I have a basic isea in mind, I'm in the process of writing it out, so I can begin making it when I'm finished, and I was wondering what everyone here at GameDev was looking for in a RPG plot. Thanks, sliceanddice

What do I expect? A young man's quest to defeat an evil sorceror while discovering the truth of his origins. A plucky youngster attended by her brutish guardian. A powerful artifact which has been broken into a small number of artifactlets distributed around the world.

What do I want? Fewer damn cliches.

no goeds = giants, gnomes, orcs, elfs, devils, saints etc. or at least very few
a mystery to be solved
an environment that is demanding and colorful and intervowen
character growing that is not the usual moronic cliche
sliding gameflow, without million choices that means nothing (i.e. camera in NWN 2)
no idiotic stereotyping

in example:
the neverending vastness of Elder Scrolls series
the well developed subquests and fighting system like in Baldurs Gate series
game flow like in Icewind dale series

colorful voice acting like in Jagged Alliance 2
humour like in Bard's tale
mood, music and originality of Fallout series


and

above all

totally shocking originality and feeling of really playing in another world like in Torment.

but.. oh well...

a plot that doesn't involve stopping a generic looking big bad evil guy that wants to throw the world into darkness for non-specific reasons

i don't care if its "to win villain of the year award" give the antagonist some motive other than trying to make the hero run around the world a lot and fight stuff,

Quote: Original post by Kaze
a plot that doesn't involve stopping a generic looking big bad evil guy that wants to throw the world into darkness for non-specific reasons

i don't care if its "to win villain of the year award" give the antagonist some motive other than trying to make the hero run around the world a lot and fight stuff,

Amen to that.

I expect to see hackneyed writing and linear storylines.

I would like to see interactive stories, where your choices actually matter. Not just a "branching storyline", but a truly interactive one that blends written storytelling with AI to create a world. I don't care what the genre is, just don't give me another game-that-wishes-it-is-a-movie.

Listen, I'm all for PLAYING games with branching stories. Writing them, though, I'm not a big fan of. Writing a multi branched story is ridiculously time consuming, ESPECIALLY when the player wants to be given a chance to change track at random places in the gane. Instead of writing a 40 K word script for 14-20 hour RPG, you've written 120K words for a 14-20 hour RPG.
Branching storylines take more than one writer, and I suggest starting out as simply as you can if you're new at writing for games.
Go old fashioned. One storyline. Write an epic. Just mind the cliches, because everyone hates them like poison.
What do I want to see in an RPG?
Passion. Enthusiasm in the story. I want to love my characters.

I'm probably rare in that I don't mind the cliched plot elements that much - I'm of the opinion that part of the reason that the staples in RPGs storylines are popular with writers is they appeal to basic emotions, and now they form the basic building blocks upon which a game can be built. Just don't use the cliches exclusively otherwise your game will be too bland to be interesting.

Give me characters that I can care about or empathise with. If I don't care about your characters then I won't care about what they are doing. This applies to the NPCs as well as the PCs.

Ensure that the main plot thread makes sense, at least from the perspective of the story world that you are operating in. I don't like it when supposedly intelligent characters are doing stupid things that anyone with a shred of common sense wouldn't do. This applies to both the protagonists and the antagonists.

I especially don't like villains who are evil purely for the sake of being evil as it's a big violation of the point above. Interesting villains have some better motivation other than just showing they're a badass.

I would like to see proper interactive storytelling in games - it's a target I'm personally hoping to aim for myself - but I like playing good linear RPGs too so I don't mind if writers aim for a good linear storyline. Just don't pretend you're writing a screenplay - it's always better to make your players enact the major plot points rather than showing them a cutscene. That's one thing that bugs me in most RPGs - the main plot elements are shown in portions of the game where the player has no control.

Quote: Original post by Trapper Zoid
the main plot elements are shown in portions of the game where the player has no control.

That is a REALLY good point!

Dastardly deeds by villainous villains!

Solemn sacrifices by Heroic Heroes!

Backstabbing and betrayal by False Friends!

Exceedingly epic quixotic quests fatefully filled with gut-wrenching gallantry!

Dazzling distraught damsels disquieted by their distressful despair!