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Do RPGs actually benefit from having a writer?

Do RPGs actually benefit from having a writer?

  • No, RPGs are about exploration of dungeons and wilderness

  • Yes, CYOA books don't write themselves

  • No, RPGs are about combat mechanics, preferably turn-based and tactical

  • Yes, narrative-driven games can't exist without someone to write their narrative

  • No, RPGs are about deep character systems and customization

  • Yes, Bioware games need writing for companion chatter and romances

  • RPGs are a perfect balance of exploration, combat, characters, CYOA, narrative, and romances (KC)


Results are only viewable after voting.

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
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Inspired by the thread "Project Direction and Writing in RPGs - Do RPGs actually benefit from having more than one writer?":
Do RPGs actually benefit from having a writer? A thread with poll and comic strip.


2005-08-22.png


The above Yamara strip originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #160 (August 1990).
 
Joined
Jul 4, 2014
Messages
1,563
Grimrocks' minimal or non-existant writing played important part in creating the atmosphere in those games. It's actually quite worrisome that the team has now hired two dedicated writers for Druidstone. :shittydog:
 

Trashos

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
3,413
Yes, they benefit from having good RPG writers. But the writers (the writing director, rather) should know how to serve the game and step back when it is required. Here is a tutorial about that:

 

anvi

Prophet
Village Idiot
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Kelethin
Depends how much story they have, dumb ass. If a game barely has any story then it doesn't need a writer. If a game is full of lore and story then have it made by a professional or I will probably uninstall. Although millions of other people will buy it anyway because they are no standards dipshits. Proof is in PoE, Umanuma, Banner Saga, etc. Basically every game.
 

Raghar

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
22,506
Grimrocks' minimal or non-existant writing played important part in creating the atmosphere in those games. It's actually quite worrisome that the team has now hired two dedicated writers for Druidstone. :shittydog:
Proper graphomans should write text themselves and be proud about that. Remember, it's your game, not game of two external writers.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yes but it depends on what you understand as a "writer".

Someone who only writes text he's told to write by the actual designers? No, that's a shit position and a waste of a good game-writer's talents.

An RPG writer should be able to:
- design quests with multiple approaches, solutions and endings
- design a non-linear narrative with choice and consequence
- write interesting backgrounds for the dungeons and items the player will encounter
- if he's not able to do scripting, at least know what's possible with scripting and what isn't, so he can consider these things in his writing of dialogues etc
- work together with level designers and system designers to create content that is internally consistent and provides a great playing experience

If you don't know how to design interesting quests, you shouldn't write for RPGs.
 

anvi

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An RPG writer shouldn't even be a job. If someone is doing that job they suck and so do all the games they work on. A real writer is someone who writes for books, tv, or films. That is a completely different level. Anyone writing for games may as well be writing for Cosmo.
 

hivemind

Cipher
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Pretty Princess
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Feb 6, 2019
Messages
2,386
Yes but it depends on what you understand as a "writer".

Someone who only writes text he's told to write by the actual designers? No, that's a shit position and a waste of a good game-writer's talents.

An RPG writer should be able to:
- design quests with multiple approaches, solutions and endings
- design a non-linear narrative with choice and consequence
- write interesting backgrounds for the dungeons and items the player will encounter
- if he's not able to do scripting, at least know what's possible with scripting and what isn't, so he can consider these things in his writing of dialogues etc
- work together with level designers and system designers to create content that is internally consistent and provides a great playing experience

If you don't know how to design interesting quests, you shouldn't write for RPGs.
i am begging you

please have sex

If I have to read another fucking long wall of text from you about some inane point about RPGs i'm gonna lose my mind
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yes but it depends on what you understand as a "writer".

Someone who only writes text he's told to write by the actual designers? No, that's a shit position and a waste of a good game-writer's talents.

An RPG writer should be able to:
- design quests with multiple approaches, solutions and endings
- design a non-linear narrative with choice and consequence
- write interesting backgrounds for the dungeons and items the player will encounter
- if he's not able to do scripting, at least know what's possible with scripting and what isn't, so he can consider these things in his writing of dialogues etc
- work together with level designers and system designers to create content that is internally consistent and provides a great playing experience

If you don't know how to design interesting quests, you shouldn't write for RPGs.
i am begging you

please have sex

If I have to read another fucking long wall of text from you about some inane point about RPGs i'm gonna lose my mind

Writing long walls of text about RPG design is much, much easier than finding a woman though, so you're stuck with my RPG posts :M
 

Thal

Augur
Joined
Apr 4, 2015
Messages
413
Yes but it depends on what you understand as a "writer".

Someone who only writes text he's told to write by the actual designers? No, that's a shit position and a waste of a good game-writer's talents.

An RPG writer should be able to:
- design quests with multiple approaches, solutions and endings
- design a non-linear narrative with choice and consequence
- write interesting backgrounds for the dungeons and items the player will encounter
- if he's not able to do scripting, at least know what's possible with scripting and what isn't, so he can consider these things in his writing of dialogues etc
- work together with level designers and system designers to create content that is internally consistent and provides a great playing experience

If you don't know how to design interesting quests, you shouldn't write for RPGs.

I would brofist this twice, if I could. For a long time I've been thinking that many classic computer games, rpgs and others, were so great because they written by people who designed them. Writing should be inherent part of quest and level design, not something you tag along to an unrelated level. You could even approach is as a screenplay of sort (what the player is supposed to experience while doing a quest).
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
There are many ways to Tell a story, gaming is a mixture of mediums, written word is only one of them.

I think it isnt a question of needing writers or not but if excesses caused by over reliance on the "easier" to make written word over the other forms of storytelling can harm games instead of improving them.

In DoS 1 and 2 for example, I felt those games really needed better storyteling, I mean storytelling, not writing. You can do storytelling even through combat.

You fight teleporting crocodiles, turn around and fight zombie pirates, really disconnected fights with very little in terms of storytelling.

It would better with massive lore dumps pages long? Nope. I like an MMO, Secret World, the only one I remotely liked.

In that game, enemies have life cicles accordling to lore, undead witches impregnated bodies they reanimated, those pregnant bodies walked slowly to the beach forming a cocoon that would give birth to more undead.

You could see this in real time, it wasn't only a useless lore thing. Is this writing? Nope but it is storytelling and we need more of this than just huge useless word counts.
 

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