Hey ive been working on a beat em up game for some time now and i want to introduce unique story lines for my 15 characters kind of like tekken. But i seem to be stuck finding a reason why these 15 characters would all be in one place trying to defeat one boss. I'll give you guys a bit of background info on the game. So its going to be based in mostly urban areas like streets, malls, subway, rooftops, movie theater, construction site, etc. but it will have some non urban areas as well. Anyway there are going to be 15 characters and one main boss they all want to fight. They're not nessecarily working together but i am making a co-op mode so they do need to have some reason why they might interact with each other.

I'm really stuck on this, if you guys could offer any ideas. The MAIN thing i need is why all of them are trying to defeat this boss, like what did he do to make them go after him, or something.

and if anyone has any ideas for a unique story line for one of the 15 characters id love to hear it. the story line doesn't have to be so text heavy. like one of my story lines is that one of the characters wants to achieve fame and wealth (pretty basic). So yeah, please help! im really stuck

Well, explaining why everybody would want to fight that boss really shouldn't be all that hard, just make him the big bad villain and that may be enough justification to give a reason for everybody to kick him out (he's evil and powerful, etc.). A better question would be how do you justify the characters fighting against each other if in the end they just want to go against that villain.

Coming to think on it, Virtua Fighter Mini/Animation came up with a good way to give excuses for characters to fight with each other (misunderstandings, working for the enemy, brainwashing, etc.). May want to look into that. Beware though, in that game the order in which you fight characters is fixed, and you only start with Akira (you unlock other characters as you fight them), so you'll need to rethink the approach to make it work with a random order.

Of course you could always just go "screw it" and only give them a reason to fight the boss, and all other characters are fought for the sake of it. This is what Street Fighter II did, after all.

80s type storyline:
The main villain is a terrorist mastermind (presumably soviet and/or german), and the only way to make him reveal the hidden location of the thermonuclear device is trough an elaborate tournament across several urban areas.

90s type storyline:
The main villain is just the local bully. He's a punk with piercings and a bad attitude. The 15 characthers are all radical teenagers with skates and a tagline like "Bazzoya!"
Remember to include sponsor brands in the scenario.

00s type storyline:
Ignore creativity and just make a gritty reboot of some popular 80s/90s show or videogame. Watch as the money flows into your pocket.

On a more serious note, the main villain really depends on who your characther are. Are they humans with some believble knowledge of martial arts? Or are they space alien robots with ridiculous superpowers? If it is like tekken is a little bit of both. Mostly incredibly gifted humans, but also a samurai ninja robot, a robot robot, a kagaroo, a panda, an angel/demon, an old man in underpants, and an Ogre. You can go wild with it. Your options go from the local douchebag to the other dimension über villain who wants to take over the world. You can also give your characther individual motives, they can always cooperate to beat the main villain even if they have different motives.

Urban setting, right? The big bad could be an escaped criminal famed for his/her advanced, deadly martial arts. Since his/her escape, this criminal now has a major bounty on his/her head and the cops (and local politicians -- mayor, etc.) want him/her back in the slammer pronto. Luckily, the boss is too cocky to skip town, and wants to rebuild his/her criminal empire within the city. The main characters need to find him/her and take him/her down and end up brawling with each other for the privilege.

The main characters all have a good reason to go after the big bad, whether for money or fame or honor. Here's a list of possibilities:

- A cop/marshall, whose duty it is to haul the big bad in (maybe the cop has a personal reason for it, like s/he made a big mistake in the past and needs the credibility, or the baddie killed his/her partner, or s/he feels responsible for the boss's escape somehow, etc.).
- A convict who used to work with/for the boss until s/he was sold out and left to rot in prison. In exchange for finding the boss and bringing him/her in, the convict will have his/her sentence drastically reduced -- plus, taking down the boss will be a personal pleasure. This character could have a good reason to get in a fight with the above cop.
- A certified bounty hunter looking for a challenge wants to take down the boss for little more than money and glory and doesn't care who gets in his/her way.
- Alternatively, there could also be a TV personality bounty hunter (like Dog) that wants to take on the big bad for the sake of ratings for his/her reality TV show.
- A specialist (mercenary or assassin type character) is hired by the boss's rival to take out the competition.
- An underling of the big bad who begins by fighting all of those trying to take the boss down (perhaps forming uneasy alliances with some of them to thin the competition) but in the end discovers a reason to fight the big bad him/herself (maybe the convict character earlier convinces the underling that the boss can't be trusted).
- A local vigilante with a Batman complex wants to rid the city of the boss for the sake of justice rather than the reward money.
- A martial arts master from a shadowy organization wants to know if the boss is worth recruiting for his/her group and seeks to face him/her to find out if s/he is worthy.
- The boss's old mentor is ashamed of his/her pupil's criminal activities and feels it's his/her responsibility to bring him/her down.
- The boss's brother/sister wants to confront the boss and get him to turn himself in for the sake of their family's honor. The family has had to live with the stigma of having a known criminal for a long time and the boss's brother/sister wants to turn that around. S/he partially wants to protect the boss (and will fight those trying to harm him), but ends up fighting him/her just the same.

Some of these are better than others, but I hope it gives you some ideas, anyway. Best of luck with your game!

A big bounty on the boss seems like the simplest thing. Any two people could work together if they agree to split the reward. There are a bunch of movies that have a diverse cast of characters racing or investigating clues to be the first to get to a prize.

1) Big Boss has stolen something near and dear from each character. This would allow you to explore who the characters really are (what do they treasure most in this world), but would also add the need of more depth, which I'm not sure if you want.

2) They are genetically altered fighters created by Big Boss. You could halve or section some of the fighters to be bad guys (minions). The good guys are trying to get revenge for what he has done to them, while the other half/section are trying to reconcile with their master.

3) They were 15 students in class when a rip in space-time opened up and out came Big Boss. Due to the unstable nature of the rip some of his/her power transferred into each of the students. (This could explain why they team up to fight.)

Possible storyline

The enemy are terrorists. As each fight takes place in each area - explosives have been placed i.e. the battles were distractions for the "real" purpose. The final boss battle is when this information is revealed. As any player falls in combat so one of the areas is blown up. Effectively a city held to ransom. The players having come from different walks of life are hero's of the moment i.e. stepping out of their ordinary lives to make a difference on this most terrible of days. Background information could cover issues such as isolated town, communications cut off, police station blown up etc.

Alternative storyline

The town is being taken over person by person through the wicked machinations of a scientist using brainwashing machine (variation could be conspiracy theory involving a "lost artifact" i.e. illuminati etc). The brainwashed seek to take others for brainwashing and the various type of characters are people who stepped up initially to defend someone then carried on as the conspiracy unfolds. One variation might be using an ability during the boss fight for temporary mind control (i.e. boss with less powerful hand unit for brainwashing), thus creating secondary havoc in the boss fight.

Another alternative Storyline
You are a new gang moving in on another gang's territory. The fights are to take out the defending gang members until you reach the boss.

Well, explaining why everybody would want to fight that boss really shouldn't be all that hard, just make him the big bad villain and that may be enough justification to give a reason for everybody to kick him out (he's evil and powerful, etc.). A better question would be how do you justify the characters fighting against each other if in the end they just want to go against that villain.

Coming to think on it, Virtua Fighter Mini/Animation came up with a good way to give excuses for characters to fight with each other (misunderstandings, working for the enemy, brainwashing, etc.).

Good advice.
I was just about to mention Tekken/Virtua Fighter/Street Fighter, until I saw Hedge's post.

Here are a couple ideas for a storyline (the Bad Boss will be referred to as Butch):

-The 15 characters all played a part in Butch's creation, a process that is illegal and highly detrimental to the world. Since all 15 are involved, they must kill Butch before knowledge of how he was created leaks to the public, putting them AND Butch in danger.

- Butch is the ring-leader of a large corporation, who destroys a school taught by a well-known and revered fighter, who is killed. The 15 characters are all linked to this fighter (be through training, act of kindness), and they all set out to defeat Butch.

- Butch is a child prodigy, and a huge reward (of insurmountable wealth and fame) has been placed for anyone strong enough to defeat him (or her) in an international tournament. The 15 set out on a tournament to defeat him (or her), for their own reasons.

- Butch is a professional fighter and a reknown genious, who abducts 15 high-quality fighters, putting them into machine that simulates reality. These 15 people must fight their way through this program to ultimately defeat Butch, if they wish to be freed from the contraption.

I hope I helped in some aspect.

Someone already said "they're all bounty hunters," so I'll gratuitously make something else up. Martial arts has been outlawed by the government, and the Big Boss is the one enforcer who's authorized by the government to kill anyone found practicing. All 15 combatants do not want their arts outlawed, but some of their egos are so big, that they want to prove they're the biggest baddest fighter in the world as well while they're at it. So some of them will fight each other rather than working towards a common goal.

I think the concept is pretty interesting, and my idea sort of jumps back to every one who said "make the bad guy bad enough and there's your reason". Expanding on that, it's pretty easy for one person with a modicum of power to somehow influence the lives of just 15 people, giving them a reason to all hate the final boss. The interplay between your characters can be as elaborate or as simple as you desire it. Soul Calibur comes to mind for me, as there is an immense amount of interplay between all of the characters--they all want to kill the same big bad boss, but all for slightly different reasons. Now, to show my age, Streets of Rage or Final Fight also come to mind as the opposite extreme. The bad boss is bad, the main characters are good (until the third SoR, when things get complicated just a little bit). The main characters are just friends for some reason.

Breaking it into the more complex, enthralling story would be a lot more fun in my opinion, and would probably get your audience hooked. Great storylines can turn simplistic games into masterpieces.

What I'd like to know is just who are these characters? I know you're not sure about the details, but what about fighting styles, setting, and gameplay? Will there be firearms? Basic street weapons? Do each of the characters practice some form of Martial Arts (including those that aren't recognized as such)? Is it fantastic or does it maintain a level or realism (is everybody hurling balls of fire at each other, deflecting bullets with swords, ripping apart robotic henchmen)?

Since you already have a game in design I'm guessing you have some of these elements cemented in.

Still, here's my suggestion.

1-Gilgamesh: The Big Bad Boss. Leader of the Tower of Babel, the nastiest gang in the city. Until the arrival of Babel the various criminal organizations in the city warred for control. Gilgamesh is a small but ruthless man, a student of Legend, War, and the Martial Arts. No matter the odds he always emerges unscathed from his battles, leaving a trail of broken bodies. Gilgamesh seized power by ruthlessly hunting down and killing anyone with any ties to the opposing gangs, forcing many people to flee the city or to go deep into hiding. People have begun to wonder whether or not he is actually the king of legend.

2-Enkidu: The Big Bad Boss' Buddy (henchmen, but I'm having fun with alliteration here). Gilgamesh's burly right hand. Enkidu fights with the ferocity and power of a rabid bear. His bestial nature goes deeper than his fighting style, however, and the atrocities he has committed stand as testaments to is total lack of human compassion.

3-Ai: The Lioness' Pride. Although Ai is only nineteen she has already mastered the defensive art of Jeet Kune Do. Her talents lead to her well-known pride among martial arts circuits that 'No man can even touch me'. She frequently taunts and ridicules her opponents, and despite her mastery of the form of Jeet Kune Do has utterly failed to retain any of its temperance. Hearing of Gilgamesh's atrocities and prowess in combat has piqued Ai's pride. She sees herself as a noble warrior, and: "Like always, when a man fails to clean up a mess it's time for a woman to show him how it's done."

4-Aito: The Crane's Composure. Very few would guess that Aito is Ai's twin brother. Like his sister he has spent his life in the study of Kung Fu, but he focused instead on the Wing Chun style. Aito has taken to heart the concept that a martial art is meant for more than just conditioning the body. His extreme patience and composure often lead him to be thoroughly overshadowed by his sister's overbearing nature: few would say they have ever even heard him speak. "Pride may often come before the fall, but the fall's not so bad if someone is there to catch." Aito's only reason to seek out Gilgamesh is to protect his sister, an idea he would never mention to her. Note: Aito and Ai's interaction/characters will change depending on whether or not they are played together.

5-David: Hand of Death. Lots of people want to see Gilgamesh dead, and some of them have the resources and knowledge to try and do something about it. On the surface David is extremely polite and humble, but beneath he is usually something much more sinister. Anyone who has any dealings with the underground has heard his true name, the Hand of Death. David has been hired by the few remaining crime-lords to put an end to Gilgamesh, and he has been promised a bonus for any of Gilgamesh's underlings he hurts/kills along the way. Practiced in various martial arts forms, David prefers Krav Maga to disable or kill his opponent, but isn't beyond using whatever weapons he can find at hand. He uses his charming nature in preference to stealth to set his opponents at ease. David is not the original Hand of Death, but actually the third, and he carries that legacy proudly.

6-Mali Mali: The Exile. Mali Mali was originally taught Muay Thai by her father as a means of self-defense. Although he was an expert of Muay Thai her father barely lasted a minute when Enkidu came to their home. She was forced to watch as her father fought for his life against the savage beast. When he was finished dismembering her father Enkidu did something surprising, he relented in his slaughter. He muttered one word to Mali, "Exile", before leaving her home. His shocking display of mercy did not go unnoticed by Mali, and she began to believe that Enkidu was somehow mislead or enslaved by Gilgamesh--that he was not the wild beast that rumors said. She began to grow concerned for him, and worried that should she remain that he would somehow be punished. She did not forgive the act, however, merely shifted all of her rage onto Gilgamesh. So she took up a mask (full head wrapping with trailing scarfs in my imagination) and took to the streets to find Gilgamesh and exact her revenge. Note: Mali will barely speak at all, especially when paired with other PCs. Any text for her will be curt and sound somewhat irritated with the exception of fighting with Enkidu. For that battle she will suddenly come alive in pleading for mercy on his behalf. Her plea will only affect one character's decision, David's (who has taken an odd turn at Mali's frequent snubs and fallen in love with her), who will choose instead to spare Enkidu on Mali's behalf (endearing him to her at last).

I think I'll stop the detailed descriptions here... This might be too huge a wall of text already. I have ideas to fill in the rest of the characters if you like where this is going, but I think I'll relent for now.