2025 Reading Challenge 20 Normal People
This is as far away from tabletop roleplaying games as I can think. I’ve been wanting to read this novel for a while. It seems Sally Rooney is everywhere (Waterstones book of the year 2018!), and everyone has an opinion about her and her novels, so I dived in.
This is not a book with a plot; it is about characters and specifically relationships between characters, and initially, I struggled with this. I focus a lot on the story in the things I read, and along the way, the story defines the characters in many of the novels I enjoy.
After a while, though, I picked up the beat of the novel and started to enjoy the snapshots through time of the characters Marianne and Connell. It’s extremely well written and reminds me of school, or probably more of university. It’s that uncertain time, when you don’t really know yourself but are charging ahead, beginning relationships with strangers, incredibly exciting but fraught with fear and uncertainty.
I’m afraid, though, after a while, these characters on the page clearly ended up being way cleverer and more psychologically complex than myself. Which is fine, it broke some of the immersion for me, but you know, I’ve read about Hitler and Michael Palin and don’t stop feeling engaged just because I’m not at the heights or depths of those folk!
So, the novel is written with a few themes at its heart, firstly, how two people develop and through their relationship change each other. It also focuses on the class divide, politics, to an extent certainly sexual, and how growing up distances you from the past that, at times, can leave you adrift. In fact, the more I think about it, the more depth I’ve found as I think back over what I’ve consumed in five days.
I loved the location of Sligo and Dublin, and there is a lot of authenticity in the writing that brings these places to life. I can imagine this is a book that can become incredibly personal to people, almost acting as self-help or counselling. Will definitely read more.
I rated this book 7.5 out of 10.
TTRPG Thoughts:
I could be lazy and say, well, no orcs, no blackholes, no chalk figures outlined on the floor - there are no RPG elements here, but I’d be wrong.
Here is how I’d break down the character of Connell if I were setting up a character for Robin D. Laws’ DramaSystem, mainly found in the Hillfolk setting.
Could I maybe use this as the basis for my next PC?
I used the Character Creation Cap System approach that The Alexandrian proposes.
Here we go.
Connell Waldron
Role in the Group - Well-liked, emotionally guarded, intellectual, but at times inarticulate and frozen in his actions
Define Relationships - With Marianne, he shares a complicated but deeply intimate bond that shifts between friendship, love, and emotional dependence
State Desire - To feel understood and emotionally secure, whilst finding a sense of belonging in both his relationships and the world around him
Define Dramatic Poles - Authenticity vs Conformity
What You Want From Others - Connell wants emotional intimacy, understanding, and unconditional acceptance from Marianne
But Why Can’t He Get It - Class differences, social pressures, and Connell’s self-doubt make him question his worthiness of love and connection, causing him to pull away just when closeness is possible.
Now let’s take that and put it into a fantasy RPG, how about Connell as a Mercenary in medieval times?
Connell of Cricklea
Class/Role: Fighter (Mercenary)
Race: Human
Background: Commoner, Scholar Turned Soldier
Born to a commoner mother who worked in the service of a noble house, Connell of Cricklea grew up caught between worlds - educated alongside the nobility’s children yet never one of them. Known for his quiet intelligence and skill with both words and weapons, Connell left his village to study at a famed monastery, only to find that the world of the learned was colder and lonelier than he'd imagined.
After a personal falling-out and a crisis of identity, he abandoned academia and took up the sword. Now a mercenary, Connell walks between worlds - neither peasant nor noble, scholar nor brute - searching for a place where he can truly belong.
Who is Connell?
A thoughtful, introspective mercenary torn between his intellect and his violent profession, shaped by class divides and inner conflict.
What does he want?
Connell wants emotional connection and a sense of belonging, someone who sees and accepts his full self, both the thinker and the fighter.
What’s stopping him?
His emotional reticence, fear of vulnerability, and internalised shame about his origins and choices isolate him from others.
What happens if he doesn’t get it?
If he never finds a real connection or a place he can call home, Connell will drift through life unmoored, consumed by self-doubt, growing numb in both battle and spirit.
This is a fun exercise to try when you put together a PC for a session zero. It’s easy to pick a character from a novel or a movie and map the above out. It starts to come into its own as you include the rest of the party and flesh out a fuller view of how each character behaves in the company of the group or with individuals.
Even if you don’t refer to it slavishly, you’ll probably have a picture or a phrase in mind when you have to make a decision for your character or in a relationship with another PC, against or with them.