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Lore: Roundtable on direction and depth

October 26, 2025​

  • @andydirk
  • @Galactic_15
  • @jyu
  • @maloki
  • @rachaelrose1212
  • @Sp3cialK
  • @WarrenGore
  • @wwwwwwhale
  • @Zing
  • @Rora

Focus​

  • Understand different perspectives on lore within WotR
  • Level set and guide future plans
  • Roundtable format: share understanding without interruption
  • Acknowledge perspectives to set right course

Lore Creation Process​

Question: How should lore be created process-wise?​

Response:

  • Allow for creativity and brainstorming
  • Include interaction with others' ideas
  • Collaboration with ability to ask questions and draw out ideas
  • Feedback loop between teams (game design, art, build)
  • Integrate ideas and build lore together

Response:

  • Brainstorming should not be limited but eventually focus on specific goals
  • Feedback is crucial
  • Initiative from other teams, especially game design, to establish mechanics
  • Game design should lead in developing systems
  • Brainstorming and new ideas still valuable

Response:

  • Lore should be primarily led by tasks (similar to other teams)
  • Task-based with priorities for what's important
  • Identity of Lore has been ambiguous, making suggestions difficult

Follow-Up Question​

Anything had been done that fits the ideal lore process description?

No one could provide examples.

Lore in Player Experience​

Question: Where should lore exist and how should players experience it?​

Delivery Methods:

  • Books: Short, digestible, can be found
  • Campaigns: Involved story/questlines
  • Dialogue: Very small nuggets (less than paragraph), possibly contradictable hearsay
  • NPC interactions: Character dialogues, avoid exposition dumps
  • Visual/environmental: What player sees or doesn't see, atmosphere, surroundings, events
  • Asset design: Weapon/ability creation, hub world tells story
  • Minimal written: Tooltips, flavor text, item descriptions
  • Sound: Event-based sound effects, music

Design Principles​

  • Dialogue choices for player could enhance fantasy and allow character projection
  • Find happy medium for dropping bits of lore (not exposition dumps)
  • Most lore expressed through world itself, not text
  • Player experience through what they see, hear, understand from senses
  • Focus on past/history rather than how player affects it

Player Impact​

  • Player's impact on lore difficult to implement from design perspective
  • Lore notes could be written from different characters' perspectives (harder to piece together)

Story vs Lore Definitions​

Story Definition​

  • Big story player follows
  • Sequence of events player goes through
  • Beginning, middle, end with final villain
  • Spoon-fed information
  • No story means: No two players follow same sequence of events

Lore Definition​

  • All the bits in background
  • History and things around player
  • Agreed-upon truths of universe
  • Information player may never encounter
  • Worldbuilding

Consensus: No Main Story​

  • Agreement: No main story with defined end
  • Acceptable: Side stories that contribute to worldbuilding
  • Acceptable: Quest lines with story but no big main story
  • Goal: Player's overall story is open ended, they create own story

Story Elements Discussion​

  • Adding bosses will create story whether intended or not
  • Lore being optional means players don't need to know it to play
  • Situation surrounding player/character okay, but character shouldn't be defined
  • Journey wanderer takes is their story based on what game provides

Milestones​

  • More skill/gear check to prevent being overwhelmed in new areas
  • Necessary to keep scaling unless flat progression
  • Can be achievements, not required or hard check
  • Goal: Avoid milestones coming across as part of story

Concise vs Detailed Lore​

Initial Question​

Should WotR have concise or detailed lore internally?

Defining Concise​

  • Proposal: Keep explanations to around three sentences
  • Goal: Avoid creating story, keep lore in background
  • Process: Idea → trim down → canonize (sentence or paragraph)
  • Helps avoid conflicts with other ideas
  • Concise should be standard, but definition needs clarification

Getting to Conciseness​

  • "Getting to the conciseness is a process"
  • Important to allow brainstorming and drafting before making concise
  • Canonized lore could include summary and keywords for easy overview
  • Target: Short overview not covering more than one screen page

Coexistence Argument​

  • Concise and detailed lore can coexist
  • Organization is key to accessibility
  • Internal lore (not necessarily visible to players) is focus
  • Most lore written won't be visible to players

Concerns with Current Canon​

  • Current canon lore condensed into paragraph
  • Some find limiting and damaging to foundation of internal lore
  • Difficult to work with because lacks connections
  • Feels driven by gameplay rather than worldbuilding
  • Desire: World and stories come first, inform gameplay (but gameplay should coincide)

Academy of Threads Example​

Original Content​

Voted on in lore space as ability guild to move forward with:

  • 4 paragraphs of lore
  • 3 paragraphs explaining Academy
  • 3 paragraphs for story
  • Included: purpose, values, specialties, membership, hierarchy, symbol, base of operations, reputation, notable people, flavor texts

Consolidation Levels Presented​

60% Level: (fuller version in Warren's doc)

30% Level: Surface level anyone can easily read

  • Good for other teams to work with

  • Art team may not need key roles/structure/philosophy

  • Build team has own backend information

  • Each element can still have own entries with more information

  • 20%, 10%, 5% Levels: Increasingly condensed

  • 14% Example

  • 30%: Many suggested this would cover internal use

  • 15%: Suggested target for internal use

  • 5-10%: What players actually interact with

  • 100%: Question raised about purpose if only small portion canonized/seen

Information Level Philosophy​

Levels of Lore​

  • Lore for creation and consistency (Lore team needs to understand everything)
  • Team level for internal use (Art/builds don't need to know as much)
  • Player level with accessible bits (What players see)

100% Detail Purpose​

  • Useful for consistency and reference point
  • Shouldn't be required reading for everyone
  • Canonizing 100% doesn't change that other teams use 15%
  • Smaller percentage allows wiggle room and easier interlocking of ideas
  • Prevents stepping on toes

Lore as Science (Rora's Perspective)​

  • Lore and worldbuilding as science
  • Should be consistent with itself, especially with peer review
  • Lore isn't canonized immediately but goes through peer review and discussion
  • Detailed lore necessary for world to grow independently (not just flavor text)

PRISM Currency Example​

Breakdown by Percentage​

Breaking down currency information (30%, 20%, 10%, 5%) to determine detail needed

  • 5% level: What most players will know
  • 30%: Provides explanation of unified currency when everyone from different worlds
  • All levels (5-30%): Useful for team

Additional Topics​

Emerged organically through discussion

Unreliable Narrator Concept​

  • Story told by people in world
  • Their versions may not be entirely accurate
  • Characters in world don't necessarily know entire truth
  • Doesn't make them unreliable narrators but adds perspective

Player Interpretation and Internal Logic​

Principles​

  • Lore team should define base questions but leave room for discussion
  • Invisible internal lore important for internal logic
  • Players don't need to see all answers
  • Allow players to interpret lore themselves
  • Avoid "correct" or "incorrect" interpretation

Internal Structure​

  • Need internal structure so different bits flow together
  • Even if players can't make all connections
  • Question: Overarching story or focus on mechanical lore with optional stories?

Story vs Narrative Distinction​

Proposed Definitions​

  • Story: World's own story that doesn't need characters
  • Narrative: What player experiences in campaign or quest
  • Need definite definitions for "story," "narrative," and "quest" to ensure alignment

Generally Used​

  • Story for Narrative (has been team usage)

Canon and Non-Canon Discussion​

Proposals

  • Smaller amount of canonized material with links to larger non-canon ideas in Water Docs
  • Question: What's point of acknowledging lore if not canon?
  • Challenge: Can't move forward without agreeing on what constitutes valid submission
  • Question: Should everything in Academy of Threads be canon or smaller percentage, with rest non-essential/potentially contradictory?

Accessibility and Team Engagement​

Considerations

  • Accommodate members so they can engage even without time to read everything
  • Separate conversation may be needed on making lore accessible to different people
  • Not everyone on lore team has time to read long documents
  • Organization more important than length for accessibility

Team Alignment and Decision Making​

Process​

  • Team needs to decide where limits are, even if individuals disagree
  • Discussions in roundtable format to find commonalities and consensus
  • Consider accessibility when making decisions
  • Need to decide where to draw line between story/narrative and actual base facts

Narrowing Focus Suggestion​

  • Focus on one small part at a time to build whole
  • Makes it digestible while retaining depth

Next Actions

Discussion Post​

  • Warren to create discussion post with clear rules of engagement
  • Emphasize solutions benefiting project as whole, not just individuals
  • Encourage openness to adjusting positions for project benefit
  • Post questions for those who missed meeting

Roundtable Reflection​

  • Aim: Gather feedback without requiring defense of opinions
  • Suggestions for future: Speaker list, stage, or muting if necessary

Meeting Notes​

  • Notes to be shared after meeting

Key Summary

  1. Process
  • Task driven vs creative brainstorming balance
  1. Detail Level
  • Concise (3 sentences) vs detailed internal lore
  • 15-30% suggested for internal target
  • 5-10% for player interaction
  1. Story
  • No main story with end
  • Side stories/quest lines acceptable
  1. Canon
  • What percentage should be canonized?
  • Purpose of 100% detail if only fraction used?
  • Balance between flexibility and consistency