Is 100 characters too much?

I think for me the problem is less "100 characters" and more "webcomic." If you have already written out the story, fine. If you were planning for a 10-volume epic, then sure, I bet you have enough time to cram a hundred characters in there. However, there's something about the way webcomics tend to go... They get hung up on small things, they easily grow plot tumors due to the serial nature, designing a unique, 100-person cast is an incredibly daunting task, not to mention the daunting task of the art itself...

100 character cast can work in certain mediums. Webcomics is not one of them — the longest running webcomics tend to be either heavily serialized single-gag comics or decompressed comics (which probably would be much shorter if they weren't, well, decompressed.)

As the writer of something that was basically a long-runner webcomic, except for not being on the web, I have to disagree with that - while webcomics may indeed be prone to such things, they are by no means an inherent part of the medium. As long as you keep focused, it should be no harder to write a massive cast in a webcomic then it should in any other medium, and easier then it would be in a collaborative medium like TV.

That said, 100 characters probably is too much. I've always been a fan of Loads And Loads Of Characters, and my comics have a cast list currently standing at some 735 characters. However, this includes literally every character with a unique appearance or name, including bit characters who deliver three lines before vanishing forever and Mauve Shirt types who are only in there to avert The Main Characters Do Everything (a trope I dislike). The actual 'core cast' of central characters with their own plot arcs is more like 20-25 (more if I include villains, but I don't think they count), which I consider to be the upper limit of a manageable core cast. From one of your earlier posts, I see that you have sixty characters listed as "very important" - that's almost certainly far too many.

I think 100 characters is kind of fitting for a comedic webcomic Because if it is serious, you'll have a hard time developing and introducing 100 characters into one bigplotthatanswerseverythingwithoutleavinganyplotholes plot

Also a good point - I'll note that I'm very big on not answering everything in my works, just the main points, so you'll have to keep that in mind as well. Everyone with a major character arc had it resolved, but there were still lots of unanswered questions (though I am planning to answer several in the 'sequel'). I like it that way, but if you don't, then that may be another reason to cut down on the number of characters.

Has anyone mentioned Only Six Faces yet? Even if your cast includes furries, aliens, random fantasy beasts, and other distinctive-looking things, your artist will have to be a god among men to make 100 distinguishable characters. If it's an all-human cast, not a chance.

Perhaps you could post bits of your cast and we can advise you on how to conflate them?

It's quite possible to do all-humans with all faces. It sometimes involve changing styles completely, but I like that trope.

Think less about how many characters, and more about how many characters the reader will have to keep track of at any one time. Take a look at those important characters, and ask yourself "Are they important throughout the whole thing, or just for a story arc or two?"

With 100 characters? I doubt it. It would even be hard to draw 100 distinguishable costumes.

The Phoenix Wright universe has a bit more than 100 named characters at least, yet I can remember them all and still have room for the characters of tons of other series. I don't doubt most people here have more than 100 characters memorized.

The trick is to group the characters into categories, which are inevitably easier to memorize.

edited 24th Oct '11 5:38:03 PM by OuthouseInferno

Yes, it's all about the herds. 10 groups of 10 is easier than 1 group of 100.

Or, if we're going by certain theories of memory retention, five to seven major groups of five to seven characters, each crossing paths with five to seventeen other background characters of varying significance.

edited 24th Oct '11 6:23:03 PM by JHM

The limits of human memorization is not really the issue; there's no way that he needs that many characters, and totally extraneous characters are cruft, regardless of how they're grouped. Learning to economize is part of learning to write.

Do all these characters show up at once, or is it a gradual trickle? Because when I started reading Negima it introduced about 30 characters in the first chapter alone. It took me ages to sort out people and even 15 volumes in there are still about 10 with no notable character depth. You're essentially trying to triple that.

Remember the saying "Kill your darlings." Try to remove 10 characters from the story and see what it does. Then do that until you can't tell the story. Then do it once more.

You may wish to consider whether you're telling one story or several set in the same 'verse. I can see getting to that number if you're actually writing several different related works, but harder if they're all supposed to be one story.

I can also see a long-running series building up to that many named characters, but that's doing it a few at a time.

I'm genuinely curious why you'd actually need 100 characters beforehand. It almost sounds like you've taken every 2D side-person and random guy #3 from the background and declared them a character.

Which is selling it a bit high, as most of them are essentially cardboard cutouts.

He said he considered 60 of them to be "important", so there's that.

While true, that doesn't necessarily meant they're NOT cardboard cutouts, they just happen to take an important action that effects the 3D characters.

Like the not-discussed-much president getting assassinated by his Vice-President thus setting up an arc that will be resolved three seasons later. (I've been watching B5 lately.)

those 60 are the MOST important, the other 40 are also VERY important, but only slightly less then the first 60

edited 25th Oct '11 6:04:10 PM by draconiansuperior

Or, for that matter, said Vice President Evil himself (how many times did Clark actually appear in the show, anyway?)

But I had the impression that by 60 important characters he meant 60 protagonist/supporting protagonist characters (feel free to clear this up at any time, draconiansuperior). That's too many. 60 characters with "important roles" of the sort you're discussing, on the other hand, is definitely not too many.

Edit: Ninja'd. Yeah, like I was saying, that definitely sounds like too many.

edited 25th Oct '11 6:08:17 PM by nrjxll

Eight serve as the main protagonist, the other 92 are important to the story in their own way. 60 main protagonist would kill me.

Are a lot of these people concentrated in one place? Why are they important? Can you or can you not condense some of them into fewer characters and not drastically alter the plot?

Well, after much consideration, the amount of character has been reduced by 75%

Wow.

Good on you.

I admire your fortitude.

By 75% or to 75%? Because the latter is still too many.