4. A Few Good Men (Or Women)
Pratchett/Kidby/DoubledayDiscworld is a character-driven place. The bricks and mortar give it structure, but it's the people who go about their daily lives on the pages of these books which give the world it's heart and soul. Terry Pratchett's ability to weave depth and personality into his characters is unprecedented, especially considering the sheer volume of characters involved - wizards, witches, assassins, civil servants, royalty all the way to the seamstresses of negotiable affection and the lowly pig farmer who only gets a single paragraph, each character is an essential cog in the literary machine of the Discworld series. Besides the armies of supporting cast, each story arc comes with its own ensemble cast of stars, many of which could carry a game narrative on their own. So, short of dishing up a Call Of Duty-esque mess where we're tossed from one protagonist's boots to another throughout, we'll need to determine the ideal leading man (or woman) to build the story around. The easy way to go about this would be to shortlist the various starring roles. Sam Vimes is an obvious choice, and his Watch co-stars are some of the most loved characters in the books; Rincewind the wizard (ahem wizzard) has already shown he has leading man qualities in the two early Discworld games, and we all love the rest of the Unseen University faculty which would come along with him; many would jump at the chance to live as Lord Vetinari, a legend of the series; and with the right story it might be fitting to put gamers under the pointy hat of Granny Weatherwax or one of the other prominent witches. Moist von Lipwig has been getting lots of attention of late, but he might not carry the weight of some of the others in contention - there are supporting members who would play more interesting lead parts instead. We could debate all day, but there might be another way to go about this: the "nameless one" approach. We need the main characters - your Captain Carrot, Mustrum Ridcully, Foul Ole Ron, Lady Sybil and so on - but that doesn't mean we need to be one of them. Maybe the more intriguing route would be to place the player in the role of a newcomer setting out to carve his or her place in the world. This option means that the central character isn't set in stone, without a backstory to define him, and can be moulded by the player by choices made through the game. As a relative nobody, you could join a guild, earn a living as a petty thief, become a guard in the Patrician's castle the options are endless. An overarching storyline would exist to move things forward, canned interactions with key cast members, scripted events and so on, but there could be huge scope for freedom within the game world.