Forums » RP Discussion » Promoted to Main Character

That statement, said by I-forget-which-of-my-characters, was majorly destructive to the fourth wall, making a joke out of something that I'm sure has happened in a lot of stories. Minor characters, NPCs, people who just hung out in the background, until, one way or another, their creators promoted them to Main Character™. And this thread is specifically to appreciate those characters!
For me, the most prominent character of this type is Aquila, who started out as "the scout on this pirate ship, also he can shapeshift into a gryphon because why not." I quickly got attached to him as his backstory and personality were developed more and more. The decision to make him a Main Character™ also prompted the realization that "because why not" isn't the best reason for a random shapeshifting ability, which lead to more backstory, which then lead to more character traits based on said backstory, and now here we are! He's one of my favourite characters that I've ever made, despite starting life as Just Some Guy.
So now, I'd love to hear everyone else's stories, about characters who started as NPCs and eventually became main characters.

Cool topic, Lorekeeper.

"Smitty" here started off as an NPC. I didn't even know his name was Joseph Paul Smith until he'd been a background character in my wild west gang of outlaws for like a year (maybe longer!)

He was just a loudmouth a-hole with a temper. On a whim, in a group RP, another player and I decided to put Smitty in a tough spot for a funny scene. He hired a soiled dove. She promptly left him handcuffed and with his pants around his ankles - only to be found like that hours later by the town's sheriff.

He became the joke of the town for several weeks. It made him feel very *human* to be the butt of the joke and to keep getting pissed/embarrassed over it. And ultimately led to me playing him more and building on that story. When the soiled dove was later murdered, guess who was suspect #1.

Since then, he's fled Wyoming, but that incident still crops up to bite him every time I can figure out how to work it in!

I created Denny over here to an mere background character that if in an fantasy AU, he would be an merchant. Yet he was made in modern high school setting so he was basically the sarcastic yet the kid who sold snacks at school (I often buy snacks from those types of people irl). As I rped as him more and more, he evolved from an background character to an sidekick then to an main character who is dating the love of his life.

Another character example though she doesn't have an profile here is Soo-Young or Soo for short. I created her with the intention of being a total biotch or in an nutshell, rich spoiled and mean girl. Unlike with Denis, her evolution was actually when I had the idea to rp as her perspective and I really enjoyed that so I kept that and made some character development for her.

Also character profile appreciation. Juls and Lorekeeper, your character profiles are so damn fineee. I am getting inspired by them.

I had that happen!

Charlie here started as a minor character in a storyline and ended up with a main story of his own. Then his fiance Kath got so fleshed out as aside character in his story, she evolved into her own plotline. This has never happened to me before and I loved seeing a story that started out just as any other evolved into a multiple characters, multiple plotlines saga that we've been developing for almost a year and a half, I think. @VivaLaVida I'm blessed by our writing partnership ❤️👑

Imir here is my main character, and his villain ex-boyfriend, Lance, turned into a main by the power of apparently being too interesting and outshining Imir

I am also always very dedicated to giving my characters cause and reason for what they do, so Lance ended up with an arc that doesn't excuse his behaviour but explains it, and through that he was able to take a path toward redemption and grow into more of a decent person. Kinda.

Excuse you! Lance does not outshine Imir. He just acts like he does.

Excuse you, Sir; I know, but some people actually fancy Lance more. Shocking! But true 😂 I guess I can understand finding Lance's self-absorbed flamboyance and childish temper entertaining haha. He can get awkward when he tries to be nice and that's lowkey cute I guess 🤷 (yes he actually tried to be nice once and it was both a journey and an experience let me tell you)

So, yeah. Funny story about that. I was supposed to be in a reboot of the game about my band back from years ago. After years, it finally happened and then one of the players couldn't do it. So it got completely redone with someone else and we were totally cut out of the new story plans initially! It was going to be a story about a girl on the run and her starting over in a new place and meeting a guy that took her in. Well, they decided they needed a few existing friends for her to meet and it made sense to use the band again. A few posts in, we made our debut as side characters and I've since risen to being one of the main characters in the story. Sorry, Gary!

Oooh! Good topic! I don't have too many characters like this but the big one that stands out is Neriah here. It started out as more of a father/adopted daughter rp. Then the two characters made it to town and ran into a kindly cleric grandmother and her feisty red headed daughter. They were supposed to just be silly side characters meant to fill out the town until the main characters moved on in fear of being discovered but my friend's character was almost instantly smitten. They ended up having a whole courtship and he begged her to go with them. Her town ended up getting raided and burned down, her grandmother murdered and it was all so epic and traumatic and dramatic. After that Neriah could never go back to being a side character. Not even if I wanted her too. She's too loud and brash and bossy!

Secondarily is Cal, who started out as nothing more than a member of my character's book club, but then got caught up in a romance with another side character and eventually earned himself a page of his own because I sort of fell in love with how sad he is and how hard he's trying.

Hmm... The only other ones I can think of that would fit this bill are Summer and Autumn, who are actually the older and younger sisters of an existing character that eventually managed to convince me to make pages for them too despite not actually appearing in any of the original character's roleplays!

Well, Daniel was initially only a page on Nina's profile as he was really only a side character to her. But when he got some interest from someone, I created his standalone profile so he could do his own RP. Haven't developed him too much yet but am working on it as I have time. He still gets used as a side in Nina's roleplays, but his roleplay is moving steadily along and I'll be able to flesh out his individual history more.