Lore isn't scary!
Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2016 6:12 am
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the game world lacking with regards to an overarching story/plan (yay discussion), but I've noticed that the idea of lore/story scares a lot of builders. Many have admitted that their strength lies with the technical aspect of building areas and not writing, but in general, you don't need to be an amazing writer for areas to flow coherently. Many skills from the technical side of building can be applied to storytelling really easily if it's a part of the design process. Writing was never my strong point when I was a part of Build. In fact, 90% of the work I did do was related to balance/redesigning areas to flow better from a technical standpoint. I'll just offer my thoughts on how the design process can include both story and technical aspects.
Ask yourself:
What need do the players have that I can fulfill?
- Level area for 22-25
- Tier 5 gear/weapons for Class x, y, and z.
What type of landscape am I working with (based on universal Build map outline)?
- Mountain
- Plains
- Desert
What areas/monsters/NPCs are nearby?
Example: Building the Lake near Freelance
- Freelance: a gambling, casino town with seedy underground elements.
- Undead castle with spoopy skeletons
How do the surrounding areas/monsters/NPCs interact with my area/monsters/NPCs?
Using same example of Lake by Freelance
- Vagrants gambling away their money and end up resorting to fishing.
- Thieves looking for an easy score attack fishermen / lake tourists.
- High-end gamblers wanting beach property.
- Seedy underground needing to hide their operations
What monsters/NPCs do I want in my area? Where are they from? How did they end up here? Do they have any feelings towards the surrounding area Monsters/NPCs?
- Current residents surrounding the lake are trying to find ways to combat thievery.
- Influx of high-end gamblers polluting in the water has caused mutated bullfrogs to start attacking the fishermen.
- Dock workers have started their own criminal ring that is taking profits from Freelance's underground world.
Who are the leaders of these factions?
When/where does a player meet them?
How can the player interact with the current dilemmas in the area?
Goes on and on and on.
A lot of these examples aren't even creative/writing heavy. This is just creating the framework to the story like you make the framework for an area by mapping it out. In fact, you should be doing both at the same time. Fleshing out the exact story/writing can be done later or by someone else if you have a good framework designed.
The next step is then translating your framework to appear in game in an engaging and fun way. Think about how it'll look when a questing system is introduced. If the framework for quests is in-game right away, it'll make transitioning to that easier when NH does that system.
For example:
Reference story framework: High-end gamblers are taking their winnings to the lake to find high end beach property and spend their gold. This has resulted in higher pollution and mutated bullfrogs have been attacking residents.
- How does the player learn about this issue? (Solution: Lake Guards warn about Mutated Bullfrog attacks)
- Where's the source of the main pollutant? (Solution: There's a hidden cave filled with Mutated Bullfrogs and maybe a rare named Bullfrog that leads to a pile of waste that's being piped down into the Lake from a nearby residential area)
- Can the player explore these houses and talk to the NPCs? (If yes, who do they meet? What do they say about the area?)
- Can this story tie into the other area stories? (Yes! Solution: While investigating the houses to find the origin of the pollution, the player discovers that the high-end gamblers are really spies for Freelance's underground trying to combat the growth of the Dock Worker Cartel by polluting the water)
blahblahblah
I tried outlining how I'd approach designing an area so that story is included when also thinking technically. I'd consider myself to be mediocre at best at with regards to writing/creative work, but I beleive you don't need to be good at it to make sure your area has good coherency/flow.
Ask yourself:
What need do the players have that I can fulfill?
- Level area for 22-25
- Tier 5 gear/weapons for Class x, y, and z.
What type of landscape am I working with (based on universal Build map outline)?
- Mountain
- Plains
- Desert
What areas/monsters/NPCs are nearby?
Example: Building the Lake near Freelance
- Freelance: a gambling, casino town with seedy underground elements.
- Undead castle with spoopy skeletons
How do the surrounding areas/monsters/NPCs interact with my area/monsters/NPCs?
Using same example of Lake by Freelance
- Vagrants gambling away their money and end up resorting to fishing.
- Thieves looking for an easy score attack fishermen / lake tourists.
- High-end gamblers wanting beach property.
- Seedy underground needing to hide their operations
What monsters/NPCs do I want in my area? Where are they from? How did they end up here? Do they have any feelings towards the surrounding area Monsters/NPCs?
- Current residents surrounding the lake are trying to find ways to combat thievery.
- Influx of high-end gamblers polluting in the water has caused mutated bullfrogs to start attacking the fishermen.
- Dock workers have started their own criminal ring that is taking profits from Freelance's underground world.
Who are the leaders of these factions?
When/where does a player meet them?
How can the player interact with the current dilemmas in the area?
Goes on and on and on.
A lot of these examples aren't even creative/writing heavy. This is just creating the framework to the story like you make the framework for an area by mapping it out. In fact, you should be doing both at the same time. Fleshing out the exact story/writing can be done later or by someone else if you have a good framework designed.
The next step is then translating your framework to appear in game in an engaging and fun way. Think about how it'll look when a questing system is introduced. If the framework for quests is in-game right away, it'll make transitioning to that easier when NH does that system.
For example:
Reference story framework: High-end gamblers are taking their winnings to the lake to find high end beach property and spend their gold. This has resulted in higher pollution and mutated bullfrogs have been attacking residents.
- How does the player learn about this issue? (Solution: Lake Guards warn about Mutated Bullfrog attacks)
- Where's the source of the main pollutant? (Solution: There's a hidden cave filled with Mutated Bullfrogs and maybe a rare named Bullfrog that leads to a pile of waste that's being piped down into the Lake from a nearby residential area)
- Can the player explore these houses and talk to the NPCs? (If yes, who do they meet? What do they say about the area?)
- Can this story tie into the other area stories? (Yes! Solution: While investigating the houses to find the origin of the pollution, the player discovers that the high-end gamblers are really spies for Freelance's underground trying to combat the growth of the Dock Worker Cartel by polluting the water)
blahblahblah
I tried outlining how I'd approach designing an area so that story is included when also thinking technically. I'd consider myself to be mediocre at best at with regards to writing/creative work, but I beleive you don't need to be good at it to make sure your area has good coherency/flow.
