: Re: Too much death in character backstories? Even in a horror game? The backstory of my five main characters involves a lot of death... The protagonist, who has two adopted daughters and raises

@Odierno164

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I would write this as a comment to @What 's answer, but I don't have enough points for that.

I will focus on two things when trying to answer your question.

The first: Agreeing with @What ; contrast is crucial if death in itself should still be horrifying. Since there is a lot of death already, the focus of the reader's/protagonist's fear should not be on death itself, but something related to it which makes it different from "the previous deaths"...

The second: This is something that could help with the first.. What are we actually afraid of?". The "holy shit... this could happen to my daughters" is an important point. Especially since death is "normal" in this dimension. @What makes a brilliant point comparing death in Syria and the U.S., and I will take this example even further. Yes, we usually think "Oh my, that's terrible!" when we hear tragic news, BUT generally people don't actually CARE unless they have a direct link (social, cultural, geological) to the people involved. If we should fear the death of his daughters, we must care about them intimately. In order for us to believe or share the fear that the protagonist feels or develops, it must be natural to feel sincere empathy for them, even within the murder dimension. I believe character development is absolutely crucial for this. When we care for the characters there WILL be a contrast between their possible deaths and the deaths of "strangers".

I don't know the structure of your plot (and it may be irrelevant) but we must know and care for the people involved, in order to fear their deaths. After all, I don't walk around fearing that a stranger will be hit by lightning or hit by a car. I fear that my friends and family will.

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