How to implement lore better?

[Little Adventurer]

Every good RPG has some form of lore tied into it. How did the world come to be? How did we get here? What's our world like in modern day? How do things work in this world? And so on. 


As you would expect, so do I.


But what I was wondering is... how exactly should I show it? I don't want to shove it in the player's face because as good as it can potentially be, nobody likes being FORCED into being told a story, but at the same time, I don't want to never talk about my lore besides looking at evented bookshelves which most people would probably ignore unless it's a specific situation like they're in a library. Sure, old school RPG players can (for the most part) withstand lots of text, but nowadays people are more impatient and if they can skip or speed through text, they will. Even if it's at the cost of not knowing what the plot is, if they even care. Here's an example of some of my lore: 








As you can see, this bit of lore is very long. Yes, I know I need to fix it. I plan on making it shorter, and rewriting it in general (in particular the part about The Void being trapped within the world will be rewritten, as I actually misremembered that it WASN'T and it's within it's own little realm until after I'd already wrote it down and recorded the footage).  If anyone knows how to convey the same story only shorter/better, please tell me. 


If anybody knows how to justify the idea of different battle styles in a book (default, ATB and CT, other than what I thought up- speak an incantation to temporarily warp reality according to studying the "Art of Battle" -please tell me. 


If anyone knows how to describe Elemental stuff better in text, that'd be nice. I only have Fire written so far. In summary: Represented by the God of Fire, Lur, who is also the creator of Dragons. Represents stuff like passion and honor, but can also lead to impulsiveness and lust. Gotta have a strong emotional drive or else your fireballs will be weak, but don't overdo it or lose your temper, or else it'll consume you.


So. How do you guys convey your lore? Your worldbuilding? Your exposition? I'd really like to know!

 

[bgillisp]

Most of mine has been books on shelves, though if it is something that is background to the story I've done it by having the NPC saying "And there's more on the shelf in my room if you wish to read it.". That way the player knows it is there if they wish to check it out, and for those who the short version is enough, they can move on.


Plus, this method is handy for those replaying the game, as they already know the lore and probably don't want to hear it for the 500th time.


Now as for towns, since my game has a couple characters that know the area, they have been giving the player a short intro to the area the first time you arrive in a zone. So one might say "This here is Aurora, home of the Fairy Enchanters, and the famous unicorn fields. Let's go check them out!." In this case I try to make it long enough that it gets the idea across without it turning into an info dump in the middle of the street.

 

[DogeWorm]

Well, for my game, I have a few temples in my world, and each tell a different part of the lore. For example, the temple of Storms explain how air came to be, and the temple of Inferno explains how fire came to be. If you're having trouble you can send the lore to me and I can help you write it.

 

[Nirwanda]

I honestly don't want it to be missable so I try to weave it naturally into the character's backstories and motivations, as well as into quests you need to go trough in order to progress. Sure there might be a little bit of lore that's a throaway line by an npc, but all the important stuff is also part of the narrative. So you might learn the reach of the mage's guild through the opinions of your party's mage and how others react to him while you might learn about the afterlife while solving a quest for a skeleton that blocks your way. And the story it's not some grand epic, you don't have to be fighting against abadon the god of chaos when you can have one of your characters use him in a throwaway insult.


Tl;dr Learn through the character and their actions not from them.(exposition)

 

[Uzuki]

I took inspirations from dark souls and put some detail in the weapon/armor/item description and, if I can, into the environment. Plus every town or hub area has a library, pub, or bard that can be explored or talked to for more lore or even details or hints on enemies. Anything that is relevant to the plot make sure to try and weave it into the story narrative so the player will know. There's nothing more annoying then learning that some world lore is integral to the plot, but you have to dig through datalogs and websites to find it. *Glares over at Destiny and FFXIII*

 

[TheOriginalFive]

I put it in interactive books within a library map, snippets in the item and equipment descriptions, and even as recordings from the local robots if a particular condition is met in the Mechanical Armageddon.


For example, food counts as a HP healing item. I listed where the food comes from, the higher-healing food comes from a somewhat snobbish old baker with a big mustache.


The drinks come from a local soda company, and the old baker is mentioned by a computer servicewoman early on in the game. NPCs will refer to each other within the enclave even if they're not very close.

 

[DarkBooDev]

My game has a moral choice style system, so the full lore may be split up between the 3 paths I currently have envisioned to kind of encourage the player to play through the game multiple times to get the full story. I know for my game, I have the lore told by the various NPCs that aren't major characters throughout the game. Specifically, they kind of reward the player with new bits of lore depending on how the player interacts with them, mainly if they decide to save them instead of capturing or killing them. They'll reveal their motivations and aspirations by by the way they interact with the player and the two main NPCs, and their justifications for their actions.


However, I do have the full lore revealed in the "true" path of the game, and it's told by various storybook pages thrown throughout the final area of the game. At the beginning of the game, the player has the option to read a portion of this story for themselves in their bedroom, with the ending being omitted. IN the final area, the player will find the ending, and it will be radiant depending on the player's actions, showing the player how their actions have affected the game world and the story. I want it to be styled after the "New Home" area in Undertale, where either the monsters or Flowey reveal their knowledge of the backstory behind the game as the player goes through the long hallways leading up to the end of the game.


It's kind of hard to understand unless you read a little about my game's story, so if you're interested you can read the gist of it here:




I'd also like some feedback for it to see if I should change any of it, and any criticism would be greatly appreciated

 

[Henryetha]

I think this could work for you, to make the lore more interesting:

 

[GotMop]

Don't be afraid to name an in-game building after fictional characters. By entering the James Grey Windmill, a player is forced to ask themselves who is or was James Grey. Throw in a NPC, book, or a side quest and then you have a small piece of lore. Maybe James Grey was a town war hero. He could of been a local priest killed by a bandit.  Focus on one thing at a time. By developing one localized piece of history you can slowly build lore.

 

 

[Warboss74]

If anybody has played Final Fantasy II, the Keyword system is another way to implement lore. I'm trying to implement it in my game as a way of distributing lore and character discussion to advance relationships.

 

[Little Adventurer]

Care to explain?


Also, these are all nice ways to go about it.

 

[Warboss74]

In Final Fantasy II, conversations would involve a keyword that the player could learn. After learning it, they could ask different characters about that keyword and by asking the right character they could unlock a new keyword. It delivered lore and different characters perspectives on a topic. A couple of keywords in my game would be Alaric Dragonslayer, from there you could learn of Alaric's Plague, which may have an important significance to a certain party member and advances their relationship with the player. (Talking about a loved one lost to the Plague)

 

[GotMop]

In Final Fantasy II, conversations would involve a keyword that the player could learn. After learning it, they could ask different characters about that keyword and by asking the right character they could unlock a new keyword. It delivered lore and different characters perspectives on a topic. A couple of keywords in my game would be Alaric Dragonslayer, from there you could learn of Alaric's Plague, which may have an important significance to a certain party member and advances their relationship with the player. (Talking about a loved one lost to the Plague)

In recent memory, Elder Scrolls Morrowind did this too, I believe

 

[SpacemanFive]

Besides anything already mentioned, one other way that could work is to use a codex or encyclopedia system.


As players play the game, things they do or hear about can unlock more detailed lore entries in the codex/encyclopedia they can opt to look at when they feel like it, or even opt out of doing so. For example, encountering or hearing about a particular type of creature (such as people referring to "the swarm of 607") may unlock an entry on it, which can reveal details on its biology and history with the people of the region where it can be encountered. Some information may be given in normal gameplay, but the expanded information is both there for viewing and completely optional.


In a way, I guess this is a bit similar to the keyword system, but deposits information in an off-hand database instead of being something players can ask NPCs about.

 

[Little Adventurer]

Kinda reminds me of Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

 

[TheGamedawg]

I think the "books on tables" approach to lore is still pretty good.  Though I like to make sure to make more events that explain lore in general, as suppose to just one or two here and there that give a giant text dump.  We've all had that one time where we opened a book and then were forced to go through pages upon pages of text.

 

[SpacemanFive]

Kinda reminds me of Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

It was kinda inspired by that.


I wasn't suggesting that the lore issue be *only* handled with a codex system, but that it could help if used alongside something else, like what GotMop and Warboss74 suggested.

 

[cekobico]

Pictures! 


I personally don't like long, novel-like, paragraph split in 4 lines of dialog boxes. I prefer using pretty illustrations with subtitle-like 1-2 lines of sentence. 


I'm planning to set up my lore as something like this, probably made the pictures look more sketchier like pages or ancient scrolls for a more immersive experience. 

 

[SpacemanFive]

Pictures! 


I personally don't like long, novel-like, paragraph split in 4 lines of dialog boxes. I prefer using pretty illustrations with subtitle-like 1-2 lines of sentence. 


I'm planning to set up my lore as something like this, probably made the pictures look more sketchier like pages or ancient scrolls for a more immersive experience. 

Nice. Yeah, including some form of illustrations is something I'd like to do too, if I make an in-game lore database.

 

[BigToastie]

Part of my main plot is very heavily lore based on a particular group (or faction) of people.


but I plan to add  books (chapters I / II / III) on various things, reading the books will uncover additional (optional areas)


for a random (not from my game) example  it may explain how to get to a hidden cove that had stored treasures of a band of pirates, having all 3 books and read them, it will uncover the area on how to get there, not only adding areas but giving you lore and getting a feel of the world around you, that you aren't exposed too.