Writing for a Dungeons & Dragons character class: The Gunslinger

I recently got my first TTRPG writing commission and am thrilled to have a writer credit in TTRPGs! Here’s how I got the gig and what it was like to write The Gunslinger. With brilliant game design, slick art direction, and awesome original artwork, I am proud to be the writer on this project.

The Gunslinger project offers a new class for Dungeons & Dragons (5E) and is designed by respected D&D content creator, Heavyarms (The Complete Armourer’s Handbook, 2019). The class and its subclasses bring firearms into your game without upsetting the balance of play. With five original archetypes inspired by legends of the Old West and scenes from classic Western movies, it presents whole new possibilities for creating great characters and memorable encounters.

How I got the job writing for a TTRPG character class

TTRPGs are growing in popularity and there are countless people worldwide who want to create work in this field. However, it remains a relatively small industry. Only a handful of companies are large enough to employ teams of professional writers, artists, and designers in-house. For small to mid-sized indie publishers and creators, drawing on a diverse pool of skilled freelancers has lead to an incredible array of creative projects. Finding this community and taking part in it, was my first step towards writing for RPGs.

Through Ashley Warren’s RPG Writer Workshop, I joined a course to learn about writing RPG adventures. This was a brilliant experience, I quickly understood the important differences in writing for an RPG format and other writing crafts I have worked in. I finished the course feeling inspired by the possibilities in RPG writing and informed enough to see a path to find work in this field. One of the most important outcomes from taking part in the RPG Writer Workshop, was that I found the RPG writing community. I use Discord and Twitter over other platforms, through these I was able to engage with a thriving online community of welcoming, supportive, creative and open-minded people.

On the RPG Writer Workshop Discord, and by following lots of creators on Twitter, I was able to find new opportunities to get involved in RPG projects. I optimised my personal website to best showcase my work in comics, screen, and prose, then put my name forward for any gigs that seemed a good fit with my writing style. I received many polite rejections or sometimes no reply at all (there is a lot of competition for TTRPG writing gigs!). I saw Heavyarms’ post on Twitter when he was seeking a writer and replied with a link to my website. Thankfully, he liked my work and invited me to write on The Gunslinger.

The RPG Writer Workshop has since become part of Ashley Warren’s wider creative writing project, The Storytelling Collective. I have completed two of their RPG writing courses and highly recommend checking out what The Storytelling Collective have to offer.

The 5 steps to a paid TTRPG writing job:

1. Find your TTRPG community and introduce yourself.
2. Research and read the great work that other creators are putting out.
3. Practice writing in this way to learn the nuances of the craft.
4. Optimise your website and digital footprint to showcase your work.
5. Put your name forward for TTRPG projects that need writers.

What is the process of writing for a D&D character class project?

The Gunslinger is my first and, so far, only published work in the TTRPG form. This in mind, my thoughts here should not be taken as a definitive guide.

1. Heavyarms and I had a project kick-off chat via a Discord call. We discussed the classic western gunslinger tropes and the tone this work would take to capture the feeling of that world, while remaining as setting-neutral as possible. This was particularly important for us because it allows the player to insert a gunslinger character into their own world, irrespective of setting.
2. Heavyarms provided a detailed page-by-page breakdown brief. This included approximate word counts and suggestions for a desired approach in each creative writing section. Having such a clearly defined brief was extremely helpful for me as a writer and for the whole collaborative process generally. I was able to enjoy the creative freedom to write to a word limit, without worrying I would write too much and have to extensively re-draft sections.
3. He shared work-in-progress page design giving a rough idea of the potential layout. These pages contained some sections of copy in which game mechanics took precedent over creative flair. Getting this insight was valuable. It helped me to ensure my creative descriptions made sense alongside the game mechanics of the archetypes, as well as maintaining a consistent voice across the work.
4. For stylistic references, we aimed to follow the familiar approach of the D&D Players Handbook – but challenged ourselves to do it better. We felt we could improve the readability, excitement and general quality in the writing. My background in a range of creative writing crafts and Heavyarms’ experience in game design, were an effective combination of skillsets for the task.
5. I submitted my first draft pages to Heavyarms in a Word document format, he then tested how they might fit in-situ in the layout in InDesign. My copy was placed alongside place-holder images because the artwork was still being created at this time. To see the work coming to life was the ideal way to better understand what was working and what might need re-drafting. Beginning from broad approximate word counts meant there were places where I had written too much, but we knew this might be the case. Now, with visibility of more accurate final word counts, it was much easier to tighten my copy to fit.
6. Once the copy was finalised and fit neatly with the layout work, Heavyarms sent it to his editor, Iam Pace. It was out of my hands from here, so I can’t comment on the editing process. Heavyarms did me the courtesy of sending me the finished piece for a last look after edits. It all looked great and I did no further writing at the time, though we may revisit certain parts in future if player feedback suggests we should.

Deconstructing a D&D Player’s Handbook class intro page

Creative flavour

The opening paragraphs directly under the class heading (here, “Barbarian”) are typically structured as short paragraphs of creative flavour. They aim to inspire players to choose this class by painting a picture of each class archetype. Usually, each paragraph describes a scene that spotlights one aspect of what makes each archetype unique.

These individual scenes are then followed by a brief summary-style paragraph of the class as a whole.

Class

The first descriptive subheading (above, “Primal Instinct”) focuses on what makes the class different. It typically narrates a general feel of the class. The focus is on any of the features in the class’s core, while not dipping into archetype specifics.

World

The second subheading (above, “A Life of Danger”) tackles how the class operates in the game world. For The Gunslinger, we wanted to capture the essence of the Wild West, but avoid specific descriptors such as “hot” or “arid”. This class is for any game world, so we aimed to be open enough to fit any climate/ geography.

Tips for TTRPG writing commissions:

1. When commissioning writers: give us as clear a brief with as much detail as you have. This keeps everyone on the same page from the start. Heavyarms’ approach to briefing was spot-on. It achieved the ideal balance of being neither stifling in limitation nor rudderless in creative freedom.
2. When being commissioned as a TTRPG writer: don’t be precious about specific bits of writing. TTRPG layouts need many different components (feature artwork, spot illustrations, tables, section headings, to name a few) and game designers face a challenge to fit everything together. The pages also need plenty of open space for the work to “breathe” and not look cluttered. The chances are, you’ll end up changing/trimming your writing anyway. You’ll always have more ideas, so don’t get too attached to small details.

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this useful! Best of luck with your writing projects and feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to chat about TTRPG writing, or just creative writing generally!