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Supporting characters are a lot more interesting when there’s something weird about them. While you don’t want to give every single GMC the characters meet a quirky trait (unless you’re playing a David Lynch-style game), important or recurring characters will be more memorable if they’ve got an unusual trait. The list below is for modern games, but most of them will work for other settings if you tweak the details a bit.
- Believes that he is the descendant of Emperor Norton I, and expects to be treated accordingly
- Is constantly trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube
- Is obsessed with Tom Brokaw
- Always wears a Star Fleet uniform
- Claims that he invented Google and was screwed out of his share of the company
- Always trying to give people creepy neck messages
- Has an incredibly annoying, high-pitched voice
- Break dances whenever possible
- Always wearing the perfect hat for the occasion
- Full-blown paranoid conspiracy nut
- Talks like John Wayne
- Carries a pocket full of peanuts that he eats constantly and just throws the shells on the floor no matter where he is
- Dresses like WHAM!
- Won’t shut up about the time he met Tom Arnold
- Constantly getting into arguments with his ventriloquist’s dummy
- Gives everyone nicknames
- Only speaks in song lyrics
- Drives an AMC Pacer Wagon painted in swirling day-glow colors
- Carries a Lincoln Hawk action figure in his pocket, which he consults when making decisions
- Won’t stop quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail, no matter how much you beg
