The best writer in RPGs is...

[Zanzoken]

Michael Kirkbride.

If you don't know who Kirkbride is, he is responsible for creating a lot of the lore around the Elder Scrolls series. He wrote most of the gods and creation myths, pretty much everything Vivec-related in Morrowind, and also the Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes. Plus lots more.

Now as derpy as the games themselves can be, if you really start digging into the lore, there's a lot of deep world design and interesting storytelling going on behind the scenes. The Bethesda devs fail to effectively utilize most of it but it's there.

Nobody else in games really writes the way Kirkbride does (maybe Avellone is close when he is on his game). Kirkbride's stuff is usually hard to grasp, very esoteric and kind of a mindfuck, but once you start to wrap your head around it then it's really cool. And even though it will never happen, I would love to see a TES game where he is given free reign over the story and narrative design.

Thoughts?

 

[octavius]

Neal Hallford and Michael Stackpole are not so bad either.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

I'm surprised. That's two posts without mentioning Ziets. Isn't he supposed to be the Codex' darling?

 

[Thal]

Writing for RPGs is hard.

I am going to nominate the people who were doing PS:T stuff. It is incredibly hard to write in a style like that without sounding pretentious, as we have seen with PoE. Somehow, that line is never crossed in Torment if I recall correctly. That kind of consistence isn't easy, and the fact that it was effort of multiple people makes it even more impressive. You'd think that someone had fucked up somewhere, but I guess they were just very much tuned in with the setting. Torment, to this day has also the best cast of characters in any RPG that I can think of.

Kirkbride and a lot of Elder Scrolls stuff works also for a similar reason. It's so in-universe that you can suspend your disbelief. But not all settings and games allow that sort of evocative writing.

For those, I've been thinking that they shouldn't even try. Try to come up with a better plot and interesting questlines instead and have the writing carry it functionally and in an unintrusive manner. It's storytelling too. I'm not sure all rpgs even need to have this focus on writing that I've seen lately. Games are neither movies nor books and they play with their strengths. An author has to put everything in the writing, a game can both show it and make player do it. And then it came make it happen to the player. A lot of opportunities that are often underused. Deus ex was pretty good at this though.

 

[Theldaran]

Stackpole is good, but what did he do in CRPGs?

 

[bloodlover]

JRR Tolkien I'd say.

 

[Llama-Yak Hybrid]

Video game writers are shit.

 

[rohand]

This is Kirkbride going all "sermons of vivec" again on TES lore:

http://c0da.es/t/c0da

 

[Kahr]

Video game writers are shit.

 

[an Administrator]

The best writer in RPGs is David Gaider

 

[octavius]

Stackpole is good, but what did he do in CRPGs?

Wasteland, Bard's Tale 3, and/or Dragon Wars IIRC.

 

[Mustawd]

Amber Scott for sure.

 

[Trashos]

I am a fan of MCA's work.

I am also very impressed by AoD's writing and dark humor. So that's VD, I guess? But I am at the honeymoon stage with the game, so we 'll see how it holds up.

 

[Trashos]

Amber Scott for sure.

Yeah, a lot of people keep recommending her to me, she must be really good.

 

[Fairfax]

If you don't know who Kirkbride is, he is responsible for creating a lot of the lore around the Elder Scrolls series.

 

[Jacob]

Kinkbride eh? Fitting name for someone who wrote this.

 

[an Administrator]

You can't simply ignore the great lore of the morrowind

 

[Doesn'tmeananything]

Kinkbride eh? Fitting name for someone who wrote this.

Reported for a non-morrowind screenshot.

 

[kwanzabot]

You can't simply ignore the great lore of the morrowind

i can because it was a shit game and if you like it you're an idiot

 

[an Administrator]

 

[Azarkon]

Apples and oranges. Kirkbride does world building & static text writing. Avellone focuses on the design of the in game story, quest, and character. The latter is what makes up the bulk of a game's interactive narrative. The former is secondary text that you read when you have time. This is also why, despite Kirkbride's best efforts, the games he works on are considered light on story - because it just isn't very important to the game. By contrast, without Avellone's writing, Planescape: Torment is a trash game with shit combat; the game IS the writing, in that case.

 

[Lilura]

I liked the writing in Durlag's Tower.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Kinkbride eh? Fitting name for someone who wrote this.

the barenziah book in daggerfall and morrowind have queen barenziah have sex with a khajiit, which has barbed penis. it was removed in oblivion and skyrim.

i also agree, kirkbride made great foundation with TES, shame that universe is wasted by being owned by bethretards

 

[Veelq]

Michael Kirkbride is more of a loremaster than a writer. He is someone like Ed Greenwood to Forgotten Realms. And i liked his work in Morrowind.

i also agree, kirkbride made great foundation with TES, shame that universe is wasted by being owned by bethretards

i have a feeling that Bethesda doesnt even understand how deep and rich the world of TES is.

 

[Excidium II]

Kinkbride eh? Fitting name for someone who wrote this.

Spoiler