I would like to introduce myself to these forums. I am an aspiring video game developer, and I want to get involved with making games that have a postmodern feel to them, emphasizing music, spectacle and especially story. Right now I am trying to figure out how to write dialogue for a few characters, and I have not been able to find the right category for it, so I would immediately present my first problem to this forum. I have been trying to figure out how to get an interaction between three to four (the fourth is assigned to start fixing something she broke, in which one of the three has to leave to escort her, see the smart guy) characters, with one of the characters fixing a problem with ease via a hidden ancient device he has, while the other two are trying to get information out of that character in a "how did you do that" scenario. Characters: The first character has little to no commitments, and has seen little of how much bad and good the people and the world is capable of. He is generally seen as stupid and carefree, but this is not so much the case as him just being innocent while at the same time not caring about what is happening. He carries a device that can allow him to change how technology works, but it is not shown to the other characters at the time. The second character is an intellectual, able to use technology and machines very well. However he has the typical weakness of not being very strong sociologically, and vulnerable to peer pressure, mind games, and other forms of manipulation. He has low self esteem as well, and does not have a great amount of ego. Irrelevant info: He is running a company with the desire to compete with (and logistically disadvantage) a leading company that endangers the freedoms of the civilians, and also have captured his friend. He is not good at running it however as he is not able to stand against peer pressure well, thus his employees have been difficult to control. However they are functioning well in their purpose, damaging the financial support the antagonist has. The third character is some overpowered PTSD egomaniac that has been an engineered bioweapon, but not in the sense of disease. He is also not that good with people, but for reasons that contrast and conflict with the intellectual. He is resistant to manipulation, but he has an ego, is impatient, and has hawkish attitudes. Easy to aggravate as well. His PTSD is mostly a depression based thing that goes on when he contemplates and thinks about his future and past. Right now it is not affecting him. The fourth character already had her moment earlier, so I don't need to talk about her much right now. What just happened: The first character was able to just get into a building and resolve a situation that the second and third characters were endangered by and struggling with at the time. The first character was able to use his device to work with the technology he doesn't understand without revealing anything to the other two characters. Those two characters are now questioning the first character. Desired resolution: The first character was able to escalate the situation beyond the other two characters' control by asking for a price for the information they seek, something that is not of lots of value while at the same time being hard to find and takes a long time to get. The other characters get frustrated and decide to just leave the first character alone.
Welcome to the forum. Here's our New Member Guide to get you started. I would also suggest you'd post your question to our Character Development room as you'll probably get more answers that way. If you want, I can edit it out of your Intro post and then you can just start a thread about the topic in Character Development. Either way, welcome and have fun! -Kat
It seems that your advice isn't working so far... I made a topic in the category you suggested and nobody is saying anything...
Hi, welcome to the forum. It looks like your post in character development was a tad confusing to people. I'm not sure breaking it down into spoilers helped. Perhaps ask about smaller bits at a time.
If I were to ask for smaller bits I risk ending up lowering the goalposts for my objective in a way that makes it difficult for what I need to have done achieved. Someone mentioned deniability, but that rarely works in real life and so would be unrealistic to expect to see it in fiction.
The second character being an intellectual, at the same time being vulnerable to manipulation sounds contradictive. Also, the combination of "intellectual" and "sociologically weak" (with little social skills?) is, too, out of synch. "...and does not have a great amount of ego." I don't hink "ego" can be measured or summed by amount. More like he doesn't have big ego. You said "low self esteem" which portrays him better. I strongly doubt a person with low self esteem would run a complany lest he inherited this company, say, from his wealthy father. "The third character is some overpowered PTSD egomaniac that has been an engineered bioweapon." The third character is an engineered bioweapon or has engineered a bioweapon? Your use of grammar is confusing. You have an interesting idea. It really sounds good, more like a sci-fi play of my beloved Czech origin. I recommend you go through a lot of dialogues threads here, plot development and character development. One has to have a lot of imput going into his brain before producing something at least remotely good. We all have ideas here. Don't make the mistake of assuming you're somehow special 'cos the people around you have no ideas at all. "It seems that your advice isn't working so far... I made a topic in the category you suggested and nobody is saying anything..." The following are not my words but let me quote whoever said them around here (I think it was @Cogito): nobody has to answer to your thread. It's a service they do you to you for free. Do a lot of your own research, don't take the forum for the only cornerstone of your development, don't count solely on sb answering to your query. Try to look up the answer for yourself. One fact I've learned is that no matter what you're after, if you delve into research, you'll find fascinating facts not only about the target area but also about many branch-offs.
