The chilly afternoon in Łódź was no match for the warm welcome Andrzej Sapkowski and Adam Badowski received as they entered the stage. The author of the Witcher book series and co-CEO of CD Projekt Red (CDPR) arrived at the 36th International Festival of Comics and Games to explore a simple but elusive question:
What makes a Witcher story?
The panel was moderated by Michał Giersz, who wasted no time to start the conversation. According to him, having Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer or Triss by itself doesn’t make a Witcher story. Narratives without those characters may still feel like Witcher tales. In trying to find the essence of the Witcher stories, he asked about aspects that Sapkowski focuses on first when writing.
For Sapkowski, everything starts with an idea. That idea must be shaped into a plot which — like a joke about a patient visiting a doctor — needs a clear beginning (the patient coming into the office), a development (the doctor’s interrogation) and a conclusion (the punchline). He added that he had to disappoint anyone who expected a recipe for a bestseller. Firstly, he knows no such recipe. Secondly, even if he knew it, he added jokingly, he wouldn’t share it to avoid fostering competition. Sapkowski affirmed that plot is the most important element, and everything else is done in its service. Plot’s construction dictates reader’s experience.
As to what makes a story a Witcher story, Sapkowski answered simply: it’s the fact that he had written it. Others, no matter how talented, won’t write the way he does. It is a matter of personal style and how one had been touched by the Muses.
© Jakub T. Jankiewicz
Badowski acknowledged the games are an interpretation of the Witcher books. While Sapkowski has the privilege of working alone, the games are developed by a team. Consequently, they need to periodically check whether they stay true to the interpretation, previous games as well as the original. There is no fixed scripture, but there are a few constant points they check during internal reviews to see if the plot or a quest fits a Witcher game.
- As an outsider, Geralt cannot engage directly with the world. He also struggles with his identity: is he a human, or not?
- CDPR deconstructs well-known legends and tales by putting them inside the world and rearranging their elements (something that has been present in the books at the outset). It’s not a simple matter of flipping evil characters into virtuous ones and vice versa. Badowski listed Geralt being the wolf from The Three Little Pigs, the Crones mixing features of the Three Witches from Macbeth and Hansel and Gretel and games incorporating aspects of Dziady as examples of such deconstructions. The goal is to be creative and while fairy tales often have a simple lesson, CDPR puts the fables inside a real world to see what comes out.
- The world of Witcher is a mirror of our contemporary affairs such as injustice or racism. The books are not a pastiche or a cabaret, but in games they can move a little bit further with incorporating elements of different genres.
- Lastly, moral ambiguity is important aspect of the games; a key element even. In books a good example is The Lesser Evil and story of Renfri. For maximum impact, Badowski posited that choices and consequences need to be spread out over time for the player to really feel the effect of their actions.
Badowski later also noted that when they were creating the previous saga and are creating the current one, they obviously start from thousands of pages describing motives of each character. Putting all that into the game is a non-trivial task. He believes, this is what connects CDPR with Sapkowski.1
Interpretations and adaptations
Speaking of interpretations, Giersz asked about Sapkowski’s experience with different adaptations of his works. He brought up an urban legend stating Wisława Szymborska couldn’t solve questions about her own work from a matura exam and asked whether the writer had similar experiences.
Sapkowski recalled an analogous situation where he had failed a quiz about the Saga on a Czech website. Similarly, he used to participate in meetups organised by users of the Polish website maintained by Jacek Suliga2, but whenever asked about details of the Saga, he would often not remember the details.
For Sapkowski, adaptation faces an impossible task: turning words into pictures. In his view, written word always triumphs over images.
Ciri in a Zerrikanian outfit
Nevertheless, adaptations are myriad. Mathematically Sapkowski places them on a bell curve. Starting from abysmal adaptation on the left, going up until bad at the peak and then mediocre adaptations on the way back down. Mathematical rigour dictates putting adaptations which are better than the original on far right of the curve, but Sapkowski asserted such things don’t occur in nature.
When it comes to games, the problems multiply, Sapkowski observed. He recalled a panel discussion in London where Steve Jackson stated writing an interactive gamebook is hard because it’s like writing five books. However, Sapkowski countered, it’s harder to write one book with a single good ending. Nevertheless, Sapkowski acknowledged, we need to appreciate people who are able to reconcile different player decisions which lead to drastically different consequences.
With so many differences between books and games, Sapkowski wondered, how a game with a plethora of outcomes can be compared to a literary work which has exactly one resolution. While he had never played any games (other than poker), he had researched the topic extensively. As a result he is in awe of how creators can make it all fits together. Regardless, in his view such works have no common points with literature — though he added there is certainly nothing wrong with them existing.
The more talented and creative the authors of adaptations, the more enjoyable the effects. Sapkowski confessed that he doesn’t see pictures when he writes, and only sees words.3 As such, when he sees various interpretations he often shakes his head in disbelief thinking ‘Oh my goodness, really?’ Sometimes his reaction is an appreciative ‘Ow, wow!’ but those situations are much more rare.
Finally, even though adaptations have little to do with the original literary work, whoever makes them is an independent creator, Sapkowski said. They have their own artistic freedom and everyone should leave them alone. The same applies to games. Even with an army of authors, their right to interpret a literary work cannot be denied.
Badowski said that from the outset CDPR wanted to make a Witcher game and had to choose a genre that would work. From the start the choice has been a role-playing game because that fit the depth of the Witcher stories. For example, player feels the impact of their decision more if the consequences come after fifteen hours of playing, rather than in a linear format. Only after the player immerses themselves it the world and believes in the world and the emotions, the choices become believable.
And besides, Badowski further recalled, as they were starting the adventure with game development, people at CDPR were fans of RPGs so there probably was no other option anyway. If Witcher games were not open world RPGs, they would have to be straight copies of the plot of the books. And that, Badowski argued, would make no sense.
Relaying audience question, Giersz inquired whether Sapkowski ever found something in all the adaptations and interpretations which he thought ‘that’s something I could have thought of?’
There were couple such occasions, according to Sapkowski. Games, comic books, films etc. are not his domain; on top of that, since author of those works has artistic freedom, Sapkowski doesn’t believe he has the right to criticise them. This can also go in the other direction: creating a literary adaptations, or novelisations, of a visual medium. Quality of such works vary.
Slavic and Polish influence
Andrzej Chyra as Borch
Next, Giersz steered the conversation by asking about Slavic influence in the works.
Sapkowski replied that there’s as much Slavic influence in the books as there is poison in a match, which is to say, almost none. Slavicness, in Sapkowski’s understanding, is belonging to a language family, and that’s all of the Slavicness that exists in the Witcher. He recalled that at the start of his career, someone classified his work as Slavic because he had adapted a story from book of Polish fables, but he disagreed with that label because any nationality could have created that fable. Slavicness, he reiterated, is not a gene, it’s not dictated by setting or monsters used in a tale, but only represents belonging to a language family.4
Badowski pointed out that while Sapkowski doesn’t think in pictures, CDPR doesn’t have that privilege. He recalled that when they were creating the first game they thought Slavic elements were interesting and exotic in the West. Both visuals but also Slavic fables which weren’t well known there. Because of that the game included a lot of Polish architecture, imagery as well as references to Polish literature.
Later on Giersz mentioned conversations with Michał Nowakowski, co-CEO of CDPR, who would say that Witcher word is ‘Polish;’ without a smile; or at most a grimace.
Supporting that observation, Badowski brought up an anecdote from development of the games. At one point, Geralt had the same facial animations as all other characters. However, Geralt’s smiling faces did not look right so the team eventually removed them all.
However, perhaps a more important point, Badowski continued, is the tone of the story. There’s dark humour, there is ‘warm humour’ during fests, and there’s a lot of melancholy, weight and also death. Risking a bit of generalisation, this contrasts The Witcher with Western games. Geralt or Ciri don’t save the world, they are on the sidelines. Others try to used them or ask for their help. But even if they ask for help, they don’t listen to the received advice. Badowski acknowledged this isn’t the definition of Slavicness, but to simplify things we can understand such tone as an element of it.
‘What if?’
After exploring cultural influence, the conversation turned to a vexing topic of fan speculation. Giersz asked the writer about his stance on questions about things which are not present in the books.
Such questions are bane of his existence, Sapkowski confessed. Sometimes hypothetical scenario even mix the Witcher series with the Hussite Trilogy. For example, ‘who would win a fistfight: Samson Miodek or Geralt?’ However, Sapkowski always tries to explain that there’s no ‘what if?’ If something is missing from the books, then it doesn’t exist. This can be for two reasons: some knowledge may be unnecessary for the reader or information may need to be hidden from the reader. What will happen in the future? Nothing, until he writes it. One must accept a story as a complete whole.
Badowski noted that while adapting the books, they sometimes need to think about such hidden details. For example, what to do with Zerrikania which has only a handful of sentences written about it? CDPR has a team dedicated to connecting these scraps of information.5 This is a burden for any adaptation. As he noted, Sapkowski never had to describe Geralt’s haircut in detail, whereas Netflix spent years perfecting Henry Cavill’s look.
Regarding hiding information, Badowski explained they do it because players can spend tens or even hundreds of hours on the game so it’s important to always have something new to discover. He believes exploration can be fun and finding new things in the game, especially ones no one has yet seen, is something that players appreciate.
Młody Geralt w Kaer Morhen: Próba TrawkiYoung Geralt in Kaer Morhen: Trail of the Grasses© Tomasz Samojlik
Young Geralt
Relaying Ronin of Rivia’s question, Giersz asked how did the young Geralt we see in Crossroads of Ravens evolve in Sapkowski’s mind.
As is written in the book, Sapkowski replied. What he came up with, that’s what he wrote. The beginning of the book develops episodes present in the previous books. The writer decided it was a good starting point, so why not use it?
He didn’t see an open path for sequels, but more prequels and sidequels. Crossroads… is a prequel, although whether he’ll write about events happening even before Crossoards… is a mystery even to himself.
Favourite book
Asked about his favourite elements of the Witcher literature, Badowski pointed at the importance of the short stories. They gave a lot of ideas for the games and include all the aforementioned elements of Witcher stories. He also opined that Leo Bonhart is an underrated character. He also liked the latest book.
Mixing genres
As the final topic, Giersz asked about genres. He observed that in games they are at times very well defined; especially the DLCs. But is breaking genres conscious decision in the books?
Sapkowski said that everything he writes is a conscious decision even up to the smallest detail. Fortunately, fantasy genre is so broad that anything can fit inside of it. Provided that elements from other genres serve the plot, he won’t hesitate using them.
Games by necessity had to include multiple genres, Badowski said, at least in the context of CDPR’s interpretation of the books. It would be bizarre if the entire game was in a single genre. For example, elements of horror need to be softened afterwards.
Looking back at the history of CD Projekt, Giersz gave an example of Baldur’s Gate where your alignment dictate your actions. If one plays a chaotic good character, they need to go to some specific place; if one plays an evil character, they need to kill someone. And that wouldn’t work with the Witcher. Badowski agreed with this sentiment.
On that note the panel came to a close. The discussion between Sapkowski and Badowski highlighted their roles in the franchise’s history. Sapkowski affirmed his position as the creator of the foundational literary world, while Badowski detailed the approach CDPR has taken to build upon that foundation. The audience in Łódź was left with the simple truth that there is no one formula for a Witcher story.
The panel has not been recorded; this report is based on my notes and memories, all that then translated into English. Consequently, this article should not be used as authoritative source of what was exactly said. Separately, please note that since speakers sometimes returned to earlier topics, I’ve decided to rearrange some bits so the whole text has better flow.
1 I believe what Badowski meant is that just like Sapkowski starts with an idea and a plan of the story before beginning to write, CDPR in the same way starts with fleshing out the motivations of the characters at the beginning of the development process. ↩
2 The reference is to Andrzej Sapkowski Zone which Jacek Suliga, a.k.a. John MacKanacKy, started in 1995. Based on archival version, the website stopped receiving updates in 2010. Regarding the Czech website, the writer probably meant sapkowski.cz, but that’s a guess. ↩
3 Sapkowski is believed to have aphantasia, however I’ve not seen definite confirmation of such diagnosis. In this instance, he did speak of ‘a genetic defect,’ but I’m not sure whether he meant it literally, supporting the diagnosis, or figuratively, stating visualising the scenes as he writes them is not important to him. ↩
4 I feel compelled to correct Sapkowski on this point. Slavic culture is more than just the language. Anyone could have created a story of a dragon being defeated by an industrial cobbler, but they didn’t. Referencing that story references Polish and thus Slavic culture, no matter what language the reference is made in. As another point, Sapkowski stressed that ‘Slavicness’ is not a gene. Meanwhile, Slavs have in fact genes which differentiate them from other ethnic groups. ↩
5 To clarify, in my view Badowski mentioned Zerrikania purely as an example. Recall that in designing Ciri’s alternative look, CDPR needed to figure out Zerrikania fashion. In this I believe I differ from Wiedżminlandia who, in their report, puts more significance on the mention of Zerrikania in Badowski’s answer. ↩
