Dungeons and Dialogue Trees
Chris Avellone talks about writing and the next Neverwinter Nights

Josh 'Moxie' Sprague, 2005-12-22

If you play RPG's on the PC (and if you're one of our readers, you probably do), then you've probably talked to Chris Avellone before. Not directly of course, but when you've squabbled with Morte in Planescape: Torment or investigated the factions of New Reno in Fallout 2, you've interacted with Chris' words and ideas. Most recently, he's worked on Obsidian's first project, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and is now working on Neverwinter Nights 2. With that in mind, we wanted to hear his thoughts on storycrafting and how these thoughts are playing into his current project.

Moxie: You've had a thorough amount of experience in writing for RPG's. What have you learned along the way that you want to incorporate into Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN 2)?

Chris: There are a few things we do with dialogue at Obsidian, most of which we developed and honed during our days at Black Isle Studios. The most important point is that dialogue is not only a means of communicating quests and ambiance, info about the world, creating drama, and a compass point for what to do next, but more importantly, it should be a game in itself. Players should get some sort of feedback and bonuses/penalties from their reactions, but not necessarily penalized for the way they want to role-play. Evil characters shouldn't be screwed if they want to act a certain way - they should get an equal amount of fun and rewards (though usually different) as a good character does.

As far as these reward systems go, there are a number of things we introduce in dialogue. One is alignment-based responses, trying to give at least three responses per node that have meaning rather than a single railroad response - and even if they link back to the same thread, try to make each divergence have different repercussions for alignment, reputation, and potentially companion influence. Skill and stat-based responses really ego-stroke a player who specialized in certain skills, even if it's just Lore and Spellcraft, and you can really have a lot of fun with Taunt and Perform-based responses in the right circumstances.

In addition, modern day slang is something out of place in most RPGs, but it's always fun to play with Realms lore and the pantheon to come up with creative curses and expressions - it also serves to add a lot of flavor to the world without having to spell out everything.

Also, this is something of a fine line to do in RPGs, but sometimes there's a tendency to force the player to adopt a certain tone, which has always bothered me - I think it takes player out of the experience. As a result, sometimes the player responses in our games tend to the more understated than over the top, and let the player imagine how they'd like the delivery to go.

And lastly, always make sure dialogue doesn't get in the way for people who don't like it. If they want to short-circuit a conversation and just get a journal entry so they can go fireball the next person, they should be allowed to do so - we don't want to enforce a certain playstyle or force someone to listen to an exposition when all they want to do is throw magic missiles in some troll's face. They may not get as an emotionally satisfying experience as a more hardcore role-player, but that's not what they're there for, and a designer or writer shouldn't hamstring them.

Moxie: You've said before that the entire team collaborates when it comes to design and that everyone needs to know how to write. Can you give examples of how different team members have contributed to the story of NWN 2?

Chris: Well, Ferret Baudoin laid the story foundation and took the reins for the player's key areas in the game, John Lee helped add life to a number of companions you meet, Tony Evans added a lot of Forgotten Realms lore and historical and political hooks, Jeff Husges fleshed out sub-plots that were more in the background they should have been, Eric Fenstermaker breathed life into the middle of the game, Constant Gaw added plenty of hot, sweaty romantic action, more epic spice, and explosions, Frank Kowalkowski (our lead programmer) set the tone of one of our companions from day one, and just about every designer added cool companion hooks for each of their areas. Our latest design recruit, George Ziets, ended up giving the opening locale in the game more life and a surprisingly different opening twist than we'd planned to introduce the player to the Forgotten Realms.

We usually kick around story ideas every day and how to shape moments in the game so they pack more of a dramatic punch. 

Moxie: You said in a previous interview with The Star that you believe the story should come first and game design should follow. How has this happened with NWN 2?  

Chris: I don't think story is more important than game mechanics, but I do feel you can get some really interesting game mechanics if you let the story push the game systems rather than tack on the story to some game mechanics.

If your story has dictated that all a character can do is bite opponents (Morte, Planescape: Torment), then solving his inventory weapon upgrade problem suddenly becomes a lot more interesting... and can lead to things like living teeth that he can find and bore into his jawbone to become fangs, and crazy stuff like that. However, sometimes those story-driven elements can cause a lot of development headaches - for example, Bao-Dur from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords lost his arm in the past, so the amount of model and armor variations we needed to make his force field arm work was a little nuts, and made Ferg grumpy.

Anyway, as far as Neverwinter Nights 2 goes, Ferret Baudoin (our lead designer) started with a pretty good technique - he laid out how he wanted the player to feel while playing the game, and then he structured the events and game mechanics around it to reinforce that feeling. From there, he made a story backbone, fleshed out all the major enemies and companions, the events in the Acts, and then it was divided amongst the designers. I can't say too much on how the story premise affects the game mechanics without giving too much away, but I will say I like the direction and think it's a strong one.

I will say that we also tried to make sure the creature allocation and terrain allocation in Neverwinter Nights 2 was set up in such a way that it not only helped the story, but the monsters and terrains we included for the story were ones that would be the most valuable for the module-building community as well. We recognize that our resources are not just for us and our story, but for the end-users' modules as well.

Moxie: Are there story clichés that you actively avoid?

Chris: Scarily enough, not really - although, once upon a time, I hated them all. I wouldn't invite them to parties, I'd snub them at conventions, and if they ever knocked at the door to ask for donations, I'd tell them to go to hells.* I hated saving princesses, I hated McGuffins, and I hated evil wizards. I still hate them, but now I recognize they have value beyond my jaded aspirations.

Clichés are a powerful toolbox - and nice bait. One of our other writers at Obsidian, Brian Mitsoda (who's working on our next, currently unannounced project) summed it up the best - clichés are a great way to lure someone in and then turn the tables on them, and then start getting scared and no longer take anything for granted. This is why Brian Mitsoda scares me. And not just because he is tall.

I really don't mind some clichés as long as they're executed well. It's only when stories suck that I tend to pull "it not only sucks, but it's cliché, too," which is probably unfair to clichés and makes them go into a corner and cry.

* My long stint with writing fantasy RPGs have made me unable to use the singular with this ever again.

Moxie: In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, there was a wide-variety of emotional response in characters based on choices in dialogue. How do you go about knowing your characters in a way that allows you to predict how they'll react to experiences?

Chris: You don't really have much choice - if you're writing a character, they end up crawling into your head to such an extent that they'll suggest reactions to you as you're doing their quests and background stories.

Some of the companions are a little harder than others, but some characters are so much fun to write, they kind of lead you along (Kreia and HK-47 from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Morte from Planescape: Torment). There's plenty more to come in Neverwinter Nights 2 as well, and I definitely have my favorites, but I can spill more about them in the coming months as they're introduced one by one.

Moxie: How does writing change when writing dialogue that will eventually be spoken by an actor?

Chris: Well, a lot of the stuff that you would have to spell out in text to get a point across can be communicated a lot better with the right voice actor and the right tone, so it cuts down on the on-screen text dramatically and ends up being a lot more effective. For example, a lot of the text we used in Planescape: Torment, for example, we were able to trim right out in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2 and put them to one side as "voice actor notes." Besides, there's really no comparison between trying to write sarcasm into a text-only node versus having Daran Norris (Spottswoode, Team America) deliver a sarcastic line - he was great in KotOR2.

This is going to sound stupid, but Neverwinter Nights 2 also allows you to write words in italics, which is perfect for dripping sarcasm as well. It's also something I've been willing to kill for in the last dozen or so RPGs I've worked on. We also allow for bold and colored text as well, but we don't go so crazy with that - but if the user community wants to, they can.

Moxie: One of the hyped aspects of Planescape: Torment before it came out was the death system, though this would have been a really great surprise to a player who didn't know about it beforehand. Does it bother you that previews of games can spoil aspects of the story even when they try not to and is there info out about NWN 2 now that you would rather save for the first time a player enters the world?

Chris: Well, I keep debating whether the death mechanics in Planescape: Torment shouldn't have been made more up-front considering how important it was in some places, so I didn't mind that so much. There were some Fallout 2 reviews that had some incredible screenshot spoilers of the major bad guys which made us want to weep, but...

...yeah, it does bother me that previews can sometimes reveal important bits of a story before the game's release, and sometimes, what's worse, is it can set up just enough misleading information that people go off and speculate, keep speculating until it becomes "truth," then end up blaming us when the game doesn't have what they imagined would be in it.

Moxie: Finally, what question do you wish interviewers would ask you, but never do? And can you answer that question?

Chris: I love large bowls of Cheerios. I am currently playing Psychonauts and Destroy All Humans. I have a blog where I record my game development and non-game development antics, and if you have any suggestions or desires for Neverwinter Nights 2, please drop by our forums at www.Obsidianent.com because we want to hear everything.