NPC Idle Conversations - Writers Needed!

ATTENTION! ATTENTION!

The idle banter project is now CLOSED. We've gotten all the initial submissions we need, and new volunteers are NO LONGER being accepted. This phase of the project can now be considered COMPLETE.

Hello everyone! This is a thread for volunteers, new and old, who have strong writing ability and would be interested in creating new, original dialog for Skywind. If you think you might be interested in helping, please read below.

Signup Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16hN5gE4Ynejy4-6rVBrLuLRkDtj2htNYlIf5vKRGTMQ/edit#gid=0

Also, more good news! There is a new thread that has been established specifically for people working on this project to collaborate! Writers, be sure to check it out!

Anyways, the assignment is this:

Idle banter. Ever noticed how in Skyrim you would occasionally catch snippets of conversations between two NPCs, that had nothing to do with you? This gave the characters a lot more life, and it's something we would like to add to Skywind so that the NPCs are more interesting and engaging.

So what are we looking for in "idle banter?" Ideally, we would have every single NPC exchanging a few sentences with another, or even muttering to themselves if that's more appropriate. These would not involve the player directly, and to a large degree, are only limited by the writer's imagination. Just remember, this is short banter, not an elaborate scene. These lines should steer away from having more than two people involved, and they generally should try to stay less than 5 lines of dialog long. These are the kinds of scenes that the player will likely rush by, and they should be short enough for the player to be able to hear most of it before they leave the area.

The idea of these scenes is to elaborate on the personalities of NPCs. We can embellish their traits, but by no means are we making them up. If you are creating dialog between two NPCs, you are expected to do your own research on them and create dialog that makes some degree of sense in context.

So, how are we organizing this? I would like to assign dialog writing by major cells, as well as a "miscellaneous" section, so that no NPCs accidentally get left out. This would mean that someone might volunteer to do all the NPCs in the Rat in the Pot Inn, rather than just picking out NPCs at random across the region. All the miscellaneous NPCs would then go into their own group. These would be most of the NPCs you see just walking the streets of the city.

If you're interested in helping out with this project, send me a private message or just leave a comment in this thread. All you have to do is tell me what area you're interested in working on, and I can give you an official claim to that area so that nobody else ends up doing it at the same time. As you're doing your lines, just put them on a personal word document or whatever else for now, and we will compile them all into a single, online document later.

ALSO, if you need some inspiration:

- If you're willing to do a bit of digging in our forums, you should be able to find a thread titled "Scenes". That was basically the drawing board for authors who wanted to make longer dialogs that could play out between NPCs, and could be a good place to look for the kind of style we're looking for. Your lines will be shorter, but in general, they would follow a similar format.

- Secondly, the UESP wiki will undoubtedly be your best friend for this. If you don't know where to start, just go to the wiki, search for a location, and you should find you have more than enough information on various characters to get started. And if they don't have anything concrete about a certain NPC, don't be afraid to embellish them a little with traits of their own, within reason.

Hopefully that covers anything you need to know. If you have any comments or suggestions, leave a post on this thread or send me a private message. We need all the help we can get, so don't hesitate to volunteer. Thanks, everyone, and let the writing begin!

Last edited by Justafan on 20 Aug 2014 - 19:15.

Hey, I created an account

Hey, I created an account roughly 12 minutes ago because I saw this topic, is it still possible to get on board with this? I've put my handle down on the sign-up sheet on the off-chance but don't really know the protocol here, so hope that's alright.

Also good evening, nice to meet people.

The more the merrier! There

The more the merrier! There are plenty of cells to write dialoge for if your intrested. If you have a question just ask the mods.

Hello, 3quency! Just stake a

Hello, 3quency! Just stake a claim wherever you like and get to writing! You can PM me with your rough drafts. Oh, and good evening to you as well. :)

Sputnick- I like where you're headed with this. I'm glad you are planning on adding more dialog, we probably want about twice that amount in the finished product. At the moment, your writing has a lot of typos that could do with fixing, but that's pretty minor stuff that can be done at any time. Also, something I just want to nip in the bud real quick - they're spelled "septims," not "septums." It may not seem important, but when voice actors are reading these lines, having the right spelling can really help show them how to pronounce the word correctly. One last thing I'd want to point out is that a lot of your lines are rather clunky, and by that I mean they don't really roll off the tongue well. A lot of these people will be speaking to each other with very casual language, so the writing needs to reflect that in shorter sentences and, in certain cases, simpler dialog. Here's a technique I use: read your characters' lines out loud. Like, actually, out loud. It helps you get a feel for what comes naturally and what doesn't.

I do like your ideas so far, though, and I think that a lot could come of them. Keep working at it, and send any changes you make to me in a PM.

will be good to hear cautious

will be good to hear cautious reaction on weapons in the hand.
reaction to legendary items too.

Eh. Too much work. These

Eh. Too much work. These are idle banter lines, meaning conversations NPCs have with other NPCs or say to themselves. They aren't directed at the player, and don't take things like the player's gear into account. They will only have a chance to activate when two characters in a given cell are near each other. They may have a few other conditions - like only being active once Dagoth Ur is dead, but for the most part we want to keep things 'trivial', for every-day use. Just to make the world feel more 'alive'.

Thanks, lol Wordpad doesn't

Thanks, lol Wordpad doesn't tell me if I've misspelled a word. I do see now that the writing is not casual enough, I will try to fix that. Honestly, the characters have about 3 sentences about them on UESP so I sort of have to use my imagination. I'm also 14 so I'm not great at it. But I will definitely try to fix everything you said and I appreciate your help. :)

Here's my updated version of

Here's my updated version of dialoge in Lucky Lockup. It's still needs changes but I tried to fix some things:

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Here is my first draft for

Here is my first draft for Vivec-

Please let me know if format is ok.

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vivec_fighters_guild.doc	36 KB

Эй. Я очень хочу участвовать

Эй. Я очень хочу участвовать в этом проекте. Я думаю, что у меня есть все, что мне нужно. Кроме того, я заядлый игрок в morovind.I думаю, что могу помочь.[External image]

think of me to get a good Khajiit or wood elf.[External image]

Hello! It is nice to meet you

Hello! It is nice to meet you, Leyrelka. I am a little bit confused, though, because you say that you are interested in working with khajiit or wood elf. This forum is for writing dialog lines. Were you interested in doing this or doing voice acting? If you want to do voice acting, you have to go to the voice acting forum. If you do want to help with writing, though, please let me know.

I like some of your concepts,

I like some of your concepts, Michael! However, one thing I really do need to point out is that the dialect you've given to your orcs is a little funky. At the moment, they're speaking like Khajiits, using only names when addressing people or themselves. Remember, orcs generally have no problem with pronouns, referring to themselves as "I" and others as "you."

Another thing you might want to work on is making the "muttering" lines sound more natural. It's a little bit difficult to describe, but at the moment, a lot of your characters sound like they're delivering their lines to some invisible person in the room, which isn't the kind of sense we want to convey with solitary NPCs, because it comes off as awkward unless the NPC is meant to be insane.

Think about times when you might mutter to yourself. Nobody is around, and what you say is only audible to you. Usually when people do this, what they say is incomplete and fragmented, because half the conversation is happening in their head. Take the line you wrote for Raig: "Sabers are the best for combat. No, make that two." As it stands now, it sounds like Bashag is saying this with the intention of someone else hearing it, as it is fluently worded and a complete thought. A sense of muttering and being deep in thought would be better conveyed if Bashag's dialog was full of pauses and incomplete dialog. Think more like this: "This clunky steel will never do... what I would give for a couple quality sabers around here..."

All that aside, this is really good stuff, Michael! I especially like the large variety of dialog. I'm looking forward to your next update!

All writers who have signed

All writers who have signed up so far, be sure to check out the new thread for this project, entitled "Idle Banter Collaboration." That's the new place to go to share out your writing and provide advice to others.

Thanks for the input - Here's

Thanks for the input - Here's my next go at it. Any feedback is welcome. May try more cells later.

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aidruhn_guild_of_fighters.doc	31 KB
vivec_fighters_guild.doc	38 KB

New (potential) contributor

New (potential) contributor here with some writing experience. I would like to take a crack at Hla Oad, which according to the chart is still available. I will probably request a few more after testing the waters with this one.

Yay! Good to have you onboard

Yay! Good to have you onboard fellow writer :). Feel free to do as many as you like. I think we're trying to get these lines done in the next couple of weeks, but no pressure. Post them on the other thread for Idle Dialogue when you're done. Did you sign on in the document?

if the idle banter for the

if the idle banter for the redoran Canton in vivec isn't taken I suppose I can claim that

Hey stijmunkey, good to have

Hey stijmunkey, good to have you onboard too! Which part of the Redoran Canton would you like to tackle (Plaza, Misc dwellers, treasury, Waistworks)? Or are you keen to do the whole lot? Be awesome either way :)

@twentyenginerunner, I've signed you up on the sheet to do the entire Hla Oad. Keep us posted :)

I'll start with the

I'll start with the miscellaneous dwellers and go from there!

Sweet as :)

Sweet as :) Don't forget to put your name down in the document at the beginning of the thread please! :D

Hey guys, sorry I've been

Hey guys, sorry I've been gone for so long. Stij, Enginerunner, good to have you. As Aurabelle said, we're doing all collaboration on the alternate writer's thread, so you're welcome to leave your work, as well as suggestions for others, there.

Michael, good to see you're making progress. Why don't you post that work on the other thread, so all the writers can go over it there?

EDIT: Whoops, just noticed that you already did post in the other thread. Good job, Michael, you're ten steps ahead of me. :)

I'll try doing the Caldera

I'll try doing the Caldera Guild of Mages since it's still open. :D

Awesome Sputnick, don't

Awesome Sputnick, don't forget to sign on! Keep it coming in :)

I'd like to take on the whole

I'd like to take on the whole of Vivec Temple Canton when previous submitted work accepted.

Thanks

As of right now, I would like

As of right now, I would like to sign up for Eight Plates in Balmora, and I would like to do some Misc. in Balmora. That will be all for now, but ask if you would like a text document of the scripts.

@michaelstao: Love the

@michaelstao: Love the enthusiasm! The Temple Canton is really big though, so its been divided into sections, and some of those have been spoken for. You're welcome to sign up for any of the remaining areas...and if you have ideas for what you want you want to write for them, I'd advise you to get them written before you forget! :)

MattMacob: good to have you onboard! We'd love to see any writing you have, post it on the collaboration thread :)

Ok disregard the last request

Ok disregard the last request and put me down for these:

Vivec- Fighters training area

Vivec- Temple Canton -Hall of Justice

Vivec- Arena Canton -Fighters training area

Sadrith Mora- Wolverine hall

Hey WoopWoop, nice to meet

Hey WoopWoop, nice to meet you!

Unfortunately, at the moment we're just looking for people to write lines for specific NPCs - we're not looking to add in any generic NPCs at the moment, at least not as generic as "nord" and "dunmer," and as a result it certainly doesn't make sense to be writing lines for them.

That said, if you ever do feel like writing for some specific NPCs - perhaps some of the bigger buildings in Ald'ruhn, for instance - I'd be happy to welcome you to the team!

Michael - I'll go ahead and sign you up for those. In the future, though, it's not a problem for you to sign up for them yourself! Just go to the google doc provided at the beginning of either thread and put in your name where you want to write for!

Hi all! Was looking for ways

Hi all! Was looking for ways to contribute and ran into this thread. I could try my hand at writing banter for Telvanni Council House in Sadrith Mora if that's okay.

Hey Willowisp, nice to have

Hey Willowisp, nice to have you onboard! :)

You can totally do there, just remember to sign up on the document at the beginning of the thread please! You can post any finished work in the Idle Banter Collaboration thread if you want compliments and critique :P.

Lovely to have you!

Okay. I'll do Sadrith Mora

Okay. I'll do Sadrith Mora exterior next. :)

Can anyone offer insight into

Can anyone offer insight into whether or not Argonians would use the word "you?" It is hard to tell from the text in Morrowind since most of it is not unique to a particular character. I know that they use "it" instead of names, but cannot tell if this applies to less definite pronouns.

@twentyenginerunner, have a

@twentyenginerunner, have a look at Krysalynne's writing for the Argonian Mission, that may help you :)

@twentyenginerunner, I just

@twentyenginerunner, I just posted an update on the Collab. thread with some changes. Please use that one. I've had to do several rewrites because Argonian speech is just so ... awkward. I do hope it helps and denevir and smitehammer's posts on the Collab. Thread were really helpful too.

Good luck and if I can help, please let me know. I'll get back with you as quickly as I can.

Cheers!

Krys

Hey all, new here, love

Hey all, new here, love Morrowind, and would love to help out with this process.

I'd like to be signed up for the following:

Balmora - Morag Tong Guild, Hlaalu Council Manor, and misc (street dwellers).

Suran - misc (street dwellers)

Khuul

Just a quick question before I set off to do this. When are we looking to get most of this stuff back to the mods/forums?

Hey Eridanus, good to have

Hey Eridanus, good to have you onboard!

You are welcome to those areas, I'll sign you up for them now. In future though, you are welcome to sign up yourself, just hit the link at the beginning of the thread to the Google Doc :)

I don't quite get what you mean with your last question: do you mean when does this work need to be submitted back here? If so, we are looking to try get all this done in the next couple of weeks so that the voice-acting team can get onto their stuff :). You can post finished work or work you'd like help with in the Idle Banter Collaboration thread.

Looking forward to hearing from you! :)

I just grabbed the street

I just grabbed the street-dwellers of Caldera and the Foreign Quarter Waistworks, and filled out the spreadsheet accordingly.

Hey man, i would like to

Hey man, i would like to claim Sarethi Manor in Ald'ruhn.

Also could you tell me where to submit my drafts?

Nevermind I have now singed

Nevermind I have now singed up myself.

btw I have done a bit of work, please assess my contribution, thanks

A quick question, though I went through scenes and found this by user Dragomir. You don't have any location for this dialogue, but I think it should be in game:

Where: Ald'ruhn, Skar, Redoran Headquarters

When: When we first visit Redoran Headquarters

NPCs: Bolvyn Venim, two of his personal guards, Athyn Sarethi, Neminda.

As you enter the Redoran hedquarters you see Bolvyn Venim geared in his Traditional Ebony Armour, as he is having an argument with Athyn Sarethi.

Dialogs:
Bolvyn - "OUT OF MY WAY, S'WIT!"
Athyn - "You've changed, Bolvyn... I remember when you and Varvur were riding guars together, as small brats. You should know better."
Bolvyn - "This is the last time I warn you, councilor. One more word, and he pays with his head."

The dialogue is done. Bolvyn Venim and two of his personal guards march out back to his manor. Bolvyn has a furious face and shouts "GET OUT OF MY WAY" if we stand too close. Athyn stays there for a while and looks at Bolvyn going away. When the archmaster is out, another dialogue starts:

Neminda - "Don't worry sera. It's all going to right itself out."
Athyn - "Thank you, child. But I don't think Bolvyn is going to step aside. He's grown stubborn and arrogant, he'll never admit to his wrong. Now excuse me, I have duties ahead of me."

Athyn Sarethi walks back to his manor and the scene ends. If we try to start a dialogue with Athyn he'd say "It's none of your concerns."

This scene has a few purposes. First - it's going to give us a hint of that spicy conflict between Bolvyn and Athyn, getting us interested in the internal politics of Redoran while we go off looking for some pesky crabs in the wilds. It allows us to see the leader and one of the councilors we'll be working for the most. It will also give some more character to Neminda, who was painfully bland in Morrowind and was just an obvious quest giver that didn't even seem to belong to House Redoran.
And of course - it will showcase the awesome Traditional Ebony Armour and tease us to get it some day :P Other than that - it will give those NPC's a bit more life. In vanilla Morrowind they never even leave their houses, freaking no-lives.

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Hey, Dragon015! Thanks for

Hey, Dragon015! Thanks for volunteering! I see you've already found the alternate thread for posting your work. I'll be reviewing it over there.

In regards to your question about Dragomir's lovely piece of dialog, I actually remember it quite well. I was one of the people who worked extensively in the scenes thread, and it's actually where I got my start. These scenes have unfortunately not been implemented yet, and the whole project for them has kind of fallen apart, but it's still quite possible to implement shorter versions of these exchanges if we so desire. As it turns out, we do have a location in the signup sheet for this snippet of dialog, and it happens to be the very first one on the list, the Redoran Council Hall in Vivec. The only potential issue for this scene would be that it involves multiple NPCs normally located in separate cells, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to program. The location where this would be taking place is currently claimed by a different dragon, Atticusdragon, but considering he's been absent from the project some time, he will probably be removed from the list and you would be welcome to take his place. And if you do, we can see what can be done about possibly implementing this scene, with Dragomir's permission, of course.

It's hard to believe nobody

It's hard to believe nobody has claimed Seyda Neen yet. I'll gladly claim it if that's possible :)

Actually, it was claimed. The

Actually, it was claimed. The person who had previously claimed it, however, never followed up, so their name was just recently removed from the signup sheet. You're welcome to that spot!

Would it be possible to get

Would it be possible to get me in contact with that person to see if they had any work done on it already that I could build off of?

I would like to claim Elven

I would like to claim Elven Nations Cornerclub please. I've never done anything quite like this and it sound like fun. I have a chunk of "solo" comments finished and am trying to conjure conversations now. It should be finished soon.

Too late to join in? I only

Too late to join in? I only JUST found out about Skywind this morning. I'm going to try out for voice acting as well, but I am largely a writer. I'm not choosy; I will take whatever is unclaimed and still needed!

Edit to add: is the signup sheet current? Because I'm hearing that you want to have things completed in a couple of weeks, but when I try to pull up the signup sheet virtually everything looks unclaimed. It also says Balmora mages' guild is unclaimed, when that was one of the first claimed in this thread. Any help you can give a newbie would be greatly appreciated.

Several people jumped on

Several people jumped on claims and never followed through. People tend to go for the most appealing places first. With no follow through, though, that just leaves big gaps. Feel free to take on some of the newly un-claimed regions!

So many new sign-ups! Woohoo,

So many new sign-ups! Woohoo, let's do this thing :)

Please please please do not be intimidated by the sign-up sheet! I've signed you all on for the areas you requested. It's best if one does this before commencing writing to avoid double claims--which is unlikely, but yeah :)

@pipie123, I'm not actually sure if Seyda Neen had anything written for it in the end, because if that were the case, the completion stage would have been shown as 'partially completed'. Justafan will definitely flick things your way if there is some...but I wouldn't count on it :)

@maddogpony: love the enthusiasm! Have signed you up, can't wait to see some work :)

@Mishell, awesome to have you onboard too! Sign up for what ever stuff takes your fancy...there's loads to do, haha.

Let's go writers! :D

Fantastic. I'm sure you'll

Fantastic. I'm sure you'll let me know if I do something wrong in my submission process, so rather than badger you with questions I'll just get to work. ;)

It's great to see so many new

It's great to see so many new volunteers! PiPie, in response to your question, I believe the last person to sign up for Seyda Neen was Kienai, who basically signed up and was never heard from again. Such is unfortunately a common occurrence. There's really no way I know of to contact him aside from using this site, which he hasn't been on in a long time, so I'd just as soon assume that he hasn't produced anything.

Thanks anyway, I don't have

Thanks anyway, I don't have any problem with starting from scratch. It means I leave more of a footprint anyway ;)

To Denevir:

I greatly valued you input and consider you to be the Lore-master here.

To Aurabelle:

Your input was great as well and you have a well put manner in which you suggest with being demeaning, Thanks!

To Just a Fan:

You seem to forget that everyone who has posted here has their own flavor in what they write here. Yes, lore and grammar are a must, but to value one writer's work over another (as you have on other threads as I mentioned before) is just wrong. Everyone here has the best intentions and while some write to your manner of thinking, not everyone will. So critique with this train of thought; I use a sword, he uses a bow, she uses a staff and you use an dagger. Each weapon will kill, but in different manners as the writers do here. Let them bring each line alive with their own flare and then correct them to follow lore and plot.

Here is my FINAL draft!

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