Worldbuilding>Characters>Plot

[Tyranicon]

Or, A Simple Primer to RPG Writing.

People often bring up romances and cinematic voiced dialogue as elements of decline, but I think the biggest one in RPGs is a focus on characters or plot over worldbuilding. If I recall RPGs that really stick out in my mind (Fallout, TES, D&D, etc, etc), what I remember are worldbuilding factoids.

Video games are an inherently different medium than books or movies. Older mediums are curated, linear experiences. They focus on characters or plot because it makes sense to them. Applying the same techniques here, in a medium that allows for player agency, is misguided.

That's not to say that characters and plot aren't important. If you're going to have them, they should be written well.

But the ideal RPG would be a fully realized world that you can just run around in as a sandbox.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Writing > Combat
Fight me

 

[Chuck Norris]

Completely agree with this. And From Software's success is a testament to it. Their games basically don't have characters and plot, only world building. And that was enough.

 

[Butter]

Pillows lore dumps agree with you.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Characters are important parts of world building. Take Gothic 1/2 as example or the Witcher series with their recurring characters (Diego, Gorn, Xardas, Dandelion, Zoltan, Vesemir, ...). The idea that writing≈romance is modern bullshit. Rpg writers simply should do better and stop writing like retards that consumed too much soap operas and marvel movies.

 

[Gandalf]

Characters die, stories ends, but world remains.

 

[the mole]

gameplay first because we're playing games

 

[Fedora Master]

Nigga, you make porn games

 

[the mole]

Nigga, you make porn games

with everyone's mom

 

[Vic]

Video games are an inherently different medium than books or movies. Older mediums are curated, linear experiences. They focus on characters or plot because it makes sense to them. Applying the same techniques here, in a medium that allows for player agency, is misguided.

you are not a fantasy reader, are you? world building is p huge in fantasy, if you're interested check out brandon sanderson's free lectures on youtube

 

[Iucounu]

People often bring up romances and cinematic voiced dialogue as elements of decline, but I think the biggest one in RPGs is a focus on characters or plot over worldbuilding.

Romances and cinematics might be regarded as the result of too much focus on characters though.

But the ideal RPG would be a fully realized world that you can just run around in as a sandbox.

True. My last two games (played about 500 hours in each) lack both plot and characters, and I don't miss any of it.

Plots and characters are usually just ways to create main quests for the player. Writers can then make the plot and characters more or less interesting, but they are rarely an end in themselves. I've never considered reading a spin-off book or comic about a game I enjoyed.

 

[santino27]

To each their own. I loathe sandboxes; unless there is also a well-developed plot and characters, it's a pass from me.

 

[Artyoan]

Tone>Worldbuilding>Characters>Plot

 

[Reinhardt]

Writing > Combat
Fight me

easy mode. what will you do? type some post at me?

 

[Tyranicon]

Tone>Worldbuilding>Characters>Plot

I would say tone is a part of worldbuilding. It's one of the first fundamental parts of a setting.

When you think of 40k, you think of grimdark. When you think of classic D&D it's high adventure.

The problem arises when your tone takes a sharp turn while your world remains the same. A good example of this is Dragon Age.

In Origins it's a very bloody, but relatively grounded heroic adventure flavored by pseudo-catholic lore. Dark fantasy.

In Inquisition the tone has moved to something safer more akin to high fantasy.

I fully expect Veilguard to be Marvel fantasy tier.

 

[Cryomancer]

Agreed, mainly when the game mechanics and the worldbuilding are in line.

porn games

With better story than any AAA ESG modern game.

 

[Beans00]

Hmm, I think all of them are important. I'm not sure of the order or whether they are of equal importance.

 

[Daemongar]

People often bring up romances and cinematic voiced dialogue as elements of decline, but I think the biggest one in RPGs is a focus on characters or plot over worldbuilding. If I recall RPGs that really stick out in my mind (Fallout, TES, D&D, etc, etc), what I remember are worldbuilding factoids.

I agree up to a point. I'm all for a fully realized world that the player is free to discover or not, but I'm of a less in more mindset. Someone fleshes out the world, the intricacies, the politics, etc. Then they should randomly tear out about 50% of the script. I like worlds which don't explain everything to me, no matter what I put in my chars INT stat. Some things have to be unanswered and let the player wonder.

The Witcher has all kinds of info on world events, lots of it conflicting - from the man on the street to some prince in a castle, and nobody is probably right. Compare to Oblivion where Urial Spectrum kinda tells you all flat out. Then he forgets in early ages they had a mark and recall spell that would prevent him getting murdered but whatever. Or compare to Morrowind where one of the first quests they send you to get a Dwemer puzzle box from some advanced, long gone civilization. You get there, look around - wonder what the hell, and now for the rest of the game you are scratching your head.

They sorta explain what happened to the that dwarves, but again its all a bit shady. This is how I like my world building.

 

[Vic]

Urial Spectrum

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

More fundamentally, story should be an emergent property of gameplay, resulting from the interaction of the player-characters with their environment and the beings within it, rather than a narrative imposed by the game developers via scripting. A game designed for the former will instrincally emphasize worldbuilding over a predetermined plot and characters.

 

[Filthy Sauce]

Video game is game play first. Because it's a video game. You should always want to put story/atmosphere in your your game to complement that. Not the other way around.

 

[luj1]

Or, A Simple Primer to RPG Writing.

People often bring up romances and cinematic voiced dialogue as elements of decline, but I think the biggest one in RPGs is a focus on characters or plot over worldbuilding. If I recall RPGs that really stick out in my mind (Fallout, TES, D&D, etc, etc), what I remember are worldbuilding factoids.

Video games are an inherently different medium than books or movies. Older mediums are curated, linear experiences. They focus on characters or plot because it makes sense to them. Applying the same techniques here, in a medium that allows for player agency, is misguided.

That's not to say that characters and plot aren't important. If you're going to have them, they should be written well.

But the ideal RPG would be a fully realized world that you can just run around in as a sandbox.

This is because a well crafted world tells its own story

 

[Eldrin]

I would say that Writing and Pacing should be considered as the highest key elements of an RPG, but every other game aspects need to reach at least a certain minimum level of quality as well, interconnecting together harmoniously, enhancing the product as a whole.

Worldbuilding alone, no matter how many solid ideas it possesses, whether it's locations, cultures, races, magic, history, ideologies, ... and how well it adheres to its presented verisimilitude while the player interacts with all those, will ultimately be nothing but an overbloated slog if the dialogues and descriptions aren't done well. And even with good enough writing, placing too much value on worldbuilding, may lead to players actually caring less about it, especially if it leans too much towards the weird and esoteric.

The cRPGs of recent years suffer from overinvesting too much into worldbuilding. Comparing them to TTRPGs: They are more like Setting Books, than proper Adventure Modules.

And the bigger you make the world, the more careful you need to be about the pacing. If you're leaning towards a more sandbox-style approach, people may get overwhelmed with all that freedom of choice or, from a different angle, get plainly bored with it. There needs to be some kind of overhead 'timer'/motivation spurring them on. The world needs to be - or give enough of an illusion of - moving forward.

An example of a good but pretty "lenient" timer were the assassin encounters in BG1 - you know someone is hunting you, you meet them pretty frequently across different zones as a constant reminder, and you will need to deal with the masterminds that send them out after you at some point, whether you like it or not. It gave enough of an impression that the world is alive and time was progressing onwards as you meet stronger and stronger assassin groups that were after you.

 

[Serus]

Writing > Combat
Fight me

Combat/Exploration >>>>>>>>>>>> Writing >>>> all non-prestigious people >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Bester
K.O. in first round.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Writing > Combat
Fight me

Combat/Exploration >>>>>>>>>>>> Writing >>>> all non-prestigious people >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Bester
K.O. in first round.

Anything the combat can evoke - e.g. feelings of competence or fun - the writing can evoke. But writing can evoke literally anything else, too.
qfd