You, more than anybody, probably realize that writing for marketing is different than freelance tabletop RPG materials, which is different from nonprofit grants. Writing for games is as different from what you’ve done as the various different things you’ve done are from each other. I could give you my standard advice of “Learn to design games”, because that’s what I say to all of the people who claim to be writers and want to get into games. But I’ve decided to try to do something a little different today.

Beamdog (the Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition developer) was hiring for an entry level narrative designer very recently. Since that’s the job you want, I’ll break down their job description, and add a few comments for relevant stuff. 

Qualifications:

• A University/College degree (in a related field) preferred
• You must demonstrate the ability to write quality branching dialogue and narrative, which includes a command of both the principles of game design as well as the English language
• The ability to work positively within a collaborative creative environment and to use team feedback to evaluate and improve upon your work during iteration
• Preference will be given to those with previous professional game industry experience, and those with previous game writing experience in particular
• A passion for video games and an understanding of interactive storytelling
• A working knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons (and other tabletop games) a plus
•  You must be authorized to legally work in Canada, and willing to work locally in Edmonton, Alberta (relocating, if necessary)

Immediately, you should recognize that a narrative designer is a game designer first and foremost. That means that you need to understand game design principles like player agency, meaningful choice, scope, player psychology, and the interworkings between design and other disciplines like engineering and art. Second, you should realize that you won’t be working alone - you’ll be collaborating as part of a team, and that means you’ll have peers who review your work, editors who will change your work, and a boss who will tell you what to write and how many words you can use to write it.

Beyond that, you’ll need to understand how branching narrative works. One of the largest constraints in any game’s development is scope. You can’t just write whatever you want. You need to deliver completed work on a schedule in order for the game to ship by the deadline. Broadly diverging paths might be super fun for the player, but they take an awful lot of design time to implement and test. You’ll also have to be constrained within other limitations - the quest you’re writing absolutely has to take place in an ice cavern because the level designers and environment artists are already working on it and they aren’t going to change it because you decided it would be better in a swamp. You probably won’t be coming up with the main story arc either - you’ll start with side quests and one-off characters. You’ll also need to work within a word budget - there’s only so much text you can fit on screen at once, and reading too much will bore most players.

“Sure, I can do all that,” you might say. Cool. Let’s get on to the next part - the actual application. Here is what was required of all submissions:

Submission Requirements:

1. An outline for a short side-quest in the Dungeons & Dragons universe – the outline itself should be no more than 5 pages (preferably less), focusing on how the quest is obtained, the steps the player takes to go through it, and the resolution. Make sure the player has agency in how to complete the quest, and that the quest has more than one resolution based on how it’s completed.
2. A single written game dialogue which would occur during that quest, showing your command of branching and player voice. You may use any game style which is an existing Beamdog or Wizards of the Coast franchise, so long as the player is able to choose responses which encompass a variety of tones/playstyles.
3. Include voice direction in the above dialogue, as well as directions to fellow designers who would presumably be implementing your quest – we want to see how you communicate your ideas.
4. This dialogue should be no longer than 2500 words and can be written using Microsoft Word (using hyperlinks for the choices) or Twine (of these two, Twine is preferred as it will require you to use basic scripting language in order for the dialogue to function).

This is a good list of what an entry level narrative designer will actually do. If you were working on the game, you’d probably be given some kind of bare-bones quest outline with a setting/location, a rough quest length, and possibly some characters to include. Then you’d be told to fill out the details with something fun and engaging. The outline you came up with would then be reviewed by your boss and some other narrative designers, and you’d be given feedback - fix this, change that, merge these characters, what about this situation?

Then you’d have to start actually writing the dialogue. Notice in #2 that it mentions the variety of tones and playstyles. When you are allowing player agency, it’s important to recognize what sort of gameplay will be supported - the player might be valiant, paranoid, or socially awkward. The player might be a pacifist or a stone-cold killer. You’ll need to present players with a voice consistent with their internal view of their character via the options they may choose, and still provide them agency in how to complete the quest. If you were actually working as a narrative designer, you’d be writing all of the dialogues for every character in your quest.

Further notice that you need to provide voice direction and communicate with other designers. That means more than just narrative designers. You need to be able to communicate your ideas to the system designers, the level designers, and whoever else might be a stakeholder in the narrative you’re working on. You need to be able to convey your ideas to them, as well as take direction from them, but you cannot assume that your way will always be the best. Remember, collaborative effort. If I were the level designer for the quest area, I’d want some ideas on what you envisioned how the characters and environment would be laid out in the area but, between the two of us, I’m the expert on space and layout. You need to be ready to give notes and suggestions, but also be ready to take criticism and work with other stakeholders.

This is what game writers do. They work within the confines of somebody else’s creative vision, coming up with the interstitial glue that holds the plot together while providing the players with the agency and choices they crave. They collaborate in teams with others like level designers, gameplay programmers, environment artists, and other narrative designers. If you want to do this for a career, then you can start doing stuff like this on your own and building up a reasonable portfolio that you can show in addition to your resume.