I wanted a writing topic. It’s funny, most Rpg Maker communities don’t have a category for writing. For me, writing is always the biggest hurdle to complete a project. It’s definitely the biggest time commitment.
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For me, the writing part is the easiest and quickest part. I do the “10 plot points” outline, then I do character biographies (all the main characters) as well as their arcs, and finally I write what the story is. I fill in details on that story during the design of the game (like if I think something cool or interesting can be done for the story using game mechanics or such) and proceed from there.
I think if you’re making an RPG at all, you should probably do the writing of it first, and then fix it to fall in line with the game mechanics as you go, but anyone who isn’t a writer can get by with just the 10 Plot Points before starting work.
For those who aren’t sure what the “10 Plot Points” are, here’s a brief overview:
Every story has no more and no fewer than 10 things that happen in the plot. These are every major story beat that is required to summarize the whole story. Each plot point is no more than two sentences long. Once you have the 10 plot points in place, they are cement. You are stuck with them forever. You can not and must not change them. You can change anything you want that happens between those plot points, but you must adhere to the plot points you set. Any change in those plot points and you are now telling an entirely different story.
After you have those points, then you can usually (and safely) just go with “the 3 act structure” for your story. It’s tried and true and won’t let you down. Not all stories require that 3 act structure, but it’s sort of like the “four chords” songs. Pretty much a guarantee you won’t muck it up too badly and will be pleasing to the largest audience possible.
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Hi there! This is a really good thing to discuss, since writing is such an important part of JRPGs, and other story -heavy types of games. Personally, it is also the part I´ve struggled with most. One of the most important things I´ve learned is that often the base ideas of stories aren´t really that hard to come up with. Find/fix love related issues, save the world/someone… Rather, it is so important to think about the characters and their role in the story. I´ve been following quite a lot some video content (mainly YT) on some writers and their tips on creating stories, characters, what to avoid etc. At least Brandon Mcnulty videos have helped me a lot.
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I don’t have a preferred writing method. I’m always doing different things with different projects.
I feel like screenwriting advice in general is the most useful for video game writing. You just need to keep gameplay objectives in mind. An RPG has a lot of characters, so it’s similar to an ensemble. Except, TV and Film have limited runtimes and they construct scenes that are convenient for the format, like stuffing all the important characters in a room together for a meeting. Meanwhile, in an RPG, a character is going to be missing so the player will have to gather them first in order to progress. Giving the player a reason to explore the castle, base, town ect…
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if theres a game ideas / general creative one i’d usually put that stuff there
although it would make sense to split this from illustration posts, maybe
Why 10? What happens if I do 9 or 11?
Generally, you end up with poor pacing issues if you do more or less than 10. Or, you run into weird problems where things happen for poorly explained reasons and/or you get a lot of filler.
Most people try to add more than 10 plot points, which ends up making their stories a slog or “never ending”. The ones who usually have less than 10 plot points generally end up with “this isn’t actually a story” problems. As in, most of what happens is nonsensical or skipped over.
Pretty good rule of thumb is “if you MUST have more than 10 plot points, you have more than one story here you’re trying to tell” and “if you have less than 10 plot points, you’re writing books for kindergartners”.
But, the “fewer than 10” thing becomes debatable, because even books for 4-6 year olds have 1 plot point per page of their book, and their books are like 10 pages long.
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Story theory focuses on “valuable assets” and their “changes.” It is highly useful to examine whether such changes occur within the plot, as well as their magnitude and frequency.
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The English translation of Yuyering’s post is kind of strange.
“valuable assets” probably refers to “What is at stake”.
It’s kind of an internet meme that RPGs start with something innocent like “find the lost dog” and then escalate to something bigger, like, “Kill God”.
The expanding scope works for the globe trotting RPGs with world maps.
- Personal: Find the dog.
- Local: Discover the dog was stolen by goblins threatening the village.
- Regional: Realize the goblins are fleeing an invading dark empire.
- Global: Learn the empire is controlled by an ancient cult.
- Cosmic: Discover the cult is summoning a god to reboot reality
But that doesn’t work for me. Mostly because all I do these days are short format stories for game jams. So they’re limited to a single conflict that’s basically resolved once the character walks up the mountain and does the thing.
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Well, it seems the translation isn’t quite working out. What I really meant was “things that people care about.” These can be material things, such as wealth, treasure maps, or the best sword in the village. Or they can be spiritual things, such as promises, perseverance, love, hate, and dreams. The key point is that the creator presents something similar to the player in the game and makes the player feel that it is important to them during the gameplay. Furthermore, the creator needs to introduce changes to these elements—for example, following a treasure map only to discover that its end holds the seal of an evil creature; accidentally losing the sword one initially possessed; or two indifferent individuals forming a deep bond, or lovers turning to resentment.
The crucial aspect is that the game includes things that make the player care, and the game author focuses on the changes in these elements during the creative process.
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That’s generally what we call “stakes”; it’s what the characters stand to lose.
You can lose a dog, a home, a life, everything…
I think it’s more accurate to say we writers need to communicate enough context for the player to comprehend the significance. I can point out Rpg Maker projects that didn’t have any stakes; they just establish character relationships or social cliques.
And maybe that’s ok? There’s plenty of side content in RPGs to write. Like, NPCs that don’t have storylines; they might just have a dynamic with another character. The blacksmith and the alchemist could have a rivalry, but this relationship doesn’t go anywhere. Nobody is playing the game just to watch them bicker; but it is content.
If it was a movie or a book it would be the first thing the editors would cut out. But for an RPG, I think that kind of thing is necessary for an immersive world.
It’s challenging to write a story “without stakes”. My current project is… sort of one of those. The overall “goal” is to help the main character decide whether they deserve to live or die (they’re in a kind of limbo that is also a test). It is also a “true choice” system wherein what the player chooses, actually changes the overall story.
So, the majority of the story is the player and their relationships with NPC’s, past encounters, and themselves. It’s difficult to write it in a way that is still engaging to a player, but it mostly involves lots of a small stories that each have their own stakes and resolutions.
The player is basically told “you are helping the MC decide if he should live or die” and then it basically rarely comes up again except as an overarching goal. The rest of the game is “NPC has a problem, how do you solve it?”. So, the player might run up against an NPC in rags claiming to be a princess (and no way to prove it) who then requests you go into a dungeon to get her clothes and scepter to prove she’s a princess and she can leave. The player can resolve the quest in a lot of different ways, but there isn’t really a way to “prove” one way or the other what she is. If you get the equipment for her, it turns out that she was the princess and you see her later! If you decide to not give it to her (or to keep the gear, which is pretty good when you get it), then it turns out that she was trying to scam you so that she could sell/blackmail with the equipment for a tidy fortune. There’s even fun options like telling her “I never found it” while wearing it, at which point she calls you a liar and can see you wearing it, right that moment, and then she offers to buy it off of you.
Put simply, in order to create “stakes” in the overarching story, I’ve had to add much smaller stakes all over the place in dozens of sidequests or personal quests. All of which help paint the MC into their final fate.
It is incredibly difficult in terms of writing. But, also kind of fun. I have to go, “okay, how does this affect where the MC ends up?” at each choice. Or “how does it change their personality?”.
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I think your writing style also needs to work with your own specific strengths. Some of us are good at characters, others might be really good at plot, some dude here might be good at milking sympathy from the player. IMO, the challenge here is knowing what you’re good at, and writing with intent. It’s too easy to follow a formula and you get writing that feels pointless
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Personnally writing is my favourite part. It usually comes quite naturally and I get absorbed by the plot. I wrote the plot for my JRPG a long time ago but for a TTRPG and now I am porting it to a video game.