Last week we talked about the protagonist, so the second most important character in your story is the antagonist. They can be visible or invisible … who is out to challenge the protagonist, challenge their plans or mislead them? For example, in a cyber-security course, your antagonist is invisible … we rarely know who is sending out phishing emails, right? As a designer, we need to imagine them though, to inject the story with relevance and reality: What does the antagonist want, what are their actions?
Making your character believable
Learners want meaningful connections with characters, whether it’s the protagonist they embody or the *NPC’s that populate the world. A believable character feels autonomous … consistent in behaviour yet capable of occasional surprises… just like real humans. They need to react dynamically to the learner’s actions (choices), enhancing both realism and engagement.
Another aspect of believability is consistency in a character’s behaviour and dialogue, with occasional deviations such as unexpected behaviour or reaction to emphasise pivotal moments in the story. It’s a precarious balance: if the level of unpredictability is too low, the learner may become bored; if the level is too high, the difficulty of the interaction may disorient them. That is where the careful writing of choices comes in.
Choices are part of character design
The protagonist – played by the learner – makes choices in the story. These choices are linked to the character design. What the learners choose matters, but which choices they are offered matters more. Choices need to align with the character design and push believability: are they actions that align with their goal? What do the options for the learner tell them about the character: what are they capable of, what can they think and do?
Imagine a story where a nurse is late for work. As she nearly runs along the corridor to her work station she encounters a spill. It is a safety hazard.
When she encounters the spill, is she someone who thinks fast on her feet when agitated? Can we provide three options that align with who she is? Is she capable of not caring about people slipping, and just keep hurrying on? The believability of the options build how the learner perceives her character. This will require you to move away from straight-up multiple-choice questions that simply convey easy wrong or right. You need to present viable options that do not include simply ignoring the hazard, but still plausible reactions for the nurse: e.g. she may look around for somebody else to alert, do a quick swipe with her foot to remove the worst of the liquid, or grab her phone to call housekeeping while hurrying.
Conclusion
Designing characters for scenario-based learning is an art and a science. By focusing on emotional depth, relatability, and a balance of consistency and surprise, you can create characters that learners not only engage with but also remember after the learning ends, linking real-life behaviour to the story they played.
*NPC. A non-player character. A gaming term for a player worked with the game controller. Also a slang term for a person devoid of personality, originality and individuality.