"What's wrong, Alfred, my butler!" cried John. "It's your father, the king of us elves! He's been slain by your younger brother, Richard the Cowardly, who wishes to become the elf king. But to do it, he'll have to kill you, his older brother and heir to the throne! Quickly, escape his army of loyal assassins on your trusted steed Silver, and go your sister, Annabelle, who lives in the forest of trees, which is just outside the castle through the west gate. Beware! For it has many monsters! Perhaps you can pick up some allies in the ally shop next to the pub in town!" gasped Alfred in his dying breath.

As many of you no doubt know, exposition is the hardest part of writing. The art of getting two characters to reveal information they both know to the player, without coming off as annoying and forced, is something even professional writers just give up on. There are many ways of conveying this sort of information, more than can possibly be covered in a single essay. In what may be the first in a series of articles about writing, let's discuss some common and adaptable techniques.

Technique 1: Screw it.

Probably the simplest technique. Sometimes there is a piece of information that you just can't work in smoothly. There's always a way to get this information out, but occasionally it's not worth the lengths you'll have to go for it. If your game has little to no plot, this is the best way to go, and even the talky games might need to just hit a point and move on. Exposition holds the story back, and sometimes getting it out of the way is a better idea than spending a long time to establish it smoothly.

Technique 2: Make use of your cliches!

It's important to remember that your players have encountered works of fiction. They may have seen an idea before. 7000 times. Not every aspect of a plot can be mind-blowingly original, but a good writer can make this work for him. There's no need to tell the player garlic is a good anti-vampire item. We know! And this logic can be applied to nearly any old saw.

Probably the best example of this technique is the movie Mortal Kombat, which is a great movie for exposition. Seriously, I'll be mentioning it a lot. Sonya Blade is a badass cop on the edge, hunting down the man who murdered her partner. We learn this in thirty seconds by busting into a nightclub, clubbing people with a shotgun, and shouting lame cop dialouge. Bam. Everything we need to know about her is established, we don't need to talk about her past anymore and can focus on the fight scenes the audience came for. We never meet her partner, nor do we see him die. Why should we? No one cares! It's important to remember what your audience does and does not need to know.

Mogri's Phantom Tactics, on the other hand, indulges in quite a bit in chatter about whether the reagent holding on to the throne will give it up to the rightful heir. Of course he won't, there'd be no game otherwise. While Phantom Tactics at least treats this subject with a wink and a nod, the fact remains the the bad guy didn't need to be mentioned at all until our the point Prince Janus asked for his throne.

Technique 3: The Subtext

This is a fairly simple one. One character tells another things they both know, while saying something in the subtext. It's like the Screw It technique, except with a reason. In The Empire Strikes Back, we see Darth Vader stand in front of a motly rag-tag bunch. The ship's commander leans in to some ensign and says,

"Bounty Hunters. We don't need their scum."

In those seven words, we establish the following:

1. Darth Vader is hiring Bounty Hunters. 2. The Empire doesn't like bounty hunters (which is why they haven't been used before) 3. Therefore, Vader is losing confidence in his troops, who feel threatened by that. This is also the commander's motivation for saying the line.

Mortal Kombat again has a good use of this. When Rayden intervenes to protect the heroes from the attacks, villain Shang Tsung makes note that Rayden isn't allowed to interfere in the fights proper. While this is exposition, he has a very good reason to say it: to mess with the heroes, and to annoy Rayden. It addition to establishing information, we also learn a little about Shang Tsung's character.

Technique 4: Show, don't tell

In this technique, a character says something that shows valuable exposition, rather than tells it. This is the best kind of exposition, but it's nearly impossible to use all the time in practice. If it's important to note that Ansor the Knight is a commoner, not a noble, and that the other knights won't accept it because of this, there are a few ways to establish it. You could have a knight say "We'll never accept a commoner like you!" (Type 1), or have a knight say "Get out of my bar, you commoner freak!" (Type 3). Or you could show it in a few subtle ways, such as having him go "..." during a conversation where the knights boast about their wealth, having him sit alone in the bar, and/or having his house look crappy.

Establishing the the king is evil and despotic can be done by having NPCs says he's evil (Type 1), calling him "The Dark Lord" (Type 2), having a parent warn their daughter not to let the king see her beauty (type 3), or just my having police watching everything and a few on every map, while NPCs talk about how much they love the king, and don't mind the taxes (type 4). Need to establish a famine? Have all the crops be dead!

Exposition, like all writing, is about making the most out of the least. Often, you'll find that you don't need to say anything, and you can get away with almost nothing. Don't waste words, don't waste time.