Isekai: Summoned Groups

[MakBow]

This is something I have always been thinking about: do you think the idea of random people being summoned has a lot more potential? It's always either a class or some random people with no relevance.
In my story I'm writing (not posted yet), I'm currently using his idea to do more with that concept. I know shield hero tried doing something with this, but it didn't really seem all the relevant as they didn't really serve that much a purpose.

The Summoned:
- The Blessed Guy that was spoon-fed everything in life, basically looks like the typical handsome hero often implemented, but is actually very selfish, someone who wants to overthrow the goddess that summoned him and become God himself for power as he feels it's what he deserves after how much good deeds he's done in the past

- The Cannibal Serial kill who was put on death row, summoned to the world, a man who is very charismatic and can be handsome to some degree, but really knows how to use his words, reel people in, and psychologically control them

- A gold-digger pole dancer who was a terrible person in life, seducing men for money and then leaving them to live out her lesbian fetishes, bring a weirdo who sexually harassed woman, not caring for defeating the demon monarch, but living a life that benefits her

- The MC who was summoned, being very average in all departments, being a recent graduate from high school, having experienced great bad luck all his life due to a supernatural power that he unknowingly had the moment he was born, with a terrible father and a dead mother, given the worst end of the stick when summoned

Did I cook?

(Yes, I know, it's that cliche MC is the only good person, everyone else is awful. I know what I'm doing. I'm giving something familiar, so I can snatch them in to give them more than they expect. Walk into a McDonalds, you get a Five Star Course Meal (Maybe)

 

[BearlyAlive]

Isn't "everyone but MC is (secretly) an asshole" a trope that's done way too much? If it were my story, I'd put at least one other sympathetic character in that group as a contrast to the MC, to have a "Side: Others" PoV so you can show the wrongness of the others instead of outright telling readers "I'm megalomaniac/cannibal/schemer" through character voice.

Seeing people being assholes always hits better when it's not done from their perspective.

 

[MakBow]

Isn't "everyone but MC is (secretly) an asshole" a trope that's done way too much? If it were my story, I'd put at least one other sympathetic character in that group as a contrast to the MC, to have a "Side: Others" PoV so you can show the wrongness of the others instead of outright telling readers "I'm megalomaniac/cannibal/schemer" through character voice.

Seeing people being assholes always hits better when it's not done from their perspective.

The main idea I'm going for is that:
One: They have actual grounds so one could understand why they act the way they do, not just doing shit to do it

Two: It isn't being told to everyone. The MC only knows the Cannibal killer since he's famous in his world, everyone else are just randoms.

Three: The 'Hero' is meant to be a contrast to be main character, a foil. the MC brought great misfortune since birth and the 'Hero' brought great
fortune since birth, one with loving parents and a rich lifestyle and the MC living poor with terrible parents. the MC who is grateful for just being alive while the 'Hero' is ungrateful for what he was given. These two are meant to be a foil to each other.

Four: The woman will be the sympathetic character, a character who went through great struggle in her life, taught things that she was told were right and as a result, hurt the people around. (Basically, the you can sympathize with her, but hate her actions kind of person)

 

[Jerynboe]

I mean “the stereotypical hero is actually EVIL!!1” is also pretty done. Definitely put some work in on him so that he’s not just a nested stereotype. Something like making him ACTUALLY quite competent and laying out legitimate concerns about the goddess’s methods/actions.

Sure, it’s unfathomable arrogance to volunteer for the job of God even if the incumbent is unimpressive, but there’s a certain number of bonus charisma points you get from anyone who shrugs and says “alright, I guess I’ll do it myself.”

Find something to make the cannibal serial killer even slightly sympathetic (or at least sad/pathetic) and make sure the MC has an appropriate number of flaws and you’ll have a quartet of misfits the megalomaniac hero man can point at and say “This. This is why I need to be god.”

 

[MakBow]

I mean “the stereotypical hero is actually EVIL!!1” is also pretty done. Definitely put some work in on him so that he’s not just a nested stereotype. Something like making him ACTUALLY quite competent and laying out legitimate concerns about the goddess’s methods/actions.

Sure, it’s unfathomable arrogance to volunteer for the job of God even if the incumbent is unimpressive, but there’s a certain number of bonus charisma points you get from anyone who shrugs and says “alright, I guess I’ll do it myself.”

Find something to make the cannibal serial killer even slightly sympathetic (or at least sad/pathetic) and make sure the MC has an appropriate number of flaws and you’ll have a quartet of misfits the megalomaniac hero man can point at and say “This. This is why I need to be god.”

Yes, you are right that it's done a lot and that's the point. I'm just taking what already exist and doing more with it.

Well, it's not that the 'Hero' is necessarily evil per say, more so he's selfish. he doesn't want to rule over the world or kill everyone because he wants to. He simple wants godhood because he feels that is what he deserves. He is competent, he is smart, he is capable, but he feels as if he isn't getting what he deserves in life. he does strive to surpass the god so he can kill her and that's what his whole arc is about. How blinded he was by his arrogance and how his plan was not only stupid, but pointless.

The goddess is also quite evil on her own, but not out of malice, but survival since in this world goddesses are pure souls (meaning they didn't have a material form) and she wants to use the heroes to spread her influence and faith so she can live because if not enough people have faith in her, unlike normal death, she is erased from existence. And her methods are cornering, especially with the benefits and how she controls things form the shadows.

Now, none of them just do it, just to do it. They do request benefits and gain benefits that make their lives easier (Royalty Treatment, Free Food, Unrestricted by the laws)

And the serial killer I have no intention of adding sympathy, instead, I want his charisma and way of handling himself to be the focus, how he manipulates others psychologically, how he makes people trust him blindly and believe he is more than just a serial killer, when in reality, he's just a serial killer who kills because it's like second nature to him, as natural as breathing as well as eating people, seeing nothing wrong with it. I want him to be smart, calculating, and joyful, an approachable man when you don't know who he is, you know, how actual serial killers are.

And the MC has no desire to become God, only get revenge on the goddess who throws him into a dungeon to dispose of him for a mistake. and yes, I added a LOT of flaws to his powers. he cannot do ANYTHING by himself, at least at the start.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I pulled something kind of like this in a horror roleplaying game - a bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Everyone on board has some kind of personal secret that ranging from minor (a girl who's afraid of her parents finding out she's gay because they have strong anti-homosexual views), to the odd (girl running away from her family because she's afraid her psychic abilities will hurt them) to the downright dark (bus driver is an illegal immigrant who took his brother's place when his brother died in an accident; one character is an EMT who believes anyone he saves belongs to him ... and has a history of collecting their souls after; one is a writer of horror fiction and secretly a member of the cult that accidentally set up the whole situation; one believes she killed her abusive husband and just wants to get out of the country; one embezzled millions from former employers; one is a fed trying to kick a drug habit; the last member of the core cast was a Muslim man who was tricked into getting drunk by coworkers and who believes he hit and killed a girl, so is fleeing from his shame and failure). A
nyone not chosen as a PC is monster fodder, of course...