Am I a Writer? Or Just an Architect of Stories?

I’ve never really considered myself a writer.

If you asked me to describe what I do, I’d tell you I’m a game designer. Professionally, I’m a historian. Over the years, I’ve done plenty of writing technical reports, cultural resources documentation for programs, documentary scripts, and presentations. But none of that ever felt like writing in the traditional sense. To me, “real” writers were people who authored novels, poetry or non-fiction books of merit. 

So when I was recently invited to a writers convention, my instinct was to push back.

“I made a tabletop roleplaying game,” I explained.

Their response was simple: “Yeah, but you wrote it and looks polished.”

When I mentioned the interaction to my wife, she gave me an affectionate, inevitable “duh” response: “You write every day for work.”

She wasn’t wrong, but to me, drafting historical reports and building a tabletop RPG feel less like writing prose and more like construction. Designing a TTRPG and shaping it into a cohesive book is an incredibly rewarding process, but at its core, it feels technical like building a framework for creating a set of instructions on how other people can tell a story. 

Is that a conventional book? 

Does assembling a rulebook make me a writer? 

Do I deserve a seat at the table next to traditional authors?

Maybe. Because here is the truth I have to admit to myself: I actually love doing it. So I suppose, by definition, I am a writer.

This question has forced me to confront that label. WRITER. 

So to feel a bit more comfortable entering that space, I’ve thrown myself into deeper world-building writing. Working on The Electric Gospel has been full of discovered truths, even if it still feels different from traditional storytelling. At its heart, that writing exists to demonstrate how the core rules of BORN can be used to construct a living, breathing setting in our world for players to dive into.

Maybe being a TTRPG writer isn’t about authoring a linear tale from beginning to end. Maybe it’s about writing the foundation || the walls, the atmosphere, and the sparks || so that everyone at the table can write the story together.

If that’s what makes a game designer a writer, then yeah… maybe I’m a writer. But don’t put me on the shelves with the Classics.