I’m doing something terrible. Something I’ve warned many a writer off doing: I’m making my PC into a main character in my upcoming novel. None of you would ever have had to know that, except yesterday Phil’s D&D interview series got to me and Farideh, my fey pact warlock.
“This is a bad idea,” I told Phil. “People will know.” He was unconvinced—except, perhaps, of the fact that I was being completely paranoid.
Okay, maybe I am, but I can’t just let it go.
We get plenty of submissions to our open calls—samples of books people would really like us to publish—that are obviously someone’s role-playing game transcribed to look like a novel. I say “look like” because there’s usually something just a little off. If the writer is the DM, the setting might get a lot more love than it should. If the writer is the player, the main character can be too perfect. And whichever side the author is on, there are a lot of things happening that don’t fit the plot in the best way possible: Maybe the characters don’t really grow or change. Maybe the confrontations are more about bad guys being bad and good guys being good than anything the characters might want. Maybe there are just a lot of details about what kind of armor everybody has.
So when I was asked to do another Forgotten Realms book and started riffing on my PC’s background, I got very concerned. It’s the kind of thing that can go horribly wrong or fantastically right, depending on how much you’re willing to accept change. What the hell was I doing?
I can’t tell you everything about my upcoming book, but I did get permission to talk about how I took my player character and made her into a character fit for a novel. So here’s a look at how I took Farideh from Phil’s FR Game to Brimstone Angels (Winter 2011).
The Basics
This is part of the character summary I gave the DM when we started:
Farideh and Tamurra are twin tieflings raised among the dragonborn of Tymanther after a warrior found them beside the body of their human mother. As such, she and her sister have the cultural notions on honor and fear favored by dragonborn, and they tend to think of humanoids as “squishy.” They hate dragons, and any interaction they have with people is bound to go south, as such, they’ve learned to cover up as much as they can.
Farideh grew up sullen and surly, wanting to fit in with her family, but only feeling separate. She buried herself in her studies, and probably would have written bad poetry about how no one understands her, if she knew she could do such a thing. As an adult, she’s withdrawn and somewhat depressed. When her enterprising sister captured a banshrae, it tried to trick Farideh into letting it escape. Its simpler tricks exhausted and the executioner’s axe drawing nearer, it offered her a pact. Farideh attempted to throw the banshrae off by offering it her soul—believing that as a tiefling, she does not have one and it would be a lot of fun to make the trapped banshrae angry. But the banshrae leapt on the deal, binding Farideh to the feypact…and leaving her searching for a god to help her reclaim the soul she didn’t think she had. The banshrae, Shemzu, has plans that Farideh knows nothing about. She’s on a fine line here, still wanting to be good but—for the first time in her life—truly outcast and being offered a lot of power.
The sisters bicker in draconic. They argue often about irrelevant matters, such as how to pronounce the surname they’ve chosen or which of them is older. If one is right, the other will refuse to acknowledge it outright. However, as mad as they are at each other, they will defend their sister against any criticism or intervention (“I can say that. You can’t”)
Farideh Bitter, level 7
Tiefling, Warlock
Eldritch Pact: Fey Pact
Background: Tymanther
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 14, Dex 11, Int 14, Wis 11, Cha 20.
AC: 18 Fort: 15 Reflex: 16 Will: 19
TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +10, Intimidate +13, Arcana +12, Bluff +16
Now, I’ve been told not to give away too much, but I can say this: Brimstone Angels is about a young warlock’s struggles to master her pact with a sociopathic entity while being caught in the middle of a plot that could bring civil war to the Hells.
(There’s more to it than that obviously, but I don’t want to spoil things).
Everything I use needs to support that story. To that end, there’s stuff I want to keep, and stuff I need to lose. I like the tiefling warlock combo—two aspects that feed the same dilemma. I like the name—it sounds right. Pretty, but not too pretty. Soft but not too soft. I’m attached to it and fortunately, I think it works. But other things don’t.
For starters, PC Farideh is a fey pact warlock. I like the fey pact build for playing, but since the book is a lot about what it’s like to be a tiefling, an infernal pact makes more sense. The fey pact wouldn’t connect as well. Plus, we haven’t actually had a lot of infernal pact warlocks in novels (room to be creative!).
On her character sheet, I have Farideh’s age as 27. But the plot that’s forming in my head is really meant to be a pretty formative experience for this character—I think she needs to be younger. Maybe 17-19. Her level is a little fluid, since this is fiction, but I’ll probably nudge it down a bit.
And—despite what people assume about teenagers—she’s probably less mopey and cynical and snarky than PC Farideh. She hasn't had time to lose her idealism yet. In fact, I kind of want to play up the fact that she’s nice...well, nice enough. She definitely can’t be the sort of person who answers the Aglarondan rescue team’s question of “How did you come to be in this evil island fortress?” with “On a boat.” That person is amusing, but not strong enough to center this story on.
The Hells are other People
First, there’s Shemzu, the banshrae PC Farideh has a pact with. He’s pretty hands-off (so far). In the game, that’s fine and dandy—keep those spells coming while we hunt down these Netherese artifacts! Novel-wise, though, that makes me wonder, why bother having him? There’s no point to a character who doesn’t impact anything, aside from giving out spells. So Shemzu the soul-stealing banshrae is out; Lorcan the corrupting cambion is in. And very hands-on--without him the plot wouldn't happen, and that's good.
I like the twins aspect. If you have siblings, you know you’re torn between knowing you’ll never really be alone . . . and knowing you’ll never be alone. When you’re a rare and somewhat hated character race, there’s something symbolic and poignant about that dichotomy. But Tamurra is a) not my character and b) not set up to be a foil for Farideh. She’s set up for Susan to have fun playing her. (More importantly, Susan is my editor. I don’t want notes that say, “Tamurra would never say that. Revise.”) So Tamurra’s out, and Havilar’s in. Not a rogue. A straight-up fighter—and she can have some of the smart-ass lines. Someone needs them.
The same is true of the entire party. I love these guys, but they’re not my characters. And we’re a weird and varied bunch—jamming together a drow swordmage, a dwarf shaman, a human wizard, and an elf barbarian with tiefling twins is just a little much for one story to show. See you guys! Maybe in the sequel, Brimstone Angels 2: Phalar and Phriends. Who else do I need?. . .
Rounding out the Party
All that stuff about kindhearted dragonborn? When it comes to applying it to a story, I don't love it and I don't hate it. But I do end up asking myself, what's it bring to the party? Making Farideh be raised by dragonborn means an interesting nature vs. nurture dynamic, but at the expense of having to spend a lot of time working out how a tiefling who's worldview was shaped by dragonborn would see something. It's extra--and I don't need it. She's better off growing up in a mixed environment, so she can see how lots of different people react to tieflings. In her case, I think they all react kind of poorly.
But I do like dragonborn--so I'll distill that down into one character, Mehen. Since the twins are younger now, he can be the one that leaves the village with them when everything goes to pot. He's there to be Farideh's past, and to keep things moving smoothly. But now I have a party of monsters . . .
So last addition: a human boy, who I'll call Brin (for now). His part in the plot locks up some things I won't give up. But he also gives me an outside viewpoint, a way to get people through certain scenes, and--while I'm not calling him anyone's future--a symbolic reminder of things to come. (Things like Brimstone Angels!)
In the end, there's a lot that's different, and it's arguable whether these two versions of the character are even the same person. But if you're going to shift from one media to another, you need to be flexible and adapt as you go--that doesn't change when the media involves your beloved alter ego and her kick-ass Rod of Dark Reward. So if you're thinking about adapting your game into a novel, keep in mind there may be more adaptation than you expect.
