Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [107]
Finally, I have done here what many genre studies do—taken one instance of a genre as representative of the genre as a whole. While survey data again contributed a more varied perspective to the study, the majority of this book has offered D&D as the exemplar of the TRPG genre. To some extent, this move is justified in that D&D was clearly the first example of the TRPG genre and is arguably still the most recognizable and popular TRPG. However, it is important to note that multiple other examples of the TRPG exist, and a further exploration of these games is necessary in future research. In addition, the Sorpraedor campaign may not be particularly representative of D&D campaigns. In fact, by the end of the campaign, Scott had begun not only to create his own setting but also more of his own gaming system. It has been suggested to me by other D&D players that the simulationist approach our Sorpraedor group preferred is better suited to other TRPGs, and perhaps this is why Scott ended up modifying as many of the original rules as he did. Nevertheless, Dancey’s (2000) data shows that character actors and storytellers are equal in number to power gamers and thinkers, and one wonders if the gamers who fall more in line with these styles are more likely to modify the rules as our group did. It would also be interesting to see if certain types of gamers tend to gravitate toward different TRPG systems, if storytellers and method actors prefer diceless systems over more combat-oriented play. While I have offered an initial analysis of the TRPG as a genre, there are still many points that need further investigation.
Future Directions for Narrative, Game, and Rhetorical Theory
Throughout this book, I have argued that TRPGs defy certain binary oppositions. They are neither wholly games nor wholly narratives but use structures of both games and narratives. They are neither wholly immersive nor wholly interactive but, rather, both immersive and interactive. They both involve consumerism (buying rule books, etc) and rebellion against it (creating stories with no physical form). They complicate our understanding of the relationship between authors and audiences, and our definitions of these terms. Furthermore, the study of the TRPG challenges our disciplinary boundaries as such work does not clearly fall under the purview of any one disciplinary framework. I thus offer some suggestions for different disciplines based on the implications of my study.
For genre and media studies, I suggest further inquiry into the way that stories are formed across media. Jenkins has been a primary voice within media studies on fandom and its impact on culture. He joins with Janice Radway in criticizing “the tendency of academics to regard audiences as constituted by a particular text or genre rather than as ‘free-floating’ agents who ‘fashion narratives, stories, objects and practices from myriad bits and pieces of prior cultural productions’” (as cited in Jenkins, 1992, p. 36). While stories may be shaped by media, audiences exist outside of media and create their view of texts from experiences in multiple media. As we have seen in chapter 3 with The Temple of Elemental Evil, the same story is often re-envisioned in multiple forms, from a tabletop module to a videogame to a novel. The story does change based on the affordance of the medium, but rather than bringing this story to a new audience each time, it is often the same audience that engages with these multiple versions. It is fans who are most likely to seek out multiple version of a text and who are most likely to build their own version. Future studies should focus more on how these texts work together to form the experience of a fan rather than how they work against each other.
For those in narrative studies, my study suggests the need to look at narrative as an experience rather than a form. As the study of narrative continues to