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Questions to Answer to Create Your RPG Storyline

Get started with your RPG storyline with this list of questions.

By Richard BaileyPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Have you ever wanted to build an RPG game but not sure where to begin with your story? Sometimes the storyline can be the hardest part of building your game. You want to make the story interesting and have an idea of where you are going with the game. Without having some basic information about your story you can end up sitting down in front of your computer screen staring and wondering what to do next. Here is a list of questions to help you get started so you can start making an RPG of your own and keep you on track as you build your game.

General story idea:

  • i.e. Hero is on a mission to find and kill a demon lord

Grand Storyline

  • What nations/rulers are in the conflict?
  • What is the history of these nations?
  • Is there a past/future event that shakes up the world?
  • What unknowns are revealed along the way?
  • How are different characters plotting/clashing?

The Plot

  • Why is the character doing what he/she is doing?
    • i.e. Demon lord is unleashing evil into the world and character goes to fight and defeat the demon.

Goals

  • What is the hero trying to do?
  • What is the evil character trying to do?
  • What is annoying sidekick trying to do?

Event Flow

  • List major events in order
    • i.e. Event 1-> Event 2-> Event 3 etc.
  • List any smaller events that come to mind

Other

  • Town/City names (can use real town names)
  • Magic
  • Side Quests
  • Anything else
Active Main Villain Scenes
  • Reactions to player’s actions

Story Implementations

  • Cutscenes
  • Environment
  • Enemies
  • Allies (periodic scripted decisions)

Things to Consider

  • Will there be branching dialogue?
  • Multiple endings?
  • Different choices with different results?
  • Have enemies scaled to char level?
  • Who are minor villains?
  • Make the world active with events.

Creating the World

  • What continents does the world have?
  • What cities are there?
  • Who lives here?
  • Are there interesting landmarks?
  • What could spawn conflict in this world?
  • How did the nations come to current form?
  • Are there contested borders?
  • Do people have enough resources?
  • Are there specific cultures?
  • Is there free trade?
  • Freedom of religion?
  • What kinds of governments?
  • Are people thriving or struggling?

Characters

  • What are they like? (Hero, allies, npc’s, enemies)
  • Name
  • Age

This is just a basic list to help you get started on your storyline and some things to consider to help make your world come alive and interactive for the player. Going through and answering each question in each section that applies to your game can give you a great starting point and you can always come back to this list and add or take away from the answers.

I have put these questions into a table form allowing for answering them in a word document to help you keep things neat and clear, readily available and easily editable. You can add questions to this list that will help you make your world and game unique and something that you can continuously come back to as you work through the development of your RPG. You can download this RPG Storyline Question Form here.

RPG games can be as simple or as complex as you would like them to be but without something to track where your story is going and being able to easily reference those details, it can be easy to get frustrated with the development process. The more complex you plan to make your game, the more details you should fill in on this form and more sections you should fill in. Ask yourself additional questions about what you want the player to be doing and encountering in your game and remember to add those questions and answers to this form.

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About the Creator

Richard Bailey

I enjoy writing about many different topics but my main focus is mental health, mental illness, and specifically depression. I have a long personal experience with Severe Treatment-Resistant Depression and Anxiety.

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