the Republic to one day fight back against the Empire, Jasem never really saw it as his fight. He'd had his fill of fighting. Until a sequence of events, starting on Ord Mantell, put him and the upcoming war on a collision course...

 

As an older character than most (I'm not sure how lifespans work in Star Wars, but I see him as being in the equivalent of his late forties), there were some interesting twists to playing Jasem. In my head, his flippancy and wisecraking became less about youthful arrogance (though he's certainly arrogant) and more about confidence born of his mercenary days. Since he was the first character I ever made, I wasn't aware there were certain similarities between Jasem's backstory and Corso's, which made their relationship as kind of mentor/sidekick seem quite natural. Many romance options presented a slightly unsettling age gap.

 

Jasem followed a fairly standard Han Solo character development: he started out very much a self-interested rogue looking to profit from the situations he found himself in, but the more he saw and the more the war went from cold to hot, his conscience increasingly got the better of him. Even now he'd still prefer to think of himself as a smart, independent businessman rather than as a Republic patriot, but he's seen the true face of the Empire and for the first time in his life, he feels like it's something that he has to fight against.

 

Jiann Myles

 

Mercenary, hired gun, heavily-armed marauder

 

"You gotta be able to count on your blasters, your crew and your ship. Nothing else. And never trust a Hutt."

 

Jiann could be seen as the flip-side of Jasem's coin. On her home world - a heavily industrialised planet in Hutt space - she, too, grew up around gang crime... and took naturally to it. After brief associations with established gangs she struck out by herself as a gun for hire, wielding her blasters for the highest bidder. In the polluted environment of her world, Jiann became used to fighting in an armoured environment suit, which has become part of her trademark; today, almost nobody in the galaxy even knows what species she is.

 

Jiann's exploits eventually led to her being discovered by a promoter for the Great Hunt, who saw a future for her as a bounty hunter. Jiann had little patience for the codes of honour that seemed to surround the whole enterprise, but the promise of fame and credits lured her in. That was how she found herself on Hutta, when things took a turn for the worse...

 

After my first brief attempt at a Bounty Hunter with the standard, iron-clad code of honour, I found Jiann a much better fit for the BH story line. She laughs at the idea of honour and instead follows her gut, which - unexpectedly - led to an overall Light Side alignment. The mercurial, vengeful characterisation that the story kind of forces on you happens to fit Jiann like a glove: she looks after her own and she always looks to get paid, even if she has to cheat.

 

Development with story spoilers:

 

Jiann started out basically doing whatever she was told by the person she thought of as the boss at the time. She developed a sense of independence slowly over the course of the story, as she began to realise how she was being used by people like Mandalore and Tormen. She still didn't have enough of a sense of personal responsibility to see her problems in Act 3 as her own fault in any way, but she did turn on and kill Tormen in the end as a way to assert that from now on, she would be calling the shots.

 

 

 

There are others, but I'll leave it at that for now. Some classes have been easier than others. I've yet to come up with a backstory I like enough to get properly started with the Trooper and Warrior storylines. I've had two attempts at Sith inquisitors so far, and both turned out to be insane, though in different ways. Aside from all-out evil, I can't find another way to make the character work.

 

Edit: So, you ever write a super-long post, then cut it down in size to be manageable and accidentally remove all the stuff actually relevant to the topic? Stuff added above.

Edited October 17, 2015 by Joachimthbear

[Ramalina]

It depends on the character.

 

My consular had a lot of character development over the course of the first 3 chapters, and even a little bit over the course of Makeb.

 

My smuggler had a modest amount of change as did my sith warrior.

 

Most of my other characters had fairly insignificant changes.

 

Partly this was a matter of getting acclimated to the game. With an increasing number of run-throughs of the same world quests I got less interested in using them as story arc development tools and more interested in just getting them done in an expeditious manner. The other part was character setting and storyline. The consular was very young relative to most of the other characters at the start of the story, and Tython provided some fairly spectacular chances to become disillusioned with the Jedi and their Code, which made a nice long term basis for story arc relating to personal identity and development. Most of the other storylines were more about doing stuff than about who you're becoming, or at least seemed that way with the options that I picked.