by Eric Weiss
Everybody loves an underdog.
From a story perspective, it's easy to see why.
It's just not much fun to root for a protagonist who's supposed to win. If they do, they've met expectations. If they lose, the story ends on a sour note with an agonizing defeat. It's much more fun to root for the hero nobody expects - someone who struggles along the way and earns the triumph that awaits them.
So what makes for a good underdog?
We've written hundreds of them for our new fantasy party game Dungeon Tryouts, with help from an all-star team of guest writers that includes names like Danielle Radford and Ify Nwadiwe from Dimension 20 and Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archives. So at this point, we think we've got a pretty good sense of what makes an underdog tick.
In Dungeon Tryouts, players are pitching long-shot heroes for quests they're not qualified to do - and that's ultimately what you want to do as a writer. As long as your protagonist has a chance - any chance - of success, readers will follow their journey to see those long odds pay off. Your goal is to sell them on that possibility!
You can pre-order Dungeon Tryouts to see how we go about creating underdogs.
In the meantime, here are three tips for writing your own lovable underdog protagonists:
1. Effort is more important than success.
There's a reason a version of this is rule #1 in Pixar's storytelling rulebook.
Relatable protagonists are more compelling than exceptional ones. Most of us will never know what it feels like to be Michael Jordan. We do know what it feels like to be doubted, or what it's like to persevere when life is stacked against us.
As readers, we don't need to see the protagonist win. We just want to see them try - to put in the effort to become something more than they were at the beginning of the story.
We've all tried at some point. A good underdog convinces us that it's still worth the effort, and inspires us to give our own quest another go.
2) Figure out what makes their flaw universal.
Every underdog is being held back in some way. Maybe their block is external (like a lack of resources). Maybe it's internal (like the self-doubt that prevents them from pursuing an opportunity).
Whether it's money, family, or another factor, that block is often quite specific, something rooted in a character's unique personal circumstances. Your job is to figure out why that very specific thing is in fact representative of a broader human struggle (and spoiler alert: it is).
A pitchfork-wielding peasant who got separated from the rest of the mob may not seem like a likely underdog. But now they're out of step with their community, have lost their sense of purpose, and are grappling with the fact that they fell in with the wrong crowd.
Now they need to find themselves while staring down an angry mob.
Your readers may never pick up a literal pitchfork, but that's not what the story is really about. It's about feeling betrayed or misled by the people closest to you after learning that community membership is conditional.
Those experiences are much more common. They're also great fodder for a classic underdog story where the protagonist wants to do what's right despite resistance from society at large.
3) Leverage your underdog's special gift.
Every underdog has something that makes them special. It's the thing they're really good at, the thing that gives them a chance to overcome their aforementioned flaws.
To write a good underdog, you need to find a way to work that gift into the story. The trick is grounding it in character rather than circumstance.
What's the difference?
Circumstance is being born with the ability to see 5 seconds into the future. Character is learning that you can get another 5 seconds by looking at yourself 5 seconds in the future (and so on).
You underdog isn't Superman. If their talent is broadly applicable to any situation, they're not really an underdog.
Instead, a true underdog finds ways to leverage what seems like a narrow talent in creative or unexpected ways. In doing so, they demonstrate the plucky ingenuity that audiences cheer for, as well as the strength of character that makes them worthy of their success.
An underdog isn't born a winner. An underdog becomes one by mastering their craft and maximizing their potential to push beyond their expected limits.
They find a way to get the job done.
Just like the hundreds of quirky underdogs you'll find in Dungeon Tryouts.
Pre-order our new party game at dungeon-tryouts.com!
Dungeon Tryouts is the party game of fantasy misadventure. Pitch wannabe heroes for hilarious quests to make your friends laugh and win!