Cinematic Characters

Advantages and skills do not, by
themselves, create cinematic heroes.
The player must have a character con-
cept that turns the statistics on the
character sheet into a person. In par-
ticular, epic heroes need two things:
A motivation. Love and honor are
classic, but not all cinematic charac-
ters are honorable, good, or even nice.
Evil dreams and goals – such as blind,
unreasoning vengeance – are perfectly
acceptable as long as they are appro-
priate. However, obsession can lead to
a simplistic character. The player must
make a conscious effort to round out
his character’s personality.
A place in the world. Cinematic
heroes have loved ones, mentors,
lovers, ex-lovers, enemies, birthrights,
family curses, and so on. They do not
simply appear, play their role, and
vanish – they need to be part of the
game world, since their story is part of
what defines the game world.