I'm in the process of writing the script and story for a very involved RPG that I plan on programming sometime in the future. The setting to the story is very complete, and in my opinion, a pretty good and original one. The characters are dynamic and have their own backgrounds and personalities shaped from the culture of where they grew up, as well as the experiences in their lives. However, as I read the script to the game, I notice one problem. All of my characters seem to talk the same. If I didn't have their names by their quotes, such as Mendel says "hi"; Spargio says "hello there.", I wouldn't know who was saying what. I think that the finishing touch to make my characters seem like real people is a speech pattern. However, this is something I've found very difficult to reproduce realistically. I don't want to add in simple repetitive words or mis-spellings like the old Final Fantasy games used to. I would like to genuinely create speech patterns to complement each character's personality. Does anyone have any ideas/pointers how to do something like this? Or is it simply being able to create someone in your mind, and have the vocabulary and knowledge to create dialogue as they would? One idea I've had is to find someone in real life that speaks like you'd like a character to talk in the game, and have him or her act out the story, telling her what the character thinks, but not what he or she says. Any comments? --Vic-- [edited by - Roof Top Pew Wee on September 24, 2002 11:17:41 PM]

Vocabulary. People all use the vocabulary that they accumulated over their life times. For example, most people don''t use the word accumulated in this context, nor the word context. You can infer from my vocabulary selection that I have a bit more intelligence then most people, thus you could probably pick me out in a channel/chatroom if I had a different username/screenname. Thus, by varying up the vocabulary on a set of characters, the player could pick them out without having to look for their name directly.

Another idea is adding a bit of an ethnic slur to it... Though, I come from the bronx, and I doubt people would appreciate words like DAWG and WAWK. But to use the cliche, "Aye" and "Arr" would say this character is a pirate.

Err, Don''t get too wrapped up in this topic though. If you want, have all of the text create an audible blip as it typed out on screen, and then pitch the blips. That method is probably faster and easier than relearning the english dictionary and then learning how to talk in specific vocabulary subsets.

-> Will Bubel
-> Machine wash cold, tumble dry.

This is the first time I've posted in this forum, but since I've been trying my hand at some writing lately, I thought I'd take a peek in here.

I've run across what you mention before in my own writing. I tend to take your latter suggestion, and think about a real person. Most important I think is their lexical range and their cadence of speech. I tend to use a lot of words that are seldomly used because that's just my personality. But it tends to infect my literary characters as well, and I realize that since I have a somewhat different way of talking to others (I speak very fast and I have a very eclectic vernacular choice) it becomes very obvious to readers. I really feel like I have to step into the mind of my character to "talk" like him or her. By choosing someone in real life who fits the personality of the characeter you are trying to portrary, it becomes quite easier to take on a more believable speech pattern.

[edited by - Dauntless on September 25, 2002 6:18:49 PM]

Phrenia has a good idea if you what to learn pacing and phraseology. Those are two of the several components you''ll want to incorp into saving your dialogue from itself.

Going out and listening to three or four tables away, where the timing, exposition and response pitch is registered when you don''t have to pay attention to what is being said cause you can''t hear it anyway. It''s one of those "I didn''t know what exactly was being said, but I could kinda tell what they were talking about by how they were talking about it" situations.

Dialogue is one of the great dragons, and if you do it right, talking about the laundry will sound like the reading of the constitution, to paraphrase NFL films, and people will hang on every word even if you are talking about cooking because you make it sound interesting. Methinks this is the origin or the soundbyte, but back to the point.

One character listening to another talk about the relevance to the point in the plot they are at, what point of view they see that relevance from, and what degree of comprehension or incomprehension they have during their speech and the words they use all factor in. You really have to do your homework to make dialogue sing. Fortunately, it''s a requirement, so you might as well hang tough.

Knowing the character from the standpoint of how you developed them in your character biography is critical to getting a sense, and a list, of how their speech and vocabulary and articulative ability is relativistic and natural to their real personality and character is critical. It can get you into the "hey, I know that is not how this character thinks, so why are they talking that way?" zone, which means you know the character that is talking is someone you''ve developed sufficiently in terms of them being a complete entity so they just don''t sound like suddenly stipulated splinters of your personality you''ve attempted to not sound like yourself through. This is easy to detect. I call it, "They didn''t write themselves out of the personality of the character."

Develop the character sufficiently so in your mind you have a real good idea of how he''s going to react (speech and actions often flow from action or reaction to the context of the environment or the perception within the character at that time and place in the story) anywhere at anytime.

This can be a lifesaver when you are developing archtypal characters, as my current screenplay, for example: The protagonist is a very typical swashbuckler/swordsman. Only by giving him sufficient family history, social position and political context, can I get him to sound a, aware and b, intelligent about the conflicts around him. I call this getting to first base with the dialogue. I don''t recommend you go for the final draft of the character''s speech the first time out, and do recommend several rewrites of it first, all while not judging the stuff on the page, but rather redefining the context a little tighter each time.

With my character, once the driving action thrust him into choices he had to make from awareness of the conflict about him, and the intelligence he posessed in terms of resources and actions he could take in response or proactivity to that conflict that drove his timeframe, then the speech became subjective and reflective of the situation. E.G.: "She''s taking on water, captain!" "Bail/abandon ship, dumbshit."

This is second base. Try to just get the logic right at first, then in the rewrites, add the feelings, perspectives and pov''s of the character in question in the mix, and that will get you to third, where the character is now speaking something aware, intelligent, feeling and responsive or proactive to the situation they are in here and now with the conflict constantly nipping at their heels.

Scale is what I use to make the dialogue get to third. The character can always remark about the situation intelligently, personally, awarely and emotively (aka characteristically), and they can then add the dimension of scale such as: (in a big scale) "Well, dumbshit, if we don''t bail, we''ll drown, if we do abandon ship, bear in mind we are hundreds of miles from the coast, and will be swimming in shark infested waters for days.

BEAT (A natural pause in dialogue) MainChar (yelling) "Now wtf do you think we should do?"

The other character can break down, and start doing a "We''re gonna die!" and lose it, or, they can scale in reply, "We can''t abandon ship, captain, we''ll never get to narnia! Help me bail, please, sir!"

Now, we''ve shown relationship, objectivity, scale of objective/mission commitment, emotional depth (or not), and believe it or not, bonding. Dialogue serves relationships, but mostly in the context of reaction or proaction to the here and now trouble we are in, or to serve the growing relationship between whom is speaking. The captain will speak quite differently to the Queen than the deckhands.

Play with it, have some fun with it, just make sure that you''ve got all your logic set up, or it won''t be fun to play with, and that will be a sure sign you aren''t to the dialogue point yet cause you haven''t gotten past the plot dev point or the character dev points of sufficiency.

When it pleases you, you''ll know you are in the ballpark. When it doesn''t sound anything like you, or how you think, but totally like the character does, you own the ballpark.

People get paid lots of money just to brush up dialogue, and couldn''t write a through line plot to save their lives.

HTH,
Adventuredesign.

I'm glad you've posted, adventuredesign:

I agree with one part of your suggestion strongly, to worry about the dialog later. I found myself caught up in exactly what characters would say as I was developing the plot, and one interrupted the other.

Now I plan on simply getting the plot finished, then later coming back and going through the story in my head as each character, seeing how it would effect them, without the clutter of having to worry about the others.

One problem I find with this is my game is intentionally about characters who are intelligent and have similar characteristics. And to top it off, they are thrown in a situation that I have never experience, and I doubt anyone alive ever has, since it is about life after death, but not in the context we normally think of it as. From my experience, most stories involving such a subject make it obvious what has occured to the character after death. I have developed the story so that I know, but the characters are in the dark.

I still find it difficult to have characters act as they truly would in such a strange situation; one that I have no idea how I would really act in. I guess the key is make it real enough so I could actually envision myself there.

One thing I've also thought about is to switch the game development steps around, and leave dialog to the end. I think that creating the graphics and mood for the game will give me a better idea. My dialog will most likely be more realistic if I write it as I look at the cave where Spargio is praying for his life as he is surrounded by demons, rather than just imagining the scene. Thanks for all of your input, guys. Any other suggestions are welcome!

--Vic--

PS. I guess I've left out one possible solution. Write the script and see if anyone would like to help me with the dialog after I present the full story. I guess I could start looking here. Anyone interested? You seem to have quite a bit of experience in this subject, Adventuredesign. Would you be interested in hearing my ideas and perhaps we would work together on something. Tell me if you're interested.

[edited by - Roof Top Pew Wee on September 26, 2002 8:00:50 AM]

Adventuredesign: "We have to get to Narnia!"

I wasn''t aware that C.S. Lewis could be so vulgar. :-)


Anyways, I do agree with you on some points. Personally, I write the dialouge and the plot all at once, I think seperating them is counterproductive. In fact, the dialouge is part of the plot so in the process of leaving virtual ''plot holes'' and then coming through later to revise, one might lose focus of the dialouge''s point. Since everyone is writing a game, myself included, I''ll give some examples.

One character in my story/script/screenplay/idea/game/insert-buzz-word is the classic protagonist on a hero quest, he is very intelligent (important to plot) and sarcastic. One character is an immortal (not by choice) human antagonist that has lived for so long he has lost respect for life and wants only death, needless to say he has emotional baggage. The following is an excerpt from a confrontation between the two, keeping in mind the protagonist (Joshua) is a good guy and the antagonist (Mezenski) is evil, but not pure evil.


Mezenski: There was another reason…
Joshua: We have to get out of this thing!
Mezenski: I had a family…a life…
Joshua: And he took it from you. That’s why you hate Infinity so deeply. Beyond the fact he destroyed your home…
Mezenski: I want to be with them again, Joshua.
Joshua: We have to get out.
Mezenski: There is only one way out now…kill me.
Joshua: No. I won’t kill an unarmed man.
Mezenski: I don’t want to fight anymore, just be quick; I paid my dues to Infinity, and my number’s finally up.
Joshua: Stand up, face me.
Mezenski: Done.
Joshua: Mezenski, may your soul find peace beyond this life.



When writing this scene (which occurs very late in the story) I tried to create sympathy for Mezenski and a moral cunundrum for Joshua. The last line is part eulogy and part apology.

Those are just my thoughts. Good luck in your writing.




"There are only three types of people in this world: those who can count, and those who can''t."

Just3D
Justin Nordin
J Squared Productions
www.jsquaredproductions.com

Ah, conveniently I have a part of a paper that I wrote a few years ago which is exactly what you ae asking for.


Dialogue and Characterization-

No one would believe that a person raised and still living in a trashy neighborhood in LA would say, “It’s aboot time y’all got heah!” Nor would he say, “Salutations! I am quite pleased that you are able to be here today.” unless the character was trying for some strange comic effect. One of the first things any author must do is make sure that their characters’ speech is not so bizarre it jars the reader out of the story. This should be fairly simple- just write naturally. If your writing is set in a different time or culture, however, beware of anachronisms. (E.g. of an anachronism: Knight in Shining Armor says, “Ah, the feasting should be wondrous; the ladies whisper that the lord has commanded a platter of the rare sushi be served!”)
You also don’t want your characters to be boring to listen to, nor do you want them all to sound alike, and this is a much more common problem because your characters will all tend to sound like you. The following is a simple method for making your characters speak like individuals.

1. Take a lined piece of paper for each character and put their name on it.

2. Write down your character’s physical description. Now, make up a metaphor for them. (E.g., the pale, aging school teacher, with his big glasses, was the local ‘wise old owl’; the thin golden girl was a sunbeam, come down to the earth to play with the meadow-flowers.)

3. Write down what the character’s role in your story is. (Is she the class clown? Is he a mother figure? Is she solemn and philosophical? Is he a whiny air-head valleyboy?) These factors determine the language with which other characters and the narrator, if present, should discuss this character.

4. Write down what ideas your character is most associated with in the story. For each of these you will want to come up with the character’s personal philosophical metaphor for this idea, or a before metaphor and an after metaphor if the character changes their attitude towards the idea during the course of the story. You’ll probably want to have a paragraph or a scene for each of these.

5. Write down your character’s style of upbringing and the gender and other assumptions their culture makes, the character’s current social level, and the character’s ideal social level. These would affect the formality level and register of the character’s language during different moods. (A register is a set of slang or jargon terms associated with a stereotype or a situation. E.g. “copacetic” and “peace, man” go with stereotype ‘hippie’.) Your character may use some words of dialect, but most style manuals strongly discourage the use of a lot of dialect, especially if the dialect is one the reader will not be familiar with, or if you are considering using more than one type of dialect. While it’s a neat idea to write a book in ‘alien’, and the finished object would make an interesting coffee table piece, you’ll make more money if you write it in English and put a note in the introduction saying, “Translated from the original ‘alien’.”

6. Some people speak with what’s called a ‘verbal tic’. For example, the school counselor in South Park says “m’kay?” at the end of most of his sentences. A verbal tic is a word spoken not to communicate semantic content, but to give the speaker a mental pause during which he/she can figure out what he/she ought to say next. Other words used for this purpose are “like”, “um”, “hmmm”, and a tongue-clicking usually written as “tsk”. If you chose to give a character one of these, it should be reinforced by being made fun of or otherwise called to the reader’s attention by at least one other character.

7. If there is an object or concept repeatedly discussed in the story, each character should have a unique way in which they habitually refer to this object or concept.

8. Now, incorporate these into your writing and watch your characters suddenly become individuals! (P.S., all of these techniques can also be used to differentiate one group of characters from another.)

I hope you''ll all forgive me for skipping the last several posts, especially if I end up repeating something that''s already been said. I just have one idea to throw into the mix though.

Writing a game, like screenwriting, isn''t quite like writing a book. The end result needn''t be exactly what you''ve got on paper.

If you plan to use voice actors for your game, let them be the solution to your problem. In other words, allow each actor to interpret the character how they will (with your guidance of course), and then let them adjust the dialogue as they see fit. For instance (to use a really stupid, top-of-my-head example), if you write the following line for one of your characters: "Hey, Tonya, hurry and come over here!" and the character''s persona is more aggressive than that, then maybe you should allow the actor to read it differently.. perhaps he''ll say "Yo, Tonya, get ovah heah!" And there you''ve got your style for that character.

Improvisation and team input are valuable assets to the game designer.


Brian Lacy
Smoking Monkey Studios

Comments? Questions? Curious?
brian@smoking-monkey.org

"I create. Therefore I am."