RPGCodex Interview with Carrie Patel (PE Narrative Designer)

[Sensuki]

"You might be surprised to hear that Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity has other people besides Josh Sawyer, Chris Avellone or Eric Fenstermaker working on it. One of these people is the narrative designer Carrie Patel. She is also a writer, and is publishing her first book, "The Buried Life," in July."

 

Interview conducted by Hormalakh, edited by Crooked Bee.

 

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9438

[Sarex]

 

John R. R. or George R. R.?

 

George! In the interest of full disclosure, I read Tolkien many years ago, so A Song of Ice and Fire is much fresher in my mind. That said, I appreciate the gray area in Martin's fiction -- morally ambiguous characters face morally fraught quandaries, and even though it's not Good vs. Evil, it takes place on a grand scale. His world feels grittier and more "real," but it's still richly imaginative.​

 

There you go Sheikh gritty and real, just like I said it.

[Mor]

"You might be surprised to hear that Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity has other people besides Josh Sawyer, Chris Avellone or Eric Fenstermaker working on it.

Indeed, quite a few people on that team that make the magic happen, here the ones that we know off: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Developers

 

@Sensuki, thanks for posting the interview.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Many Neverwinter Nights modders have oodles of talent. Great interview!

[Kjaamor]

I sometimes forget that the people bringing us all these excellent pieces are actually forum-goers. Cheers, guys.

 

Edit: Also, (accidentally double posts due to quoting confusion)

Edited April 26, 2014 by Kjaamor

[Kjaamor]

 

 

John R. R. or George R. R.?

 

George! In the interest of full disclosure, I read Tolkien many years ago, so A Song of Ice and Fire is much fresher in my mind. That said, I appreciate the gray area in Martin's fiction -- morally ambiguous characters face morally fraught quandaries, and even though it's not Good vs. Evil, it takes place on a grand scale. His world feels grittier and more "real," but it's still richly imaginative.​

 

There you go Sheikh gritty and real, just like I said it.

 

 

...urgh.

[nipsen]

I'm doing what I love now. There aren't many jobs where you get paid to make things up, and I don't have the stomach for politics.​

(...)

only to find that the people she's trying to protect may be hiding something bigger. It's about political machinations, old grudges, and secret histories.

(...)

Dune​

(...)

Of course, not every antagonist has to be sympathetic. They can be 31 flavors of vile, and sometimes that's better.​

(...)

John R. R. or George R. R.?

 

George!

Ooh. Very close to seeing a serious and embarrassingly heartfelt proposal for marriage on the internet right there.

Edited April 26, 2014 by nipsen

[Hormalakh]

umm she's already married buddy, so sorry.

 

Many Neverwinter Nights modders have oodles of talent. Great interview!

Thanks! The Codex always delivers.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Hormalakh

[Sensuki]

Many Neverwinter Nights modders have oodles of talent. Great interview!

She only made a small narrative mod, for job interview purposes I think. Nevertheless it helped get her the job.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

 

There you go Sheikh gritty and real, just like I said it.

 

 

...urgh.

 

 

That's a very... articulate viewpoint, care to elaborate?

[anameforobsidian]

Good interview.  She seems like she has a level head on her shoulders.

[Nonek]

Once again the RPG Codex's editorials humiliate the professional "game journalists," absolutely splendid article chaps. 

[Ffordesoon]

Once again the RPG Codex's editorials humiliate the professional "game journalists," absolutely splendid article chaps.

 

I don't know what you're talking about. It's fine, but it's not all that different from any other interview I've read on the pro sites.

 

I swear, this weird antagonism people have towards something that's ultimately just another branch of entertainment journalism...

[anameforobsidian]

Grayson at RPS is pretty good at embarrassing himself.  He doesn't need the Codex's help.  I'm feeling particularly put out at RPS for ignoring Serpent in the Staglands, and then reading Grayson's hostile interviews is painful.

 

That said, the comments section of the Codex is not the most magical place on the internet.

Edited April 27, 2014 by anameforobsidian

[Ffordesoon]

Grayson at RPS is pretty good at embarrassing himself.  He doesn't need the Codex's help.  I'm feeling particularly put out at RPS for ignoring Serpent in the Staglands, and then reading Grayson's hostile interviews is painful.

 

That said, the comments section of the Codex is not the most magical place on the internet.

Okay. That still leaves the rest of games journalism.

[Kjaamor]

That's a very... articulate viewpoint, care to elaborate?

 

Long ago, there was a thread where I expressed my concerns that PoE would set up camp in the world of gritty, low fantasy, pseudo-realism. I expressed my distaste for this.

 

It's not news to me, but I am immediately troubled by any suggestion that PoE is more George than John, because frankly I find gritty, low fantasy pseudo-realism to be extremely unsatisfying at best, and outright depressing at worst.

 

Obviously that's just my personal point of view, but if PoE is a card-carrying member of the gritty society, then I think I'll probably pass on it and play something that's actually going to bring me some happiness instead. Your milage, as ever, may vary.

[Fatback]

I find most high fantasy pretty poor when it comes to the actually writing. I wish people would stop compairing Martin and Tolkien. They should be compairing Robert Jordan and Martin.

 

We all know wheel of time beats song ..... Fire

Edited April 27, 2014 by Fatback

[illathid]

Could someone maybe do me a favor describe what they mean by high/low fantasy? I had understood the term to basically be an indicator of the presence of magic (high fantasy means lots of magic, low means very little), but seeing how people are using the term in this thread, I think I'm mistaken. Any help would be appreciated!

[PrimeJunta]

Fluid terms. Change with context. I think they're more about who the protagonists are, what motivates them, and how the world is portrayed.

 

I understand 'high fantasy' to be a near synonym of 'heroic fantasy.' Villainous villains. Threats that threaten the very existence of the world, or something damn close. Ancient bloodlines. Noble knights. The wise king who has gone over the sea, leaving the kingdom to the perfidious pretender. Ancient and terrifying secrets. Capital-G Good and capital-E Evil. That sort of thing. 

 

And 'low fantasy' to be something at the other end of the scale. Muck-filled streets. The cutthroat struggling with his remnants of conscience. Corrupt politicians. War, but not one about Good and Evil, but about power, wealth, glory, greed, and usually the protagonist is someone who's just caught up in it as an outsider. Sex. Crime.

 

So it's totally possible to have high-magic low fantasy, or low-magic high fantasy. The Witcher is high-magic low-fantasy, for example. Can't think of a low-magic high-fantasy classic off the top of my head because few high-fantasy authors can resist the temptation to also put in high-magic. Robin Hood would fit the bill, if it wasn't usually classified as historical fiction. 

 

It's also totally possible to write a low-fantasy story in a high-fantasy setting. Kirill Yeskov's The Last Ringbearer is a low-fantasy take on Middle-Earth, for example.

 

Edit: ho, cancel that. I looked it up and it looks like I had the term completely wrong. As did you. It's actually a more interesting distinction. Quoting:

 

"Low fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy fiction involving "nonrational happenings that are without causality or rationality because they occur in the rational world where such things are not supposed to occur."[1] Low fantasy stories are set either in the real world or a fictional but rational world, and are contrasted with high fantasy stories which take place in a completely fictional fantasy world setting with its own set of rules and physical laws." [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy ]

 

I like that definition more actually. What term should we use for the kind of stuff I mistakenly thought was low fantasy, though? We have 'heroic fantasy' for the other kind.

Edited April 27, 2014 by PrimeJunta

[Stun]

I think I like your definition more than the wiki one PrimeJunta.

 

Take Witcher 2 for example. It's got a setting, a world and plotline that are very much in line with how the wiki entry defines low fantasy, but then it tosses a protagonist at us who can only be defined as a walking manifestation of High fantasy. And of course, he's not the only one of his kind.

 

So... it's somewhere between Low Fantasy and High Fantasy. (Medium Fantasy? lol)

Edited April 27, 2014 by Stun

[Sensuki]

One thing we try and do at the Codex is get new information. There are many of us there that have already read every interview about an upcoming game (like PE) so we know what questions not to ask. We didn't learn too much new information this interview but it confirms that Carrie is writing companions.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Sensuki: Keep up the good work of info delving! We need all info we can get.

 

PrimeJunta: Your definition of high and low fantasy was great. I more or less subscribed to it already, and that Wiki definition seemed weirdly technical and almost high-strung.

[PrimeJunta]

Genres have fairly strict definitions though. Libraries and bookshops use them to classify things. I'm not sure it's helpful to knowingly violate them.

[Sarex]

As far as I know and what I heard from the writers them selves, the wiki definition is pretty much spot on. Low Fantasy strives for realism and believability above all else, while High fantasy is more about being epic and grand. Though WoT has connection to the real world mentioned throughout the whole book, so it is speculated that the world we live in now is from an age that has happened long ago in the WoT world.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Sarex

[Haerski]

@PimeJunta

That Wiki quote was very interesting, but leaves lots of things still under interpretation. ASoIaF could be classified either way, because even if some could say it's aiming for realistic world where unnatural things start to occur, the world still has strong roots in high fantasy, which just has been sleeping for a long time and is now waking once again. This is why I'm generally against all genre specifications. They just never are specific enough. They may point you at right shelf in library or bookstore, but IMO they should be left there and enjoy or hate the book by it's own merits and especially not judge whole shelf because of one or two or hundred books.

 

I don't want to generalize (that means I will:P), but in my experience people who have strong negative opinions about certain books, music or movies often seem to be more likely also stuck with genres and I can't help but think that these presumptions might sometimes be cause for that negativity.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Haerski