Characters and dialogue
Learning paths through this topic
Decide which players get credit when the story reaches a turning point
The twist fires at the end of a long scene. The one who just left after doing the work, and the one who arrived for the last moment, both ask whether it counts. Here is a window that rewards taking part, not timing, and what to do at the edges.
Make a guard blame the right members of a party for a crime
One player robs the shop while two friends keep the owner busy and a fourth is across town. The guard should not treat all four alike. Here is how to split blame by role, how to handle a thief nobody saw, and how to turn blame into a loss of trust.
Combine class and background bonuses without breaking the skill limit
A soldier who was a guard before gets the same skill from two places and ends up above the highest allowed level. Here is how to add the gifts together, stop at the limit, and turn what does not fit into something the player can still use.
Fill the party slots when some members cannot be swapped out
The story insists that two characters travel with you, but the player also wants to pick favourites for the remaining places. Here is how to build the active group so the required ones are always in, the choice is honoured as far as it fits, and a broken setup is caught early.
Share a reward among heroes so the pieces add up exactly
A hundred points among three heroes gives thirty-three each, and one point vanishes. Do it a hundred times and the party is a long way behind. Here is how to divide fairly by weight, give the leftovers to those who earned them most, and rotate who gets the odd one.
Choose which party member makes a skill check, and who may help
A locked door, a haughty guard, a trap on the floor. The player expects the best person for the job to step up, not whoever happens to be first in the list. Here is how to choose that person, who is out of the question, and how helpers add a little without making the result silly.
Open a companion's personal quest and close it if missed
A companion's own story should open when you are close enough, but it flickers away when affection dips, or stays open forever and breaks later chapters. Here is the small set of states and the rule for when each change happens.
Stop players from repeating a failed persuasion until something has changed
If a failed attempt can be tried again and again, or the game is reloaded until the roll works, the check means nothing. Here is how to show the real chance, make a reload give the same result, and open the door again only when the situation has truly improved.
Let players spend points on stats with rising costs and a fixed budget
Everyone wants a hero who is excellent at one thing, so a flat price per point makes every character the same specialist. Here is how to make high values cost more, check a finished sheet exactly, and show how many points remain.
Keep a saved character's look when the art files get renamed
After an update, old saves show an empty frame where a hero's face used to be, because the picture was renamed, merged or removed. Here is how to follow the renames, spot loops, and pick a sensible substitute when the old look is gone.
Write dialogue that works for any pronoun the player chooses
When the hero can be she, he or they, a sentence like the one you wrote for one choice reads wrong for the others, and a verb stays singular after a plural pronoun. Here is how to write the line once and have it come out right every time.
Hand a dead quest giver's open quests to someone who can finish them
The player's carelessness, or a plot twist, kills the person who was waiting for the delivery. The quest stays in the log and can never be completed. Here is how to name a successor in advance, skip those who are gone too, and handle the quests nobody can take.