When Eric Fenstermaker and Chris Avellone left Obsidian, Carrie Patel became the only narrative designer who had worked on every installment of Pillars of Eternity: the base game, the two-part White March expansion set, and Deadfire.
“I had a lot of institutional knowledge and a greater awareness of how our pipelines worked, of the Pillars tone and flavor, and what our vast lore included,” she said. “Also, because all of the other leads were incredibly busy, I was often a much easier person to approach about a lot of those questions. Writers and people from other disciplines who wanted to know something about Pillars lore or how we did things, like using our tools, would oftentimes come to me with those questions.”
Already spinning several plates as Deadfire’s game director, Sawyer took on the role of lead narrative designer. Someone had needed to fill the void left by Fenstermaker. He also wanted an opportunity to take a hand in the game’s story and characters.
Patel quickly fell into step with Sawyer, collaborating with him as she had with Fenstermaker. “I find that Josh is very reasonable and willing to hear things out, and then take those things into consideration,” she said. “For Pillars II, whenever there was a question about a big creative direction or decision that needed to be made, I'd pass it to him and say, ‘Where do you want to head on this?’ When it was something that was kind of established or understood, or if it needed more definition or something we already had an internal answer on, I'd usually follow up on it on my own.”
Sawyer gave Patel and the other narrative designers the credit for carrying the heaviest loads. He had to be more concerned with the ten-thousand-feet view out of necessity: story structure, making sure the story gave players freedom to confront moral dilemmas and respond to them in their own way, and providing opportunities for players to flex their tactical-combat muscles. “I wrote Pallegina, which is the companion I wrote in Pillars I,” said Sawyer. “I wrote Eothas, who is the main, driving force behind the plot in Deadfire. And I wrote a handful of side characters.”
