Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [11]
In chapter 5, I shift to linguistic analysis, including both narratology and possible-world theory as a framework. Using Ryan’s (1991) possible-world terminology and Jenny Cook-Gumperz’s (1992) study of children’s make-believe games, I present a model that explains the levels of communication involved in the RPG in terms of their degrees of narrativity. This model is important for showing the complexity of the TRPG and breaking down the binaries between narrative and non-narrative so often drawn upon by ludologists and narratologists alike.
In chapter 6, I discuss the ways in which the TRPG is an immersive text and the importance of this immersion in creating a narrative experience that fulfils a rhetorical purpose for gamers. I use specific examples from the Sorpraedor campaign to explain the multiple ways that immersion functions in the TRPG genre.
The final section of this book shifts even farther from the structure of the TRPG to look at the social and cultural influence of D&D, and the way that players interact with multiple texts. Chapter 7 provides a detailed analysis of the way gamers interact with other texts, drawing specifically from examples in the Sorpraedor campaign. Using both textual analysis and interviews, I look at the way the players and the DM engage with texts outside of the gaming session and with each other, and how that interaction might constitute degrees of authorship.
In chapter 8, I move to look at TRPGs within the larger cultural frame. I outline theories from sociology, cultural studies, and media studies that look at fan cultures. I draw heavily on Henry Jenkins’s (1992) study of fandom in Textual Poachers to describe the relationship between gamers and texts. I outline here several different characteristics of fans that are relevant to gamers. These characteristics show the varied rather than static relationship that gamers have with texts and thus challenge the notion that even within one genre or medium all audience members respond the same way.
Finally, I conclude the book with my own theory and definition of the TRPG. This definition calls into question not only traditional definitions of game and narrative, but also notions of authorship and audience. Chapter 9 explores the implications of this definition for the study of the TRPG under multiple frameworks including narrative studies, game studies, genre and media studies, and rhetoric and composition. It poses questions for future research in these areas in light of the current study.
Together, the chapters of this book work to challenge the way scholars typically study games by combining views from multiple disciplines. In particular, I reject the notion that videogames are the only games worthy of study and that the TRPG represents a former and inferior genre. Rather, I will argue that the TRPG and its complexities allow us to critique perceptions of narrative and authorship in ways that computer games are only beginning to allow.
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EARLY MODELS OF INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE
You are Omina, stepchild of the great Wizard Alcazar, and your efforts to rescue your stepfather and free your land from the icy spell of Warzen, the Winter Wizard, have led you straight into danger. Pursued by vicious, man-eating quagbeasts, you have taken refuge atop a snowy dune beside a clear pond. One of the huge-headed beasts is so close you can feel its foul breath hot on your skin! You must do something immediately [Lowery, 1983, p. 1].
At first glance, the passage above may not seem very different from the passage that opened the introduction to this book. Both address the audience in second person, and both lead to the point where that audience must take action. However, there are also some key differences—the former passage addresses a larger audience and you