Ok, all this talk of role-play and stuff has got me all fired up and I''m ready to start on my little (becoming huge) rpg. How do *you* people go about writing your stories? Do you just write a general sort of overview and then go at it hammer and tongs? Do you write it in the style of a screen-play? Or like a novel? Also, should I take the well trodden line for the conclusion to my story? ie: the hero completes the quest with the aid of the majick talisman. Or perhaps something more original or something deceptive ie: you collect the majicky thingo of supreme mite and go on down to the baddie''s house and if you confront him for battle then you cant win, but if u paid attention througout the game then u should have picked up enough info to defeat him the proper way... ideas? examples? suggestions? psychiatric help? I see this story taking me at least 3-4 months to write. I hope it will take longer because then it will be a good one. ie: I want this story to be near publishable quality before I go to the effort of writing a game based on it... The ultimate RPG team (as far as I see it) ------------------------------------------ Fantasy author to write the story Screen-writer(s) to write the script Game designer for the various systems (ie: combat) Assorted artists & musicians gfx coder ai coder a couple of extra coders (assorted managers and directors and producers) and a hypnotist who can make coffee beans taste like chicken. ---------- Erick: i think that all this talking and such is paining my head to astounding annoyance Disco Love For Everyone

quote: Original post by SpazBoy_the_Mitey

Ok, all this talk of role-play and stuff has got me all fired
up and I''m ready to start on my little (becoming huge) rpg.

How do *you* people go about writing your stories? Do you just
write a general sort of overview and then go at it hammer and
tongs? Do you write it in the style of a screen-play? Or like
a novel?

Also, should I take the well trodden line for the conclusion to
my story? ie: the hero completes the quest with the aid of the
majick talisman. Or perhaps something more original or something
deceptive ie: you collect the majicky thingo of supreme mite and
go on down to the baddie''s house and if you confront him for
battle then you cant win, but if u paid attention througout the
game then u should have picked up enough info to defeat him the
proper way...

ideas? examples? suggestions? psychiatric help?

I see this story taking me at least 3-4 months to write. I
hope it will take longer because then it will be a good one.
ie: I want this story to be near publishable quality before I
go to the effort of writing a game based on it...

The ultimate RPG team (as far as I see it)
------------------------------------------
Fantasy author to write the story
Screen-writer(s) to write the script
Game designer for the various systems (ie: combat)
Assorted artists & musicians
gfx coder
ai coder
a couple of extra coders
(assorted managers and directors and producers)
and a hypnotist who can make coffee beans taste like chicken.

----------
Erick: i think that all this talking and such is paining my head to astounding annoyance
Disco Love For Everyone

Thank you for giving me some more ideas on what articles to write for Gamedev! Meanwhile, read the worldbbuilding 101 thread. A good way to start writing a game story is to chose the very general genre and setting and character dynamic you want to write, brainstorm, start worldbuilding, brain storm some more, do character development, outline plot, revise all this, then worry about dialogue and stuff.

I think that you should read some paper rpg scenarii, because it could give you some insights on how to do it. There are some differences still.

First, these scenarii are organized around key events like a graph. A have to be done before B, but C may be done at anytime... Some events must follow a precise timetable others do not depend on time. For paper RPG, this part is often loosely defined, but in a CRPG it should be complete. Dont forget, the story must let the player interact with it, guiding him, but not forcing him.

Second, the characters have to be defined in every details.

Third, the locations, time travel, distances are to be defined precisely, so the timetable is coherent.

Fourth, prepare some descriptions to build the ambiance of the different parts of your game. This town is marvellous with walls of nacre... and so on.

Ah yes, dont forget the IDEA, what is the logic of your story, what makes it unique (unless you rely on the ambiance only).

For the conclusion, I (yes me) rather like to be surprised, but this is My opinion, I dont know what the others think about it.

"Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Arius there was an age undreamed of..."

This is in the wrong foum. It shoud be in the Writing Forum... alright that''s enough of that.

My technique runs very contrary to the average RPG writer.

Theme
Character
Plot
Revision

First I try to decide on a basic theme that hasn''t been done to death. This is very easy in RPGs, because the only theme that has been done to death is the Hero saves world through magic doodad. Let''s say I want Racism to be my theme. Well actually, the Evils of Racism.

Now I have an inkling of the overall plot, so it''s time to start considering characters. This does not mean you should go writing out full character descriptions, only start thinking in generic terms. Hero, hero''s motivation. Villian, Villain''s motivation. Is he a reversal villain? Are there two heros who are friends?

So considering that I want my theme to be the Evils of racism, I could go two ways with the Villain. he could either be a real bastard and a shady character who delights in being evil (me no like), or he can simply be an ignorant person in a position of power (me like). Also, since this plot would be about the evils of racism, I''d tend to go with two characters, obviously from opposing cultures (probably fictional cultures in a standard fantasy RPG), so that this will generate some conflict.

That''s about all I would write for the characters to begin with, the rest will emerge as I plot things out.

Plotting things out, I think, is best done with a pack of 3 X 5 cards. Just write down ever scene you know you want to happen down on a card, and lay them down in order. Then read through it straight and write some more scenes down on cards to link them together. You''d be amazed how well this works.

The first card I usually write is the conclusion, because it''s the most important part of the story. If your conclusion is weak, you''ve made a bad game, regardless of how good the rest was.

Now, I''ve never really tried to write a divergent plotline, but if you were to do it, you should probably write out all your endings first. This will show you just how hard a divergent plot is! Some endings inevitalby feel less balanced than other ones, so this is a real challenge!

So, 3 X 5 cards, start with the end. I usually try to think in terms of Three Act Structure, which you can learn about in most any Screenwriting textbook (I reccommend Syd Field)

And here''s the Landfish Part. REVISE. No stpry is ever perfect from the get go. Cut out the crap, put in some more crap, cut that crap out and put in what works. If you think it''s perfect right off the bat, you''re diluding yourself. Revise Revise Revise! I cannot stress this enough!

Consider every little element of the story you''ve written and check whether it fits with the theme. EVERYTHING. Even the easter eggs. This gets a lot harder when working with a big team, because everyone has to be clear on the theme, and that usually means one person''s whole job is doing that.

Well there are my few (million) words of advice to you...

======
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
-Socrates

"Question everything. Especially Landfish."
-Matt

Oh, yeah! Cliché!

Don't worry about cliché too much when you're just working out the bare bones of the character and plot. Cliché is really something that happens in the DELIVERY (dialog, acting, lack of detail). Once you have a plot, feel free to go back and add IMMENSE levels of detail to flesh out your story. Character descriptions, Behind-the-scenes plot movements, etc.

Please don't write your histories for your world until AFTER you have the story. That way, you can select what is relevant and what is flavor text. (and if it's niether, ditch it!) It's a pet peeve of mine when somebody writes 300 years of history and tries to make a story out of it. (Tolkien wrote the story first!)

And BTW, a good story should only take you a week to write, and a month to revise!

Edited by - Landfish on September 7, 2000 11:39:23 AM

When I speak of a graph, I don''t speak of divergent storyline, I think of something more like the books where you are the hero. You are always put back on the main storyline.

As for the cards, several RPG GM I know (the best ones usually) use this very system

As for the revisions, for me it also goes with the ambiance, this is ok with the ambiance and it adds to the story depth I keep it, this dont fit with that, it''s out...

Three acts is the most logical organization for a story, but I would add chapters, as it allows many writing tricks, as ellipsis.

My little piece of advice...

"Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Arius there was an age undreamed of..."

*bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz glop!!!!!*

Okay, I gonna be an annoying fly in the ointment , but here's how I've gone about it so far:

The story won't mean anything unless it really means something to the player.

So, rather than writing months of story, you may have more luck with thinking about what the player can do in the game. How can the player affect the game world? How can the game world affect the player?
Why do this? (especially when writing story and dialog and character can be more fun)

1) It can help prevent the unsightly fungus caused by world-builder disease .

So you've got 10 billion years of history stretching back to the earliest First Ones? You've got family trees that last 40 generations. You've got unique languages that have undergone cultural diffusion, ellision, and other realistic transformations.

That's nice.

But it's all window dressing if it makes no impact on the player. Do the First Ones make an appearance to squash some baddy? Does knowing family history of a certain clan give you bribe material over them? Do you see your character using casual slang from these cool languages you've invented? If not, then these elements are peripheral and in many cases weaker than could be.

2) It can strengthen the game's fiction

So you have portals for travel in your universe? Why can't the enemies use them? Why aren't the NPC's using them? Why are you so special? Are you special? Here's an example of a consistency error, and correcting it will make your fiction stronger.

3) It can *inspire* the game's fiction

Portals, huh? What if portals were once a vital part of the game world? There could be lost portals, or ancient portals leading to strange places. Maybe the world was once so magnificent that everybody traveled via portal!!! This could make some cool puzzles!

Or, maybe because of gameplay reasons (which we've worked out before story), we need to limit portals in order to increase the sense of danger. Now we know we need supporting fiction for this, and we're not having to go back and revise tons of premade fiction.

4) It helps you prioritize

It absolutely *sucks* to have a cool a$$ story six months later and not a damn bit of design work to show for it. I've met quite a few would-be designers in this state. They tell me the saga of foozle, and I say, "Yeah, so, what can you do?"

"Uh, you can kill things..."

"So why the story...?"

They don't know.

There's no use detailing the Ancient Emperor's tortured childhood history if he never gets a chance to express it in the game. The torrid, illicit romance and convoluted murder plot you've so cleverly come up with as backstory will only make interesting reading if the player isn't involved in it, and able to substantially impact it. So figuring gameplay first may help you focus on what matters.


=======================================================
I think it can be more fun to start with a full blown novella, btw, but to me, this is a mistake. The hard work is the pain in the ass balancing of enemies and systems and puzzles and such.

So if the gameplay comes first and the story is interwoven with it, then you can have story that really, really matters rather than yet another *kill foozle, level up* kind of gameplay.



* dons fire-proof suit and waits for the flames... *

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

Edited by - Wavinator on September 7, 2000 5:06:58 PM

Wav, you''re so right about World-Builder''s syndrome. So so right. If you''re curious, the syndrome was first discovered in D&D Dungeon Masters who found that it worked well in thier games. When they tried to make the transition over to computers, well... it got messy.

I''ll say it now, people: History is not that important. It''s just not. Always let your player play THROUGH something rather than read about it.