How to present a complex backstory in a cRPG?

There's a lot of fun to be had in the Elder Scrolls games, although Arena and Daggerfall are very outdated now. I would suggest giving Morrowind another go someday, but only if you have a fair amount of extra time to spare.

Some say Tolkien's vision for his war of the ring was inspired by his own experience as an Englishman living through two terrible conflicts with Germany. He seemed to suggest there was a distinct yet ineffable history between a resurgent evil and all right-thinking people everywhere, the details of which he relegated largely to his books' appendixes. His handling of back story aroused the imagination of and stimulated passionate discussion among his fans (up until the publication of The Silmarillion, anyway).

IMO, the way he approached his story, by involving and following the seemingly most innocent and least significant of characters in it, serves as a good example for CRPG. The outside world was an enigma to the hobbits until they experienced it by going out and adventuring in it.

Squeek said:

Some say Tolkein's vision for his war of the ring was inspired by his own experience as an Englishman living through two terrible conflicts with Germany.

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He himself staunchly denied any such suggestion, though. In one of his letters, he says that if the LOTR had been inspired by either of the wars, it would have ended with Aragorn seizing the Ring for himself, and using it to defeat Sauron.

Personally, I find it hard to believe that some of his experiences were NOT reflected in the books in some way. However, I also tend to take him at his word that that was not his intention; instead, as he said, he wanted to write a mythology that England didn't have.

He seemed to suggest there was a distinct yet ineffable history between a resurgent evil and all right-thinking people everywhere, the details of which he relegated largely to his books' appendixes. His handling of back story aroused the imagination and stimulated passionate discussion among his fans (up until the publication of The Silmarillion, anyway).

IMO, the way he approached his story, by involving and following the seemingly most innocent and least significant of characters in it, serves as a good example for CRPG. The outside world was an enigma to the hobbits until they experienced it by going out and adventuring in it.

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I agree. There *was* a lot of exposition during the early part of the book -- The Shadow of the Past was a big, wordy chapter that was nothing *but* exposition -- but from there on out, it did unfold beautifully.

Some comics manage this extremely well, too. One I particularly like is the Cyann cycle by Bourgeon and Lacroix. Unfortunately, no English translation, and none planned. If you speak French and have for some bizarre reason missed it, though, it's more than worth checking out.

Edit: Found a scan of a part of a page illustrating how it's done.

Squeek said:

IMO, the way he approached his story, by involving and following the seemingly most innocent and least significant of characters in it, serves as a good example for CRPG. The outside world was an enigma to the hobbits until they experienced it by going out and adventuring in it.

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I agree with you. The exploration of the world and discovering what makes it tick is my favorite part of RPGs.

Prime Junta said:

I agree. There *was* a lot of exposition during the early part of the book -- The Shadow of the Past was a big, wordy chapter that was nothing *but* exposition -- but from there on out, it did unfold beautifully.

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And yet, I hear so many people complain about the first book. Applying this thought to RPGs, I came to the conclusion that games I especially like are often only for patient people who don't mind waiting for the fruits of their patience.

Shadow of the past was the first thing he wrote, as far as I know - the rest came much, much later (months ? years ?).