"Rule of Five" Character Archetypes

[Qiara]

Good morning, Scribes?

During a long past conversation, a friend mentioned the "Rule of Five," describing a reference to the five chartater archetypes most often used when creating an adventuring group in fantasy writing. In an attempt to research this, I have not turned up anything at all.

Question: has anyone out there heard of this elusive "Rule of Five" and if so, can you provide a link or other path for me to explore?

Many, many thanks in advance,
Qiara

 

[Telcontar]

Off the top of my head, I'd say they were referring more to gaming than writing. The Rule of Five could be a guide for an adventuring party in D&D, for instance. They'd want the various abilities and combat-readiness of a variety of classes, like so:

Warrior (meatshield)
Wizard (ranged damage and useful abilities)
Healer (band-aid box)
Rogue (find more stuff, open locked stuff)
Not sure what the fifth would be. Bard, maybe? Ranger? I never actually played table-top D&D, though I've played plenty of computer games based on the ruleset.

Anyways, like I said: I don't think they were talking about fantasy writing.

 

[Qiara]

Telcontar,

Thank you for your response. I can certainly see where the "Rule of Five" would apply to the fantasy gaming world. The mention of the "Rule of Five" I referred to originally was definitely in regard to fantasy writing and how some writers used this tool as a starting point to define their characters and the group dynamics. The author would then proceed to personalize the characters to their own devices.

I am mostly interested in researching this to better understand it, not as a crutch or jumping off point for my own writing endeavors.

 

[Amanita]

I've seen this mentioned here:
Five-Man Band - Television Tropes & Idioms
They're trying to apply this to all kinds of settings though which often don't even have five characters in a group, so I don't think it's a very strict "rule".
Generally, having different kinds of main characters can be useful for various stories though.

 

[Qiara]

Thank you, Amanita!

I shall follow the path and see where it leads...

Qiara

 

[Chilari]

No no no no no no not TV tropes. I don't have enough time in... forever to be clicking links to TV tropes.

As far as I can remember, the five man band (the link to which I am NOT clicking) consists generally of: the hero, the comedy sidekick, the girl, the big strong dumb one and the mentor. I have a feeling that sometimes instead of the mentor there's the skilled one - generally a tech genius, or in low-tech settings, the one with the uber skills in a very specific area, like archery or something.

To be honest I don't like such archetypes. I don't exactly deliberately avoid them, but rather try to create characters that are rounded, with more than one facet to their personality and skillsets. I don't exactly check my characters off against "how to avoid writing cliched charcters" checklists, but I like to think they can stand on their own without being put into boxes. Of course some people like to categorise things and if that's how they organise their thoughts about stories, so be it, if it works for them, but I don't find them helpful. Thinking in terms of categories when creating characters or plots restricts thinking - even where a character is a bit of box one and a bit of box two, there's loads that doesn't fit into any boxes that, if you're only using traits inside boxes, you miss out. Does that make sense? Meanwhile, when reading and analysing stuff that's already been created, cateogries work find to structure such analysis. But I don't think it's a useful part of the creative process.

 

[SeverinR]

If D&D, I would say a scout or ranger. To track and provide cover fire to slow the enemy's approach, keep them shielding, while the mage is building up his next attack or if close enough an unexpected battle charge by the warrior into the crouching enemy.

 

[grahamguitarman]

Oh god not more rules :stomp:

 

[Lora]

Using Kal Bashir's model, you have to think of archetypes as functions. So, one character can perform multiple functions.

I think he says (have to go back to the book to check): Hero, Loyal Ally, Supernatural Aid, Innocent, Romantic Challenge.

I wouldn't call it a rule though. More a set of options. And they don't have to start out alltogether. They can meet on the way.

 

[Qiara]

Oh god not more rules :stomp:

Hahaha, Graham! While it was referred to as the "Rule of Five," I agree with Lora in that I would not consider it another rule. More of a suggestion or starting point for an author to build upon, completely scrape if it does not fit, or morph as needed.

I hope this restores your blood pressure!

Qiara

 

[Anders Ämting]

As far as I can remember, the five man band (the link to which I am NOT clicking) consists generally of: the hero, the comedy sidekick, the girl, the big strong dumb one and the mentor.

It's actually: The Hero, The Lancer, The Smart Guy, The Big Guy and The Chick.

Contrast: Power Trio, Three Amigos.

 

[ascanius]

Do you mean something like this? Creating Archetypal Characters This tends to be my go to page for organizational help.