RPG Roundtable: Obsidian, CD Projekt, Hidden Path and ex-BioWare designers go deep on writing and playing RPGs

In this bonus episode, we talk to five veteran RPG designers at the 2023 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Joining us are:

• Mike Laidlaw (Jade Empire, Mass Effect, the Dragon Age series)
• Paweł Sasko: (The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077)
• Strix Beltran (Hiddden Path's upcoming D&D RPG, State of Decay 2)
• Lis Moberly: (Obsidian's upcoming Avowed, Cursed to Golf, Singularity)
• Josh Sawyer: (Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, Pentiment)

Throughout an 80 minute conversation we talk about whether what players expect from RPGs today, how their personal experiences playing RPGs have informed the games they make, writing characters that really resonate with players, tabletop games and more. Mike Laidlaw describes how the Dragon Age writers' room operated, while Paweł Sasko talks about designing the Bloody Baron quest for The Witcher 3 and the enormous challenges of Cyberpunk 2077's first-person mode.