Character Lists?
in a recent comment, one commenter asked for me to add a list of the characters in my harem stories at the beginning of my stories so they could refer to it for character descriptions and such, like:
Tavorwen Treestrider
Race: Wood Elf
Hair: Dark Brown
Eyes: Green
Age: 291
Height: 5’ 1”
Weight: 75 lbs.
Build: Slim and wiry
Breasts: Small (A-cup)
Ass: Slight, tight and firm
Would that help you all for my Harem stories? Or is that just not worth the effort? If yes, is there anything else you'd like included for any given story?
Comments (11)
My two cents here is I think a character list is a good idea, but if that is going to be larger than one page you need to consider some options such as an abbreviated reminder of the character, role, status to the MC and any special abilities that will be mention in the new chapter. Non mentioned characters should not be listed. Having a stand alone Characters iist with all the character stats would be a good additional companioin for your readers that want that level of detail. There are several stories I follow on Patreon or Lit that have HUGE character lists. One author literally has hundreds of characters, places, ships, etc. So much to remember and no reference guide or characters list at all. I had to make my own spreadsheet to track everything. It is really easy to forget something when the word count for all 160+ chapters exceeds 4 million words. There is another author that I can give you the name of and the story name so you could see what he did. He created and updates a Notes chapter (currently on version 13) that has details of the back story of his universe, the characters and much more and he cross references different ways which I find a useful reference. IM me if you want more details
An interesting idea. An abbreviated list could be a good compromise. That works better for Too Good To Be True than A Hero's Rebirth, as I try to keep all the active battle matrons relevant in some way. I will message you.
I like how it was implemented in chapter 6 of A Hero's Rebirth. It includes basic information that would have otherwise been forgotten and is easily skipped (easy to skip for most people, I suppose) when it is not needed. Personally, I would enjoy having even more information too (at least for A Hero's Rebirth; and not just of other characters). Maybe there could be hints of lore or background info to improve understanding of, for example, the different elf societies or how gods work. Though what I have in mind could easily get out of hand and may not be worth the effort (yet?), especially if it would slow down updates.
I'm glad to hear you liked it! I understand wanting more world info in there, but what other things would you like for the characters?
Having seen it in practice in Ch 6, I think I'm going to change my vote to no. It's a LOT of information packed into the beginning of the chapter (9 pages worth on GDocs). If you were going to do something like this, I think you'd be best served with a list and single sentence description, instead of doing a full 'stat sheet', as it were. Something more like this: Thomas Nord - The Hero Reborn, sent to Elendel after sacrificing his life to save squadmates in Iraq Tavorwen Treestrider - Wood Elf Battle Matron and Guardian. Performed the summoning to bring Thomas to Elendel. First Matron Chosen. Diamiutar Firehair - Wood Elf Head House Matron. Amura - Bonded Shadow Elf. Traded to Thomas to buy a brief cease fire in his assault against the Shadow Elves. You can google "Dramatis Personae" for more examples. I'd try and keep it at no more than a page. No need for a full physical description, just a brief reminder of who they are and how they fit into the story. Extraneous or duplicate information ("Ass: Small, Maidenly" is on basically everyone, for example) just clutters up the list and takes away from getting to the actual story. I appreciate the desire to help readers remember characters from the story, especially as the household continues to expand. If you do want to do something more akin to stat sheets, might I suggest setting up a small wiki instead? Wiki's also have the option of locking things behind spoiler tags, which I did see was a concern of yours in a previous response.
See, one of the reasons I included the physical descriptions was the person that asked for it on Literotica said: "It's very hard for readers to keep track of this many characters, it would be a good idea to start every chapter with a list of important characters with brief descriptions to make it easier for us to picture them in our heads. It doesn't need to be anything super long or detailed, just something like: Character name here: Wood Elf battle matron with dark black hair and green eyes, 5'6", skilled at tracking, rides such and such mount. That kind of reference would make it easier to visualize what is going on. Thomas already has a very large harem and I simply cannot keep track of what all these chicks are supposed to look like, which makes the sex scenes especially less impactful since I can't easily visualize the involved she elf in my head." So I am trying to help with that. And if I don't give a full description, I could see it being less useful. Like I want people to be able to find the information in an easy place, hence the Character list, but I don't want to leave off helpful information. I think part of the problem is instead of putting it in a sentence form: "Tavorwen Treestrider, Thomas's Head battle matron, raked Guradian, is an Active Wood Elf Matron with dark brown hair, green eyes, standing 5'1 and weight 75 lbs, with matronly breasts and hips/ass." Which is three lines on Google Docs. I went with a stat block, because that's how I record it in my notes. (Nerd, okay? Yes, it is basically my character sheet.) Tavorwen Treestrider Rank: Guardian Status: Active Matron Role: Head Battle Matron and Guardian Race: Wood Elf Hair: Dark Brown Eyes: Green Age: 291 Height: 5’ 1” Weight: 75 lbs. Breasts: A-Cup Ass: Small, Maidenly Mount: Grass Drake Which is 13 lines... more than 4 times as long... Should I switch it?
Maybe instead just a master list as a standalone chapter that you could just update as necessary? I'd just keep it open as a different file and have it sit side by side as I read the main story!
I'm nervous about doing something like this, unless I do a new one for each chapter because... what if I get a new Patron who's only read "Too Good To Be True" and finds a "reading assist tool" here on Patreon only to open it and go "What the fuck? Why are there 17 Elf characters listed as pregnant? Hey, they just mentioned this Kathra Character, who's she... wait... SHE BECOMES THE MC'S WIFE?" (not gonna happen so I can joke about it.... or will it? *Maniacally laughter*) I don't want to make basically a spoiler list for new readers. If I kept it in each chapter, just after my "Hey Readers" section, I could have it accurate to what you know going into each chapter. Then just... open the doc on two tabs and keep one at the Character list.
The Character Discriptions would be nice but not at the expence of the story coming out. Maybe building slowly and only here on Patreon?!
Maybe not as detailed, no particular need for height and weight. More useful would be the role in the story (like first warrior maiden, necromantic mage, etc...). And maybe only mention the ones that will have a part in the ongoing chapter.
It does help with remembering who who when returning to books