>>36766582Power fantasies, the insanely overused "dead or otherwise not present parents" trope, trying to make them in anyway better/more powerful/with more resources than other trainers, another adventure hobo, and most of all, if you have multiple characters, the fact that they're all made by you should mean absolute nothing in-universe. They shouldn't instantly become friends, they shouldn't randomly pool their resources because you're too lazy to have one of your characters fix something on your own... For pete's sake I've seen way too many characters that are glorified bank accounts for the person's main character, it's fucking insane
As for things that are good...
Don't be afraid to have your characters be wrong. They shouldn't always agree with all of your views, they shouldn't know everything you know, they should have flaws (but not exaggerated ones)
Be as creative as you can. We have tons of hobos, a lot of gym leaders, a lot of trainers on par with your in game character when you've beaten the game (that is to say, high level team, all the badges, etc.). Make characters with a unique backstory (and no, having tons of bad stuff happen to them for no reason does not make it a good backstory). Maybe they're blind with a seeing-eye Pokemon, or they run their family's business because their parents aren't able to work.
Give them actual goals. Don't have them just doing whatever, make sure there's something that drives them that they actually care about.
Don't be afraid to take a few pages from someone you've seen with good writing. But remember that there's a difference between being inspired by them and straight up copying them.
Make them different enough from you that you won't be able to confuse "decisions I'd make" with "decisions they'd make"
