Take your party from good to great through character dynamics!
Ever play in or see a game where the party is just role-playing seamlessly with each other? It's magic! Ever sit on the edge of a group that's doing that but you don't know how to get into that groove? It's infuriating. With a little bit of knowledge about group tropes, you can capture that meshing feeling a lot quicker. These dynamics influence why groups like the Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Avengers are so satisfying to watch.Figure out where you fit into a group, and the role-playing between party members becomes so much easier. The fundamentals of this concept is that there's two characters that contrast each other, and there's characters that bridge the gap. This plays out in different ways in different group sizes. First we go to the Strategy Stateroom, where we break down groups from 2-7 members in size.
Two Character Dynamics
Adventure Duo
Example: Cable and Deadpool in Deadpool 2
The Hero: Focused, literal, determined, stubborn, serious
The Weird One: Unfocused, scatterbrained, out of touch with reality.Action Duo
Example: Woody and Buzz in Toy Story
Action Hero: Physically impressive, confident, performs incredible feats.
Action Survivor: Physically unimpressive, agile, avoids danger rather than confronting it.
Three Character Dynamics
Freudian Trio
Example: Kirk, Spock, and Bones from Star Trek: The Original Series
Id: Acts Impulsively on instinct and desires
Superego: Acts logically on ideas of morality and rules
Ego: Acts realistically, trying to satisfy the other two without negative consequence.Comic Trio
Example: Ray, Egon and Venkman from Ghostbusters
Navigator: The confident fool with a plan.
Driver: The unaware fool that follows the plan unthinkingly/
Passenger: The sane one that tries to talk the others out of it.
Three Character Dynamics
Example: Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Cynic: Critical, distrustful.
The Optimist: Determined, loyal to ideals and morality
The Realist: Objective, calm mediator, adaptable
The Apathetic: Along for the ride, mysterious or different motivations, wild card.
Four Character Dynamics
Example: Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Black Widow
The Leader: Confident, Charismatic
The Lancer: Contrasts the leader in a major way
The Smart One: Clever, uses mind first
The Big One: Strong, uses muscles first
The Heart: The peacekeeper, the key to a functioning group
Five or More Character Dynamics
Double up on roles
Example: R2D2 and C3PO
Add two more contrasting characters like the old and the young
Example: Dr. Strange and Spiderman from The Avengers
Then we go to Milly's Shop of Wonders to explore an idea for a magic consumable that encourages characters to help each other in the heat of battle! Or the heat of a dance off, whatever you do in your games. The basic idea is it allows characters to use the help action as a bonus action, in the name of teamwork!