Working with "weak" characters

One of the most challenging things about being a gamemaster compared to a writer of fiction is lack of control over the protagonists. Not in-game control, but planning control… you're never guaranteed that the characters are going to have good (or any) plot hooks that you can work with. Roleplaying characters, instead of being richly detailed as you might expect, often have little detail in my experience. They often have no real motivations, no goals, and often the player doesn't even have an idea of what the character's daily routine is.

All the books on fiction fundamentals basically say that you can't tell a good story without good characters. And here the gamemaster is stuck trying to set up a situation rich with story potential when the characters are still very shallow and vague. Most players are more or less open to suggestions, but when the character has little personality or background details, it's hard to even know where to start making suggestions. If they were characters in a story I was writing, it'd be easy to make them more interesting, because I wouldn't have to worry about offending the player by making suggestions that run counter to their assumptions about the character. (Assumptions that they often cannot articulate, but they know a idea that runs counter to those assumptions when they see it.)

It's difficult not to become annoyed. By not taking the time to create more fully-realized characters, the players push more work onto the gamemaster. "I can't think of anything interesting. Here, you make it interesting for me, but don't mess with my character." When it comes to crunch time, it's always the gamemaster that has to deliver, not the player.

I've had a "creating good player characters" article on the back burner for a few years now. Someday I'm going to have to finish it.