Some NPCs belong together, the way toothpaste belongs on a small plastic stick with spiky, translucent fur.
This chapter discusses
techniques that, with very little reliance on dialogue, make it feel like two NPCs have Chemistry—i.e., that they belong together as friends or lovers.
Although the bar was crowded, you caught each others' eyes instantly. It's as if time stood still and you were ripped out of this universe into another one, a swirling space held together by pure animal instinct. Magnetic forces within your bodies propelled you toward each other, like the raw energies of nature, like a fire about to burn this world to cinders.
Has this ever happened to you? Well, it might have been fun, but it wasn't very artistic.
If the only reason two characters come together as lovers or even friends is physical attraction, then your imagination well has run dry and you should pray to your favorite nature deity for a creative monsoon.
In real life, there are reasons you are friends with the people you're close to. Maybe you have a shared history, maybe you have similar interests, and maybe you're just a good fit. These are all Chemistry Techniques, and there are many other viable ones as well.
If you're going to have some NPCs in your game who know each other (an occurrence in some games), and they're supposedly friends, then it's important to make these friendships credible so that they mirror life itself.
Here are a few techniques for the taking.
Consider a game scenario:
You're a 1930's San Francisco gumshoe in a film noir-styled game. You meet a sexy, dubious damsel in distress, who dresses in red and looks at you with bedroom eyes while relaying a sad story that may or may not be true.
She describes San Francisco as a “toy box masquerading as a city.”
Later in the game you meet her sister, who mentions that she likes cable cars, because “they're like toys for grownups.”
These two sisters think in similar ways. This helps convince us that they are at least friends, and it won't surprise us to learn they're sisters.
This technique can also be used if the two sisters are present together in the same room. Let's say you're in a cinematic.
SISTER #1: How do you like the city? You picked a good time to -- SISTER #2 (interrupting): The cable cars are a hoot -- SISTER #1: (interrupting) -- like riding around inside a big toy box. I know.
Or, we could be a little more layered, by writing them so they have things in common, but also some disagreements.
SISTER #1: How do you like the city? Spring here is so...springy -- SISTER #2 I'm not the one who gets depressed in winter. SISTER #1: It's a condition. SISTER #2: The cable cars -- SISTER #1: I know. Like riding around inside a big toy box. SISTER #2: (realizing) That dress -- It's mine. SISTER #1: We both know it looks better on me.
Is there anyone who, reading the preceding, wouldn't think these two people are sisters or at least friends?
That's because this example uses five NPC Toward NPC Character Chemistry Techniques:
The two sisters have things in common. They both see San Francisco in a playful way. If Sister #2 didn't, she'd say something to contradict her sister.
They have Shared Bits. We get the feeling that they have this kind of inconsequential disagreements on a somewhat regular basis—and that it actually might be an expression of affection.
They have shared experiences or history. They must have a past together if #2 knows that #1 gets depressed in winter or if #2 had had an opportunity to take her sister's dress.
Sister #1 knows what the other is thinking. When she says “I know—like riding around inside a big toy box,” she's accurately guessing what her sister was about to say.
I had mentioned there were five Chemistry Techniques at work here. The fifth, fighting, deserves a more in-depth look.
I sometimes point out to my screenwriting students that the opposite of love isn't hate—it's indifference. As long as two people are fighting, they're still emotionally engaged with each other. Therefore, we're not surprised when, in a romantic comedy, the man and the woman who've fought all along suddenly fall in love. In fact, we almost expect this.
In the game example given earlier, the fact that the sisters disagree sometimes makes us more likely to believe they're emotionally involved with one another. It's a sign of Chemistry.
Perhaps one of the best examples of this technique was in the first Star Trek series. Bones and Spock would continuously make jabs at one another, which heightened our feeling that they belonged together. And who can forget the back and forth jabs between Han Solo and Princess Leia?
In the cases of Spock and Bones, as well as Solo and Leia, they wouldn't just fight with each other, but they'd also risk their lives for each other in a heartbeat—lest anyone wonder if there wasn't real Chemistry there.
Thus, Chemistry can be more complex than just having two people fight or just having them be friendly. The conflicting feelings can derive because the characters feel different layers of emotion toward each other (described in Chapter 2.8, “NPC Toward NPC Relationship Deepening Techniques”) or because one or both of the characters feel actual affection for the other but covers up this affection by pretending to be antagonistic. (Covering up emotions is an NPC Deepening Technique. See Chapter 2.2.)
These kind of approaches are more sophisticated, but that doesn't mean they're always the better choices. They're simply additional options for creating emotional engagement on behalf of the player.
In our noir detective game, we never got very far into the noir portion. Let's rectify that here.
You meet up with your client, Sister #1, in a smoky, dimly lit bar. A pianist in the corner threads the air with nostalgic standards that fit the night like a warm hand fits an old leather glove.
She's paying close attention to you and makes a flattering remark. You think her heart, or at least the steamy pulse of her sexuality, is turning in your direction—when she pauses, and then comments that this was the bar Kyle (her missing husband, who she has hired you find) liked the most.
Written out, the cinematic might look something like this. Remember, your character is a noir-style detective.
You walk into the bar. She sits there, a drink in front of her. She observes you as you approach. SISTER #1: You're the best thing I've seen all day. PLAYER: I'm flattered -- but only if you've had a great day. SISTER #1: A great day? What's that? (Pause) Kyle loved this place.
Because it's a game, my guess is that it's just about now that some mobster who wants either you or she dead will appear, and the next thing you know everyone's guns are pumping lead, the bar is reduced to shambles, and those patrons who don't get hit are screaming and fleeing in panic.[1]
The bottom line: Simply by talking about Kyle, the woman shows she has Chemistry with him.
As you know, I stress the use of Emotioneering Techniques in combination. In the film noir bar scene, four techniques are used:
She talks about Kyle, so she and Kyle have Chemistry.
The dialogue is interesting. He has one trait (Dry Humor), and she has one (Depressed). (See Chapter 2.3, “Dialogue Interesting Techniques.”) And it stays within the noir style.
The scene itself is interesting in that it reverses itself. She starts by flirting with you and ends by talking about Kyle, whom we presume she has feelings for. (For more on these kinds of reversals and other ways to make cinematics interesting, see Chapter 2.31, “Pre-Rendered and In-Game Cinematics.”)
Suspense is present: Will she end up, at the end of the game, with you or with Kyle? (See Chapter 2.25, “Motivation Techniques.”)
That's a lot of Emotioneering, crammed into a very short cinematic!
In the example cinematic, I kept the extent of the woman's feelings about Kyle a bit vague, although we can sense she's concerned about him or she wouldn't have brought him up. Her last line was:
WOMAN: A great day? What's that? (Pause) Kyle loved this place.
Now I'll add an extra line at the end, so her dialogue becomes:
WOMAN: A great day? What's that? (Pause) Kyle loved this place. (Worried) I hope they haven't messed him up.
Let's look at the entire interchange, with this new ending:
You walk into the bar. She's sitting there, a drink in front of her. She observes you as you approach. WOMAN: You're the best thing I've seen all day. SELF: I'm flattered -- but only if you've had a great day. WOMAN: A great day? What's that? (Pause) Kyle loved this place. (Worried) I hope they haven't messed him up.
The interchange now has a fifth Emotioneering function: Worry. Worry is another NPC Dialogue Deepening Technique, so it gives her more depth.
This isn't to say her worry improves the cinematic; in fact, I think it definitely lessens it for two reasons:
Her worry diminishes the suspense that comes from the earlier version, where her feelings were more indeterminate about both you and Kyle—and thus created suspense by making us wonder if she'd end up with you.
Simply by talking about Kyle in the earlier version, we can deduce she's worried about him. To then restate that (“I hope they haven't messed him up”) is telling us something we already know, and thus is boring.
Here's another game scenario:
You play the captain of a starship. You've just learned that your spaceship has received orders from Admiral Jensen to cross the neutrality line for a secret mission into enemy space.
CREWMAN #1: To hell with Jenson, and to hell with his orders. He storms out. Crewman #2 turns to you. CREWMAN #2: He just found out his wife's pregnant. Think he's a bit reluctant to die.
Crewman #2 can read what's beneath Crewman #1's feelings. Thus, we know he and #1 have Chemistry.
Now, to know for sure whether this Chemistry Technique is present, we'd need to know a little bit more about Crewman #2. That is, if he can read everyone's feelings, then this wouldn't have as much to do with Chemistry as it would the fact that he's very intuitive or insightful, which is an NPC Deepening Technique.
If he's insightful in this way only with Crewman #1, however, then it's definitely a Chemistry Technique.
(Even if Crewman #2 is insightful only into Crewman #1, as I'm setting it up in this example, that's also an NPC Deepening Technique for Crewman #2. Genuine insight always gives a character depth, even if it's just into one other person.)
This is one I mentioned earlier, as part of the Chemistry between the two sisters. A Shared Bit, as I define it, is a recurring routine. It can be something physical, like a special handshake. Or, it could be verbal, like two friends who always try to show they have a bigger problem than the other one. A bit can be comedic, but doesn't have to be.
Here's an example of a verbal Shared Bit: There are two friends, and one is always announcing the subtext (the buried feelings) of the other. This would be their Shared Bit.
Take a look at another case study: In this game, you play a paramedic. You walk into the employee lounge at the hospital. There you see Jim and Steven, who are frequently seen together.
PLAYER (to Jim): You're eating my sandwich. STEVEN: He's upset, he brought in a stiff. Baloney calms him down.
And then later in the game, you find Jim and Steven in your ambulance, about to pull out of the parking lot. Jim's at the wheel; Steven's riding shotgun. You walk up to them.
PLAYER: (to Jim): Get out of my ambulance. STEVEN: Your ambulance is newer. It helps his self-esteem.
This Shared Bit between Jim and Steven shows Chemistry between them.[2]
Shared Bits don't prompt player action and they don't advance the plot.
Their purpose is, like all the techniques in this chapter, to make us believe that two NPCs belong together.
If the goal is to create emotional immersion in a game, then we need to make the NPCs life-like. Drawing upon NPC Chemistry Techniques helps create that sense of realistic relationships between the NPCs, in cases where they're supposed to be friends, lovers, and so on.
Conversely, setting up a situation where two NPCs are supposedly friends or lovers, and not using such techniques, pulls us out of the game because it will feel unnatural and the poor writing (or lack of Emotioneering) will stand out and call attention to itself.