Lone Hero or a Party?

[Philip Overby]

I've done a couple of "quest" stories. I try not to make the quest something too familiar, but I think fantasy lends itself to characters searching for something, whether it's their birthright, a family member or loved one, or dragon's gold.

However, I'm often put in a situation where I have to make a choice. Do I want a lone hero to find his path by himself or do I want an ensemble of characters each with their own reasons for going along?

I like both ways, but I'm curious what others think. Do you prefer to have a big party of characters each with their own focus, or do you let your hero quest alone?

 

[FatCat]

I like the lone wolf types, myself. I don't know if that's because I simply find focusing on a single narrative more appealing or because I have trouble writing character interaction constantly. I guess part of me likes the thought of the MC being the complete focus of the story, and other characters are just there to represent certain elements within the story, but then again this may just be my ego saying that what I prefer is obviously the correct path . Although, I have no reservations reading about a group of characters working towards the same goal, I've just noticed that my writing tends to be more singularly focused on the MC. Let the lesser characters tremble in fear of non-representation, says I!

 

[Devora]

I think it definitely depends on the story.

I've read a story called The Graceling, where the MC is pretty much a lone wolf on a quest to kill an evil king and find her true purpose, and then there's LOTR where it had to be group dynamic because one person couldn't bear the Ring alone, lest they become corrupted by it's evil.


I guess it comes down to whether or not many hold the same goal, or if it's something one person can tackle by their own means.

 

[Jessquoi]

I prefer the 'party' scenario. I think it allows for more character interaction, relationships and character development. I think it's natural for the MC's environment to contain more than just himself/herself.

 

[Feo Takahari]

Groups, almost always. I intend to eventually submit an essay about this to the main page, but a quick summary for now:

1): Balance of ideals. One of my planned projects involves a civil war between capitalists, communists, and a tiny but persistent royalist faction. The plot necessitates teamwork between a communist, a royalist, two capitalists, a survivor of the now-annihilated theocrat faction, and another theocrat who tells himself he's a capitalist. There's tension, to say the least, but that only makes things more fun.

2): Balance of temperaments. Two characters with the same goal won't necessarily go about it the same way. To continue with the civil war example, one of the capitalists, upon seeing a civilian in the line of fire, would try to save her. The other would use her as cover. They can't stand each other, of course, but again, that just makes things more fun.

3): Balance of skills. To a fantasy fan, the obvious example is fighter-mage-thief-cleric, but this can be surprisingly variable--I once read a story in which a dressmaker found her skills of use alongside a swordsman and a scholar. So long as you don't too obviously "This looks like a job for Aquaman!" it, you can theoretically balance almost any characters. (The civil war example has a medic, an engineer, and a sniper, but it also has a character who's good at talking his way out of problems.)

Edit: Now that I think about it, I can't actually think of an epic or heroic fantasy story without at least two protagonists (not counting games and other interactive experiences, e.g. Lone Wolf.) Even the above-mentioned Graceling has a love interest character who plays an active role in the story.

 

[Penpilot]

Of the two novels I've written, the first had three POVs but each thread was more of a lone hero type story where all three POVs came together towards the end. Each POV character had companion who they primarily interacted with, but they encountered a large cast of characters.

My second novel had one major POV character and one minor but there's an ensemble cast of about 4-5 characters that the POV characters interact with and are quite prominent and are quite developed.

And looking at the next two novels that I'm planning it looks like it's going to sort of follow this pattern again. Three POV novel with a more lone wolf feel and a single POV novel with an ensemble cast.

 

[TheokinsJ]

I believe that both aspects of a quest have their ups and downs. Being on a quest with companions adds so many possibilities to the story. For example, without the companions the MC would have no one to talk to, perhaps his companions betray him? Perhaps along the journey one of them dies? So many interesting things happen when people are involved, rather than just a description of a lone character making his way through a landscape by himself. However you can do both, which is an especially good balance. In my quest story, the hero/MC gets separated from his companions along the journey, and continues on his own, so many things can happen when there are other people on the quest, so I would ALWAYS use a party of adventurers in 'quest' stories. That said, a party does not have to be defined as 'an elf, a man, a dwarf, a wizard and four hobbits', nor does it have to be defined as 'twelve brave warriors'. A party can be two people, it may be four, however many you wish to have and however many are needed for this 'quest'.

 

[wordwalker]

I think this is an almost primal part of how you see the story. Some of us (or some projects, but I'll bet it's more a per-writer choice) tend to see things as one or two characters' business, others like them all thrown together.

--Note, though: often having a smaller central cast makes it easier to do other characters justice too, because they turn up only at certain times where they can be appreciated more. Though a party can still have a lot more characterization, faster and with more layering, if you can keep it all straight.

Part of it is, I think lone/party is a style choice even more than it's related to choice of subjects. That is, some story concepts (like many where Everyone Realizes there's an enemy that must fought) make it less likely that one hero's going it alone-- but we ought to be careful of letting that push us into party concepts if we're more comfortable with the writing that goes with lone heroes. (Or vice versa, I guess; it would be awkward to try a Misunderstood Half-Demon tale and find you're giving him teammates purely by reflex.) Then again, there are always ways to change things up; Frodo acquired a party, but he didn't get to keep it.

 

[Ophiucha]

I like both, in the right stories. But when it comes to writing my own, I tend towards... parties with a certain closeness. I don't like writing parties of people who meet each other along the way and join up, but rather groups of people who are friends, lovers, family travelling together. A husband and a wife and their two kids is my idea of a good party. I think writing people who knew each other ahead of time gives you a lot of room to explore the characters on a more individual level, and they can develop more easily early in the story when they are with the people they love/like/tolerate. But you still get the benefit of having a counter-point to whatever your protagonist says or does without him arguing with himself, which is what a lot of 'lone heroes' seem to do.