Legends of Norath
Legends of Norrath: Oathbound is an online trading card game (TCG) based in the EverQuest universe and developed by Sony Online Entertainment's Denver office. During the summer of 2007, I worked for SOE Denver as a game design intern where I helped playtest and bugtest their other card games as well as work on the Oathbound set in design and writing. The SOE Denver studio is composed of a great group of people and we all helped make sure the game was as fun to play and bug-free as possible for launch. Currently the game has a 78% on Gamerankings, which is a really great score for online trading card games. I was also responsible for writing most of the story in the single player campaign mode based on the game's design notes: the entirety of Parts I and II were written by me and I helped one of the other designers, Chuck Kallenbach, write Part III. In addition, I wrote the majority of the lore for the Fighter (red), Priest (gold), and generic unit and item cards, as well as the AI's cards. I had the role of editor, making sure each and every piece of narrative as good as possible and add as much detail as possible - a large task as every single one of the 350+ cards has lore! For instance, if you play the single player campaign, be sure to check the enemy AI's cards - each has a unique piece of text. In addition, I wrote a strategy article for the site. I also created the character Garth Lightfinger, a skilled merchant who's name appears in some card lore.
Below are some cards I wrote the lore for:
While there are many players will not pay attention to a game's narrative, players will notice when a story is poorly written and complain about it. For this reason, some game writers will consider it a job well done if nobody complains about the writing! However, I always strive to improve my work to make my writing the best it can possibly be rather than to make it simply 'sufficient.'