Narrative Designer - Trading Card Game
Fanatics · Seattle, WA, United States ·
- Category
- Design
- Experience
- 3+ years
- Company size
- 1000+
- Salary
- USD 123,050 – 154,100 / year
Designs deep, long-lived worlds and stories for a new trading card game, weaving lore, characters, and mechanics into cards and gameplay while collaborating with art, design, and creative teams.
About Us
About the Company
Fanatics Collectibles is a new company operating at the intersection of collectibles, culture, and technology. Backed by world-class investors, operators, and sports & entertainment partners, we are building the global leader in next-generation collectibles. As part of the broader Fanatics ecosystem, we leverage a digital sports platform that spans over 900 sports properties and engages more than 81 million fans. Together, we are reimagining every part of the collectibles experience for fans, partners, and creators.
Role Overview
Fanatics Collectibles is building the future of trading card games.
The Fanatics TCG studio is focused on creating original worlds that are designed to live for decades — expressed through gameplay, art, story, and collectible objects. Our ambition is to build franchises that are not only widely played, but deeply felt.
We are seeking a Narrative Designer to help shape the worlds, characters, and stories that define our games.
This is not a role focused solely on writing text. It is a role about building worlds — establishing the underlying logic, tone, and emotional core of new universes, and ensuring that every part of the player experience reflects that foundation.
You will work closely with Creative, Game Design, and Art to develop narrative systems that live inside the cards themselves — where mechanics, visuals, and story reinforce one another.
The ideal candidate brings strong storytelling instincts, a systems mindset, and a passion for creating worlds that players want to return to again and again.
What You’ll Do
Build Worlds That Can Sustain a Franchise
- Develop the foundational lore, cosmology, and narrative structure of new TCG worlds.
- Define factions, cultures, characters, and conflicts that can evolve over many sets and years.
- Help establish the tone, themes, and emotional identity of each franchise.
Integrate Story with Game and Product
- Partner with Game Design to ensure that mechanics and narrative reinforce each other.
- Collaborate with Art and Creative teams to align on visual storytelling and world cohesion.
- Contribute to the development of set themes, narrative arcs, and character moments.
Design Narrative Systems for Cards
- Develop approaches for how story is expressed through card names, flavor text, mechanics, and set structure.
- Ensure that narrative is discoverable through play and collection, not just external content.
- Help define how narrative evolves across releases and expansions.
Create and Support Narrative Content
- Write flavor text, card names, and supporting narrative content.
- Contribute to world guides, story bibles, and internal documentation.
- Support external storytelling efforts (e.g., web content, marketing beats, potential media extensions).
Collaborate Across the Studio
- Work closely with Creative, Design, Product, and Marketing teams to ensure narrative consistency.
- Participate in early ideation, helping shape concepts before they become fully defined.
- Provide feedback that elevates the coherence and emotional impact of the world.
What You Bring
- 3+ years of experience in narrative design, writing, or worldbuilding for games, publishing, or related media.
- Strong ability to develop original worlds, characters, and narrative frameworks.
- Experience working in collaborative, cross-functional environments.
- Ability to balance creative vision with system constraints.
- Excellent writing skills across both short-form (e.g., flavor text) and long-form (e.g., lore, story guides).
- Passion for fantasy, sci-fi, and worldbuilding-driven storytelling.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working on trading card games, tabletop games, or live service games.
- Background in fantasy or sci-fi writing.
- Familiarity with how narrative can be expressed through game systems and mechanics.
- Experience contributing to original IP or franchise development.
Why Join Fanatics TCG
Fanatics Collectibles is building the future of fandom.
The Fanatics TCG studio is a rare opportunity to create entirely new worlds — worlds that will be expressed through millions of cards, shared across global communities, and evolved over many years.
As a Narrative Designer, you will help define the stories that live inside those worlds — shaping the characters, conflicts, and moments that players and collectors connect with.
If you’re excited about building worlds and telling stories that unfold one card at a time, we’d love to hear from you.
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The salary range represents base pay only and does not include short-term or long-term incentive compensation. This salary range is specific to Seattle and may not be applicable to other locations. When determining base pay, as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training. For information about our benefits, please visit
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