Musical Character Building
Sometimes people have a hard time figuring out characters, whether that be a character that they’re consuming through reading a book or watching something, or a character they’re creating in their own writing or in their own games. Sometimes I’ve even found it difficult to connect to a character that I was really excited to play or create. Figuring out who they were just wasn’t clicking, or developing them past the limitations that playing once every two weeks can sometimes create.
That was when Nicole (or as you know her, Morgan, but also the DM for our Wildmount game which takes place in the world of Campaign Two critical role) offered a suggestion. She did this a lot with her own characters and would sometimes share them with the rest of us: she created a playlist for each of her characters, and sometimes for the characters that connect to them, in order to understand them on a deeper level.
Music speaks to our souls on a powerful level, and it says a lot about who we are. In fact, we can often tell how well we’ll get along with someone based on how well our musical tastes can overlap. Just think about the scene in How I Met Your Mother when Ted and Marshal are stuck together listening to 500 Miles by the Proclaimers over and over and over, and bonded via their love (and hatred) of the song. Music bonds us as a species, and thus, by linking music to the character, you can feel a stronger pull to them once you associate a song with them that you are drawn to.
I think about how light motifs work in shows like Avatar the Last Airbender and One Piece, just a sting or a specific line of notes from a specific instrument can alter how you feel about a scene. A character is about to get killed and suddenly a swell of music rises, and before you see the blade, you know that Zoro has come to save the day, or the clues to Zuko’s change can be heard from the Sun Warrior chanting that is only ever present when he’s fighting, not when anyone else from the Fire Nation is.
So how can we associate that with our own characters? Simple, a spotify or youtube playlist is a simple way to start connecting to your character. Here’s the playlist I made for Architar Techton, my artificer from Aeor, who survived in a time bubble for 1000 years, and awoke as a 15 year old boy in a world where his home is the stuff of legend and the common language was unknown to him.
Radioactive by Imagine Dragons
Nobody Praying For Me by Seether
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk
Iron Man by Black Sabbath
How to Kill God by Apollo Brown and Ras Kass
Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park
The Boys are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy
Firebreather by Thrice
DEVIL by Shinedown
I Melt With You by Bowling For Soup
I’m Still Standing by Elton John
Skyworld by Two Steps From Hell
On the surface, it's basically telling the story of his life:
Architar wakes up in the ruins of his city, surrounded by death and monsters (Radioactive) and has to find a way to survive. He’s all alone and no one who ever knew him is still alive (Nobody Praying for Me) and has to figure out how to survive on his own with only his wits and ability to build (Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger). He comes across a broken Aeormaton and uses it to construct a suit of armor (Iron Man) to help him get revenge on those that destroyed his home (How to Kill God). Killing the Gods isn’t an easy task, especially alone, so he needs to find a place for himself in this new world (Somewhere I Belong), and joins his party (The Boys are Back in Town). Things don’t go well at first as Archie, as they call him, is abrasive and unpleasant to be around (Firebreather) and often comes across as amoral though he’s simply being pragmatic in his quest for what he sees as justice (DEVIL). Finally, he meets a young Drow woman about his age named Chizina, and a young love begins to blossom (I Melt with You), and he begins to see that there may be things that are worth dying for, but there are also things worth living for (I’m Still Standing). He sees a world in his mind that he wants to create, to rebuild his home to share it with her and his companions, (Skyworld) and so he plans to work for that, inspired by restoring what was lost and protecting what exists.
A lot has changed since then, and now that I reflect on the original list, I feel I need to create a part two to explore who Archie has become since that original plan came to him, but sit down and listen to those songs in that order, and you get to feel Archie’s story, hear it in a way you’d never be able to experience in any other way. It also gives others a way to understand your character and yourself as well. They get to experience the songs that matter to you, that perhaps you were listening to when the character was being formed within your mind. It is a deep understanding of both entities that make the character, them themselves, and you the creator.
Archie made me relive a lot of my behaviors and flaws in such a way that helped me explore my mental health, and gave me the first inklings of what was going on in my brain. Now, he’s a tool I use to help myself not only heal, but explore what elements of me actually need healing versus what aspects of me are just… me. Maybe I’ll look into creating a new playlist to update his journey soon, however I think I remember the characters from the books also have their own playlists.
Perhaps I’ll make this a new section of the blog to discuss the characters on a deeper level. Get a little input from their players as well. I think that would be fun.
And it's my blog. My website.
I’m doing that now.
Be prepared.
