Intro: A game is like a vacation; a story is like the guide
I find it to be quite an accurate metaphor. Without a storyline, your character is free to do whatever he or she likes. You can create something like The Sims, SimCity, Civilization, or you might even want to count Counter-Strike. Without a story, a game has no real beginning or end, and the players have the added benefits of writing a storyline of their own.

However, that could be a bad thing sometimes. Sometimes you just want an ending. Sometimes it's just no fun without a story. Don't get me wrong, you can make a fine game without a story, but like vacations, it's much better if the player doesn't get bored simply looking at the surroundings.

Without a story, a game becomes hollow. Stories help guide the player to the goal, whether subtle or direct. It gives a sense of addiction; making them want to see what happens next. If you're planning a simple Pong clone, you don't need a storyline... but wouldn't it be so much more fun if there was a story attached to it?

A strange thing I've noticed is how most people who say Storyline isn't important are just the ones who can't think up a story. It's like how some girls go That guy must be gay if the person they're interested don't give in. But just the way any ugly girl can learn to seduce any guy, even the least creative of people can figure out a decent story given the right guidelines. Sure they may not be able to match Tolkien's skills, but it's much better than nothing.



Rambling: Stories are guides, not an annoying mother-in-law
Your story should be intended to guide the player towards a goal. Don't force the players to do things they don't want. You need the player to feel that he/she is doing what they're doing out of their own free will. It takes a lot of practice and/or talent to get it right, so don't worry too much about it.

What you should remember is that a story shouldn't be forced upon a person. Don't give them long cutscenes they can't skip. Don't force them through long, annoying conversations looking for answers they already know (e.g. Lionheart). Don't make them run long distances where nothing really happen (e.g. Eternal Daughter and the Final Fantasy series). Basically, if you’ve played a game with an annoying storyline that gets in the way, don’t do what they did. It’s better to have a short game that everyone loves than to have a stretched-out game that only 50% of your players enjoyed.

Now, with the advice section over, let’s get on with how any noob could generate a story…



Design a world
Level: Medium to Epic; the bigger the better
Quality: Very high
Difficulty: Medium
Create a world with some random world generator, then write a story about it. I find games like Civilization III to be EXCELLENT for the purpose. With that game, not only do you generate the world, but you generate the maps, the cities, and the enemies. With only the effort of just playing the game, you can generate a world filled with natural resources, enemies, rivers, oceans, mountain ranges, swamps, forests, deserts... all that stuff. And the great thing is that it applies to settings from the ancient ages to the modern age.

Of course, you don't have to just rely on Civilization III. There are other great games to generate maps of your own. Any simulation or even a game with a random map generator will do. I use SimCity 4 to help design maps for some of the games I've worked on (but as usual, never finished). And if you're an AD&D player, you can easily get some ideas from the AD&D community.

As soon as you have your world, all you have to do is modify it to your ideas and give it a storyline. Battling for terrain in Civilization III? Being oppressed and bullied by larger countries with iron (and you're stuck with mere hoplites)? There's some perfectly good ideas to start a nice RPG or strategy game. You can also make crime sims or RPGs from a map you made in Simcity. It's all up to your imagination.

Then, add some extra detail in it. See all those barbarians out there? Give them a culture. How bout the recently created cities? You can shrug them off as recently assimilated groups. Add a few elves near the spices, dwarves near the gold, and maybe some hobbits near the silk, and you've got a quick and easy classic fantasy game on your hands.

The biggest problem with this method is that it takes time. But who cares when you can manufacture something in such detail.



Design a villain
Level: All
Quality: Average
Difficulty: Low
This is a very effective tactic used for generating quests in many AD&D games. You don't create a game based on the player character, you design it based on the villain. Just make some powerful super-villain, give him/her a motive and a goal, and put maps based on stopping the villain or the nefarious ways he/she attempts to achieve the goal.

Let's say you're making a CRPG. You have this villain who wants to raise an army of undead just because um... her boyfriend dumped her and she turned into a necrophiliac control freak. Goal: Control. Motive: Lust for power and love for death. You can already generate a bunch of levels from that game. The graveyard, the labs, the evil necromancer castle, the apartment of her ex-boyfriend, the various areas between the graveyard and her castle (woods, villages, plains), or maybe even a final massive battle at the castle between the undead and some royal soldiers.

Villains are suprisingly easy to generate. All you have to do is think of something you've always wanted to do and think of some way to achieve that goal. Always wanted to create a riot in the school? How bout holding an annoying newsperson hostage? Or maybe even hypnotizing little kids and making them jump off bridges like rats? Not that I've ever wanted to do such things, but they're good examples.

The biggest problem with this method is that it's a favorite among many. You'll likely end up with many cliche ideas. But hey, at least you get an easy character creation idea.



Use your deepest fantasies
Level: All
Quality: Varies greatly
Difficulty: Very low
Here's a fun idea... take something you've always wanted to do and turn it into a game. If you love it, then not only will it be your passion, but you'll also end up experiencing it up to a point. Of course, the quality here depends on the quality of your fantasy. If you've always wanted to scrape the moss off your toenail, I doubt it'll be a very entertaining game. But if you've always fantasies of being some hero who saves maidens and slays dragons, well... you can figure the rest of it out yourself. I just included this part in just because someone would otherwise mention it in a comment.



Base it on something you've heard
Level: Simple to High
Quality: Varies
Difficulty: Medium
You've probably heard of exaggerated rumors before. Like the one about how someone got his scar. Or that other one on TV on how some lone soldier took down several American tanks and helicopters in Iraq. Well, there's your idea for a game. Make it real and you'll like get some laughs and maybe even some respect or bruises when you show it off in real life.

Unfortunately, rumors usually aren't much more stretchable than they usually are. Just don't plan on spending 5 years on the game.



Flip through some academic material
Level: All
Quality: High
Difficulty: Fairly high
Believe it or not, encyclopedias are often filled with great ideas. Many of them describe simple, everyday objects in the finest detail. You can learn so much about wood, iron, animals, and other small things.

But that's not where the story lies. A good idea would often be to just grab an idea from some description on art, plays, or even ancient history. Just pick something at random and re-adjust it. It takes quite a bit of practice to get it right, but it gives you a realistic story. If you like, you can just be unoriginal and rip something off history, like an ancient war, some old myth or something. Not only will you have a lot of the planning done for you, but you'll also be making edutainment (which is a good thing in many cases).