Dudes and dudettes, what will we be seeing a lot of in your story?

The 16 or so unfortunate cast members of course.

This chapter covers protagonists, antagonists, and masterminds.

Protagonist

First, a few questions you should ask yourself.

One: Do they have a strong desire to escape?

Two: Would they be the cause of everyone's death if they didn't have help?

Three: Are they emotional emo babies?

If you said yes to one or more of these questions...nothing happens.

The protagonist doesn't have to be hopeful. They can be one of the students who sob themselves to sleep at night for all I care. What I do care about is how they act when it matters most. For example, in Danganronpa Two: Goodbye Despair, Teruteru was still denying the fact that he was stuck in a killing game before the first trial. Yeah, it's understandable, but it's also one of the reasons I personally don't think he'd be a good protagonist.
However, if he had broken down when it was revealed that their memories were wiped out, but wasn't in denial, he might have been a decent protagonist.

A good protagonist can have their share of breakdowns. After all, they are human.

Here's an example:

In one of my fangames, Atticus, the protagonist, becomes unable to finish the trial, so someone else has to. It is the only time in this game that this happens, and that helps make the game memorable.

Antagonist

First, ask yourself the following questions, and respond with yes or no:

1. Does the antagonist get his conniptions?

2. Does the antagonist work against the protagonist for any reason?

3. Is there any motive to the antagonist's behavior?

4. If the antagonist was replaced would the plot suffer?

If you answered yes to question 4, you need to rewrite the antagonist. The other questions should have a yes answer.

The antagonist doesn't always have to be the mastermind. Kokichi Ouma, Nagito Komeada and Byakuya Togami can be used as a reference to such antagonists.

Something to remember:
The antagonist opposes the protagonist
(Byakuya works alone and Makoto works together, Hajime is chill and Nagito is not, etc)
The villain is a character whose evil actions are important to the plot.

So... the two things are not interchangeable. The villain of a killing game should be the mastermind. The antagonist should oppose the protagonist, but doesn't have to be the mastermind.

Masterminds

Why is it common for games to have willing masterminds? Okay, I get it, they're interesting to write. However, think of the opportunities you get with an unwilling mastermind!

Here's some advice that can be used for literally every villain character you're ever going to write:

Don't make it obvious. Otherwise you've made the entire killing game pointless and the climax of chapter six will fade into nothingness.

Also the audience will get bored.

Avoid getting the audience bored.

First, you need to know how they got into this mess in the first place. Then you can write out them slowly breaking down from all the guilt. Voila, chapter six is now a crying festival. You're welcome.

I am not an expert at this, but I do have some tips for creating a willing or unwilling mastermind.

For a willing and unwilling mastermind, you need a believable motive. Try to avoid being obsessed with despair since that was Junko's motive.

If you need inspiration, here is a list of motives I have used for my own characters. If you use them, please make them unique or credit me. See if you can't guess which motives were for willing or unwilling masterminds:

-Gain brother's approval

-Wanted power

-Hated talents

-To save classmates (fat RIP)

-To conduct a twisted experiment

Your mastermind needs to be believable in order for it to be affective.

That's all I have for now on protagonists, antagonists, and masterminds.