a rhyzome of game narrative archetypes
Did you see how many video games have a “character creator” that presents a finite set of hair, eyes, nose, face shapes, etc.?
What if we take this concept and apply it to the archetypes of our characters or NPCs?
We can generate a combinatorial explosion in our favor, and be able to create characters that work in unexpected but consistent ways in different narrative situations.
I think this could be implemented with some variables, like D&D does with alignment:
Chaotic / Neutral / Lawful
Good / Neutral / Evil
With 6 values, we get 9 very clear combinations of how characters behave.
What can we do if we apply this to archetypes?
I would be interested to see someone explore this… do you know if someone has already done it?