The Rules and Mechanics department takes a break this month. Instead, some thoughts on the passing of a popular fantasy author, and what it might mean for the future of fantasy CRPG design.

While preparing for a TBH production meeting yesterday, I came across the news that author Robert Jordan had died. Although not a fan of his Wheel of Time series, I was certainly aware of it, and had a certain morbid curiosity about the state of the series now that he would not be able to continue it. So I did a little research.

Among fans (is there any other word for people who read eleven books on the same topic?) the core of the criticism against the later entries in the series seems to revolve largely around the multiple plot threads, which involve completely different characters in different places and occur at different times. Even when managed deftly, these plot lines tend to take on a life of their own, and merging them back together becomes a literary challenge—as both Jordan and his readers discovered.

Jordan is not alone. George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire book series has made it clear from the very beginning that it will spread its characters far and wide and dispose of protagonists at will. The most recent book in the series notably passes on expanding some of the plotlines altogether. This makes the series a daunting prospect for some readers, not to mention creating large gaps in narrative for fans.

Yet computer games generally and CRPGs particularly have not followed this trend, even though it clearly sells books. Why not games, as well?

Writers are prized for their ability to spin tales of interesting worlds and novel plotlines, and an effective way to explore multiple locations and themes within the same tome is to split up the responsibilities—rather than placing the entire narrative load on a single protagonist, the writer splits up the most interesting characters to do very different things in very different places. Even if their goal is the same, their means and opportunity is not.

It would be an exaggeration to say that fantasy readers demand these expansive, far-flung stories, but the popularity of Jordan and Martin would seem to speak for itself. The terse, exclusively first-person, 100-page journey a Roger Zelazny-esque antihero might take us on seems to have been crowded off the shelf—literally and figuratively—by the expansive multi-scenario novels in vogue today.

As I reflected on this, it occurred to me that fantasy CRPGs have resisted this trend—or if not actively resisted, then "failed to mirror" it. By and large, the central character still makes a "hero's journey" that covers a lot of ground—an entire nation, an entire continent, or even a solar system and beyond are not an unusual backdrop for a CRPG. Game developers seem to have been spared the push to split the storyline to follow multiple characters. Although certain details of a player character's past may be revealed to shocking effect as the game progresses, the central storytelling figure remains the dominant feature in games.

That single point of view provides a tremendous opportunity. Game designers can use it to develop a plot which revolves around (or ensnares) a single character or group of characters, and think of each new destination or plot twist first and foremost in terms of how it affects that core character, rather than juggling six different plot threads for each crucial decision. But it is also a tremendous responsibility. Without offering interesting activities and choices to that central character, interest in the game cannot be maintained—there's no way to "simply power through a few more pages and get back to a better plot thread", as a multi-scenario books allows.

A single point of view doesn't prevent game designers from taking advantage of the ability to develop multiple characters, however. Perhaps games have resisted splitting into far-flung plot threads because of the advantages a game offers over linear text. The written word puts a great deal of responsibility on the senses of the point-of-view character to provide information. In a game, however, the player is provided with realtime sights and sounds—we need not burden character development time with a lot of description, unless that description is relevant to understanding how the character is responding to the environment. That frees a designer to use the character to do more than just deliver the weather and surface conditions.

The day may come when changing tastes and changing visions mean CRPGs begin to follow mainstream epic fantasy into splitting the narrative. Until that time, however, it is incumbent on game designers to do everything they can to give the player an engaging journey from the single point of view—a world that comes alive just as much for the player character as it does for the player.

-- Jason Compton
Producer, The Broken Hourglass