Chapter 12. Output in Five Media: Obsidian, TRPG, Screenplay, Animation, and Web Novel

By the last chapter, one person had reached the stage of fully living and moving. From seed through five-act change, eleven of the twelve stages are complete. The character’s interior, exterior, and time axis are all aligned.

Today is the stage of unfolding that person across five media. The same character takes one form in an Obsidian integrated library, another in a TRPG NPC sheet, another in a one-page character bible for a film or drama screenplay, another in a visual package for animation or comics, and another in a compressed sheet for web fiction.

When the medium changes, the character’s clothes change. The character’s essence remains where it is.

Close-up · Geralt in The Witcher Geralt of Rivia was born in Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, changed media into CD Projekt’s games, and then into Netflix drama. The clothes differ by medium: the novels foreground cynical inner monologue; the games foreground choice and swordplay; the drama foregrounds an actor’s expression. Yet the essence—“a mutant hunter who kills monsters, knows that humans are the true monsters, claims neutrality yet ultimately stands with the vulnerable”—remains in every medium. He is the clearest example of this chapter’s proposition: full-build once; output by medium.

Full-Build Only Once; Output by Medium

First, let us establish the stance.

Do not rebuild a character for every medium. Full-build only once. Every output from seed through five-act change is built once, then converted into five media. The essence of the character does not change when the medium changes.

This separation is the core of the stage. If medium conversion is treated as part of full-build, the character drifts a little in every medium. In series and IP works, the book character, game character, and animation character end up with different textures. Readers and players inevitably notice that slight drift.

If medium conversion is placed separately in the output stage, the character’s essence is preserved. The same person lives and moves in five media. Only the part emphasized differs by medium.

Today we examine the output formats of the five media in order.

First Medium: For an Obsidian Integrated Library

The first medium is the standard sheet for an integrated library: a format entering the unified archive for a long novel or worldbuilding IP.

This format is a single integrated sheet gathering every piece of material for one character in one place. It becomes the source of truth for conversion to other media.

Obsidian is a personal knowledge-management app that connects Markdown notes through links. With [[links]] between notes, it can weave material like a web, so it is often used as an “integrated library” for characters and worldbuilding material. The essential idea is not the particular app, but gathering all material in one source of truth.

Skeleton of the format:

---
title: (character name)
codename: (temporary working codename)
created: YYYY-MM-DD
updated: YYYY-MM-DD
phase_completed: 11
type: character
project: (project name)
status: ready_for_consumption
character_tier: protagonist | major | supporting | minor
length_target: (length standard)
output_format: obsidian_master

# Mirror
mbti: 
mbti_main_function: 
hogwarts: 
big_five: 
enneagram: 

# Identification
gender: 
age: 
occupation: 
appearance_signature: 
body_anchor: 

# Core compression
identity_word: "(one-word identity)"
flaw_primary: 
trauma_type: big_t | small_t
want: 
need: 
lie: 
arc: positive | flat | negative

# Conflict
core_conflict: 
stakes: [...]
fun_engines: [...]

# Relationships
relations: [...]

# Tone
reference_authors: { foreign:, korean:, tone_oneliner: }

# Source
seed_source: external | random_card | mixed

# Vault
tags: [character, tier/..., project name, genre]
aliases: [...]
---

These twenty-five frontmatter fields compress every texture of a character into one place. The prose clothing of that texture unfolds in the body.

Body skeleton:

# (character name)

> [one-line catchphrase: one-word identity + signature action]

## One-paragraph summary
[150–250 characters]

## Mirror
[five-scale results]

## Appearance
[five physical elements · body anchor · one appearance factor]

## Pre-history
[three-dimensional balance]

## Flaw, lack, and trauma
[four axes + one-line chain]

## Goals (Want / Need / Lie)

## Conflict
[eight types + stakes + Fun Engine]

## Relationships
[Mermaid or mind map]

## Abilities and preferences
[benefit · side effect + unexpected charm]

## Tone
[reference authors + links to forms of address and speech]

## Five-act change
[Act 1 → Act 2 → Act 3 → Act 4 → Act 5, one line each]

## Quotable lines
- "..."

## %% LLM %% narrative block
[Leave empty. Filled by subsequent integration work.]

## %% Notes %%
[Free editing area]

This format becomes one character page in the integrated library. M’s Obsidian sheet is built in this format.

Conversion to the Obsidian format is an area with clear strengths when working with an AI work partner. Give it every output from the twelve stages and it can build the twenty-five frontmatter fields and body quickly. The producer reviews the passing line.

Second Medium: TRPG and Game NPC Sheet

A sheet for a TRPG (tabletop role-playing game) or game NPC has a different texture from an integrated sheet. Third-person objective description takes priority over first-person quotations, emotional description is minimized, and an ability-score block is included.

The character-sheet form itself reveals the medium’s philosophy. A combat-centered game’s sheet has large slots for attack power and health; a horror-centered game such as Call of Cthulhu has a separate slot for “Sanity (SAN).” Which slots are made and which are left out says, “What about a person matters in this medium?” The same person is held in different slots by different media.

One core line: the texture of a record. It is a record, not a novel.

Frontmatter:

---
title: (character name)
output_format: npc_pc_history
character_tier: 
type: npc | pc

# D&D 5e format (optional)
abilities:
 STR: __ # Strength
 DEX: __ # Dexterity
 CON: __ # Constitution
 INT: __ # Intelligence
 WIS: __ # Wisdom (insight · intuition)
 CHA: __ # Charisma (presence · eloquence)
alignment: lawful_good | true_neutral | etc.

# Personality: four slots
personality_trait: 
ideal: 
bond: 
flaw: 

# (Obsidian base fields below)
---

Body format:

# (character name)

> [one line: profession · identity · signature]

## Appearance
[one paragraph. Objective third person. Integrate body anchor + one appearance factor]

## Background
[three paragraphs. Objective third person. Origin · pre-history · current profession. No emotional evaluation]

## Abilities
- Professional skills: [3–5]
- Signature ability: [one + benefit · side effect]
- Physical ability scores: STR/DEX/CON/INT/WIS/CHA

## Motivation
- Immediate goal: (Want)
- Long-term goal: (Need)
- Secret: [one line only the character knows]

## Relationships
- Ally: 
- Antagonist: 
- Complicated: 

## Behavior
- At rest: 
- Under threat: 
- Before those trusted: 

## Quotes (3–5)

## GM/producer notes
- [Information not to disclose]
- [Hidden secret]

Even for a protagonist, keep length within 4,000 characters. Minimize emotional and inner-life description.

GM (Game Master) is the facilitator and referee who advances the story and moves the world and NPCs in a tabletop role-playing game, also called a Dungeon Master (DM). An NPC sheet’s “GM notes” are where that facilitator records how to perform and handle the person, and what information should still be hidden from players.

Let us output M in the D&D 5e standard.

---
title: M (Examiner)
output_format: npc_pc_history
character_tier: protagonist
type: npc

abilities:
 STR: 11 # Average
 DEX: 14 # Autopsy precision
 CON: 13 # Endurance sustained for thirty years
 INT: 16 # Medical examiner’s deduction
 WIS: 17 # Insight (infers occupation from calluses on a corpse’s fingers)
 CHA: 9 # Low from avoiding private territory
alignment: lawful_neutral

personality_trait: "She does not begin work until the autopsy kit has been aligned up to five times."
ideal: "Accurately recording a dead person’s final moments is the duty of the living."
bond: "She wants to know the first name of the colleague medical examiner who has worked beside her for thirty years, but cannot ask."
flaw: "Every decision is delayed in private territory."
---

# M (Examiner)

> A medical examiner with thirty years of experience. She can infer a profession from the calluses on a corpse’s fingers.

## Appearance
A middle-aged woman, 165 cm tall. She always wears the same white shirt beneath her autopsy coat. There is a thick callus on the inner side of the second joint of her left index finger: the trace of holding a scalpel for thirty years. Her face shows little expression, and her gaze is always directed toward the autopsy table.

## Background
The autopsy department of a university hospital in Seoul. Her mother’s disappearance when she was seven. She entered the path of medical examination afterward. She has remained in the same autopsy department for thirty years. She has worked beside a fellow medical examiner for thirty years, yet does not know that colleague’s first name.

[Omitted]

## Motivation
- Immediate goal: identify the owner of a wedding ring found on a corpse’s hand.
- Long-term goal: learn how to accept her mother’s absence.
- Secret: she has put the ring in her bag, violating procedure.

## Relationships
- Ally: fellow medical examiner (thirty-year colleague)
- Antagonist: rival prosecutor (detects procedural violations)
- Complicated: AI autopsy-assistance system (complements intuition and precision)

## Behavior
- At rest: precise at the autopsy table. She touches each callused area of a corpse’s hand once.
- Under threat: silent. She unconsciously rubs the callus on her own index finger.
- Before those trusted: answers in short, clipped phrases.

## Quotes
- "Twice preserves it. Once is too little, and three times is too much."
- "The dead are more exact than the living."
- "To leave my mother’s absence in exactly the shape it has."

This is the character’s clothing when the format enters a game NPC. It is more compressed and objective than the Obsidian format. A game master (or game designer) keeps this sheet open and runs the character from it.

NPC-format conversion is one area that speeds up with an AI work partner. Give it the Obsidian sheet as input and it can convert it into the NPC format quickly.

TRPG Supporting Tool: GURPS Advantage and Disadvantage Points

Besides D&D 5e, there is another format frequently used for TRPG character sheets: the GURPS advantage-and-disadvantage point system.

Background. GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System) is a universal TRPG system published by Steve Jackson Games in 1986. Its characteristic approach is to build a character by balancing Advantages and Disadvantages through points in addition to ability scores.

Purpose. If D&D 5e’s six ability scores plus four Personality slots establish a character’s outer shape, GURPS advantages and disadvantages organize the two-sided nature of flaws (Stage 7) in a point format. They let you check numerically whether a character’s strengths and flaws are balanced.

Expected effect. A character with strong abilities alone (advantages +20 pt, disadvantages 0 pt) is flat. A character whose advantages and disadvantages balance at similar totals (advantages +15 pt, disadvantages -12 pt) is dimensional. The GURPS format makes that balance visible in numbers.

Advantages (5–10, total points):
- __ (+__ pt)
Total: +___ pt

Disadvantages (3–7, total points):
- __ (-__ pt)
Total: -___ pt

Net points: ___ (advantages - disadvantages; within ±10 pt recommended)

Let us apply this to M.

M’s advantages:
- Autopsy precision +5 pt (infers occupation from calluses on a corpse’s fingers)
- Thirty years of experience +3 pt
- Colleagues’ trust +2 pt
- Insight (WIS 17) +4 pt
Total: +14 pt

M’s disadvantages:
- Avoids private territory -4 pt
- Baby-powder trigger -2 pt
- Trauma from her mother’s absence -5 pt
- Weak social ambition -2 pt
Total: -13 pt

Net points: +1 pt, balanced

Advantages exceed disadvantages by a slight +1 pt: a dimensional balance. You need not apply GURPS to every character, but it is a useful supporting tool when a TRPG game master wants to check a character’s balance in numbers.

Third Medium: One-Page Character Bible for Film and Drama Screenplays

The format used by screenwriters is compressed into one page: about 1,800 Korean characters. Every texture of the character is compressed onto a page.

Blizzard’s Overwatch maintains a “character bible” for each character, documenting appearance, personality, history, relationships, and speech. The lively Tracer, taciturn Genji, and swaggering cowboy Cassidy (formerly McCree) each have clearly recorded textures, so the person does not fall apart in new skins, animated shorts, or collaborations with other games. A bible written well once protects consistency across countless derivative works.

# (character name): Character Bible

**Logline**: [one line: who wants what in what situation]

**Age / Occupation / Status**: __ / __ / __

**Want (external goal)**: [one line]
**Need (internal goal)**: [one line]
**Lie (false belief)**: [one line]
**Wound (bleeding wound)**: [one line]

**Dominant Trait**: [one word]
**Defining Quirk**: [one line, telling detail]

**Arc Direction**: Positive / Flat / Negative

**Story Spine** (Pixar 7 lines):
- Once upon a time:
- Every day:
- Until one day:
- Because of that:
- Because of that:
- Until finally:
- And ever since:

**Voice**:
- One-line speech style (forms of address · intonation):
- First line:
"___"

**Key Relationships** (3–5):
- __ (Ally / Mentor / Antagonist / Foil): one line

**Five Diagnostic Tests**: Bechdel __ / Mako Mori __ / Sexy Lamp __ / Walks-into-a-room __ / One-Line __

Let us output J (the writer type) as a one-page screenplay bible.

# J: Character Bible

**Logline**: A period in the life of a writer in her thirties, struggling to seek bestseller status without losing the pleasure of writing itself.

**Age / Occupation / Status**: 35 / writer; double major in film directing and Korean literature / single

**Want**: To be recognized as a bestselling writer.
**Need**: To accept that the worth of her work is separate from her own worth.
**Lie**: "Only work that is enjoyable has value."
**Wound**: The compulsion to wash her hands until they redden before every writing session bleeds anew each day.

**Dominant Trait**: Idealist.
**Defining Quirk**: She always carries a yellow Oxford memo pad but never writes in it.

**Arc Direction**: Flat. She knows her Need from Act 1, but the outside world pulls her toward Want. What changes is not J, but the world around J.

**Story Spine**:
- Once upon a time, J wrote every day inside her self-doubt.
- Every day, she washed her hands until they reddened before writing.
- Until one day, a bestselling writer offered to mentor her.
- Because of that, J questioned the meaning of writing itself for the first time.
- Because of that, J learned that the mentor’s stance was the exact opposite of her Lie.
- Until finally, J declined the mentor’s offer.
- And ever since, J writes in the same place, in the same posture. What changed is the mentor’s understanding.

**Voice**:
- Speech style: calm first person. Philosophical reflection mixed with practical work. No anger.
- First line: "I have known for thirty years that writing is not fun."

**Key Relationships**:
- Bestselling mentor (Antagonist): the person who most reinforces J’s Lie; the stage J must refuse.
- Writing colleague (Confidant): a peer who writes alongside J in their thirties; they drive each other toward deadlines.
- Publishing editor (Foil): more results-oriented than J; destabilizes J’s stance every day.

**Five Diagnostic Tests**: Bechdel △ / Mako Mori ○ / Sexy Lamp ○ / Walks-into-a-room ○ / One-Line ○

Within 1,800 characters, every texture of J has been compressed. A screenwriter can keep this one page open and write J’s dialogue for an entire season.

This format conversion, too, can be handled quickly with an AI work partner.

Fourth Medium: Visual Package for Animation and Comics

For animation and comics, visuals come first. The core of the format is five visual elements.

The silhouette test is a foundation of character design. A character should be recognizable even as a pitch-black shadow. Think of Mickey Mouse’s round ears, Son Goku’s spiky hair in Dragon Ball, or Pikachu’s lightning-bolt tail in Pokémon. This is why game and animation companies differentiate a character starting from the outline. Even when writing a person in prose, it helps to decide on “one thing recognizable even as a distant silhouette.”

# (character name): Animation Pack

## Visual Identity (Riot’s 5 Elements)

### Core Fantasy
[one line: the fantasy the audience gets to inhabit]

### Silhouette Test
- Hair shape:
- Shoulder line:
- What is held / what is beside them:
- Posture:

### Color Story
- Primary color (60%): __ (meaning: __)
- Secondary color (30%): __ (meaning: __)
- Accent color (10%): __ (meaning: __)

### Power Identity
[one line: how they win]

### Voice (First Line)
"___"

## Five-Emotion Ratio (*Inside Out*)
Record the ratio and signature expression for each of the five emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Fear.

## Five Signature Poses and Expressions

## Voice Memo (Voice Direction)
- Tone: high / medium / low
- Pace: fast / slow
- Emotional exposure: direct / indirect
- Reference voice actor or character:

## One-Paragraph Background
[about 500 characters]

## Three Key Quotes

## Five Diagnostic Test Results

Here is M’s animation pack in brief.

# M: Animation Pack

## Core Fantasy
"I become a medical examiner and accurately record a dead person’s final moments."

## Silhouette
- Hair: black bob, tucked behind the ears.
- Shoulders: narrow. The shoulder seam of the autopsy coat falls in one straight line.
- What she holds: a scalpel, or a plastic bag.
- Posture: slightly bent over the autopsy table.

## Color Story
- Primary color (60%): dark gray. The restraint of the autopsy department.
- Secondary color (30%): deep teal. The depth of thirty years.
- Accent color (10%): crimson. One point of her mother’s wedding ring.

## Power Identity
"From the callused part of a corpse’s finger alone, she infers what tool they held every day while alive."

## Voice (First Line)
"Twice preserves it."

## Five-Emotion Ratio
M’s five-emotion ratio: Joy 5% (almost none), Sadness 35% (the depth of silence), Anger 5% (almost none), Disgust 25% (avoiding private territory), Fear 30% (freezing at a supermarket self-checkout).

The five-emotion ratio breaks balance and concentrates on sadness, disgust, and fear. The ratio captures the fact that the work’s tone is a recovery narrative with deep sadness flowing beneath it. An animation art team can keep these proportions open while designing expressions and poses.

Fifth Medium: Compressed Sheet for Web Fiction

Web fiction is a medium with strong genre-specific clichés. The format varies by genre.

Web fiction must imprint a person quickly in the first episode to survive. Sung Jinwoo of Solo Leveling begins as “the world’s weakest hunter” and immediately draws readers in; Kim Dokja of Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint establishes himself as “an ordinary office worker who finished only one novel over ten years.” The less room a medium has for long explanation, the more the power to establish a person in one sentence becomes survival. Cheongmyeong of Return of the Mount Hua Sect also captures readers from the first episode with one line: “the legendary master of Mount Hua returns a hundred years later as a young disciple in his fallen sect.”

Romance Web-Fiction Format

# (character name)

**One line**: [genre cliché + one element that twists it]

**Catchphrase**: "___"

## Appearance (emphasize one factor)
- One appearance factor: (visual hook)
- Compressed five physical elements:

## Identity
- Occupation · status:
- One ability:
- MBTI:
- Hogwarts:
- Dere type (anime, if relevant):

## Flaw and reversal
- Flaw: (two-sided nature)
- One-line reversal appeal:

## Relationships
- Main counterpart: (one line each for beginning · turning point · ending of relationship)
- Rival:
- Helper:

## Five-act change (compressed)
Act 1 → Act 2 → Act 3 → Act 4 → Act 5 (one line each)

## First-appearance scene (*Save the Cat*)
[five sentences or fewer; include one likability device]

## Three Signature Quotes

Save the Cat: a concept proposed by screenwriter Blake Snyder in his book of the same title. If a protagonist’s first appearance includes a small good deed—“saving a cat,” such as helping a weaker person or an animal—the audience immediately roots for them. It is a practical principle: plant one likability device in the first appearance.

Regression, Reincarnation, and Other-World Web-Fiction Format

# (character name)

**Regression count**: __ (which regression)
**Past-life occupation**:
**Current-life occupation**:

**Cause of past-life death**: (bleeding-wound format)
**Reason for regression**:

**Strongest ability**: (benefit · side effect)
**Hidden ability**:

**One antagonist**: (past-life perpetrator / current-life enemy)
**One helper**:

**Five-act change**: [one line each from Act 1 through Act 5 after regression]

**One-line catchphrase**: "___"

Let us output E in a regression web-fiction format.

# E

**Regression count**: Second.
**Past-life occupation**: contract killer.
**Current-life occupation**: the same contract killer, but regressed to save a seven-year-old hostage.

**Cause of past-life death**: self-punishment born of guilt over failing to save the seven-year-old hostage. Whenever the burn on the shoulder flares on a rainy day, E presses that spot with a hand.
**Reason for regression**: to save the seven-year-old child.

**Strongest ability**: ignores an employer’s motive and delivers only the result. Benefit: efficiency. Side effect: avoidance of physical contact.
**Hidden ability**: self-mercy. A texture hidden for thirty years.

**Antagonist**: the organization’s boss (who ordered the child killed in the past life).
**Helper**: "the man with a star on his shoulder" (a mentor from the past life).

**Five-act change**:
Act 1: after regressing, E lives again as the same contract killer. This time, with the stance to save the child.
Act 2: the seven-year-old child appears again. The first crack in the Lie.
Act 3: a second attempt to save the child. Trauma repeats.
Act 4: failure again. The Lie grows stronger.
Act 5: death again through self-punishment. Regression again.

**One-line catchphrase**: "Even in the second regression, he cannot save the child."

The ending implied by E’s regression format is tragic. Even when the same character changes genre into a regression story, the Negative Arc is preserved. The character’s texture remains intact despite changes in medium and genre.

Transition Between Media

The same character lives and moves through five media. Let us organize what is preserved and what changes.

Story Spine: a short story skeleton that fills in the blanks of “Once upon a time …, Every day …, Until one day …, Because of that …, Until finally …, And ever since ….” It is a review frame Pixar writers often use; putting a completed character into these few lines lets you see their whole life at a glance. It is a good final checking tool before outputting to a medium.

What is preserved and what changes are separated in media conversion. The one-word identity is preserved, but the ratio of what is emphasized changes; the Want–Need–Lie trio is preserved, but the degree of compression changes. The two-sided nature of flaws is preserved, but the richness of detail changes; the body anchor is preserved, but the explicitness of visual and auditory cues changes; the framework of five-act change is preserved, but the length of each act changes; the trauma chain is preserved, but the exposure of emotional description changes.

There is a separation between the part that preserves the character’s essence and the part dressed in a medium’s clothes. The work at this stage is to dress the character for the medium without changing that essence.

Who Does What

This stage shows its greatest strength when done with an AI work partner. Converting formats for all five media is automation-friendly: give the Obsidian sheet as input and the formats for the other four media can be produced quickly. The producer reviews only the passing line for each medium.

Passing lines by medium:

- Obsidian: searchability in the integrated library; accuracy of links to other characters
- TRPG NPC: whether a game master can run the character from one page
- One-page screenplay: whether a screenwriter can write a season’s dialogue from one page
- Animation pack: whether an art team can draw the character using only five visual elements
- Compressed web-fiction sheet: whether genre readers can grasp the character’s appeal from one page

The five passing lines are all different. Deciding in advance what counts as a passing line for each medium is the core of this stage.

Next Chapter

To summarize today’s chapter: full-build only once. Output is converted into five formats by medium. Media conversion is the part that gains the most speed with an AI work partner, while the producer reviews each medium’s passing line.

With today, all twelve stages are complete. One person has put on the clothes of all five media, and output standardization is finished.

The next chapter addresses nontraditional characters and diversity in a work: how to shape characters who are neither heroes nor villains—AI chatbots, VTubers, education, therapy, children, and brand mascots—and how to design with awareness of diversity across a work’s cast.