Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [109]
Despite the lack of attention it has historically received from scholarly audiences, the TRPG is a text that offers a wealth of possibilities for study both within disciplinary traditions and in terms of interdisciplinary research. In fact, academic work is not all that different from playing a TRPG. We each work within our own disciplinary structures, our own rule books, if you will. We have both agency within and authorship over those frameworks, as we adjust the rules to best fit the stories we wish to advance. Our individual narratives fit together to form larger stories, and it is our need to tell these stories that drives us to continue researching and theorizing. While this analogy may take things a bit far, what I wish to convey as I close is the need for collaboration and for continued research. Mackay’s (2001) study on the TRPG has been cited frequently, particularly his definition of role-playing. However, many of these later studies have appropriated Mackay’s work to their own study of MMORPGs and computer games. While this potential exists, and these studies may offer important insight, they also represent the continued view that the TRPG is only valuable as a precursor to later games. Thus, the TRPG continues to occupy a marginal status within both society and academia. I have presented here one view of the TRPG as a genre and as a forum for narrative experience, but I am only one voice. What if a ludologist, a narratologist, a rhetorician, and a media specialist all came to the table to study the TRPG? What new insights would we discover on this culturally influential genre? Like the DM who presents a situation to her players and then asks for their contribution, I present to other scholars my current study, but then I turn and ask, “So, what do you do?” Where will you take the research from here?
Roll initiative.
APPENDIX: THE ORC ADVENTURE AT BLAZE ARROW
This is a write up I did of two gaming sessions that took place in January–February 2003. I took detailed notes during the sessions, including writing some dialogue down word for word. Other dialogue and details I filled in as best I could from memory. I composed this tale and posted it on the Sorpraedor Yahoo list on 3/18/03 as a synopsis for my group members and to inform Mary, who was absent during these sessions, what she had missed. I added a few clarifying remarks and deleted a few bits of extraneous information for the present use.
How the Gang Defeated the Orc Army Through Cunning and Diplomacy
The magistrate of Gateway had informed us that the outpost Blaze Arrow had not been heard from in over a week. A new bastion of guards had recently been sent there, but had never checked it. Considering all of the talk of attacks along the borders, the magistrate was understandably worried and sent us to investigate. Fletch, David and I headed in that direction. Maureen vowed to catch up with us as she had some “personal” business to attend to.
On our way out of Gateway, another ranger approached us. This one was an elf who called himself Cuthalion. Given my past experience, I wasn’t keen on another elf, or another ranger, but Cuthalion soon proved useful as he captured some wild birds for our dinner. David returned from the hunt with bunnies, which may very well satisfy a halfling appetite, but was not enough for the rest of us.
Other than a large ant snapping at us, our journey was uneventful. The main path veered to the East, but we needed to continue across the hills to Blaze Arrow. Concerned that Maureen would have trouble finding us if we went much further, we made camp and settled in to eat the feast our rangers had prepared.
Not long after we drifted off to sleep, we were disturbed by a caltrop being thrown into our camp. We readied our