Character Creation and "The Six Things That Need Fixing"

Previously on DMpathy I have mentioned the benefits of setting up goals and motivations for your character so that you can have a clear 'arc' for your role playing--a way to develop your character's personality and progression. Well, here is a nifty resource for finding inspiration for how you can set these goals to give yourself a jump start on your role playing.

Based on Blake Snyder's screenwriting book Save the Cat, the Six Things That Need Fixing are character flaws, enemies, and other personal challenges that a protagonist needs to overcome to achieve their happy ending. As the book itself explains, it doesn't need to be exactly six things, but it helps if there are at least a few. This technique is geared toward screenwriters and filmmakers, but it can be just as useful for tabletop players who like rich storylines and character development... If you focus on mapping out the characters most obvious problems rather than their strengths, it makes for far more useful reference when it comes to role playing their motivations and behavior.

Keep in mind that in a tabletop campaign you will often need to keep things organically developing so that you don't just resolve all six things and run out of RP material. Whenever you resolve one of the character's problems (And you should resolve them when you can, don't let your character stagnate and become boring)  it is time to come up with a new Thing To Fix to take the last one's place.

This method is basically the same as that of the DM, to keep presenting your team with challenges as they overcome them. This is just you applying that concept to your own character, providing your own challenges to yourself of things the character needs to learn or change in order to grow. By pursuing these goals, your character will indeed grow and evolve, and that will make for an interesting and fun experience for yourself and your fellow players.

Read more about The Six Things That Need Fixing via this article, which includes a list of examples from popular films.

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