Principle Lead Writer Daniel Erickson has written what is, in my personal opinion, an incredibly interesting look at how the writing team of Star Wars: The Old Republic is making sure each class in the game gets its own unique story. While this blog entry focuses specifically on the Imperial bounty hunter class, it is worth reading for anyone who is curious how their character will fit into the galaxy.

Erickson starts off by outlining three decisions the team made early on in the writing process. First, there are two distinct sides: good and evil. There's no grey area. Second, no storyline will ever cross factions. Play both Jedi and Sith characters and you'll never see the same content. Third, no class will exist in both factions. For this reason, bounty hunters, at least for now, can only be Imperials. This gives the team room to include a more iconic Republic class instead.

Erickson describes the bounty hunter class in detail. Mandalorians won't be the centerpiece right now, and the class focuses on the hunt. "Core to the entire Bounty Hunter fantasy is this sense of independence. As a Bounty Hunter you are, and always will be, your own person," Erickson said. You can read his full post after the jump.

Boba Fett, Dengar, Zuckuss, IG-88, Bossk, 4-LOM. This was the lineup that started it all. Darth Vader wanted something done and his own people weren’t up to the task. So he called in specialists. Seeing this motley group of outlandish characters on the bridge rankled Vader’s officers and told us these guys were the real deal. When Vader felt it necessary to specifically look at Boba Fett when he mentioned he didn’t want anyone disintegrated, we understood this was a man with a reputation. When Boba Fett objected to Han Solo being frozen on the grounds that the Bounty Hunter needed Solo alive, Vader didn’t intimidate Fett -- as he did poor Lando -- or choke him senseless. He listened and reassured him in a businesslike manner. He was talking to a professional whose work he respected.

As this is the first blog we’ve done on classes, it’s important to give a little background on how classes work and the decisions we’ve made along the way to guide those decisions. When Star Wars ™: The Old Republic ™ was still just a twinkling in our eye, James Ohlen (Creative Director and Lead Designer of Baldur’s Gate™ 1 & 2, Neverwinter Nights™, Star Wars ™: Knights of the Old Republic™ and Dragon Age™) and I were both working on Dragon Age and were delighted at how personal, heroic and rewarding the origin stories made the experience. We talked numerous times about what it would mean to try to do that level of individualized story for an entire game but both knew that the time, expense and effort involved would have to have a big payoff—a game the average person might play through once and then set aside wasn’t going to do it. When we moved down to form the Austin studio and create BioWare’s first massively multiplayer RPG, we had the opportunity we were looking for.

There were a few decisions we made early on. First of all, there would be two distinct factions. This was Star Wars ™, not Star Neutral Guy’s Adventure. When there is a war that spans an entire galaxy, nobody can stand on the sidelines. Sure Han is unaffiliated for about six minutes of the movies, but that doesn’t last long, and even if he’s not with the good guys he sure doesn’t like the Empire. The war affects everyone, even if they’d rather it didn’t.

Second, no story content would ever cross factions. Star Wars is a story about good and evil -- it simply doesn’t make sense to have Jedi and Sith doing the same quests, answering the same calls to adventure, etc. Creating one batch of content for all Players would have been half the cost, taken half the time and solved any number of organizational headaches but it was simply the wrong choice from a storytelling perspective. Unique content for both sides was the only way to go—if a Player went all the way through the game playing a Jedi and then playing a Sith, he wouldn’t experience even one repeated piece of story content.

Which leads me to the third decision we made: No class would exist in both factions – at least at first. Each class gets its own story; no story content exists on both sides. If we did Bounty Hunters on both sides of the fence we’d have to write two different Bounty Hunter stories at the expense of a different class that was more iconic to the Republic. Was the idea of a Republic Bounty Hunter cool? Absolutely. But far less iconic than the Imperial aligned one and we had other Republic classes we wanted to get in there instead. At least for now…

Speaking of movie moments, let’s take a second to review BioWare’s approach to Star Wars that started with Star Wars : Knights of the Old Republic. We create a world familiar to the Star Wars fan who only watched the movies -- and didn’t memorize them -- introduce the best parts of the Expanded Universe and then add something new to help grow that universe. This approach gives us clear guidelines on what we do and do not focus on as the core of the game. As a random example, I happen to dig the idea of Morgukai, but most Star Wars fans won’t have the foggiest idea what they are. So while there are Morgukai in our game, they aren’t going to have a class, a dominating role in our universe, or be referred to or introduced without first being explained.

With those guidelines in mind, it was pretty clear the Bounty Hunter story wasn’t going to start with the Bounty Hunter being a Mandalorian. The Mandalorians have a huge Expanded Universe following, were a key part of KOTOR’s story and history and are near and dear to my own heart—they do not, however, define what it means to be a Bounty Hunter in Star Wars and are alien to fans who only know the movies. Look at that first lineup of Bounty Hunters, how many are Mandalorians? Now would you even know that much if you’d never read any back story?

With Mandalorians off the table as the Bounty Hunters centerpiece (although clearly their presence will be felt and I still want to become one someday…) we had to sit down and outline the fantasy fulfillment of being a Bounty Hunter. So what defines the Star Wars Bounty Hunter? Well, they work for the bad guys, but they’re not necessarily bad guys themselves. You get the distinct feeling they’re doing a job. Are some of them cruel lowlifes who enjoy hurting people? Sure, probably. Some of them are also remnants of warrior cultures who no longer have a place to practice their ancient arts, thrill-seekers out for the galaxy’s next challenge or just people with a knack for weaponry trying to make the most out of the gifts they were given in life. Whatever their story, they specialize in the hunt, the small scale assault, the personal touch. You don’t call the Bounty Hunter when you need to take out an army; you call the Bounty Hunter when there is a very particular person whose death or capture could mean the difference between large scale victory and defeat.

At the heart of the Bounty Hunter story is the hunt itself. Smugglers, Jedi, Sith, rebel leaders, rogue droids, assassins, entire gangs or embezzling underlings, the Bounty Hunter takes them all down. Each hunt has its own flavor and each hunt brings with it a unique set of challenges and choices. Do you follow the job’s description to the letter and kill the wayward daughter of a powerful officer or do you bring her in alive and force the man to do his own dirty work? Will you take a bribe to fake a kill you didn’t make—will you switch sides when it’s clear the person you’re hunting has more honor and justification for his actions than the one who sent you? Does your honor come from getting the job done or being a good person? Is your loyalty to your crew, your conscience or your credits?

Core to the entire Bounty Hunter fantasy is this sense of independence. As a Bounty Hunter you are, and always will be, your own person. You start with nothing and work your way up, make a name for yourself and eventually travel in circles with Darths and Moffs, intelligence officers and governors, but you never become one of them. You work for your reasons, do things your way and can become a force of pure vengeance and destruction if crossed. Along the way you build a crew to support your ambitions, make friends or rivals out of the other great names in your field and tend to draw enemies like flies.

But first things first. You’ve got a blaster, a few credits and a contact who thinks you have promise. Your move, Bounty Hunter.