The Most Important Aspect of Stories

I had a rather interesting discussion with the ChatTardis the other day, about what the most important aspect of stories were.

Some people thought it was the characters - in whether you could relate to them, and whether they were likable, specifically.

Others however, thought it was the storyline - was it enjoyable?

But some refuted this point with the necessity of building the world around the story and characters. - If it is not believable or imaginable, the story can fall apart. (Even if the game is set in modern times in our world, it has to be portrayed in such a way that the reader can imagine it being real - for example, no iPads in the 1800s. Unless the story is about a time-traveler or something.)

I brought in the aspect of desirable objects. Think Harry Potter's wands, the Rememberall, the Time Turner... everything can be used to bring the world to life. Harry Potter World's exhibition actually showed that they all existed and were not products of CGI, making them brilliant keepsakes!

However, I wonder what the wider RM community thinks?

In the poll above, you can only vote for one option. Use this to decide what you most desire in stories. Is i

t likable characters, an enjoyable story, or the world within which the story is set?

Personally, I have always focused on delivering an enjoyable main plot and building the world around that plot, paying little attention to the characters. However, I realize that is probably where my greatest flaw lies! Maybe people actually prefer stories about characters that they like, rather than the grumpy ones? (FF13, FF8, Beyond Reality) - Further considering the result of the previous discussion, I would be interested to know what the result of this is...

This is tricky, because I feel all those are important to some degree. I was particularly torn between storyline and characters.

My reasons:

I'd consider desirable objects as part of world building, so this would be the lowest on my list. World building would be 3rd. Although it is important, most times I find it that so long as the characters and the plot are interesting, the world doesn't need to be too in-depth. If it's other way round (world is interesting, characters and story aren't), then I won't bother. The world concepts can only hook you for a brief moment in the beginning with their ideas, but story and characters must take over from there.

So then I was torn between story and characters, and these are very very close for me. In the end I chose characters, simply because if I care enough for them, then I'll care for their story. Characters MAKE the story to some degree. You want to be a part of their lives and their adventure. You want to know what happens to them. You want to know who will make friends or lovers and who will make enemies, who will betray and who will forgive. The storyline is heavily influenced by the characters themselves, in my opinion.

I didn't vote in the poll, but my choice would be believability. Now that's not to say that the entire story must be able to happen in real life. Rather, I would that once your setting and characters are created, the story should make sense within those scopes

It seems like I really have underestimated the value of characters, particularly likable ones! It's interesting to hear that there are differing thoughts despite the seemingly overwhelming reliance of characters toward a good story though - it's like characters are what you want the most out of a story, but they work in tandem with other aspects.

I believe all those aspects are pretty important. But--

If you care about the characters you will care about the story that is happening to them. 

Now we all jive with certain personalities and not every character will be universally loved or hated but most of the time we want the audience to feel a certain way about a particular character.

When you have a character there must be some reason outside of necessity of having bodies. Rather than your story driving characters, characters should drive the story.

What do they say about your story? Why are they this person over another? 

Characters are also citizens of the world you are building, so they say something about the setting, too.

 

I think many of us not only try to deliver exciting plot but also try to deliver messages about society and the human condition. And a character can have as much, if not more, control over that delivery. 

I would say characters, followed closely by story. Personally I'm more forgiving of a medicore story with great characters then a great story with boring/unlikable characters.

Afterall, if I don't even care about the characters I'm not going to care about their goals or the way they fit into the plot.

World Building.

If you don't do any worldbuilding your story is flat and your characters lack anything resembling reality.  It's hard to believe an Elf Character would be discriminated against if there isn't some kind of history in the world of that happening or some kind of state of the world where people find that "normal".

It's also hard to believe a character would want to save the world purely because "it's the right thing to do".  That character needs a world in which they were raised into those ideals or a world in which those ideals might either be in short supply (hence why you'd be the hero) or are hard to live up to (the reason why few others may hold those ideals).

You cannot have characters without a world for them to reside in, interact with, and have a backstory in.  You cannot have a plot without the world having its own history, rules, quirks, and other such.  It is flat-out impossible to have anything without world building.  It is the most important step you make when designing a story for an RPG.  World Building provides the context for all the events of the plot and context for all the characters.

Think about it this way:

If President Lincoln instead existed in a world where slavery had never existed...  Who would remember him?  Would he be as popular today?  Would he have picked up some other political goal in mind instead?  Would the states have even seceded?

World Building provides context.  Without it, you have two dimensional characters.  Without it, the villain has nothing to threaten and there's not much plot to be invested in.

If it's any consolation, Hotfirelegend, I'm the same way.  I focus primarily on the world building and storyline aspects, with little thought given to the characters.  Apparently I'm making the same mistakes in my games --- the characters are apparently crucial for a lot of people.

Let's focus on our characters for our next/current games!

And for my next novel for NaNoWriMo next year.  :)

I find characters can easily make a bland story/world a lot more interesting, whereas the reverse is much more difficult to achieve (aka an engaging and interesting story/world will be wasted if the characters are awful and lack sense.)

Obviously all the aspects in the poll are important, but I've voted for character.  Get your characters right, and the story almost writes itself.  An event happens; how do these people respond, what would they say, think, do; how would it change them?  These, and related aspects, are foundational to writing any good story, unless you just want puppets jerked around on obvious strings by the writer.  

Clearly these characters don't exist in a vacuum, they live in a particular world, and that world has shaped them, their beliefs and opinions.  A lot of the story will be precisely about how they are interacting with their context, its history, its future.  But we see the world through their eyes, their story, and we see how their actions will (to a large or small extent) change that world for good or ill.  

They are the prism through which everything must pass, so you need to get them right.

Why do people always assume that "the characters will change the world" in a story?  Why doesn't anyone ever consider that maybe it's the world that changes the characters instead?  Wouldn't that be far more interesting?

I love characters and plot and all of that...

I just think that without a fleshed out world, all of that is meaningless.  You have no stage to set the characters upon without world building.  You have no plot for the characters to engage in without the world there to provide it.

Characters and plot can write aspects of the "world building process" (and they often do).  I just think that these things are somewhat secondary to fleshing out the world to begin with.  It's where you get your setting.  It's where your conflicts come from.  It's where the world powers exist.  It's where the state of the world comes in.  Collecting the McGuffin is fairly meaningless if there's no world to save and we don't know how the McGuffin came into existence or even how it works.

I think 'desirable objects' should be considered part of world building. I also can't say that any of these are more important than the other because all of them are important. I will say that exemplary work in one of these areas will allow more leniency in the others. I think AVATAR (the cgi movie not the animated series) was successful because the world was so brilliantly realized and the movie was an immersive experience in it. It allowed the movie to be appreciated even though the characters were generic and the story wasn't terribly original. Hmm. In light of that, I'm gonna go ahead and say world building because I'm a sucker for that. But that's just personal preference. If you're going to give me a game, give me one that is set in an awesome world for me to explore and I'll be happy. 

Of course of necessity it's both; it's never an either/or.  But everyone (without exception) changes their world to some degree simply by interacting with it.  It is that mutual, dynamic, interaction which allows for interesting developments in a story.  It is the world acting on the characters which brings about a lot of the character development; but equally the characters change the world - if they didn't, what would your story be?  Have different characters and the world is changed in different ways.  How people respond to their environment/context/historical situation is what provides the backbone of any story.  You can have a fascinating world, but without that response you don't have a story, you have a travelogue.

Stating that any one thing is more important is, in my view, short-sighted and arrogant. (Though, not necessarily a negative toward any one person.)

The storyline is that which sets the field, it is the chessboard of the cosmic battle of good and evil, (Or just that little town in that weird visual novel at least one of us plays,) but it is not the most important.

The characters are the actors that portray and interact with the world, and while we sometimes see events through their eyes, they are the medium in which we explore a new world.

Worldbuilding is the seed that is watered, and as we explore the world, it grows larger.

(Desireable objects... I'm not sure what that is, but I'm guessing fanservice is one of those. To me, that's neither here nor there.)

Of these main three, if they are balanced and mixed together well, you have an amazing storyline.

Without characters, the world is empty.

Without a story, the characters have no purpose.

Without a world, there is nothing.