Following my contextual research, I was now able to start developing the game. I started with a name: Character Defining. The principle being that the players in the room would use a range of library resources to help them create a central character; perhaps for a novel, play script, television show, screenplay, video game narrative or any other kind of artistic form that needed a character. This I believed would appeal to the creative aspirations of many of the students at UAL, whilst still being accessible to anyone who enjoys storytelling.
The game hoped to challenge a common trope, “write what you know”, and the assumption that a character one creates must be developed from a set of lived experiences and familiar cultural forms. Of course this is a legitimate approach, but this game would turn the idea on its head: can you create from the empathetic point of discovering things, places and people you are not?
At the beginning of the game the players would not know who their central character is and instead would start to try and understand them, by revealing four very important people in their life. These four characters would be: a family member, a romantic interest, a mentor and a rival.
These secondary characters are created in the game through the process of selecting books. Players would proceed by drawing playing cards, each of which would be linked to a range of library books, categorised and filed under each suit and relating to different geographical locations, professions, events and objects. It would be my job to curate a diverse range of books from the library to fulfil this process (see the next blog entry). Over a period of round players would assign the different books they selected to the four important characters in their central character’s life. Time would then be given to read, study and investigate this material, with the aim of using it to synthesis a short narrative description of each. Importantly the range of material would necessarily require a stepping away from the comfort of what one knows, and instead require the placing of oneself into the shoes of other lives, other places and other values. Using parts of our library collection, previously undiscovered by the players, as seeds for original creation.
Finally, rather than defining their main character by way of characteristics unique to them, the players would narrate them through the relationships they have with the four other characters. Again, reasserting a creative process that values relations with others as a way describing an identity through empathy, rather than establishing self through familiarity and self-determination.
With the principles of the game complete I was able to write up a detailed rule set the players could use during the game.
Character Defining rules
In addition my colleague Mara Della Vedova helped with the graphic design of player sheets, prompt sheets and promotional material. With only a few weeks till the date of the session, I reached out to the Students Union as well as the Library’s promotional networks, to help encourage sign up for the event.
Players Character Sheet