Mandelbrot’s Simple Choices

At Apathy Games we’re big fans of complex characters. We love complicated messes of stories, background information, and luck to define our characters, but all of our characters can be defined in simple means to describe the complicated structure. What if we took a simple character and instead of making huge complicated mess for them instead made a messy complicated world?

Simple on the Outside

One character concept I’ve always wanted to explore more was the paladin archtype. I blame my fascination with the character type on Jim Butcher’s wonderful betrayal of Michael Carpenter in his Dresden novels. Michael was a man who loved God and lived simply lived to serve. He was a Knight of the Cross (Butcher’s way of saying Paladin) and functioned as the white laced straight man for Harry. While his motivations on the outside were simple the character always struck me as startlingly deep motivated by his deep seated fate. What if we were to take a simple premise such as this and stick it in a world like the World of Darkness or Ravenloft?

Messy, Complicated, Moral Choices

Of course part of those games are the moral choices that one most make and living with the horrors that come up from them. To me though, the character offers an opportunity to dive deep into the complexities of the world. I know where I stand with every moral decision; I will do everything in my power to right wrongs and try to make the world a “better place.” Of course it’s the GM’s job to screw me over in every turn. It’s the name of the game, and is only right and proper.

Simplicity thrown out the Window

After a while though the simple character eventually grows into a complicated mess, the morally gray world he exists in challenges him to the core. The simplicity of his archtype is thrown at the window as problems begin to arise and compromises are made. Are once simple character has been corrupted by outside forces; they’ve changed him down to his inner being. The Mandelbrot set seems to be exemplified in this character, the characters complicated structure arising from a simple definition; to simply serve his god.

What simple premise have you started out with that turned into a complicated deep character?