Unleashing the “Third Rail”: How to Give Your TTRPG Characters Deep Flaws
What’s a Character Third Rail
So, looking at this, many people ask what I am exactly talking about. To put it simply, the character third rail is a topic, fear, weakness, or thing that causes a character to react in a strong or amplified manner. A dangerous topic that a character tries to, willingly or not, avoid at all costs, and will act like a cornered animal to escape it. The reason it is called a “third rail” is because it’s like touching the third rail on a train track, which can be very dangerous if done.
How to Utilize The Rail
Consider a character’s history. It has many parts, some defined, some less so. The third rail can be practically anything. It could be a traumatic event that causes a fear, making them flee when in a similar situation. Perhaps they were bullied in youth, and can’t bear to see another person get bullied themselves. It establishes a unique or favored response to certain situations, and makes the character feel more alive. It can form habits and direct how certain interactions happen with them. Sometimes, it’s a social quirk, and it could mean they rub the wrong way with certain people. Or maybe it was something with a certain piece of technology, making them use it in a way that wouldn’t be part of the norm. The third rail is always something that makes them react or go about something to avoid what has traumatized them, and if they do have to go against it head on, it is not a pleasant time.
Why Use a Character Third Rail?
To use it is to give depth to a character. No one, even in fiction, is perfect. Everyone has flaws, quirks, and weaknesses. This gives a new flavor to try, a new dimension to your character. Maybe give them a phobia, something to add to a situation, or just have them avoid something at all costs. It makes play more interesting, and a situation that would usually be within their skills becomes surprisingly difficult due to some event, and requires another route. If a front liner is afraid of cats, and their next opponent is a tiger, they might not want to approach, meaning the less tankier allies have to hop scotch hits to one another. Or maybe the wizard doesn’t learn a single fire related spell due to an immense case of pyrophobia, so the next time something is weak to fire, it doesn’t work well because their kit isn’t well prepared. It makes more situations more interesting. Some people don’t want to play some god tier, power gamer level. They want to play something different, unconventional, and a third rail could be the right excuse to play something new, and exciting.
How to Make a Character Third Rail
A third rail should be something that comes up often. Most fears can come into play a good amount of the time, but won’t always be present, such as pyrophobia or arachnophobia. Other ones could be something that caused a bit of trauma, such as talking with nobility of certain houses, or utilizing specific pieces of technology or magic. It shouldn’t, however, be something that never happens or always happens. Something like a fear of a very specific animal that isn’t narratively involved, or being scared of anything vaguely humanoid would be bad. Another bad one is not wanting to be social. These games require the players to talk with one another, and communicate. Social anxiety and social absence are not the same. A socially anxious character might fumble with their words, or get nervous easily, which would make an interesting character, but a character who actively avoids anything social makes them very hard to interact with.
