Team Design Part 1

No character ever operates alone. Even a solo character has a support staff of some sort; Batman may say he operates alone, but he has someone to look over his mansion (Alfred Pennyworth), someone to handle his business (Lucius Fox), someone to spar with (name a Robin), and a lifelong friend (Clark Kent). When you start dealing with actual teams, that connection becomes even more apparent.

When you start building a team, there are a lot of considerations you need to think about. It doesn't matter if you're building a solo character, a pair, or a full team; there are several different issues that you need to think about. Most of those considerations are going to come from the theme or necessities of the work; a kid's comic is going to have each side have a specific look, for example, to better differentiate the two sides. Once you start looking at those considerations, it can get really interesting and even spur your imagination.

Just remember to have some fun and don't be afraid to go with the flow. You're going to find that approaching team-building as something that is just filling in blanks is good to get you going, but is not a method you want to use throughout the exercise; you're going to want to have some fun with the creation process. Sometimes you will find that an idea that you hadn't even considered is all of a sudden the idea you want to run with rather than your original idea. At that point you can either run with it or stick with the original idea; unless there's a good reason to stick with the original idea, just try the new one.

Yes, it does get easier. The first couple of teams are going to be hard, but you will get it figured out. The key is to have a general idea of what you need and be willing to find what you want. The team creation process can be all sorts of fun when you get into it even as it can be sort of complicated; there are a lot of wheels turning. You just need to decide which wheels are the most important.

And don't feel beholden to these steps; these are just the usual steps to follow. If you have a way that works for you, go for it.

General Theme

This is the most obvious place to start and therefore usually the best. Every team should have some sort of theme, be it visual (the zodiac, animals, or birds are the usual looks), concepts (such as gaining powers through genetics, everyone has a different martial art or magic, or everyone has a different military specialty), or everyone has the same basic goal but goes about it differently (the goal can be revenge, killing demons, or even world peace).

The theme helps keep the team focused, even though that focus can change as the story progresses. For example, the team could be focused on killing demons but change to stopping the machinations of the nobility. Other teams could have a bird theme and over time experience epiphanies that give them greater insights into their bird and thus give them more powerful skills and weapons. Other teams won't change their focus or abilities, but that works for military stories.

Also, you can change your theme as needed. If you decide that your team of martial artists needs to become a detective team, then so be it; it's not that uncommon for characters to change origins and therefore themes halfway through the series, such as a team of magicians finding out that they are actually superheroes or mecha heroes becoming leaders of armies. The theme should be seen as a beginning point under constant renegotiation, not something set in stone.

Origin

The team obviously needs some sort of origin. This does not need to be the same as the origin of the individual members, although that is a possibility; a team of genetically-manipulated soldiers is going to have the same origin, for example. All that matters here is how the team was created or came together; an adventuring group from the same town with a couple of others brought in works just as well as a team assigned to the same mission by their military leaders.

As with the theme, this can change depending on the needs of the story. The team could have started as a team that came together to fight monsters but then the military takes over the mission; the team of vigilantes could have to deal with new members as well as paperwork and having to deal with orders. As the team gains more experience and resources it could become an agency with recognized authority as well as a shiny new government liaison.

Again, the needs of the story take precedence, so the team can experience a second origin if the conditions warrant it. Things in a story change; how the members react to the new situation can be interesting in and of itself.

How Big

The size of the group is important to determine. The usual size is usually five individuals, but this is by no means the only acceptable size. Solo characters with one or two support characters are not unknown, and neither are a dozen individuals. Here are some team sizes and some considerations:

Solo With Support: Batman and James Bond are the best examples here. Batman has a weapon supplier, someone to keep an eye on the fort, and a sparring partner. Bond has a boss, a weapons supplier, and one or two allies in every story (usually a helper and a love interest). This allows the solo character to be the most powerful protagonist while having the necessary emotional support, someone with more expertise than he has, and still allows you a character to have conversations with so the exposition doesn't feel forced.

A common permutation of this is the Drama Trio: The protagonist, his significant other, and a sidekick. Superman is the obvious example here, with Lois Lane being the significant other who ensures that things stay interesting while Jimmy Olsen provides support functions and keeps the stakes interesting for Superman. You can also replace the significant other with a boss of some sort and it still works.

Pairs: Partner A is the brusque, melee-oriented person while Person B is more about finesse and ranged weapons. The two combine their abilities to become an effective team. In more specific terms, one takes on two of the Five Man Band slot and the partner takes on another two, with both usually playing the lance to the other. They will usually have some sort of support structure set up, usually some sort of mix of a fence, an information font, a secretary, an equipment supplier, and legal help.

[It should be noted that with these two the support team are secondary members with little spotlight on them. They are there only to supply specific roles and then disappear. The focus should remain on the main character(s) and that set-up allows for that.]

Three-/Four-Person Team: There will be some doubling up of roles, but otherwise these are just smaller versions of the Five Man Band. The role of lance will usually be dropped, and the Three-Person Team will sometimes combine the Brain and The Brawn.

Five Man Band: This is the default. We'll be talking about it later.

The Crowd: This is for any team larger than the above. At this point, you will see a lot of specialization (two skilled shooters will specialize in pistols vs. rifles or sniper vs. multiple targets). You will also see some sort of hierarchy develop between characters, even if it's informal. Also, some of them may perform what would be support roles for other teams.

[It should be noted that all teams may or may not have a support structure like that of the Solo Character. It's just going to go from "my butler Jeeves" to "that cute guy who fixes my mech". The support staff just isn't required to fill the same dramatic roles as other team characters (such as allowing for conversation for exposition dumps).]

That should cover most situations. You should try to avoid ridiculously large teams; twelve should be the limit for most stories. Past that, even if the story is ridiculously long you are likely to have issues keeping characters straight. This is sort of why Tolkien had to split the party; if he had kept The Fellowship together throughout the entire trilogy odds are people would not have cared about Merry and Pippin.