I recommend Germaine Greer's chapter on King Lear in her book on Shakespeare for coming to grips with what tragedy entails.

Quote from: misterguignol;510529I recommend Germaine Greer's chapter on King Lear in her book on Shakespeare for coming to grips with what tragedy entails.

Referring to this?
http://books.google.pl/books?id=Opg4yoLCFGAC&pg=PT103&lpg=PT103&dq=Germaine+Greer's+chapter+on+King+Lear&source=bl&ots=9bW2m2kvkr&sig=fX9IGgr8nUl_8CiUAd8pCW5B2sE&hl=pl&sa=X&ei=O_YmT9yzI8vCswb52PDzDA&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

I did discuss this topic recently with my friends, and they did suggest somewhat similar - they used the term degeneration rather then entropy though.

Quote from: Benoist;510510You'll figure it out progressively as you go on with this, Rincewind. Call it a work in progress, a theory, but not a series of advice, because you are still searching for the answers yourself at this point.

If you think I'm trying to advise on a topic I don't really know about - well, perhaps you are right. I dunno. I thought I ran a pretty good lot of tragic games (without shoehorning the theatric structure - just with proper characters), and pretty much every Call of Cthulhu game is a tragedy in motion.

Hamlets' Workshop or Thousand Faces of Pride

Since we had established that tragic characters are vital to make tragic campaign work, let's take a look on what traits constitute to or can make a character tragic. What will motivate and drive the tragic character into it's ultimate oblivion. Also - to each of the traits, an example what sort of bait GM/World should throw such a character, so that it could fashion it's own rope to hang itself.

Pride

Let us start with the most classic, of course. Pride is a key element in most of tragic characters. In a way, it lies at the very heart of every other tragic hero's trait. Someone who is prideful considers himself better then everyone else - better in a way that suggests being a better human being, so to speak. In tragedy, pride usually takes a form of hubris - an idea difficult to define, a motion that someone is above normal human beings, and therefore normal moral and universe's laws that apply to all humans, do not apply to him, or at least - not entirely. Hubris was considered the worst sin in Ancient Greece, and we can somewhat see why, as such presumptions can lead to the worst - for example, certain ideologies being born Pride is usually followed by it's snivelling sycophant, arrogance - an idea that you can do no wrong.

"The sword is cursed, but I am stronger". "Everyone gets addicted to heroin, but my will is stronger, I can stop any moment". "I have no right for this kingdom, but I deserve it". In other words - put a prideful character into a situation when, despite his knowledge and warnings that everyone else who tried such a thing ended tragically, the character will try to do that something anyway.
If the character shows signs of having developed an actual hubris - it is even better. Offer such a character an opportunity (in a concealed manner, via Oedipus, or in an open way) to commit a terrible sin in the eye of world's divine or human laws. An example of such a sin may be a creation of a flawed ideology by such character, based on character's conception about himself and the world - Racism, Fascism, Tyranny, Terror Of The People, take your pick. Let the player start such a thing, perhaps after one of the NPC sycophants accidentally tells him "Why, that'd be a great idea", and watch him fall.
Another example goes straight from Oedipus indeed, and fits best into investigative games - the investigator is investigating a crime he did commit. Amnesia is your best friend here. A prideful investigator will rather keep on digging, rather then risk that he may uncover something that will hurt him. The knowledge that shall hurt us is a core design for anyone who ever GMed Call of Cthulhu .

Ambition

A desire to better oneself (one's position/skill/standing etc. etc.) can be also a fatal flaw. While not a sin in it's own, a certain overambitious behaviour, especially when coupled with limitless ruthlessness, arrogance and/or lack of skills to exercise one's ambition, can lead to hero's downfall.

Political play is the easiest way how you can exercise this one, I'd say. An ambitious character will sooner or later make powerful enemies, and if the character does not posses the necessary skills, and/or is not careful with handling those enemies, they will strike such a character down. The ambition to be "the best in something" is also easy to exploit, by providing a "Faustian bargain" - allow something in the world offer such a character an opportunity to become indeed the best fighter/wizard/thief/cook/lover etc. etc....but for a price. Such a bargain needn't be offered by a higher power - forcing the player to make sacrifices between family, friends, or just connection to the world in general work just as well here.

Fatalism

A look on life, claiming that the decisions of one's life are meaningless, and that one should just subject oneself to fate. Probably the easiest trait for a GM to use against a tragic character.

Fatalism can take many forms - from a bloodthirsty berserker, who knows he shall die in battle, to a bedridden drug addict and...a certain breed of paladins. You don't need to do much here - just provide the character opportunities to exercise what he considers his "fate". And sooner or later, the character will bite off more then he can chew - challenge a foe that he has no chance of winning against, overdose, shrug off promises of quiet life with his love and go down fighting evil because that's what paladins do.

Servility

The polar opposite of ambition, I'd take one of definitions of servility - the desire to serve one's betters, usually because of the profits such behaviour gives - but not always. Servility can lead to tragedy just as much as ambition, in fact, even more so, as because quite a lot of people are ready to commit the worst atrocities, when they are just "following orders" - such deeds can however come back to haunt them in many forms, spiritual or mundane.

A good example of how servitude leads to doom is Polonius and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet. The snivelling sycophants are, sadly for them, the ones that in the end easiest sacrificed, and such is a tragic end that awaits such a character - being nothing more then a chess piece, easily exchanged for a better gain. Because of the deeds committed to please their benefactor, those suffering of servility will often also make powerful enemies - and quite often, lack the skill to deal with them. As a GM, give such a character an order from his superior, that will put him in a terrible danger - usually, the character will jump to the opportunity of finishing another quest for his benefactor. Except this time, the death of the character is just another part of the plan.

Whew, just four out of a plenty, and took much longer then I thought. Will return to the list tomorrow, starting with greed.