Six Common Traits Of An RPG Main Character

If, like me, you play a lot of RPG games where you’re the one and only main character, you’ve noticed a lot of similar traits that go beyond the being a hero thing. Little quirks that would be ridiculous in the real world. Yet, for video game heroes, they can be a bit of a requirement. Of course, these don’t hold true for every RPG main character. It really does depend on the kind of story being told. But they’re common enough that I’ve been able to list some below. It's common enough in long-running games where the character is supposed to be the player, like MMORPGs.

They act kinda dumb.

Okay, really. They’re probably not actually dumb. I mean, they somehow manage to deal with technology they’ve never seen until they actually have to do something with it, easily enough with minimal instruction. Even ancient tech no one’s seen before isn’t a bother. But they sure do play dumb really well. They can easily pass as the village idiot (or drunk) in conversation. Maybe they’re just trying to get people to quit coming to them for help. Who knows? Maybe it’s actually because of the next trait.

They’re old. Like, really, really old. Thousands to millions of years old.

And yet, most of them can’t remember anything before suddenly waking up or appearing in the game world. In some cases, that’s because they’ve died and been reborn – maybe several times. In others, there’s simply some amnesia shenanigans going on, and when they’re not busy saving people, they’re trying to figure out what memories they’re missing. The only thing they haven’t forgotten, or maybe pretending to have forgotten, is how to fight.

They don’t say a lot, but when they do, it’s pretty unhinged.

This goes along with the whole dumb thing. The problem is that very often, it’s their closest companions that they’ll say the unhinged stuff to. Are they trying to test their patience? Do they want to torment them? Has the hero just not been getting enough sleep? All I know for sure is that one of the worst culprits of this is the Trailblazer in Honkai: Star Rail. Even their own friends think they're unhinged.

Of course, they also say some really weird things to their enemies. But that feels more like they’re just asserting their dominance. Gotta let the guy they know they’re going to punch later in on their confidence that they can do it when they want to.

Their real super-power is dodging.

People may think they’re the strongest person/greatest warrior in the world. But the truth is, they’re just really good at moving out of the way. For some reason, their opponents do not have the same ability. But they’re amazing at it. That said, it’s kept them alive, and that’s what matters.

Although, being able to take a hit when necessary doesn’t hurt either. After all, when punching gods, dragons, and other similar entities, they will punch back. So being built out of some space-age material that no one’s even heard of, and that can easily take a few world-shattering hits. No, really, the world might actually shatter in the process. But they’ll be just fine. For a few hits anyway.

Their neck is built out of springs.

Have you ever noticed exactly how much nodding the heroes in these games do? Why bother talking when you can just nod emphatically? And, let’s face it, they don’t talk much. Some even pick up a companion somewhere along the way that does all their talking for them. Although, perhaps that’s a good thing. As we mentioned earlier, a core trait of heroes seems to be saying unhinged things. So perhaps not talking a lot is for the best.

They’re nosey.

No, really. If they were a little old lady, they’d be sitting on your front porch watching everything that’s happening in the neighborhood. They can’t resist good drama. If something is going down on the streets, they’re going to walk out there and insert themselves into it.

This is the number one trait of a hero. How else are they going to find trouble to get themselves into? They’ve never heard the phrase “this doesn’t concern you,” and even if they have, they refuse to acknowledge that they even know what that means. Maybe it’s a side effect of the whole lost memory thing.