how story influences design - adkison, peter - wotc

8/13/2019 How Story Influences Design - ADKISON, Peter - Wotc

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How Story Influences Design andHow Design Influences Story

A case study set in thelaunch of 3 rd EditionDungeons & Dragons

By Peter D Adkison April, 2004


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Introduction

l My name is Peter Adkisonl

A gamer since birthl A gaming professional since 1990 when I created

Wizards of the Coast (WotC), a games publisher l CEO of WotC until 2001l Published Magic: The gathering, Dungeons &

Dragons, and Pokmonl Currently own and manage Gen Con, the largest

hobby games convention in the Americas


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Thank Yous

l Thanks to you for attending!l Thanks to the design & literature

departments for sponsoring this lecturel Thanks to Carlos for the invitationl Apologies to all of you for having to endure a

lecture in English


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Lecture Summary

l Explore the topic of how literary elements

and design elements influence each other byexamining a case study from when I wasCEO at Wizards of the Coast.

l The case study: The launch of 3 rd EditionDungeons & Dragons in 1999.

l Conclusionsl Q&A


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Background

l Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) was the first

roleplaying game and was launched in 1973.l The company that created it, TSR, was

nearly bankrupt in 1997 due to sagging salesand poor management.

l WotC acquired TSR in 1997 based on mybelief that a dramatic revision of the gamesdesign would revive sales to profitable levels.


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Design Elements in D&D

l Game Rulesl Artistic look and feell Character design

Male & Female Seven player character races (human, elf, dwarf, etc) Character classes (fighter, wizard, barbarian, etc)

l World design Monster races

Geography History Sociology Etc.


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The Role of Story in D&D

l In D&D players create fictional characters and play

them through adventures.l Adventures are linked together to form stories.l Stories are set in a world (fictional or real).l Characters develop personality and evolve over

time.l Similar to some computer games, but face-to-face

roleplaying dramatically increases the opportunitiesfor story development.


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We Will Look At Four Instances

Story

Story

Story

Story

Character Design

Artistic Design

World Design

Game Design


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Instance #1Story Influences Character Design

l Previous editions : There were different

game rules for player races and monster races . A member of a monster race could not be a

protagonist.


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l Problem : Modern D&D players require more

options for story development. As our real-world society struggles to escape from

racial stereotyping, there is a requirement amonggamers to explore these same issues in gaming.

l

Example : a player may want to have as acentral character an orc who was an orphan,raised by nuns.


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l 3 rd Edition D&D : Monster races can now be

characters. The game still recommends that protagonists are

from the original group of seven races, becausethe rules are optimized around this configuration.

But the rules now support deviation from thisrecommendation for experienced players.


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Instance #2Story Influences Artistic Design

l Previous Editions : 20 th century art for

Dungeons & Dragons had a clean, idealistic,traditional fantasy look & feel.


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l Problems : The art did not very realistically

depict what D&D characters would look like. D&D characters tend to be very well armed, with

lots of weapons and magical equipment, similar toin a video game.

The chainmail bikini syndrome.


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l 3 rd Edition D&D : A new artistic direction was

established around a more realistic, grittyappearance. A more realistic depiction of characters and

monsters helps support story development.


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Instance #3Story Influences World Design

l Previous Editions : Humans in D&D were

nearly always depicted as white NorthernEuropean stock.


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l Problem : The D&D worlds were not very

accessible to minorities or internationalmarkets.


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l 3 rd Edition D&D : We decided that the race of

humans in the worlds of Dungeons &Dragons was officially a mixed race. Under WotCs ownership there has been a

deliberate attemptnot always successfullytopopulate D&D worlds with a more racially mixedassortment of human characters.


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Instance #4Game Design Influences Story

l Problem : Imbalance can make for great

stories, but not great game play. We didnt want players to feel frustrated because

they realize they made a bad decision in pickinga race or class with fewer abilities that would beimportant in game play.


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Instance #4Game Design Influences Story

l 3 rd Edition D&D : We made a design

decision that all player races and classesshould be balanced (relative to each other) atall levels of play. These game design decisions determined what

racial and class abilities characters could have,thus establishing parameters around how storiescould be developed.


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Commercial Results

l Third Edition D&D was hugely successful in the US

market Critical acclaim Record sales Industry growth

l International sales of D&D increased, but only

modestlyl Profitability was achieved (and therefore I wasnt

fired!)


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Conclusions of interest to an audienceof design and literature students?


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Q&A

how story influences design - adkison, peter - wotc

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