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Ian Schreiber's avatar

After thinking for awhile about this, I actually *was* able to come up with some named characters with personalities in tabletop games - largely starting with anything involving miniatures, because right there you've got this tangible model that just drips expressiveness. Whatever the other flaws of Warhammer, it isn't lacking for lore; pick any WH40K mini, even the least imposing, and there's a backstory there explaining what that lil guy is.

Even outside of miniatures games, most games that use miniatures have some kind of name: the quirky robots in RoboRally, the scooby-gang-like explorers in Betrayal at House on the Hill. Some games even just have little cardboard stand-ups but with named characters with personalities, like the boardgame Android (which they did "merchandize" in the sense of reusing the IP for the Netrunner reboot, at least, though I doubt anyone ever said they'd want a plushie of a washed-up alcoholic detective), or Arkham Horror. Heck, even the characters in Talisman had a paragraph of flavor text, didn't they?

If we expand "board games" to include all tabletop including card games, TCGs like Magic are rich with characters - Urza, Mithra, Jace, dozens of others - and those *do* have merch associated with them, from posters to play mats to miniatures. I wouldn't be surprised if there are Magic-branded action figures and plushies out there somewhere.

I suspect what it actually comes down to is just market size. You mention Pac-Man as an example, but as you say, that character was just SO widespread in pop culture at the time. By contrast, even a highly successful boardgame just doesn't have that kind of reach. That's why Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly or the characters from Clue come to mind - those are two of the few games that really were big enough hits to have a real effect on pop culture. Probably the closest hobby game to reach those numbers was Catan (and Mayfair did sell wood/wheat/sheep/ore/clay plushies, though they weren't really a huge money-maker AFAIK). Of the hobby games that have actual characters... well, show me one that has the widespread appeal and recognition of Pac-Man, and I'll show you a game with merch, but I don't think there is one.

Closest other example I can think of is Dungeons & Dragons, which has a ton of canonical lore which did make it into the recent movie, and had enough effect on pop culture to use its IP for a movie in the first place. (I didn't look to see if there were any action figures from that movie, but I'd be shocked if there weren't.)

Anyway, I'd say that popularity by sheer numbers is the main stopping point here, rather than lack of characters.

(That said... would definitely encourage designers to design characters for their boardgames when appropriate. Geoff, not sure if you saw my prototype of Prism Break some years ago at Protospiel, but if you did, I did include some light backstory for the characters there - related to the mechanics, even - and writing that was super fun and let me include a kind of "easter egg" for players who took the time to look closely at the player mats. Even though I wouldn't expect anyone to make t-shirts or action figures of those characters ever, it was just fun to include and cost me nothing extra, so why not?)

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JB Oger's avatar

Isn't it about the genre more than anything else? Memorable video game protagonists all originate from character-driven games, I can't name any that originates from an RTS or a management game (and even worse if it's multiplayer-oriented games).

Even in video games with narrative, if the protagonist is randomized (or a group of people), they won't become an IP in themselves, while some of the villains/side characters may become recognizable.

The 'PacMan' example is interesting: to me, it's more of a mascot, a pawn you use as a link between you and the game. It's recognizable because it has a distinct visual... but I can't think of any popular board game where you interact with the whole experience using a single pawn (not even Monopoly, where you manipulate cards & money).

Could you create a compelling board game experience that is centered around a single character you can get attached to? Now that's an interesting design challenge

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